How Bacteriophage Therapy from former USSR State Georgia is a Panacea against Super-bug Bacteria

“From a therapeutic perspective ... phage therapy can eliminate an individual patient's infection without affecting the body's communities of beneficial Bacteria. In this light, phage therapy represents a kind of biomedical ‘smart bomb,’ affecting only a specific target and minimizing collateral damage. (And) side effects from phages in human studies involving both sick and healthy individuals have been extremely rare.”

Excerpt from the 2012 study on phage therapy published online in the Journal Frontiers in Microbiology

If you thought the idea of the Common Cold and other Viruses of the ilk of the Ebola, H1N1 and HIV (Human Immuno-Deficiency Virus) being eradicated by Nanoparticles of Liposomes coated with Bee Poison Melittin as per my blog article entitled “Washington University School of Medicine Researchers use Liposomes and Melittin to kill HIV - Olympus has Fallen and given us a Panacea for every disease on planet Earth” was far-fetched. wait till you get a load of this one.

This time it’s the use of cultured Viruses called Bacterio-Phages to attack Bacteria such as Escherichia Coli or e.Coli, Cholera and other harmful Bacteria such as Tuberculosis Bacilli as stated in the article “Phages may be key in Bacteria battle” published 16 March 2013 Last updated at 00:02 GMT By Damien McGuinness and Deborah Cohen, BBC News.

It’s not a new idea, but it’s fascinating and makes me wonder why I never did Biochemistry while I was at UWI. The idea is simple as it’s elegantly stated above; the Viruses attack Bacteria, like Pirates, hijack the reproductive mechanism and reproduce more copies of themselves, bursting out of the Bacteria and thereby killing the Bacteria.

The use of Bacterio-Phages as a therapy as been around since the past ninety (90) years according to the article above in a former USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republic) and now independent East Bloc country named Georgia as noted in “Phage Therapy: The Viruses that Could Kill the Next Superbug”, published 2011, The Environmental Graffiti.

According to BBC News and the above article, Bacterio-Phages have been used as a known treatment for common Bacterial infections in Georgia, albeit under less than satisfactory, muchless scientific conditions. Meanwhile the Americans, fell in love with Anti-Biotics and the ease with which they could be mass produced and their Broad Spectrum capabilities in term of its effectiveness against Bacteria.

Thus Bacterio-Phages fell out of favour, as they proved to be too specific and too targeted, being as certain species of Bacteio-Phage only attack certain type of Bacteria, necessitating the production of different culture batches of Bacterio-Phages. The Americans pretty much abandoned Bacterio-Phage research in the 1950s and 1960s in favour of Anti-Bacterial therapies, many of which the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) approved. 

But it’s the potential to replace Antibiotics that may have many in the Medical Community excited. This as Bacterio-Phages, the smart-bombs of the Virus world are making a comeback.

They are being seen as the next weapon in line after Anti-Biotics to kill certain Bacteria that are resistant to the latest Anti-Biotics such as NDM-1, which has the capability to swap its genetic resistive traits with other Bacteria, making them also resistance. Ditto the same Anti-Biotic resisting capabilities in the hospital borne infectious Bacteria MRSA as noted in “Bacteriophage therapy, the amazing cure for MRSA being ignored by mainstream medicine”, published Sunday, February 24, 2013 by Jonathan Benson, staff writer, Natural News .

Big Pharmaceutical Companies worried, despite feigning interest. Worse, these Bacterio-Phages, akin to such wonder drugs like psychotropic painkillers Marijuana (Cannabis Sativa) are free, leaving little capability for the Pharmaceutical Industry to control its usage. Worse, Jamaicans pharmacologist, Professor Manley West and ophthalmologist, Dr. Albert Lockhart used Marijuana (Cannabis Sativa) to develop Canasol, a now popular eye drop remedy for Glaucoma as noted in “Doctors develop first eye medication in the Carib”, published Sunday August 16, 2009, The Jamaica Gleaner.

There is also Psilocybin as stated in the article “Want to Be More Open-Minded? Magic Mushrooms Found to Help”, published September 29, 2011 By KIM CAROLLO, ABC News, derived from a certain species of Mushroom. Similarly, Bacterio-Phages are naturally occurring growing in swamps, field of Hay and even on common household food. 

Anyone with the skill to identify them and the right kind of equipment can culture, grow and sell them once they have the right type of Refrigeration equiptment to store Bacterio-Phage cultures, just as the Doctors in cash strapped Georgian hospitals did. Worse for Pharmaceutical companies, it’s not yet known how to place genetic markers on them to makes sure users of Bacterio-Phages cannot take home and culture the ingredients, thereby duplicating them for further usage.

That last part, the ease of use of Cultures to duplicate Bacterio-Phages is what’s part of the FDA’s reluctance to approve them, as there’s no clear way to patent or prevent people copying them. The very virulent reproductive process that they used to destroy host Bacteria is a means by which this natural pathogen can be cultured from an initial treatment, should the Doctor decide to give you a vial to carry home or you go to the pharmacist and they give you a vial for home usage.

Clearly, Bacterio-Phages have a lot in common with the Bee sting Nano-particles as described in my blog article entitled “Washington University School of Medicine Researchers use Liposomes and Melittin to kill HIV - Olympus has Fallen and given us a Panacea for every disease on planet Earth”, being as they’re nanoparticle sized themselves. However, unlike that strategy, developed by researchers at the Washington School of Medicine, this strategy was long ago developed by Nature and patented by God but requires more research to be developed, controlled and utilized by Man in Medicine.

Jamaica can easily become a pioneer in Bacterio-Phage development in the West, as we have the Medical Science Pedigree of the ilk of the doctors who developed Canasol, which was developed here in Jamaica and used worldwide as noted in “Ganja-based eyedrops a hot sell”, published Sunday August 24, 2003 by Teino Evans, Staff Reporter, The Jamaica Gleaner.

As such, it’ll be very hard for the Pharmaceutical companies to patent – muchless stop people from duplicating this naturally occurring Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters (2013).

Fiber Optic Thunderbolt Cables are coming by the Third Quarter of 2013 – Apple Mac's to finally get upgraded as Optical Computer now closer to practicality

Franz,

Thanks for your email. Our Pro customers like you are really important to us. Although we didn't have a chance to talk about a new Mac Pro at today's event, don't worry as we're working on something really great for later next year. We also updated the current model today.

We've been continuing to update Final Cut Pro X with revolutionary pro features like industry leading multi-cam support and we just updated Aperture with incredible new image adjustment features.

We also announced a MacBook Pro with a Retina Display that is a great solution for many pros.

Tim

Response to the Facebook Group We Want a New Macpro allegedly an email posted by Apple CEO Tim Cook in response to an email sent by user named Franz

Word on the Street says Thunderbolt Cables are going straight Optical by the Third Quarter of 2013. Even better, Apple entire line of Mac Pros is coming along for the Fiber Optic Thunderbolt ride.

Promise made, promise being kept.

This as earlier this January 2013, Intel, the developers of the Thunderbolt cable Standard, had given the Optical Specifications and license to  Sumitomo Electric Industries to start making Optical versions of the Thunderbolt cables as noted in “Optical Thunderbolt cables in Mass production”, coming soon published January 2, 2013 11:11 AM PST by Topher Kessler, CNET News.

And in anticipation of the seismic shift involved (or should that be indication?), the prices for the current crop of Copper-based Thunderbolt Cables has dropped. This in a bid to clear inventories and get everyone psyched and ready for the new Fiber Optic-based Thunderbolt Cables as noted in “Apple's Thunderbolt cable gets a price drop, shorter version”, published January 9, 2013 4:18 PM PST by Josh Lowensohn, CNET News.

The new Thunderbolt Cables will not only differ in terms of using Fiber Optic. They’ll also have the following characteristics:

1.      Made from Fiber Optic’s traditional material of ultrapure silica glass that’s thinner than a hair, as opposed to Copper for the original Thunderbolt Cables

2.      Lengths as long as 30 meters, compared to 3 meters for the copper-based Thunderbolt Cables

3.      Transfer Speeds as high as 100GBps, compared to copper-based Thunderbolt Cables which max out at 10GBps.

4.      No Power in the Cables (sorry, can’t use these to power you External Thunderbolt Drive), necessitating changing of Thunderbolt Ports to handle the new Fiber Optic Standards

Folks, the Optical Computer and Processor Speeds higher than 3.6 MBps without Liquid Cooling are edging closer to possibility as had been predicted in my blog article entitled “IBM develops 25Gbps Photonic Optical Processor at the 90nm level - IBM's Red Dawn (2012) for Optical Processors”.

In that article, I’d predicted an Optical Processor most likely being developed in the Third or Fourth Quarter in 2013. Thus Intel, which had partnered with Apple to develop the Thunderbolt specification that was originally for Fiber Optic as noted in my blog article entitled “Intel and LightPeak - Race towards the Sun” had now seen the light, pun not intended.

Apparently this new Thunderbolt specification is a bid to up ante with regards to innovation when compared to USB 3.0 and meet the demand this kind of speed. This demand was evidenced from the uptake of the Apple iPhone 5, the Apple iPad 4 and the Apple iPad Mini. All of these Mobile Computing device feature Lightning, the mobile version of Thunderbolt.

Thus along with the new Fiber Optic Thunderbolt Cable specifications, Intel and Apple may soon be making announcements on specifications for the Fiber Optic Versions of the Thunderbolt Cable for Apple’s Mac line. It also means your old Thunderbolt External Hard-drives such as those compared in in the article “Top five Thunderbolt storage devices: Performance meets capacity”, published February 7, 2013 5:35 PM PST by Dong Ngo, CNET News  that were mainly for the PC market are now obsolete.

These early Thunderbolt External Storage Devices and other gear will be obsolete by the Third Quarter of this Year. Just as well; they’re mostly early adopter’s devices that were poorly designed.

This development of a Fiber Optic Thunderbolt Port alone may herald the coming of not only faster Optical computers, but also of a coming Revival for Desktop Computers and Laptops, which may be the first devices to get this Thunderbolt Fiber Optic Port specification before it trickles down to Tablets and smartphones.

And the first devices to get the upgrade?

Why the Apple Mac line which includes the Apple iMac, Macbook Pro, Macbook Air and Mac Mini of course in keeping with Apple CEO Tim Cooks promise in June 2013 as noted in “Apple CEO says Mac Pro update to come 'next year'”, published June 12, 2012 6:48 PM PDT by Dara Kerr, CNET News! Proof of the power of petitioning via Social Networking website Facebook works as noted in “Mac Pro petition gaining steam on Facebook”, published May 25, 2012 5:10 AM PDT by Don Reisinger, CNET News.

Mac Pro users made their malcontent with Apple lack of solid updates to the Mac Pro line for the past two (2) years heard on the their Facebook Petition page We Want a New Macpro to which CEO Tim Cook allegedly had posted an email response to an email sent by user named Franz with regards to this burning issue.

Promise made, promise being kept, as I’d said before!

Starting with the Macbook Pro line, which had gotten the ORIGINAL Thunderbolt treatment early as noted in my blog article entitled “MacBook Pro and Intel LightPeak - Thunderbolt and The Fantastic Mr. Fox”. Ditto too the Apple iPhone 5 which followed soon after with the Apple iPad and Apple iPad Mini in 2012 joining the growing Lightning company as reported in “Apple now shipping Lightning to 30-pin adapters”, published October 8, 2012 4:57 AM PDT by Lance Whitney, CNET News.

Apple’s Mac Line is expected to get a much needed Refresh in the Summer of 2013. This’ll most likely consist of Quad or Octo (??)-Core Ivy Bridge Processors topped off with the new Fiber Optic Thunderbolt Standards and serious improvements to the Operating System.

More than enough to please the disenchanted Professional Crowd that wished Apple was more professional in its business dealings as noted in “Why Apple's secrecy is frustrating Mac Pro customers”, published March 11, 2013 10:05 AM PDT by Josh Lowensohn, CNET News.

If you take a gander at the sales chart above for comparing Desktop product to Portables, you can’t quite blame Apple for focusing more on Portable devices i.e. Apple iPod line, Apple iPhone, Apple iPad line and Apple iPhone. There reportedly is also an Apple iWatch based on the Apple iPod Nano coming in March 2013 as predicted in my Geezam blog article entitled “Apple to debut Apple iWatch in March 2013 – iWant one and iCant Wait”, albeit it now look more like the Second or Third Quarter of 2013.

There is also rumours of an Apple iRadio i.e. upgrades to the Apple iPod line to be capable of real-time Streaming music from Apple’s iCloud as prognosticated in my blog article entitled “Apple iWatch and Apple iRadio coming in the Second Quarter of 2013 - Battery life innovations needed to power the Evil Dead for Apple iCloud Streaming”.

Apple makes more money from the Mobile Computing part of their business, being as Mobile Computing in all its forms is currently HOT globally as noted in my Geezam blog article entitled “How the Apple iPad killed Ultrabooks, Printing and the Mouse as the World Rediscovers Tablets”.

Gesture based Touch screen capabilities on ALL of Apple’s products may also be in the works for the current and upcoming Apple’s Mac and Apple iPod line, Apple iPhone, Apple iPad line and Apple iPhone. This as Apple may be planning to license Israeli startup PointGrab’s 2D based Gesture Control Technology into iOS and Mac OS.

PointGrab’s Technology made its debut at CES (Computer Electronics Show) 2013 as surmised in “Startup to bring touchless gesture control tech to iOS”, published January 9, 2013 2:36 PM PST by Daniel Terdiman, CNET News. Integration of PointGrab into iOS and Mac OS would thus allowing users of these products the ability to control their products using existing 2D Camera Technology and PointGrab’s rather copious library of Air Gestures.

Touch Screen Laptops are ergonomically inefficient in Apple’s view. Clearly Air Gestures combined with Siri Voice Commands is where the Big A’s headed as prognosticated in my Geezam blog article entitled “Siri and Kinect: Heralds of a coming world free of Remote Controls”.

This is all set to shakedown in the Third Quarter of 2013 when it comes to Apple reviving their ailing PC line….speculation for another article, at another time.

Stay tuned to my blog and the Geezam blog as this story develops.

Dell's Project Ophelia debuts at CES 2013 - Cloud Computing is the Bling Ring of Power to kick Dell into the Portable Computing Game

Even as Dell appears ripe for a takeover bid by rivals HP (Hewlett Packard) and Lenovo in March 2013 due to the refusal of shareholders Southeastern and T. Rowe to accept Michael Dell’s Share buyout offer in a bid to go private as stated in “Dell’s Crafted LBO Pitch Gets Messy as Carl Icahn Circles”, published March 7, 2013 7:35 PM ET By Serena Saitto & Dina Bass, Bloomberg, the No. 1 computer maker is still innovating in January 2013.

What a difference three (3) months makes! 

CEO Michael Dell and Silver Lake Management LLC are attempting a US$24.4 billion dollar buy-out, with assistance from Microsoft which pitched in US$2 billion as reported in “It's official: Dell's going private in $24.4B deal” published February 5, 2013 6:43 AM PST by Shara Tibken, CNET News. This effectively makes it a bid of US$13.65 per share bid. However, this easy path to privatization and more control over product design and decision making already appears to be collapsing .

The Board, led by Blackstone Group and billionaire investor Carl Icahn, which initially accepted the bid offer, is now apparently having a change of heart and is now pushing for a higher bid price closer to US$15.00 a share. This as is allowed in the publicly traded company which stipulates a “go-shop” period of 45 days to facilitate competitive bids from interested outside bidders,  a period which ends on Friday March 22^nd 2013.

This isn’t easy game to play or even to get into; competing bidders who didn’t make a successful bid have to forfeit their hand, Poker Style, with a termination fee of $450 million, with successful bidders only having to pony up a $180 million termination fee. Like I said, Poker style.

Meanwhile, Dell’s still disrupting the PC World, as during the weeklong extravaganza that was the CES 2013 (Computer Electronics Show) in early January 2013, Project Ophelia made its debut as reported in “Dell announces Project Ophelia, a USB stick that uses the cloud to make any monitor a PC”, published January 8, 2013 By Anna Washenko, DigitalTrends.

Project Ophelia, which get its name from a tormented female character in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, is designed and developed by Dell WYSE, their Cloud Computing arm that they had acquired in April of 2012 as stated in “Dell buys Wyse, plays 'cloud client' game”, published April 2, 2012 05:39 GMT (22:39 PDT) By Larry Dignan, ZDNet and “Dell Buys Wyse to Continue Evolution to 'Not Really a PC Company'”, published Apr 2, 2012 10:06 AM By Tony Bradley, PCWorld.

The device is basically a USB Stick computer in the same league as the Raspberry Pii as described in my blog article entitled “The Evolution of the Raspberry Pi Computer into a Mainstream Wearable Computer - How to teach Computer Programming using Flying Sword of Dragon Gate” requiring the user to BYOKMD (Bring your own Mouse, Keyboard and Display).

The specs are impressive as they are groundbreaking for Dell as quickly summarized in “Dell Ophelia Project, your computer in your pocket”, published January 17 2013 by Diana D'Cruz, TechieBuszzie:

Specs for Project Ophelia

1.      Android 4.0 aka Jelly Bean

2.      Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11n) and Bluetooth

3.      Powered via the USB port

Features for Project Ophelia

1.      Access of WYSE Cloud Platform

2.      Cloud Storage for Work file for Remote Recovery

3.      Multiple user support

4.      Secure and direct access for cloud Platforms from Citrix, Microsoft and VMware

5.      Work Related Programs and Apps as well as Games

This may in fact be Dell’s way of announcing competition in this space, as the product, which is effectively a Cloud Based Thin Client, slated to go on sale in the Third or Fourth Quarter of 2013 with a very competitive price of US$50 as stated in “Meet Ophelia, Dell's $50 plug-in, cloud-based PC challenger”, published January 17, 2013 By Ted Samson, InfoWorld.

Agreeably, it’s also my favourite and most promising product to emerge out of CES 2013 (Computer Electronics Show) that’s NOT a smartphone as noted in “Dell's 'Project Ophelia' might be my favorite gadget at CES”, published January 8, 2013 19:29 GMT (11:29 PST) By Andrew Nusca, ZDNet.

Cloud Computing is already getting a big boost in the form of support for Google Chrome OS Chromebook. Samsung, Acer and now more recently since this year Lenovo and HP also debuting their own Chromebooks, mainly geared at the high School and University market as noted in my blog article entitled “Lenovo and HP now making Chromebooks - Google Chrome OS is being Built from the Cloud Up and Microsoft experiences the Side Effects”.

In that very same article I had speculated that the computer makers are ganging up on Microsoft by supporting Google Chrome and may eventually sometime in the future announce their own Chromebook.

Looks like Dell’s WYSE go its mind set on taking advantage on the growing Portable or Wearable Computing market, effectively disrupting its own line of PC with this potentially hot seller of a product. It may also be an early indication of where Michael Dell’s heading with this PC killer as noted in “Is Dell looking to kill PCs with “Project Ophelia”?”, published January 15 2013, 10:10pm EST by Sean Gallagher, ARSTechnica.

It wouldn’t be at all surprising.

The bottom is falling out of the traditional PC market with PC and Laptop Chip AMD struggling through a weak Fourth Quarter of 2012 and facing even weaker 2013 demand for PC and Laptops as noted in “AMD limps through Q4, and 2013 doesn't look much better”, published January 22, 2013 2:41 PM PST by Zack Whittaker, CNET News.

Intel is also winding down the PC Motherboard business with a renewed focus on Tablets in 2013 after a very weak Fourth Quarter of 2012 as noted in “Intel to wind down desktop circuit board business”, published January 22, 2013 4:00 PM PST by Brooke Crothers, CNET News.

PC and Laptops are, along with Printers and Game consoles, being slowly being killed off by the Apple iPhone and now the Apple iPad and its would-be motley crue of Google Android clones of Apple’s innovation as predicted in my Geezam blog article entitled “How the Apple iPad killed Ultrabooks, Printing and the Mouse as the World Rediscovers Tablets”.

According to Adobe’s Digital Index Report, 8% of traffic is now originating from Tablets, surpassing smartphones which contribute to 7% of global Internet Traffic as noted in “Tablets surpass smartphones in driving global Web traffic", published March 7, 2013 5:19 PM PST by Dara Kerr, CNET News. 

Most likely driven by the most popular Tablet aside from the Apple iPad, the Amazon Kindle Fire as stated in the article “Kindle leads Android Tablet market, but the Nexus 7 is gaining speed” published JANUARY 28, 2013 BY JOSHUA SHERMAN, DigitalTrends.  According to analyst Localytics, the Amazon Kindle Fire commands an impressive 33% of the Android Tablet Market and is No. 2 in the Tablet race overall after the Apple iPad.   

The Amazon Kindle Fire is a shopaholic’s dream, making Portable Computing on the Tablet a great way to shop online anytime, anyplace as concluded in my Geezam blog article entitled “Amazon is Legally Blonde as the Kindle Fire HD Upgrade is CEO Bezos’s Confessions of an Online Shopaholic”.

So here’s hoping that CEO Michael Dell triumphs over his enemies in his bid to take the company private and push the company towards Cloud Computing and mobile Computing in the form of Smartphones and Tablets. This as he needs to succeed in order for Dell to survive in the coming “Post-PC Era” which based on the above evidence, is already beginning to affect other traditional PC Makers. Cloud Computing is The Bling Ring (2013) of Power to kick Dell into the Portable Computing Game.