by The Editors on December 22, 2008
Compared to the deals we’ve been used to from Life Technologies (formerly known as Invitrogen) their $20 million purchase of a Houston, Texas based VisiGen Biotechnologies isn’t all that impressive. But it could be huge for Life and for the business of DNA sequencing.
Primary founder Susan Hardin remains at the helm as president and CEO, while the other five co-founders have chosen to stay at the university. . . . VisiGen has been developing a brainchild of Hardin — a radically new method of sequencing DNA that could achieve the goal of sequencing a human genome in one day at a cost of $1,000. A genome is the genetic code in a person’s DNA.
According to a story in the Houston Business Journal the cost of sequencing the first DNA was $3 billion. So doing it for $1,000 would make it a little more widely accessible.
[Link: Houston Business Journal]
by The Editors on December 22, 2008
Last March we mentioned that Robert Hoehn, the co-owner of Carlsbad’s Hoehn Motors donated $25,000 in support of banning gay marriage (Prop. 8). Recently, his business has been picketed and he’s not happy about it, according to a story in USA Today.
I just hate being pigeonholed as a hate monger or bigot,” says Robert Hoehn, who contributed $25,000 to the campaign for Prop 8, which amended California’s Constitution to exclude same-sex marriage. “I have friends in the gay community, and I don’t think any of them would say that. . . . Hoehn has seen protesters outside his Carlsbad, Calif., car dealerships, his name and business have appeared on websites publicizing donors, and he has received “the most vitriolic kinds of e-mails, letters and phone calls.”
Guess Mr. Hoehn is experiencing some of the costs associated with supporting legislation that denies the personal rights of others.
[Link: USA Today]
by The Editors on December 19, 2008
A Carlsbadistan news tipper’s report that the Chevron Station on Avenida Encinas (in the Ralph’s shopping center) had its ATM forceably removed Friday December 19, 2008 at approximately 4:15 AM in a smash and grab robbery was confirmed by a spokesman for the Carlsbad Police Department.
According to the news tip an employee at the station said, “There was about $15,000 worth of damage for a haul of about $80 and they didn’t touch the register.”
Wonder if it was the same people who made off with $32,000 from a Chula Vista ATM on Thursday morning.
by The Editors on December 19, 2008
Just after 5 PM last night a man on a bicycle punched a shopper in the Albertson’s parking lot on Carlsbad Village Drive then rode away with a bag of groceries according to a story in the North County Times.
The robber was described as white, with brown hair, 5 feet 11 inches tall, and in his mid-20s to mid-30s. He was wearing a blue jacket and a beanie at the time of the robbery and he was last seen riding away on his bike with only one shoe, police said.
The shoeless food bandit?
[Link: North County Times]
by The Editors on December 19, 2008
After a bit of a false start opening on August 11, 2008 (it closed three months later on November 1, 2008) Legoland is happy to announce the December 23, 2008 grand re-opening of their newly remodeled Sea Life Aquarium.
The most stunning change at SEA LIFE is the addition of two 6-foot-long zebra sharks, and 40 cownose rays to the Lost City of Atlantis Display. These new residents make SEA LIFE Aquarium at LEGOLAND California Resort home to more sharks than any of the other 28 SEA LIFE Aquariums world wide. Other new creatures throughout the Aquarium include chocolate chip sea stars, blue linkia sea stars, African general stars, sea apples, Flying Gurnard and juvenile Port Jackson Sharks.
Having seen neither of the iterations in person we’re going to have to guess that now, it’s even better.
[Link: Legoland]
by The Editors on December 19, 2008
Tonight at midnight a new federal law goes into effect regarding pool drain covers, according to a story in the San Diego Union-Tribune. The new law will:
. . . require pools and spas used by the public to have new anti-entrapment drain covers. The covers are designed to protect swimmers, especially young children, from being trapped underwater by the suction created by the filtration system. . . .Congress enacted the law requiring the pool drain covers last year after 7-year-old Virginia Graeme Baker drowned when she became trapped in a spa drain in 2002. Her grandfather, former Secretary of State James Baker, pushed for its passage.
Drains have reportedly resulted in nine deaths in seven years, with 63 injuries. Currently, the Carlsbad Pool is no in compliance and, “Carlsbad officials have not yet decided whether to close the city’s single pool until the retrofit is done.”
All we can say is: close it until it is fixed and fix it immediately. Having been sucked onto a couple drains in our lives we can say that these drains are far, far more dangerous that the statistics suggest.
[Link: San Diego Union-Tribune]
by Richard J. Riehl on December 19, 2008
If a new power plant moves in next door to the surfside smokestack and towering concrete walls of Carlsbad’s Encina Power Station, the city’s prime coastal property will become the poster child for both poor planning and fossil fuel addiction.
Mayor Bud Lewis and his City Council are trying to persuade the California Energy Commission to require the new plant’s site to be moved away from the coast. They want the property to be redeveloped to increase beach and lagoon access. The power plant’s owner, NRG West, says other locations are not feasible because of adverse environmental impacts and technical problems that would diminish the plant’s electrical transmission capacity.
The California Energy Commission will settle the argument with a final decision planned for March.
All three players in this drama appear to agree on two major points: our growing regional population needs a new, fossil-fueled power plant, and the old one cannot be shut down for another seven to 15 years.
Follow the jump for the rest of the story. . .
[click to continue…]
by The Editors on December 18, 2008
Guitarists Peter Pupping and Tim Holcombe along with the rest of the Peter Pupping Band will be playing a live Christmas concert on Saturday December 20, 2008 at the Carlsbad Village Theatre.
Peter is a multifaceted musician. He directed the MiraCosta College guitar program from fall of 1987 through spring of 1999. Today he frequently performs as a soloist and with various ensembles and leads the Peter Pupping Quartet on the GuitarSounds label. The quartet appears in concert regularly and performs classical & contemporary acoustic music including; world music (Spanish, Pop Flamenco, Brazilian Bossa Nova, Samba, Irish), light jazz and popular hits.
From the few riffs we’ve heard on this should be an amazing show (if it’s not already sold out).
The Peter Pupping Band, 8 PM, December 20, 2008, Carlsbad Village Theatre, 2822 State Street
[Link: Carlsbad Village Theatre via San Diego Union-Tribune]
by The Editors on December 18, 2008
A Carlsbadistan real estate company, Carlsbad Real Estate Group, LLC has been subpoenaed by The Colorado Division of Real Estate in Devner relating to “loan modification” issues, according to at story in the Denver Post.
Among the paperwork the division wants are documents used for marketing to Colorado consumers; lists of borrowers who have attempted loan modifications and the status of their cases; bank statements; copies of checks; and lists of mortgage lenders or mortgage services the companies have worked with.
While Traci Myers, the owner of Carlsbad Real Estate Group, LLC says she “doesn’t have anybody doing business in Colorado” and that she has “never done a loan modification, never done a short sale,” Colorado officials say it is “illegal to even solicit Colorado residents without being a state mortgage broker.
[Link: The Denver Post]
by The Editors on December 18, 2008
A new season of the ABC reality horror show The Bachelor returns to television on January 5, 2009 and a 24-year-old Carlsbadistan flight attendant named Naomi will be one of the women trying to win the heart of the shows new lonely guy (and former Bachelorette contestant) Jason Mesnick.
Naomi, who now lives in Austin, Texas is one of 20 girls who hopes to further her career by . . . well, ah, being on the show.
[Link: BuddyTV]
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