Study: 1 In 4 Kids Go Without Health Care

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/05/02/eveningnews/main2755159.shtml

The group's report finds despite billions of dollars in government spending, more than one in four children still don't have full-time health care — a gap twice as big as anyone thought

biofuels

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/05/08/tech/main2774983.shtml

The United Nations said Tuesday that biofuels like ethanol can greatly help reduce global warming and create jobs for the rural poor, but warned that the benefits may be offset by serious environmental problems and higher food prices for the hungry.

Maggots Rid Patients Of Antibiotic-resistant Infection, MRSA

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/05/070503094447.htm

University of Manchester researchers are ridding diabetic patients of the superbug MRSA - by treating their foot ulcers with maggots. Professor Andrew Boulton and his team used green bottle fly larvae to treat 13 diabetic patients whose foot ulcers were contaminated with MRSA and found all but one were cured within a mean period of three weeks, much quicker than the 28-week duration for the conventional treatment.

Children of War

http://neilyoung.com/

Click on "Living With War Doc"
which goes to the following page :
http://neilyoung.com/lwwtoday/index.html

Near the top of the left column, click on LWW Top 1,680 Songs - Listen Here

Ctrl+f and search for "kemp"
His "Top Ten Stories" is currently at 294
Click on "Top Ten Stories"

This takes you to the MySpace blog of singer/songwriter Kemp Jones :
http://www.myspace.com/kempjones

All of his songs are good. I would say that "Children of War" is great, and deserves to become a classic. Kemp wrote it after seeing a documentary where a child in a war zone said "We children don't need war, we need chocolate".

Stress causes cancer development

http://www.sciencedaily.com/upi/index.php?feed=Science&article=UPI-1-20070411-14050700-bc-us-cancerstress.xml

U.S. medical scientists have discovered the stress hormone epinephrine makes prostate and breast cancer cells resistant to cell death.

Researchers at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine said they are the first to report that emotional stress might contribute to the development of cancer and might also reduce the effectiveness of cancer treatments.

Maybe this is part of the reason African-American and Hispanic women in this country have a higher rate of breast cancer.

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High Levels Of Daily Stress May Result In Lower Risk Of Breast Cancer
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/09/050909221823.htm

High levels of daily stress appear to result in a lower risk ofdeveloping breast cancer for the first time, says a study in this week's British Medical Journal.

But high stress may put women at risk of other serious illnesses warn the researchers, a team from Denmark....

One explanation for the findings may be that sustained levels of high stress may affect oestrogen levels - which, over time, may have an influence on developing breast cancer. But this theory has not been tested, and research in this area so far has mainly been restricted to animals, caution the authors.

Despite the findings, the authors warn that stress-induced changes in hormonal balances are not a healthy response, and continued stress may play a damaging part in other illnesses - particularly heart disease.

Well, here is another factor that appears to lower my risk for this particular problem!

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Animal Research Suggests That Stress May Increase Risk Of Uterine Cancer
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/07/040709081822.htm

Research in monkeys suggests the possibility that stress may increase risk for the most common type of uterine cancer, according to a report from Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center. The study results also suggest that two drinks a day won't increase breast or endometrial cancer risk for postmenopausal women who don't take estrogen.

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Red Meat Linked To Breast Cancer

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/04/070407174018.htm

Eating red meat increases a woman’s chance of developing breast cancer, according to new research from the University of Leeds.

The findings are most striking for post-menopausal women – those with the highest intake of red meat, the equivalent to one portion a day (more than 57 grams) - run a 56 per cent greater risk of breast cancer than those who eat none.
Women who eat the most processed meat, such as bacon, sausages, ham or pies, run a 64 per cent greater risk of breast cancer than those who eat none.

Researchers at the University’s Centre for Epidemiology and Biostatistics have been tracking the eating habits and health of more than 35,000 women for the past seven years, and their latest findings are published in the British Journal of Cancer. Earlier findings, widely reported in January, showed that pre-menopausal women who have the greatest intake of fibre have cut their risk of breast cancer in half.

Good thing I'm a vegetarian. It may offset the increased risk I have of breast cancer because I've never been pregnant.

Male Births: Decline In The US And Japan

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/04/070409115759.htm

A study published in this week's online edition of Environmental Health Perspectives reports that during the past thirty years, the number of male births has decreased each year in the U.S. and Japan. In a review of all births in both countries, the University of Pittsburgh-led study found significantly fewer boys being born relative to girls in the U.S. and Japan, and that an increasing proportion of fetuses that die are male. They note that the decline in births is equivalent to 135,000 fewer white males in the U.S. and 127,000 fewer males in Japan over the past three decades and suggest that environmental factors are one explanation for these trends.

... "Given the importance of reproduction for the health of any species, the trends we observed in the U.S. and Japan merit concern," added Dr. Davis. "In light of our findings, more detailed studies should be carried out that examine sex ratio in smaller groups with defined exposures as a potential indicator of environmental contamination."

Herbal Treatment Effective For Recurring Urinary Tract Infections

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/04/070409082433.htm

A common herbal extract available in health food stores can greatly reduce urinary tract infections and could potentially enhance the ability of antibiotics to kill the bacteria that cause 90 percent of infections in the bladder.

Researchers at Duke University Medical Center, in a series of experiments in mice, believe they have also discovered why many urinary tract infections in the bladder return even after treatment with antibiotics. They found that some bacteria hide in cells lining the bladder, where they cannot be reached by antibiotics. But they also found that forskolin, an extract from the Indian coleus plant, flushes out hiding colonies of bacteria, making them susceptible to antibiotic treatment.

... Abraham said that a new and effective approach for treating urinary tract infections is needed, because constant antibiotic use has many drawbacks, including high expense, possible liver and kidney damage and the potential for creating strains of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

Getting Dirty May Lift Your Mood

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/04/070402102001.htm

Bacteria found in the soil activated a group of neurons that produce the brain chemical serotonin.

Treatment of mice with a 'friendly' bacteria, normally found in the soil, altered their behavior in a way similar to that produced by antidepressant drugs, reports research published in the latest issue of Neuroscience.

Doctor Contrasts His Care With Patient's

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/04/03/ap/health/main2640883.shtml

An estimated 112,000 Americans with cancer have no health insurance, according to Physicians for a National Health Program.

And that's only cancer. Among the 45 million Americans who have no health insurance, there are countless people with chronic and developing health problems who are risking the same kind of fate that took Searcy's life.

recommended web site

www.dailyhowler.com

chronicles the main stream media and so-called liberal media bias and lies on behalf of conservatives and against liberals.

Spring Has Sprung

Spring has Sprung
copyright 1997 Patricia M. Shannon

Spring has sprung,
the flowers grow,
their pollen flows,
so does my nose.
Oh, hear it blow,
how it does glow.

everybody's creative, in their own way

Some years ago, I saw a very small article in a back page of a newspaper, that reported on some reseach genetic vs environmental influences on human thinking. It stated that it did not appear that heridity influenced creativity. There was no information on the way the study was conducted, but I felt doubtful of the conclusion.

However, with time, I have developed a different point of view. I have associated creativity with new ideas. However, I now see that great creativity is used by many people to rationalize their existing views.

inaccurate prediction

I made a spectacularly inaccurate prediction recently. I was talking to someone about the plan by some group to go around to high schools and colleges and lie to students, telling them that IT would be a good job to go into. I remarked that encouraging people to go into a field that they would have such a hard time getting jobs in, as beginners, was dangerous. Having educated people who can't get decent jobs can lead to the development of terrorists. I opined that the job discrimination against older IT people was probably safe enough in that respect, because older people are past the age when most violence occurs, and probably wouldn't suddenly become terrorists. Two or three days later, the following was reported :

http://cbs2.com/national/topstories_story_065072926.html

Mar 6, 2007 4:00 am US/Pacific
Police Investigate Why Gunman Shot Coworkers
(AP) SIGNAL HILL, Calif. Investigators were trying to determine Tuesday why a 68-year-old man opened fire at a menu printing plant, wounding three co-workers who had apparently helped him land a job there.Jose Mendez, of Hawthorne, killed himself as SWAT teams closed in the Kenyon Press offices Monday morning, police said.Capt. Mary Risinger said the business owner told authorities Mendez had been upset that his hours had been cut back amid a company slowdown. The victims had apparently helped him get the job assembling menus there about a year earlier."We're as confused as everybody else," Risinger said. "If he was mad about the hours, he should have been mad with her, not the co-workers."Mendez's longtime girlfriend, Gilma Newhouse, said Mendez hadn't worked since Feb. 9. "It's his only job, that's why he was so worried," Newhouse said in a phone interview.

NRA sickos

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17307316/

This man's career may have been destroyed because he made an intelligent remark. I support the right to own weapons, but the NRA has shown itself to be really sick.

Modern hunters rarely become more famous than Jim Zumbo. A mustachioed, barrel-chested outdoors entrepreneur who lives in a log cabin near Yellowstone National Park, he has spent much of his life writing for prominent outdoors magazines, delivering lectures across the country and starring in cable TV shows about big-game hunting in the West.
Zumbo's fame, however, has turned to black-bordered infamy within America's gun culture -- and his multimedia success has come undone. It all happened in the past week, after he publicly criticized the use of military-style assault rifles by hunters, especially those gunning for prairie dogs.
"Excuse me, maybe I'm a traditionalist, but I see no place for these weapons among our hunting fraternity," Zumbo wrote in his blog on the Outdoor Life Web site. The Feb. 16 posting has since been taken down. "As hunters, we don't need to be lumped into the group of people who terrorize the world with them. . . . I'll go so far as to call them 'terrorist' rifles."

The reaction -- from tens of thousands of owners of assault rifles across the country, from media and manufacturers rooted in the gun business, and from the National Rifle Association -- has been swift, severe and unforgiving. Despite a profuse public apology and a vow to go hunting soon with an assault weapon, Zumbo's career appears to be over.

His top-rated weekly TV program on the Outdoor Channel, his longtime career with Outdoor Life magazine and his corporate ties to the biggest names in gunmaking, including Remington Arms Co., have been terminated or are on the ropes.

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our share

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/02/22/earlyshow/main2504055.shtml

Carlson said that the average American is responsible for 50,000 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions each year. That is quite a substantial carbon footprint, which he defined as each person's "cumulative impact on global warming from the energy that you use from the electricity for your home, the gas in your car, flying in a plane."

50,000 pounds, that's 25 tons each year! I can't tell from this article if this figure includes the carbon footprint from items that we buy. If not, it's even worse.

elite whiners : H1-B visas and outsourcing

I am really tired of the rich power elite whining because of conditions they instigated, or at least made worse.

They are complaining that not enough young people are going into computers. When I got my first programming job, I had a degree in math, and a single programming course - in FORTRAN. I was given an IBM programmed instruction manual on Assembler language, and became an Assembler programmer. I taught myself COBOL from a programmed instruction manual, and got a COBOL job. For years, I continued to get jobs and assignments for which I did not have all of the specific experience needed, but which I was able to easily pick up on the job. Now, companies don't want to hire anyone who doesn't have several years of specific experience in every detail of the job, no matter how trivial. They don't want to hire people over a certain age, or people just out of school. In 2000, when many thousands of programmers had been thrown on the trash pile after saving the economy of the world, business got Congress, Republicans and Democrats alike, to greatly increase the number of H1-B visas, allowing the importing of technical people from other companies. Also, many companies have been outsourcing skilled jobs to other companies. Many skilled and capable people were out of work, or working at low-paid jobs. So college students made the intelligent decision not to go into IT. Now that many baby boomers are retiring, companies are being forced to hire older and less experienced people. So now they are trying to get Congress to again increase the number of H1-B visas. I saw an article in the last couple of weeks saying that there is a program to go to high schools and colleges and tell students that IT would be a great field to go into, at the same time they are trying to make sure this is a blatant lie by increasing the number of H1-B visas and outsourcing.

Of course, much of this is also true for other skilled professions. They are even outsourcing tax preparation and x-ray analysis to other countries.

We are also being told that we are going to have a problem in funding Social Security retirements of baby boomers. Increasing the number of H1-B visas will make this worse. If we can't get decent-paying jobs, we will be forced to take early Social Security retirement just to survive. We are criticized for not saving enough for retirement. If you have a low-paying job, you can't save much, if anything, for retirement.

neurological disease and pollution

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16885883/

Multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease and other neurological diseases may be far more common than most people had believed, according to the latest estimates.
Nearly one out of 1,000 Americans has multiple sclerosis or MS and one out of 100 elderly Americans has Parkinson’s disease the survey found.
“Our estimate of MS prevalence is about 50 percent higher than a comprehensive review from 1982,” said Dr. Deborah Hirtz of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, who led the survey.

http://ije.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/29/2/323

In the last two decades reports from different countries emerged associating pesticide and herbicide use with Parkinson's disease (PD).

Conclusions Our data show an increased PD mortality in California counties using agricultural pesticides.

http://www.annalsnyas.org/cgi/content/abstract/1035/1/117

Environmental factors that can trigger inflammatory events in the central nervous system are lipopolysaccharide, aluminum, and particulate matter present in air pollution. These factors may enhance existing age-related inflammation in the central nervous system and thus accelerate neuronal toxicity.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16902534/
The Bush administration continues to help business profits at the expense of the public health.

An order signed by President Bush on the oversight of thousands of government regulations issued every year was praised by business as a step toward controlling an unwieldy process but criticized by others as potentially a loser for consumers.
The White House said the executive order signed by Bush on Jan. 18 makes a senior official in each agency accountable for the regulations it issues and provides greater openness by ensuring that “guidance” documents issued to businesses are available to the public.

Consumer groups say the public would lose out because the order could slow the process by which regulations in the public interest such as pollution controls would be issued, and puts the process under the control of an official appointed by the president.

The Bush administration has repeatedly censored scientific findings, including on harmful effects of pollution on human health (for example, mercury), for the sake of protecting business profits. This sounds like more of the same.

There are names for someone who puts short-term profits for the rich above the good of the country and the world : traitor and sociopath (also know as psychopath).

here we go again

In 2000, when thousands of people in IT were out of work after saving the economy of the world by doing the Y2K conversions, Congress paid of its big business donors by greatly increasing the number of high-tech H1-B visas, which allow busingess to bring in cheap labor from other countries. The result is that people with 25 or 30 years of experience couldn't even get e-mails or phone calls returned, and ended up working at jobs such as teacher's aid, waitress, construction, etc. Also, people w/o experience could not get a job. Now many baby boomers are retiring, so companies are being forced to open up to older people, and those just out of colleges. So, no surprise, Congress is being lobbyed by the business community to greatly increase the limit on H1-B visas.

childhood cancer

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16705760/

A University of Texas study ... found that living within two miles of elevated levels of 1,3-butadiene around the ship channel’s petrochemical complex was associated with a 56 percent increased incidence of childhood acute lymphocytic leukemia compared with those living more than 10 miles away, according to a statement from the city of Houston, which financed the study.

This may be part of the reason the rate of childhood cancer has been increasing by about 20% every 20 years.