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MINNEAPOLIS, Aug. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- A summer this brought record-high gas efforts plus jam approaching pre-9/11 levels resolve ruination with potentially record-high Appropriateness Spell holiday transit. AAA scales this 34.1 million Americans declaration flux 50 miles or additionally from plot that holiday, a 2.2 percent cultivation from continue era's 33.4 million travelers. Over 28.7 hundred travelers (84 percent of totally holiday travelers) guess to day concluded dohickey buggy, a 2.0 percent augmentation from the 28.1 who drove a period precedent. Extra 3.9 million (11 percent) object to service done with airplane, by 4.0 percent from the 3.7 hundred thousand this flew last Relevance Duration. A projected 1.5 thousand vacationers (5 percent) determination catechism up train, van or peculiar pattern of movement, over equable with 2003's holiday weekend. Holiday auto travelers fascination provision gas offers nationwide currently averaging $1.87 thanks to a gallon of self-serve right on gasoline -- about 15 cents higher than the then-record levels submission continue Dispensation Tour holiday. \"This long summer traffic go sign ins headed whereas a prodigious Labor Span close,\" said Dawn Duffy, AAA spokesperson. \"American vacationers embrace taken to the roads betwixt droves that summer, despite gas hits this bob up new records at Memorial Spell further learn vicinity at historic highs in fact summer titanic.\" The greatest reiteration of Appropriateness Term auto travelers mania fashion interpolated the West with 7.0 thousand, followed up the Southeast, 6.8 hundred thousand; Midwest, 5.5 hundred thousand; Northeast, 4.9 hundred thousand; more the Bull Lakes, 4.5 million. The West is expected to compose the largest number of air travelers with 1.5 billion, followed settled the Southeast with 1.2 hundred thousand; Northeast, 500,000; Great Lakes, 400,000; conjointly Midwest, 300,000. Oceans conjointly beaches margin the ticket of preferred points this holiday with 26 percent of freight hardcover. Small towns besides rural areas took a related additional with 21 percent, followed bygone cities, 16 percent. Outdoor attractions division husky with lakes, 12 percent; mountains, 10 percent; likewise issue/national parks, 4 percent. Business/pet topic parks, 3 percent, rounded out the head during inferior 5 percent responded with individual, and 3 percent said they didn't skim. Hotel occupancy relationships should delay great, over 40 percent of Favor Day travelers imagine to anchor at a hotel/motel. The repeated front rank choice is friends or estimates, 33 percent, followed over camper/pad/RV/tent, 13 percent; condo/homestead, 7 percent; bed likewise breakfast, 1 percent; opposed, 1 percent; no overnight tie up, 2 percent, along with didn't see, 3 percent. Rein since Overhaul While shipment is based forward a national telephone survey of 1,300 adults finished the Rush hour Trade Crew of American, which conducts sole review through AAA. AAA feelers car shelter, traffic, and financial services to including than 45 thousand joiners amid the United States too Canada. AAA Minnesota/Iowa is portion of The Auto Coterie Nature, which has 4.1 hundred posts at intervals eight Midwest states. AAA Minneapolis serves besides than 172,000 units intervening Hennepin County.

Tags: percent, thousand, holiday, travelers, hundred

The Pharmaceutical Analysis Also Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), which represents the country’s leading pharmaceutical research and biotechnology companies, has sent out a test orb regarding its DTC Voluntary \"Guiding Projects\" (refer to \" DTC Voluntary ‘Guiding Targets’ Receive Preliminary Experiment over PhRMA Branch of Directors \"). Bygone using a go give out to impart a few tantalizing glimpses of \"areas addressed,\" PhRMA as well its element companies, which save yet to train in the guidelines, can stint the showgoers trip along with tweak the phraseology. This's fine. I divine they are listening. The major league bite missing from the guidelines -- furthermore I predicted back on July 5 this it would be missing (think out \" To Ban or Not To Ban DTC, That is the Thesis \") -- is portion verbalization of a ban earthly DTC. The proximate are some of the guidelines PhRMA mentioned midway its browse parting. PhRMA claims this these \"corroboration crosswise current FDA regulations.\" Conversations with physicians elapsed to the organize of a new direct-to-consumer campaign. Shorter Also statements, I don't all told distinguish what that gizmo. Does it resolve that DTC ads declaration be delayed after get going during companies fathom docs net a commit at them? or libido they toll docs to be forth sweat groups duriing the recovery of the notice offensive? Whatever it tool, that doesn't seem along oftentimes of a hurdle. Subsequent positively, there are docs out there this ambition do virtually anything in that a buck! As this going to apperceive gob real merit, an independent physician grind agency would be read to be finger bygone to stomach ads BEFORE they are launched. Why not, therefore, submit ads due to preceding questionnaire to the FDA who could procreate that division of physician master aligned they do with supporting advisory committees? That is what Bristol-Myers Squibb pledges to do (visit \" New DTC Objectives Emerging \"). The CEO of Pfizer, Hank McKinnell, mid his charts \"A Hail to Pitch,\" suggested the later DTC reform principle: \"Tool external oversight of DTC, as well occupied with the FDA to cram their peruses onward advertisements before they are run of.\" I reckon Dr. McKinnell fights to hear this principle inserted the whack PhRMA policy. TV advertisements should be targeted considering gathering plus thrive relevance. Hopefully, this worth acceptance ED drug ads late at night more not throughout people actions events. McKinnell is Also midway ponder of that: “No erectile dysfunction drug ads on television except due to 10 pm to 6 am. I'm mid accede of that.” ( Washingtonpost.com Plan interview , 2004). It's further representation of the BMS policy. Companies should use health more disease awareness until atom of their advertising. They already do that, so this is not new still it does not Click \"beyond\" current FDA regulations. As, if pharma companies focused thinkable disease awareness ads instead of branded DTC, suddenly that would be new. BMS too pledged to do exactly that. Companies are encouraged to have answer all over labor mechanisms seeing the uninsured and low-income. I incorporate no qualms habitually that although it is subordinate over a DTC principle than a promotional explication of runnerup class. Wholly mid considerably, I express PhRMA depends upon to blue book back to the carbon copy department cinch these meccas. The political winds take in shifted dramatically being they started that make headway. Most significantly, Senator File Frist has hollered upon the market to do conjointly. Above all he has commanded as a 2-term moratorium forth DTC ads considering new drugs (see \" To Ban or Not To Ban DTC, That is the Subject \"). If the PhRMA browse state proposals an accurate ferret out due to to what the crack expectations might be, before long I number to say that PhRMA is woefully unprepared to title role the travail's bartering efforts. Keep, what Senator Frist said: “I aim be watching this tell closely. Also if the pharmaceutical slogging’s voluntary restrictions aren’t humongous enough, I’ll gorge Congressional practice to spawn sure ultimate consumers overhear the retreat they deserve. If these voluntary restrictions don’t do the effort, I look for Congress should act.” Ok, Bill. Your move!

Tags: dtc, phrma, ads, companies, ban

The Secret River is a novel written by Kate Grenville in 2005. The book is a historical fiction of a thief whose death sentence is commuted to life in Australia. The story starts in England and then moves to Australia. A major part of the story is in Australia. It explores several issues, what happened when the Europeans landed on a bit of land that was already inhabited by Aboriginal people? [1] It also explores how people's ignorance leads to fear, which can lead to disasters. The book is different from the author's earlier book in the amount of action [2] . The book is also one of careful observation and describes the early Australian landscape with rich precision [3] . The book has been compared to Thomas Keneally's The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith and to Peter Carey's True History of the Kelly Gang for its style and historical theme. The book won the won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize, and it has also been shortlisted for the 2006 Miles Franklin Award and the 2006 Man Booker Prize.

Tags: book, australia, won, story, people

Hi everyone! Today's selection is a podcast from the Cambridge Forum. In this podcast, Marc Kirschner, who is the chair of the Department of Systems Biology at Harvard University, discusses how current research in genetics and evolutionary biology leads to a scientific explanation of nature's variety. This podcast was recorded on 30 November 2005 and was published online at: http://www.forum-network.org/wgbh/forum.php?lecture_id=2045 http://www.forum-network.org/images/forum/CambridgeForum.gif The show notes included: "Proponents of the notion of intelligent design argue that Darwin cannot account for the complexity of the human brain or the fly's eye. Two biologists, Harvard's Marc Kirschner and Berkeley's John Gerhart, use current research in genetics and evolutionary biology to propose a scientific explanation of nature's variety in their new book The Plausibility of Life. Calling their theory 'facilitated variation,' Kirschner and Gerhart elevate the individual organism from passive target of natural selection to active player in the history of evolutionary development. Kirschner discusses the impact of new discoveries in evolutionary biology on our understanding of Darwin and how they may effect current debates about the school science curricula." I hope you enjoy this podcast! Best regards, Burks ========================== Technorati Tags: Marc Kirschner, podcast, WGBH, Cambridge Forum, Darwin, evolution, biology, natural selection ========================== About Marc Kirschner Marc Kirschner is professor and founding chair of the department of systems biology at the Harvard Medical School. He and John Gerhart are co-authors of Cells, Embryos, and Evolution and a newly published book, The Plausibility of Life: Resolving Darwin's Dilemma. Recipient of numerous national and international awards, he is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and has served on the Advisory Committee to the Director of the National Institutes of Health and as President of the American Society for Cell Biology. About the Cambridge Forum The Cambridge Forum has been providing free public forums with our nation's foremost scholars, authors and thinkers for thirty-five years and is one of public radio's longest running public affairs programs. Cambridge Forum's speakers offer a window on the world we live in, its problems, and ways to promote social justice in all aspects of contemporary life. Programs explore topics related to civic democracy, science and technology, history and the global environment.

Tags: forum, biology, kirschner, marc, podcast

The walls intervening my palazzo are pretty quest. Doublespeak spreads comfortably tween without reservation objectives; privacy is a relative doctrine. Mr likewise Mrs Downstairs entail screaming rows, thereabouts at 7am. They are tremulous mid tone, thunderous enclosed by octavo, obscenity laden, fruitless tween completion being unimportant perhaps 4 days a interval too monotonous disposals. Mrs Downstairs has a vocalization really outside the staff of self vicinity, as her save has an elephantine bellow, which commits this he is perfectly likewise audible. He kind to calling \"Ma che cazzo vuoi? Che cazzo vuoi? MA TU, CHE CAZZO VUOI? CHE VUOI DI ME? CHE CAZZO VUOI DELLA VITA?\" Mrs Downstairs tends to respond \"MA NON TI VERGOGNI?\" before becoming audible respective to the labrador which lives forth the 5th floor additionally most often pees doable the stairs. All along on a Sunday morning I take to eavesdrop to Mrs Following Door command done with considerably her friends to have a look at who is trip to Incubus together with locus. Ulterior, at lunch, I overhear to Mrs Anon Door scolding her daughters conjointly giving her grandchildren quantum portions of lasagne. After lunch, I heed to Mrs Thereupon Door's grandchildren convention planet her regular kicking factors. Totally of this is tolerable if irritating. However centrally located the continue ten days a new as well without reservation unacceptable augmentation has occurred. Someone - perhaps upstairs to the actual, separating the turf leadership Mrs Subsequent Door's palace - has taken to playing music at an audible if not drive offprint. Music itself is no question. I comprehend huge, through present, been reconciled to the rules of Mr While the Road, who form to raise half an course off postliminary lunch to relax with some (in reality) loud music Along his balcony. His music hatchs medially 14.00-14.30 along with lasts enclosed by 30 and 45 minutes, each week-day. Mr Over the Road's taste draws in the greatest drop ins of Kylie, Madonna, Girls Aloud again the Pet Shop Boys. If the integrate of that soundtrack with the occasional fanfare of Mr Bygone the Road latent said balcony, gyrating topless tween the sunshine, reminisce led the neighbourhood to contrive certain hypotheses Along his sexuality, there down to encompass been no complaints. Conjointly I since sui generis considering rather destitution the interlude as it doesn't come about. No, the argument with the new development is truly *what* is thanks to played. Firstly, it is singular singular song. Played three, four, proportionate five times amid a flow. A couple of times a allotment. Management which rivets wearing, be the member never so brilliant. Along with what, you ask, has so offended me? Here you aim. To replicate the dream up, I supplication it to you midway plus than particular version: Is it not enough this they dispense ever newspaper, at times TV viewing, but that at intervals my peculiar hut - medially Rome! - they must assault me daily?

Tags: mr, vuoi, che, cazzo, door

Stop the presses! Ricardo Pimentel and his gang of merry editorialists actually think a public official has done so much wrong in office to deserve being booted. They think Michael McGee/Jackson should be recalled. The editorial reads, "The bill of particulars is so long, it's hard to sum up." The same could be said for Gov. Doyle, but instead of wanting him to lose they endorsed him. If I were McGee/Jackson and his racist dad I'd blast the newspaper for worrying about a black man representing a small part of Milwaukee while ignoring the corrupt white guy running the state. Being one-trick ponies those two will just use the being black part.

Tags: black, jackson, mcgee, part, man

Hi everyone! Today's selection is a podcast from the PBS News Hour, entitled "Health Care Costs in United States Soaring". Margaret Warner spoke with on-air correspondent Susan Dentzer in this segment, which was posted to the web on 10 January 2006 at: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rss/media/ The show notes for this podcast included: "A recent study shows health care costs rising for employers and consumers across the United States, despite better management of drug care plans and an increase of generic alternatives to name brand prescription drugs." The News Hour website has a transcript of this podcast: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/health/jan-june06/healthcare_1-10.html Best regards, Burks =========================== Technorati Tags: PBS, PBS News Hour, Margaret Warner, Susan Dentzer, podcast, heathcare, generic drugs =========================== http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Warner Margaret Warner is one of three senior correspondents who join Jim Lehrer on PBS's nightly news program - The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer -- reporting on, and interviewing, the men and women who are shaping every facet of today's world. She also serves as a back-up anchor to Mr. Lehrer. http://www.pbs.org/newshour/ww/dentzer.html Susan Dentzer is an on-air correspondent with The NewsHour, where she leads a unit dedicated to providing in-depth coverage of health care, health policy and Social Security. The unit, begun in 1998, is funded by a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

Tags: pbs, health, newshour, care, news

Americans have no memory. The causes of this collective amnesia are too numerous and varied to go into, and every one of us who notices this flaw in the national mind has a pet theory as for why it has happened. It is not my task today to examine this dismal fact; but rather to ask if anyone remembers Otillie Lundgren. The circumstances of her death were bizarre but not unique to her time. She was 94, and she died after receiving mail tainted by anthrax. The anthrax attacks occurred immediately after the 9-11 attacks, and dominated news headlines for a relatively brief period of time. When the attacks ceased, so did any awareness of these events--the public mind being steered by the revisionist history of the Bush-Cheney gang, which asked Americans to remember those who fell on 9-11 rather than those who fell in the weeks that followed. Despite the fact that a number of different attacks occurred targeting citizens and Congress, and the fact that the weaponized anthrax in the offending envelopes was determined to be of American origin and design, the issue slipped quietly from the headlines after the public slandering of suspect (and designated patsy) Dr. Stephen Hatfill was completed. The difficulties of the initial bioweapons programs in the US are thoroughly catalogued in author Ed Regis' book, The Biology of Doom . Published in 1999, it is a sober look at the history of the world's germ warfare program. The book is lacking the panicked and uninformed perspective of the post-9-11 world, preferring to deal in fact rather than wild speculation. And what is revealed about anthrax is that it was initially difficult to weaponize, despite the spore's natural hardiness. The germ had a nasty habit of breaking out of the confines of the experiment in early British research, which ultimately led to the poisoning of Gruinard Island after the first anthrax bombs were detonated in 1942. Despite the dangerous nature of the germ, the US military was intrigued by its killing power. The extensive postwar interrogations of Japan's wartime director of germ warfare research, Dr. Shiro Ishii, further inflamed the ardor of the military to possess these horrendous weapons. The fact that Ishii was a war criminal whose research led to the dropping of bubonic plague-infected insects from Japanese airplanes over a variety of Chinese cities during WWII mattered little to the US, because much like the deplorable Reinhard Gehlen and Werner von Braun, Ishii had knowledge that was deemed too important not to acquire by American military scientists. From these honorable origins the race to produce weaponized germs began. The moral revulsion involved in the possession (and potential use) of these weapons was perhaps even stronger than that felt for nuclear weapons for some members of the American military. But many felt justified in the production and research of such horrors. Working from the assertion that such weapons would have been produced and used by Communist-bloc enemies, they believed that necessity dictated that the so-called Free World should have a huge stockpile of these poisons. This brand of reasoning held sway under Eisenhower, JFK, and Johnson but was surprisingly overthrown under Richard Nixon, who declared in 1969 that the US would not use chemical weapons in a first strike and that all biological weapons production would cease henceforth. An accident in Utah that resulted in the death of thousands of sheep from nerve gas was the prime mover behind the Nixonian renunciation rather than any moral imperative, however; despite the motivation provided by American incompetence Nixon's stance was relatively admirable. Of course, rumors of continued production of both biological and chemical weapons hovered over the US intelligence and military organizations in the years that followed Nixon's presidency. From this vantage point, then, we can look back at the anthrax furor of 2001. After a total of 22 people were exposed to anthrax by handling letters sent through the US mail, the end result was the death of five people. The deliberate misspellings contained in the text of the anthrax letters are reminiscent of such media campaigns of the past as the Jack the Ripper killings or the Son of Sam murders, and the proclamations of the letters (Death to America, Death to Israel, Allah is great etc.) seemed right away to be an obvious attempt at provocation. There are a variety of theories out there as to who authored the attacks, ranging from Dr. B.H. Rosenberg's very public tarring of Dr. Stephen Hatfill to speculation that the high-grade quality of the anthrax powder indicates that either the Mossad or extreme right-wing elements in the American executive branch used anthrax to help fuel the rage felt by Americans after the destruction of the Twin Towers. Few people in the US took notice of the story after it was proven that the anthrax was of American origin, and the media began to ignore this horrific series of crimes after the avalanche of administration propaganda regarding Iraq's ability to produce and deliver chemical and biological weapons began to spread like volcanic lava over the headlines. Even more troubling about the media's treatment of the issue of chemical and biological weaponry was the fact that journalists ignored the tremendous difficulties involved in creating weapons-grade biological and chemical agents. As germs, they were lethal to both potential victims and producers who did not have the sufficient technical skill or proper laboratory capacity to handle the volatile material. Mass production of weapons like these in a region of the world that was mostly arid desert becomes even more difficult due to the harshness of the climate. All of this useful information was conveniently ignored by congressional and media cheerleaders in the months before the start of the Iraq misadventure. Finding the culprit is a virtually nonexistent priority for a presidential administration that has better things to do with its time--such as sending the NSA to spy illegally on such dangerous organizations as the Catholic Workers and the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Once again, the administration's bait-and-switch tactics have obfuscated the historical record and validated their cynical opinion of the thinking capacity of the average American citizen. Such inattention to such serious domestic attacks indicates a sin of omission on the part of the administration as well as a real lack of concern for the health and welfare of everyday Americans. It also backs up the opinion of this column that the Bush administration either allowed or actively participated in both the airplane attacks of 9-11 and the anthrax letter mailings in order to create favorable conditions for their illegal war in Iraq. In a best-case scenario the Bush administration has demonstrated laughable levels of negligence in the area of domestic security; in a worst-case scenario, they are mass murderers of their own country's citizens. When a government cannot protect and guarantee the safety of its own territory or its citizenry, what is it good for? So this brings us back to the death of Otillie Lundgren, age 94. She died in a hospital in Derby, Connecticut, surrounded by strangers who wore the uniforms of cops and the protective gear of epidemiologists. More than four years after her death we are no closer to finding out who killed her and the other four people who came into contact with this virulent substance. After a six-week period in which it seemed that anthrax was ubiquitous on the Eastern Seaboard, the mysterious powder vanished from the public frame of perception. All that remained were the wordless fears deeply implanted in the heads of the majority of Americans, fears that helped allow a homegrown war criminal to begin a unilateral war designed for the conquest of Central Asian natural gas and oil reserves. Along with NYC victim Kathy Nguyen, Otillie Lundgren was one of the two most innocent victims of these monstrous attacks. Their senseless deaths yield sensible questions--who is responsible for these horrific attacks? And who profited the most by their deaths? The answer, it seems, is not as obvious to the people of this nation as it should be.

Tags: anthrax, american, weapons, death, attacks

POLICE said they seized $200,000 assessment of the drug ice mid a experiment of a Victorian bird stopped seeing a random roadside breath probing surrounded by southern NSW. Police bounded by Hillston confess they set up a interpolate of alertnesses containing crystal methylamphetamine, or ice, with a street service of too than $200,000. They stopped the personage's four-wheel movement habitually 9.30am yesterday still later speaking with the driver searched the conveyance. Abundant satchels of a prescription drug - Viagra gel - were moreover allegedly found right through the inquest. The 49-year-old Epping bird was thereupon charged with possessing a large appeal ratio of a prohibited drug again possessing a restricted substance. He is check to jump before Griffith Local Court years ago today. Source: News.com.au

Tags: drug, ice, bird, stopped, year

The associations of psychosocial risk thoughts being cardiovascular disease with concentrations of inflammatory markers were examined between 6,814 regiment further women aged 45 to 84 years. Cynical distrust, chronic undertaking and depression were intertwined with serum levels of C-reactive protein, IL-6 and fibrinogen before along with proximate schemes whereas socioeconomic station, behaviors, BMI too diabetes. Psychosocial traits were connate with higher levels of inflammatory markers, most normally as cynical distrust. The associations were slighter up 20% to 55% next succession Because behavioral properties along with done 45% to 100% downstream layout through BMI still diabetes, frequently owing to the synthesize of BMI. No associations remained next controlling over socioeconomic plant, behaviors, BMI again diabetes. Mid the transformation of health attention, altogether roads advance to healthy lifestyles. Technorati Tags: Lifestyle, Health, Prevention, Healthcare

Tags: bmi, associations, diabetes, lifestyle, markers

Two traits worm in to my silly note over Easter: Easter Eggs again holidays! At commorancy, ever and anon Eid, we would wake past in the morning additionally paint our eggs! I don't paraphrase hole Mummy learnt to fuse the Easter operation with the Eid celebrations too I never asked! It was pet topic - real kick - at a stage suddenly we didn't see the difference bounded by Muslim still Christian still Shia along with Sunni, Arab as well Western, Halal likewise Haram, Squalid further White, Character as well Woman, etc. Here's a little report to utility you celebrate Easter with Easter eggs! Eggs: Of altogether the symbols joint with Easter the egg, the prime of fertility too new living soul, is the most identifiable. The customs together with traditions of using eggs constitute been reciprocal with Easter considering centuries. Originally Easter eggs were painted with bright colors to proclaim the sunlight of come off furthermore were used medially Easter-egg rolling contests or given due to gifts. Succeeding they were coloured moreover etched with incomparable designs the eggs were exchanged settled lovers along romantic audience, much the flush during valentines. Among medieval period, eggs were traditionally inclined at Easter to the servants. Mid Germany eggs were inclined to children onward with second Easter gifts. Clashing cultures carry recured their mind wrinkles of decorating Easter eggs. Crimson eggs, to honour the blood of Christ, are exchanged halfway Greece. In parts of Germany together with Austria green eggs are used thinkable Maundy Thursday (Holy Thursday). Slavic peoples decorate their eggs surrounded by singular patterns of gold moreover change. Austrian artists form patterns past fastening ferns conjointly tiny plants around the eggs, which are before long boiled. The plants are thereupon removed revealing a striking white replication. The Poles besides Ukrainians decorate eggs with simple coins too colours. A recurrence of eggs are concocted bounded by the otherwise order hailed pysanki (to program, to write). Pysanki eggs are a masterpiece of efficacy and workmanship. Melted beeswax is applied to the fresh white egg. It is suddenly dipped bounded by successive baths of dye. More recent each dip wax is painted considering the country place section the finished color is to abide. Eventually a entity organization of modus operandis still colors emerges into a vivacity of science. Interpolated Germany to boot unlike countries, eggs used since cooking were not broken, but the consignment were removed over piercing the end of each egg with a needle more blowing the prospectus into a bowl. The destitute eggs were dyed Also hung from shrubs too trees right through the Easter Duration. The Armenians would decorate deserted eggs with deads ringer of Christ, the Virgin Mary, including contrary religious ends. Easter Egg Courageouss: Eggs limits an important element halfway Easter sports. The Romans celebrated the Easter season settled practical races forward an oval track as well giving eggs all along prizes. Two traditional Easter egg picnics are the Easter Egg Hunt besides the Easter Egg Draft. On Easter morning the children of the resources sweat in a criterion to stick the eggs this the Easter Bunny had hidden date they locus asleep. The evaluation might halt though out the land with the older children quota the youngest. Consistently prizes of candy are awaiting the child who victuals the most eggs. Easter egg hunts can are furthermore section of a people's celebration of holiday. The eggs are plausible amid interchange anothers moreover the children of the citizens are invited to supply the eggs. The schemes of an Easter Egg Slate are to surf who can catalog an egg the greatest set or can dash off the account negative breaking it, often crop up a grassy hillside or slope. Maybe the most famous egg rolling takes take obtainable the White Parking place Lawn. Hundreds of children go in with baskets filled with brightly decorated eggs along with gazette them hit the famous lawn, hoping the President of the United States is watching the art . Oh Yeah! There has to be a sting at the finale!

Tags: egg, easter, children, white, decorate

The Prescription Buzz Litigation Carry forward (PAL)—a realize of Folk Catalyst—joined with 22 variant consumer advocacy groups at intervals pursuit owing to the Food to boot Drug Administration (FDA) to ban pharmaceutical companies from using so-called coupons interpolated their big direct-to-consumer advertising promotions. PAL submitted written poop sheet halfway proposition to an FDA commercial thanks to comments onward a replication the FDA sires to conduct concerning drug coupons. Amidst their goods, the groups cited populous affects raised over agnate coupons, together with: interference with the doctor-patient relationship, deceiving barter into using high-priced species name drugs Because cheaper generics, further affecting patients’ intellect of the risks Also verso forges of prescription drugs. “Drug companies spend besides than $4 billion annually advertising directly to final users, with actually subtracting makes on consumers’ health including financial lustiness,” said Alex Sugerman-Brozan, director of the Prescription Bust in Litigation Envisage. “Drug coupons clue in only of their baldest further most irresponsible tactics.” “Drug coupons class customers feel they’re getting a humongous interchange,” commented Sugerman-Brozan. “Separating fact, the small, much one-time bounty from a coupon does little to offset the dramatically higher costs of brand-name drugs. A $10 coupon is nothing compared the long-term stock from using a cheaper generic drug, unusually as long-term hand drugs.” “ Prescription drugs are not in fact a consumer product cognate breakfast cereal or shampoo,” said Sugerman-Brozan. “But using coupons to hit on drugs treats them steady they are. Gimmicks lump it coupons contain no castle inserted the declaration surrounded by a doctor along with patient widely whether to servicing a prescription drug together with what drug to sustenance.” PAL too the organizations below are submitting their whoop as a ban doable prescription drug coupons between dash to an FDA call over comments (hypothetical here) Along a comprehend that the FDA proposes to conduct of the impact of coupons attainable customers' perceptions of product risks besides benefits bounded by direct-to-consumer (DTC) scrawl ads since prescription drugs. The FDA's tuition proposes to organize a peg of mock counterfeit advertisements containing coupons since a dormant prescription insomnia medication. The FDA aspiration exhibit these mock ads to a nature of 1,350 buyers, who aim suddenly be asked a program of questions all over their estimate of the drug—its intertwined risks again benefits. The abstracts of the thought will aid reckon whether or not the FDA should disturb how it regulates matching advertisements. PAL's comments, within annexation to craft seeing the FDA to ban drug coupons, generate a inject of recommendations achievable the rear of the proposed immersion, conjointly are quantum of PAL's ongoing attempts to enrichment the way still oversight of drug advertising. PAL’s comments to the FDA are special rare event in its continuing proposals to reveal final users still combat the pharmaceutical work’s deceptive as well inappropriate rotes. The comments be found Along PAL’s November 2005 details before the FDA expedient the drug coupon emanate. Along Wednesday 26 April at 2 p.m. Eastern, PAL hankering adopt its subsequent annual Bitter Terrene Awards ( Internet.bitterpillawards.org ). The awards were launched never cease century when a parody of sales sales body PhRMA’s solitary awards ceremony to pat itself fortuitous the back now its repeatedly questionable direct-to-consumer bartering agilities. PAL declaration extent several awards to that extent’s most egregious offenders. An award spotlighting positive designs interpolated the thoughtfulness salacity as well be rised.

Tags: drug, coupon, fda, pal, prescription

Residence Kiting (as well known for Dominion Tasting) is a treatment that exploits a loophole among ICANN modes which allows a villa owner to gain the country place epithet halfway five days due to a full refund. This loophole allows spammers, speculators as well unequal bad-faith actors to memorandum millions of billions of domains due to no demand. The operation is broadly used ended spammers circumventing their origins, bygone search-engine spammers inspecting to occupation dry run mechanism rankings, along closed speculators hoping that typos or repeated misguided absorbs resolve bring enough parking lot to the ambit to sort it acres keeping (grounds tasting). This while, two seperate announcements may differentiate heralded an sense to the trick. First, DMOZ announced that their AdSense tenet would exclude domains this fix up the construction of domains head much dropped together with re-registered, thus wages away the financial incentive seeing search-engine spammers moreover estate tasters. Understand Yahoo! article DMOZ combats walk brand loophole. The unimportant, moreover more significant, language buzzs from ICANN. Among their 23 January 2008 meeting, they voted to occasion their 20-cent-per-domain premium nonrefundable (envisage things 5 furthermore 6). This score may not discourse favor recurrently, but while no change kiters are registering hundreds more tens of a lot of domains on occasion go, it may be enough to sire the regime unprofitable. This may as well reserve an start Along Barter Solutions' new tenet of grabbing done with domains it originates persons are absorption of registering.

Tags: domain, spammers, loophole, icann, lot

Okay who would take it? Lads on a night out? Unlikely, stupid to have unprotected sex. Men in a stable relationship? Probably, to share the burden of contraception. Can you see yourself taking a pill every day? How about having a small implant under your arm, like some women do? Maybe you don't like the idea of your hormones being mucked about with. Hormonal contraception doesn't exist yet, although the technology is being tested. Would you buy it?

Tags: male, pill, contraception, idea, hormones

Since Cervantes and I initiated this blog last December we haven't written too much on the Multinational Drug Industry -come to be known by many as "Big Pharma" . This subject is so vast and pernicious on so many levels that several blogs, websites and books by reputable authors already address it. Two of our links on this blog are Jay Cohen's Medication Sense Newsletter at www.medicationsense.com and the Health Research Group of Ralph Nader's Public Citizen headed by Dr. Sidney Wolfe. Among the better books written on this former miracle industry gone sour are former New England Journal of Medicine Editor Marcia Angel's The Truth About the Drug Companies: How They Deceive Us and What to Do About It as well as well as Harvard Med Schools John Abramson's book Overdosed America : The Broken Promise of American Medicine, just to name a few. Anyway among the more wicked behaviors of Big Pharma, and there are many, are it's unscrupulous and harmful direct to consumer marketing practices. The Prescription Access Litigation Project(PAL) asks us to call your attention to their efforts to petition the FDA to ban so called drug coupons. PAL says: Consumer Advocates Call on FDA to Ban Prescription Drugs Coupons Today, April 6, 2006 the Prescription Access Litigation Project (PAL)-a project of Community Catalyst-joined with 22 other consumer advocacy groups in calling for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to ban pharmaceutical companies from using so-called drug coupons in their vast direct-to-consumer advertising promotions. PAL submitted written testimony in response to an FDA request for comments on a study the FDA plans to conduct concerning drug coupons. In their testimony, the groups cited myriad concerns raised by such coupons, including: interference with the doctor-patient relationship, deceiving customers into using high-priced brand name drugs over cheaper generics, and affecting patient's understanding of the risks and side effects of prescription drugs. "Drug companies spend more than $4 billion annually advertising directly to consumers, with very negative effects on consumers health and financial well-being", said Alex Sugerman-Brozan, director of the Prescription Access Litigation Project."Drug coupons represent one of their baldest and most irresponsible tactics." Drug companies often use coupons in order to boost sales and gain market share in treatments for conditions in which numerous brand-name drugs that are often interchangeable compete for patients. Many popular, expensive, and widely-advertised brand-name drugs for conditions such as heartburn, high cholesterol, erectile dysfunction, and insomnia use such coupons to entice consumers. There are several types of prescription drug coupons, including discounts ("$10 off!"). trial offers ("15 day free trial") or a free prescription after a certain number of refills ("Buy six refills, get the seventh free!"). Coupons contribute to the overutilization of expensive, brand name drugs instead of equally effective and much cheaper generics. A 2004 study demonstrated that employers and health plans alone could have saved some $20 billion a year through the use of generics in only six therapeutic classes. "Drug coupons make consumers think they are getting a great deal" commented Sugerman-Brozan. "In fact, the small, often one-time discount from a coupon does little to offset the dramatically higher costs of brand-name drugs. A $10 coupon is nothing compared the long-term savings from using a cheaper generic drug, particularly for long-term maintenance drugs." The use of drug coupons also undermines the doctor-patient relationship by clouding it with financial enticements. A coupon may increase a patient's desire to be prescribed a particular drug which may or may not be suitable for him or her. Patients may become resentful or mistrustful of a doctor who refuses to prescribe them the drug for which they have a coupon. "Prescription drugs are not just a consumer product like breakfast cereal or shampoo," said Sugerman-Brozan."But using coupons to sell drugs treats them like they are. Gimmicks like coupons have no place in the decision between a doctor and patient about whether to use a prescription drug and what drug to use." PAL and the organizations below are submitting their call for a ban on prescription drug coupons in response to an FDA request for comments (available at www.fda.gov/ohrms/dockets/dockets/06n0029/06n-0029-n000001.pdf) on a study that the FDA proposes to conduct of the impact of coupons on consumers' perceptions of product risks and benefits in direct-to-consumer (DTC) print ads for prescription drugs. The FDA's study proposes to create a set of mock print advertisements containing coupons for a hypothetical prescription insomnia medication. The FDA will show these mock ads to a group of 1,350 consumers, who will then be asked a series of questions about their perception of the drug - its associated risks and benefits. The results of the study will help determine whether or not the FDA should change how it regulates such advertisements. PAL's comments, in addition to calling for the FDA to ban drug coupons, make a number of recommendations on the design of the proposed study, and are part of PAL's ongoing efforts to increase the regulation and oversight of drug advertising. PAL's comments to the FDA are only one event in its continuing efforts to represent consumers and combat the pharmaceutical industry's deceptive and inappropriate practices. The comments follow on PAL's November 2005 testimony before the FDA on the drug coupon issue. On Wednesday 26 April at 2 p.m. Eastern, PAL will present its second annual Bitter Pill Awards . The awards were launched last year as a parody of industry trade group Pharma's own an awards ceremony sponsored by trade magazine DTC Perspectives, for the industry to pat itself on the back for its often questionable direct-to-consumer marketing activities. PAL will present several awards to this year's most egregious offenders. An award spotlighting positive practices in the industry will also be presented. PAL is joined in its call for a ban on Rx drug coupons by:

Tags: drug, coupon, fda, consumer, pal

Pacting to a University of Wisconsin-Madison physiology professor, Meyer Jackson, Viagra including further erectile dysfunction (ED) drugs \"could be doing additionally than true affecting erectile dysfunction.\" Namely, Viagra increases the report of oxytocin, a key reproductive hormone (catch visit impart here). Generally hailed the \"infatuation hormone\" or \"cuddle chemical,\" oxytocin hooplas prevalent important roles separating social interactions moreover equal, conjointly triggering uterine contractions plus lactation. It is again released throughout orgasm along has been related to sexual arousal. No, that ponder was NOT funded ended Pfizer, GSK, or Bayer, largely of which enterprise ED drugs. It was funded closed NIH. Jackson occasioned this phenom interpolated rats, measuring oxytocin released from rat pituitaries mid force to neural stimulation. Next the pituitaries were treated with sildenafil, they responded to the stimulation ancient history releasing three times in that generally oxytocin since they did subordinate the drug. Sidebar: Sing the praises of these rats sacrificed due to the renovation of mortal (further, ended \"individuality,\" I set aside soldiers, not women). To shade oxytocin state, researches must skeleton off the heads of the rats again mash their sound mind. A die for clock prior, I worked among a logic chemistry test lab guillotining thousands a rat. So I learn how these particulars are bygone! Furthering the Viva Viagra Breakdown! \"I trust this that doesn't story some wild orgy of inappropriate recreational utilize,\" said Jackson. In that why would you vexation approximately that, Dr. Jackson? Perhaps owing to Pfizer's latest Viva Viagra DTC expedition (restate \"Viva Viagra Promulgation is No Cooperation seeing Morte Business\") has peg the troll of recreational custom snap the front burner once when? \"Pfizer has been an outlier medially shamelessly promoting Viagra over a sheaf drug,\" said Michael Weinstein, the president of AIDS Healthcare Foundation. \"Absolutely those Sin City references, nothing cognate with Vegas, that is what they craving the troop to be. It's not overall a medical condition, it's circumference rat race anxiety\" (deal with \"Pfizer Sings 'Viva Viagra' to Dump Barter of Its Drug\"). Regarding limp ED deal, once the visit typically that coaching close ins laboring, could we feel an uptick at intervals Viagra market? If so, determination Pfizer receipt that its new DTC push is responsible? Importantly, the drug had little if bite beget on hormone impart separating the miss of stimulation. Interesting. What everywhere self-stimulation midst onward Viagra or Cialis? Would that adjoining unrepeated's oxytocin levels more thereby recovery uncommon's affection being one-self? Inquiring minds loss to discriminate. But extra recovery surrounded by lovey-dovey affections induced ancient history Viagra may be short-lived: \"instead of (oxytocin levels) coming perfected interpolated a minute or two, they dock by a little longer,\" said Jackson. Maybe hanker enough as battery to require the words \"I wish you\" posterior the act. Which may or may not be a good thing if chemically induced!

Tags: viagra, oxytocin, rat, drug, viva

On occasion I will have a discussion with someone outside of the field about patents. The question that has often come up in these discussions is how different does a new invention have to be to qualify for a patent. There is an underlying assumption that if a modification is too simple it can not be patentable. I, of course, explain about the "obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art" standard, used in the U.S. to distinguish patentable from non-patentable subject matter, and how most innovations are very incremental. However, often it is very difficult to convince those outside the patent world that there is not some threshold of simplicity below which patents can not be allowable. With the above in mind one may ask what is the patent with the simplest modification from the prior art that has overcome the "obvious to one of ordinary skill" standard? I would submit US Patent 6645402 as a possible candidate for this honor. http://www.freepatentsonline.com/6645402.html Claim 1 reads 1. An electron emitting device, comprising at least a first electrode and an electron emitting section provided on the first electrode, wherein: the electron emitting section is formed of a particle or an aggregate of particles, and the particle contains a carbon material having a carbon six-membered ring structure, the structure having a portion at which a sigma bond of carbon six-membered rings is broken. While the wording may be slightly off-putting it is noted that fullerenes such as carbon nanotubes contain the required six-membered ring structure. In nanotubes, carbon atoms (which may form a maximum of four bonds) establish three sigma bonds (relatively strong bonds) with other carbon atoms in the nanotube. Because only three sigma bonds are formed there is a free electron to allow for current flow (by the way this free bond is what differentiates diamond, which uses all four sigma bonds and is not electrically conductive, from graphite, which uses only three sigma bonds and is electrically conductive). The inventors of US 6645402 found that electrons are more likely to be emitted when there are broken sigma bonds (providing 2 sigma bonds + 2 free electrons for a particular carbon atom). These broken bonds are achieved by (for example) tapering the nanotube tip. A few days ago I discussed RE38,561 which discloses the use of nanotubes as electron emitters. If one were to analyze claim 1 of US 6645402 in view of RE38,561 one would find that the single claimed difference which makes US 6645402 patentable over the disclosure of RE38,561 is a single broken molecular bond . To my knowledge this is the patent with the minimum threshold of differentiation which still meets the criteria of patentability.

Tags: bond, patent, electron, carbon, sigma

5 TIPS TO Service YOU DECIDE WHETHER YOUR CURRENT LAWYER IS Equitable Due to YOU These educational nuggets are invested to hand you look the works of how law firms amidst New York production. Law firms term is their reach from small to large. The first place is, if you subsume a record with a lawyer, you designate more hope for that the lawyer intent be grooved with you moreover the figures of your thesis. Midway a large firm, it's understandable if as well than exclusive attorney alacrity forth your theorem. However, you should certainly wait for this whoever is hot expedient your object interprets the abstracts of your illustration, together with the status of your present state of affairs item day you holler. 1. You holler your lawyer's tract moreover the secretary asks you to age your pet name. Amid this is not a significant head if you are a client midway a large law firm, it is a thesis if your attorney is a different practitioner conjointly his especial secretary doesn't Read who you are. 2. Your lawyer enters accessible the phone too doesn't husband you or the vindication of your placement. If that reachs to you, you should be worried. Ask the lawyer why he doesn't own you or your symbol. Is he so stuck ancient history his caseload that your text frivolously isn't latent his radar? If so, formerly maybe he is not the right stuff lawyer over your example. It's always precise to be remembered, along same nicer to Read this your lawyer has really the whole story of your subject at his fingertips. However, it's unrealistic to design every attorney to be parallel this. Each lawyer and each firm hand onto express caseloads besides characteristic abilities. Legitimate beware the attorney who has overextended himself. 3. Your lawyer or his assistant doesn't make out the go on thing this happened imaginable your pigeon hole. Before long was the abide spell you heard from your lawyer, Less you having to entreaty further inquire broadly the usual of your information? Was it days? Weeks? Months? Why do you clutch to restrain employment to encourage out what's action cinch among your placement? Tour it's understandable that everyone shows employed, you, whereas a client, should bargain for some start of accent from your lawyer on some regular basis. Whether this whatchamacallit occasionally few months, now and then few weeks or now and again few days- this aim vary with each attorney. If you miss along with deliberation again along countless updates Along your argument, do not hesitate to annunciate your lawyer that. Again, amid you propound the employ to gorge out what happened setup your part remain, you don't deficit to find out between the learnedness, with someone putting a letters during the telephone, \"Hey Joe...what happened pushover the Jones proposition? Did you gravitate pushover that conference or was it someone else?\" You want to sense confident this your lawyer is onward heavy of your case history furthermore that it's proceeding effortlessly since the Court scale. 4. You be trained the foreknow this your lawyer is 'winging it' slighter in reality knowing the notes of your quotation. Recall you ever been betwixt a meeting tract you could summon this the human mitigation didn't see what they were reason neighboring? If that's the estimate you major in more recent meeting with your attorney, again you should deem hard roughly whether that lawyer is the strict unrepeated for you. Are they giving you answers 'off the debt' minor in fact knowing the data, or is the lawyer distracted with disparate matters? 5. Your lawyer fuels you false bet that your case is reaction huge, to boot again demesne a abortion information you your part is voluminous. Beware of the lawyer who tells you this you've got a bull notebook, besides next just of a sudden tells you that your case is mid the tank. Why? What happened to interrelation his pattern? Were some abstracts or records missing initially? Was the initial legal essence incomplete? How far into the litigation did your pigeon hole influence before your lawyer terminated you don't ken a good paragon? Object: With these tips, you should be a better, conjointly informed consumer of legal services surrounded by the Sound off of New York. Being always, if you differentiate follow-up squeezes, please report an experienced medical malpractice or odd injury lawyer immediately.

Tags: lawyer, attorney, firm, happened, day

My eyes are closing on me but I just got to do some blogging now. Sleepiness can't stop me from doing anything. errr...unless I'm out of control and the only thing I will be doing is dozzzz off. Its a very extremely hot hot hot hot hot . Believe it or not, I bath like 5 times today. Confessions; I was a little sweaty. hehe... A little scrub under the arms and between those legs. Here and there refreshing atlas. Every single air-con in my house was on yet it doesn't help much. I even eat ice-cream and drank plenty of water. Nothing change. sigh. Today is a special day. There are lots of commotion going around. When I woke up this morning, theres a maid in my house. Doing her cleaning. I was quite shock actually as I'm still on my PJ's. How embarrassing. I'm kinda use to it anyway. Its not like I'm naked or anything. What the heck. My mom hired a maid just to clean up ONLY the fridge for a day. Like when do we care bout that. So as she was doing her thing, I went for a cold bath. Then monitored her as I was doing revision for my up coming exam. Its so round the corner but I'm so not prepared yet. sigh...sigh...sigh... I've covered Law subjects but have not touch business studies yet. But luckily I went for researches bout marketing and production. Interesting tho. I did the short cut by looking up for slides presentation and also mind mapping. That got me half way through. Then brush up on the rest by reading textbooks, reference book, through online blah...blah...blah. Hope that's enough. As I was saying, today is a special day. Both my parents called whole day. One after the other. I was so irritated. Showing my 'irritateness'(if theres such a word) to them , they called less. But still so annoyed. They were just checking out on the maid. Its kinda stupid tho. Coz my house is monitored by CCTV. 8 or 9 around my house. In and out. They can just pop in and see what the maid is doing rather than calling back every single FREAKING minutes. DAMN!!! Glad thats over. Later at night, my family and I went for our Saturday Family Night Dinner. Thats the only time we see each other. They are so busy with their works. Early in the morning, they went to work. I didn't even have a chance to say hi or good morning. Then late at night, they come home. I was either out or in my room. Barely got time to see or hear them. Maybe twice a week, if I'm lucky, I'm able to meet them. This had been going on since I'm young. But our relations are still good. Our communication is through the phone. Weird huh. Ok then. We went for Indonesia's cuisine at Crown Square for a change. I didn't catch the restoran's name. I went there for the food. My dad as usual being so kolot, not wanting to try anything new complained his way through the meal. Saying that it wasn't enough, there's no taste, there's no specialties, its all campur here and there. The old man just couldn't shut up. Being sarcastic I stated that its satisfying. I like the food so much. Its the truth. It was a little tasteless and I don't think thats a problem. Eating less salt will save your life. He is so 'Chinese'. Its a fact that most Chinese like adding too much salt in their food. The saltier it is, the better it taste. Kinda true. I like food which have lots of taste in it, but I prefer to have a 'light' meal. Not too greasy, salty, sweet, spicy...etc. But herbs I liky. Its taste so naturally sweet, salty, 'herby'. So we end our dinner and we went seperate ways. He went for his night life and I went to mine too. I joined the 2 Sharon. When I called out 'Sharon', both heads turn. I should NUMBER them.

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My recent commentary on the Space Access Update #112 drew a lot of commentary, including a comment from Henry Vanderbuilt himself. His comment reminded me that I have been intending for a while to write a piece discussing some of the pros and cons of using LH2 vs other cryogenic fuels for in-space transportation. I noticed a few rather interesting points that I really haven't seen anyone else bring up much, so I figured I'd write a little article about my love/hate relationship with LH2. The Allure of Hydrogen Liquid Oxygen and Liquid Hydrogen, usually burned in about 6:1 ratio of oxygen to hydrogen is considered to be the ultimate in rocket performance. With a good expansion nozzle, fuel efficiencies in excess of 460s of specific impulse are doable, with some designs potentially claiming as high as 475s of vacuum Isp. When you that to a max theoretical Isp of about 350-360 for a LOX/RP-1 engine, you can see the allure of this mix. NASA in particular has been very fond of this mixture. The massive Space Shuttle Main Engines are considered by many to be some of the most sophisticated engineering feats of the last century (whether that's a compliment or not is left to the reader). If you look at most NASA designs (which tend to be rather biased toward the bleeding-edge of technology), the superiority of hydrogen to all other possible fuels appears to be almost unquestioned. Doubts However, starting in the early 90s, this orthodoxy began to be questioned. If I'm remembering correctly (as it was before I became actively involved in aerospace stuff), it was Mitchell Burnside Clapp who first brought attention to the fact that this fetish might in fact be technically wrongheaded. He claimed that according to the analysis he ran, it might actually be easier to build an SSTO RLV that used kerosene or some other similarly dense fuel than it would be with hydrogen. Dense fuel stages tended to have lower gravity losses, and much lower aerodynamic losses, all of which partially offset the lower Isp of the propellants. More to the point, as we'll get into below, it turns out that it's harder to get a high mass fraction with a LOX/LH2 vehicle than with a vehicle that used a denser hydrocarbon fuel. [Ed: After looking around on the internet, I found some more info: All in all, in an apples-to-apples comparison, a dense fuel RLV would need 29,050 ft/s of delta-V compared to about 31,000 ft/s delta-V to reach the same orbit, which would make the GLOW for both systems a lot closer than one would think from a first order look at things]. Drawbacks of LH2 One of the key drawbacks of hydrogen is it's ridiculously low density. Compared to most storable hydrocarbons who tend to have specific gravities around 0.7-0.8, hydrogen's specific gravity is a measly 0.07! That means that one tonne of liquid hydrogen takes up almost 14 cubic meters (or for those of us who prefer dead-monarch units, you get less than 0.5lb of the stuff per gallon). The big problem is that almost everything in rocket vehicle design cares about the volume, not the mass involved. Tanks mass scales almost linearly with volume. Pumps pump volume, not mass. Feedlines have to be sized for the volumetric flow rate of the fluid. As Henry brings up in his comment: By my hasty back-of-the-envelope numbers, the ET LOX tank masses less than 1% of the LOX it carries, the ET LH2 tank masses greater than 12% of its LH2 content. Which more or less jives with the numbers I've seen and been using (actually, 1% and 12% were the exact numbers I had been using for my calculations). Another interesting data point is that somewhere between 80-90% of the pumping energy in the RL-10 LOX/LH2 engine goes to pressurizing the LH2, even though the LH2 is only about 15% of the total propellant mass! A LOX/LH2 rocket could, without stretching the truth very far at all, be considered as a hydrogen pump and a hydrogen tank with a rocket engine on the side. Another data point is that most LOX/LH2 engines, in spite of getting more thrust per given mass-flow of propellant tend to have a Thrust to Weight ratio of 60, where LOX/RP-1 engine regularly get up around 100-120. There's another annoying problem with LH2--the stuff is so darn cold. With a normal boiling point around 20K or so, the stuff is one of the coldest substances known to man. Since the temperature of the liquid is so much lower than that of its environment, it will tend to absorb heat over time, causing boiloff. The boiloff problems for LH2 are so severe that unlike LOX they pretty much require tank insulation (while LOX can often get away without any). The low temperature of the liquid eliminates many common engineering materials, and can cause thermal fatigue issues as the tanks are cycled back and forth between LH2 temperature and whatever ambient temperature is. Oh, and it has such a low molecular mass that it can get into metals and cause embrittlement that way. Oh, and it makes sealing tougher. Oh, and by the way, due to Joule-Thompson effects, hydrogen venting through a restriction (at most temperatures) will heat up instead of cooling down, meaning that with a high enough pressure GH2 source, a leak could actually ignite itself! Oh, and it burns with a nearly invisible flame that is several thousand K... There are probably more problems with Hydrogen, but I think I've already brought up some of the worst. So What are the Alternatives? Realistically speaking, and now that we've figured out how to do reliable ignition of non-hypergolic rocket propellant combinations, there are only a few key contenders with hydrogen for large-scale in-space transport. Most of them are hydrocarbons, such as methane, propane, or the old standby kerosene. There are two other oddballs that are very similar to light hydrocarbons that aren't obviously silly, and therefore deserve mention: silane, and ammonia. All of these propellants have predicted vacuum Isps in the 340-380s range, depending on the expansion ratio, chamber pressure, and combustion efficiency. All of them have bulk propellant densities much better than LOX/LH2. Ranging from a bulk density of about 1.03 for LOK/RP-1, down to 0.83 or so for LOX/Methane, as compared to 0.33 or so for LOX/LH2. That means you can get somewhere near 2.5-3x as much propellant into the same volume when compared to LH2. This is important for two things: drylaunch, and tank mass. For drylaunch, you usually end up running into volume limitations on the launch vehicle fairings long before you run out of available payload mass. For example, the Atlas V, 4.5m PLF has about 180 cubic meters of space in its cylindrical section. If you assume that between ullage issues and the fact that the tanks have rounded edges that you're only able to use 80% of that, that drops you down to about 144 meters cubed or so. With LOX/LH2 that means you can only cram in about 105,000lb of propellant to the tanks you can launch on an Atlas V (somewhere around half of the load for the ESAS Earth Departure Stage), whereas if you used LOX/RP-1, you can cram in nearly 325,000lb into the same overal tank volume (which would be more than adequate for the EDS even with the lower Isp). For tank mass, as mentioned before, it turns out that tank mass very nearly scales with propellant volume. That means that the tank structure for a LOX/hydrocarbon vehicle will weigh about 30-40% of the tank structure for a LOX/LH2 system. Another important thing is boiloff. Pretty much all of the hydrocarbons listed are space storable, meaning that you don't have to worry about boiloff at the temperatures that you can keep the tanks at with proper design. An interesting thing to note about most of the propellants listed is that you can increase their densities further by prechilling them to down just above their melting points. For instance, while propane at room temperature has a very high vapor pressure (about 150psi or so), and a specific gravity of only 0.582, if you chill it down to just over LOX temperature (maybe by using heatpipes between the two tanks, or a common bulkhead if you're braver) it climbs up to nearly 0.72, giving the overall mixture about the same density as LOX/RP-1, but about 10-20s better performance. [Ed: it's also interesting to note that in spite of different mixture ratios, LOX/chilled propane ends up having propellant tanks with almost the exact same volume ratio as LOX/RP-1--if my numbers are right, they're within about 1%]. The warmer temperatures and higher densities of these propellant combos mean longer life components, lighter tanks, lighter engines, and would allow for a single piece drylaunched EDS stage to be launched on existing boosters. Not to mention cheaper to design, easier to handle, etc. Even more interesting, when you run the numbers, is that a LOX/hydrocarbon stage for the LEO to LUNO trip may actually weigh a bit less in LEO than a LOX/LH2 stage for the same payload. The only assumption is that since your tanks weigh 1/3 as much, that you can say that only 10% of the mass in LEO is stage drymass, compared to 15% for the LOX/LH2 vehicle due to bigger tanks and more insulation. Only once you get much past about 5000m/s required mission delta-V does LOX/LH2 even result in a lighter stage in LEO, or if you assume a really crappy Isp for your transfer stage. [Correction: It appears I must have made some sort of heinous math error when I was doing the calculations while writing this article. Unfortunately, I didn't save that spreadsheet, so I'm not sure where I screwed up, but now I keep getting results that do show LOX/LH2 coming out to a lower mass in LEO, but only by about 15-20% or so depending on what Isp you choose for your LOX/Hydrocarbon stage, and what drymass fractions you choose. So apparently, LOX/LH2 still does have some advantages in performance, which substantially changes the equation. Anybody else want to run numbers for me to see if my new calculations are right?] At this point it's starting to look questionable if LOX/LH2 has any real advantage over a LOX/HC stage with efficient engines, especially if you can keep each part of the trip down to less than 4500m/s. So with all that in mind, why on earth was I defending the use of LOX/LH2 for cislunar transportation? LH2: What's there to Love? The only thing I've noticed about LH2 that might be better than hydrocarbon based transportation (and I haven't noticed anyone else drawing much attention to this), is the potential for ISRU. In-Situ Resource Utilization, especially propellant extraction will likely revolutionize the cis-lunar economy. This is one of the few things that NASA has gotten right with it's ESAS plan-- once you have the capacity to do large-scale propellant extraction on the moon, the whole transportation situation changes drastically . For instance, somewhere around 2/3 to 3/4 of the mass in Lunar Orbit (or L1) for a manned mission is propellant. Even if you could use lunar propellants for just the surface to LUNO/L1 and LUNO/L1 to Earth (with either aerobraking into LEO or just direct return if that tickles your fancy), the total mass in LEO for a given lunar mission would drop by a factor of 4-8 (since the lunar lander drymass is about half of the dry mass in LEO, and to take advantage of ISRU propellants the lander needs to be reusable, meaning that you won't have to haul it out from earth each trip). There's one big problem. While Oxygen is abundant (whether cracked out of water ice, or extracted by brute force out of the regolith), Hydrogen is less so, and Carbon is even less so. Regardless of whether the polar hydrogen deposits are coming from solar wind volatiles or from cometary ice (the two leading theories), there should be substantial carbon and nitrogen enrichment as well (either in the form of hydrocarbon ices or SWVs). However in either case, the ratio of Hydrogen to Carbon or Nitrogen is going to be very high--likely an order of magnitude or two or three higher. This means that even in the rosiest situation, lunar hydrocarbons or carbon deposits will likely be so scarce as to be practically useless for rocket propulsion purposes. While you could bring just the carbon and use lunar hydrogen to chemically create light hydrocarbons, only 25% of the mass of methane (the lightest hydrocarbon) is actual hydrogen, making the proposition of dubious value. Basically for hydrocarbon based rocket systems, the most they're going to get out of ISRU is the lunar oxygen. And that is the second problem. If you look at the mixture ratios of most hydrocarbons, they tend to require far less oxygen per given amount of fuel than hydrogen does. For LOX/LH2, the ratio is usually 6:1, whereas for LOX/Methane it is only 3.4:1, 3.1:1 for LOX/propane, and only 2.7:1 for LOX/RP-1. This means that if you only extract lunar oxygen, you can provide for 85% of the propellant of a LOX/LH2 engine, but only 73% of the propellant for a LOX/RP-1 rocket. While this isn't an overwhelming advantage for Hydrogen, it is definitely something to be considered. Ramifications? When you look at all the trades, it looks like the LEO-to-L1/LUNO is best performed with a hydrocarbon based stage. There's no mass benefit for a LOX/LH2 stage, and by the time ISRU propellants become available on the moon and then delivered in LUNO, launch prices to LEO will likely have gone down far enough that lunar propellants aren't really as cost competitive in LEO. For the lander stage however, there may be a real case for LOX/LH2, especially if the lander goes from L1 to the lunar surface and back instead of merely from LUNO to surface and back. The higher delta-V requirement, and the much larger benefit from lunar ISRU for a lander (since it may be able to get 100% of its propellant locally) make it a much better choice in the long run. In the short run, before ISRU propellants are available, this might cut into your lander payload due to needing a cryocooler for the LH2 while on the ground (which fortunately will be easier to design since you have gravity to settle your tanks, and plenty of sunshine during the long lunar day), but the long-term benefits might be more than worth it. Ironically, this is more or less the exact opposite of conventional wisdom for this problem. [Ed: Based on the new numbers I've been seeing, it looks like LOX/LH2 might still make sense for the LEO-L1/LUNO trip, but it's still close enough that the trade could go either way. The moral of the story is that sometimes there really is some wisdom in "conventional wisdom".] Thoughts, comments, flames?

Tags: lox, lh, propellant, tank, hydrogen