F.D.A. Sees Promise in Alzheimer's Imaging Drug

The F.D.A. has approved a first test - a scan of the brain - which is able to detect Alzheimers in a living person. Over five million Americans suffer from Alzheimers, so this news comes as a confidence booster that we are heading in the right direction when it comes to Alzheimers research. Alzheimers is only present if there is memory loss and a plague in the brain, but the only way to find a plague is to do an autopsy. If a person has Alzheimers, there is still no treatment or cure for the disease.

With this news comes a sliver of hope for Alzheimers patients. Indentifying or ruling out Alzheimers can be very important when diagnosing the problem. This new dye, which is detectable when in contact with a plague via PET scan, is groundbreaking, and is propelling Alzheimers research in a new direction. These steps will hopefully propel research in the Alzheimers even further, hopefully someday uncovering a cure.

Google Co-Founder Takes Over as Chief Executive Officer

After a decade of being CEO of Google, Eric Schmidt, will be replaced by one of it’s co-founders Larry Page. Google is one of the largest companies in the world with a current market value of $200 billion. Schmidt will continue to be executive chairman for Google, but with the change in management will hopefully allow Google to grow and expand farther than it has before. Google already is the dominant search engine, and has been successful with its mobile apps. Also new marketing techniques such as display advertising and its new “Google Goggles” have been successful, but there are many areas in which Google could expand to maintain market share and not lose its dominance, for example advertising, social networking, and television. Bringing in Larry Page will hopefully bring a fresh new management style without ruining the great reputation the company has as being the employer of choice. We’ll see in the coming months the repercussions of the switch.
I’m very interested to see how this new fresh perspective impacts Google and it’s users. Hopefully it will be a positive change that maintains the strength in areas that they already have, and then expand and improve on markets they are struggling in and also bring new ideas to the table. It was a bold move changing things so rapidly, but what was seen as “adult supervision” with Schmidt as CEO will hopefully return to its original mission of being a highly innovative corporation.

Coptic Christmas Eve in Cairo

After the recent terrorist bombings on New Year's Eve, security was high-strung. Al-Quaida, in the weeks leading up to the holidays, threatened practicing Christians in Iraq and Egypt. As a countermeasure, the Egytian government assigned heavy police details to provide tight security across the country. Many Egytian citizens have mixed opinions about Muslims, as well as Christians, but the vast majority is highly tolerate and even more accepting. Fortunately the Orthodox holiday went off without a hitch despite high levels of fear.

The idea of tolerance and acceptance is one that needs to be implanted into the heads of individuals on a global scale. Mohandas Gandhi once said, "Each one prays to God according to his own light." By practicing this quote, the world can begin to live in harmony; spread the love.