Pethokoukis spotlights a new Health Affairs study on how Romneycare laid the foundation for Obamacare, and what it portends for the federal health insurance scene. In short: Expanded government coverage, higher taxpayer costs. Read here for details and analysis. His conclusion:

The authors conclude that based on the Romneycare experience, Obamacare will improve coverage and not kill employer-based insurance, but containing costs will be a “considerable challenge.” That is probably the avenue Romney should use to a) attack Obamacare and b) present his own national health reform. But this study will perpetuate the meme that Romneycare was the prototype for Obamacare. Santorum hammered Romney on this point at the last debate more effectively than any other candidate throughout this campaign season, probably because he understands the issue better than his rivals. We’ll see if he or Gingrich follows up tonight.

No surprises, of course. We already heard from Obamacare architect Jonathan Gruber in October:

The Obama administration may have relied much more heavily on Romney’s Massachusetts healthcare legislation as a blueprint for Obamacare than was previously believed.

Matthew Herper, 

Forbes Staff

So did you hear the one about the fetal tissue

in your soda?

Matthew Herper, Forbes Staff

So did you hear the one about the fetal tissue in your soda?

Oklahoma State Senator Ralph Shortey is being widely mocked for a bill to ban the use of human embryonic tissue in the production or research of food. Or, in the language of the bill:

No person or entity shall manufacture or knowingly sell food or any other product intended for human consumption which contains aborted human fetuses in the ingredients or which used aborted human fetuses in the research or development of any of the ingredients.

(Find a Word document of the bill here.)

I think this bill is anti-medicine, anti-biotech, and anti-business, but I also think that Shortey has a point, and that his effort highlights a deep divide in the way people understand and feel about science that no amount of mocking on Twitter or Andy-Kaufman-esque stunt articles on Gawker will change.  So let’s take a look at what Shortey is actually talking about.

No person or entity is manufacturing food or other products intended for human consumption that contain aborted human fetuses. But some food companies are using cell lines that were originally derived from human fetuses in order to develop new food products. Moreover, many medicines and vaccines, which I suppose could be seen as “meant for human consumption.” The Children of God For Life, which according to press reports inspired Shortey’s bill, also opposes standard vaccines for chickenpox, rubella and hepatitis A and drugs such as Roche’s Pulmozyme for cystic fibrosis and Amgen‘s Enbrel for rheumatoid arthritis. (See a list of products Children of God For Life say are unethical.)

The fetus-derived cell line we’re talking about was also created around the time I was born. This is 35-year-old technology. And it is widely used in cell biology. And there is no way you’ll consume them or that the cells would cause any health problems.

The cells, called HEK 293 cells (that stands for human embryonic kidney) were taken from an aborted fetus in the 1970s in the Netherlands. Bits of chopped up DNA from the adenovirus, a virus that causes a pretty severe cold. The kidney cells were forced to take up bits of DNA using a technique invented in 1973 that used a calcium solution. The resulting cells don’t act much like human cells at all, but they are very easy to work with and have become workhorses of cellular biology. That’s why they’re used in the development of drugs and vaccines. (Here’s the original paper on the creation of the HEK cells. ) No new fetal tissue has been used to keep the cell culture going; the use of this cell line isn’t leading to new abortions.

A tiny company called Synomyx, whose stock is trading near its 52-week low, has been working to use this new technology to create food additives. Synomix has isolated receptors found on cells that detect taste, and added them to the HEK cells. This allows them to test thousands of potential taste additives to see whether they might taste sweet or savory with a speed that would be impossible with human taste testers. (You can find a scientific paper on the Synomyx sweetener work here. ) Synomyx has announced collaborations with Pepsi, Nestle, and Coca-Cola. The stock market values the company at $140 million, which is not much by the standards of biotech.

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (CBS Cleveland/AP) —

The winningest major college football coach of all time, Paterno was diagnosed shortly after Penn State’s Board of Trustees ousted him Nov. 9 in the aftermath of the child sex abuse charges against former assistant Jerry Sandusky. Paterno was getting treatment since, and his health problems worsened when he broke his pelvis — an injury that first cropped up when he was accidentally hit in preseason practice last year.

G+

“The storm

cannot master its own strength.”

Dr. Simon Atkins CEO, Advanced Forecasting Corporation [AFC]

The hype over Hurricane Irene is overblown, predicts the CEO of Advanced Forecasting Corporation.

“North of Delaware, most hurricane force winds will very likely be gusts, not sustained winds.”

o    The demise of Irene has already begun. There is no visible eye. The storm intensity is down to 99 mph. This would be a low-end category 2 or a strong category 1 storm, while 36 hours ago some predicted a catastrophic category 4 storm. Air Force Reserve aircraft have found that Irene’s eyewall has collapsed, and the central pressure has risen — rising pressure means a weakening storm.

o    The reduction in storm intensity likely confirms that this storm is not going to be as monstrous as it has been publicly forecast to be.

o    Yes, it will be windy. However, north of Delaware most hurricane force winds will very likely be gusts, not sustained winds.

HURRICANE WARNING FROM NC TO NYC...

65 MILLION PEOPLE IN PATH...

VIDEO: 8 Swept Off Jetty By Wave...

NYC BRACES FOR UP TO 12" RAIN...

COMPLETE SUBWAY SHUTDOWN PLANNED...

New moon could make flooding worse?

FLIGHTS CANCELED, UP AND DOWN...

 
- Irene is a hurricane that poses an extraordinary threat and is one that no one has yet experienced in North Carolina to the mid-Atlantic to the Northeast and New England.

- We can now narrow the projected path corridor. Confidence is growing that locations from eastern North Carolina and the eastern Mid-Atlantic states to Long Island to southern New England are all in the potential path of Hurricane Irene.

- It is becoming clear that Irene’s future track will NOT be a Hurricane Earl (2010) scenario where a hurricane barely brushes the Outer Banks of North Carolina then stays well offshore.

- There is historical precedence for a hurricane impacting the major metropolitan areas of the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast but these hurricanes are rare.

- However, with a population explosion along coastal areas of the Northeast during the past several decades, a hurricane this strong hasn’t affected the Northeast urban corridor for at least the past two decades.

- Regardless of track and intensity, confidence is growing that Hurricane Irene will cause extensive tree and power line damage. Electricity infrastructure will be greatly compromised for millions if not tens of millions of Americans.

- Recent heavy rains over parts of the Northeast, especially New Jersey, have made tree root systems highly vulnerable. Flooding rains combined with high winds will add to tree destruction.

- Extent of water level rise (surge) for local bays, inlets and sounds is dependent on the local geography however suffice to say new high water marks could be set.

- Severity of Irene’s impacts are dependent on the final track.

- Please begin to think about and act on your hurricane preparations. Now is the time.

Latest computer guidance showing Irene’s forecast path. More Irene Maps

The 11th Circuit U.s. Court of Appeals in Atlanta, Georgia has declared the “individual mandate” provision of President Obama’s health care bill unconstitutional, calling it an “unprecedented exercise of congressional power,” Reuters reports.

The section of the bill in question made it illegal for an individual not to have health insurance, and is one of the most contested parts of the law passed in March 2010. The attorneys-general of 26 states filed suit in the 11th Circuit to have the law overturned.

The court said Congress cannot “mandate that individuals enter into contracts with private insurance companies for the purchase of an expensive product from the time they are born until the time they die,” according to Phillip Klein of the Washington Examiner.

The case was heard by a panel of three judges. The two members who wrote the majority opinion were Chief Judge Joel Fredrick Dubina, appointed by George H.W. Bush in 1990, and Judge Frank M. Hull, appointed by Bill Clinton in 1997. Hull is the first Democratic appointee so far to declare any portion of the health care law unconstitutional, though several Republican appointees have. Klein writes that because of Hull’s decision in favor of the states, “this will be hard for the Obama administration to dismiss as the work of a lone activist conservative judge.”

Justice Stanley Marcus, also appointed to the court by Clinton in 1997, wrote in his dissent that the majority opinion ignored precedents set by the Supreme Court justifying an expansive reading of the “commerce clause” in the U.S. Constitution.

It is widely expected that the ultimate fate of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will be decided by the Supreme Court.

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ScienceDaily (June 3, 2011) — One of the beneficial compounds found in green tea has a powerful ability to increase the number of “regulatory T cells” that play a key role in immune function and suppression of autoimmune disease, according to new research in the Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University.

This may be one of the underlying mechanisms for the health benefits of green tea, which has attracted wide interest for its ability to help control inflammation, improve immune function and prevent cancer.

Pharmaceutical drugs are available that perform similar roles and have been the subject of much research, scientists say, but they have problems with toxicity. A natural food product might provide a long-term, sustainable way to accomplish this same goal without toxicity, researchers said.

“This appears to be a natural, plant-derived compound that can affect the number of regulatory T cells, and in the process improve immune function,” said Emily Ho, an LPI principal investigator and associate professor in the OSU Department of Nutrition and Exercise Sciences.

“When fully understood, this could provide an easy and safe way to help control autoimmune problems and address various diseases,” Ho said.

The findings have been published in Immunology Letters.

There are many types of cells that have different roles in the immune system, which is a delicate balancing act of attacking unwanted invaders without damaging normal cells. In autoimmune diseases, which can range from simple allergies to juvenile diabetes or even terminal conditions such as Lou Gehrig’s disease, this process goes awry and the body mistakenly attacks itself.

Some cells exist primarily to help control that problem and dampen or “turn off” the immune system, including regulatory T cells. The number and proper function of those regulatory T cells, in turn, is regulated by other biological processes such as transcription factors and DNA methylation.

In this study, OSU scientists did experiments with a compound in green tea, a polyphenol called EGCG, which is believed to be responsible for much of its health benefits and has both anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer characteristics. They found it could cause a higher production of regulatory T cells. Its effects were not as potent as some of those produced by prescription drugs, but it also had few concerns about long-term use or toxicity.

“EGCG may have health benefits through an epigenetic mechanism, meaning we aren’t changing the underlying DNA codes, but just influencing what gets expressed, what cells get turned on,” Ho said. “And we may be able to do this with a simple, whole-food approach.”

Laboratory studies done with mice, Ho said, showed that treatment with EGCG significantly increased the numbers and frequencies of regulatory T cells found in spleen and lymph notes, and in the process helped to control the immune response.

“Epigenetic regulation can be potentially exploited in generating suppressive regulatory T cells for therapeutic purposes, and is of significant clinical importance for the suppression of autoimmune diseases,” the researchers said in their study.

The research was done by scientists from OSU, the University of Connecticut, and Changwon National University in South Korea. The work was supported by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the Oregon Agricultural Experiment Station.

(Reuters) – Top congressional Republicans said on Sunday they would be open to a compromise on healthcare costs, one of the biggest stumbling blocks in a deal to get the United States’ debt under control.

Representative Paul Ryan, the chairman of the House of Representatives Budget Committee, said he would “absolutely” be willing to negotiate with Democrats, who have hammered his plan to scale back government-run health plans for the poor and the elderly.

Harnessing the Energy of the Sun: New Technique Improves Artificial Photosynthesis

The Calculus of Compassion

Although human suffering has always been with us, the past few months have provided several vivid examples in quick succession.  From the tragic consequences of the Japanese earthquake, to the devastated neighborhoods from tornados in the American South, to the humanitarian crisis unfolding daily in Libya, the plight of thousands has been on almost daily display.  Read More

Gaming, Simulation Tools Merged to Create Models for Border Security

Researchers have developed a high-fidelity simulation and analysis program that aids policy and decision-makers tasked with making key procurements and funding …  > full story

Locationgate: A Cell Phone GPS Explainer For Senator Al Franken

Autism

Making Friends

By John Elder Robison on May 11, 2011 in My Life With Asperger’s May 11, 2011

Making Friends Read More

YOUTUBE

Pop-Up Theater For Watching YouTube Videos Hooks Into Your iPhone

BY Belinda LanksToday

Few simple pleasures approach that of a makeshift outdoor theater — that is, a movie projected onto any available wall — on a summer evening. Imagine if you could have your own personal cinema and invite all your neurotic friends … READ»

• NASA: Next-to-last shuttle launch set for May 16

  AP – Mon May 9, 5:14 pm ET

  AP

  CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – NASA will try again next Monday to launch Endeavour on the next-to-last space shuttle flight, after replacing a switch box and plugging in new electrical wiring Full Story »

  • Slideshow: Space Shuttle Program

• How Big Is the Mississippi River Flood?

  LiveScience.com – 1 hr 49 mins ago

  The deadly tornadoes and rainstorms that tore across the Midwest last month combined with melting snow have left the Mississippi River bursting at the seams. Amidst the evacuations and extensive flooding along the river, experts know records are being broken, but they say they won’t know the full extent of the flood — such as how much water has actually breached the riverbanks — until things quiet down. Full Story »

 

Happiness

Put No One Out of Your Heart

By Rick Hanson, Ph.D. on May 11, 2011 in Your Wise Brain May 11, 2011

Closing off doesn’t feel good. It makes your heart heavy and contracted. And it primes your brain to be more tense and reactive, which could get you into trouble, plus trigger others to act worse than ever. It may feel necessary to distance yourself utterly from another person for awhile or forever but in general, you never have to put anyone out of your heart. Read More

Happiness

3 Ideas to Prevent Schools from Killing Creativity, Curiosity, and Critical Thinking

By Todd B. Kashdan, Ph.D. on May 11, 2011 in Curious? May 11, 2011

What we value the most is what our schools address the least. Our current school system kills creativity, curiosity, and critical thinking. What can we do? Here are 3 ideas. Read More

• Big Oil: ending tax breaks would up fuel price

  Reuters – 2 hrs 34 mins ago

  Reuters

  WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The world’s biggest oil companies on Wednesday launched broadsides against Democratic plans to pare back some of their cherished U.S. tax breaks, saying the measure was “un-American” and would only push up already high gasoline prices. Full Story »

• Superflare from Crab Nebula Has Astronomers Mystified

  SPACE.com – 2 hrs 44 mins ago

  The Crab Nebula, the dusty remains of an exploded star, has unleashed a surprisingly massive flare that is five times more powerful than any eruption previously seen from the celestial object, leaving scientists struggling to explain the event, NASA says. Full Story »

 

Child Development

Principle Number Three: The Golden Rule

By Izzy Kalman on May 11, 2011 in A Psychological Solution to Bullying May 11, 2011

To determine if our actions are moral, we should ask ourselves if we would like to be treated the way we are treating the other person if we were in their position. Unfortunately, most of what we do to kids once we label them bullies we would not want done to us if we were in their situation. What we are doing to them is not moral. Read More

• Animal Kingdom wins Kentucky Derby

  Reuters – Sat May 7, 9:38 pm ET

  LOUISVILLE (Reuters) – The glorious uncertainty of horse racing produced an unlikely winner of the $2.2 million Kentucky Derby on Saturday when Animal Kingdom stormed to victory in the 137th Run for the Roses at Churchill Downs. Full Story »

• Hillary Clinton Heads to Greenland for Arctic Climate Change Summit

  ContributorNetwork – Wed May 11, 5:59 pm ET

  According to Reuters, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Department of the Interior Secretary Ken Salazar are heading to Greenland today for an Arctic summit. Here the pair will meet with other leaders and discuss what the future holds for pristine and biologically-rich region as climate change continues to creep on. Full Story »

Self-Help

Out of Control

By Robert Taibbi, L.C.S.W. on May 11, 2011 in Fixing Families May 11, 2011

Scene 1: Setting: Living Room. We see Harry and Ethel in a ferocious argument. “Not over my dead body!” screams Harry as he stomps out of the house, slams the door and drives away.

Scene 2: Setting: A local bar. We see Harry hunched over a glass of whiskey that he promptly downs in one gulp. “Give me another,” he yells at the barkeeper, “and this time make it a double!” Read More

 

• Four Planets Now Performing Sky Dance at Dawn

  SPACE.com – 2 hrs 44 mins ago

  If you look closely at the eastern horizon just before sunrise for the next two weeks, you should notice the bright planets Venus and Jupiter. Look closer still, perhaps with the help of binoculars, and you should spot two more planets, Mercury and Mars. Full Story »

• Second spinal cord injury patient in stem cell trial

  Reuters – Tue May 10, 5:25 pm ET

  CHICAGO (Reuters) – Doctors have begun treating a second patient injected with human embryonic stem cells in the spine as part of a landmark Geron Corp clinical trial testing the cells in spinal cord injuries. Full Story »

• House passes bill to speed up oil drilling

  AP – Wed May 11, 3:24 pm ET

  WASHINGTON – The Republican-controlled House has passed another bill putting offshore oil and gas drilling on the fast track. Full Story »

• Two months after Japan quake, neediest victims still await aid

  Reuters – Wed May 11, 12:57 pm ET

  Reuters

  TOKYO (Reuters) – The neediest victims of Japan’s devastating earthquake and tsunami have yet to receive much of the record $2.2 billion aid two months later, mainly because the authorities have yet to identify them, the country’s Red Cross said Wednesday. Full Story »

Media

Netflix My Life: A Culture of Non-ownership

By Michael Bruce on May 11, 2011 in Angst! May 11, 2011

“Buying into the relationship” is a phrase people use when referring to ones commitment level in a relationship. Are we now streaming relationships? Are people paying their monthly dues in order to have access to an increased selection of partners and experiences without having to own [up to] anything? Read More

• Tiny Banjo Band Tears It Up [VIDEO]

  Mashable – Wed May 11, 4:48 pm ET

  Each day, Mashable highlights one noteworthy YouTube video. Check out all our viral video picks. Full Story »

• PayPal is top brand for mobile payments: survey

  Reuters – 2 hrs 10 mins ago

  LONDON (Reuters) – PayPal, the eBay-owned online payment system, could be set for a major boost as mobile payment systems start to take off over the next year, a survey by market research firm GfK suggests. Full Story »

 

Libyan TV shows footage of long-absent Gaddafi

Creativity

Using Willpower: Work or Fun?

By Meg Selig on May 11, 2011 in Changepower May 11, 2011

If you think “fun,” you’ll need less willpower. Read More

Parenting

Will He Grow Out of It? Why Wait and See May Be a Mistake

By Victoria Costello on May 11, 2011 in Awakening Psyche May 11, 2011

As the mother of two now grown sons I still get the chills thinking about living with and attempting to keep both of them alive and on track from age 14 to (if I’m honest) 21. The research about what can easily be called an epidemic of conduct disorder in boys (6 to 16%, 8 to 18 yrs) is there and it is sobering. Read More

• What the Microsoft-Skype deal means to the mobile phone and app industries

  at Appolicious – Wed May 11, 6:00 pm ET

  All it takes is a mere $8.5 billion to forever change how calls are made. Don’t have that measly sum lying around? Don’t worry, Microsoft (MSFT) is here to help you out with its recently announced acquisition of Skype. So you can save your dollars for a new Windows Phone, or Skype-supported Xbox or Kinect. Full Story »

• AT&T, T-Mobile defend deal

  Investor’s Business Daily – Wed May 11, 6:03 pm ET

  The CEOs for the two telecom companies told a Senate antitrust subcommittee that their $39 bil merger would benefit consumers and not stifle innovation. If federal regulators approve the acquisition, AT&T and its rival, Verizon Wireless, would handle about 80% of U.S. wireless customers. AT&T said the merger would allow the company to improve services, handle more data traffic and bring mobile Internet to more consumers than it could do on its own. AT&T shares fell 1% to 31.38. Full Story »

• The End Is Nigh — For Computers, at Least [INFOGRAPHIC]

  Mashable – Wed May 11, 3:41 pm ET

  When it comes to our gadgets, we live by Moore’s law, which implies that as time goes by and tech gets better, the hardware we use gets smaller and more sophisticated. Now that we’ve whittled machines that filled whole rooms down to an MP3 player the size of a Triscuit, it’s hard to say how much smaller our devices can get — but computing is continuing to evolve. Full Story »

• Switch to ARM may make cents

  Investor’s Business Daily – Wed May 11, 6:03 pm ET

  Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL – News) will likely be the first PC maker to switch from Intel (NASDAQ:INTC – News) processors to chips designed by ARM Holdings (NASDAQ:ARMH – News), Barclays Capital said in a note to investors. “Those (ARM’s) chips might cut processor cost by a third, which would save $25 per PC, 5% of the total cost of the machine,” Barclays said. While Apple uses Intel in its Macs, its iPhone and iPad software is seen as compatible with ARM chips. Full Story »

• DOJ antitrust settlement with Microsoft to expire

  AP – 1 hr 58 mins ago

  WASHINGTON – The technology industry advances at lightning speed. So perhaps it’s no surprise that the expiration of the Justice Department’s historic antitrust settlement with software giant Microsoft is passing with little fanfare Thursday. Full Story »

 

Relationships

Surviving Heartbreak and Evaluating a Break-Up

By Nathan A. Heflick on May 11, 2011 in The Big Questions May 11, 2011

Everything has a beginning and an end, but that doesn’t make the middle any less special. Read More

Intelligence

How to Tell Your Life Story

By Susan Cain on May 11, 2011 in Quiet: The Power of Introverts May 11, 2011

When you look back at your life, do you assemble the events, and your reactions to them, into a cohesive narrative? Is it a cheerful tale, or a wistful one? The story you tell about your own life is the key to your happiness, creativity, and compassion. Read More

Spirituality

Moving On After the Break-up

By Gerry Heisler, Ph.D. on May 11, 2011 in Relationship Boot Camp May 11, 2011

The time after a break-up provides an opportunity to process valuable information that can lead to intimate, loving relationships in the future. Read More

Evolutionary Psychology

Napoleon Pills and the Rationality of Belief

By Scott M. James, Ph.D. on May 11, 2011 in Mind and Morals May 11, 2011

We think our beliefs extend back to the facts. This is what makes them rational. But if contemporary social psychology has revealed anything, it’s that very many of our beliefs (let alone our desires) have very different origins. And this makes a difference in what you ought to believe. Read More

Relationships

Great Friendship Stories: The Doria-Dentes from Brooklyn

By Irene S. Levine, Ph.D. on May 11, 2011 in The Friendship Doctor May 11, 2011

Margaret Doria and Anita Dente have taught at the same two Catholic high schools in Brooklyn, at the same time, for 45 years. At first blush, they seem like the proverbial “odd couple”—an Oscar and Felix with different styles and views of the world. Read More

Relationships

Identity and the Separated Person: How Does Maria Shriver See Herself Now?

By Bella DePaulo, Ph.D. on May 11, 2011 in Living Single May 11, 2011

Separation can be painful but it can also be an opportunity to reassess your identity and your life. I wonder what Maria Shriver will do, introspectively, with the time she spends in separation limbo. Read More

Rocket blasts off with missile-warning satellite

Health

The Genetics of Chronic Widespread Pain

There have been a number of advances in the etiology of the chronic and widespread pain that is the hallmark of fibromyalgia: We learn more and more about the interplay of both physiological and psychological factors; but predicting the onset of such pain remains problematic, even with evidence for a genetic predisposition to the development of chronic pain. Read More

Sitting is not only making us fat, lazy, and weak (all bummers) — it’s shaving precious years off of our desk-bound lifespans: men who sit six hours a day are 20 percent more likely to die than men who sit three hours a day and women who sit six hours a day are 40 percent more likely to die.