FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog

The No. 21/18 USC baseball team (40-20) — winners of 12 NCAA championships, more than twice as many as any other school — will compete at the 2005 NCAA Super Regional this weekend (June 11-13) against No. 2 Oregon State (44-9) in Corvallis, Ore. The series begins on Saturday (June 11) at 7 p.m., continuing on Sunday (June 12) at 6 p.m. with a third game, if necessary, on Monday (June 13) at 4 p.m. All three games will be televised live on ESPN2 with Rich Cellini and Jerry Kindall calling the action. Live game stats will be available at ncaasports.com.

USC is making its 40th appearance in the NCAA Tournament and its first in three years. The Trojans have a 207-75 record in the postseason. In the last six appearances (1998, 99, 2000, 01, 02, 05), the Trojans have made three trips to the College World Series and registered a 30-12 record in postseason play. Prior to last weekend’s regional championship, the Trojans’ last appearance came in 2002 as USC swept the NCAA First-Round Regional at Dedeaux Field against BYU (twice) and Cal State Northridge before falling to Stanford in the Super Regional. This is the 12th time in the last 16 regional appearances that USC has had to travel in the first round.

OREGON STATE NOTES — Oregon State is 44-9 on the season after winning the Corvallis regional last weekend, which featured St. John’s, Virginia and Ohio State. The Beavers won the Pac-10 Conference title for the first time since 1952. Head coach Pat Casey is 339-234-4 in his 11th season at Oregon State. The team is batting .321 while its pitching staff has a 2.92 ERA. Outfielder Jacoby Ellsbury, a 2005 first-round selection, is batting .416 with six home runs, 46 RBI and 22 stolen bases. Friday starter Dallas Buck is 11-1 with a 1.97 ERA (114 1/3 IP, 76 H, 25 ER, 43 BB, 114 SO,. 187 opponents’ batting average). USC leads the all-time series by a 33-10 margin. Oregon State took two of three from USC on May 20-22 in Corvallis (5-4, 10-7, 2-12). The Trojans took two of three games from the Beavers in the only postseason meeting between the two schools during the 1963 District 8 Playoffs in Corvallis (6-5, 6-8, 7-5).

The College World Series Tournament bracket is posted at the 2005 College World Series website.

Stay Tuned.

Fight On!

Governor Jim Doyle signed SB 78 into law, requiring people to provide identification and sign a logbook before buying allergy drugs with pseudoephedrine — an ingredient used to make methamphetamine:

The new meth law also keeps the decongestants behind the counter, which only allows customers to buy the drug from pharmacists and in limited quantities. “This bill won’t get in the way of a family who has a legitimate need for cold medicine but it will cause serious problems for the meth cooks who need up to 1,000 pills to make a single ounce of meth.”

this law will reduce the number of Mom and Pop Methamphetamine labs in Wisconsin but over half of all U.S. Meth comes in from Mexico.

Flap urges its readers to write their Senator, Member of the House and President for legislative, diplomatic and enforcement actions to curtail importation of Methamphetamine from Mexico and other countries.

Military officials offered a peak at a new missile-detecting radar system some have labeled “Son of Star Wars.”

Army officers and contractors unveiled the Sea-based X-band Radar Tuesday amid doubts of its launch capabilities:

The system, which is mounted on a semi-submersible oil-drilling rig, is designed to protect the country against incoming warheads.

It looks almost space age with its giant white sphere, which protects an advanced radar that can track a missile across the horizon. The radar provides the information needed to remotely launch U.S. missiles at incoming warheads.

At a cost of $815 million, the system has yet to be fully tested.

The radar suffered launch failures of ground-based interceptor missiles in December and February. As a result the Missile Defense Agency has postponed more tests until an independent team can review the system for improvements.

And officials had planned to send the 25-story rig into the Gulf of Mexico before the hurricane season began June 1.

Critics have labeled it “Son of Star Wars,” after the nickname for former President Reagan’s missile defense proposal in 1983.

Despite the criticism, Army Col. Michael Smith, project manager of the X-band radar, said he’s optimistic.

“For those of us in the business, we don’t have any doubts,” Smith said. “I’m positive it will work.”

Workers will test the rig’s mobility in the Gulf before it travels this summer around South America to its home in Adak, Alaska, Smith said. Because the rig reaches more than 280 feet high, it can’t travel through the Panama Canal.

And a missile-tracking test will be conducted while the rig is en route, somewhere near Hawaii.

This missle defense system despite technological flaws (so far) is one of the best legacies from the Reagan Presidency.

In December 2002, President Bush planned for the contingency of a rogue state acquiring and firing a nuclear armed ICBM the United States.

The Missle Defense System with X-Band Radar will work as follows:

Early warning satellites and early warning radars detect and track an incoming missile as soon as it clears cloud cover. Space-based infrared satellite systems are also being developed, which could track ballistic missiles throughout their trajectory, and provide the earliest possible trajectory estimates to the command centre.

High-resolution radars on the ground track the warhead and any decoys. They are able to discriminate accurately between closely-spaced objects. The radar provides real-time continuous tracking data to the command centre, as well as data from earlier phases of a ballistic missile trajectory.

The command centre acts as the brains of the missile defence system, controlling and co-ordinating the whole operation. On receiving information about an incoming missile, it communicates target information to one or more ground-based interceptors.

The ground-based interceptor (GBI) is the “weapon” of the missile defence system. Its mission is to intercept and destroy incoming ballistic missile warheads outside the earth’s atmosphere. Each GBI site would be able to accommodate 20 interceptor missiles - and possibly as many as 100. The interceptor missiles - or “kill vehicles” - use on-board sensors, as well as information from the ground, to isolate the warhead from the decoys and debris.

Wow… what a system….. and what a message it sends to North Korea and Iran.

Flap sees North Korea going back to the negotiating table.

In this game of nuclear poker, the USA has just re-raised.

Humorous photo from Radioblogger and thanks to Hugh Hewitt

Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean on Wednesday defended his recent harsh criticism of Republicans, including his observation that they are “pretty much a white, Christian party.”

While even prominent Democrats in recent days have distanced themselves from some of his comments, the outspoken Dean, appearing on NBC”s “Today” show, said criticism of him is meant by Republicans to divert attention from the country’s problems and make him the issue instead.

No diversion from the issues - it was your partisan speech, Mr. Chairman.

Asked about it on the “Fox & Friends” show, GOP Party Chairman Ken Mehlman joked that “a lot of folks who attended my Bar Mitzvah would be surprised” he heads a Christian party.

“We gotta get ourselves beyond this point where when we disagree about politics, we call the other guy names,” he said.

Ad hominem remarks for sure and inflammatory - and why? To feed the radical lefties? Prob!

Now…. comes the distancing from his remarks:

Democratic New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson said Tuesday that Dean is doing a good job, but is not the party’s spokesman.

Last weekend, Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., and 2004 vice presidential candidate John Edwards criticized Dean for his recent remarks, saying he doesn’t speak for them.

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, talking with reporters Wednesday, said she did not agree with the statement Dean made about the Republican Party.

The role of the chair of the Democratic National Committee is one that is different than the role of the Democratic leader of the House or in the Senate,” the California congresswoman said, “and sometimes the exhuberance of that position results in statements that neither of us would make.”

“I don’t think that the statement the governor (Dean) made was a helpful statement,” she said. But Pelosi said she thought that Dean was “doing a good job.”

“Listen. Any one of us at any given time will make a statement that we may, in retrospect, say maybe that was a little over-enthusiastic,” she said. “And I can put that statement in that category for Governor Dean.”

Biden, asked about Dean Wednesday during an interview on the Don Imus radio show, also said the chairman is doing a good job.

“A lot of things he does say, I agree with,” Biden said. But he also said that Dean “has views that are slightly different than mine .. .But look, he’s a lightning rod. … It’s probably good that there’s a guy out there that’s a lightning rod … .”

Biden, however, added that he thinks “the rhetoric is counterproductive.”

So, Howard Dean lives for another day and another GAFF.

This must be making the Democrat FAT CAT Contributors very nervous.

Will he survive?

Flap handicaps survival until after Labor Day and then Hillary and James Carville take over.

The Bush administration yesterday rejected Democrats’ proposal for how to release some information to end their block on John R. Bolton, President Bush’s nominee to be ambassador to the United Nations, leaving him facing a continued filibuster:

“At this point here, at least based on conversations with a number of my colleagues in here, they would like us to remain firm and to vote against cloture if it comes up again,” said Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, Connecticut Democrat, who had made the proposal last week in a letter to John D. Negroponte, director of national intelligence.
Democrats want to see a list of Americans mentioned in intercepted intelligence communications viewed by Mr. Bolton, who is undersecretary of state for arms control and international security. Democrats said they want to make sure Mr. Bolton wasn’t using that information to try to bully intelligence analysts, which they say he has a habit of doing.
Mr. Dodd had suggested that Democrats provide a list of names that concerned them, and allow intelligence officials to review the list and assure senators that none of those names was mentioned in the communications.
But Mr. Negroponte yesterday rejected that offer.

The White House understands the futility of the request.

This is another political stalling tactic by Democrats who have already voted against the nomination,” said Erin Healy, a White House spokeswoman. White House officials have said senators have all the information they need to make a decision on Mr. Bolton.
Democrats voted two weeks ago to filibuster Mr. Bolton’s nomination, arguing that the issue is no longer Mr. Bolton’s record but now is a matter of executive and legislative powers. Democrats also are seeking information about congressional testimony that Mr. Bolton was supposed to give on Syria’s weapons programs.
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid said yesterday that Democrats are prepared to hold firm.

Of course, the Lefties have no positive agenda for America so why not obstruct the President in anyway they can.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, Tennessee Republican, said he would schedule another vote on Mr. Bolton but didn’t have a timetable. Republicans said the next time they vote to end the filibuster, they expect to succeed.
“At some point, and the sooner the better, we’ll bring him up, and I believe we’ll have the votes,” said Sen. George Allen, Virginia Republican.

Flap handicaps confirmation for Bolton as soon as the Senate Democrats think they have milked it for maximum PR mileage.

Phytochemicals found in raisins help fight the bacteria that cause tooth decay and gum disease, said Dr. Christine Wu, professor and associate dean for research at the UIC College of Dentistry and lead author of the study. Phytochemicals are compounds found in higher plants.

Our laboratory analyses showed that phytochemicals in this popular snack food suppressed the growth of oral bacteria associated with caries and gum disease,” said Christine Wu, professor and associate dean for research at the UIC College of Dentistry and lead author of the study. Phytochemicals are compounds found in higher plants.

The data were presented today at the annual meeting of the American Society for Microbiology in Atlanta.

Wu and her co-workers performed routine chemical analyses to identify five phytochemicals in Thompson seedless raisins: oleanolic acid, oleanolic aldehyde, betulin, betulinic acid and 5-(hydroxymethyl)-2-furfural.

Oleanolic acid, oleanolic aldehyde, and 5-(hydroxymethyl)-2-furfural inhibited the growth of two species of oral bacteria: Streptococcus mutans, which causes cavities, and Porphyromonas gingivalis, which causes periodontal disease. The compounds were effective against the bacteria at concentrations ranging from about 200 to 1,000 micrograms per milliliter.

Betulin and betulinic acid were less effective, requiring much higher concentrations for similar antimicrobial activity.

At a concentration of 31 micrograms per milliliter, oleanolic acid also blocked S. mutans adherence to surfaces. Adherence is crucial for the bacteria to form dental plaque, the sticky biofilm that accumulates on teeth. After a sugary meal, these bacteria release acids that erode the tooth enamel.

Wu said that the findings counter a longstanding public perception that raisins promote cavities.

Flap would rather brush, floss and see the dentist rather than eat raisins all of the time.

At least the patient may be more regular as well as have less dental disease.

Is this a collateral benefit?