The liquid formulated by a University of Utah team turns into a gel-like coating when inserted into the vagina.
Then, when exposed to semen, it returns to liquid form and releases an anti-viral drug to attack HIV.
However, the technology, featured in the Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences, is still around five years away from being tested in humans.
And the researchers predict it will be around 10 years before it might be in widespread use.
Researcher Dr Patrick Kiser said: "The ultimate hope for this technology is to protect women and their unborn or nursing children from the Aids virus."
The Utah project is part of a worldwide research effort to develop "microbicides" - drug-delivery systems such as gels, rings, sponges or creams to prevent infection by HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases.
They are seen as a way for women to gain power by protecting themselves from HIV, particularly in impoverished nations where Aids is widespread, where rape is rampant, or, where conventional condoms are taboo, not reliably available or where men resist using them.
Short-term effect
First-generation microbicides now being tested are expected to be available within four years and to be 50-60% effective.
However, Dr Kiser said they lasted only for a short time, meaning they had to be used shortly before sex.
The potential advantage of his technology is that it would be much longer lasting.
"We're shooting for a microbicide delivery system that would be used once a day or once a month," he said.
Tests have already shown that their 'hydrogel' is unlikely to cause significant side effects, or discomfort.
It is designed not to dehydrate vaginal cells, which can trigger infections, and not to be diluted by other fluids.
The next stage will be to see whether anti-viral drugs incorporated into the hydrogel can be released with the same efficiency as in the lab.
Indeed the researchers are hopeful that because the gel would be much thinner inside a woman than it was in the lab tests, the release of drugs should be even more effective.
High hopes
Yusef Azad, of the National Aids Trust, said: "Millions of women currently have little control over their sexual health and microbicides could put the power of preventing HIV into women's hands.
"It is vitally important that sufficient funding is channelled into the development of effective microbicides so that women have a range of options of products such as gels, liquids and creams that could provide a barrier to contracting HIV during sex."
Roger Pebody, treatment specialist for the HIV charity Terrence Higgins Trust said microbicides were one of the biggest hopes for preventing new HIV infections in the near future.
He said: "This is one of many projects that are in the early stages of development, however other microbicides could be as little as five years away."
Sunday, December 31, 2006
Saturday, December 30, 2006
Saved by an Angel
MANY PEOPLE fervently believe in angels and in the reality of protective guardian angels who watch over them. Skeptics dismiss the idea as mere folklore and fantasy. Time and again, however, amazing stories are told of personal experiences with mysterious beings who appear seemingly out of nowhere at pivotal moments to lend comfort, provide physical assistance and even save lives. They often disappear just as mysteriously. Are these beings truly of the angelic realm? Whoever – or whatever – they are, you’ll have a hard time convincing the authors of the following true stories that they are not real.
Angel in the Back Seat
I was driving home one morning on a snow-covered highway that had been closed by the highway department due to a huge snow storm. I was very tired and fighting sleep every mile I drove.
Finally, I could stay awake no longer... and I drifted off to sleep while driving. I had just nodded off when a large hand reached up between the seats and grabbed me by the right shoulder and gave me a vigorous shaking that very quickly woke me up. I quickly turned to see who had hidden himself in the back. Imagine my surprise when I turned the overhead light on and saw only an empty back seat! I began driving again when once again I became sleepy... and yes, it happened again, only this time I heard an audible voice from the back seat shout while shaking me, “WAKE UP!” That did it! I was now totally WIDE AWAKE and I remained that way all the way to where I lived. I told my family what happened and we came to the conclusion that my guardian angel, who was riding with me, decided to keep me awake until I made it home safely. – Roger Wheat
Angel Flew Interference
It was 2:30 a.m. and a frigid February blizzard was in progress in Ohio. I was still wired, just having completed my musical performance in a night club near the military base, so decided to do the drive now. I cranked up the radio and merrily set off for home. I became aware that I was the only car moving on the interstate. Others were pulled off the road buried under a couple of feet of snow. I was plowing through deep fresh snow as if it weren't there. I finally became aware that I had never turned on my windshield wipers. I'm barreling along at 75 mph and there was not a speck of snow on my windshield! This snow was sticking to everything and everybody else, why not me? I continued driving at that speed for the entire trip on the interstate... without turning on my wipers! No snow accumulated on the car until I approached the exit ramp. When I made that exit I was inundated with the heavy wet stuff and my wipers could not work fast enough to keep the windshield clear. I drove the rest of the way home at about 20 mph. I was highly amused and extremely grateful when a mental image appeared showing me my guardian angel flying interference for me throughout the entire trip. Thanks for keeping me safe. – Pat Pfeffer
Angel's Message
It was a dull, winter afternoon. I was met by a sudden urge to get up and have a drink. I walked over to the sink in a sort of trance and turned the tap. Instead of water, a white mist erupted from the tap and filled the kitchen. The mist was sucked into the cupboard under the stairs, and I was forced to drag my feet along and open the door. What I found almost made me have a heart attack: a man, cramped into the small space between the vacuum cleaner and the boiler tank, walked out and greeted me. "Hi," he said. He was dressed rather formally. I watched as he sat himself down. "Please sit," he told me. "I have come from heaven, and I have come with a message: Your mother in Spain is ill and requires medicine she cannot get. You are to go there and deliver it to her in person, then tell her Howard sends his love." Howard was my father; he had passed away only weeks before. When I asked the man who he was, he simply got up and walked upstairs. I left for Spain the day after. Sure enough, when I got there, my mother was in bed and had a large lump on her throat. She hadn't left the house since the day before and couldn't move. I delivered the angel's message and she nodded, "I know," she said with a sly smile.
Angel in the Back Seat
I was driving home one morning on a snow-covered highway that had been closed by the highway department due to a huge snow storm. I was very tired and fighting sleep every mile I drove.
Finally, I could stay awake no longer... and I drifted off to sleep while driving. I had just nodded off when a large hand reached up between the seats and grabbed me by the right shoulder and gave me a vigorous shaking that very quickly woke me up. I quickly turned to see who had hidden himself in the back. Imagine my surprise when I turned the overhead light on and saw only an empty back seat! I began driving again when once again I became sleepy... and yes, it happened again, only this time I heard an audible voice from the back seat shout while shaking me, “WAKE UP!” That did it! I was now totally WIDE AWAKE and I remained that way all the way to where I lived. I told my family what happened and we came to the conclusion that my guardian angel, who was riding with me, decided to keep me awake until I made it home safely. – Roger Wheat
Angel Flew Interference
It was 2:30 a.m. and a frigid February blizzard was in progress in Ohio. I was still wired, just having completed my musical performance in a night club near the military base, so decided to do the drive now. I cranked up the radio and merrily set off for home. I became aware that I was the only car moving on the interstate. Others were pulled off the road buried under a couple of feet of snow. I was plowing through deep fresh snow as if it weren't there. I finally became aware that I had never turned on my windshield wipers. I'm barreling along at 75 mph and there was not a speck of snow on my windshield! This snow was sticking to everything and everybody else, why not me? I continued driving at that speed for the entire trip on the interstate... without turning on my wipers! No snow accumulated on the car until I approached the exit ramp. When I made that exit I was inundated with the heavy wet stuff and my wipers could not work fast enough to keep the windshield clear. I drove the rest of the way home at about 20 mph. I was highly amused and extremely grateful when a mental image appeared showing me my guardian angel flying interference for me throughout the entire trip. Thanks for keeping me safe. – Pat Pfeffer
Angel's Message
It was a dull, winter afternoon. I was met by a sudden urge to get up and have a drink. I walked over to the sink in a sort of trance and turned the tap. Instead of water, a white mist erupted from the tap and filled the kitchen. The mist was sucked into the cupboard under the stairs, and I was forced to drag my feet along and open the door. What I found almost made me have a heart attack: a man, cramped into the small space between the vacuum cleaner and the boiler tank, walked out and greeted me. "Hi," he said. He was dressed rather formally. I watched as he sat himself down. "Please sit," he told me. "I have come from heaven, and I have come with a message: Your mother in Spain is ill and requires medicine she cannot get. You are to go there and deliver it to her in person, then tell her Howard sends his love." Howard was my father; he had passed away only weeks before. When I asked the man who he was, he simply got up and walked upstairs. I left for Spain the day after. Sure enough, when I got there, my mother was in bed and had a large lump on her throat. She hadn't left the house since the day before and couldn't move. I delivered the angel's message and she nodded, "I know," she said with a sly smile.
World Economy at Risk From Chaos of Bush Regime
The world survived 2006 without a major economic catastrophe, despite sky-high oil prices and a Middle East spiralling out of control.
But the year produced abundant lessons for the global economy, as well as warning signs concerning its future performance.
Unsurprisingly, it brought another resounding rejection of fundamentalist neo-liberal policies, this time by voters in Nicaragua and Ecuador. In neighbouring Venezuela, Hugo Chavez had an overwhelming electoral victory: at least he had brought some education and health care to the poor barrios, which previously had received little of the benefits of the country's enormous oil wealth.
Perhaps most importantly for the world, voters in the US gave a vote of no-confidence to President George Bush, who will now be held in check by a Democratic congress.
When Bush assumed the presidency in 2001, many hoped he would govern competently from the centre. More pessimistic critics consoled themselves by questioning how much harm a president could do in a few years. We now know the answer: a great deal.
Never has the U.S.�s standing in the world�s eyes been lower. Basic values that Americans regard as central to their identity have been subverted. The unthinkable has occurred: an American president defending the use of torture, using technicalities in interpreting the Geneva Conventions and ignoring the Convention on Torture, which forbids it in any circumstances.
Likewise, whereas Bush was hailed as the first �MBA president�, corruption and incompetence have reigned under his administration, from the botched response to Hurricane Katrina to its conduct of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
In fact, we should be careful not to read too much into the 2006 vote: Americans do not like being on the losing side of any war. It was this failure, and the quagmire into which the U.S. had once again so confidently stepped, that led voters to reject Bush.
But the Middle East chaos wrought by the Bush years also represents a central risk to the global economy. Since the Iraq war began in 2003, oil output from the Middle East has not grown as expected to meet rising world demand. Although most forecasts suggest oil prices will remain at, or slightly below, present levels, this is largely due to a perceived moderation of growth in demand, led by a slowing U.S. economy.
Of course, a slowing U.S. economy constitutes another major global risk. At the root of the U.S.�s economic problems are measures adopted early in Bush�s first term. In particular, the administration pushed through a tax cut that largely failed to stimulate the economy because it was designed to benefit mainly the wealthiest taxpayers. The burden of stimulation was placed on the Federal Reserve, which lowered interest rates to unprecedented levels.
While cheap money had little effect on business investment, it fuelled a real estate bubble, which is bursting, jeopardising households that borrowed against rising home values to sustain consumption.
This economic strategy was not sustainable. Household savings became negative for the first time since the Great Depression, with the country borrowing $3bn a day from foreigners. But households could continue to take money out of their houses only as long as prices continued to rise and interest rates remained low. Thus, higher interest rates and falling house prices do not bode well for the U.S. economy.
According to estimates, roughly 80% of the increase in employment and almost two-thirds of the increase in gross domestic product in recent years stemmed directly or indirectly from real estate.
Making matters worse, unrestrained government spending further buoyed the economy during the Bush years, with fiscal deficits reaching new heights, making it difficult for the government to step in now to shore up economic growth as households curtail consumption.
Many Democrats, having campaigned on a promise to return to fiscal sanity, are likely to demand a reduction in the deficit, which would further dampen growth.
Meanwhile, persistent global imbalances will continue to produce anxiety, especially for those whose lives depend on exchange rates. Though Bush has long sought to blame others, it is clear the U.S.�s unbridled consumption and inability to live within its means is the major cause of these imbalances. Unless that changes, global imbalances will continue to be a source of global instability, regardless of what China or Europe do.
In light of these uncertainties, the mystery is how risk premiums can remain as low as they are.
With the dramatic reduction in the growth of global liquidity as central banks have successively raised interest rates, the prospect of risk premiums returning to more normal levels is itself one of the major risks the world faces today.
Joseph E. Stiglitz is a Nobel laureate in economics and professor of economics at Columbia University.
But the year produced abundant lessons for the global economy, as well as warning signs concerning its future performance.
Unsurprisingly, it brought another resounding rejection of fundamentalist neo-liberal policies, this time by voters in Nicaragua and Ecuador. In neighbouring Venezuela, Hugo Chavez had an overwhelming electoral victory: at least he had brought some education and health care to the poor barrios, which previously had received little of the benefits of the country's enormous oil wealth.
Perhaps most importantly for the world, voters in the US gave a vote of no-confidence to President George Bush, who will now be held in check by a Democratic congress.
When Bush assumed the presidency in 2001, many hoped he would govern competently from the centre. More pessimistic critics consoled themselves by questioning how much harm a president could do in a few years. We now know the answer: a great deal.
Never has the U.S.�s standing in the world�s eyes been lower. Basic values that Americans regard as central to their identity have been subverted. The unthinkable has occurred: an American president defending the use of torture, using technicalities in interpreting the Geneva Conventions and ignoring the Convention on Torture, which forbids it in any circumstances.
Likewise, whereas Bush was hailed as the first �MBA president�, corruption and incompetence have reigned under his administration, from the botched response to Hurricane Katrina to its conduct of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
In fact, we should be careful not to read too much into the 2006 vote: Americans do not like being on the losing side of any war. It was this failure, and the quagmire into which the U.S. had once again so confidently stepped, that led voters to reject Bush.
But the Middle East chaos wrought by the Bush years also represents a central risk to the global economy. Since the Iraq war began in 2003, oil output from the Middle East has not grown as expected to meet rising world demand. Although most forecasts suggest oil prices will remain at, or slightly below, present levels, this is largely due to a perceived moderation of growth in demand, led by a slowing U.S. economy.
Of course, a slowing U.S. economy constitutes another major global risk. At the root of the U.S.�s economic problems are measures adopted early in Bush�s first term. In particular, the administration pushed through a tax cut that largely failed to stimulate the economy because it was designed to benefit mainly the wealthiest taxpayers. The burden of stimulation was placed on the Federal Reserve, which lowered interest rates to unprecedented levels.
While cheap money had little effect on business investment, it fuelled a real estate bubble, which is bursting, jeopardising households that borrowed against rising home values to sustain consumption.
This economic strategy was not sustainable. Household savings became negative for the first time since the Great Depression, with the country borrowing $3bn a day from foreigners. But households could continue to take money out of their houses only as long as prices continued to rise and interest rates remained low. Thus, higher interest rates and falling house prices do not bode well for the U.S. economy.
According to estimates, roughly 80% of the increase in employment and almost two-thirds of the increase in gross domestic product in recent years stemmed directly or indirectly from real estate.
Making matters worse, unrestrained government spending further buoyed the economy during the Bush years, with fiscal deficits reaching new heights, making it difficult for the government to step in now to shore up economic growth as households curtail consumption.
Many Democrats, having campaigned on a promise to return to fiscal sanity, are likely to demand a reduction in the deficit, which would further dampen growth.
Meanwhile, persistent global imbalances will continue to produce anxiety, especially for those whose lives depend on exchange rates. Though Bush has long sought to blame others, it is clear the U.S.�s unbridled consumption and inability to live within its means is the major cause of these imbalances. Unless that changes, global imbalances will continue to be a source of global instability, regardless of what China or Europe do.
In light of these uncertainties, the mystery is how risk premiums can remain as low as they are.
With the dramatic reduction in the growth of global liquidity as central banks have successively raised interest rates, the prospect of risk premiums returning to more normal levels is itself one of the major risks the world faces today.
Joseph E. Stiglitz is a Nobel laureate in economics and professor of economics at Columbia University.
Thursday, December 28, 2006
Ford Disagreed With Bush About Invading Iraq
Former president Gerald R. Ford said in an embargoed interview in July 2004 that the Iraq war was not justified. "I don't think I would have gone to war," he said a little more than a year after President Bush launched the invasion advocated and carried out by prominent veterans of Ford's own administration.
In a four-hour conversation at his house in Beaver Creek, Colo., Ford "very strongly" disagreed with the current president's justifications for invading Iraq and said he would have pushed alternatives, such as sanctions, much more vigorously. In the tape-recorded interview, Ford was critical not only of Bush but also of Vice President Cheney -- Ford's White House chief of staff -- and then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, who served as Ford's chief of staff and then his Pentagon chief."Rumsfeld and Cheney and the president made a big mistake in justifying going into the war in Iraq. They put the emphasis on weapons of mass destruction," Ford said. "And now, I've never publicly said I thought they made a mistake, but I felt very strongly it was an error in how they should justify what they were going to do."
In a conversation that veered between the current realities of a war in the Middle East and the old complexities of the war in Vietnam whose bitter end he presided over as president, Ford took issue with the notion of the United States entering a conflict in service of the idea of spreading democracy.
"Well, I can understand the theory of wanting to free people," Ford said, referring to Bush's assertion that the United States has a "duty to free people." But the former president said he was skeptical "whether you can detach that from the obligation number one, of what's in our national interest." He added: "And I just don't think we should go hellfire damnation around the globe freeing people, unless it is directly related to our own national security."
The Ford interview -- and a subsequent lengthy conversation in 2005 -- took place for a future book project, though he said his comments could be published at any time after his death. In the sessions, Ford fondly recalled his close working relationship with key Bush advisers Cheney and Rumsfeld while expressing concern about the policies they pursued in more recent years.
"He was an excellent chief of staff. First class," Ford said. "But I think Cheney has become much more pugnacious" as vice president. He said he agreed with former secretary of state Colin L. Powell's assertion that Cheney developed a "fever" about the threat of terrorism and Iraq. "I think that's probably true."
Describing his own preferred policy toward Saddam Hussein's Iraq, Ford said he would not have gone to war, based on the publicly available information at the time, and would have worked harder to find an alternative. "I don't think, if I had been president, on the basis of the facts as I saw them publicly," he said, "I don't think I would have ordered the Iraq war. I would have maximized our effort through sanctions, through restrictions, whatever, to find another answer."
Ford had faced his own military crisis -- not a war he started like Bush, but one he had to figure out how to end. In many ways those decisions framed his short presidency -- in the difficult calculations about how to pull out of Vietnam and the challenging players who shaped policy on the war. Most challenging of all, as Ford recalled, was Henry A. Kissinger, who was both secretary of state and national security adviser and had what Ford said was "the thinnest skin of any public figure I ever knew."
"I think he was a super secretary of state," Ford said, "but Henry in his mind never made a mistake, so whatever policies there were that he implemented, in retrospect he would defend."
In 1975, Ford decided to relieve Kissinger of his national security title. "Why Nixon gave Henry both secretary of state and head of the NSC, I never understood," Ford said. "Except he was a great supporter of Kissinger. Period." But Ford viewed Kissinger's dual roles as a conflict of interest that weakened the administration's ability to fully air policy debates. "They were supposed to check on one another."
That same year, Ford also decided to fire Defense Secretary James R. Schlesinger and replace him with Rumsfeld, who was then Ford's White House chief of staff. Ford recalled that he then used that decision to go to Kissinger and say, "I'm making a change at the secretary of defense, and I expect you to be a team player and work with me on this" by giving up the post of security adviser.
Kissinger was not happy. "Mr. President, the press will misunderstand this," Ford recalled Kissinger telling him. "They'll write that I'm being demoted by taking away half of my job." But Ford made the changes, elevating the deputy national security adviser, Brent Scowcroft, to take Kissinger's White House post.
Throughout this maneuvering, Ford said, he kept his White House chief of staff in the dark. "I didn't consult with Rumsfeld. And knowing Don, he probably resented the fact that I didn't get his advice, which I didn't," Ford said. "I made the decision on my own."
Kissinger remained a challenge for Ford. He regularly threatened to resign, the former president recalled. "Over the weekend, any one of 50 weekends, the press would be all over him, giving him unshirted hell. Monday morning he would come in and say, 'I'm offering my resignation.' Just between Henry and me. And I would literally hold his hand. 'Now, Henry, you've got the nation's future in your hands and you can't leave us now.' Henry publicly was a gruff, hard-nosed, German-born diplomat, but he had the thinnest skin of any public figure I ever knew."
Ford added, "Any criticism in the press drove him crazy." Kissinger would come in and say: "I've got to resign. I can't stand this kind of unfair criticism." Such threats were routine, Ford said. "I often thought, maybe I should say: 'Okay, Henry. Goodbye,' " Ford said, laughing. "But I never got around to that."
At one point, Ford recalled Kissinger, his chief Vietnam policymaker, as "coy." Then he added, Kissinger is a "wonderful person. Dear friend. First-class secretary of state. But Henry always protected his own flanks."
Ford was also critical of his own actions during the interviews. He recalled, for example, his unsuccessful 1976 campaign to remain in office, when he was under enormous pressure to dump Vice President Nelson A. Rockefeller from the Republican ticket. Some polls at the time showed that up to 25 percent of Republicans, especially those from the South, would not vote for Ford if Rockefeller, a New Yorker from the liberal wing of the Republican Party, was on the ticket.
When Rockefeller offered to be dropped from the ticket, Ford took him up on it. But he later regretted it. The decision to dump the loyal Rockefeller, he said, was "an act of cowardice on my part."
In the end, though, it was Vietnam and the legacy of the retreat he presided over that troubled Ford. After Saigon fell in 1975 and the United States evacuated from Vietnam, Ford was often labeled the only American president to lose a war. The label always rankled.
"Well," he said, "I was mad as hell, to be honest with you, but I never publicly admitted it."
In a four-hour conversation at his house in Beaver Creek, Colo., Ford "very strongly" disagreed with the current president's justifications for invading Iraq and said he would have pushed alternatives, such as sanctions, much more vigorously. In the tape-recorded interview, Ford was critical not only of Bush but also of Vice President Cheney -- Ford's White House chief of staff -- and then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, who served as Ford's chief of staff and then his Pentagon chief."Rumsfeld and Cheney and the president made a big mistake in justifying going into the war in Iraq. They put the emphasis on weapons of mass destruction," Ford said. "And now, I've never publicly said I thought they made a mistake, but I felt very strongly it was an error in how they should justify what they were going to do."
In a conversation that veered between the current realities of a war in the Middle East and the old complexities of the war in Vietnam whose bitter end he presided over as president, Ford took issue with the notion of the United States entering a conflict in service of the idea of spreading democracy.
"Well, I can understand the theory of wanting to free people," Ford said, referring to Bush's assertion that the United States has a "duty to free people." But the former president said he was skeptical "whether you can detach that from the obligation number one, of what's in our national interest." He added: "And I just don't think we should go hellfire damnation around the globe freeing people, unless it is directly related to our own national security."
The Ford interview -- and a subsequent lengthy conversation in 2005 -- took place for a future book project, though he said his comments could be published at any time after his death. In the sessions, Ford fondly recalled his close working relationship with key Bush advisers Cheney and Rumsfeld while expressing concern about the policies they pursued in more recent years.
"He was an excellent chief of staff. First class," Ford said. "But I think Cheney has become much more pugnacious" as vice president. He said he agreed with former secretary of state Colin L. Powell's assertion that Cheney developed a "fever" about the threat of terrorism and Iraq. "I think that's probably true."
Describing his own preferred policy toward Saddam Hussein's Iraq, Ford said he would not have gone to war, based on the publicly available information at the time, and would have worked harder to find an alternative. "I don't think, if I had been president, on the basis of the facts as I saw them publicly," he said, "I don't think I would have ordered the Iraq war. I would have maximized our effort through sanctions, through restrictions, whatever, to find another answer."
Ford had faced his own military crisis -- not a war he started like Bush, but one he had to figure out how to end. In many ways those decisions framed his short presidency -- in the difficult calculations about how to pull out of Vietnam and the challenging players who shaped policy on the war. Most challenging of all, as Ford recalled, was Henry A. Kissinger, who was both secretary of state and national security adviser and had what Ford said was "the thinnest skin of any public figure I ever knew."
"I think he was a super secretary of state," Ford said, "but Henry in his mind never made a mistake, so whatever policies there were that he implemented, in retrospect he would defend."
In 1975, Ford decided to relieve Kissinger of his national security title. "Why Nixon gave Henry both secretary of state and head of the NSC, I never understood," Ford said. "Except he was a great supporter of Kissinger. Period." But Ford viewed Kissinger's dual roles as a conflict of interest that weakened the administration's ability to fully air policy debates. "They were supposed to check on one another."
That same year, Ford also decided to fire Defense Secretary James R. Schlesinger and replace him with Rumsfeld, who was then Ford's White House chief of staff. Ford recalled that he then used that decision to go to Kissinger and say, "I'm making a change at the secretary of defense, and I expect you to be a team player and work with me on this" by giving up the post of security adviser.
Kissinger was not happy. "Mr. President, the press will misunderstand this," Ford recalled Kissinger telling him. "They'll write that I'm being demoted by taking away half of my job." But Ford made the changes, elevating the deputy national security adviser, Brent Scowcroft, to take Kissinger's White House post.
Throughout this maneuvering, Ford said, he kept his White House chief of staff in the dark. "I didn't consult with Rumsfeld. And knowing Don, he probably resented the fact that I didn't get his advice, which I didn't," Ford said. "I made the decision on my own."
Kissinger remained a challenge for Ford. He regularly threatened to resign, the former president recalled. "Over the weekend, any one of 50 weekends, the press would be all over him, giving him unshirted hell. Monday morning he would come in and say, 'I'm offering my resignation.' Just between Henry and me. And I would literally hold his hand. 'Now, Henry, you've got the nation's future in your hands and you can't leave us now.' Henry publicly was a gruff, hard-nosed, German-born diplomat, but he had the thinnest skin of any public figure I ever knew."
Ford added, "Any criticism in the press drove him crazy." Kissinger would come in and say: "I've got to resign. I can't stand this kind of unfair criticism." Such threats were routine, Ford said. "I often thought, maybe I should say: 'Okay, Henry. Goodbye,' " Ford said, laughing. "But I never got around to that."
At one point, Ford recalled Kissinger, his chief Vietnam policymaker, as "coy." Then he added, Kissinger is a "wonderful person. Dear friend. First-class secretary of state. But Henry always protected his own flanks."
Ford was also critical of his own actions during the interviews. He recalled, for example, his unsuccessful 1976 campaign to remain in office, when he was under enormous pressure to dump Vice President Nelson A. Rockefeller from the Republican ticket. Some polls at the time showed that up to 25 percent of Republicans, especially those from the South, would not vote for Ford if Rockefeller, a New Yorker from the liberal wing of the Republican Party, was on the ticket.
When Rockefeller offered to be dropped from the ticket, Ford took him up on it. But he later regretted it. The decision to dump the loyal Rockefeller, he said, was "an act of cowardice on my part."
In the end, though, it was Vietnam and the legacy of the retreat he presided over that troubled Ford. After Saigon fell in 1975 and the United States evacuated from Vietnam, Ford was often labeled the only American president to lose a war. The label always rankled.
"Well," he said, "I was mad as hell, to be honest with you, but I never publicly admitted it."
Google removes sex-positive sites from search results
In recent weeks, Google has been changing its search algorithms and now many sex websites have been dropped. It seems to have coincided with changes they made relating to their pay-for-play keyword ad program, AdSense. What's disturbing to me (besides the harm it's done to small businesses over the holidays) is that Google's snafu seems to have dropped more sex-positive businesses (that focus on accurate sex ed) than big-gun, mainstream adult businesses (that sell unsafe sex toys and skanky product). To me, this also shows the huge problem with having a monoculture wherin a single business is depended on to provide a communication service. They screw one thing up, and an essential feature (like access to accurate search result information) disappears. For instance, I remember talking to Johannes at Monochrom a few weeks back in Vienna, and he was upset that Google had just totally dropped Momochrom.at from the search results, when it had been coming up first (now only the .com comes up).
It used to be that if you searched for Good Vibes, Comstock Films, Tiny Nibbles and Violet Blue, you'd get each of these sites in the top rankings or on the first page (SafeSearch off, natural results). No more. However, if you search for Adam and Eve or Vivid, you get the mainstream sex toy and porn sites on the first page.
So, as Tony Comstock explains eloquently in his post about how his indy film business has been seriously affected, if people read about any of these entities in a magazine and then go to search for them, searchers don't find what they're looking for. Unsafe sex toys and "interracial" porn from huge companies, no problem, but books and toys from women-owned sex-positive healthy sex businesses? No.
Tony actually pointed this out to me this morning; I actually don't Google myself very often but Tiny Nibbles used to come out as the first result -- especially important to me when a woman has been running around using my name *as her business*. But Babeland had put together this excellent post about how they'd been suddenly dropped before the holiday season, and I hadn't had time to research it and do a post; now it seems to be corrected. Comstock Films and many others are realizing that they're affected too. My page ranking is seriously FUBAR in a weird way that can only be a mistake; search for "HOWTO: give an erotic gift (for the holidays and beyond)" and you get Fleshbot, Viviane's Sex Carnival... and then the actual post I did about ten days ago. Conversely, search for "great news for schizophrenics" (a post on Jamie Zawinski's blog) and it's the first Google entry result.
It seems to me that Google screwed something up -- something, we will never know, because they are secretive and proprietary. And for people who depend on tools like Google Search to mine the internet for accurate links to news, people, articles, and everything else that makes media happen, well, we just have to keep in mind that Google isn't as accurate as it used to be. It's just lame the way the reshuffling has happened -- we in the sex-positive communities have worked so hard to make a place for ourselves outside the huge, entrenched old-boys' distribution network that companies like Adam and Eve and Vivid take for granted (and still exclude indies from). I truly believed that things like Google made the playing field a whole lot more even for those of us struggling against gender stereotypes, sex-negative portrayals of healthy sexuality and -- yes, even abstinence education.
And, I'm all for thinking that one should always first jump to the conclusion of stupidity (mistakes) and not malice, but one reader writes, "why would any company compromise its product (any search for 'tiny nibbles' should reasonably come up with the result 'tinynibbles.com') unless there was a reason? my guess: money. they didn't get rid of *all* sex sites, so it's not because the christian right forced a change. rather, they quietly changed their search algorithms so that the big companies would be prominent and the small independent businesses would be lost."
It used to be that if you searched for Good Vibes, Comstock Films, Tiny Nibbles and Violet Blue, you'd get each of these sites in the top rankings or on the first page (SafeSearch off, natural results). No more. However, if you search for Adam and Eve or Vivid, you get the mainstream sex toy and porn sites on the first page.
So, as Tony Comstock explains eloquently in his post about how his indy film business has been seriously affected, if people read about any of these entities in a magazine and then go to search for them, searchers don't find what they're looking for. Unsafe sex toys and "interracial" porn from huge companies, no problem, but books and toys from women-owned sex-positive healthy sex businesses? No.
Tony actually pointed this out to me this morning; I actually don't Google myself very often but Tiny Nibbles used to come out as the first result -- especially important to me when a woman has been running around using my name *as her business*. But Babeland had put together this excellent post about how they'd been suddenly dropped before the holiday season, and I hadn't had time to research it and do a post; now it seems to be corrected. Comstock Films and many others are realizing that they're affected too. My page ranking is seriously FUBAR in a weird way that can only be a mistake; search for "HOWTO: give an erotic gift (for the holidays and beyond)" and you get Fleshbot, Viviane's Sex Carnival... and then the actual post I did about ten days ago. Conversely, search for "great news for schizophrenics" (a post on Jamie Zawinski's blog) and it's the first Google entry result.
It seems to me that Google screwed something up -- something, we will never know, because they are secretive and proprietary. And for people who depend on tools like Google Search to mine the internet for accurate links to news, people, articles, and everything else that makes media happen, well, we just have to keep in mind that Google isn't as accurate as it used to be. It's just lame the way the reshuffling has happened -- we in the sex-positive communities have worked so hard to make a place for ourselves outside the huge, entrenched old-boys' distribution network that companies like Adam and Eve and Vivid take for granted (and still exclude indies from). I truly believed that things like Google made the playing field a whole lot more even for those of us struggling against gender stereotypes, sex-negative portrayals of healthy sexuality and -- yes, even abstinence education.
And, I'm all for thinking that one should always first jump to the conclusion of stupidity (mistakes) and not malice, but one reader writes, "why would any company compromise its product (any search for 'tiny nibbles' should reasonably come up with the result 'tinynibbles.com') unless there was a reason? my guess: money. they didn't get rid of *all* sex sites, so it's not because the christian right forced a change. rather, they quietly changed their search algorithms so that the big companies would be prominent and the small independent businesses would be lost."
The most expensive stamp in the world
Usually when you hear about an item purchased for $2.3 Million, you expect it to be something like a grandiose house, or maybe a heavily modified car, you surely don’t think of a stamp that was printed in Sweden, in the year 1855.
But that’s not the only surprising thing about the most expensive stamp in the world named Treskilling Yellow - The stamp samples are actually a result of an unnoticed mistake in stamp-printers and were later discounted in 1858.
The question of how many stamps of this kind have been printed remains unanswered, but only 1 copy is known to exist, which was sold for $2.3 Million in 1996, a whopping $71 Billion per kilogram.
2006: The year in astronomy
The year 2006 was one of things lost and found. The solar system lost its former ninth planet and NASA lost a long-serving Mars probe, but scientists found good evidence for dark matter, signs of liquid water flows on present-day Mars, and a planet just a few times more massive than Earth around another star.
The year opened with the spectacular return to Earth on 15 January of the Stardust mission, which had spent years travelling to and from Comet Wild 2 to collect samples to be examined in the laboratory.
Early analysis of the samples led to the surprising finding that although the comets were formed in the frigid outer solar system, some of the building blocks must have been transported there from very close to the Sun, because they appear to have been heated above 1000°C.
In other comet news this year, the close passage of a disintegrating comet by the Earth in April gave astronomers a rare view of what may be a common fate for comets.
Planet crisis
Some say Pluto is just an overgrown comet, and the International Astronomical Union controversially voted to redefine the term "planet" in a way that excludes Pluto, relegating the former ninth planet to a second class of "dwarf planets".
Pluto's demotion was partly prompted by the confirmation earlier in the year that at least one object in the distant reaches of the solar system is bigger than Pluto. Initially called Xena, or the "tenth planet", it was given the official name Eris, after the Greek goddess of discord.
Amidst all the controversy, the New Horizons spacecraft continued towards its planned 2015 encounter with Pluto, following its January launch.
Land of lakes
NASA's Cassini spacecraft went on dazzling scientists and the general public with its investigation of Saturn and its moons. About 100 lakes of liquid methane or ethane, or both, were revealed on Saturn's largest moon, Titan, making it only the second body – after the Earth – known to have surface liquids fed by rain and rivers. Vast fields of dunes were also revealed on the Titan's surface, probably made of frozen hydrocarbon particles.
Cassini also found a giant storm raging at Saturn's south pole, somewhat reminiscent of a hurricane, a faint new ring around the planet, and ripples in a previously known ring perhaps resulting from a comet or asteroid strike in the 1980s.
A new phase in the exploration of Venus began with the arrival in orbit of the European Space Agency's Venus Express spacecraft, which promptly returned images of a curious double vortex structure in the clouds above the planet's south pole. There were also hints that Venus's surface might be older than previously believed, preserving a much longer record of its history.
Recent water
ESA's SMART-1 spacecraft ended its lunar observing mission in a deliberate crash landing on the Moon, destroying itself in a flash of light and producing a small crater.
Two new Sun-observing missions were launched in 2006, NASA's Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) mission and JAXA's Hinode (formerly Solar-B), which has already returned some initial results, including video of evolving plasma loops in the Sun's atmosphere.
A fleet of robotic probes at Mars delivered many new discoveries this year. A new NASA spacecraft, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter arrived in orbit in March, and began returning stunning images of the Martian surface, including a portrait of the rover Opportunity next to Victoria crater and a view of sand dunes carved with gullies.
But NASA experienced disappointment at Mars as well this year, with the disappearance of its 10-year-old Mars Global Surveyor. Before it disappeared, however, it returned images showing changes suggestive of recent water flow in gullies that it had been monitoring.
Unstoppable rovers
Radar sounding suggested there is a lot of water locked up in the form of ice buried beneath the surface near the planet's south pole.
Other research suggested that weird sand geysers erupt on Mars, and that toxic dust rains onto its surface.
NASA's unstoppable Spirit and Opportunity rovers surpassed the 1000 Martian day mark in 2006, despite having been originally rated for only 90 days on the Red Planet.
One of Spirit's wheels seized up permanently, but even that led to a new discovery by gouging a track in the Martian soil and revealing a buried layer of sulphates, yet more evidence of past water on the Red Planet.
While parked for six months during Mars's southern hemisphere's winter, Spirit created the most detailed panoramic view of the planet ever made. Opportunity finally arrived at the 800-metre-wide Victoria crater, returning some beautiful pictures of its own, and was looking for a good way into the crater when the year ended.
Earth-like planets
There were also many new discoveries about planets beyond our solar system. Astronomers found the smallest planet yet around a normal star, with just 3 to 11 times the mass of Earth. There were also some oddities, including a puffed up planet with a density less than that of a wine cork, two objects with the mass of planets orbiting each other instead of a star, and dusty discs around two hypergiant stars, suggesting planets might form even in the turbulent environment near these enormous suns.
Beyond our own galaxy, more progress was made in understanding gamma-ray bursts - the most powerful explosions in the universe. Analysis of an unusual gamma-ray burst called GRB 060218 suggested it was not powered by a star collapsing to form a black hole – thought to be the case for most of the observed long gamma-ray bursts – but may have been a less massive star collapsing to form a highly magnetised neutron star instead.
And two more GRBs detected in May and June may result from an entirely unknown process.
Big bang leftovers
The larger-scale universe made headlines this year as well. Physicists John Mather and George Smoot were awarded a Nobel prize for their work with the COBE satellite, which detected the first variations in the cosmic microwave background leftover from the big bang.
Scientists saw the gravitational effects of dark matter in isolation for the first time by studying a region of space where a colossal collision between galaxy clusters separated it from ordinary matter, results that were hailed as proof of dark matter's existence.
Of course, other scientists put forward arguments against dark matter, saying that modified gravity theories could explain astronomical observations.
A survey of the most distant supernova ever seen revealed some precious new information about dark energy, the mysterious force that is speeding up the universe's expansion and whose properties make it very difficult to study.
The new observations showed that dark energy has been present for at least the past 9 billion years and that its strength cannot have varied much during that time.
Solar system in a can
Among the more bizarre things announced this year, scientists proposed building a spacecraft carrying a miniature solar system to test for subtle gravitational effects due to hidden extra dimensions, and a team of astronomers suggested observations of a quasar indicated it was powered by an exotic ball of plasma called a MECO rather than a black hole.
The future appeared to hold promise as well, as the European Southern Observatory approved plans to build a giant 42-metre infrared and visible-light telescope, four times bigger than any existing telescope that observes at these wavelengths.
NASA announced that it would send a space shuttle mission to the Hubble Space Telescope in 2008 to extend the venerable observatory's life and install more powerful instruments. Hubble recovered twice in 2006 from the temporary shutdown of its main camera.
The year opened with the spectacular return to Earth on 15 January of the Stardust mission, which had spent years travelling to and from Comet Wild 2 to collect samples to be examined in the laboratory.
Early analysis of the samples led to the surprising finding that although the comets were formed in the frigid outer solar system, some of the building blocks must have been transported there from very close to the Sun, because they appear to have been heated above 1000°C.
In other comet news this year, the close passage of a disintegrating comet by the Earth in April gave astronomers a rare view of what may be a common fate for comets.
Planet crisis
Some say Pluto is just an overgrown comet, and the International Astronomical Union controversially voted to redefine the term "planet" in a way that excludes Pluto, relegating the former ninth planet to a second class of "dwarf planets".
Pluto's demotion was partly prompted by the confirmation earlier in the year that at least one object in the distant reaches of the solar system is bigger than Pluto. Initially called Xena, or the "tenth planet", it was given the official name Eris, after the Greek goddess of discord.
Amidst all the controversy, the New Horizons spacecraft continued towards its planned 2015 encounter with Pluto, following its January launch.
Land of lakes
NASA's Cassini spacecraft went on dazzling scientists and the general public with its investigation of Saturn and its moons. About 100 lakes of liquid methane or ethane, or both, were revealed on Saturn's largest moon, Titan, making it only the second body – after the Earth – known to have surface liquids fed by rain and rivers. Vast fields of dunes were also revealed on the Titan's surface, probably made of frozen hydrocarbon particles.
Cassini also found a giant storm raging at Saturn's south pole, somewhat reminiscent of a hurricane, a faint new ring around the planet, and ripples in a previously known ring perhaps resulting from a comet or asteroid strike in the 1980s.
A new phase in the exploration of Venus began with the arrival in orbit of the European Space Agency's Venus Express spacecraft, which promptly returned images of a curious double vortex structure in the clouds above the planet's south pole. There were also hints that Venus's surface might be older than previously believed, preserving a much longer record of its history.
Recent water
ESA's SMART-1 spacecraft ended its lunar observing mission in a deliberate crash landing on the Moon, destroying itself in a flash of light and producing a small crater.
Two new Sun-observing missions were launched in 2006, NASA's Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) mission and JAXA's Hinode (formerly Solar-B), which has already returned some initial results, including video of evolving plasma loops in the Sun's atmosphere.
A fleet of robotic probes at Mars delivered many new discoveries this year. A new NASA spacecraft, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter arrived in orbit in March, and began returning stunning images of the Martian surface, including a portrait of the rover Opportunity next to Victoria crater and a view of sand dunes carved with gullies.
But NASA experienced disappointment at Mars as well this year, with the disappearance of its 10-year-old Mars Global Surveyor. Before it disappeared, however, it returned images showing changes suggestive of recent water flow in gullies that it had been monitoring.
Unstoppable rovers
Radar sounding suggested there is a lot of water locked up in the form of ice buried beneath the surface near the planet's south pole.
Other research suggested that weird sand geysers erupt on Mars, and that toxic dust rains onto its surface.
NASA's unstoppable Spirit and Opportunity rovers surpassed the 1000 Martian day mark in 2006, despite having been originally rated for only 90 days on the Red Planet.
One of Spirit's wheels seized up permanently, but even that led to a new discovery by gouging a track in the Martian soil and revealing a buried layer of sulphates, yet more evidence of past water on the Red Planet.
While parked for six months during Mars's southern hemisphere's winter, Spirit created the most detailed panoramic view of the planet ever made. Opportunity finally arrived at the 800-metre-wide Victoria crater, returning some beautiful pictures of its own, and was looking for a good way into the crater when the year ended.
Earth-like planets
There were also many new discoveries about planets beyond our solar system. Astronomers found the smallest planet yet around a normal star, with just 3 to 11 times the mass of Earth. There were also some oddities, including a puffed up planet with a density less than that of a wine cork, two objects with the mass of planets orbiting each other instead of a star, and dusty discs around two hypergiant stars, suggesting planets might form even in the turbulent environment near these enormous suns.
Beyond our own galaxy, more progress was made in understanding gamma-ray bursts - the most powerful explosions in the universe. Analysis of an unusual gamma-ray burst called GRB 060218 suggested it was not powered by a star collapsing to form a black hole – thought to be the case for most of the observed long gamma-ray bursts – but may have been a less massive star collapsing to form a highly magnetised neutron star instead.
And two more GRBs detected in May and June may result from an entirely unknown process.
Big bang leftovers
The larger-scale universe made headlines this year as well. Physicists John Mather and George Smoot were awarded a Nobel prize for their work with the COBE satellite, which detected the first variations in the cosmic microwave background leftover from the big bang.
Scientists saw the gravitational effects of dark matter in isolation for the first time by studying a region of space where a colossal collision between galaxy clusters separated it from ordinary matter, results that were hailed as proof of dark matter's existence.
Of course, other scientists put forward arguments against dark matter, saying that modified gravity theories could explain astronomical observations.
A survey of the most distant supernova ever seen revealed some precious new information about dark energy, the mysterious force that is speeding up the universe's expansion and whose properties make it very difficult to study.
The new observations showed that dark energy has been present for at least the past 9 billion years and that its strength cannot have varied much during that time.
Solar system in a can
Among the more bizarre things announced this year, scientists proposed building a spacecraft carrying a miniature solar system to test for subtle gravitational effects due to hidden extra dimensions, and a team of astronomers suggested observations of a quasar indicated it was powered by an exotic ball of plasma called a MECO rather than a black hole.
The future appeared to hold promise as well, as the European Southern Observatory approved plans to build a giant 42-metre infrared and visible-light telescope, four times bigger than any existing telescope that observes at these wavelengths.
NASA announced that it would send a space shuttle mission to the Hubble Space Telescope in 2008 to extend the venerable observatory's life and install more powerful instruments. Hubble recovered twice in 2006 from the temporary shutdown of its main camera.
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