Yahoo! News - USDA moves to protect nation's trees from 'sudden death' syndrome

Yahoo! News - USDA moves to protect nation's trees from 'sudden death' syndrome: "Sudden oak death syndrome is known to scientists as Phytophtora ramorum, Greek for 'destroyer of plants.' The diseases' characteristic bleeding bark cankers have killed tens of thousands of oaks on the West Coast. In other species, it causes leaf spots and twig cankers, weakening and sometimes killing them"

As if we needed more to worry about. It could be teh American Chestnut all over again. Scary stuff!

"Sudden oak death syndrome first emerged in California in 1995, but it has since been found in 22 states. Scientists say it may have come to North America from Asia but don't know for certain. What they do know is it must be stopped.


"The entire East Coast is potentially at risk," says Matteo Garbelotto of the University of California-Berkeley, who first isolated the disease along with David Rizzo of the University of California-Davis.""



"The disease affects not only oaks but also 46 species including rhododendrons, camellias, azaleas and lilacs."

Random topics2 squared

I always like the random stories in newspapers, so here are some largely random thoughts…

The Tsunami disaster is so beyond words that I can not even imagine it….CNN and in particular Anderson Cooper is doing a great job covering this disaster….CBS should make him their anchor...I am really sick of so-called religious people even suggesting such a calamity is because of “Allah’s” or “God’s” or any other deity you chose is mad....Times like this make me wish I were an MD. 155,000 deaths is an enormous and terribly tragic number, but an estimated 59 million died in WWII…stop and think about that for a minute…59,000,000. Amazing, horrific…WW II would be reported vastly differently now. I do not think concentration camps would be allowed for so long now due to more coverage. At least I hope!

Less serious stuff:
Winter’s snow, ice, and wind are worse than the cold….flickr and other photo sites are much better than emailed photos…The Atlantic 10 is struggling this year….

The Mets getting Beltran would be a major upset…I hope PSU’s football signings live up to their expectations…SBU’s Richter Center should open the other doors and get more spray bottles…Aqua Teen Hunger Force is hilarious….I finished A Walk in the Woods today…I am reading Marv Levy’s book now and several others…more later

Pictures

Just to let people know (I am sure everyone wants to know!)...lol...I just uploaded some pictures to my flickr account
http://www.flickr.com/photos/financeprofessor/

enjoy

The New York Times > Health > A Quandary in Good News

The New York Times > Health > A Quandary in Good News

The NY Times has a very interesting article on the seemingly contradictory findings on heart disease and CRP and Cholesterol.

For instance:

"Vioxx, which was pulled from the market in late September because of those risks, had been found in a study just a month earlier to cut CRP levels in half, from the danger zone to a level considered excellent. Celebrex, still on the market but linked to an increased risk of heart attack, has also been found to lower CRP levels."

Why? It is probably too early to know for sure.

Why do I mention this? To remind people that our understanding of how the body works is still pretty new.

This is similar to finance where there is much contradictory research that has to be sorted through before we can say much definitively. WHich is why both fields are so interesting!

FedEx commercials

Why is it I am afraid I am going to show up on a FedEx commercial? I am scared every time one comes on TV.

Civil War Radio

How cool is this? You can listen to a discussion on the Civil War for Free!!!

Civil War Radio

The host Gerald Prokopowicz is a history professor from East Carolina University. VERY INTERESTING!

HoustonChronicle.com - Scientists returning to nature for cancer cures

HoustonChronicle.com - Scientists returning to nature for cancer cures

By DAVID DISHNEAU Associated Press FREDERICK, MD. -

"Just one in 40,000 natural products yields an effective drug but scientists say the next Taxol — an anti-cancer agent derived from the bark of the Pacific yew tree — could be lurking in one of the repository's 200,000 bar-coded extracts."

"The costs of creating a marketable drug from a natural product are staggering. The General Accounting Office reports that the National Institutes of Health spent $183 million over 20 years for research on Taxol, which was approved for sale by Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. in 1992"

Talk about an article that evokes hope and despair at once. On the plus side, finding cures to problems is awesome! But while simultaneously facing the prospect of losing more and more species to extinction makes it in some ways a race. And yet another reason why we should be more concerned about the environment!