My original hard drive developed Issues. It was necessary to Take Steps. However, for a Sharp MP30 that’s the equivalent of needing to replace a fuel filter on a Ford Explorer. You shouldn’t have to take the whole machine apart to get at it, but you do.

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Three stories, the first more interesting, the next two much better than all the other depressing stuff smothering the news. (None of these are up-to-the-minute. I’ve been offline, not to say out of it, for a while.)

(J. Pathol., abstract, and ScienceDaily.) Professor Ruth Itzhaki and her team at the University [of Manchester’s] Faculty of Life Sciences have investigated the role of herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV1) in [Alzheimers Disease] ….

Most people are infected with this virus, which then remains life-long in the peripheral nervous system, and in 20-40% of those infected it causes cold sores. Evidence of a viral role in AD would point to the use of antiviral agents to stop progression of the disease.

The team discovered that the HSV1 DNA is located very specifically in amyloid plaques: 90% of plaques in Alzheimer’s disease sufferers’ brains contain HSV1 DNA, and most of the viral DNA is located within amyloid plaques. The team had previously shown that HSV1 infection of nerve-type cells induces deposition of the main component, beta amyloid, of amyloid plaques. Together, these findings strongly implicate HSV1 as a major factor in the formation of amyloid deposits and plaques, abnormalities thought by many in the field to be major contributors to Alzheimer’s disease.

This is a major breakthrough against Alzheimers, if the results hold up on further research.

Two huge triumphs, quietly happening:
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As someone who’s criticized Obama repeatedly, and repeatedly, how’s the evidence shaping up as he moves toward Inauguration? I’ll keep a vague tally over time to keep track or whether I was on the right track or not.

The good:

• Net neutrality.
• universal broad(ish) band

If actually implemented, these are right up there in importance with freedom of the press.

The bad:

• Continuing, sometimes slightly subtle, sometimes atrocious, ignored bigotry. (Since it’s ignored, I can’t give you a link that shows anyone in Obama-world not ignoring what they’re ignoring.)

The ugly:

• Mugs. What celebrates the High Holy Days better than a leftover campaign cup?
• Emails. He has the better part of a billion dollars in campaign contributions. The DNC took on over $11,000,000 in debt just for his convention bash. Common courtesy requires him to use his unspent $30,000,000 in campaign funds to pay off the DNC’s $15,000,000 debt. Instead, as President-elect no less, he’s hitting up the voters to donate yet more money. Bleah.
• Peculiar fundraising resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth in untraceable donations.

Actually, I need yet another category. The hideous:

• Continuing the use of torture and continuing the use of gulags, like Guantanamo.

  This country is dead. It just doesn’t know it yet.

Technorati Tags: Obama, Guantanamo, net neutrality

Nothing against David Bain, who looks like someone with a sense of humor, but this sort of thing is the reason I never formally studied philosophy. It’s my natural habitat — meandering on about things nobody else worries about — but there is just too much goddamn silliness involved.

Take these four “brain teasers” on the BBC on World Philosophy Day. They either have blindingly obvious answers or they’re purely theoretical and not worth the waste of neurons.

BBC Magazine: Four philosophical questions to make your brain hurt
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