Cheap and easy test for prostate cancer?

This will be fantastic news assuming it works.

British scientists have moved a step closer to developing a simple urine test to identify men at risk of getting prostate cancer.

They have discovered that a protein found in urine is affected by a genetic change linked to the cancer.

More research was needed, but their work could lead to the development of a reliable test costing £5.50 ($8.82).

NOTE FROM JOHN: That would $8 in Britain.  Or $300 states in the states. Read More......

Background noise impacts taste

Very interesting study.

The level of background noise affects both the intensity of flavour and the perceived crunchiness of foods, researchers have found.

Blindfolded diners assessed the sweetness, saltiness, and crunchiness, as well as overall flavour, of foods as they were played white noise.

While louder noise reduced the reported sweetness or saltiness, it increased the measure of crunch.

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401K plans will require cost disclosure details by 2012

This is long overdue but still highly appreciated.

Employer-sponsored 401(k) retirement plans will have to disclose fees that savers pay on investments and transactions by 2012, the U.S. Department of Labor said.

“Participants will be able to understand the dramatic effect fees play in the returns that they get,” Assistant Secretary of Labor Phyllis Borzi said in a conference call today.

The regulations, which will apply to the plans by Jan. 1, 2012, will require companies to provide investors information on administrative and investment fees charged to their accounts in their quarterly statements, the Labor Department said.

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China: Awarding Nobel Peace Prize to human rights activist encourages crime

A predictable response from one of the most corrupt governments on the planet.

Awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to imprisoned dissident Liu Xiabo encouraged crime in China, the government said Thursday, while telling his supporters to stop interfering in his case.

China has been issuing angry statements and rejecting calls for Liu's release since the Norwegian Nobel Committee honored him Oct. 8 for his more than two decades of advocacy of human rights and peaceful democratic change that started with the demonstrations at Beijing's Tiananmen Square in 1989.

The 54-year-old literary critic is serving an 11-year prison term after being convicted of inciting subversion for his role in writing an influential 2008 manifesto for political reform.

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Mortgage problems could cost banks billions

It's anyone's guess how much but the consensus now is that it will not be cheap. (One industry analyst says it could be over $80 billion.) The longer it takes the banks to clean up their mess the more expensive it will be for the banks. The Obama administration is not interested in pursuing the banks or helping consumers beyond gentle requests but the state attorney generals are much more serious about this problem. Despite the "blame the buyers" approach by the banks, many see this as a serious legal issue for the banks. Time is money and there is a lot of time ahead before this is cleaned up.

Wall Street initially hoped the banks would do just that but as the political furor grew, a quick end to the crisis was looking less and less likely. On Wednesday, 50 state attorneys general announced they were investigating the practices of the mortgage servicing industry, while Florida’s attorney general subpoenaed the nation’s largest mortgage processor, L.P.S., as part of a broader investigation.

In some cases, officials at mortgage servicers signed hundreds of documents a day with barely a chance to review them — the so-called robo-signers — while doubts have arisen about the veracity of the original documents compiled as part of the foreclosure process.

“I don’t see how it can be cleared up in a short period of time,” said Richard X. Bove, an analyst with Rochdale Securities. “The moratorium won’t last that long but the problem will last at least four or five years, maybe a decade.” In the short term, he said, “it could easily cost $1.5 billion per quarter.”

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GOP House candidate dons duckie pajamas, parties with scantily clad women

I'm sure it's his mother. Read More......

CNBC says next Wall Street bailout is coming

I already feel sick to my stomach. There is no way Congress - Democrats or Republicans - will have the backbone to include strings about bonuses as they should. It's going to be another cave with the tired old "there was no time" lie that they used the last time. If anything, the Democrats ought to punt this heaping pile of crap to the GOP (who created it) and let them deal with voter anger. But of course, we're talking about the Democrats here who won't miss an opportunity to find a way to be blamed for a Republican problem.

Wall Street doesn't deserve any help, financial or legal, but that won't stop Washington from dealing dope to the biggest addicts in the country. CNBC:

The put-back crisis is not driven by economics. It is driven by legal rights. And there’s simply zero probability that the politicians in Washington are going to let Bank of America or Citigroup or JP Morgan Chase fail because of a legal issue.

So here’s what I expect will happen. The lame duck session of Congress will pass a bill that essentially papers over the misdeeds of the banks that originated mortgage securities. Every member of Congress and every Senator who has been voted out of office will cast a vote for the bill. And the President will sign it.

Will the public be outraged? Probably. Financial bloggers will scream from the high heavens against another bailout of the banksters. Congress may try to create some cost for banks in exchange for the forgiveness, perhaps requiring more mortgage modifications.

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Black voters still engaged

Wash Post:

Historically, black turnout for midterm elections has lagged behind the national average, but two new reports offer a bullish outlook for this year.

A major survey conducted by The Washington Post, the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation and Harvard University found that 80 percent of black Democrats are as interested or more interested in the midterms than they were in the 2008 presidential election, when their enthusiasm helped propel Barack Obama into office.

This year, 62 percent of all black Democrats say they're likely to encourage others to support certain candidates, according to the survey, compared with 47 percent of white Democrats and 57 percent of all Republicans.

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AP says Dems allege that stimulus helped economy - uh, wasn't Dems, was CBO

AP:

Democrats say the recession would have been worse if the government didn't step in with those programs to prop up the economy. 

It's not Democrats, it's the CBO. Why doesn't AP simply tells its readers the truth, rather than playing this false he-said-she-said? Read More......

GOP suffering enthusiasm gap among early voters

Polsing:

Last month I wrote about the potential that early voting might help the Democrats overcome the much-discussed "enthusiasm gap," because although an unenthusiastic voter might skip going to the polls on election day they might get cajoled to turn in a ballot if harangued over the course of a couple of weeks. Judging by the early numbers, it seems as though this dynamic may in fact be playing out much to the Democrats' advantage [in Ohio and Iowa].

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OPEC seeking $100/barrel due to weak dollar

This is about the last thing anyone needs in the US. The only possible bright side is that maybe it will encourage politicians to make some attempt to move beyond a petroleum based economy. Bloomberg:

The 13 percent decline in the Dollar Index since June has led some OPEC members to call for oil to rise to $100 a barrel.

The U.S. currency’s weakness means the “real price” of oil is about $20 less than current levels, Venezuelan Energy and Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez said after yesterday’s meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries in Vienna. The group, which accounts for 40 percent of global crude output, left targets unchanged and called for greater adherence to quotas, which are being exceeded by a supertanker load a day.

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Control of the House update

From NPR:

The battle for control of the House has tightened in 58 competitive districts across the country, according to the newest NPR poll of the congressional battlefield. Democrats trail Republicans in those seats by a three-point gap, lagging 44 percent to 47 percent. In June, Democrats had 41 percent support to the GOP’s 49 percent. The big caveat comes from Glen Bolger, who tells NPR “the bad news for Democrats is that there are now more of their seats at risk. The battleground has expanded. ‘That's a succinct way to put it," Bolger said. ‘Having Republicans ahead or tied across 86 districts just gives Republicans a much larger margin for error to win back the House.’ … Democratic pollster Stan Greenberg sees a small, but silver lining. ‘This is still an election that it would be very hard for Democrats to hold the House with these numbers,’ Greenberg said. ‘But there is movement here and it's not trivial movement.’”

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Lightning hits Statue of Liberty

Very cool shot. There's a wider shot on the site as well. Read More......

In NH, Annie Kuster keeps pushing as GOP opponent ensnared in ethics scandal

UDPATE @ 5:41 PM: The latest (and final) UNH poll of the NH's Second CD shows Kuster has moved into the lead: 43% - 36%. The results are here. This poll was conducted before the Bass ethics scandal broke.
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In New Hampshire's Second Congressional District, there's a real battle underway. We've become big supporters of Annie Kuster. She won convincingly, by a 71% - 29% margin, in the Democratic primary against a well-known Blue Dog Democrat last month. Now, she's taking on the GOPer who used to have this seat: Charlie Bass.

And, Kuster is kicking butt again. I've been very impressed with her campaign. She's a true progressive -- and a supporter of marriage equality in a state where marriages are legal. That's why the Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC) is supporting Kuster.

This week, a major ethics scandal involving Bass broke in New Hampshire. Here's the take from Sam Stein:

The late-campaign airing of allegations of ethical misconduct in the race for an open New Hampshire House seat could produce the rare spectacle of a member of Congress facing an ethics investigation shortly after entering office.

On Thursday morning, the Nashua Telegraph published a fairly damning story about former Congressman Charlie Bass (R-N.H.) who is running for his old seat, currently held by Senatorial candidate Paul Hodes (D-N.H.). According to the paper, Bass helped set up a business meeting benefiting a New Hampshire wood pellet company at the same time that he held $500,000 worth of privately held stock in that company. Days after Bass left office in January 2007, he took a position on that company's board.

Yeah, that's just what one should want in a Congressman -- an immediate trip to the Ethics Committee. Bass served under Tom DeLay for years. Apparently, he learned well from that sleazebag. Dean Baker at Blue Hampshire sums it up perfectly:

To me this is exhibit A on the sleazy nature of revolving door Washington politics.

Close that door on Bass, please, New Hampshire voters. Read More......

Krugman on mortgages: 'The question is whether our economy is governed by any kind of rule of law'

The Professor nails it this time. Straight to the bottom line, and quite a bottom line it is:

[T]he mortgage mess is making nonsense of claims that we have effective contract enforcement — in fact, the question is whether our economy is governed by any kind of rule of law.

And the telling details (my emphasis):

Horror stories have been proliferating, like the case of the Florida man whose home was taken even though he had no mortgage. More significantly, certain players have been ignoring the law. Courts have been approving foreclosures without requiring that mortgage servicers produce appropriate documentation; instead, they have relied on affidavits asserting that the papers are in order. And these affidavits were often produced by “robo-signers,” or low-level employees who had no idea whether their assertions were true.

Now an awful truth is becoming apparent: In many cases, the documentation doesn’t exist. In the frenzy of the bubble, much home lending was undertaken by fly-by-night companies trying to generate as much volume as possible.

So much for the myth of the dark-skinned Other (plus Barney Frank) forcing reluctant banks to make loans to the Great Undeserving. As a consequence of all this, as Krugman says: "[M]any of the foreclosures now taking place are, in fact, illegal."

The response is also a mess. The reaction from Team Forced to Follow the Law — "[T]he Obama administration’s response has been to oppose any action that might upset the banks." Pick a side, sir. Or have you already?

And the reaction from the Right is even worse:

Republicans in Congress are lying low, but conservative commentators like those at The Wall Street Journal’s editorial page have come out dismissing the lack of proper documents as a triviality. In effect, they’re saying that if a bank says it owns your house, we should just take its word. To me, this evokes the days when noblemen felt free to take whatever they wanted, knowing that peasants had no standing in the courts. But then, I suspect that some people regard those as the good old days.

Where's that law and order when you need it? Sorry, not for the small people; only for your Betters, the Barons of the New America. Nice that the Professor picks up on the nobles vs. peasants imagery. It's hardly a metaphor any more.

Ugly, ugly, ugly — enough to make the whole world of Our Betters hide its head in shame. Would that that world felt shame.

Pick a side, sir. Or have you already?

GP Read More......