caucus99percent

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Good morning 99percenters!

And a happy Monday to you.

Today we celebrate James Madison’s 264th birthday. Mr. Madison, a Virginia gentleman, is known as the Father of the U.S. Constitution. He was the fourth President of the United States serving between 1809 and 1817.

A few other fun facts about President Madison:

• He was 5’6” tall.
• He drank a pint of whiskey every day.
• He was schooled in Latin, Greek and Hebrew and acquired a reading knowledge of French.
• He wrote 29 of the 85 articles known as The Federalist Papers.
• During the Constitutional Convention he opposed the proposal for a Bill of Rights. At the time, Madison was confident that the Constitution did not give the federal government any powers that could endanger individual liberties. Madison thought it was potentially dangerous to list some of the rights of the people, in case these might be interpreted as the only rights of the people.
• As he listened to his colleagues debate the issue he became afraid some of his colleagues would do things to weaken the federal government in favor of the states.
• He was the only delegate to the Constitutional Convention who attended every session and hence his notes are considered the most accurate account of the proceedings.
• After being elected to the first Congress, he began work on The Bill of Rights which took its first form as 19 proposals. His concern as he was drafting them was that the rights of the people be protected from actions of the states as well as the federal government. A Congressional Committee narrowed the 19 proposals to 12 “amendments,” ten of which were later ratified by the states.
• Despite having served as Jefferson's Secretary of State for two terms, he did not travel abroad.
• His wife Dolley Payne Todd Madison served as the official hostess for both her husband and Thomas Jefferson and is considered America’s first First Lady.

Good morning 99percenters!

How’s your internet service these days? Odds are pretty good it’s shitty and slow. There’s been a lot of chatter about “net neutrality” and can the internet “be saved” lately while some important questions about its structure and stability have been ignored. Fact is the internet is fundamentally broken.

Whilst cruising the net looking for environmental news, I stumbled across some items that I figured would be of interest to at least some. So, without further ado ---

First an article covering some work indicating that a particular cancer drug can help with spinal injuries.
Injured spinal cord: Regeneration possible with epothilone? -- ScienceDaily The gist of it is:

Damage to the spinal cord rarely heals because the injured nerve cells fail to regenerate. The regrowth of their long nerve fibers is hindered by scar tissue and molecular processes inside the nerves. An international team of researchers led by DZNE scientists in Bonn now reports in Science that help might be on the way from an unexpected quarter: in animal studies, the cancer drug epothilone reduced the formation of scar tissue in injuries to the spinal cord and stimulated growth in damaged nerve cells. Both promoted neuronal regeneration and improved the animals' motor skills.

This evening's music features New Orleans guitarist and singer Snooks Eaglin.