Three More

So, went down to the Maplemusic today to pick up my copy of "Three More", Joel Plaskett's outtakes from "Three". Three was originally supposed to contain 30 songs, and this is where the three more fits in.

This three song EP is also available digitally here at Zunior for $2.22 CDN or iTunes for $0.99 a song.

"Three was initially going to be a 30 song record but I cut three songs. They ended up here. I still like ‘em. “Compete With Loneliness” has been kicking around for years waiting for a Roland drum machine to take it away. “Spinning for You” was started after drunken night in Glasgow and finished in Australia, January 2008. “Stay, Stay, Stay” is pretty damn somber. Loneliness is warm gun." - Joel Plaskett



Coming in at just over 2 minutes, here's the first song off the EP for you to fall in love with.



The days are high and the nights are low,
I listen to the radio, and I might hear someone I know.

Your hair is blond, your eyes are blue,
this much I know, these things are true.
You've been gone so long I don't know what to do with myself.
When you call, starring at a crumbling wall, feeling like a wrecking ball.

Where have you been, don't make me guess,
you know my dear I must confess, you can't compete with loneliness.

The weeks are months, the months are years
the days are rolling down like tears,
this loneliness your only fear.
Did you lose your way did, you lose your mind,
did you lose the nerve to press rewind?
Spinning forward all the time.

Is that you down the hall staring through the bedroom wall,
swinging like a wrecking ball.

Where have you been don't make me guess,
you know my dear you can't compete with loneliness.
You can't compete with loneliness.

Brilliant!

--

By the by, Plaskett also released an international slimmed down related album "Three to One" (the reviewer weirdly mentions that "Safe in Your Arms" is similar in sound to the Eels "downbeat velvet" sound) which is basically taking 13 songs from the "Three" triple record and putting them on one cd for easier international digestion.

The isotopes are back!

Nope, not those Isotopes...



After last year's fallout, the 53-year old Chalk river reactor is back up and running after almost a year and a half offline due to a heavy water leak.

So, how exactly do these isotopes work for cancer diagnosis?

Nuclear imaging is the most advanced imaging technology and provides detailed views of the body. Patients are inhale, ingest or are injected with a minute amount of radioactive material which then sends radiation beams from the inside of the body. A scanner or camera is then able to pick up these beams from specific organs to capture detailed images. Nuclear imagining is commonly used in making diagnosis of cancers, tumors and cardiovascular disease.

Because most medical isotopes have short half-lives, they can't be stockpiled like other more stable products, such as vaccines. The half-life of Molybdenum-99 (the isotope used to produce Tc-99m) is 66 hours. The half-life of Tc-99m is 6 hours. Generators, containers that encase Molybdenum-99 degrading to Tc-99m, expire after two weeks.



Are there alternative technologies for these diagnosis tools/isotopes?

Alternative isotopes that can be used with existing cameras (SPECT and gamma cameras) offer advantages because they can use existing infrastructure. The alternative isotopes are produced by small accelerators, called cyclotrons, and are not reliant on nuclear reactors.

* Thallium-201 is approved as an alternative for most heart tests, which account for approximately half of all Tc-99m procedures in Canada.
* Iodine-123 is approved to image kidneys. It can also be used to image the thyroid gland, and can be made available by request from a physician or through clinical trials.
* Gallium-67 is approved for detection of Hodgkin's disease and lymphomas, among other types of cancers.