Let’s See What Happens

Let’s see what happens over the next week or two on these.

Jan 06, 2009 – Go Long:

ARM – $3.27

EMKR – $1.21

CPE – $3.15

FED – $3.11

SRZ – $1.66

GGP – $1.45

THC – $1.19

KVA – $3.60

HUN – $4.40

Astounding Industrial Artwork

I ran across some amazing artwork at ConceptArt.org today. The thread at that first link is a running gallery of winners in an ongoing industrial design competition. That place is simply bursting with talented artists.

I stumbled across that via this io9 post.

Update: more astounding artwork here.

Promising Progress in Bioengineering

Ars Technica links up an article from The Lancet describing the successful growth of a patient’s own cells to coat a tracheal husk (my non-bio-engineer-type word) from a donor, to replace an airway and save a lung:

Four days after being implanted, tests revealed that the graft was well vascularized and by one month was indistinguishable from the patient’s native airways.

Since the cells used to seed the matrix were the patient’s own, there was no need for any form of immunosuppression, as the cells present in the graft all expressed the right host antigens, meaning there was no danger of an immune reaction. The implanted graft successfully opened up the patient’s airway and saved her lung, so this study represents a major success for the bioengineering of replacement tissues.

It also appears that the bioengineered replacement airway was created without the use of controversial (in the United States, anyway) stem cells:

A biopsy was taken of the recipient’s lung tissue and bone marrow, and these samples were used to culture epithelial and chondrocytic cells respectively.

The link to the Lancet article seems to be dead at the moment, and my cursory search didn’t turn it up, so hopefully Ars will fix it.

Jargon to Avoid

Lifehacker links up a couple lists of hackneyed words and phrases to avoid using. The first is from  Oxford University and the second is from the BBC.

I would add to those a couple phrases I hear almost daily that jangle my spine every time I hear them: “no-brainer” and “It’s my understanding that…”

Coincidence?

Fun factiod.  Since June the market’s down about 30% or more.  Bud’s stock has been UP 30%.  Coincidence?

While the markets around the world are in the shitter and everyone’s ready and waiting for the sun to explode, it seems that they’ve been enjoying a few beers on the way.  I must say that the Bud Light Lime is quite nice.  So I must admit to contributing to Bud’s bottom line.

Follow the link to Mark Perry’s site: http://mjperry.blogspot.com/2008/11/market-is-down-by-30-but-buds-up-by-30.html

I caught Ira Flatow’s show Science Friday on the radio last week (mp3) in which he discussed the iGEM contest:

The International Genetically Engineered Machine competition (iGEM) is the premiere undergraduate Synthetic Biology competition. Student teams are given a kit of biological parts at the beginning of the summer from the Registry of Standard Biological Parts. Working at their own schools over the summer, they use these parts and new parts of their own design to build biological systems and operate them in living cells.

I think there is huge potential for biological machines, something Craig Venter has been talking about for a while, now.

401k Changes On the Way?

Wendy McElroy links an Investment News article that doesn’t bode well for the long-term independence of individually-directed 401k accounts. She sees right through the weasel words of Rep. George Miller:

“We’ve invested $80 billion into subsidizing this activity,” he said, referring to tax breaks allowed for 401(k) contributions and savings.

Does it give anyone else pause that a man who believes a “tax break” is an actual investment by government is discussing how to manage “changes in the market”? Money they haven’t taken from you is money they’ve spent? This is Mad Hatter economics.

Wendy’s entire post is well worth the read.

The Fed: “Nothing to See Here”

I am not at all surprised by the fact that Bernanke and Paulson are refusing to maintain transparency:

Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said in September they would comply with congressional demands for transparency in a $700 billion bailout of the banking system. Two months later, as the Fed lends far more than that in separate rescue programs that didn’t require approval by Congress, Americans have no idea where their money is going or what securities the banks are pledging in return.

…

Bloomberg News has requested details of the Fed lending under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act and filed a federal lawsuit Nov. 7 seeking to force disclosure.

Via Radley Balko.

The Problem with the Comments Here…

…exists between my chair and my keyboard: I just fat-fingered the handful of comments here right straight into oblivion.

Sorry for any inconvenience to everyone who took the time to write. Nothing personal. I just screwed up. I’ll be more careful in the future.

A Budget by Any Other Name

The Wall Street Journal has a good article on creating a “spending plan”, that attempts to ease the connotation of spartan living the word “budget” often brings to mind:

“Budget” might well be the dirtiest word in the financial language.

People hate budgets because budgets seem confining. Like diets, budgets are forever begun with grand intentions, only to be quickly ditched when spending restraints seem too much like a yoke preventing you from disbursing your money as you like.

But in today’s environment, where unemployment is on the rise and where consumers are hung over after a multi-year credit binge, a budget is the very tonic many households need. It doesn’t have to be painful if you understand one salient fact: You control your budget; it doesn’t control you.

Every month, you dictate how you spend your limited financial resources. Your budget has no control over that. You can choose to eat out every day, or you can choose to replace your wardrobe, or you can choose to pay off additional principal on your debt balances, or you can choose to afford a getaway over a long weekend. Whatever you want to do with your money, you can do it.

But here’s the catch: You can’t do everything.

That last paragraph is the key. In a word: prioritize. How to prioritize is explained in great detail in the rest of the article.

I don’t personally use a budget, but I’m pretty good about saving and setting money aside for regular large expenses such as taxes, insurance, unforeseen car repairs, etc. but I can certainly see the benefit of having a budget, er, spending plan.

 

Via LifeHacker.