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Dawn of the Pirate
So reads the headline at Drudge.Here is Abdul Hassan, 39. A Somali pirate nicknamed “the one who never sleeps.” Hassan is part of a pirate group called the Central Regional Coast Guard. It was formed three years ago, has 350 men in its ranks and about 100 speedboats.
Zing, zing, zing, zing, zing!
There are some wonderful stories waiting to be told about this. Sure, there is the terrorist angle. But what about the angle of someone of value they stumble across on the ship? What about the kid who knows these pirates and decides to make a buck turning them in? What about the guys sent in to find out who the heck is backing these guys?
What about Hassan himself? Somali is so poor. With one job he made $350,000. Here are some great articles.
A fascinating MUST READ pictorial of Somali pirates.
A map of pirate attacks in 2008.
An article about a tanker just taken by pirates.
An article indicating just how much money pirates are making (more than $100m just this year) by taking ships and demanding ransoms.
Health Care Solutions
I am a big believer in free-market solutions. However, I’m not a big believer in Wild West capitalism. Government plays a vital role in helping us prevent capitalistic abuse. But what’s the right role of government in health care?
I found that both John Stossel’s 20/20 “Sick in America” and a recent report from Safeway give brilliant insight into the situation and possible solutions. Enjoy!
Sick in America Part 2
Sick in America Part 3
Sick in America Part 4
Sick in America Part 5
Sick in America Part 6How Safeway Is Cutting Health-Care Costs from the Wall Street Journal
Growing Your Own Replacement Parts
This is simply incredible. Watch the video about Claudia Castillo growing a replacement to part of her windpipe with her own stem cells. She didn’t grow the complete tube, but nevertheless…
Ms Castillo, who was born in Colombia, had suffered a tuberculosis infection that ravaged her airways, leaving her unable to do simple domestic tasks. Disease had caused her windpipe, or trachea, to collapse just at the point where it entered her lung. Without the pioneering operation in June, the lung would have been removed. Today she again has a normal life and is able to look after her two children. She can walk up stairs without getting breathless and has even been dancing.
Oh, my. Can you believe this? What the future holds for all the folks with damaged parts…
And does this mean as we age, we’ll be able to swap out the old for new? How will that affect aging? This is simply incredible.
You’ve heard of the nocebo effect, right?
We all know about the placebo effect. Well, here’s its ugly brother.
nocebo (no-SEE-bo) noun: A substance producing harmful effects in someone because it is believed to be harmful, but which in reality is harmless. [From Latin nocebo (I will harm), from nocere (to harm). Modeled after placebo (I will please).]
Both groups who received nocebos showed elevated levels of the stress hormone cortisol in their blood.” James Morgan; Is Your Pain a Trick of the Mind? The Herald (Glasgow, UK); Jan 12, 2007.
An article with many interesting examples of nocebo effect.
From words at wordsmith.org
Emotion…
Zing!
P.S. This is one thing I love about English–it’s alive and growing, stealing from any language it can.
UFO over Washington D.C.
I just ran across this.
Published on Saturday, July 27, 2002 in the Washington Post
F-16s Pursue Unknown Craft Over Region
by Steve VogelWASHINGTON — For Renny Rogers, it was strange enough that military jets were flying low over his home in Waldorf in the middle of the night. It was what he thinks he saw when he headed outside to look early yesterday that floored him.
“It was this object, this light-blue object, traveling at a phenomenal rate of speed,” Rogers said. “This Air Force jet was right behind it, chasing it, but the object was just leaving him in the dust. I told my neighbor, ‘I think those jets are chasing a UFO.’ ”
Military officials confirm that two F-16 jets from Andrews Air Force Base were scrambled early yesterday after radar detected an unknown aircraft in area airspace. But they scoff at the idea that the jets were chasing a strange and speedy, blue unidentified flying object. Read more here.
I don’t automatically assume it was methane creatures from Jupiter or our long lost cousins from Alpha Centauri. But I do find it interesting. Was it some new military craft? An exercise? Something the military has seen before? From another nation? The possibilities are endless. Here’s another link to the full article since the WP appears not to have archived it online.
Free Stories from Pros
From Edmund Schubert, editor of Orson Scott Card’s Intergalatic Medicine Show:
“During the month of February we are going to make one story from each of our first four issues available at no charge. Two stories will be set free on February 1st, and two more on February 15th. Just visit www.intergalacticmedicineshow.com and explore the table of contents; the free stories will be clearly marked.”
Of course, having been published in the first issue and slated to be the cover story for the Spring 2008 issue, I can vouch for the magazine’s impeccable taste and the gigawatt entertainment buzz you’ll get from the stories they select.
