The First 3D Printed Organ — a Liver — is Expected in 2014

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Photo Credit: Organovo

Photo Credit: Organovo

Approximately 18 people die every day waiting for an organ transplant. But that may change someday sooner than you think — thanks to 3D printing.

Advances in the 3D printing of human tissue have moved fast enough that San Diego-based bio-printing company Organovo now expects to unveil the world’s first printed organ — a human liver — next year.

Like other forms of 3D printing, bio-printing lays down layer after layer of material — in this case, live cells — to form a solid physical entity — in this case, human tissue. The major stumbling block in creating tissue continues to be manufacturing the vascular system needed to provide it with life-sustaining oxygen and nutrients.

Living cells may literally die before the tissue gets off the printer table.

Organovo, however, said it has overcome that vascular issue to a degree. “We have achieved thicknesses of greater than 500 microns, and have maintained liver tissue in a fully functional state with native phenotypic behavior for at least 40 days,” said Mike Renard, Organovo’s executive vice president of commercial operations.

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Ice Foils Rescue Attempt of Russian Ship Stranded in Antarctica

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Photo Credit: John "Pathfinder" Lester

Photo Credit: John “Pathfinder” Lester

A Chinese icebreaker trying to reach a Russian ship trapped in Antarctica has been halted by thick ice within sight of the stricken vessel, a passenger and Australian rescue officials said on Saturday.

The Snow Dragon was one of three icebreakers dispatched to free the MV Akademik Shokalskiy, which became stranded far south of Tasmania on Tuesday in ice driven by strong winds.

“Unfortunately Snow Dragon can’t get through. It’s standing by and waiting on another vessel to help. Everyone (is) well,” Chris Turney, an Australian professor who helped organize the voyage on the Russian ship, said via Twitter on Saturday

Earlier, Turney posted a photograph apparently showing the Chinese vessel, a speck on the horizon beyond an expanse of ice.

“It has encountered heavy ice and it’s not safe for them to continue to the Russian vessel for their own safety,” Andrea Hayward-Maher from the Australian Maritime Safety Authority, which is coordinating the rescue effort, told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.

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Scientists Create the World’s First Glow-In-the-Dark PIGS After Injecting Them with Jellyfish DNA (+video)

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Photo Credit: University of Hawaii at Manoa

Photo Credit: University of Hawaii at Manoa

Chinese scientists have created the world’s first glow-in-the-dark pigs that emit a fluorescent green light.

The piglets acquired their bizarre ability to glow under ‘black’ or UVA light after their embryos were injected with DNA from a jellyfish.

Experts claim that the 10 young animals should live as long as any other pig and that the findings could help develop cheaper drugs for humans.

In a video accompanying the research, the pigs grunt when the lights are turned off and after a short while begin to squeal, perhaps hinting that they are a little scared of the dark.

The green tint indicates that the fluorescent genetic material injected into the pig embryos has been incorporated into the animal’s natural make-up.

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President Obama’s Top 10 Constitutional Violations Of 2013

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Photo Credit: Wikipedia

Photo Credit: Wikipedia

One of Barack Obama’s chief accomplishments has been to return the Constitution to a central place in our public discourse.

Unfortunately, the president fomented this upswing in civic interest not by talking up the constitutional aspects of his policy agenda, but by blatantly violating the strictures of our founding document. And he’s been most frustrated with the separation of powers, which doesn’t allow him to “fundamentally transform” the country without congressional acquiescence.

But that hasn’t stopped him. In its first term, the Administration launched a “We Can’t Wait” initiative, with senior aide Dan Pfeiffer explaining that “when Congress won’t act, this president will.” And earlier this year, President Obama said in announcing his new economic plans that “I will not allow gridlock, or inaction, or willful indifference to get in our way.”

And so, as we reach the end of another year of political strife that’s fundamentally based on clashing views on the role of government in society, I thought I’d update a list I made two years ago and hereby present President Obama’s top 10 constitutional violations of 2013.

1. Delay of Obamacare’s out-of-pocket caps. The Labor Department announced in February that it was delaying for a year the part of the healthcare law that limits how much people have to spend on their own insurance. This may have been sensible—insurers and employers need time to comply with rapidly changing regulations—but changing the law requires actual legislation.

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Eight Ways to Opt Out of Obamacare

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

With the deadline to sign up for Obamacare having come and gone, many Americans have decided to “opt out” of President Obama’s signature health care reform law, choosing instead to pay the $95 penalty for sidestepping the individual mandate.

“For many Americans opting out of Obamacare is the best decision they can make, but it’s important that they do it the right way—just refusing to buy health insurance and not having another way to pay for catastrophic medical expenses is a mistake,” Sean Parnell, author of the newly-released The Self-Pay Patient, told Breitbart News. “People who want to opt out should be looking at alternatives to conventional health insurance, such as joining a health care sharing ministry or purchasing a fixed benefits policy.”

Parnell also strongly advises Americans against opting out and simply paying the “list” price for medical visits and prescription drugs without shopping around, or by relying solely on the local hospital emergency room for routine medical care.

“This approach leaves people who opt out vulnerable to sky-high medical expenses at inflated ‘list’ or ‘chargemaster’ rates, and can result in an inability to obtain needed care because of cost,” Parnell writes on his blog, selfpaypatient.com. Instead, Parnell recommends the following eight options for those who have opted out of ObamaCare:

1. Join a health care sharing ministry, which are voluntary, charitable membership organizations that share medical expenses among the membership.

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Chamber of Commerce to Spend $50 Million In Efforts to Crush Tea Party

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Photo Credit: AFP

Photo Credit: AFP

On Christmas Day, the Wall Street Journal reported that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce says it plans to spend at least $50 million to “support establishment, business-friendly candidates in primaries and the general election, with an aim of trying to win a Republican Senate majority.”

“Our No. 1 focus is to make sure, when it comes to the Senate, that we have no loser candidates,” said U.S. Chamber of Commerce top political strategist Scott Reed. “That will be our mantra: No fools on our ticket.”

GOP establishment officials hope to elide Tea Party challenges by shrinking the nomination process down to a tight four-month window replete with penalties for states that shirk the rules.

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New ObamaCare Taxes/Fees Hit Americans in 2014

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Photo Credit: AP Photo/Susan Walsh

Photo Credit: AP Photo/Susan Walsh

Here comes the ObamaCare tax bill.

The cost of President Obama’s massive health-care law will hit Americans in 2014 as new taxes pile up on their insurance premiums and on their income-tax bills.

Most insurers aren’t advertising the ObamaCare taxes that are added on to premiums, opting instead to discretely pass them on to customers while quietly lobbying lawmakers for a break.

But one insurance company, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama, laid bare the taxes on its bills with a separate line item for “Affordable Care Act Fees and Taxes.”

The new taxes on one customer’s bill added up to $23.14 a month, or $277.68 annually, according to Kaiser Health News. It boosted the monthly premium from $322.26 to $345.40 for that individual.

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Be Prepared: Wall Street Advisor Recommends Guns, Ammo for Protection in Collapse

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ammoA top financial advisor, worried that Obamacare, the NSA spying scandal and spiraling national debt is increasing the chances for a fiscal and social disaster, is recommending that Americans prepare a “bug-out bag” that includes food, a gun and ammo to help them stay alive.

David John Marotta, a Wall Street expert and financial advisor and Forbes contributor, said in a note to investors, “Firearms are the last item on the list, but they are on the list. There are some terrible people in this world. And you are safer when your trusted neighbors have firearms.”

His memo is part of a series addressing the potential for a “financial apocalypse.” His view, however, is that the problems plaguing the country won’t result in armageddon. “There is the possibility of a precipitous decline, although a long and drawn out malaise is much more likely,” said the Charlottesville, Va.-based president of Marotta Wealth Management.

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Do Democrats Really Need to Promote Religious Persecution?

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Photo Credit: DonkeyHotey

Photo Credit: DonkeyHotey

Democrat politicians do not want respectful disagreement between evangelicals and gays. War between homosexuals and evangelicals is important for them. The Democratic Party, in order to raise money from gays and lock in millennial votes, is attacking freedom of thought, speech and religion. This is a basic community organizing tactic: encourage grievance, divide the community, fan the flames of conflict, and inject government power into social problems. By putting their own political interests before every other value, Democrats have pushed our country into a culture clash that is becoming unresolvable.

It is time to take a deep breath and reaffirm the principles we all love. Phil Robertson, imperfect human being, master of the duck call, has given us a wake up call.

Gays have civil rights in our society — along with all the rest of us. When gay rights are made absolute, they threaten everyone’s fundamental civil rights. Homosexual wants and desires for universal acceptance are not civil rights.

These are our civil rights: freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, freedom from involuntary servitude, the right to vote, the right to equality in public places, the right to due process of law, the right to equal protection under the law. That’s it.

Our constitutional civil rights are inalienable, meaning God-given rights, based ultimately on the teachings of the Bible. These are rights of individuals, not groups.

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Report: Terrorists Freed in Deal Try to Kill Jews

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Photo Credit: WND

Photo Credit: WND

Recent terrorist events in Israel were orchestrated in part by jihadists freed by the Jewish state in the prisoner exchange that saw the release of captured Israeli solider Gilad Shalit, according to informed Middle Eastern security officials.

The officials did not specify which jihadists were involved, but they said there is information Hamas terrorists released in the 2011 deal helped to plan last Sunday’s thwarted bus bombing in the Tel Aviv suburb of Bat Yam.

The same terrorist apparatus was behind the planning of several other recent attacks, including attempts this week to plant bombs near the Gaza-Israel border and the stabbing of an Israeli police officer in the West Bank.

The deal between Israel and Hamas that saw the release of Shalit called for the freedom of 1,027 Palestinian and Israeli Arab prisoners, including terrorists directly responsible for the murder of Jews.

The first phase of the swap deal was executed in October 2011, when Israel released 450 prisoners, transferring some to the West Bank and Gaza while others were exiled abroad.

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