Sleepless in Midland

HIV silver lining -- making a more effective cancer fighter

There's a gene found in all human cells called *dCK that can be used to activate anticancer drugs. Then there's HIV which inserts its genetic material into the human genome to multiply abnormally.

So researchers in Strasbourg introduced dCK into an HIV genome to make a more effective cancer fighter. Source: Scienceblog.com, and excerpt:

Through HIV multiplication, the CNRS team has selected a “library” of nearly 80 mutant proteins and tested them on tumor cells in the presence of an anticancer drug. The results have enabled them to identify a dCK variant that is more effective than the wild-type (non-mutated) protein, inducing the death of tumor cells in culture. In combination with this protein, the anticancer drugs showed identical effectiveness at 1/300 the dose. The possibility of reducing the doses of anticancer drugs would palliate the problems posed by their components’ toxicity, reduce their side effects and, most importantly, improve their effectiveness.

Alas, human testing is years away.

*deoxycytidine kinase

Haka dance to mourn a lost comrade

I can't pass up an opportunity to watch a Haka. This time it's the New Zealand uniformed military. Apparently, units within the NZ defense force have their own Haka. And in this video they use the dance to express condolences for a fallen colleague.

Watch it at this Youtube link.

Via Businessinsider.com.

Newsweek's one term wonders

Someone put together a cute late night mockumercial feeding off of that infamous "Hit the road Barack" Newsweek cover.

Youtube link.

Via Soopermexican.com.

City government: Sorry we made you use less water, now can you please pay for the water you didn't use?

Oh the irony of unintended consequences.

They cajoled, they scolded, they threatened, they raised the rates. The Midland, Texas, city leaders did all they could to get residents to use less water due to the shrinking reservoirs and the on-going drought. It worked. People took the matter seriously and curtailed their water usage like the good citizens they are.

Now the city is crying because the revenue from the residents' water bills isn't high enough.  The bureaucratic solution is to make residents pay more to make up for the short fall. So now citizens have to pay for the water they didn't use. Sigh. The citizens just can't catch a break.

Sometimes the jokes write themselves. If I weren't so lazy I would learn how to draw cartoons:

First panel: Mayor looking straight out at you and saying earnestly: "We are very proud of our ability to take a long range view and solve potential situations before they develop into problems."

Second panel: Mayor looking through the wrong end of a telescope at a glass of murky water. "It's half empty. No, it's half full. No wait, it's half empty."

Third panel: Mayor looking earnest again: "There is no temporary crisis that can't be cured by a permanent hike in your taxes, fees, and rates. You can thank us later."

Move over Garry Trudeau.

Now this really is a rescue dog

The word "rescue" is so overused these days when it comes to dogs. Usually people mean that they got the dog at the pound. And yes, most of the dogs in the pound end up getting the needle. But "rescue" seems overly flattering for the person who took on a new pet. After all, the pet's job is to make the human happy.

But this dog really did get rescued. According to the story -- found at Nothing to Do with Arbroath -- the dog was used to teach Mexican junior cartel members how to torture. And they chopped off poor Lemon Pie's front paws. Grrrrr.

But the story has a happy ending. Excerpt:

He was found dying in a rubbish bin with his front legs cut off, and was subsequently rescued by the Canine Miracles Centre near Mexico City.

The charity raised more than $6,000 for a Californian company to make Lemon Pie a pair of state-of-the-art prosthetic limbs, using X-rays and measurements to make sure the legs were the perfect fit.

Watch him try out his new limbs in this Youtube video. Caution, get out your handkerchiefs.

Remote weapons scanner using terahertz waves

Terahertz radiation fits somewhere between microwave and infrared on the electromagnetic spectrum, per Phys.org. It can travel through clothes, but only penetrates a few millimeters of skin. And so devices are being developed that can be used to scan for guns and bombs. See a resulting image here.

The NYPD is anxious to get them mounted on police cars so they can spot gun toting pedestrians from several feet away. Medical issues aside, there's the issue of privacy.

Privacy advocates contend that the use of a scanner has the potential of violating individual privacy if the devices are used surreptitiously or otherwise without the person's consent. See Drive-by Gun Scans Prompt Privacy Questions. The NYPD says it is a good alternative to the police frisking many NY citizens are subjected to when they are stopped. Generally, a person out in public has waived his/her expectation of privacy. However, police still need probable cause to stop and frisk someone. But a car mounted terahertz wave scanner could be used indiscriminately on everyone walking down the street.

The bad publicity over the TSA air passenger scanners seems to have subsided. However, passengers still have the options of the full body scan, a pat down, or not flying. Pedestrians on the street won't have those options. And, if probable cause is lacking, subjecting a person to a device that peeks under their clothes would seem to be rather intrusive. We'll see how tolerant New Yorkers are once the devices go to work.

Finally, the fact that the NYPD is even considering this is a testament to their fear of guns in the hands of citizens.

dirty keypad provides a tell

This looks like pretty good advice - clean the keypad.

They do this all the time in movies. Someone wants into a room that is secured by a keypad activated lock. They use a black light to see which keys are most used. But in this case, found at NedHardy.com, the dirt gives it away.

In the movies they get the sequence right on the first try. But in reality the uninvited entrant would still have to do some trial and error to get the numbers in the right order. And if the system sends an alarm after too many wrong tries, the potential thief might get to explain himself to the police.

But it's still a good idea to keep it clean.

Riding, shooting, busting balloons -- Cowboy Mounted Shooting

This looks like worlds of fun. It was Cowboy Mounted Shooting at the Midland County Fair.

The equine accessory would make the sport a bit high maintenance for the average recreational shooter. But for the riders today it appeared to be an enjoyable competition.

The participants charge at their balloon targets with a six gun blazing. Literally blazing. The ammo is .45 caliber black powder blanks that spew out a flame that will burst any balloon near the business end.

I would wager that it is a lot harder capturing that flame on a still photo than it is to break the balloon.

But then, standing outside the arena pushing a button on a camera is a lot less challenging than riding and shooting in this spirited event.

Most hated industries

The oil and gas industry shares a spot on a list with the movie industry. Gallop says people hate them.

Here are the top ten:

1. Oil and Gas - negative rating = 61%

2. Banking - negative rating = 53%

3. Health care - negative rating = 42%

4. Real estate - negative rating = 41%

5. Pharmaceutical - negative rating = 38%

6. Utilities - negative rating = 38%

7. Legal - negative rating = 37%

8. TV & radio - negative rating = 36%

9. Movie - negative rating = 35%

10. Advertising and PR - negative rating = 35%

Ironically, it is movie makers who work as hard as anyone at villainizing industry.

Talk of more gun control forces Remington to consider leaving NY

New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's recent threats for more gun control scares the fire out of the folks at the 1,000 employee Remington factory in Ilion, NY. Story at CNBC.com:

But now residents of Ilion, a community whose history and economy are indelibly linked to one of America’s more celebrated gunmakers, are starting to worry about Remington’s future. The recent mass shootings at a screening of “The Dark Knight Rises” in Colorado and at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin have galvanized advocates of tougher gun laws in Albany, and Remington has made it clear that such laws could prompt it to leave New York for a more sympathetic state.

Note to Remington: There are plenty of low tax Red states that would love to have the factory there. In fact, many jurisdictions will give you all sorts of concessions to get you to move. (I would like to suggest Midland, Texas, but the board in charge of development grants prefer betting on the hare over the tortoise.)

Fire Department overspending

When boys are young they play with toy trains, toy guns, toy fire trucks, and all sorts of little guy fun stuff. And when they get older they play with the real things. Just about any adult can buy a real gun, but the trains and firetrucks are the province of the big boys in government.

The Midland, Texas, City Council raises taxes a little bit every year as a matter of routine, and tax opponents are routinely ignored. The big boys on City Council have shown little sales resistance when it comes to the fire department. And this year the published excuse for the tax hike is need for a new fire station.

Few have questioned the necessity for a new fire station. And to my knowledge no one has done any comparison study with other cities of a similar response area and population. To make the matter worse, few of the emergency fire department calls are even fire related. KWES-9:

MIDLAND- Out of the 13,000 calls Midland Fire Department firefighters will receive this year, almost 90% will be from locals requesting emergency medical services (EMS).

That tracks national trends. A chart from Firefighters Don't Fight Fires:

So is a new fire station necessary for medical services? Of course not. The cost is greater than the benefit. But fire stations are cool. And the new fire trucks have shiny bells on the front bumper.

Let's be grateful that some charismatic salesman hasn't persuaded the local government they need a train.

West Texas needs another gun range

There's a cool new indoor shooting range under construction at Lewisville, Texas, called Eagle Gun Range that when finished will have 24 indoor shooting lanes. It looks like a good deal for shooters, too.  From their website:

Daily Pricing:
$20 Per Lane, all day
$5 Off Additional Shooter Same Lane

They enlarged their profile recently with the news that they would be hosting birthday parties for kids -- not a bad idea as all children need to learn good gun safety lessons even if there are no guns in their households.

It would be nice to have something like that out here in West Texas. And according to a KWES report Tony Grijalva is behind a project that might make that happen. The first part of his endeavor is to take a survey to gauge the interest in an indoor range located between Midland and Odessa.

Currently the Midland Shooters Association owns the only ranges open to the public in the Midland/Odessa area. And business is good. It has been so good they doubled the membership dues in February from $100 to $200 per year, and their budget reflects that they anticipate income exceeding $850,000 for the fiscal year ending in the Spring of 2013. That's a nice piece of change. So nice, in fact, it's a wonder someone hasn't already built a competing range.

No mobs for Mitt in Midland

It could happen, but it won't. This should be a good source of great blog posts and photos. But it won't be.

We've all seen photos of the multitudes in long lines waiting to hear Romney and Ryan speak and the big crowds at the rallies themselves. But no such luck here. According to the morning paper Mitt Romney is coming to town. However, the cheapest seat at either of two quasi public events is $2,500. A third event is an invitation only private party.

West Texas is so flyover politicians only come for the money, not the publicity. New city motto: What happens in Midland stays in Midland.

News organizations' credibility still slipping

Local news seems to have slipped the least. Maybe it's the competition and familiarity with the subject matter that has kept them believable. But the recent poll results published by Pew Research suggest that news organizations' credibility has been in a long decline. Here are the first two paragraphs from the overview of Further Decline in Credibility Ratings for Most News Organizations:

For the second time in a decade, the believability ratings for major news organizations have suffered broad-based declines. In the new survey, positive believability ratings have fallen significantly for nine of 13 news organizations tested. This follows a similar downturn in positive believability ratings that occurred between 2002 and 2004.

The falloff in credibility affects news organizations in most sectors: national newspapers, such as the New York Times and USA Today, all three cable news outlets, as well as the broadcast TV networks and NPR.

Here's a chart from the study.

(Click to enlarge.)

Political party preference certainly was a factor as Democrats seem to be more believing than Republicans, especially of ABC, NBC, CBS, MSNBC, CNN and New York Times. Republicans who answered the poll considered Fox News the most credible.

What was missing? Radio news other than NPR. Maybe radio news has been overtaken by talk radio. Come to think of it, talk radio might be an interesting topic for a poll.

Unintended consequences of plastic bag ban -- shoppers went elsewhere

Municipalities all across the country have either considered or enacted a plastic bag ban. In some places they are paying deference to the environmental movement. But in others it's a simple matter of trying to eliminate the eyesores on vacant lots where the windblown bags drape wild shrubbery.

But there are always unintended consequences. The National Center for Policy Analysis has published a paper titled A Survey on the Economic Effects of Los Angeles County’s Plastic Bag Ban in which they tell us that business in the stores within the jurisdiction in which plastic bags were banned lost business, and businesses outside the ban area gained business. Here's an excerpt from the executive summary:

The purpose of the survey was to determine the effects of the ban on sales and employment at the stores affected by the ban. The study also sought to determine if consumers changed their shopping behavior by increasing purchases at stores that could still offer plastic bags. The survey found that following full implementation of the ban, sales increased at stores in incorporated cities compared with stores in unincorporated areas. Of these respondents to the survey affected by the ban:

• Over a one-year period (pre- and post-bag ban), 60 percent of stores in incorporated areas reported an increase in sales averaging 9 percent.

• Fourth-fifths of the stores in the unincorporated areas reported a decrease in sales averaging, –5.7 percent.

Examining the overall change in sales of all the stores that responded among the two groups (incorporated versus unincorporated):

• Incorporated stores experienced an increase in sales of 3.4 percent.

• However, unincorporated stores reported a decline in sales of –3.3 percent.

Should this have been foreseeable by the rule makers? If it wasn't before, it is now.

Via.

Stephen Tobolowsky's birthday party

Stephen Tobolowsky is a character actor who has starred in hundreds of roles. Although his name might not be that recognizable, you'll know him as soon as you see him. He played Ned Ryerson, the annoying life insurance salesman who recognized Phil every day on the street in Groundhog Day.

Turns out he's a very good story teller.

Check him out in Stephen Tobolowsky's birthday party where he keeps his audience enthralled for an hour and a half, including commercials, with interesting tales from his show business life.

Post Script. Want more? Download his podcasts at The Tobolowsky Files. And don't miss Tobolowsky on the making of Groundhog Day.

Post Post Script. All the Ned Ryerson scenes compiled in one Youtube video.

From Charles Koch -- worth repeating

From Charles Koch: Why We Fight for Economic Freedom:

Karl Marx famously said: “From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs.”

The result of this approach is not equality, but rather a lowering of everyone’s standards to some minimal level.

Some people worry about the disparity of wealth in a system of economic freedom. What they don’t realize is that the same disparity exists in the least-free countries.

The difference is who is better off.

Under economic freedom, it is the people who do the best job of producing products and services that make people’s lives better.

On the other hand, in a system without economic freedom, the wealthiest are the tyrants who make people’s lives miserable.

As a result of this, the income of the poorest in the least-free countries is one-tenth of what it is in the freest.

Well said. No wonder Obama supporting Democrats fear Charles Koch so much. The truth can be scary sometimes.

Via.

Political Animals

The short run of Political Animals reaches its climax this Sunday night with the episode titled "Resignation Day" to end the six episode run.

It was originally billed as a "limited series event" which, at least to this viewer, implied it would end after this short run. But no such luck. Click this link to see it described as "season 1."

The show features Bud Hammond as a womanizing ex-president and Elaine Hammond as the Secretary of State, having been appointed by the Democrat president against whom she lost the race for the nomination. If that sounds familiar the show is probably another of those liberal creations of an alternate world of Bill and Hillary Clinton except with the Bill Clinton character having much more backbone and the Hillary Clinton character as some combination of saint, genius, and sex object.

Viewers are anxiously waiting to see whether the Hillary character will run for president against the incumbent. And with the season finale titled "Resignation Day" and the notion that this is only season 1, the odds are very good that she will.

Meanwhile, the real Hillary, we learn, may have recently declined an invitation to replace Joe Biden in the VP slot in the November election. Hmm. Has team Obama been watching "Political Animals," too?

And what have we here? All of a sudden Chelsea Clinton is considering politics. She must be watching the show, too.

In any event, if Hillary does eventually run for president and win, one thing we should hope for is that she brings back all that stuff she and Bill took from the White House.

Hey wait a minute, wasn't it Sarah Palin who was supposed to be the idiot Vice President?

They were wrong about Palin, of course. But they ridiculed her mercilessly, and that probably had an effect on the outcome of the 2008 election, especially since so many people couldn't distinguish her from Tina Fey.

So instead of Sarah Palin for vice president, we've got Joe Bidden. What a joke he's become. Check out this remark reported in WaPo:

According to the White House pool report, when a diner there said, “I’m glad you all are not talking about doing anything with Social Security,” Mr. Biden responded: “Hey, by the way, let’s talk about Social Security. Number one, I guarantee you, flat guarantee you, there will be no changes in Social Security. I flat guarantee you.”

Way to kick the can down the road, Joe. Someone is going to have to solve it sooner or later. And we'll remember who hid from responsibility.

Want more? Check out Joe Biden's Greatest Hits!  Disclaimer, that's really just a sampler rather than the greatest hits. But we can't get past this without noting his recent message about putting y’all back in chains. Say it ain’t so, Joe.

Joe Bidden has become what Democrats claimed Sarah Palin would be. Instapundit has a running gag, "They told me if I voted for McCain then ..."

Here's one more for the genre. "They told me that if I voted for McCain/Palin the vice president would be a laughing stock. And they were right!"

Let's not ignore President Obama. During the G.W. Bush administration there was an endless stream of opposition professors trying to convince us that Bush was dumb. We had certain outlets giving us daily "Bushisms." What was missing for the longest time was any inkling from the msm about Obama's intelligence except how brilliant he was. Some saw through it early on, for example see from three years ago: Just how smart is Obama? And now it is fairly obvious to everyone but the most loyal Obama fan that he got where he is today with the help of a lot of people willing to buy into the myth.

Unfortunately for Obama/Bidden, the voters have had their critical thinking skills sharpened to a fine point in the interim. So while the Democrat campaign strategists fight the last war, voters smile quietly and make plans to put them into retirement.

Bloggers, enhance your credibility with a decorative photograph

Newspaper people have known this instinctively since they learned how to use printing plates to put pictures in the paper. The premise is that a decorative photo accompanying a statement made people more likely to think it's true. From a ScienceDaily.com release:

In a series of four experiments in both New Zealand and Canada, Newman and colleagues showed people a series of claims such as, "The liquid metal inside a thermometer is magnesium" and asked them to agree or disagree that each claim was true. In some cases, the claim appeared with a decorative photograph that didn't reveal if the claim was actually true -- such as a thermometer. Other claims appeared alone. When a decorative photograph appeared with the claim, people were more likely to agree that the claim was true, regardless of whether it was actually true.

(Cat photo added for credibility.)

Via.

Lois Gibson forensic artist

Drawing a sketch that looks like a person who is sitting right there is hard enough. But it has to be even harder when all the artist has to go on is a verbal description. The job of a forensic sketch artist isn't easy. And when someone with talent like Lois Gibson comes along she gets noticed.

She's so good that according to Dailymail.co.uk she earned the "Guinness World Record for being the world's most successful sketch artist, having helped to solve well over 1,000 crimes over her 30-year career."

But there's more to her work than criminal investigation. She also sketches faces of Holocaust victims based on descriptions from survivors. Pretty amazing.

See some samples of her work here. And come to think of it, since her sketches are usually of victims or criminals, getting drawn by her is something the rest of us might want to avoid.

Via.

Paul Ryan's narrative not yet written

People who follow politics have had an opinion about Mitt Romney's VP pick, Paul Ryan, for quite a while, and those enthusiastic responses following the announcement prove it.

But take a look at this. It was an online poll that popped up on Yahoo.com, and these were the results today as of around 2:30pm CDT:

Fully 28% of the quarter million people who took the poll responded, "I don't know who he is." Team Obama, must be ecstatic. They made up a story to paint Romney as a heartless killer, but it was so obviously false they've been backtracking ever since. But here come a bunch of people all ready to absorb a narrative not yet written.

Ready or not, here come the prefabricated stories.

Not on Facebook? Weirdo.

There are probably a few holdouts like me still out there. You know, people who aren't on Facebook.

Facebook always seemed a little creepy to me even before seeing "The Social Network." Facebook looks like a portal through which good friends can connect, old friends can reconnect, and new friends can hookup. These friends can have very personal conversations, learn all about each other, and share all sorts of private information. I have this image of two more people sitting at a table together talking. Nothing wrong with that. But what makes Facebook creepy is that stranger lurking nearby taking down everything they say.

After watching "The Social Network" and seeing how Mark Zuckerberg treated his friends it makes one wonder how he might treat strangers. Sure, it was a movie, and one mustn't take movies too seriously. But the movie was based on a book which was based on deposition transcripts. And it seems inconceivable that there was any misrepresentation unfavorable to Zuckerberg for which there was no outcry and retaliation.

But no one seems to mind. The public has embraced Facebook. In fact, are people who are not on Facebook considered weirdos? Yes. Yes they are.

a car bomb explodes, house ablaze, dog saves her pups -- get out your handkerchiefs

From the DailyMail.co.uk:

The blaze broke out at a home in Santa Rosa de Temuco, Chile, on Thursday after a car bomb went off.

The mother dog - a German Shepherd mix called Amanda - risked her life to pick up the puppies in her mouth and carried them from the burning house to the safety of the fire truck.

She put them in a bin in a fire truck!  Good dog!

Click DailyMail.co.uk for photos. And get more of the story at Soychile.cl.

What exactly is that Middle Scool Concept?

We all make mistakes, and in this world of twits and tweets, spelling may have gone the way of the studious student.

As seen on TV.

I think what they meant to address with this pormo was middle school concept.

The undecided voter

Anyone who has been paying attention for the past four years has already decided for whom to vote in the November Presidential election. The decision is based on how a particular person sees the government. If the voter sees government as the source of inspiration, business and well being, then the voter wants Barack Obama and Joe Biden to serve second terms. If the voter believes those things come from individuals and that the best government is one that allows its citizens and economy to flourish with minimal interference, then the voter wants Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan to replace the incumbents.

Various polls have Romney and Obama neck and neck, and those polls may or may not reflect a true summary of voter's opinions. Personally, I'm suspicious of them. But there is always a category of "undecided." A better description might be "uninformed." That's the opinion of Neal Boortz. He's referring to "independents," but it applies to the undecided as well, because it's difficult believe that anyone really is undecided or independent at this point if they've paid attention.

So the campaign goal for Obama is to influence those uninformed with negativity toward Romney. And when Alana Goodman at CommentaryMagazine.com tells us Obama Campaign Feigns Ignorance About Romney Attack in regard to the deceptive ad featuring the widower Joe Soptic's sad story, we realize that Obama's goal is to make an impression on those people who are oblivious to politics and probably not able to decide what's best for the country anyway but who will base their decisions on the TV commercial that had the biggest impact on them, even if it's based on a lie.

Clayton Williams says it with a sign

Midland's most famous business builder, Clayton Williams, reacts to Obama's "You didn't build that" in his own unique way.

Aw, it even includes an invitation. How sweet.

Overheard on 911 call -- "Hide the gun in them woods."

Now here's a crime story ready for the dumb criminals category.

Burglary, trespassing and illegal hunting, these guys were up to no good. A drunken, armed land owner gave chase. Shots were fired. Vehicles were crashed. The burglars called 911. Here's the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department news release:

A Red River County game Warden and two Bowie County game wardens received information about a possible road hunting incident near a residence. The property owner and his wife were outside at the time and after hearing shots, the husband, who had been drinking, jumped into his vehicle and began to chase the hunters. While in pursuit, in an attempt to stop the hunters the man began shooting a pistol out of his window. The man rammed the hunters’ vehicle and in the process flipped his vehicle over and suffered serious injuries. The hunters had called 911 to report they were being shot at. When wardens contacted the suspected road hunters, they denied having weapons and shooting at anything. Unaware that their 911 call had not been dropped as they believed, in the background officials could clearly hear someone say, “hide the gun in them woods,” and “not that far, we’re gonna come back and get it tonight.” After hearing the 911 tape, the three hunters gave statements admitting to shooting at multiple animals from the road that day as well as committing multiple burglaries of habitations and storage buildings in the Dekalb area. Wardens also interviewed the hunters about a year-long investigation regarding the slaying of an 8-point buck last August in Red River County. The hunters admitted to being on the ranch illegally and shooting the buck leaving it to waste. A total of 24 cases were filed on the three individuals. Meanwhile, the overzealous property owner was filed on for DWI and deadly conduct.

Only in Texas my friends.  Only in Texas.

Via.

Noisy Olympic spectators

I really laughed at this. If you've ever attended a sporting event and had to sit near a noisy nuisance maybe you can enjoy it too.

The guy here is supposed to be the King of Sweden, and maybe among royals the need to make noise outweighs any need for common courtesy to the ordinaries.

Found at Yahoo.com.

National Night Out -- Party on!

Last night was National Night Out here in Midland, Texas, and thanks to the organizers in the MPD Community Relations Department, the kickoff event came off without a hitch. The MPD brass were there along with lots of dignitaries, including the two individuals currently in town for a CALEA accreditation review of the police department.

It's a simple concept. Get people out of their houses to meet their neighbors. If they know who belongs in their neighborhood, they know who doesn't belong.

Here are some photos from last night.

Easy old boy, no horseless carriage will ever replace you!

Sic 'em.

CALEA right here, y'all, taking it all in.

McGruff, Safety Pup, and The Night Out Knight.