More drilling is part of a strategy that works

I do not understand how anyone can say that drilling for offshore oil and oil elsewhere will not affect our situation. I also disagree when it is said it will not have an effect for years.

Let’s turn back the clock about 35 years. The oil gangsters of OPEC decided to cut the production of crude oil and drove up the price. The United States then decided to allocate several billion dollars to exploration for oil and for alternative energies. When the oil gangsters realized the United States was serious about this, they opened up the oil faucets and drove the price of crude oil back down, and in the process made that several-billion-dollar investment in new oil and energy sources unattractive.

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Vintage BMWs to rumble through county

Aptos will be overrun by vintage BMWs this weekend — 65 to be exact.

The BMW Vintage & Classic Car Club of America is holding a road rally for vintage BMW automobiles and motorcycles through Northern California, beginning Thursday at the Seascape Resort in Aptos.

Sixty-five vintage BMWs, manufactured between 1928 to 2002, are expected to participate in this year’s California Marathon, a rally which covers 2,000 miles of California roads. The rally starts in Aptos, then heads north to Eureka and southeast to South Lake Tahoe before returning to Aptos.

“We wanted to have the rally in California because it’s a wonderful place,” said club president Goetz Pfafflin, referring to the scenic Northern California roads with views of the Pacific Ocean.

This is the club’s first rally in California and its second in the United States. The club was established in 1973, but reorganized in 2003.

Pfafflin said the club’s first rally grew out of a European rally where he and seven others brought their vintage BMWs to Germany in 2001. They drove 2,500 miles through 11 countries before returning home.

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American Airlines waives third bag fee for traveling soldiers

American Airlines Inc. said Wednesday it will waive fees on third checked bags when the passenger is an active member of the U.S. military, effective immediately.

Fort Worth, Texas-based AMR Corp. (NYSE: AMR), the parent company of American Airlines, says fees on first and second checked bags have always been waived for active-duty soldiers. The carrier also said it knew soldiers traveling on duty were reimbursed by the military for fees paid beyond the first two bags.

Tom Del Valle, American’s senior vice president-airport services said Wednesday “after recently, hearing of the burden the military reimbursement process put on soliders traveling to war zones, the choice for us to forego payment for a third check bag from the Department of Defense was clear.”

American says the company’s previous policy allowed military personnel to travel with up to 190 pounds of luggage at no charge, which included a 100-pound bag, a 50-pound checked bag and another 40 pound-carry on bag.

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Early Study Reveals New Drug Could Improve Executive Function in Alzheimer’s Patients

LONDON, July 29, 2008–An early study has shown that the new drug PBT2 improves two indicators of executive function in patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD), and reduces the levels of the Alzheimer’s-associated protein amyloidβ in the spinal fluid in these patients. These are the conclusions of authors of an Article published early Online and in the September edition of The Lancet Neurology, timed to coincide with the announcement of the findings at the International Conference on Alzheimer’s Disease (ICAD), Chicago.

Amyloidβ can build up into plaques in the brain, and is thought to be toxic to brain cells and prevent them functioning correctly. To accumulate in the brain, amyloidβ needs the metals zinc and copper, and levels of these two metals are elevated in the brains of people with AD. PBT2 works by interrupting the interaction between amyloidβ and these metal ions. PBT2 restores normal function to amyloidβ impaired synpases and improves congnitive performance in mouse models of Alzheimer’s.

Dr Lars Lannfelt, Uppsala University Hospital, Uppsala, Sweden and Dr Craig Ritchie, Imperial College London, UK, and colleagues did a randomised trial to test the safety and efficacy of PBT2, and its effect on the biomarkers of AD. The trial included 78 patients aged 55 or over, randomised to receive 50 mg PBT2 (20 patients), 250 mg PBT2 (29), or placebo (29). All patients had early AD.

Read more: Early Study Reveals New Drug Could Improve Executive Function in Alzheimer’s Patients

Cayuga Lake Triathlon: Shorter, tougher course leads to large field

TRUMANSBURG — The Cayuga Lake Triathlon may be short, but it is grueling.

However, that difficulty did little to dissuade the more than 500 participants who swam, biked and ran the course Sunday.

Travis Kuhl was the men’s overall winner in a time of one hour, four minutes and 27 seconds. However, full results were not available as of press time. Full results will appear late this week.

The first flight of swimmers churned away from the shore at Taughannock State Park at 8 a.m., kicking off the nautical leg of the day’s events.

Read more: Cayuga Lake Triathlon: Shorter, tougher course leads to large field

Tool to find the 2008 candidate that represents you best

Glassbooth is a non-profit, non-bias, nonpartisan and transparent organization that hopes to empower the American voter in making an informed decision at the polls. Don’t buy into the political horse race, vote on the issues instead.

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Do you Knol the ledge?

A few months ago we announced on the Official Google Blog that we were testing a new product called Knol. Today, we’re making it available to everyone. In addition to our official announcement, we wanted to tell you about it here because we think that Knol could be a powerful tool for publishers and authors. Knols are articles about specific topics written by authoritative sources, so if you’re an author, writing a knol is a great way to raise the profile of a topic you care about.

Millions of people turn to the Internet for research every day. Many of these readers might not think they need to look at an entire book on a subject – but as we’ve seen, a book can provide a great experience with the proper introduction. Knols allow you to make this kind of introduction.

Read more: http://booksearch.blogspot.com/2008/07/do-you-knol-ledge.html

Comcast Cares and Why Your Business Should Too – The Socialization of Service

“There’s certainly no shortage of discussions in the blogosphere that examine and spotlight companies that are listening to brand-related conversations across the Social Web to improve customer service, retention, and loyalty. But, when the New York Times decides to profile the emerging and critically important trend of two-way dialog between company representatives and stakeholders, we actually begin the process of crossing the chasm into the mainstream.”

See more “2.0″ at http://www.briansolis.com/

What is Contextual Advertising?

“Advertising on a Web site that is targeted to the specific individual who is visiting the Web site. A contextual ad system scans the text of a Web site for keywords and returns ads to the Web page based on what the user is viewing, either through ads placed on the page or pop-up ads. For example, if the user is viewing a site about sports, and the site uses contextual advertising, the user might see ads for sports-related companies, such as memorabilia dealers or ticket sellers. Contextual advertising also is used by search engines to display ads on their search results pages based on what word(s) the users has searched for.”

See more at www.webopedia.com/TERM/C/contextual_advertising.html

Open Source Innovation?

Our mission
“To undertake collaborative research and development projects in information technologies and related.

To educate the public about the benefits and challenges of leading information technologies.

To provide corporate services to maximise corporate responsibility related to the development or adoption of new technologies.”

See more at http://www.opensourceinnovation.org/