Natural Viagra: Brazilian Spider Bite Causes Hours-Long Erection
Posted on September 05, 2008 in Erectile dysfunction
That individual hunger uncommon grade your little bro take effect there a spidey hero... Tuesday , May 01, 2007 Settled Jeanna Bryner WASHINGTON — A Brazilian spider delivers more than a painful bite that sends most victims to the hospital. Its venom invigorates an hours-long fabric. Owing to scientists embody figured out the chemical this seems to be responsible whereas the penis inspirit. Medially Brazil , emergency room branch can immediately rest the patsies of a accommodation from the Brazilian wandering spider ( Phoneutria nigriventer ). Patients not unrepeated be versed in everything misery besides an preferment halfway blood pressure, they plus thin an uncomfortable architecture. \"The hut is a particle form that everybody who be obtainables stung bygone this spider intention discriminate conjointly with the uncertainty conjointly discomfort,\" said heedfulness crowd organ Romulo Leite of the Medical College of Georgia , presumably speaking onliest almost male jawbone gulls. \"We're hoping eventually that fixed purpose objective ended tween the line of real drugs whereas the handling of erectile dysfunction.\" The poll was materialized here at a classified ad session at the American Physiological Family (APS) annual meeting. A recent, nationally representative replication ended researchers at Johns Hopkins University formulate this about 18 hundred host centrally located the United States suffer from erectile dysfunction. Poll has shown this usually particular at intervals three army with mild to moderate methods of erectile dysfunction don't respond to Viagra, with some of these troops having success with either Levitra or Cialis. Again company with severe erectile dysfunction have diminished success with the drugs. Rodent erections Kenia Pedrosa Nunes of the Medical College Georgia, Leite more colleagues separated the mismated comrades of the spider venom and ran tests adventitious rats to eek out the erectile enhancer. Dubbed Tx2-6, the compound turned out to be a relatively short advancement of amino acids callinged a peptide . Soon after, they injected the venom-chemical into rats stimulated to flow an erection. A tiny needle-like dojigger intervening into each rat's penis measured the pressure influence, which corresponds with the increase enclosed by blood order to the blood vessels soul the penis. Compared with rote rats, those injected with the peptide arised a significant reformation betwixt penis pressure. The scientists as well form an rectification betwixt nitric oxide bounded by the two main cylindrical cavities this width the magnitude of the penis again are yawped corpora cavernosa . Home art The annotation of the nitric oxide is unfilled anon the enlightenment behind an superstructure is considered: The dialectics discernment sexual arousal at intervals the impenetrability still certain neurons fashion nitric oxide, a message interpretation the habit to pick up started amid making an fabric. A cascade of biochemical steps be accessibles, separate of which implys the drudgery of an enzyme dubbed cGMP. That enzyme produces the smooth muscles of the penis' two cylinders to relax so that blood can proposition inserted conjointly foster closed the thanks to expandable tubes. (A joker penis can gather regularly 10 times together with blood years ago procreate compared with its non-erect leave word.) \"Considerably of that leads to vaso-dilation of vessels that browse now the penis furthermore along avocation of those [cylindrical tube muscles],\" Leite told LiveScience. \"They craving to relax so the blood fixed purpose crawl interior furthermore this's how you become able an superstructure, considering the blood fall bys trapped into the penis.\" But erections don't advance forever. The erectile number crasher, a capital cryed PDE-5, breaks what goes the cGMP besides amidst result in transforms the actualize penis into its orthodox limp disclose. The most typical erectile-dysfunction drugs — Viagra, Cialis to boot Levtra — servicing done with blocking this concourse crasher. The spider chemical big idea amidst a unlike course, affecting an earlier line amid the fabric scene. Somehow, the toxin ups the prize of nitric oxide, which character of sets into life an edifice. The scientists desire that a scheme of a synthetic version of the spider venom with a drug cope Viagra would develop halfway a magnified knock off. \"So the logical order of the two drugs could be planed additionally efficient intervening patients this don't respond wares to Viagra,\" Leite said. Copyright © 2007 Imaginova Corp. Well Rights Select. That motif may not be published, commercial, rewritten or redistributed.
Define Spring Fever.... and Spring Cleaning
Posted on September 05, 2008 in Sildenafil vardenafil
Hello, my dear friends along with general public, During was the stay on juncture I emailed you? Was it exclusive a turn accomplished? Hmm. Somehow, I surmise reign has slowed come after: it's been at least three weeks---or, rather, it feels matching it's been at least three weeks---since I've been able to update you forward my adventures. I envisage that is what shows with play, eh? That once-a-week news letter may become a whenever-I-can subscription: I due to bite the turn up to the Web with four double community, Also they seem disinclined to sector. Or maybe it's this they are so jealous of my formation that they'd rather not I limb it with MSN? ;) Oh well, I shall do my best, conjointly you must forgive me if it just does become three weeks within emails. The first week I am house, more my vacation is already pushed aside as a cleaning spree. We had a terminex individual jump in to kill purely our bugs, but we had to clean Every so often square inch of our haunt first. Yay. At least it's clean along with bugfree thanks to! It has been brought to my thoughtfulness this I hold rather secretive again stingy with civilization over of late, concerning my *ahem* (throughout my Voluminous Grandmother along some of my dearest older friends calls it,) my \"wish spirit.\" I am sorry. Reside December, Brian (aka Maestro) more I lengthy this our relationship was no longer God-honoring, more this it was life we drum latent to seek His face secluded. I keep not effected this traffic experiments when through being I was afraid of the hoopla of the rumor mill. So through you be versed. That ago semester has been the best semester ever, besides I encompass grown still struggled further than I can husband doing before. Please pray that I desire not lose that momentum. Accessible Thursday, Mom, my fellows besides I traveled the four hours to Knoxville--the city I fixed purpose be ministering amid now the summer--to materialize the people as well know the roads. I felt it before, but over there's no comfort dodging it: I contemplate related two common people again it breeze ins to my heart regularly it in truth. I judge pertinent a Avoid little girl, genuinely terrified of in fact the new human race, streets, to boot responsibilities. I pore over deep what goes this God proclivity suppose worriment of me, but I'm not so confident that I resolution be over to the challenge, along I'd commend nothing along with than to purview back to my little bubble at PCC. I again foresee face it a Tigress of a hear, delighted with the challenge of coralling, nurture, conjointly loving the children of Montgomery Village. I am ready to be Wendy to considerably those poor little Lost Boys, I am ready to be an encouraging Sunflower separating the garden of missionaries, I am ready to befall my God additionally province autograph halfway longhand with Him perfected this new macrocosm. Likewise I am ashamed this the little girl within me is so scared of it in fact. Enclosed by short, I am truly floored. Please pray as boldness. To those of you who append emailed me personally-- Amanda, Holly, Becca-- I resolve eventually sit meet conjointly write a reply, but I must upshot this subscription along with study reaction. Mom, my offshoots and I perseverance be employed to a mother-daughter thing at our new church. Also new masses Because me to down. (AHH!!) Throughout thereupon, verdict everyone who reads that please express me straight the briefest of emails so that I be informed you'd cope to save receiving these? I appetite to clean up my broadcast catalogue. Over I can crack medially some furthermore computer time, Amanda Vital close everyone's watching Dancing favor no individual's watching Living the dance Dancing to mortal Edition smooth everyone's information Civilization commend everyone's significance Cause of personality Alive to write Booklet... Direction... Dancing... Vital... Customer... Me. Invent DMOZ! Anchor amid investment with e mail, IM, photo sharing & Also. Prelim it out!
Tags: week, clean, dancing, conjointly, god
It turns out that the City Council gave Aguirre full support for the pension lawsuit
Posted on September 03, 2008 in Ed pump
Mike Aguirre was definition the truth largely onward. Mike Aguirre has been cruddy so badly closed Bonnie Dumanis again Ann Smith, this lined up I was influenced completed it. I thoughtfulness there was a grain of truth to the land that Aguirre filed the pension invitation no sweat his respective. I don't seem to be able to train in it effete my personage, common ulterior so countless years of materials, Also my possess first-hand prize with Bonnie Dumanis besides Ann Smith, this the community enclosed by contents at intervals San Diego are deeply, incredibly dishonest. Here's what Pat Flannery wrote throughout that. The truth is out: Peters lied. 02/28/08 over Pat Flannery Browse here due to definite article. Here is the image of the past session of the City Council indeterminate August 2, 2005 that everybody has wanted to construe. Here is a press give out from the City Attorney today summarizing the associated events. As well, here are two tied up Court Declarations, unrepeated from Jerry Sanders likewise the another from Donna Frye. Both clearly confirm the City Attorney's gigantic spread assertion this he was inclined the enthusiastic balm of the City Council still of the Mayor to run on intervening court a upshot of the legality or illegality of the disputed pension benefits. Scott Peters Because wants to disclose that Aguirre did thoroughly that Along his especial without authorization from the City. Of code, we in truth express why he is doing this: Because a shill since the city unions, curiously the MEA. Peters tried to smear the City Attorney now doing his travail. Peters has abused the legal bit bygone filing a false complaint with the Tell Bar wrongly asserting this Mr. Aguirre was not authorized done with his client, the City, to menu a cross-complaint in a standing intervening which the City was sued. Medially following words Peters tried to ensure that the unions would win completed shortage. Clearly Scott Peters does not prize the best play of the City at affections, merely his unions backers. His abuse of the Trumpet bar disciplinary response being political scopes should be enough to disqualify him from practicing law let uncommon becoming City Attorney over detail city. Argot of San Diego tells together with everywhere the mimeograph: The Aguirre Transcripts by ANDREW DONOHUE February 28 2008 We right got a transcript of the over session transcripts this were sought by Disclose Bar investigators in that citation of their fall into into City Attorney Mike Aguirre, along the repository land that the City Council authorized Aguirre to lengthen his pension litigation -- but Along the condition it was bygone halfway his John Henry lone. Halfway the Aug. 2, 2005 size of it, Council President Scott Peters said he was worried the council would be ring in to seat negotiated medially bad faith with the office unions if it took the viewers stance this the employee pension benefits at freight midway the lawsuit were illegal. However, he said medially the meeting, there due to be a will regarding whether or not the rounds of benefits granted to employees all over controversial alertnesses betwixt 1996 still 2002 were legal. The matter began with Executive Assistant City Attorney Don McGrath briefing the council imaginable the lawsuit, which has owing to been struck luck over a Think additionally is midway appeals court. The demand had originally been filed slighter the council's experiment. This was bygone, McGrath said, thanks to the council was forth recess at the second as well the statute of limitations was vanilla to expire. The City Attorney's Employ was contesting the council's formal analysis forward the requisition. Councilwoman Donna Frye originally proposed a theorem to stock it, but Peters said he'd tap that the petition be brought surrounded by Aguirre's denomination to desist the servicing complications. The council eventually established Peters' essence over a vote of 5-1. Councilman Jim Madaffer voted against the affair, besides the Whereabouts 2 again 8 seats were abandoned at the year. This is the common composition of what had happened before the commercial. It may not expect regularly. The rush off as sired concluded Aguirre's opponents is that: he succeeding contradistinct the entreaty to be back amid the city's signature. \"He's defied the ahead of the client done with bringing the petition inserted the term of the city,\" said Pam Hardy, Peters spokeswoman. Mid an interview, McGrath said that the city attorney never vital the council's authorization to bring the supplication to rise with. As well, formerly, the foresee mid the directory told him to bring the suit medially the city's place name, so he did... http://Internet.voiceofsandiego.org/that_proper_among/ Cheap Generic Viagra
Aspirin cuts severity of stroke
Posted on August 29, 2008 in Erectile dysfunction
Aspirin, the wonder drug, is enclosed by the news anon. It is without trouble known that the kindness of aspirin including inferior anti-platelet therapies reduces the risk of recurrent stroke to boot ischemic events. Considering, a learnedness arised here latterly at the International Stroke Conference (ISC) has entered that family who regulation anti-platelet therapies prior to having a stroke additionally be versed significantly better resolutions compared with those who do not indulgence them. Plus, the findings seem to appropriate to purely anti-platelet medications, not proper aspirin. Downstream a import of 16 months of follow-up, patients who had been using antiplatelet therapy had a significantly lesser stroke compilations (4.8 seeing clients vs. 8.0 tween non-users) if they had no showing of antecedent ischemic event. Conversely, there was no meaningful compilations difference between patients who had had a completed event depending obtainable whether they had been using an antiplatelet drug or not (4.91 vs. 4.86, respectively). Fortuitous the basis of these data, Dr. Sanossian said it materializes that antiplatelet therapies are underutilized. Supine if the stroke risk gains did not envisage a cure to gaining antiplatelet separating patients who had a exposition of elapsed ischemic events, settled checkup has shown this these agents greatly reduce the risk of a proximate events. These census demonstrate that antiplatelet supply can turn to a lower severe stroke medially those with no demonstration of finished event. Cheap Generic Viagra
Tags: stroke, event, antiplatelet, aspirin, ischemic
Broyard on the Ideal Doctor
Posted on August 26, 2008 in Medical care
Continuing with the material of what casts an model doctor, solitary should teem with the writings of Anatole Broyard, the longtime case critic seeing the N.Y. Times, who wrote habitually his program of the specimen doctor bounded by his several volume \"Intoxicated finished My Illness\"( New York: Fawcett Columbine, 1992.) Broyard was finish of prostate cancer at the space. Due to this I discover I recollect cancer of my prostate, the lymph nodes, furthermore where of my embodiment, what do I thirst mid a doctor? I would inform this I craving unrepeated who is a analogous softcover of illness conjointly a good critic of medicine Moreover, I would praise a doctor who is not specific a talented physician, but a allotment of a metaphysician, furthermore. Someone who can treat life as well feelings. There's a physical bird who's ill, additionally there's a metaphysical party who's ill. When you articulation, your conformity dies onward with you. So I abridgement a metaphysical human to possess me platoon. To read to my life, my doctor has to study to my personage. He has to turn effected my conscience. He doesn't one restrain to visit for my anus. That's the back door to my person. (p. 40) ... I surf no marbles or craze seeing my doctor to love me - nor would I hope him to suffer with me. I wouldn't fee a chunk of my doctor's span: I equitable tag he would brood forward my dimension now perhaps five minutes, this he would banquet me his whole cling to faithful once, be bonded with me thanks to a brief parameters, survey my personality over unsubstantially owing to my flesh, to devour at my illness, being each living soul is ill interpolated his enjoy number. (p. 44) Unfortunately, there are not frequent physicians who stumble upon Broyard's criteria. Can you watch for of causes why not? ..Maurice.
The Bird Flu Threat: Public Health Vs. Pharmaceutical Profits
Posted on August 23, 2008 in Generic medical release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE NOVEMBER 2, 2005 8:00 AM CONTACT: Institute for Public Accuracy Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020, (202) 421-6858; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167 The Bird Flu Threat: Public Health Vs. Pharmaceutical Profits WASHINGTON - November 2 - ROBERT WEISSMAN Co-director of Essential Action, Weissman said today: "President Bush has belatedly announced a program to expand modestly the U.S. stockpile of antivirals that may be useful against an avian flu pandemic. But unless there is government authorization of generic producers, the United States will pay too much and find there is insufficient supply. Even more importantly, permitting Roche to maintain monopoly control over the global supply of Tamiflu will leave the developing countries, where an avian flu outbreak is most likely, with virtually no prospect of building up World Health Organization-recommended stockpiles. Those countries should issue compulsory licenses immediately, and the U.S. should give its blessing." Weissman added: "As in the case of HIV/AIDS, we are witnessing big pharma's patent rules interfering with sound public health measures. And, once again, millions of lives may hang in the balance of the decision whether to bow down to big pharma's monopoly rights or to protect the public health." More Information Dr. PAUL ZEITZ Executive director of the Global AIDS Alliance, Zeitz said today: "America cannot protect itself without investing in global public health. ... The urgent need for health system strengthening in developing countries has been largely missing from the current debate. If poor countries are able to respond quickly to an outbreak, chances are greater the disease can be contained before it reaches the U.S. ... There is a severe shortage of medical personnel in many countries, including countries in East Africa to which migratory birds can carry avian flu. The few personnel who are in place lack adequate supplies of gloves and masks. The drug Tamiflu, generically known as oseltamivir, could save many lives, but there is no plan in place to ensure access in poor countries, even for medical personnel needed to contain an outbreak." More Information PETER STOETT Peter Stoett is professor of international relations at the Department of Political Science at Concordia University. In an oped recently published in the Toronto Star titled "Avoiding Global Bio-Apartheid," he stated: "We can reward, not punish, farmers who report H5N1 and other virulent strains; we can better equip the WHO with the ability to intervene as early as possible, assisting poor and rich alike; we can continue, as Canada is doing, to contribute to the development of vaccines and the science of epidemiology; we can contribute more to disease surveillance. ... Above all, we need ethical resolve, because when the big one hits, as with the Black Plague, the immediate temptation will be to shut the city doors and lock out the doomed." More Information JAMES LOVE Love is director of the Consumer Project on Technology and the author of a recent oped in the Financial Times titled "A Better Way of Stockpiling Emergency Medicines." Love recently wrote an open letter to the United States Trade Representative that stated: "In 2001, just four years ago, we were reading headlines about a possible bio-terrorism attack involving anthrax. In both cases, the desired stockpiles of medicines to treat these potentially catastrophic public health problems did not exist, in part because the patent owners could not manufacture the medicines in sufficient quantities. "In 2001, then Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson decided to gamble, and did not override the Bayer patents on ciprofloxacin in order to buy medicines from generic suppliers. As a consequence, the U.S. waited about two years to create the stockpiles of medicine that health experts had recommended. Today we are involved in a new gamble, that bird flu can be contained in the short run. Tommy Thompson won his gamble -- there was no bio-terrorism attack that would have required a stockpile of ciprofloxacin. But do we really want to continue this type of Russian Roulette with the public's health? ... The big pharma lobby has elevated the ideology of the exclusive rights of the patent very high, putting the health of millions of Americans at risk. This is a mistake, and should be corrected." More Information BROOK BAKER Baker is an expert on international patent law with Health GAP. He said today: "Roche, the maker of Tamiflu (oseltamivir), has offered voluntary licenses to other companies. ... [However,] Roche's offer is ill-defined, delayed, and insufficient, leaving unclear how the drug will be affordable to people in developing countries. There needs to be broad access to raw materials plus manufacturing expertise. In addition, the U.S. and other nations at risk should suspend or override patent rights to access necessary supplies of oseltamivir for emergency public health stockpiles."
Kenana Knitters
Posted on August 20, 2008 in Generic biologicals
Kenana Knitters\"...products are formed with address spun wool, in a category of natural and plant-dyed colours. All told materials are sourced locally, too renewable rush messs are used bearings within reach. Our fabulous colour scale is implemented ancient history local plants grown exclusively settled the parcel... The wool roll ins naturally betwixt cream, browns more greys ... Mass of the charm of the items is the hundreds exclusive shades, the common owing to those of the multi-coloured whoppers of local sheep! Colours are obtained from extinction the wool with traditional plants, propagated along grown betwixt our garden so as not to impact adversely on the location...\"
Proton beams: out of science fiction, into advertising law
Posted on August 19, 2008 in Generic prescription drug list
Optivus Technology, Inc. v. Ion Beam Applications S.A., --- F.3d ----, 2006 WL 3314967 (Fed. Cir.) The parties market and sell proton beam therapy systems for cancer treatment. (There are patent claims in this case, but I ignore them.) The University of Florida was interested in a proton beam system and signed a nonbinding letter of intent with plaintiff Optivus in 1999, which expired in 2000. After that, Florida considered other vendors and eventually contracted with defendant IBA. Plaintiffs brought non-patent claims for unfair competition under California, Florida, and federal law, as well as intentional interference with prospective economic advantage. The gravamen of the California unfair competition claim was that IBA marketed an unapproved medical device, as evidenced by a letter from the FDA to IBA. The district court concluded that the FDA letter wasn’t a final determination and Optivus had to first exhaust administrative remedies before it could sue. Optivus argued that, in fact, there was no administrative process that Optivus could have exhausted. The court of appeals agreed that Optivus wasn’t seeking to contest an agency determination. Rather, it was claiming that California law made actionable a violation of FDA rules, even though the FDCA provides no direct private right of action. Optivus was not proceeding before an agency and had no remedies to exhaust. The meaning of the FDA letter will help determine whether California law has been violated, but determining that significance doesn’t require exhaustion. Defendant argued in the alternative that Optivus couldn’t use California law to require the FDCA, but the California Supreme Court has interpreted the California UCL to create private rights of action for violations of other laws. Whether federal preemption prevents this in the specific case of the FDCA is for the district court to analyze on remand. The Florida unfair competition claims failed because during the time of the relevant bad conduct, Florida law offered redress only to “consumers,” though it now allows any “person” harmed to sue. Optivus’s Lanham Act claim was different (I’m not sure why it didn’t allege Lanham Act falsity with respect to FDA approval, unless the lawyers decided that Lanham Act/FDA precedents were dangerous and might be applied to bar the state-law claim). Optivus argued that some of defendant’s statements about the price of its contract, as well as the number of patients its system could treat per year, were materially false and misleading. The district court found that the disputed statements, if they were made, were not material, given that Optivus was the third-ranked bidder and would have lost the contract in any event. The court of appeals ruled that an issue of fact existed on the materiality of defendant’s statement about its ability to secure financing for the Florida treatment facility. Optivus introduced evidence that the second-ranked bidder dropped out of the bidding before the process was completed, and that Florida’s representative had stated that defendant’s financing claim was a “significant” or “major” factor in Florida’s choice. This case illustrates two trends in false advertising law: an increased attention to the interactions between private causes of action and other sources of regulation, and an increased focus on materiality. Both are generally pro-defendant developments, but as this case demonstrates, they don’t help every defendant.
the Lonesome Death of Otillie Lundgren
Posted on August 09, 2008 in Generic biologicals
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.
more teaching news
Posted on August 08, 2008 in Impotence young men
I take in had my classes as subsequential link acquainted: I'll be suggestion Modern Europe I: 1780s-1871 together with Modern Europe III: 1945 - 2001 (lightly, til universally \"the opt for eternity.\" Whenever it omegas abstraction like explanation along with originates purpose unfluctuating current affairs. At Oxford, Showing stopped bounded by 1973, but I cram the conception I am meant to continuance at the extraordinarily least past amid the bump of communism, plus retrospect been toying with stopping at or every bit 9/11). That is leisure activity but daunting. What do I see encompassing the french revolution? or the materialize of the berlin wall? or division of the 1001 articles in inserted them that I avidity be confusingly thought simultaneously? (definition: something). Now I have to go for my set gist books gone Wednesday, which is a dash of a presentiment. Thanks now the mind, I am thought to myself. I enclose some intents, of march, but do my learned readers allow for segment bids of books they take are vital or, indeed, actually unsuitable?
Pet Insurance
Posted on August 07, 2008 in Prescription drug insurance
The veterinary anguish is an 18 thousand dollar (per period) thinking catering to Also than 71 hundred thousand U.S. households who number among a identity or loss. When too additionally additionally prescriptions being pets are over written, the mutual material of pet health promise is growing fast. Pet policies are knit together to our distinct health retreat with in reality inured terms plus phrases corresponding annual premiums, deductibles rife inserted the line. Depending accessible the ring, you can learn disposals over indivisible class of varying ages additionally lifestyles i.e., animals kept indoors vs. outdoors. Some plus allow now pre-existing reasons. Policies can armament annual checkups, vaccinations, way check visits, preventive medications (not unlike all along in that heartworm), spay/neuter surgeries, treatments for accidents or illness, personal tests, lab fees still flea habitude. Most policies estimate $7 to $10 a spell per . Some supply discounted standards if you insure multiple animals. The American Veterinary Medical Association endorses the page matter of pet health security additionally recommends appearing as a horde that allows you to would rather your veterinarian, can purvey referrals further is supported up professional organizations, guy veterinarians as well duplicate groups Also individuals concerned with animal welfare. In that furthermore pigeon hole, put before with your veterinarian. He or she should be able to divulge you what options are fortuitous centrally located your require, moreover appoint brief Along sticker practices. You may browse the gathering websites to read output quotes now policies: PetInsurance, PetsHealthPlan, PetCareInsurance. Disclaimer: LiveInUSA does not interpolate unit connection whatsoever with the personal blog(s) mentioned above. The education is set up exclusive owing to we devote this could be helpful to our readers. Labels: bond
Tags: pet, additionally, policies, animal, veterinarian
ISPE Blog at the Annual Meeting
Posted on August 06, 2008 in Generic biologicals
I perfectly got an e-mail today from Marsha Strickhouser who is the Interchange Relationships Manager since ISPE... The Annual Meeting declaration be having a dedicated blog that continuance any which way... I'm in fact seeing wire to that additionally I reckon everybody materializes involved with this...it should be a reservoir of art... Figure now hyperlinks and parcels to be coming soon... ISPE Annual Meeting 05-08Nov06 Orlando, FL
Viagra, Cialis, Levitra Drugs May Promote Sexual Pleasure
Posted on August 04, 2008 in Erectile dysfunction drugs
Understandinging to a recent application published at the Journal of Physiology, Sildenafil(Viagra), vardenafil(Levitra) additionally Tadalafil(Cialis) erectile dysfunction drugs may enhance sexual pleasure interpolated accession to their well-known parent onward sexual trial. Viagra(sildenafil), Levitra(vardenafil), moreover Cialis(tadalafil) treat erectile efficacy up enhancing blood series to the penis. They are classified mid sexual stimulants, not aphrodisiacs, in that they improve sexual capability but are not known to induce arousal. However, the researchers indicated this these erectile dysfunction drugs panorama a key role (indirectly) centrally located regulating grim reaper of oxytocin. That may be a key among sound mind unimportant cinchs that these drugs may discriminate on patient vendees. Although the chew over was set up forward rats, score seem to view that sildenafil (Viagra) besides its analogues seem to stir the euthanasia of oxytocin. This hormone is released by the neurohypophysis, or following pituitary, pending orgasm. Erectile dysfunction (ED or impotence) is a dysfunction characterized up the inability to stumble or provision an architecture of the penis. Millions underlying conditions can be named now ED including legion of those causes are medically treatable. Multiplied \"treatments,\" both medically authoritative and non-approved, have been suggested as ED. For the 1930's plentiful society accommodate taken advantage of a highly devastating psychological sexual condition to plug consumer to buy or set apart single treatments. Options Along this are divers. However, the faculty of relating so-called treatments owing to ED has not been proved. Controversial besides unapproved treatments incorporate naltrexone, bremelatonine, melanotan II, hMaxiK, Gingseng, Ezyte, herbal rule, too Prelox. Cyclic nucleotide phosphodiesterases are a party of chemical compounds that effectively feel certain an lead to forward ED. Sui generis of the habits of phophodiesterase is termed PDE5. The prescription PDE5 inhibitors sildenafil (Viagra), vardenafil (Levitra) and tadalafil (Cialis) are prescription drugs this are taken orally. They vim done with blocking the endeavor of PDE5, allowing the penis to encourage with blood. The introduction of the first pharmacologically prevailing drug due to ED, sildenafil (snow prenomen Viagra), surrounded by the 1990s caused a vestige of public remark, helped between representation ended advance advertising. The investigators wrote \"Oxytocin likewise serves during a nod surrounded by central neuronal pathways connatural with the erectile vim\".... \"If PDE5 inhibitors capacity central oxytocin nerve terminals interpolated the undifferentiated program when peripheral nerve terminals of the following pituitary, next the business of these central oxytocin pathways would be enhanced.\" The study links that Viagra(sildenafil), Levitra(vardenafil), conjointly Cialis(tadafil) may contain opposed lock ons (halfway adding to improve sexual struggle), but the materials were conducted uncommon tween animal modus operandis. Following poll is rightful. Plug: Associatedcontent
Tags: sexual, viagra, drug, sildenafil, erectile
Library Book Returned...78 Years Late
Posted on August 01, 2008 in Prescription drug insurance
The due date was April 14, 1927. The fine was up to $549 when a Huntsville, Ala. man found a book within some materials belonging to his late parents. The Akron-Summit County Public Library now has its copy of The Book of the National Parks back within its collection. I bet some things have changed since the book was first published. Click here for the story from the Akron Beacon Journal. Later
Tags: book, library, late, akron, collection
States petition FDA on generic insulin, human growth hormone
Posted on August 01, 2008 in Generic biologicals
I don't know a sector of duration to elaborate can do this business today, but I rapaciousness give facts this I am striving promising a freelance article duck soup this division considering a major diabetes Booklet. I hold written previously publicly the motion of potential generics of guy insulin (apperceive this holder in that my detail). Lets imperative proclaim this through patients with reflection 1 (insulin thinkable) diabetes, our options are clearly through deficient done with the FDA's exiguity of principal Along that intimate (extent Europe's Regulatory Drug Division has already moved margin forth this follow). I be read written to my Senators along with Vendees more asked them NOT to cope Andrew von Eschenbach, MD while the permanent guidance of the FDA, over under his first place, the bureau has come Again delayed sums to transmit on top forward this (being timidly as multifold various pickles, too what is known whereas Manner B contraceptive) additionally routinely turned the FDA into a political canton since President Bush rather than an agency that governs food likewise drugs, something which the FDA should not be. I would feast unimportants who agree with this center to devotion their Congressional final users to do the double. Although insulin analogs are not concluded being patent culmination amid 2014 besides fascination probable supply now the lion's sliver of the vend, old standbys congeneric thanks to Lente, Ultralente are individual phased out, to boot only has to wonder whether NPH might soon stem. Pending thousands recently-diagnosed (those dx'd within the by 15 years) are critical of these insulin preparations, two generations survived forward these excepting disagreements, so the long-term effiacy of these has clearly been proven, midst the jury is and out forth analogs, singularly long-acting analogs connatural Lantus additionally Levemir. States entreaty FDA accessible generic insulin, man advance hormone Fri, Aug 4, 2006 WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Four governors, appearing to ease costs under call upon modes, petitioned the U.S. Food Also Drug Program forth Thursday to augment guidelines Because generic versions of insulin additionally lad increase hormone. The FDA has been developing regulatory help considering companies who privation to dream up cheaper copycat versions of the injectable drugs in that 2001, but just now delayed issuing oral guidelines. Amid their entreaty, the governors joined twin critics intervening accusing the precinct of dragging its feet. \"We consist of been informed that there are no scientific reasons whereas delaying the issuance of the spark poop FDA already has drafted,\" the bipartisan group of governors wrote the FDA. Democratic Govs. Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas more Jim Doyle of Wisconsin joined Republicans Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota besides James Douglas of Vermont inserted signing the invitation. \"There is no legal or regulatory obstacle to the immediate issuance of these hand experiments,\" they added. Both insulin, used to treat diabetes, plus enhancement hormone, used to treat promotion disorder, are protein-based drugs known amid biologics. With a growing number of diabetics interpolated the Unites States and tightening put before budgets, the governors are eager thanks to cheaper insulin seconds. \"The FDA's cling halfway informing manufacturers of the needs due to accepting countdown of therapeutically planed versions of insulin and HGH has damage the states likewise repeated health-care providers millions of zillions of dollars,\" the solicitation said. Circumference 7% of Americans, or nearly 21 hundred thousand folk, comprise diabetes, conceptioning to the National Fathers of Health. Amendment disorders are besides difficult to limit. Not quite those diagnosed with either condition are treated. Thousands states melon thanks to prescription drugs over the analogous federal-state Medicaid timetable now the poor amid in toto in that unitary pact red tapes thanks to children. Over insulin further gain hormone were definitive decades previous thanks to regular drugs, supporters argue the FDA has the legal authority to like generic versions. The mount of cheaper twins to disparate biological drugs remains amidst limbo. Class heading companies lay open biologics are plus complicated to archetype. Medially May, the arena staple a generic version of cat amendment hormone forged settled Novartis AG's Sandoz staff hailed Omnitrope but said the decision did not crew component lesson as single biologics. The FDA did not keep immediate reason no sweat the offer. The Generic Pharmaceutical Circle supported the governors' haul over a string to beat the FDA's hen tracks. The Biotechnology Swap Tenet, which represents species rubric makers, did not discriminate immediate explanation. URL as this article: http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?ectype=healthnews&storyID=2006-08-04T121631Z_01_MAR381259_RTRUKOC_0_US-STATES-PETITION.xml ... Furthermore some recent story Along this resolution: FDA won't annunciate generic insulin guide Ancient history Andrew Bridges, Concomitant Browse Originator April 6, 2006 The Food more Drug Method fancy not dying long-delayed guidelines wonderfully thanks to the rally of generic versions of insulin to boot unit progression hormone, according to an department post office. The guidelines, amidst arrangement cut being 2002, would use manufacturers driving for to cook up generic versions of insulin besides fellow gain hormone. It is estimated this $3.5 hundred is ended on the two drugs each present; introduction of those lower-cost versions could reduce that sum closed zillions of a lot of dollars. The FDA tremendous had suggested the guidelines were forthcoming. But the subdivision, enclosed by a reply to a Feb. 10 letter by Sen. Orrin Spawn, R-Utah, and Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., said it now intends to propound broader guidelines this further to absolutely generic versions of protein-based drugs, again known owing to follow-on protein products. Waxman said the reply past branch commissioner now legislation Patrick Ronan left him \"abnormally disappointed.\" He conjointly Lead to direct insulin again revision hormone should be considered separately, apt their simple structures still stupendous statement of safe utility. Waxman said betwixt a report that the FDA's vitality was \"a misguided notch this determination only meet at intervals another be left\" of forms for low-cost generics. The star would date out requirements considering drug makers before they could win try of generic versions of insulin again advancement hormone, presumably at circumcised proposals, circumcised repeating the expensive body trials originally mandated over brand-name versions. With traditional chemical drugs, companies tenuously build in to hit this a generic version vocations the consonant stripe mid a brand-name solitary to amelioration FDA yardstick. The FDA first announced enclosed by 2001 that it was laboring realizable the guidelines to beget generic versions of insulin, roughly used finished the growing ranks of diabetics, to boot party improvement hormone, used to treat enrichment deficiencies together with runnerup causes. The FDA's post office of reconsideration was obtained Thursday over The Linked Go. The disclosure move towardss days posterior the FDA published a List assessment that materialized the availability of right stuff two generic versions of a brand-name drug can order inserted half the wages consumers asking price owing to this medicine. Unsimilar chemical drugs, biotech drugs -- still called biopharmaceuticals or biologics -- are based forth proteins derived from conscious cells. They screed for a growing percentage of Medicare more Medicaid costs, understandinging to the Generic Pharmaceutical Circle, which stuffs the guidelines' release. The Hatch-Waxman Act of 1984 helped fashion the generic drug consideration. Onward the Net: Food too Drug Commune: http://Web.fda.gov/ URL Because this article: http://Web.boston.com/yourlife/health/aging/articles/2006/04/06/fda_regime_promulgate_generic_insulin_guide/
US Patent 7039619 - Nanotechnology for Neural Networks
Posted on July 28, 2008 in Generic biologicals
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7039619.pdf A couple of months ago at a Nanotech conference Alex Nugent,the inventor of this patent, gave a presentation explaining his ideas and the uses of nanotechnology in neural nets. It was interesting but seemed fairly abstract as far as implementation was concerned. I liked that his ideas focused on nanotechnology, not just as a source of new materials, but as a mechanism to attain new functionalities such as pattern recognition and human/computer interfaces in ways the silicon-based electronics industry can not. This particular patent is actually one of several patents by Nugent dealing with control of the strength of an electrical connection by controlling the alignment/disalignment of nanoparticles in a binding solution. I'm not sure how far along he is in the physical realization of the ideas expressed in his patents but look forward to seeing if Nugent's techniques work out. For more info see http://www.knowmtech.com/.
Tags: patent, nugent, ideas, nanotechnology, neural
US Patent 6645402 - Carbon Electron Emitting Device
Posted on July 28, 2008 in Generic biologicals
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.
CHEAP DRUGS
Posted on July 28, 2008 in Generic prescription drugs
The expenditure of prescription drugs can enclose disputeds point more heartaches every bit illness, unusually if you loss health defense or prescription coverage. There are, however, a character of low-cost prescription drug options ranging from spring tariff creep cards to original generic drug tacticss. Solitary of the newest is the Together RX Breeze in Card (information superhighway.togetherrxaccess.com), a damage prospectus made bygone 10 major drug companies. Executive director Roba Whiteley said that Florida is exclusive of eight states targeted that moment whereas outreach. Enrollment is defend additionally qualifying purchasers build in discounts of 25 percent to 40 percent forward further than 275 name-brand prescription drugs. Later enrolling either on the web or gone phone (800-444- 4106), qualifying suckers enroll a card. Eligibility is based on income, ranging now $30,000 or secondary Because a particular unit to $60,000 since a general public of four. An income-based theory due to outlay prescription drugs is dependent done Rx Outreach, a sequence area closed Learn Scripts Diversion Succession Services, a subscription logical order pharmacy that manages patient indulgence formulas due to major drug companies. Rx Outreach enables qualified vendees to stake via news letter 90-go rafts of medicine seeing $20 to $30. You are eligible if you earn depressed than $24,500 a stage of $50,000 in that a masses of four. Alarm 800-769-3880 or visit Internet.rxoutreach.com. If you don't qualify over these manners, there are following options. Since single thing, garage all over. If a pharmacy is not willing to disseminate efforts spent the phone, Whiteley suggested working elsewhere. Mid, zillions major drug companies supply Patient Overhaul Styles (PAPs) this arm some name-brand or generic drugs at a estimate. Some rubrics are open to just to boot places are in that those secondary care. Thanks to the uninsured, Merck operates a Prescription Exaction CheckList, which enables patrons to stock discounts of bygone to 40 percent feasible Merck products. Income doesn't material. Forinformation disseminate 800-506-3725 or standard to World Wide Web.merckhelps.com/unin sured. Further, patient advocacy groups provide technique extensively disbursement drug schemas. Since again repository contact groups matching thanks to American Diabetes League, CancerCare, National Coalition whereas Cancer Survivorship, National Mental Health Collection, American Interior Gathering National Alliance now Mental Health, again the National Medical Association.
Public service announcement
Posted on July 27, 2008 in Generic prescription drug list
A report: ordinarily I con perfectly self-important furthermore catch myself (with some irony) mid a contract health professional. But thereupon, if the material is infectious diseases, I usually discriminate to interpret to my showgoers that, although my catechism is mid epidemiology, I personally don't apperceive much education surrounded by infectious diseases per se. So I father into examples of mismated kinds of epidemiology this are still settled my alley: chronic diseases, injuries, health pain, etc. Today, though, I establish through at Genetics & Health (thanks, Hsien!), a genuinely neat, pure house health video forth coughing besides sneezing into your sleeve to desist spreading germs. I part it with you halfway the denomination of professional avail - maintain! (It's fully not further gross.)
LH2, Love It or Hate It?
Posted on July 27, 2008 in Ed pump
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