portland area bio-tech is just about to getan Enormous shot in the arm. "Oregon attracts $17.2M more in military spending
Six military-related projects at Oregon universities and companies will receive a total of $17.2 million in federal funding if a recently passed House Bill becomes law.
The funding is included in the final conference report of the Defense Appropriations bill (H.R. 2658), which passed the U.S. House by a vote of 407 to 15."
Lets look at the six:
- "$1.2 million for the National Center for Research on Bioterrorism Agents at OHSU. This center will develop a comprehensive database of pathogens, which will allow public safety officials to quickly identify the type of bio weapon used during an attack. The center will also study the behavior of diseases and develop more effective methods of vaccination against a bioterrorist attack."
Whoho! OHSU gets its national bio agent lab. Now we can really work the bio-tech in Oregon angle to whomever may ask. If you think about what it costs to erect a building and then staff it, 1.2 million is not much money. I can see how maybe a database of DNA patterns of bio agents or other such databases could be useful. This sounds like an honest and useful project. I hope they get another million.
OSU get a million for "research on portable cooling units with military applications". Sounds like a mechanical enginering student's wet dream.
forget 3. ALL the other awards circle around one thing - HemCon (Hemmorage Control) Inc. First, the DoD gives Providence/Oregon Medical Laser Center an unknown amount of money to research bandanges made from chitosan - a material made from shrimp that is known to absorb fat. Then the military spends $6 million to aquire what looks like 5,000 bandages. Then $3 million more to do more research. Then another $3 million for research on tissue repair.
News like this activates my greed function because i figure a group of someones is getting very very rich off defense spending, and its not me. Providence gets a patent for bandages based on research that the DoD funded - shouldnt the DoD get the patent as a condition of the research money? it seems to be in tax payer's interests to avoid paying licence fees for technology it paid to develop.
more bits: "Hemorrhage is the single leading cause of death among soldiers killed in action," commented Kenton W. Gregory, M.D., director of OMLC and an interventional cardiologist at Providence St. Vincent Medical Center.
Hemorrhage is the leading cause of death among soldiers. Is that brilliant or what? Giving the doctor the benefit of the doubt, he is probably using the word hemorrhage to refer to a specific class of wounds. If someone dies from a hand grenade explosion, did that person die due to hemorrhaging?
We research battlefield medicine under the pretense of keeping our fighting sons and daughters safe from further harm. It makes them seem like a victim doesnt it?
"With advanced hemorrhage control methods and devices, we estimate that 20-30 percent of all combat deaths can be prevented."
With 20-30 percent of deaths being prevented, that means they can keep on killing! Stand up! shoot that agressor! Fighting with weapons to protect one's homeland makes some sense to me. Sending our sons and daughters to foreign countries to fight in the name of our best interest takes a lot more reason than weapons of mass destruction or even reports of systematic oppression.
I say bring on the robot warriors! If we have to kill people lets do it by remote control. No human casualties on our side, just remote controled airplanes with bombs and some land-roving robots with guns. I firmly believe we have the techonology today to be using robots instead of people to invade countries such as iraq. The projects have probably long been in existance, but they are not used because of the uproar of the american people. It would be too inhuman to send robots instead of people. Too much like the Terminator and RoboCop movies. At least we are familiar with humans dieing in war and with parents receiving letters that their son or daughter has died.
