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CHICAGO (Reuters) – U.S. researchers have discovered antiviral proteins in cells that naturally fight off influenza infections, a finding that may lead to better ways to make vaccines and protect people against the flu. They said a family of genes act as cell sentries that guard cells from an invading influenza virus, the team reported on Thursday in the journal Cell. "This prevents the virus from even getting into the cell," said Stephen Elledge of Harvard Medical School and a Howard Hughes Investigator at Brigham & Women's Hospital. "It is out there fighting the flu all of the time," Elledge...

I'm looking at my electrical bill and was wondering if it might be worthwhile for me to investigate either solar or natural gas co-generation systems to reduce the monthly bill. Are there any freepers who have walked this path and can give advice? I live in Colorado where NG is locally produced and relatively cheap and I get 6 hrs of sunlight per day on average.

In another thread, I happen to mention a problem that exists between an ex-wife of mine and our youngest son. He has ADHD. Several years ago, he was on meds and he was doing well. He was getting nearly straight A's and had plenty of friends, but his mother didn't like him taking meds so she, on her own, just took him off of them and took him to see a holistic doctor. Well, she has actually taken him to see several and it's not working. The quacks, errr, doctors made huge promises and charged big bucks and the results...

Motion set for 8/17/2009

The Congrees shall have power: To define and punish .....Offences against the Law of Nations. The LAW OF NATIONS is capitalised, so it is referring to the book by Vattel which says that the President should be born in the USA of (two) Parents who were US Citizens.

WASHINGTON – One of the most influential bloggers, pundits and columnists in America, Andrew Sullivan, has joined the rising chorus of voices across the political spectrum calling for Barack Obama to release his original, long-form birth certificate to put aside growing doubts about his eligibility for the presidency. Sullivan writes that he believes official accounts, such as the recent statement by Dr. Chiyome Fukino, director of the Hawaii State Health Department, that maintain Obama was born there and is a "natural born citizen." Sullivan says, however, Americans should not be expected to accept on blind faith the word of public...

Barack Obama's birthday is Aug. 4, and I hereby urge the president to bestow a party favor on the nation that elected him: a verifying look at the original "long-form" version of his birth certificate. It's important to grasp the weird fact that this simple request, requiring nothing more than a nod of the presidential head, ranks as fightin' words to American journalists. Right wing, left wing, these ladies and gentlemen of the Fourth Estate seem to want nothing less than to gain access to the one piece of evidence that could lay the "natural born" issue to rest once...

ScienceDaily (May 18, 2009) — Twenty years ago, the oil tanker Exxon Valdez was exiting Alaska's Prince William Sound when it struck a reef in the middle of the night. What happened next is considered one of the nation's worst environmental disasters: 10.8 million gallons of crude oil spilled into the pristine Alaskan waters, eventually covering 11,000 square miles of ocean. Now, imagine 8 to 80 times the amount of oil spilled in the Exxon Valdez accident. According to new research by scientists from UC Santa Barbara and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), that's how much oil has made...

Anything natural that will repel mosquito/bug bites? I have heard garlic pills will repel them, but wife is allergic to garlic...

I recently bought me an inexpensive bread maker. My reasons were two-fold. I had stomach surgery back in June, 2006 and due to a few neurological changes, my taste buds changed. As an example of the changes, I actively disliked cauliflour as well as spinach. Now I don't automatically say I don't like something just because I despised it prior to my second tummy surgery. I haven't actually gone out to buy caulifour but I AM keeping frozen spinach on hand. In some ways this change has been a blessing because it opens a whole new world to my taste...

... Unfortunately, many theologians have decided that claims made by the majority of scientists represent scientific “facts.” In turn, these “facts” represent ultimate truth, which must then be used to understand biblical teachings. However, the Bible contains numerous claims and events that are not going to be popularly accepted as “scientific.” Are these claims now unacceptable to Christians? Scripture records the occurrence of numerous miracles performed by God. By definition, a miracle is an event not explainable by natural processes. Otherwise, it would hardly constitute a miracle. Are these miracles going to be accepted as “scientific?” What do these theologians...

President Barack Obama's first budget includes $15 billion a year for renewable energy programs and an ambitious plan to raise $646 billion from a carbon reduction proposal. "Because our future depends on our ability to break free from oil that's controlled by foreign dictators, we need to make clean, renewable energy the profitable kind of energy," Mr. Obama said Thursday morning. "That's why we'll be working with Congress on legislation that places a market-based cap on carbon pollution and drives the production of more renewable energy." The plan uses money from a cap-and-trade program — which would allow companies to...

Mysterious UFO sightings may go hand in hand with a puzzling natural phenomenon known as sprites — flashes high in the atmosphere triggered by thunderstorms. The dancing lights have appeared above most thunderstorms throughout history, but researchers did not start studying them until one accidentally recorded a sighting on camera in 1989. "Lightning from the thunderstorm excites the electric field above, producing a flash of light called a sprite," said Colin Price, a geophysicist at Tel Aviv University in Israel. "We now understand that only a specific type of lightning is the trigger that initiates sprites aloft." Researchers have detected...

WASHINGTON – A U.S. senator has weighed in on the continuing controversy over Barack Obama's eligibility for office by saying he has never seen proof the new president was actually born in Hawaii. "Well, his father was Kenyan and they said he was born in Hawaii, but I haven't seen any birth certificate," Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., told constituents in Cullman County. "You have to be born in America to be president."

At least three proposals have been submitted to state legislatures since Obama's election in November, and at least one – in Oklahoma – has gained enough traction to pass a committee vote.

Alan Keyes: Stop Obama or U.S. will cease to exist Claims 'communist usurper' plunges country into chaos February 21, 2009 By Drew Zahn © 2009 WorldNetDaily Alan Keyes, a 2008 presidential candidate who is also a plaintiff in one of the many lawsuits challenging Barack Obama's constitutional eligibility to occupy the Oval Office, charged at a pro-life rally that unless Obama's social and economic policies are stopped, the United States as we know it is over. Keyes' comments were part of an interview with a reporter from KHAS-TV at a fundraiser for the AAA Crisis Pregnancy Center in Hastings, Neb....

Barack Hussein Obama will propose a massive business tax on greenhouse gases in his FY 2010 federal budget to be presented this week.The massive tax increase and power grab was buried at the end on article on Obama's forthcoming budget proposal in The New York Times:On energy policy, Mr. Obama’s budget will show new revenues by 2012 from his proposal to require companies to buy permits from the government for greenhouse gas emissions above a certain cap. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the permits would raise up to $300 billion a year by 2020. Since companies would pass their...

NFP — It Ain’t Your Momma’s Rhythm August 18th, 2008 by Mary Ellen Barrett “Are they all yours?”I get asked that question at least twice a week these days.  It doesn’t bother me very much since I realize that having seven children makes me a bit unique by societal norms. I can’t imagine why anyone would think I would willingly take other people’s children with me to Costco or the dentist (I wouldn’t) but it’s one of those questions that pop out of people’s mouths when they see me and my tribe out and about trying to accomplish those everyday...

NASA's Jim Hansen has declared that President Obama has four years to save the planet from impending climate doom, but critics say Hansen is making much ado about nothing. The Guardian is reporting that Hansen has given the Obama administration four years to save planet Earth from soaring carbon emissions that will trigger worldwide flooding from melting ice caps, wide-spread extinction of animals, and catastrophic weather patterns. He says only the U.S. has the political muscle to lead the world in stopping climate change. Christopher Monckton is the Viscount Monckton of Brenchley and has done extensive research into climate change....

Carol Browner, who headed the Environmental Protection Agency under President Bill Clinton, has been named by Barack Obama to be his Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change. This new and undefined office could give her broad influence over economic policy. That is a frightening prospect, not merely because of her participation in a group with overtly socialist ties, but because of the way hostile foreign powers such as China are manipulating the modern Green movement to serve their own national purposes. http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=1051A58C-1F0D-4574-AFF6-C283D4D6FE83

That provision in the constitution which requires that the president shall be a native-born citizen (unless he were a citizen of the United States when the constitution was adopted,) is a happy means of security against foreign influence, which, whereever it is capable of being exerted, is to he dreaded more than the plague. The admission of foreigners into our councils, consequently, cannot be too much guarded against; their total exclusion from a station to which foreign nations have been accustomed to, attach ideas of sovereign power, sacredness of character, and hereditary right, is a measure of the most consummate...

"Natural Born Citizen" as sung by the President-elect Looking through all my college grades I used to feel uninspired And when I knew I had to shred the truth again Lord, it made me feel so tired Before I lost my history, life was so unkind But you, the media, were the key to my peace of mind Cause you make me feel, you make me feel, You make me feel like a natural born citizen When my Granny told of my Kenyan birth You came along to deny it When the bloggers found just what was wrong with...

67–306 2000 CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT TO ALLOW FOREIGN-BORN CITIZENS TO BE PRESIDENT HEARING BEFORE THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON THE CONSTITUTION OF THE COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ONE HUNDRED SIXTH CONGRESS SECOND SESSION ON H.J.Res. 88 JULY 24, 2000 Serial No. 108

2 cases are listed in the article.. Can anyone summarize for me?

Natural Childbirth Moms More Attuned to Babies' Cry Finding may help shed light on postpartum depression in those choosing Caesareans THURSDAY, Sept. 11 (HealthDay News) -- Mothers who delivered their babies vaginally appear to be much more sensitive to the cry of their own child within a few weeks of the birth compared with those who deliver by Caesarean section, a new study shows. The finding, published in The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, give researchers insight into why postpartum depression seems to be linked more often to Caesarean birth. The researchers based their findings on MRI scans that...

Melbourne restaurateur Peter Leary has used Facebook to track down bill dodgers in his up-market establishment, Seagrass. The drama unfolded last week when a group of five young diners, after drinking at the bar, requested a table at the Southbank restaurant. Over dinner, they worked their way expertly through the menu, ordered and drank fine wines and, after ordering dessert, slipped out "for a smoke". They kept going.

Should we do our very best to be good stewards of this Earth and keep it clean? Of course, it's our responsibility as good people. But is our failure to be as clean as we perhaps should, the cause of climate change? I don't think so. This paper discusses some interesting natural causes of climate change.

You will be blessed to see this video of an Australian parrot called Riley. Real parrot not animated and holds a good conversation with its owners.

'Drummers are natural intellectuals' By Gary Cleland Last Updated: 1:26am BST 17/04/2008 Drummers are better known for their beats than their brain power, but research has suggested that they might actually be natural intellectuals. Scientists who asked volunteers to keep time with a drumstick before taking intelligence tests discovered that those with the best sense of rhythm also scored highest in the mental assessments. Born smart? The late Keith Moon, drummer with The Who, could have had natural intellect Prof Frederic Ullen, from the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, concluded that there was a link between intelligence, good timing and the...

Natural gas drilling seeps into suburbsby star reporting team, special report (Created: Tuesday, April 1, 2008 9:04 PM CDT) The huge reserve of natural gas locked underneath many North Texans’ homes has been brewing there since about 500 million years ago. But only in the past year or two have nearby residents — those who live above the coveted fuel — received a cut of the wealth. The drilling trend has moved east, from rural farms in Fort Worth sitting on proverbial “gold mines,” to half-acre lots in the suburbs. In Coppell, the city council approved a drilling site on...

Why are there so many natural disasters during presidential election years? I predict with a high degree of confidence that this year, the nation will witness an unexpectedly large number of destructive acts of nature—floods of biblical proportions, out-of-control wildfires, destructive tornadoes, and bone-rattling earthquakes—that will require a prompt, compassionate, and expensive response from the federal government. No, I haven't just returned from a crash course in meteorology. Rather, I recently had lunch with Erwann Michel-Kerjan, an economist at the Wharton School who studies catastrophes. According to Michel-Kerjan, this uptick in natural disasters will likely have nothing to do with...

Natural Gas Formation By Bacteria Linked To Climate Change And Renewable Energy ScienceDaily (Jan. 28, 2008) — Natural gas reservoirs in Michigan’s Antrim Shale are providing new information about global warming and the Earth’s climate history, according to a recent study by Steven Petsch, a geoscientist at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. The study is also good news for energy companies hoping to make natural gas a renewable resource. Petsch found that carbon-hungry bacteria trapped deep in the rock beneath ice sheets produced the gas during the ice age, as glaciers advanced and retreated over Michigan. “Bacteria digested the carbon...

As Americans hunger for healthier food, new efforts to define the term turn messy Federal meat regulators this month are soliciting public comments on a label they believe will better define "natural" meat. The label, dubbed "naturally raised," would attest that a cut of meat came from an animal free of antibiotics and growth hormones. Here's a comment from Urvashi Rangan, a senior scientist at Consumers Union: "It's not quite as bad" as regulators' definition of "natural" itself. Ouch. Welcome to the complicated battleground over a seemingly simple word. "Natural" is an increasingly important claim to American consumers searching for...

LONDON (AFP) - More than four times the number of natural disasters are occurring now than did two decades ago, British charity Oxfam said in a study Sunday that largely blamed global warming. "Oxfam... says that rising green house gas emissions are the major cause of weather-related disasters and must be tackled," the organisation said, adding that the world's poorest people were being hit the hardest. The world suffered about 120 natural disasters per year in the early 1980s, which compared with the current figure of about 500 per year, according to the report. "This year we have seen floods...

WASHINGTON, May 31, 2007 – A lifelong love for the sea led Lt. j.g. Katie Hagen to the Navy, and now her service is taking her around the country to share her pride in serving the nation. Hagen is participating in the Defense Department’s “Why We Serve” public outreach program as one of eight servicemembers who travel across the nation to speak to community groups, ranging from veterans organizations to grade schools, about their personal stories of military service. Her success in the Navy seemed preordained. After sailing for nearly half her life, Hagen became a member of the...

Returning to one of my favorite places, picture-wise (which I'd actually like to return to in person again). Natural Arch of Kentucky, 100 foot span Another view of Natural Arch: Sky Bridge, from underneath: Note that it has a little pillar support forming a secondary arch. Sky Bridge, from the road: Natural Bridge

Farming is a mystery to urban dwellers. When asked once where lettuce comes from, my old Manhattan friend Betsy replied, "Gristedes." [...] [Massachusetts] is the top state in the country for cash retail sales direct from farm to consumer. Who knew? The average take per farm is $24,876. (That's $151 million divided by the 6,075 farms.) [...] It means they are getting more of the consumer dollar at the expense of the dreaded middleman. It means our farmers -- boutique soil tillers to a Midwesterner -- have gotten smart about growing what consumers want. [...] Almost 90 percent of Iowa's...

Natural oils gave young boys breasts 22:00 31 January 2007 NewScientist.com news service Andy Coghlan Three young boys grew breast tissue after exposure to lotions and shampoos containing lavender or tea tree oil, researchers say. It is not uncommon for boys to develop breast tissue during puberty or just after, but the boys affected by the plant oils were aged four, seven and 10. The natural oils may be “gender-bending” chemicals mimicking effects of the female hormone, oestrogen, the findings suggest. The boys were otherwise normal, and lost the breast tissue within months of discontinuing use of the products. Researchers...

Natural Selections: The Potential Pandemic You've Never Heard Of How the connections between pigs, bats, and people could threaten your health. By Mary C. Pearl DISCOVER Vol. 27 No. 09 | September 2006 | Medicine Budding particles of Nipah virus assemble near the surface of a cell. The mystery began when pigs on large farms in Malaysia began hacking so loudly that their owners called it a "one-mile cough." Nerve damage was also cropping up in some of the animals. No one knew why. Up to 5 percent of pigs in affected herds were dying, and the illness was spreading...

Largest retailer boosts organic market as nation tackles bulging waistlines For the organic grape tomatoes to land in Tara Smoot's shopping trolley required a tremendous act of will. First she renounced all junk food, banishing fried chicken and chocolate milk from her children's menu, and the pasta, crisps and sweets she and her husband had enjoyed. Then she prepared herself for a higher grocery bill. "It's a lot cheaper to eat unhealthily than healthily," she says. And there is temptation every step of the way. To reach the fresh produce section in this Wal-Mart super centre Ms Smoot had...

BOSTON — Three specially designed tugboats yank the hulking pale green liquefied natural gas tanker from its dock near Boston Harbor. More than 1,000 feet long, with an odd color and sets of pipes sticking out the top, it’s apparent that this is no ordinary ship. And with three Coast Guard boats, and four others from state, city and port authority law enforcement agencies surrounding it, this is no ordinary departure. Bringing up the rear is the Pendant, a 65-year-old, 65-foot-long ocean-going tugboat, and one of the oldest platforms in the service’s inventory that pulls double duty in the winter...

CHICAGO - Buying organic milk these days - or organic apples, eggs, or beef - no longer has to mean an extra trip to a Whole Foods supermarket or the local co-op. Organic products now line the shelves at Safeway and Costco. And Wal-Mart - already the nation's largest organic-milk seller - says it wants to sell more organic food. Large companies including Kraft, General Mills, and Kellogg own sizable organic- and natural-food brands. Now, they are developing organic versions of their own products, too. Still, while some organic-food fans welcome its broadening appeal and availability, others worry that the...

Researchers Describe How Natural Nuclear Reactor Worked In Gabon The Oklo natural nuclear-reactor site in Gabon. St Louis MO (SPX) Nov 01, 2004 To operate a nuclear power plant like Three Mile Island, hundreds of highly trained employees must work in concert to generate power from safe fission, all the while containing dangerous nuclear wastes. On the other hand, it's been known for 30 years that Mother Nature once did nuclear chain reactions by her lonesome. Now, Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis have analyzed the isotopic structure of noble gases produced in fission in a sample from the...

The debate about neonatal circumcision is over. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), neonatal circumcision is the result of ignorance, bad medical practice and American social and cultural pressure. Regarding the three most commonly cited justifications for neonatal circumcision (penile cancer, venereal disease and penile hygiene), the AAP now states that the benefits are negligible, which means that the majority of American men are walking around without foreskins for no good reason. Yet, the barbaric practice shows no sign of abating, and for this reason I plan to shed some light on the cultural dark spot of circumcision....

March 13, 2006 Compound from Coral Could Combat Cancer Natural compounds have proven to be a treasure trove of medicinal properties. For example, the bark of the Pacific yew tree yielded a compound that has helped battle some forms of cancer. Such finds have led to a new industry--bioprospecting--and such prospectors have fanned out across the globe in search of nature's remedies. Now a compound isolated from coral collected off the coast of Okinawa has shown the ability to slow down and possibly prevent virus replication and it may hold promise as a cancer treatment. Isis hippuris is a yellow,...

<p>A drum maker who became infected with anthrax after inhaling spores from raw animal hides is in serious condition, with breathing trouble.</p> <p>But officials are reassuring the public that there's no broader health risk from the case.</p> <p>The outlook for 44-year-old Vado Diomande was a shift from earlier this week, when officials said he was breathing on his own and in relatively good shape for someone exposed to anthrax.</p>

Here is the Introduction to my Blog. Jenny Hatch

Earth might seem like a more active and dangerous place than ever, given the constant media reports of multiple natural disasters recently. But a broader view reveals that it's not Mother Nature who's changed, but we humans. Drawn by undeveloped land and fertile soil, people are flocking to disaster-prone regions. This creates a situation in which ordinary events like earthquakes and hurricanes become increasingly elevated to the level of natural disasters that reap heavy losses in human life and property. Meanwhile, in any given year, the death toll at the hands of Mother Nature varies greatly, as do the sorts...

Charles Darwin, the 19th century geologist who wrote the treatise 'The Origin of Species, by means of Natural Selection' defined evolution as "descent with modification". Darwin hypothesized that all forms of life descended from a common ancestor, branching out over time into various unique life forms, due primarily to a process called natural selection. However, the fossil record shows that all of the major animal groups (phyla) appeared fully formed about 540 million years ago, and virtually no transitional life forms have been discovered which suggest that they evolved from earlier forms. This sudden eruption of multiple, complex organisms is...

Government officials are evaluating and revising disaster plans around the United States in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, just as they did after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. While war and automobiles kill more people than nature, find out what natural disasters top scientists’ worry lists. #10 Pacific Northwest Megathrust Earthquake Geologists know it’s just a matter of time before another 9.0 or larger earthquake strikes somewhere between Northern California and Canada. The shaking would be locally catastrophic, but the biggest threat is the tsunami that would ensue from a fault line that’s seismically identical to the one that...