Another new feature we are going to do a few times a week is picking out several news stories a few times a week so Planetarians can comment on them. The stories will be taken from a broad spectrum of news from Politics to Science to help keep you informed and let you have your say on current events that affect us all.
CERN cuts power to part of the LHC, says the setback is minor
Just two days after the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) reached a major milestone by producing 1.18 TeV (more than one trillion electron volts) of energy, the particle physics lab CERN had to cut power to one of the accelerator’s sites following a problem with a power supplier. The outage did not affect the cryogenics required for operation, and a CERN spokeswoman in Geneva, Switzerland, was optimistic that the power would be back up by 6:30 p.m. local time.
Although the report of another failure at the LHC could spur concerns of a recurrence of more serious problems that recently shut the system down for more than a year, comments posted to the lhcportal.com forum indicated that the failed 18-kilovolt circuit breaker would not delay any upcoming experiments.
The setback sounds minor and does not eclipse the history the LHC team made the other day.
Nurse arrested for videotaping women’s bathroom
By Alexis Stevens
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Police believe a nurse anesthetist may have had inappropriate sexual contact with hundreds of patients in his care.
Paul Patrick Serdula, 47, of Marietta was arrested Wednesday by Cobb County police on three counts of unlawful surveillance and eavesdropping of patients at a dental office.
But it’s what investigators found during a search of Serdula’s Forest Peak Court home that is really alarming, according to Sgt. Dana Pierce. Electronic recording devices and hundreds of videos were seized from Serdula’s home.
Although investigators haven’t looked at all of the material yet, police say they have already seen enough to believe Serdula was engaging in criminal activity while patients were under anesthesia, such as sexual battery or fondling.
“We don’t yet know the magnitude of the criminal activity he was involved in,” Pierce said Friday afternoon.
The investigation began when a woman spotted a video recording device in the bathroom at her dentist office, located in the 600 block of Galleria Parkway. She immediately called 9-1-1, Pierce said.
This is truly a WTF!? story especially when it happens in your backyard. This is when I really wish there was a hell for people like this.
Fed survey finds recovery gaining momentum
By JEANNINE AVERSA, AP Economics Writer Jeannine Aversa, Ap Economics Writer
WASHINGTON – The economic recovery gained traction in late fall as shoppers spent a bit more and factories bumped up production. That assessment Wednesday by the Federal Reserve marked its most upbeat view since the economy tumbled into recession two years ago.
The Fed’s new snapshot of business barometers nationwide found that conditions have generally improved since the last report in late October.
Eight of the Fed’s 12 regions surveyed reported some pickup in activity or improved conditions, the Fed said. Those regions were: Boston, New York, Chicago, St. Louis, Minneapolis, Kansas City, Dallas and San Francisco.
The four other regions — Philadelphia, Cleveland, Richmond and Atlanta — described conditions as little changed or mixed.
The new report adds to evidence that the economy is rebounding after the worst recession since the 1930s.
I know the meme for some is to push the gloom and doom in economic news. Certain groups have gone so far as to under report or discount any positive news to fit this theme. Obviously the recovery is going to be a long slog so any good news is appreciated.
Marilyn Monroe film ‘shows actress smoking marijuana’
A reel-to-reel home movie which allegedly shows Hollywood legend Marilyn Monroe smoking marijuana has emerged after 50 years.
The silent film, shot at a private home in New Jersey, was recently purchased by a collector.
Monroe at one point is passed a cigarette, takes a puff, but does not appear to inhale deeply.
The person who shot the film told the Reuters news agency the cigarette contained marijuana.
Collector Keya Morgan recently purchased the film for $275,000 from the film’s owner, who wishes to remain anonymous.
The film is believed to date from 1958 or 1959, and shows a happy and relaxed-looking Monroe.
Yahooooo! I knew I liked Marilyn for some reason. Seriously with her problems she was probably self medicating.
More Stem Cells Get OK For Government Funding
by Nell Greenfieldboyce
Scientists can now study 13 previously off-limits human embryonic stem cell lines using federal research dollars, according to the National Institutes of Health.
The NIH has just approved the first set of stem cell lines that meet ethical guidelines set out back in July, after President Obama lifted previous restrictions put on embryonic stem cell research.
Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, expects scientists to quickly make use of the newly approved cell lines.
“I think people are champing at the bit for the opportunity to get started in exploring this area of research with federal funds,” Collins says. “We already have lots of grants, $21 million worth, that have already been approved and have just been restricted until today.”
Under the Bush administration policy, scientists could use federal funds to study only 21 stem cell lines created before August 9, 2001.
Now this is some real change I can believe in. Who’d a thunk it a real pro-life decision.
New York State Senate Rejects Same-Sex Marriage Bill
New York lawmakers rejected a bill Wednesday that would have made their state the sixth to allow gay marriage, disheartening advocates already stung by a similar decision by Maine voters just last month.
The New York measure failed by a wider-than-expected margin, falling 12 votes short in a 24-38 decision by the state Senate. The Assembly had earlier approved the bill, and Gov. David Paterson, perhaps the bill’s strongest advocate, had pledged to sign it.
New York also doesn’t allow civil unions, but has several laws, executive orders and court decisions that grant many of the rights to gays long enjoyed by married couples.
The vote comes after months of delays and arm twisting of lawmakers sympathetic to the bill but representing conservative districts. It also follows a referendum in Maine that struck down a gay marriage law before it took effect.
By far the shittiest news of the day. I just do not understand why less love in the world is better than more for these hateful people.
Do you remember Dec. 3, 1984? A shameful day that is still on going.
The explosion at Bhopal, India of the Union Carbide chemical plant. How many died? the government says 15,000, the locals say 35,000 and counting. Two things that stick out after 25 years. 1. The ground water has never been cleaned up. People still use this water and are having many complications. As one Doctor said last night (on BBC) ” It (the poison) is now in their genes causing multiple birth defects”
2. This case is STILL in the courts, and no one has been convicted or fined. Just sad.
Here is one site you may look at for some info: http://www.bhopal.org/whathappened.html
If you are so moved there are plenty of sites detailing this disaster.
Morning B’ito!
Thank you for the information and link.
I don’t remember that at all, then again, I don’t remember the 80’s or what I even had for breakfast.
I was gonna post the same story, and tell people to seriously look it up if they didn’t know about it already.
Khirad, I was reminded of it from the BBC-overnight broadcast. Not only was it terrible then, the effects are still on going daily.
I should have added: If you go to the link I gave There are some very graphic photos.
Bito, I remember when Bhopal happened. What a horrifying story that got about as much airplay here as a freeway pile-up. And only about a year and a half later was Chernobyl. When you have some time, I highly recommend this site. It’s a “motorcycle diary” by a remarkable young woman who tours the “ghost town” of the Chernobyl region taking pictures. Start with “Chernobyl, Land of the Wolves.”
http://www.kiddofspeed.com/
Will do E’cat. Thanks for the link. Thanks
I remember that day like it was yesterday. I was a lab technician at the time and my lab mate was a wonderful guy from India named Suresh. Obviously he was beside himself when he talked about the news one minute angry as hell and the next on the verge of tears. It was one of the low points of my life and I questioned the career choice I had made because it was my first year out of college.
Ironically the company I worked with at the time GAF made a hostile bid to take over Union Carbide. But it was just an attempt by our CEO to make some greenmail off of Union Carbide’s horrible negligence. I left the company soon after so it did not take me long to realize that corporations were the scourge of our society. But it did help give me a moral compass to fight the environmental cause from within.
So, the Republicans take the time to hold hearings about climate change, and charging corruption!, yet obstruct and refuse to work on health care reform.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091203/ap_on_sc/sci_climate_hearing;_ylt=AuoK1LGzpmp6_YR3nkp.OjSs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTNuYWJoM2h0BGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMDkxMjAzL3NjaV9jbGltYXRlX2hlYXJpbmcEY2NvZGUDbW9zdHBvcHVsYXIEY3BvcwM3BHBvcwM0BHB0A2hvbWVfY29rZQRzZWMDeW5faGVhZGxpbmVfbGlzdARzbGsDb2JhbWFzY2llbmNl
“WASHINGTON
j’avaz, The university in Tucson,UA, has a well known dept. on climatology. The professor, Malcolm Hughes, received a letter from Sen. Inhofe (R-OK) to not destroy any emails that pertain to his studies on climate change. Bet he is not the only one that got such a warning.
G’morn, Girl
Pathetic. It’s like he actually believes it’s a conspiracy. As if I didn’t realize that one was looney already.
Go Cats!
How’s Saguaro National Monument doing?
I seem to recall the cacti were dying due to climate change and pollution.
U of A was studying it in the hopes to save them.
Have you heard anything more about that?
(go Devils!)
🙂
I remember that, but I haven’t followed it lately. Shamefully, I rarely take advantage of the University. And my Cancer Center is there.
Other news I just saw. BofA is paying back the $45MMM in TARP money it received soon. I thought Bankington told us BofA was insolvent and would never recover.
We watch the ‘Nightly Business Report’ on PBS every night, and the TARP deal was a great deal for our government, for those that have paid it back.
It was low interest rates, but our government made BIG money on those that paid the loans back.
It wasn’t a bad thing, but the MSM doesn’t tell us that.
That’s aggravating. They’re more interested in the “pitchfork” stories.
I’m pretty sure BofA never needed a bailout until they swallowed Merrill Lynch, which was a big sick whale to swallow.
o/t Joke on KO. Just in: the gate crashers were invited–to have sex with Tiger Woods.
This may end up on HP 🙂
My husband and I have had the wood, and he truly is a Tiger!
For legal reasons, we cannot divulge the actual 3-some, and neither of us golf, but we both know the meaning of wood now and sand traps.
That is extremely mean. My hubby adores Tiger, watches every game. Surely there were more worthy people to make fun of recently?
The only thing Americans and the media love to do more with our media icons is tear them down after building them up. Personally I don’t know why anyone would want to become famous.
Sorry, I did not mean to offend. In my mind, I was making fun of the W.H. gate crashers and their so-called “proof”. “We got emails, saying we were invited”
It wasn’t offensive!
And the crashers deserve to be mocked as do cheating spouses!
May I add a story?
What is up with that woman breast-feeding her 4 week old baby on an airplane and she fell asleep and the baby was smothered and died?
My gosh, what a horrible, tragic story.
I just do not know what to think.
And on a side note from my HP days –
Isn’t it wonderful on this PPOV that when you type “I think” and you don’t get the typical clique reply – “Your first mistake was saying that you think” or something snarky like that.
Why in the world, except to look at naked women and nipples, would anyone ever blog on HP?
Or as my husband says, “Is there something wrong with looking at boobs and shaved triangles?”
Shaved triangles.
LMAO
Wow that is a terrible tragedy.
They averted the plane and flew back to London.
I think they were flying to Beirut.
They tried to revive the baby, but it was dead.
It is a horrible story,
and makes me wonder how it could have happened.
Did she, the mother, cover her breast and the baby, and then somehow it was smothered?
I don’t know much about breast feeding or babies for that matter, but my gosh, what a horrible story.
Having witnessed a bit of nursing, I gotta wonder how the hell she managed to do that.
And it would need to be a very small baby to allow itself to suffocate without thrashing around a bit, most likely enough to wake its mum.
And was there not someone sitting next to this woman?
Do you think God keeps messing with the Large Hadron Collider because man isn’t meant to find the God Particle?
Just sayin’….
You saw Angels and Demons, too?
I’ve got to share another funny from a UK blog I frequent.
When they were first doing that Hadron thing, there was fear about it sucking our universe and it would be the end of the world, and one British guy wrote that he was going to unzip and let it out because if he was going to go, it would be the best BJ he ever had in his life.
LMAO
I’m still laughing over that.
I read the book. Quite silly.
And yet, the Large Hadron Collider keeps mysteriously breaking.
Heh. In every Frankenstein movie, isn’t there always a bespectacled Herr-Doktor-Professor figure who says: “There are areas of scientific exploration were man was not meant to go…….”?
heh, heh. My girlfriend says the Large Hadron Collider is “spooky.” It’s like the cutest thing she’s ever said.
The spookiness of science is what makes it fun.
Sounds like true love, P’epe!
There is nothing divine about the “God Particle”. In fact it’s aka the Higgs Boson and is just a particle that will fill out all the particles observed and predicted in the Standard Model.
j’avaz, here is the link to Matthews apology with a transcript.
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/12/02/matthews-deeply-apologize/
bito
Thanks b’ito!
Will read it once it downloads on this dialup.
Oh, we so look forward to the day DSL comes up here.
Well, that was very gracious of him and I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and believe him sincere.
b’ito. 😆
This story warmed the cockles of my heart. Peter Mandelson is a bit of a horse’s arse but I say, go for it Peter!!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/dec/02/peter-mandelson-rupert-murdoch-war
Let’s see some news on this story. Like this line from it:
tax commissioners claim that an elaborate series of legal manoeuvres, dubbed “flip and spin” by News Corp, wrongly deprived authorities in Australia, Britain and the US of billions of dollars in capital gains tax.
And how much noise did Faux make on “not paying taxes on time” when it came to Obama’s staff?
OK, is it me, but that nurse there really looks like a knuckle dragging neanderthal…God, this guy looks really creepy.
Glad to see other positive news here, stem cell research is on the move, wonder if any pro-lifer heads have exploded yet on this one.
Very disappointed on NY rejecting the Same Sex Marriage Bill, once again the Christian Right who shout so loud about their individual freedom, hypocritically deny others theirs. I believe marriage is a civil not religious matter…many atheist and agnostics get married, what does religion have to do with it.
Was the main for HP earlier this afternoon, lots and lots of bigoted trolls posting, some where actually so bad that even HP removed them.
Not to sound catty, not for nothing the dresses these two women are wearing are hideous…but, I wouldn’t be caught dead in either one of them, the movie “27 Dresses” comes to mind. OK, yell at me now….
Hey shouldn’t it be every woman’s right to pick out a terrible wedding dress if she has bad taste? 😉
I was married in black from head to toe. It was my rebellion against the RC Church for demanding that my hubby take four months of instructions before we were allowed to have a Church wedding. Only my mother got it, she giggled from the time we left the house for the Registry office, during the ceremony and later at our reception.
Cheers Mutti!!
What a great story. And good for your mom for getting it!
She knew me better than I knew myself sometimes. We were alike in so many ways, it’s up to me to continue to carry the flag for both of us. I miss her.
Kalima, You are very very lucky! I had a rough relationship with my mom. I always envy women when I hear them talk about close relationships they had with theirs.
We had our ups and downs, especially when I reached 15, but we managed to work it out, we grew closer until the day she died.
I’m sorry that it was rough for you, we only have one of each, although it was my stepfather who brought me up and cared for me.
Amen about that creepy nurse. First thing I did was check and make sure he wasn’t in my city!
BDM — I am getting a foster greyhound this Saturday. We are bringing 18 of them up in a big truck — I think from Florida but maybe Oklahoma. Anyway, it’s a lot of work but a big kick to teach a racing greyhound about the big wide world!
Wow, the dental anesthesiologist is creepy and brings back a Seinfeld episode, except that was funny and this story is not.
Glad they caught that creep.
Too bad Marilyn didn’t stick with pot.
She might still be with us or at the very least, made many more films.
(favorite Marilyn movie – ‘Some Like It Hot” – great cast)
My husband and I are still trying to figure out how gay marriage lessens our vows.
I truly believe that sooner rather than later, gay marriage will be approved nationwide.
I know the worst part for me personally is this assclown worked in the same hospital system I use.
Wow.
Have you ever seen him?
That does hit too close to home whether you knew him or not.
No thankfully.
I think if I saw that “nurse” galumphing into my dentist’s office, I’d opt for having the work done without anesthesia. Shoot. Maybe even a liver transplant without anesthesia, for that matter.
On the other hand.
I think we should all do apostrophes. I could get used to k’esmarn. K’Quark looks good. n’ellie, is n’ice. M’o? K’alima? Yup. Would AdLib be A’dLib or Ad’Lib?
This is important. I watched that video of Marilyn and she did not inhale!
But she’s SOOOO cute! 🙂
Yes, Marilyn was spectacular.