Tsunami Redux...Money...Passing us by

Good Morning.

In case you missed it, over the weekend a tsunami struck the islands of the Solomons chain. It's a small chain of islands that lead up to New Guinea.

More than 15 people have been killed and thousands stranded after a powerful undersea earthquake struck off the Solomon Islands, triggering a tsunami.

Giza, an area closest to the epicentre of the earthquake, has been most affected by Monday's tsunami, a provincial leader said.

Officials said a 3m wall of water hit Gizo, just 40km from the quake's epicentre, causing widespread destruction.

"Reports have come in that more than 15 people died, just around Gizo, but with the other islands I cannot tell you," Alex Lokopio, western province premier, told Radio New Zealand.

He did not provide any further details of the deaths but said there was a desperate need for emergency supplies in the affected area following the tsunami, which followed a 8.0 magnitude earthquake .

"What we desperately need now is water, tents, and food because almost 3,000 - 4,000 people are now living on the hill at Gizo," Lokopio said.

The residents of the town were still fearful as aftershocks continued to rock the area.

He said there was no warning of the tsunami which hit just minutes after the area was rocked by the initial quake at 7:40 am local time (20:40 GMT on Sunday).

"There wasn't any warning [of the tsunami]. This was a very sad thing because the warning was the earth tremors. It shook us very, very strongly and we were frightened.

"All of a sudden the sea was rising up so all the people living around the coastal area, they ran up on the hill."

He said most of the government buildings and businesses in the town were destroyed, along with houses in low-lying areas.

Millions of dollars would be needed to repair the damage caused by the tsunami and quake, Lokopio said.

The location is practically forgotten once again, but two generations ago, this was some of the most important real estate in the world. You know it from the history books...."The Slot" "Ironbottom Sound" "PT-109" "Guadalcanal". You'll also note from the story that there was 'no warning given'. The Solomons are on the other side of New Guinea, not overly far from where the tsunami struck Indonesia two Christmases ago. I'm glad to see we kept all the promises we made then. I can only hope that some rich nation might step up to the plate and help with the recovery....China or Japan perhaps. Remember when the United States would do that?



Ah, but one area the United States excels at when it comes to money is political fundraising. Here we are, a year and more away from the elections of 2008, and the most money yet has already been raised by the "candidates". And do you suppose all of these politicians are going to be worrying about Joe Sixpack, or their corporate masters once they get in the White House?

The record-shattering presidential fundraising totals posted by Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and John Edwards pose have raised questions over how the funds are spent.

While the money chase is an important gauge of political strength, it is not the only measure that matters this early in the 2008 election race.

The numbers shed no light on how wisely the campaigns are spending the millions they are taking in or how much money they have left.

With an increasing number of states rushing to hold primaries in January and early February, candidates must be careful to build the state-by-state operations they need now while saving plenty of money for ads later. The general election is not until November 2008.

In the 2004 Democratic race, Howard Dean, then governor of Vermont, stunned his rivals by leading the field with a then-record $40 million as 2004 began, but he burned through it quickly and the donations dwindled after poor showings in the early balloting.

No spending details

On Sunday, Clinton and Edwards chose to announce only their money totals, they do not have to make detailed fundraising and spending reports public until April 15.

Clinton's campaign, which reported total receipts of $36m would not say how much of her $26m in new contributions were general election donations that she would not be allowed to use in her primary campaign. In addition to the donations, Clinton transferred $10m from her Senate campaign account.

Edwards aides said his $14m in new contributions included $1m for the general election.

Neither the Edwards nor the Clinton camps wanted to discuss how much cash they had left, making it more difficult to assess how the two campaigns stack up against each other.

Jenny Backus, a Democratic consultant not backing any specific candidate, said: "Things look very good for the Hillary campaign and the Edwards campaign [but] the devil could be in the details."

Barack Obama, a Democratic senator and 2008 presidential hopeful, has not yet divulged his first-quarter fundraising total, nor have any of the Republican candidates.

Ah, and as long as we are ruminating on the once and former powers of these United States, it's worth pointing out that the stem cell revolution is continuing without us. I said it years ago...this is the new oil. Just imagine that this works, and we can cure cancer, Parkinson's, diabetes, you name it, via stem cell cures. And South Korea, Japan, Germany are the only places you can get it. Well, they're the new superpower, aren't they?

British scientists have grown part of a human heart from stem cells for the first time.

Heart surgeon Sir Magdi Yacoub, who led the team, said doctors could be using artificially grown heart components in transplants within three years.

His researchers at Harefield hospital managed to grow tissue that works in the same way as human heart valves.

Sir Magdi told the Guardian newspaper a whole heart could be produced from stem cells within 10 years.

'Common pathway'

The team who spent 10 years working on the project included physicists, pharmacologists, clinicians and cellular scientists.

Researchers will see their achievement as a major step towards growing entire organs for transplant.

Stem cells have the potential to turn into many different types of cell.

Many scientists believe it should be possible to harness the cells' ability to grow into different tissues to repair damage and treat disease.

Previously, scientists have grown tendons, cartilages and bladders, which are all less complex.

Sir Magdi, professor of cardiac surgery at Imperial College London, had been working on ways to address a shortage of donated hearts for patients.

He said he hoped that soon an entire heart could be grown from stem cells.

He added: "It is an ambitious project but not impossible. If you want me to guess I'd say 10 years."

His team extracted stem cells from bone marrow and cultivated them into heart valve cells.

After they were placed in scaffolds formed from collagen, 3cm-wide discs of heart valve tissue were formed.

Later in the year, these will be implanted into animals such as sheep or pigs to see how well they fare.

But hey...why worry about other people, or science? We've got religion and blind faith to keep us safe and healthy, right?