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3/16/2006

Hot Pepper Kills Prostate Cancer Cells in Study :.

Capsaicin, which makes peppers hot, can cause prostate cancer cells to kill themselves, U.S. and Japanese researchers said on Wednesday.

Capsaicin led 80 percent of human prostate cancer cells growing in mice to commit suicide in a process known as apoptosis, the researchers said.

Prostate cancer tumors in mice fed capsaicin were about one-fifth the size of tumors in untreated mice, they reported in the journal Cancer Research.

"Capsaicin had a profound anti-proliferative effect on human prostate cancer cells in culture," said Dr. Soren Lehmann of the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and the University of California Los Angeles School of Medicine.

"It also dramatically slowed the development of prostate tumors formed by those human cell lines grown in mouse models."

While it is far easier to cure cancer in mice infected with human tumors than it is in human beings, the findings suggest a possible future treatment. They also may offer a good excuse for men who like spicy food to eat more of it.



Parexel Drug Trial Horror :.

Parexel should just get Donald Rumsfeld in on the act. He managed to get aspartame, a multipotential carcinogen, approved for use in everything from soup to nuts:

The Sun got hold of one of the more fortunate participants in the trial, who seems to have been given a placebo. Raste Khan said: "Some screamed out that their heads felt like they were going to explode."

Late this afternoon, authorities at Northwick Park Hospital in London said the condition of four of the men is showing signs of improvement. A statement said: "The other two men remain critical and it could be a while until they show significant change."

Student David O'Donnell, 19, was due to take part in the next stage of testing of the drug in April at a higher dose. A friend of his took part in the trial and is seriously ill. O'Donnel told the BBC: "I am very worried about him indeed, but I had a message from my friends to say they have managed to get in contact with him."

The distressed girlfriend of one of the men said yesterday that he looked like "the Elephant Man".



Senate Votes to Raise Debt Limit to $9 Trillion :.

* yawn *

The Senate voted Thursday to allow the national debt to swell to nearly $9 trillion, preventing a first-ever default on U.S. Treasury notes.

The bill passed by a 52-48 vote. The increase to $9 trillion represents about $30,000 for every man, woman and child in the United States. The bill now goes to President Bush for his signature.



NYSE, SEC Fine Bear Stearns $250 Million :.

Bear Stearns Cos. has been fined $250 million by the New York Stock Exchange and the Securities and Exchange Commission for fraudulent market timing and late trading of mutual funds, regulators said Thursday.

The announcement, which finalizes an agreement reached in December, came just as Bear Stearns reported record first-quarter earnings, the third Wall Street brokerage to do so this week, as profits rose 36.6 percent on strong equity trading and a jump in investment banking fees.

According to NYSE Regulation, the exchange's regulatory arm, Bear Stearns engaged in a pattern of deceptive market timing and late trading of fund shares from 1999 through 2003. The trades were designed to take advantage of the time between the markets' closing and the new share values posted by mutual fund companies.


3/14/2006

UK GAS CRISIS: WHOLESALE PRICES RISE MORE THAN 4X :.

I have to apologize for the lack of posts and responses to emails. I haven't had much time to spend at the computer:

The price of gas hit 255p a therm in early trading yesterday - more than four times last Friday's level. The Grid issued an unprecedented warning on Monday that demand was outstripping supply.

Jeremy Nicholson, of the Energy Intensive Users Group (EIUG), which represents steel, glass and chemical manufacturers, said firms were having to cut production because of soaring costs. "This is as close as the UK has got to a national gas emergency, where supplies would effectively be rationed to industry to keep supplies maintained to households," he said.


More:

The National Grid, responsible for running Britain's gas and electricity pipes and wires, yesterday issued an unprecedented warning that the country was in danger of not having enough gas to meet demand.

It issued its first-ever "gas balancing alert" to the market, telling traders that gas demand might have to be reduced, initially for businesses. The move sent wholesale prices spiralling up fourfold.

The British gas supply market has been caught out by unexpectedly cold weather and a technical problem: the country's only significant gas storage facility on the Rough offshore field in the North Sea is out of action due to a fire. Centrica, which operates Rough and runs the British Gas residential supply firm, said it could not be sure when it would get the emergency supply facility back into action.


Research Credit: PW


3/12/2006

Fascism Fully Unfurled in the U.S. :.

Expose the crimes of the Bush regime, go to jail:

The draft would add to the criminal penalties for anyone who "intentionally discloses information identifying or describing" the Bush administration's terrorist surveillance program or any other eavesdropping program conducted under a 1978 surveillance law.

Under the boosted penalties, those found guilty could face fines of up to $1 million, 15 years in jail or both.

Kate Martin, director of the Center for National Security Studies, said the measure is broader than any existing laws. She said, for example, the language does not specify that the information has to be harmful to national security or classified.

"The bill would make it a crime to tell the American people that the president is breaking the law, and the bill could make it a crime for the newspapers to publish that fact," said Martin, a civil liberties advocate.



Internet Blows CIA Cover :.

Of course, "the terrorists" don't know how to use the Internet. Right? I mean, if they did, they could easily target these assets for termination. Why haven't "the terrorists" done this? Hmm.

When the Tribune searched a commercial online data service, the result was a virtual directory of more than 2,600 CIA employees, 50 internal agency telephone numbers and the locations of some two dozen secret CIA facilities around the United States.

Only recently has the CIA recognized that in the Internet age its traditional system of providing cover for clandestine employees working overseas is fraught with holes, a discovery that is said to have "horrified" CIA Director Porter Goss.

"Cover is a complex issue that is more complex in the Internet age," said the CIA's chief spokeswoman, Jennifer Dyck. "There are things that worked previously that no longer work. Director Goss is committed to modernizing the way the agency does cover in order to protect our officers who are doing dangerous work."

Dyck declined to detail the remedies "since we don't want the bad guys to know what we're fixing."

Several "front companies" set up to provide cover for CIA operatives and the agency's small fleet of aircraft recently began disappearing from the Internet, following the Tribune's disclosures that some of the planes were used to transport suspected terrorists to countries where they claimed to have been tortured.




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