My Cure for Cancer

http://www.nbc4.com/health/11125917/detail.html

OK, so it's not MY cure for cancer. But a leukemia patient with a background in Physics and Radio Broadcasting invented a device to help combat cancer, and it's very interesting. The idea is that it turns cancer cells into antennae that attract ordinarily harmless particles that can be easily heated by radio waves (more easily than the rest of your body). Then, once these particles are disproportionately attached to the cancer cells, you flood the body with radio waves in a non-invasive procedure. The cancerous growths then go through something like a self-destructing meltdown.

This innovative concept is being tested by researchers, and hopefully something will come of it. I'd love to buy stock in the company that starts building whatever comes out of the research, though I think it'd be even better if the inventor insisted that a non-profit take control and try to make it as widely available as possible as fast as possible. Heartwarmingly, the motivation for his invention was seeing kids go into chemotherapy with smiles and come back a few weeks later without them.

[Editor's Addendum: Read the comments. The one left by Max Power provides some context for this type of research. And I can assure you he's quite qualified to comment.]

My Links 2

Here's a second round of links I think my readers might enjoy. I spend enough time surfing the Internet to find these things, you all might as well benefit from it. Why reinvent the wheel, after all? I have no life...now you can get the benefits of having no life and surfing the web all day without having to actually needing to have no life!

First and Foremost: A Free Cure for Depression - It's not a drug, it's your mind! Specifically, it's the neo-cortex. Depression resides in the sub-cortex, and according to this researcher, one can use a technique called "Brainswitching" to change the source of your thoughts from the sub-cortex to the neo-cortex, where depression can't exist. Something as simple as focusing on a very simple thought or nonsensical phrase repeatedly with your logical mind will switch your mental activity from one part of the brain to the other, and enable one to avoid long spells of depression. This switch happens naturally over days, weeks or months--which is why the severity of depression is almost always cyclical. But one can accomplish that switch in minutes--the researcher himself is bipolar and has had tremendous success with the technique on his own. If you want more information, the researcher plugs his two books on the topic at the end (one is his story, the other is more of a how-to manual).

An Underwater Restaurant - For the adventurers out there looking for their next exciting meal. Seriously, this is a cool concept. Add in the fact that dinner's between 242 and 275 dollars a plate, and I start wondering: anyone want to go into business with me and start one?*
*offer void where seasick

Han Solo in Carbonite Chocolate Bar - I will eat my favorite decoration. Mwahahaha. Seriously, it's about time! I want one.

An interesting artistic video - Proof that I don't understand art. If someone would kindly explain this to me in the comments, it would be much appreciated. All I know about art is that I know what I don't like, and I don't not like this.

Ridiculous Japanese Vending Machines - What can you buy in Japanese vending machines? The list includes: Eggs, Umbrellas, Hot Ramen Noodles, 22 pound bags of rice, Fishing Bait, Toilet Paper, Flowers, Dumplings, Alcoholic Beverages, Pornography, Pet Beetles, Kerosene, Dry Ice, and some more troubling items that I won't mention in this reasonably family-friendly blog...but it's pretty insane (and really makes you wonder who on earth would BUY some of these things at ALL, much less out of a vending machine...).

As always, feedback is welcome.

So I accidentally posted twice and can't figure out how to delete posts. Oops. I can edit it down to nothing though, but I thought I'd include this explanation.

My First Attempt at (actual) Political Commentary

http://www.moveon.org/r?r=2879&id=10983-8524939-k7.3OE&t=2

Ignore the source of the website and just watch the video. It's short. But for those who can't be bothered with it, it's a clip from an interview with Dick Cheney from 1994. In this interview, Cheney talked about various foreign policy issues, including a defense of why the US didn't go into Iraq. Cheney, in this interview done 13 years ago, is well-informed, thoughtful, articulate, straightforward, and seems to have his priorities in order. I'd vote for the Cheney in that video.

Which begs the question: what happened? And I don't think it's possible to figure out the answer looking at just Cheney. I'm going to throw out a position that I derived by thinking about things a little more broadly:

I believe Cheney's transformation into the archetypal "Bush Republican" goes to show just how insistent parties are becoming on complete polarization and loyalty to communally decided platforms. It's stamping out individuality in politicians (see the new McCain for a premier example), and making conformity a necessity to play the game at its highest levels. I think this, above all things, is the biggest danger to America present in its current political system. More so than any legislation, movement, set of ideals, war or person, it's this artificial consolidation into a completely binary system that will weaken our nation's ability to intelligently deal with complicated sets of increasingly inter-linked challenges.

Thoughts?

My Halter Top

Yesterday I finally learned what a halter top was. Today I googled it, just to make sure I had it right, and in doing so I learned how to spell "halter top."

[Editor's Addendum: Today I also learned what happens when you post a blog entry without a title. I might do this for really short or pointless entries.]

[Editor's Addendum to Editor's Addendum: I have decided to title this entry after all. Thanks, Chase, for pointing out that "My Halter Top" is a funny title.]

My Future Toilet

This weekend I went down to the shore with Max Power to visit Cookie (two new additions to my Dramatis Personae), and her father's new toilet is just a slightly less powerful version of what I want in my dream house. For those of you who don't know, I have an extensive list of what goes into my dream house, and in the top five is "the Death Star of Toilets." I hate dealing with plumbing issues so much, I want a toilet that can suck an orange through a pinhole. At the very very least, a struggling adult male gopher should not be able to overcome its current. But why stop there? The toilet could have all sorts of other features...features that I discovered this weekend.

This toilet had a remote control. That's right, a remote control. And the control had TWENTY-SIX (that's 26) buttons on it. Features included:
-Flush button (much better than a lever I found, and harder to break or rust)
-Stop button (for any of the other features)
-Multiple toilet positions (2 seats up, all down, cover up/seat down)
-Very quiet running, and not just the features, the flush as well. Seriously, it's like a stealth toilet...it's like popping a squat on the Red Oktober's little brother
-A motion/proximity detector that lifts the seat up for you when it detects you in the right spot
-A seat warmer, with adjustable thermal controls
-Three different bidet settings (and yes, I tried it, just to say I had and so as not to miss out on one of life's experiences...it was weird, but I can still see how people get used to it)
-Air circulation options--this thing started gentle air currents circulating beneath me as soon as I sat down
-A dryer (I'm not going to go into details on this one, but use your imagination)
-And most useful for my "Death Star of toilets" critera: adjustable water pressure

And I didn't even get a chance to explore all of the options.

I think this toilet might be smarter than some people I went to school with...