Pocketburgers.com: Marblehead

Showing posts with label Marblehead. Show all posts

Friday, August 19, 2011

Buzz Kill: Marijuana Genome Sequenced For Health, Not Highs

by Eliza Barclay

Enlarge JUAN MABROMATA/AFP/Getty Images

The scientists who sequenced the marijuana plant say they hope the next generation of pot will have stronger therapeutic compounds.

Stoners and scientists alike may be stoked to learn that a startup biotech company has completed the DNA sequence of Cannabis sativa, or marijuana. But here's something that could ruin a high: The company hopes the data will help scientists breed pot plants without much THC, the mind-altering chemical in the plant. The goal is instead to maximize other compounds that may have therapeutic benefits.

Kevin McKernan, founder and chief executive officer of the company, called Medicinal Genomics, says Cannabis sativa has 84 other compounds that could fight pain or possibly even shrink tumors. But anti-marijuana laws make it difficult for scientists to breed and study the plant in most countries. That's one reason he decided to publish his data for free on Amazon's EC2, a public data cloud.
McKernan, who has an office in Massachusetts and a lab in the Netherlands, where he can legally gather DNA from marijuana plants, has spent most of his career studying tumors in humans. But he tells Shots he had several friends with cancer who asked him about medical marijuana and whether it might do them some good. That got him interested in the emerging medical research on pot's healing properties.

Then he heard about a drug called Sativex, a Cannabis-derived drug developed by a German pharmaceutical company to treat muscle stiffness from multiple sclerosis. Sativex contains THC and another cannabanoid called CBD, which the company says keeps the psychoactive effects of THC in check. The drug is now available in the United Kingdom, Spain and Germany, and it's in trials to see if it works for cancer pain.
McKernan says Sativex might just be one of the first in a line of future pharmaceuticals using cannabis compounds for a variety of serious illnesses.

"We know which genes govern CBD and THC, but not the other 83 compounds," McKernan tells Shots. "Now that we've sequenced this genome, we can sequence other strains, and then we can tie the differences in DNA to different traits."

Opening up access to the data is especially important for a plant like Cannabis, McKernan says, because many scientists who'd like to study it in the U.S. and other countries can't get a license to grow it.
"A lot of people who want to contribute to this field can't, but now that this information is available, a lot of research can get done without growing any plants," McKernan said.

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Tedesco Country Club opens new $11M clubhouse

Tedesco Country Club President Jim McCathern, center, hands over the keys of the new clubhouse to Cliff Boggis as Tom Iarrobino looks on Wednesday at the golf course. (Photo / Paula Muller)

By Cyrus Moulton / The Daily Item

MARBLEHEAD - Members of Tedesco Country Club endured nearly a season-and-a-half with clubhouse amenities relocated to trailers in the parking lot. Neighbors endured a season-and-a-half of construction. But the groups joined Wednesday night to admire the country club’s new $11 million clubhouse.

“We made a lot of noise, a lot of dust, for a while” said Club Administration Manager Ginny Burke at a neighbor’s Open House on Wednesday evening. “We wanted to give a thank you for bearing with us.”

Tedesco Country Club has straddled the Marblehead and Swampscott border — with its clubhouse in the former and part of its 18-hole golf course in the latter — since its incorporation in 1903, according to Clubhouse Manager Gregg Lindsay. The private club currently has 504 primary members, in addition to their spouses and children, said Burke. It is very exclusive: New members must be nominated by five current members and a membership with full golfing privileges — the most expensive of several levels of membership — currently costs $30,000 for an entry fee and annual dues of $5,500, Burke said.

Members and club officials have discussed a new clubhouse for a long time, several club officials said Wednesday night, and the new building reflects how members’ needs have changed since the previous clubhouse was constructed in the 1930s.

A function room with an outdoor patio is capable of hosting more than 200 people for weddings and events, said Burke. Expanded kitchen facilities enable the club to host functions and still serve members in the dining room at the same time, Lindsay said. There is a new fitness center. A soon-to-open room with “indoor hitting bays” that Chairman of the Grounds and member Tom Landry described as like a virtual-reality driving range, will offer feedback on members’ swings when the room is ready this fall. Landry and several other members noted that every member now has their own full-size locker. Meanwhile, the old formal dining room and Grill Room have been combined into a single, large dining area that can be dressed up or down as the situation requires, said Landry.

Not that the old clubhouse wasn’t loved.

“When you have a private membership, (a new building) takes a long time,” joked Burke.

“Everybody had a lot of good memories — it was a good old building,” said Tedesco Country Club President Jim McCathern. “It was a passionate debate but (the new building construction) did pass and the membership has united behind it and got excited about having the new clubhouse.”

And the most important aspect of the country club — the golf course — remains mostly the same. The new clubhouse and a new putting green required slight changes to the First and Third tee, but the course otherwise remains the same, said Grounds Manager Pete Hasak.

And both neighbors and members at the open house said they were impressed with the new building — even despite construction that relegated the Grill Room to a trailer and brought heavy machinery to the site and required blasting a bit of ledge.

“It was actually really fun to watch it come together,” said neighbor Joy Purdin.

“I think everybody feels like it was worth the wait,” said McCathern.

Monday, November 8, 2010

Shalane Flanagan second in N.Y. City Marathon

Shalane Flanagan collapses after finishing second in the New York City Marathon. PHOTO / ASSOCIATED PRES

From: http://www.itemlive.com/

NEW YORK (AP) -- It was a case of "like mother, like daughter" Sunday in New York.

Marblehead's Shalane Flanagan, who stood out in both cross country and distance running both in high school and in college, added another notch to her cap Sunday, finishing second in the New City Marathon.

She's not the first person from her family conquer a marathon course. Her mother, Cheryl Treworgy - who embraced her on the podium - knows a thing or two about running marathons too. In 1971, she set the U.S. record (long since broken) of 2:49:40. By comparison, Flanagan finished the race Sunday in 2:28:40.

Flanagan's time was the fastest among American women (the race doubled as the U.S, women's championship), and she won $40,000 in prize money just for the accomplishment alone. Her total purse was $120,000.

Flanagan is the American runner since 1990 to finish among the top two in the race.

This might have been Flanagan's first-ever marathon, but it's certainly not her first foray into distance running. She was a national cross country champion while at North Carolina, and she was also the state two-mile champion two years running while at Marblehead High.

Her most important accomplishment in track and field thus far, however, occurred in 2008 when she took home a bronze medal in the 10,000-meter at the Beijing Olympic Games - again, the first U.S. woman in over a decade to win a medal in the event at the Olympics.

Flanagan did so well in her marathon debut she may run it in the 2012 London Olympics.

"My passion for the marathon is very strong after today, so we'll see," Flanagan said. "We'll see how the whole next year of track season plays out."

Katie McGregor was second among American women in 2:31:01 (11th overall), and Kathy Newberry was third in 2:35:23 (17th).

Serena Burla of St. Louis, who overcame a malignant tumor in her hamstring this year, was fourth in 2:37:06 (19th).

The American field was without top runners Kara Goucher and Deena Kastor. Goucher, who finished third in the New York City Marathon in her debut in 2008, had a baby boy in September. Kastor is pregnant and served as a commentator for the marathon.

Flanagan, who wore white knee socks and black gloves and arm warmers, was in the pack at the halfway mark. She took the lead briefly at the 15-mile mark and again entering Central Park at mile 23.

"As soon as I started to push, I started to hurt a little bit," Flanagan said. "I was just trying to keep it close and I know not to give up at any point because things can happen."

Video from her homepage: http://shalaneflanagan.com/

Shalane Flanagan video after marathon debut at 2010 ING New York City Marathon

November 7, 2010

Shalane Flanagan video after marathon debut at 2010 ING New York City Marathon. Shalane finished 2nd in New York City and became the 2010 US Marathon Champion in the process. Shalane Flanagan ran at 2:28:40 in her marathon debut.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Marblehead uncovers letter from rising star

Future VP wrote missive in 1775

By Jazmine Ulloa Globe Correspondent / August 19, 2009

MARBLEHEAD - Tucked among mundane file documents in the damp basement of Abbot Hall, historical commissioners have found a little piece from the 18th century, a letter dated Sept. 19, 1775.

Addressed to “ye Selectmen of Marblehead in Town,’’ the historic missive was from Elbridge Gerry, who would go on to serve as a US vice president and as governor of Massachusetts.

On a sheet of ivory rag paper, Gerry wrote to the town board to accept his seat at the Continental Congress, amid growing revolutionary fervor and only years before he became a political bigwig. Jackie Belf-Becker, today’s chairwoman of the Board of Select men, said she felt a sense of pride in the discovery.

“I am actually in awe,’’ Belf-Becker said. “You get a sense of the continuity of life and politics.’’

Gerry had retreated from the public sphere a year before the letter was written, when as representative of the General Court in Marblehead, he supported smallpox isolation and clashed with popular opinion, said Peter Drummey, a librarian at the Massachusetts Historical Society. But he could not stick to the sidelines for long in the events leading up to the Revolution and soon began his ascent into political prominence, Drummey said.

The Marblehead native signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776 and served as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention in 1787, refusing to sign the original Constitution because it lacked a bill of rights. He became governor in 1810 and later reached his political peak serving as vice president under James Madison, until his death on Nov. 23, 1814.

But not all of his contributions have been grandiose.

Though he did not invent it, the term “Gerrymandering,’’ or the redrawing of district lines to favor a political party, rose from his name (though it is actually pronounced with a hard “G’’).

Still, the ardent war patriot deserves a place among the country’s founding fathers, Drummey said, though today he might not be as famed as John Adams or Thomas Jefferson.

“You could not have invented a life like the one this man led, so to find new documents about it is wonderful,’’ he said. “Every new piece of information adds to the story.’’

Historical Commissioners Wayne Butler and P. Chris Johnston stumbled upon the letter about two weeks ago, as they cleaned out a small room in the basement of Abbot Hall in preparation for the historic, red brick building’s restoration, Butler said. It was packed into one of the five metal cabinets in the room, which hold receipts, lists of stockholders, and other town documents that date back to the 1800s.

But there might be other golden finds between the folders with labels like, “Gas Electric Vouchers.’’ Butler and Johnston also discovered former Governor John Hancock’s stylish signature in another letter dispensing state funds. The commission is deciding whether to put the Gerry letter on display.

Before their discovery, Butler had ventured into the cramped cellar room only once in his seven years of volunteering at the commission. Now the history buff and voracious reader can be found down there daily, rummaging through the documents and taking them up to his office on the second floor to catalog them.

One cabinet drawer, he estimated, holds up to 35,000 individual documents, and all five might hold up to 80,000.

“If I worked five hours a day, I would be 110 years old by the time I finished sorting through all of them,’’ said Butler, who is 77 and a retired boat builder. “I might get me some help down here so I don’t have to survive until then.’’