15 year old develops pancreatic cancer detector

I considered myself a pretty smart kid. But geez. Even the runner ups scare me. From HuffPo:

Another amazing teen scientist is making headlines for developing advances in cancer research in his after-school hours. Fifteen-year-old Jack Andraka from Maryland, winner of the world's largest high school science research competition, developed a test for pancreatic cancer that is not only 28 times cheaper and faster than current tests in place, but also 100 times more sensitive. Astoundingly, the urine and blood test that he developed can detect this type of cancer with 90 percent accuracy.

Two runners-up -- Nicholas Schiefer of Ontario, Canada and Ari Dyckovsky of Virginia -- earned $50,000 prizes for their innovations. Nicholas's "microsearch" research used information like tweets and Facebook status updates to improve search engine capabilities, while Ari looked into the atomic basis for quantum teleportation.

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Third Federal agency opens investigation into JPMorgan loss

JPMorgan can thank Jamie Dimon for this. He owns this problem after going far beyond defending the bank in recent years. Had he not rubbed everyone's nose in how brilliant he thought he was the fallout would have been less. Even the widely disliked Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman knew when to stop talking and lay low.

More on the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) investigation via the NY Times:

The commodity commission’s members also voted on Friday to publicly disclose the existence of their investigation soon, an uncommon step that occurs only in the most serious cases. Last year, the agency confirmed that it was investigating the collapse of MF Global, the brokerage firm that misused customers’ money.

In the JPMorgan matter, the C.F.T.C. will potentially examine, among other things, whether the bank’s trading affected the market for credit derivatives — which lie at the heart of the bank’s trading debacle.

While the agency is not the bank’s front-line regulator, it does have jurisdiction over the derivatives industry. It started tracking the bank’s trading in April, one person said, after reports emerged that a London-based trader was taking large bets in credit derivatives that distorted the market. But it was not until recently that the agency opened a formal investigation.

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New poll shows Obama leads big with Latinos

A new NBC/Wall Street Journal/Telemundo poll shows President Obama is enjoying a huge lead over presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney among Latino voters, with 61 percent preferring the president over the self-deportation advocate.

Obama won Latinos over the last Republican nominee John McCain in 2008, 67 to 31 percent.

The poll also proves that Mitt's unlikability even transcends possible language barriers, with only 26 percent viewing him favorably (I'm sure GOP Representative Steve King's recent comments comparing immigrants to dogs won't do much to help the GOP ticket in November either).

By comparison, Obama's favorability among Latinos is 58 percent, which makes him about as popular as a telenovela at my Nana's house.

And this is all before Mitt has even said if he'll endorse GOP Senator Marco Rubio's watered-down version of the DREAM Act, which according to Rubio himself wouldn't even offer a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.

Maybe Republicans will attempt to lure in Latinos with tacos. Again. Read the rest of this post...

Montreal students protest 80% tuition increase

Our neighbors to the north generally have a reputation for being friendly and polite. Maybe it's something they inherited from the English or maybe it's because they never had the overseas empire complex, but they're often among the friendliest people out there.

Since the 1960's, Quebec has been a bit different for a lot of reasons. English domination, bigoted views and a knuckle-dragging Catholic church that preferred poverty and kids over equality all contributed to problems that kept Quebec poor for decades. The Québécois pushed aside the church and then took on bigots, eventually forcing a referendum on secession. (De Gaulle's "Vive le Québec libre !" moment is often sited as an important speech.)

The secession referendum lost and the mood did eventually settle though there continues to be bad feelings all around. Those from other(English) provinces sometimes complain about Quebec receiving preferential treatment on costs such as education and health care, ignoring the years of mistreatment.

Fast forward to 2012, the Canada of today is vastly different, politically, than the Canada of the past. Crazy right wing politics mixed with the tar sands oil money have become much more influential, and we now find that our friendly neighbors to the north more closely resemble our own loony right-wing, corporate-dominated political system. (And I say that thinking of both political parties, not just the GOP.)

The police state actions that we continue to witness in the US and UK have spread to Canada, including Quebec. Students have now been protesting for 100 days against 80% tuition increases (tax increases for students, how curious) and in response to un-democratic actions by the government, even more came out to protest yesterday.

In addition to the radical tuition increases, the local government has updated the law to make civil disobedience more difficult. While the law (Bill 78) may not hold up in court, Bill 78 prohibits assembly near university campuses without prior police notification and of course, police approval.

Democracy theater is all the rage in political class circles. What's the most sad is that this problem keeps spreading and people keep accepting it. These are the golden years of the extreme political and corporate elite. For now, their power knows no limits but as we saw in the Middle East, all bad things must come to an end, eventually. Read the rest of this post...

Anti-stimulus economist Orszag now in favor of stimulus

When it counted, Peter Orszag was on the wrong side of the argument, afraid of a "wacko lefty" stimulus. We can blame Orszag for scaling back the stimulus that could have helped more Americans have jobs and pay taxes. It didn't matter to him though, because he was soon gone to make millions on Wall Street. Tough luck for everyone else.

It's more than revolting to see Orszag now come out in favor of more stimulus, knowing that the political atmosphere of 2012 is very different from early 2009 when Obama had plenty of political capital. Back then, everything was possible and now it's extremely unlikely that another stimulus could successfully pass the GOP controlled House.

What a jerk. Read the rest of this post...

Mike Papantonio: What's really going on with the Edwards trial

I find the John Edwards case fascinating. Thom Hartmann's intro in the clip below sets up the situation perfectly, and Mike Papantonio offers excellent commentary, as always.

Papantonio's bottom line — "The judge in the case should have issued an acquittal before the trial even started."

My take on the Edwards prosecution has always been straight-forward: His message of Two Americas was too right-on, too compelling, and too accurate to be allowed to live.

So when he slipped — and he seriously slipped — the Barons attacked.

First came the Baronial media, which gave him the Tabloid Demon* treatment. Then came the prosecutors, who wanted him jailed. Note that you couldn't bring him to trial if he weren't already branded as the Devil. Thanks, complicit media.

To what effect? To send a Baronial message to any politician that dares to get too close to power with another Two Americas message. (Remember, Edwards was raised to VP candidate in 2004. No voice-in-the-wilderness he; an actual threat to ascend the throne.)

The Baronial message — "Watch and learn. (1) We took Edwards into the public square, stripped him naked, pulled him slowly apart, hung his dripping corpse from the city gate, and salted the earth beneath him. (2) This could be you if you try that trick again."

Now Mike Papantonio on why this case is so bad, so hypocritical:



Note the Obama connection [4:35]:

A lot of this, unfortunately, is President Obama's fault. President Obama has been awful at putting on the court capable jurists — capable jurists that are able to take a case like this, forget about the politics of the case, and understand this a case that the jury could even consider.

Watch this trial. It's an indicator of many things, including the bipartisan anti-Dem consensus.

*These definitions come from the supermarket tabloids, moulders of our thoughts:

Tabloid Saint: He of whom no ill can be publicly spoken.
Tabloid Demon: He of whom no good can be publicly said.

Have you noticed that some people, defined sympathetic victims, could be caught burning kittens on Sunset Blvd and never make the news? Yet others, devils-in-the-press, could save Pope Ratziner from a burning church and be blamed for having smoked in high school?

Creating tabloid demons and tabloid saints is both a useful tool and an industry. Simple sells; even in politics. It's what makes ad campaigns so effective.

GP

To follow or send links: @Gaius_Publius
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GOP upset that Obama is doing what Bush did on health care

But remember kids, it's okay if you're a Republican.  From ThinkProgress:

Republicans are criticizing the Department of Health and Human Services for signing a $20 million contract with a public relations firm to educate Americans about the preventive health benefits included in the Affordable Care Act. The campaign — mandated by the law — “must describe the importance of prevention while also explaining preventive benefits provided by the healthcare law,” essentially informing the public about the availability of preventive services without additional co-pays.

The GOP touted the benefits of preventive medicine before Obama signed health reform into law and claimed that it could help lower the nation’s skyrocketing health care costs. But they’re now denouncing this campaign as an “unconstitutional” “propaganda” effort

ThinkProgress goes on to list several examples of Bush educating the public on his new health care laws.

Not to mention, anyone else remember when Bush literally bragged to the American people, in a letter funded by the taxpayers, about the mini tax rebate/stimulus he got passed in 2001?

CNN has received a copy of a letter that the Internal Revenue Service will be sending to taxpayers to inform them they will receive a rebate check this summer as part of the recently enacted tax cut law.CNN was given the letter by a Democratic staff member in the House, who said he received it from career IRS employees upset by what they described as its political and congratulatory tone.The following is the letter, entitled "Notice of Status and Amount of Immediate Tax Relief." It is not dated."We are pleased to inform you that the United States Congress passed and President George W. Bush signed into law the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconcilliation Act of 2001, which provides long-term tax relief for all Americans who pay income taxes.

While one can argue, credibly, that people need to know the details of a health care law that affects them directly, and about which, the GOP themselves often remind us, people know little of. But why did Bush need to tell people that he got a tax rebate passed? Surely, people would have noticed it in their own tax returns.

This was nothing but bragging, politicking, at the taxpayer's expense. And the Republicans couldn't have cared less. Read the rest of this post...

China seeks to create their own Goldman Sachs

Imagine how exciting it will be to have their own team of gamblers with even more government sponsorship and government money. The financial gambles and eventually losses will make Wall Street's losses look like a rounding error.

The current regime in China has consistently proven themselves to be experts at cooking the books so there's no question this will lead to a spectacular crash at one point in the future. Nothing fuels an ugly banking crash quite like a government open wallet. It's bad enough in the US system which is limited to deep government ties, but making those ties deeper is asking for trouble.

Fun times ahead in China if they follow through with this plan.

China is rolling out sweeping brokerage reforms to nurture future global investment banks that officials hope could eventually compete with the likes of Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley , a regulatory document showed.

The China Securities Regulatory Commission wants to allow domestic brokerages, which now get most of their money from trading stocks and underwriting new securities, to expand in futures and derivatives, asset management, private banking and private equity, according to a commission document distributed to securities firms earlier in the month.

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Millenials want income equality

Considering the size of this group and their expected impact for generations, the Republicans may have their work cut out for them in the coming years. At the same time, the Democrats have plenty of work themselves to build ties with them. The Glass–Steagall Act repeal was a joint venture by Republicans and Democrats who celebrated the moment and thought it was going to be the start of a wonderful era.

We need the Millenials to join the process and help bring back Americans something closer to income equality. Read the rest of this post...

Catholic church threatens to turn away non-Catholics from emergency rooms

Get these people out of the hospital business, now.

The Catholic church is now making rumblings about turning away non-Catholics from the emergency rooms of Catholic hospitals. I shudder to make a Nazi analogy, so I won't. But what other analogy is there for a hospital to even dare start talking about picking and choosing who lives and who dies based on their religion?

Welcome to the Vatican death panels.

Don't anyone think for a moment that this isn't a veiled threat of what's to come.

Remember, the Catholic church warned that it would have to stop foster care and adoption services in Washington, DC and Illinois, rather than abide with anti-discrimination laws, and what did they do?  They stopped providing those services in those states.  The Catholic bishops are nothing if not consistent when it comes to following through on their threats to harm their human shields.

What's to stop them from turning away non-Catholics from the emergency rooms of Catholic hospitals - which they just threatened in writing, mind you? These are people who excel at punishing innocent victims, be it a raped five year old or a homeless teenager.

From Maureen Dowd, writing about the latest Catholic scare tactic, distributed in tax-exempt churches, to oppose President Obama's new contraceptive policy that Mitt Romney previously endorsed as well.

The Archdiocese of Washington put an equally alarmist message in the church bulletins at Sunday’s Masses, warning of apocalyptic risk:

“1. Our more than 600 hospitals nationwide, which will need to stop non-Catholics at the emergency room door and say, ‘We are only allowed by the government to heal Catholics.’

The poor oppressed Catholic church.  So oppressed that they get $2.8 billion of taxpayer money every year from the US government.

Call them "God's 1%."

As Dowd reminds us, the Catholic bishops don't really speak for actual American Catholics.  Note the gay polling, below.

I wasn’t surprised to see the Gallup poll Tuesday showing that 82 percent of U.S. Catholics say birth control is morally acceptable. (Eighty-nine percent of all Americans and 90 percent of non-Catholics agreed.) Gallup tested the morality of 18 issues, and birth control came out on top as the most acceptable, beating divorce, which garnered 67 percent approval, and “buying and wearing clothing made of animal fur,” which got a 60 percent thumbs-up (more from Republicans, naturally, than Democrats).

Polygamy, cloning humans and having an affair took the most morally offensive spots on the list. “Gay or lesbian relations” tied “having a baby outside of marriage,” with 54 percent approving. That’s in the middle of the list, above a 38 percent score for abortion and below a 59 percent score for “sex between an unmarried man and woman.”

All they speak for is a Vatican that every four years tries to throw the American election to the Republicans. Read the rest of this post...

Cory Booker wants back on the bus

If you live on the periphery of the news, as many of us do, you probably noticed the name Cory Booker coming up a lot. The problem is, not all the stories told the same tale. What's going on?

So let's recap. Who is Cory Booker?

If you look at the Matrix (and not behind it), Cory Booker is a candidate for the Next Barack Obama — charismatic, black, handsome, "progressive," electable — Mayor of Newark, an inverse Chris Christie — a "left-leaning" star on the rise.

Cory Booker has lately been seen stumping for Obama, playing "Obama surrogate" on TV. A man on the move. Well-branded. Well-managed. Well-placed.

Now the news. By all accounts, Cory Booker angered (some say greatly angered) the Obama administration — sorry, the "Obama re-election team" — by these remarks on a recent Meet The Press (h/t Buzzfeed):



He also said:

“This kind of stuff is nauseating to me on both sides ... It’s nauseating to the American public. Enough is enough. Stop attacking private equity. Stop attacking Jeremiah Wright. This stuff has got to stop.”

Easy to see that this would be a problem. But what kind of problem?

How is this being seen?

Again there's a kaleidoscope of ways to view this. He touched a lot of bases.

■ Let's start with the excellent Ilyse Hogue at The Nation (all emphasis and some reparagraphing mine):

On Sunday’s Meet The Press, Booker disavowed the new ad campaign attacking Mitt Romney’s tenure at Bain Capital, and in doing so, compared the Obama team’s decision to air the ads to the right-wing invocation of Reverend Wright to take down the president.

Booker released a retraction video hours later, but the incident indicates just how advanced the sickness of false equivalence is in our national dialogue.

He did hit the "false equivalency" base with that one. But why? Was it just automatic, as Ms. Hogue says later in her article, another instance of our national political "epidemic"? Hogue is right; this is an instance of an epidemic.

But is it more in this case? What got Obama's bunch all bunched up? What got Booker thrown off the bus?

■ As a surrogate, Booker "stepped on Obama's message" as Rachel Maddow put it. As an article at Crooks And Liars entitled "Booker Sandbags Obama Campaign" says:

Mitt Romney's time at Bain Capital is one of the few quantifiable ways voters can see how he intends to approach employment issues and corporations, and the Obama campaign has done a terrific job of pointing out the "vulture capitalist" Romney so desperately tries to hide.

In fact, they launched a new website this week highlighting the swath of devastation Romney left behind. ... So this morning on Meet the Press Mayor Cory Booker just managed to undo all of that work with a few measured sentences.

Yep. That too.

You could stop right here and get the Matrix version of this kaleidoscopic tale.

The left is on him about false equivalence; fair enough. The Obama's are on him about defending Bain; also fair. (Maybe also about joining the racist attack on Wright. No one in Obamadom can come out for Wright, but I can imagine many are quietly sympathetic. I sure am.)

Cory Booker is now off the bus (some think permanently). He wants back on, and if you watched his recent Maddow appearance, you saw his pitch.

End of story?

A look behind the curtain tells a different tale

Who is Cory Booker? Behind the curtain, beneath the branding, he's this guy.

■ Booker is Wall Street's man in Newark. Zaid Jilani at the amazing Republic Report:

Cory Booker’s Political Career Guided By Top Wall St Donors To Romney’s Super PAC

Booker said his defense of private equity firms comes from a “very personal level.” ... [But] Wall Street has been a huge backer of Booker’s campaigns. In 2006, “Lee Ainslie, the founder of hedge fund Maverick Capital Management LLC and a former protégé of Tiger Management LLC’s [Julian] Robertson; and D. Ian McKinnon, the managing partner of Ziff Brothers Investments,” maxed out in their donations to Booker’s campaign.

... Bloomberg chronicled in 2010 how Booker worked to raise as much as $240 million from Wall Street and other American financial services hubs to invest in urban renewal in the city of Newark. ...

[Julian] Robertson, the prominent Booker campaign supporter [see above] who helped finance a Newark Charter program on behalf of Booker, is a close ally to Mitt Romney. ... Robertson’s $1.8 million in contributions to Restore Our Future [Romney's SuperPAC] make him the second biggest contributor[.]

Of course there's more; this is the Republic Report.

From the linked Bloomberg article:

Booker, 41, a Rhodes Scholar and son of International Business Machines Corp. executives, has raised $240 million for parks, schools and police since taking office in 2006 by convincing some of the wealthiest business people in the U.S. that Newark can be a model for urban renewal.

With the support of New Jersey’s Republican Governor Chris Christie, Booker, a Democrat, obtained a $100 million pledge last month from Facebook Inc. founder Mark Zuckerberg and a $25 million promise from Ackman.

Of course, Chris Christie, friend of the poor — and Democrats. Well, one Democrat.

■ Booker looks like Bain's man in Newark as well. ThinkProgress:

Bain and Financial Industry Gave Over $565,000 To Newark Mayor Cory Booker For 2002 Campaign

A ThinkProgress examination of New Jersey campaign finance records for Booker’s first run for Mayor — back in 2002 — suggests a possible reason for his unease with attacks on Bain Capital and venture capital. They were among his earliest and most generous backers.

Contributions to his 2002 campaign from venture capitalists, investors, and big Wall Street bankers brought him more than $115,000 for his 2002 campaign. Among those contributing to his campaign were John Connaughton ($2,000), Steve Pagliuca ($2,200), Jonathan Lavine ($1,000) — all of Bain Capital. While the forms are not totally clear, it appears the campaign raised less than $800,000 total, making this a significant percentage.

As usual with these depressing stories, there's predictably more. Do click.

No wonder he doesn't like jumping down Bain Capital's throat. Whatever Bain coughs up, Booker feeds on.

But wait? Where's the quid pro quo? Here's one of several.

■ Booker, in return, likes his Michelle Rhee–style education "reform":

Sacramento, California, New Brunswick, NJ (August 9, 2011) StudentsFirst and Better Education for Kids, Inc. (B4K) announced today that the two non-profit organizations would enter into an exclusive partnership to reform New Jersey’s public school system.

B4K and StudentsFirst share the same vision – bipartisan, common sense education reform that puts students first, empowers parents and rewards great teachers and principals. ... Launched in early December by Michelle Rhee, former Washington, DC Public Schools chancellor, StudentsFirst has signed up more than 500,000 members and released a comprehensive policy agenda that transcends party lines.

I'll decode this for you:

• Student First = Teachers last
• Non-profit = Tax-exempt political organization
• Bipartisan = Republican dominated
• Empowers parents = Sets up trap-like parent triggers
• Rewards great teachers = Kills union-protected seniority and firing rules
• Michelle Rhee = Friend of for-profit education

[Update: Excellent piece on Michelle Rhee here. Add Booker to the list of governors, all Republicans, in the article.]

You don't need the nose of a pro sommelier to smell the payback. The whole New Jersey public school system? Bold, sir; very bold.

■ All of which make him the model of a Clintonian DLC golden boy. Just for good measure, this — the corp-friendly folks who brought you the Futures Modernization Act, brought you Booker as well.

He's DLC to the core (h/t Twitter friend FogBelter):

DLC | New Dem Of The Week | February 18, 2009
New Dem of the Week: Cory Booker
Mayor, Newark, NJ

As the leader of New Jersey's largest city, Newark Mayor Cory Booker has worked to improve not only the city, but the lives of its citizens. An advocate for government reform and community engagement, Booker's innovative ideas continue to revitalize Newark. Even in these tough economic times, Booker reinforced his commitment to mutual responsibility ...

Et cetera.

Bottom line

Cory Booker is not your friend, but he played one on TV.

At the level of the Matrix, this is a story about "Booker wants back on the bus" after accidentally stepping on Obama's PR-offensive against Romney. It's hard not to watch his Maddow interview without seeing the begging. He wants back his place at the trough.

Behind the Matrix though, it's yet another tale of a faux-progressive, bought-and-paid Dem with good looks, successful branding, a great story, and a future he's desperate to salvage. He's not just begging Obama; he's begging you as well.

He wants back his branding, his faux-liberal costume. Will you give it to him?

You can read this story either way and get your money's worth. But only the second has a cherry at the center — a view of the actual world, should you choose to accept it.

GP

To follow or send links: @Gaius_Publius
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Under Obama federal spending rose at slowest pace since Ike

Fascinating analysis by Rex Nutting of MarketWatch.  This is perhaps the most interesting part.

Before Obama had even lifted a finger [on arriving in office], the CBO was already projecting that the federal deficit would rise to $1.2 trillion in fiscal 2009. The government actually spent less money in 2009 than it was projected to, but the deficit expanded to $1.4 trillion because revenue from taxes fell much further than expected, due to the weak economy and the emergency tax cuts that were part of the stimulus bill.

When Obama took the oath of office, the $789 billion bank bailout had already been approved. Federal spending on unemployment benefits, food stamps and Medicare was already surging to meet the dire unemployment crisis that was well under way. See the CBO’s January 2009 budget outlook.

Obama is not responsible for that increase, though he is responsible (along with the Congress) for about $140 billion in extra spending in the 2009 fiscal year from the stimulus bill, from the expansion of the children’s’ health-care program and from other appropriations bills passed in the spring of 2009.

If we attribute that $140 billion in stimulus to Obama and not to Bush, we find that spending under Obama grew by about $200 billion over four years, amounting to a 1.4% annualized increase.

After adjusting for inflation, spending under Obama is falling at a 1.4% annual pace — the first decline in real spending since the early 1970s, when Richard Nixon was retreating from the quagmire in Vietnam.

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Egyptians head to the polls

When the protests started, few would have imagined what happened. To see Hosni Mubarak, dictator for decades, swept aside and sent to court was almost unbelievable. Having an election that does not include Mubarak or his son is a major development. Whether the new team will be much different from the old team may be asking for a lot, but again, few imagined this election. Al Jazeera:

Fifty million people are eligible to cast their ballots and voter turnout is expected to be high as two days of voting begin on Wednesday.

The election is the final phase of a tumultuous transition marred by violence, protests and political deadlock, overseen by the ruling military council after a popular uprising ousted longtime President Hosni Mubarak last year.

With none of the 13 candidates expected to secure more than half the votes to win outright in the first round, a runoff between the top two is likely in June.

Among the contenders is former foreign minister and Arab League chief Amr Moussa, who is seen as an experienced politician and diplomat but like Ahmed Shafiq, Mubarak's last prime minister, is accused of belonging to the old
regime.

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Robot "fish" to be used for water pollution monitoring

If the end result is faster discovery of polluted waters, this could be a positive change. Use case scenarios include harbors, oil pipelines and any other underwater environments that need to be tracked for quality.

The fish, which are 1.5 meters (5 feet) long and currently cost 20,000 pounds ($31,600) each, are designed to swim like real fish and are fitted with sensors to pick up pollutants leaking from ships or undersea pipelines.

They swim independently, co-ordinate with each other, and transmit their readings back to a shore station up to a kilometer away.

"Chemical sensors fitted to the fish permit real-time, in-situ analysis, rather than the current method of sample collection and dispatch to a shore based laboratory," said Luke Speller, a scientist at British consultancy BMT Group who led the project.

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