Making Tracks

Worth hearing...

2008-09-21T16:58:04Z

"The highest application of our mental body is when we use it to consciously navigate the focus of our attention. The highest application of our emotional body is when we use it to fuel the momentum of our intentions." Michael Brown

Movie Review: Youth Without Youth

2008-08-24T17:44:33Z

Interesting what you get when you take the writing of Mircea Eliade, and the direction of Francis Ford Coppola. One IMDB reviewer offered these thoughts:

At times "Youth Without Youth" seems like a David Lynch film without the horror aspects. There are doppelgangers and people with supernatural powers. It is surreal and strange and some scenes do not make sense in their sequence but are important in the entirety of the film.

"Youth Without Youth" is not a film for everybody. In fact, most people will probably not like it. But if you are a person who is willing to think about a film and bring your own interpretation to what is happening, you might end up loving this film.

I can't say it better, so there it is. I enjoyed it.

Released: 2007

Go to IMDb page

Information © IMDb.com

Youth Without Youth

Tim Roth, Bruno Ganz, Marcel Iures, Alexandra Pirici, Zoltan Butuc, Mircea Albulescu,

Movie Review: My Effortless Brilliance

2008-08-24T17:43:48Z

I decided to watch My Effortless Brilliance because the description suggested outdoor action -- ordinarily, I prefer mindless action, lots of explosions, some sex, and if FTL travel is involved, so much the better.

To be clear, the movie had none (or very little) of the silly wilderness urbanite action I was expecting. What it did have was amazing dialog and characters so real I felt like I was, perhaps without permission, peering into their personal lives.

My Effortless Brilliance

email from bill also on January 17 2008

2008-02-16T21:14:00Z

"...on Monday, Merck and Schering-Plough announced that Vytorin, which combines Zetia with Zocor, had failed to reduce the growth of fatty arterial plaque in a trial of 720 patients. In fact, patients taking Vytorin actually had more plaque growth than those who took Zocor alone.

Despite those drawbacks, that trial, called Enhance, also showed that patients on Vytorin had lower LDL levels than those on Zocor alone. For the second time in just over a year, a clinical trial found that LDL reduction did not translate into measurable medical benefits."

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/17/business/17drug.html?ref=health

[BL: lends credence to the argument that some have made to the effect that the reason some of these drugs work a little, such as Crestor, is that they are anti-oxidants as well has HMG-CO Reductase inhibitors. Certain polyphenols, such as pomegranate juice, have in fact been shown to actually reverse plaque buildup.]

email from bill January 17 2008

2008-02-16T21:13:00Z

http://www.jacn.org/cgi/content/full/23/5/501S

Statin medications inhibit the same rate-controlling enzymeof the cholesterol biosynthesis pathway that requires adequateMg for normal deactivation, regulation and control.
Both thehighly beneficial pleiotropic and adverse effects ofstatinsappear to be caused by the decrease in mevalonate (andperhapsother intermediaries in the cholesterol biosynthesispathway)rather than a lower LDL-C.
Statin drugs lower LDL-C levelsmore sharply than do Mg supplements,but Mg more reliably actsto improve all aspects of dyslipidemiaincluding raising HDL-Cand lowering triglycerides, and hasthe same pleiotropic effectsas statins without their adverseeffects.

testing file upload

2007-12-21T21:28:17Z

test

Email from Bill December 2, 2007

2007-12-03T02:27:39Z

In November 2006, Sirtris scientists and Sirtris co-founder, Prof. David Sinclair from Harvard Medical School, published consecutive papers in the journals Cell and Nature showing that resveratrol, a SIRT1 activator found in red wine, could reduce the impact of a high fat diet, increase stamina two fold and significantly extend lifespan of mice. Unfortunately, it was estimated that a person would need to drink 1000 bottles of red wine to obtain an equivalent dose of resveratrol. Now, scientists at Sirtris have developed SIRT1 activating molecules that are chemically distinct from resveratrol and are 1000 times more potent.

http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/071128/20071128005806.html?.v=1
You can just imagine the social implications of a drug that doubled stamina in athletes and allowed people to live a lot longer, as well as reversing many diseases of aging. How much would it sell for? Under what conditions could doctors prescribe it? Would it be banned for athletes? -- and if everyone else was taking it, would that mean athletes wouldn't get to live as long? Would this company's patent hold up world-wide? Would the social security retirement age have to change dramatically (of course)? Would the increase in stamina apply to mental functions as well as athletic (probably). On a national level, imagine the advantage a nation of poeple with greater stamina and longevity, and less disabling disease, would have relative to other nations. Basically, competition at every level would virtually force everyone to take it. Proving that you take it would lower your life and health insurance premiums. Of course, the quest would quickly be on to find more of the same. And of course, larger doses of old fashioned resveratrol may work just as well. Even now, some companies are selling 500mg pills that are equivalent to maybe 200 bottles of wine (depending on the wine, which is a poor yard stick, but there might be a couple milligrams per red wine bottle.).

Email from Bill November 9, 2007

2007-12-03T02:26:50Z

The November, 2007 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition published an article describing the discovery of British and American researchers of an association between longer telomeres and increased levels of vitamin D. Telomeres are caps on the ends of chromosomes which have been found to shorten with age, as well as with increased oxidative stress and inflammation. The finding suggests that vitamin D may play a role in slowing the onset of age-related diseases.

Dr J. Brent Richards at King's College, London School of Medicine and colleagues studied 2,160 female twins aged 19 to 79 for the current research. Blood samples were analyzed for serum vitamin D levels, C-reactive protein (CRP, a marker of inflammation) and additional factors, and telomere length was measured in the DNA of peripheral white blood cells (leukocytes).

As expected, older participants had shorter telomeres; however, leukocyte telomere length (LTL) was greater among subjects whose levels of vitamin D were high compared to those with low concentrations, a finding which persisted after adjustment for age and other factors. Participants in the top one-third of serum vitamin D levels had telomeres that averaged 107 base pairs longer than those in the lowest third, equivalent to a five year difference in chronologic aging.

Telomere length was also greater in those with lower C-reactive protein levels than in subjects with higher concentrations. When participants who had the highest CRP and lowest vitamin D concentrations were compared with those who had the lowest CRP and highest vitamin D levels, the difference in telomere length was equivalent to 7.6 years of aging.

In a subset analysis of vitamin D supplement users, those who supplemented were also found to have longer telomeres than those who did not supplement with the vitamin.

In their discussion concerning mechanisms of action, the authors note that inflammation and oxidative stress are key determinants in the biology of aging, and that vitamin D decreases mediators of systemic inflammation such as interleukin-2 and tumor necrosis factor-alpha. While habits that increase oxidative stress and inflammation may be difficult to change, they observe that “vitamin D concentrations are easily modifiable through nutritional supplementation or sunshine exposure.”

“Although both LTL and serum vitamin D concentrations decrease with age and are thus possible markers of aging in general, we have shown that the positive association between LTL and vitamin D concentrations is independent of age and many other covariates,” the authors conclude. “Longitudinal studies or randomized controlled trials of supplementation exploring the effect of vitamin D on LTL will be necessary to unequivocally establish the relation between vitamin D and leukocyte telomere dynamics; but for the moment, our data suggest another potential benefit of vitamin D—on the aging process and age-related disease.”

Time to have another look at Machiavelli

2007-09-29T15:55:58Z

A long time ago, when I was a much different person, I remember finding something unsettling, even repulsive, in the works of Machiavelli. For that reason, I have expended no energy there. This morning, I found this quote among an otherwise unremarkable set of slides on the subject of innovation.

"And one should bear in mind that there is nothing more difficult to execute, nor more dubious of success, nor more dangerous to administer than to introduce a new order to things; for he who introduces it has all those who profit from the old order as his enemies; and he has only lukewarm allies in all those who might profit from the new. This lukewarmness partly stems from fear of their adversaries, who have the law on their side, and partly from the skepticism of men, who do not truly believe in new things unless they have personal experience in them." -- Niccolo Machiavelli

I can assure you there is truth to that. Further, I found an interesting review of Machiavelli that suggested his situation, the historical context in which he worked, should be born in mind when conducting any reading of his work. Well, duh -- but I bet I did little of that when first exposed to The Prince.

"Machiavelli's reputation has been largely created from reading his book without reference to its historical context."

Notes on AR23 1

2007-09-04T01:01:17Z

Picked up a fascinating map through my UC Berkeley Arts 23 course (Foundations of American Cyberculture):

Here's the site that created it. Thanks Chris Harrison. No, the world isn't flat at all is it?

email from bill 8-25-07

2007-08-25T19:26:42Z

This will be an interesting development. This drug will probably cure many cancers, but it's not patentable, so trials are being funded by the public. I just listened to a Futures In Biotech podcast (out of Yale) that interviewed the professor. The science seems very sound.
http://www.depmed.ualberta.ca/dca/

The University of Alberta Discovery

DCA is an odourless, colourless, inexpensive, relatively non-toxic, small molecule. And researchers at the University of Alberta believe it may soon be used as an effective treatment for many forms of cancer.

Dr. Evangelos Michelakis, a professor at the U of A Department of Medicine, has shown that dichloroacetate (DCA) causes regression in several cancers, including lung, ***, and brain tumors.

Michelakis and his colleagues, including post-doctoral fellow Dr. Sebastien Bonnet, have published the results of their research in the journal Cancer Cell.

Scientists and doctors have used DCA for decades to treat children with inborn errors of metabolism due to mitochondrial diseases. Mitochondria, the energy producing units in cells, have been connected with cancer since the 1930s, when researchers first noticed that these organelles dysfunction when cancer is present.

Until recently, researchers believed that cancer-affected mitochondria are permanently damaged and that this damage is the result, not the cause, of the cancer. But Michelakis, a cardiologist, questioned this belief and began testing DCA, which activates a critical mitochondrial enzyme, as a way to "revive" cancer-affected mitochondria.

The results astounded him.

Michelakis and his colleagues found that DCA normalized the mitochondrial function in many cancers, showing that their function was actively suppressed by the cancer but was not permanently damaged by it.

More importantly, they found that the normalization of mitochondrial function resulted in a significant decrease in tumor growth both in test tubes and in animal models. Also, they noted that DCA, unlike most currently used chemotherapies, did not have any effects on normal, non-cancerous tissues.

"I think DCA can be selective for cancer because it attacks a fundamental process in cancer development that is unique to cancer cells," Michelakis said. "One of the really exciting things about this compound is that it might be able to treat many different forms of cancer”.

Another encouraging thing about DCA is that, being so small, it is easily absorbed in the body, and, after oral intake, it can reach areas in the body that other drugs cannot, making it possible to treat brain cancers, for example.

Also, because DCA has been used in both healthy people and sick patients with mitochondrial diseases, researchers already know that it is a relatively non-toxic molecule that can be immediately tested patients with cancer.

”The results are intriguing because they point to the critical role that mitochondria play: they impart a unique trait to cancer cells that can be exploited for cancer therapy”
Dario Alteri
Director University of Massachusetts Cancer Center

Investing in Research

The DCA compound is not patented and not owned by any pharmaceutical company, and, therefore, would likely be an inexpensive drug to administer, says Michelakis, the Canada Research Chair in Pulmonary Hypertension and Director of the Pulmonary Hypertension Program with Capital Health, one of Canada’s largest health authorities.

However, as DCA is not patented, Michelakis is concerned that it may be difficult to find funding from private investors to test DCA in clinical trials. He is grateful for the support he has already received from publicly funded agencies, such as the Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR), and he is hopeful such support will continue and allow him to conduct clinical trials of DCA on cancer patients.

Michelakis’ research is currently funded by the CIHR, the Canada Foundation for Innovation, the Canada Research Chairs program, and the Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research.

"This preliminary research is encouraging and offers hope to thousands of Canadians and all others around the world who are afflicted by cancer, as it accelerates our understanding of and action around targeted cancer treatments," said Dr. Philip Branton, Scientific Director of the CIHR Institute of Cancer.

DCA and Cancer Patients

The University of Alberta’s DCA Research Team is set to launch clinical trials on humans in the spring of 2007 pending government approval. Knowing that thousands of cancer patients die weekly while waiting for a cure, Dr. Michelakis and his team are working at accelerated speed, condensing research that usually takes years into months. Fundraisers at the University of Alberta are determined to raise the money to allow this next phase of research to begin. Once Health Canada grants formal approval, the University of Alberta’s Research Team will begin testing DCA on patients living with cancer. Results with regards to the safety and efficacy of treatment should be known late this year.

“If there were a magic bullet, though, it might be something like dichloroacetate, or DCA…”
Newsweek, January 23, 2007

UPDATE January 23, 2007 - Investigators at the University of Alberta have recently reported that a drug previously used in humans for the treatment of rare disorders of metabolism is also able to cause tumor regression in a number of human cancers growing in animals. This drug, dichloroacetate (DCA), appears to suppress the growth of cancer cells without affecting normal cells, suggesting that it might not have the dramatic side effects of standard chemotherapies.

At this point, the University of Alberta, the Alberta Cancer Board and Capital Health do not condone or advise the use of dichloroacetate (DCA) in human beings for the treatment of cancer since no human beings have gone through clinical trials using DCA to treat cancer. However, the University of Alberta and the Alberta Cancer Board are committed to performing clinical trials in the immediate future in consultation with regulatory agencies such as Health Canada. We believe that because DCA has been used on human beings in Phase 1 and Phase 2 trials of metabolic diseases, the cancer clinical trials timeline for our research will be much shorter than usual.

Wetpaint.com

2007-07-26T00:23:00Z

I've been exploring these kinds of services lately. Anything that further simplifies personal publishing, I'm interested. I've set up a quick mirror of processofchange.com: http://bobreb.wetpaint.com/.

Skykomish was nice this weekend

2007-07-23T02:35:47Z

I managed to pull a nice size rainbow out of this section (my secret) of the Skykomish river north of Monroe:

Hiking to Lake Serene

2007-07-23T02:31:59Z

I promised myself last year I do more exploring out Washington's route 2. Lake Serene was my first stop. Here's the topo:

Some facts:

7.2 miles round trip; 2200 ft elevation gain; just past mile marker 35 on US 2.

On the way up we got a glimpse of Bridal Veil falls:

It would be worth a trip back to get up underneath the falls.

The lake was nice:

I jumped and (obviously) did not suffer cardiac arrest -- though it was about as cold as expected. The black flies were out, so the cold water was nice.

The cliffs in the surrounding cirque (I assume this is an actual cirque -- sure looked like one) were impressive. Looked climbable:

Another of the lake, just for fun:

Finding good stuff by accident...

2007-07-22T02:31:48Z

I love the personal publishing revolution. I really do. I was just surfing around the links off my main social network feeds, and I found this interesting perspective.

This is the marketplace of ideas in action.

Among other things (I think I might have an attention problem) I'm reading this:

The Cult of the Amateur: How today's Internet is killing our culture
by Andrew Keen

Read more about this title...

I'm forcing myself,even though my initial scan didn't suggest it had much to offer, to read this book cover to cover. You see Mr. Keen believes the personal publishing revolution is a disaster. If I don't read his work, if I don't give equal time to competing ideas, then I can't claim I'm benefiting from a marketplace. Rather, I'd be wallowing in an (and soon to be proverbial) echo chamber hearing only my own words.