I know i haven't said much...

but that's because when i'm this quiet, it's easier to think.

I am thinking of you auntie angie and yaya, mom and nina... In no way are you not all on my mind, it's just that I have many things to figure out all at once, and i believe truly i'm best to do all of this on my own.

I love you and hope you're okay auntie angie especially, you are my heart.

mandi

Excellent News in Cancer Research!

Major breast cancer breakthrough announced at
BC Cancer Agency

BC scientists first in world to decode genetic evolution of a breast cancer tumour.

October 7, 2009, Vancouver, B.C., Canada – For the first time in history, BC Cancer Agency scientists in British Columbia, Canada have decoded all of the three billion letters in the DNA sequence of a metastatic lobular breast cancer tumour, a type of breast cancer which accounts for about 10 per cent of all breast cancers, and have found all of the mutations, or “spelling” mistakes that caused the cancer to spread.

The landmark study, which will be published October 8th as the cover story in the prestigious international science journal Nature, helps unlock the secrets of how cancer begins and spreads, thus pointing the way to the development of new breast cancer treatment targets and therapies.

“One in nine women is expected to develop breast cancer, and breast cancer accounts for 29 per cent of all cancer diagnoses for B.C. women,” said Health Services Minister Kevin Falcon. “As a result of the efforts of the scientists behind the study, this breakthrough finding gives further hope to the thousands of women with this terrible disease.”

“I never thought I would see this in my lifetime,” said Dr. Samuel Aparicio, head of the breast cancer research program at the BC Cancer Agency, an agency of the Provincial Health Services Authority (PHSA). “This is a watershed event in our ability to understand the causes of breast cancer and to develop personalized medicines for our patients. The number of doors that can now be opened to future research is considerable.”

Partnering with the BC Cancer Agency’s Genome Sciences Centre, Dr. Aparicio’s team used the latest in next-generation DNA sequencing technology to study the evolution of a single patient’s lobular breast cancer tumour over a nine-year interval. They found 32 mutations in the metastatic cancer tumour and then looked to see how many of those same spelling mistakes were present in the original tumour. The result was surprising - only five of the 32 could have been present in all of the cells of the primary tumour, thus fingering them as the criminals that caused the disease to get started in the first place. These five mutations were previously unknown to researchers as playing a role in cancer.

“This study demonstrates the remarkable capacity of next-generation DNA sequencing technology,” says Dr. Marco Marra, Director, BC Cancer Agency’s Genome Sciences Centre. “The project that decoded the first human genome in 2001 took years and an enormous amount of funding. We were able to sequence the breast cancer genome in weeks and at a fraction of the cost.”

“Through our research at the BC Cancer Agency, we are dedicated to finding new and novel ways to detect cancer earlier and to develop more enhanced treatments,” said Brian Schmidt, Interim President, BC Cancer Agency and Senior Vice President, Provincial Services, Population and Public Health, PHSA. “This discovery is a wonderful example of how investment in research is helping to pave the way toward better outcomes for cancer patients in the future.”

The discovery is not only a major scientific milestone for the BC Cancer Agency, an acknowledged world leader in cancer research care, but also a significant testimony to the power of philanthropy invested in science to fuel cancer research and drive new discoveries.

“The BC Cancer Foundation, as the fundraising arm of the agency, has raised over $15 million to support breast cancer research at the BC Cancer Agency across the province, including Dr. Aparicio’s program, through its Weekend to End Breast Cancer walk,” said BC Cancer Foundation President and CEO Douglas Nelson. “We are very grateful to the many thousands of British Columbians who have walked, donated and supported The Weekend to End Breast Cancer over the past six years. To everyone who has walked or contributed we can confidently say your efforts have made a difference - you are a partner in this remarkable achievement.”

The BC Cancer Foundation founded the BC Cancer Agency’s Genome Sciences Centre, the Centre for Translational and Applied Genomics at the BC Cancer Agency, and the BC Cancer Agency’s Breast Cancer Outcomes Unit, all of which played a key role in the study. The research was conducted in the BC Cancer Agency’s research centre in Vancouver, which was constructed by the BC Cancer Foundation, with donor and provincial and federal government funding.

The Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation, BC/Yukon Region supported a key member of Dr. Aparicio’s research team through a bioinformatics fellowship. Other funders and supporters include the Canadian Institutes for Health Research, Genome Canada and Genome BC, the Canadian Foundation for Innovation, and the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research.

Dr. Aparicio was recruited in 2005 from Cambridge University, UK to develop a breast cancer research program in British Columbia at the BC Cancer Agency. He holds the Nan and Lorraine Robertson Chair in Breast Cancer Research at the University of British Columbia (UBC), the Canada Research Chair in Molecular Oncology and is a professor in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at UBC.

The BC Cancer Agency is committed to reducing the incidence of cancer, reducing the mortality from cancer and improving the quality of life of those living with cancer. It provides a comprehensive cancer control program by working with community partners to deliver a range of oncology services, including prevention, early detection, diagnosis and treatment, research, education, supportive care, rehabilitation and palliative care. The BC Cancer Foundation raises funds to support research and enhancements to patient care at the BC Cancer Agency throughout B.C.

Iran

There’s a reason why many of America’s foremost minds aren’t invited to give their opinions on mainstream media programs. Juan Cole, the President of the Global Americana Institute and the Richard P. Mitchell Collegiate Professor of History at the University of Michigan, is one such individual. The following is an example of why Cole, and others like him, remain on the informational fringe in the United States while blowhards like William Kristol are routinely tapped by major news networks to provide commentary…

“But on this occasion, I thought I’d take the opportunity to list some things that people tend to think they know about Iran, but for which the evidence is shaky.

Belief: Iran is aggressive and has threatened to attack Israel, its neighbors or the US.

Reality: Iran has not launched an aggressive war in modern history (unlike the US or Israel), and its leaders have a doctrine of “no first strike.” This is true of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, as well as of Revolutionary Guards commanders.

Belief: Iran is a militarized society bristling with dangerous weapons and a growing threat to world peace.

Reality: Iran’s military budget is a little over $6 billion annually. Sweden, Singapore and Greece all have larger military budgets. Moreover, Iran is a country of 70 million, so that its per capita spending on defense is tiny compared to these others, since they are much smaller countries with regard to population. Iran spends less per capita on its military than any other country in the Persian Gulf region with the exception of the United Arab Emirates.

Belief: Iran has threatened to attack Israel militarily and to “wipe it off the map.”

Reality: No Iranian leader in the executive has threatened an aggressive act of war on Israel, since this would contradict the doctrine of ‘no first strike’ to which the country has adhered. The Iranian president has explicitly said that Iran is not a threat to any country, including Israel.

Belief: But didn’t President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad threaten to ‘wipe Israel off the map?’

Reality: President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad did quote Ayatollah Khomeini to the effect that “this Occupation regime over Jerusalem must vanish from the page of time” (in rezhim-e eshghalgar-i Qods bayad as safheh-e ruzgar mahv shavad). This was not a pledge to roll tanks and invade or to launch missiles, however. It is the expression of a hope that the regime will collapse, just as the Soviet Union did. It is not a threat to kill anyone at all.

Belief: But aren’t Iranians Holocaust deniers?

Actuality: Some are, some aren’t. Former president Mohammad Khatami has castigated Ahmadinejad for questioning the full extent of the Holocaust, which he called “the crime of Nazism.” Many educated Iranians in the regime are perfectly aware of the horrors of the Holocaust. In any case, despite what propagandists imply, neither Holocaust denial (as wicked as that is) nor calling Israel names is the same thing as pledging to attack it militarily.

Belief: Iran is like North Korea in having an active nuclear weapons program, and is the same sort of threat to the world.

Actuality: Iran has a nuclear enrichment site at Natanz near Isfahan where it says it is trying to produce fuel for future civilian nuclear reactors to generate electricity. All Iranian leaders deny that this site is for weapons production, and the International Atomic Energy Agency has repeatedly inspected it and found no weapons program. Iran is not being completely transparent, generating some doubts, but all the evidence the IAEA and the CIA can gather points to there not being a weapons program. The 2007 National Intelligence Estimate by 16 US intelligence agencies, including the CIA and the Defense Intelligence Agency, assessed with fair confidence that Iran has no nuclear weapons research program. This assessment was based on debriefings of defecting nuclear scientists, as well as on the documents they brought out, in addition to US signals intelligence from Iran. While Germany, Israel and recently the UK intelligence is more suspicious of Iranian intentions, all of them were badly wrong about Iraq’s alleged Weapons of Mass Destruction and Germany in particular was taken in by Curveball, a drunk Iraqi braggart.

Belief: The West recently discovered a secret Iranian nuclear weapons plant in a mountain near Qom.

Actuality: Iran announced Monday a week ago to the International Atomic Energy Agency that it had begun work on a second, civilian nuclear enrichment facility near Qom. There are no nuclear materials at the site and it has not gone hot, so technically Iran is not in violation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, though it did break its word to the IAEA that it would immediately inform the UN of any work on a new facility. Iran has pledged to allow the site to be inspected regularly by the IAEA, and if it honors the pledge, as it largely has at the Natanz plant, then Iran cannot produce nuclear weapons at the site, since that would be detected by the inspectors. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton admitted on Sunday that Iran could not produce nuclear weapons at Natanz precisely because it is being inspected. Yet American hawks have repeatedly demanded a strike on Natanz.

Belief: The world should sanction Iran not only because of its nuclear enrichment research program but also because the current regime stole June’s presidential election and brutally repressed the subsequent demonstrations.

Actuality: Iran’s reform movement is dead set against increased sanctions on Iran, which likely would not affect the regime, and would harm ordinary Iranians.

Belief: Isn’t the Iranian regime irrational and crazed, so that a doctrine of mutally assured destruction just would not work with them?

Actuality: Iranian politicians are rational actors. If they were madmen, why haven’t they invaded any of their neighbors? Saddam Hussein of Iraq invaded both Iran and Kuwait. Israel invaded its neighbors more than once. In contrast, Iran has not started any wars. Demonizing people by calling them unbalanced is an old propaganda trick. The US elite was once unalterably opposed to China having nuclear science because they believed the Chinese are intrinsically irrational. This kind of talk is a form of racism.

Belief: The international community would not have put sanctions on Iran, and would not be so worried, if it were not a gathering nuclear threat.

Actuality: The centrifuge technology that Iran is using to enrich uranium is open-ended. In the old days, you could tell which countries might want a nuclear bomb by whether they were building light water reactors (unsuitable for bomb-making) or heavy-water reactors (could be used to make a bomb). But with centrifuges, once you can enrich to 5% to fuel a civilian reactor, you could theoretically feed the material back through many times and enrich to 90% for a bomb. However, as long as centrifuge plants are being actively inspected, they cannot be used to make a bomb. The two danger signals would be if Iran threw out the inspectors or if it found a way to create a secret facility. The latter task would be extremely difficult, however, as demonstrated by the CIA’s discovery of the Qom facility construction in 2006 from satellite photos. Nuclear installations, especially centrifuge ones, consume a great deal of water, construction materiel, and so forth, so that constructing one in secret is a tall order. In any case, you can’t attack and destroy a country because you have an intuition that they might be doing something illegal. You need some kind of proof. Moreover, Israel, Pakistan and India are all much worse citizens of the globe than Iran, since they refused to sign the NPT and then went for broke to get a bomb; and nothing at all has been done to any of them by the UNSC.”

Beaches

This is where i will be moving next week (this is my backyard!!!)

The Big Bang Theory Quotes

As today was a complete write off ( i had less than 2 hours of sleep and then went to class regardless) i am sitting here reading quotes from my favourite show and just had to share them:

These are mainly Sheldon quotes:

-Leornard: (about Penny) “Our babies will be smart and beautiful” -Sheldon: “Not to mention imaginary”

"Oh, yea? Well, I'm polymerized tree sap and you are an inorganic adhesive. Whatever verbal projectile you launch in my direction is reflected off of me and returns on its original trajectory and adheres to you!"

obviously your not well suited for 3 Dimentional chess perhaps 3 dimentional Candy Land would be more your speed .................... it must be humbling to suck on so many different levels.

"No I'm not giving up. I never give up. I'm... transcending the situation."

"Clearly febrile delirium is setting in. Peease bring me some soup while i still understand what a spoon is for."

"While Mr. Kim, by virtue of his youth and naivete, has fallen prey to the inexplicable need for human contact, let me step in and assure you that my research will go on uninterrupted, and that social relationships will continue to baffle and repulse me".

"Oh Mario. If only I could control everyone like I control you. Hop you little plumber! HOP! HOP! "

Engineering—where the semi-skilled laborers execute the vision of those who think and dream. Hello Oompa-Loompas of science!

I'm not crazy; my mom had me tested.

Leonard : Sheldon, we have to do this. Sheldon : No, we don't. We have to take in nourishment, expel waste, and inhale enough oxygen to keep our cells from dying. Everything else is optional.

Leonard: "Sheldon, how could you just sit there and let them spy on me?" Sheldon: "They're clever, Leonard. They exploited my complete lack of interest in what you were doing.

"I don't know your odds in the world as a whole, but as far as the population of this car goes, you're a veritable mac daddy."

"In short, anyone who told you that you would someday be able to make some significant contribution to physics, played a cruel trick on you, a cruel trick indeed. Any questions? (No one in the classroom does anything) Of course not. I weep for the future of science. Now if you'll excuse me, the latest issue of Batman is out."

"We seem to be on an excrement river in a Native American watercraft without a propulsion device".

Leonard: "You're asking him to choose between sex and Halo."Sheldon: "No I'm asking him to choose between sex and Halo 3. As far as I know, sex has not been upgraded to include high-def graphics and enhanced weapon systems."

Excuse me; explain to me an organizational system where a tray of flatware on a couch is valid. And I'm just inferring that this is a couch because the evidence suggests the coffee table is having a tiny garage sale.

Durkheim and Deviance

A famous sociologist Emile Durkheim gave many lectures about deviance and crime in his time, and established that norms are socially constructed. They vary across cultures as well as over time, and they pertain to behaviours that society considers desirable or forbidden.
Norms should serve as general guidelines for behaviour, they do not always apply to every circumstance and are considered relative, along with their penalties.

So i beg of you to consider this question? Why is homelessness considered deviant but not measures such as penny pinching, employed by the very rich, in order for them to save their money? I believe this is because power plays a central role in the marginalization of specific populations.

All people are deviant at least some of the time.

What is overlooked in studying young people and crime is that they often engage in deviance for fun.
Delinquency may be prompted by short-term situationally-induced desires experienced by all boys to obtain valued goods, to portray courage, to be loyal to their peers, or to strike out at someone they do not like. Adult delinquency can be argued as an extension therefore, of juvenile delinquency.

Just how far "outside" one is, varies from case to case. : Traffic violations, theft, murder and rape are at opposite ends of the deviance spectrum. Alcoholics are usually ambivalent, sometimes recognizing their disease, at other times feeling severely misunderstood.

Common sense and scientific theory assume that acts that break rules are inherently deviant and thus take for granted the situations and processes of judgment and leave out an important variable. This limits the kinds of theories that can be developed and the kind of understanding that can be achieved.

The question of what the purpose or goal of agroup is, and what will help or hinder the achievement of that purpose, is very often a political question.
Therefore we can see deviance better defined as: the failure to obey rules constructed by a group.
We fail to give sufficient weight to the ambiguities that arise in deciding which rules are to be taken as the yardstick against which behaviour is measured and judged deviant.
From this point of view deviance is not a quality of the act the person commits but rather a consequence of the application by others of rules and sanctions to an offender. A deviant is a person to whom the label has been successfully applied.

Durkheim sees crime as necessary, to a certain extent, in order to recognize what is considered not deviant.

The more honourable a society or person, the more slight deviance from the norms will offend.
We have been re-defining deviance so as to exempt much conduct previously stigmatized and quietly raising the "normal level", but we are still a far way off from understanding what is deviant, as it is socially constructed, we will always face resistance and a cultural war when re-defining deviance.
For example:

The Altruistic: In the 1950's Kennedy pronounced " all but a small portion of the mentally ill can eventually achieve a wholesome and constructive social adjustment" and the de-institutionalization movement began within the mental health profession. (we are still a long way from treating the mentally ill with dignity but at least it is not longer considered as deviant to have a mental illness).
The Opportunistic: the acceptance of alternative family structures.
The Normalizing: growing acceptance of unprecedented level of violent crime.

What do you think of the fact that Durkheim believes that crime is necessary to society, in order for it to recognize what changes need to be implemented and that the most powerful people of each culture control what is considered normal and accepted ?

My Favourite Girl

Rachel Mcadams