improves health of bar employees: via MDConsult (subscription required)
Banning smoking in public places improves the signs and symptoms of smoking-related illness in bar workers, according to Dr. Daniel Menzies of the Asthma and Allergy Research Group at Ninewells Hospital in Dundee, Scotland.
“The recent introduction of legislation in Scotland prohibiting smoking in enclosed public spaces has led to a rapid and marked improvement in the health of bar workers,” Dr. Menzies and his colleagues reported in the Oct. 11 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA 2006;296:1742-48).
The researchers conducted a prospective study of 77 bar workers in a Scottish city from February to June 2006. The ban on smoking in enclosed public spaces went into effect on March 26, 2006. The participants, none of whom were active smokers at the time of the study, were 41% male, with a mean age of 37.5 years. The researchers evaluated various markers of lung disease and inflammation before and after the smoking ban went into effect.
The results showed statistically significant changes in many pre- and postban measures. The percentage of bar workers with respiratory and sensory symptoms fell from 79.2% before the ban to 46.8% 1-2 months later. Forced expiratory volume in the first second rose from 96.6% predicted to 104.8% predicted, and serum cotinine levels decreased from 5.15 ng/mL to 3.22 ng/mL.
Other serum markers showing significant changes included total white blood cell count, which fell from 7,610 to 6,980 cells/microliter, and total neutrophil count, which decreased from 4,440 to 4,030 cells/microliter. Airway inflammation also decreased, as shown by a reduction in exhaled nitric oxide from 34.3 parts/billion to 27.4 parts/billion 1 month after the smoking ban went into effect.
Senior Republican leaders have concluded that Senator Mike DeWine of Ohio, a pivotal state in this year’s fierce midterm election battles, is likely to be heading for defeat and are moving to reduce financial support for his race and divert party money to other embattled Republican senators, party officials said.
The decision to effectively write off Mr. DeWine’s seat, after a series of internal Republican polls showed him falling behind his Democratic challenger, is part of a fluid series of choices by top leaders in both parties as they set the strategic framework of the campaign’s final three weeks, signaling, by where they are spending television money and other resources, the Senate and House races where they believe they have the best chances of success.
Republicans are now pinning their hopes of holding the Senate on three states — Missouri, Tennessee and, with Ohio off the table, probably Virginia — while trying to hold on to the House by pouring money into districts where Republicans have a strong historical or registration advantage, party officials said Sunday.
Still pissed about Brown’s pro-torture/anti-habeus corpus vote, but he’s better than DeWine, IMO. Buh-bye, Mike!
But of course, when I see this, I wonder why the Repubs are crowing about their 72-hour plan for GOTV on the front page of the same paper…color me suspiscious.
Even in autumn, the cold, silent expanse of Lake Michigan defines this town, where pleasure boats glide into harbor, fishermen wait patiently for salmon and tourists peer up at the lighthouse.
But the United States Coast Guard has a new mission for the waters off of these quiet shores. For the first time, Coast Guard officials want to mount machine guns routinely on their cutters and small boats here and around all five of the Great Lakes as part of a program addressing the threats of terrorism after Sept. 11.
And, for the first time in memory, Coast Guard members plan to use a stretch of water at least five miles off this Michigan shore — and 33 other offshore spots near cities like Cleveland; Rochester; Milwaukee; Duluth, Minn.; and Gary, Ind. — as permanent, live fire shooting zones for training on their new 7.62 mm weapons, which can blast as many as 650 rounds a minute and send fire more than 4,000 yards.
Well, the salmon are threatened by all those tourists and fishermen. And really, they all look alike. We can’t tell who is who or what is what and building a fence on the great lakes is impractical. No more salmon fishing!
A good pre-election soundbite. Keeping the borders safe.
Peace Activists Beware: Homeland Security May Be Reading Your E-Mail, and Passing it on to the Pentagon
More information keeps coming out, thanks to the ACLU, about the Bush Administration’s equation of protest with terrorism–and the snooping it then engages in.
Homeland Security is monitoring peace groups and even peering at their e-mails.
It then shares that information with Joint Terrorism Task Forces, which include the FBI and state and local law enforcement, as well as with the Pentagon’s notorious Talon (Threat and Local Observation Notice) program. [snip]
All three Talon documents state at the top: “This information is being provided only to alert commanders and staff to potential terrorist activity or apprise them of other force protection issues.”
“Potential terrorist activity.” Isn’t that delightful?
Word to the wise: If you’re a peace activist, the government may be watching you and reading your e-mails.
Something just to keep in mind.
Yes, if the Republicans manage to steal the elections, again, how long will it be before American citizens involved in antiwar activities are declared ‘enemy combatants’ and start to disappear? Sooner than we think.
For once there is some good news from Africa.Farmers are reclaiming the desert, turning the barren wastelands of the Sahel region on the Sahara’s southern edge into green, productive farmland. Satellite images taken this year and 20 years ago show that the desert is in retreat thanks to a resurgence of trees, mainly ana trees (Faidherbia albida), a type of acacia. Tree planting has led to the re-greening of as much as 3 million hectares of land in Niger, enabling some 250,000 hectares to be farmed again. The land became barren in the 1970s and early 1980s through poor management and felling of trees for firewood, but since the mid-1980s farmers in parts of Niger have been protecting them instead of chopping them down. The results have been staggering – in areas where 20 years ago there was barely a tree, there are now between 50 and 100 per hectare.
A compound related to sugar, 2-deoxy-glucose, or 2DG, has long been used in radio labeling, medical scanning and cancer imaging studies in humans. But now, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have found the substance also blocks the onset of epileptic seizures in laboratory rats. Reported in the journal Nature Neuroscience, the findings have potentially huge implications for up to half of all epileptic patients who currently have no access to treatment, says senior author Avtar Roopra, a UW-Madison assistant professor of neurology. It is estimated one percent of the earth’s population is epileptic. So far there have been no side-effects found in tests with rats; the treatment may be available for humans in 5 years, allowing epilepsy to be managed much like diabetes.
Oceanographers have estimated that the yearly amount of chemical power stored by phytoplankton in the form of new organic matter at roughly 63 terawatts (63 trillion watts). In 2001, humans collectively consumed a comparatively measly 13.5 terawatts. Their study found that the marine biosphere —- the chain of sea life anchored by phytoplankton —- invests around one percent (1 terawatt) of its chemical power in mechanical energy, manifested in the swimming motions of creatures ranging from whales and fish to shrimp and krill. Those swimming motions mix the water, and the sum of all that phytoplankton-fueled stirring contributes to climate control. They have predicted theoretically that the amount of mixing caused by ocean swimmers is comparable to the deep ocean mixing caused by the wind blowing on the ocean surface and the effects of the tides. In fact biosphere mixing appears to provide about one third the power required to bring the deep, cold waters of the world ocean to the surface, which in turn completes the ocean’s conveyor belt circulation critical to the global climate system.
I was not happy – and not surprised – to read the following: The Energy Department cannot meet its own post-Sept. 11 security standards to repel a terrorist force at Oak Ridge, the Ft. Knox of uranium, a facility in Tennessee that stores an estimated 189 metric tons of bomb-grade material, agency officials acknowledged. The material is stored in five masonry and wood-frame buildings at the Y-12 facility, a key part of the nation’s nuclear weapons infrastructure at the Oak Ridge site near Knoxville. The risk is that terrorists will gain access to highly enriched uranium and then within minutes construct a crude but powerful improvised nuclear device, or IND. It is believed such a device could have a yield equal to that of the Hiroshima atomic bomb. Y-12 security officials downplayed the threat: “There are better odds that an asteroid would hit Oak Ridge than the likelihood that terrorists would have the access and time to build and detonate an IND.” At the Tennessee site, the department has 527 guards, provided by the private security firm Wackenhut Services Inc. To meet the federal security standard — known as a “design basis threat” — would have required a force of 800 guards. But the Bush administration has refused funding for that size security force. An analysis by a D.C. watchdog group found that a terrorist assault team would have more firepower than the Wackenhut guards. It also showed that an improvised nuclear device would destroy much of Knoxville and cause an estimated 60,000 deaths.
White House, NSA staff said to be buyers from online diploma mill
A White House staff member and National Security Agency employees were among 6,000 people who bought bogus online college degrees from a diploma mill, a federal judge has been told.[snip]
“We’re not going to disclose who bought these degrees until after the trial is under way,” U.S. Attorney James A. McDevitt told the newspaper.
Material provided to the defense by the Justice Department shows at least 135 government employees, also including some from the Department of Health and Human Services, bought college or university degrees to use in seeking promotions or pay raises, Schweda said.
The defense team also is seeking access to an Office of Personnel Management report which reportedly provides more detail on federal employees who are believed to have purchased the bogus degrees to enhance their portfolios.
The White House employee who reportedly bought a degree is the subject of a separate investigation, Schweda said.
So, it’s not what you know, it’s not only who you know, it’s knowing where to buy your diploma.
A thug to stand up to Hamas, 5 thugs to stand up to Iraqi insurgency and a barrelfull of thugs in the White House to guard against reality. Who says Dubya has no plan?
In a jail cell at an immigration detention center in Arizona sits a man who is not charged with a crime, not suspected of a crime, not considered a danger to society.
But he has been in custody for five years.
His name is Ali Partovi. And according to the Department of Homeland Security, he is the last to be held of about 1,200 Arab and Muslim men swept up by authorities in the United States after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.
improves health of bar employees: via MDConsult (subscription required)
Wow. Those are HUGE differences. Makes me very very happy that my three year anniversary for quitting is coming up in December.
It does kind of kill the argument that smokers are only hurting themselves, doesn’t it?
some senate races as lost causes: NYT
Still pissed about Brown’s pro-torture/anti-habeus corpus vote, but he’s better than DeWine, IMO. Buh-bye, Mike!
But of course, when I see this, I wonder why the Repubs are crowing about their 72-hour plan for GOTV on the front page of the same paper…color me suspiscious.
Think again: NYT
What a wonderful idea…Not.
Well, the salmon are threatened by all those tourists and fishermen. And really, they all look alike. We can’t tell who is who or what is what and building a fence on the great lakes is impractical. No more salmon fishing!
A good pre-election soundbite. Keeping the borders safe.
Link
More information keeps coming out, thanks to the ACLU, about the Bush Administration’s equation of protest with terrorism–and the snooping it then engages in.
Homeland Security is monitoring peace groups and even peering at their e-mails.
It then shares that information with Joint Terrorism Task Forces, which include the FBI and state and local law enforcement, as well as with the Pentagon’s notorious Talon (Threat and Local Observation Notice) program. [snip]
All three Talon documents state at the top: “This information is being provided only to alert commanders and staff to potential terrorist activity or apprise them of other force protection issues.”
“Potential terrorist activity.” Isn’t that delightful?
Word to the wise: If you’re a peace activist, the government may be watching you and reading your e-mails.
Something just to keep in mind.
Yes, if the Republicans manage to steal the elections, again, how long will it be before American citizens involved in antiwar activities are declared ‘enemy combatants’ and start to disappear? Sooner than we think.
For once there is some good news from Africa. Farmers are reclaiming the desert, turning the barren wastelands of the Sahel region on the Sahara’s southern edge into green, productive farmland. Satellite images taken this year and 20 years ago show that the desert is in retreat thanks to a resurgence of trees, mainly ana trees (Faidherbia albida), a type of acacia. Tree planting has led to the re-greening of as much as 3 million hectares of land in Niger, enabling some 250,000 hectares to be farmed again. The land became barren in the 1970s and early 1980s through poor management and felling of trees for firewood, but since the mid-1980s farmers in parts of Niger have been protecting them instead of chopping them down. The results have been staggering – in areas where 20 years ago there was barely a tree, there are now between 50 and 100 per hectare.
A compound related to sugar, 2-deoxy-glucose, or 2DG, has long been used in radio labeling, medical scanning and cancer imaging studies in humans. But now, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have found the substance also blocks the onset of epileptic seizures in laboratory rats. Reported in the journal Nature Neuroscience, the findings have potentially huge implications for up to half of all epileptic patients who currently have no access to treatment, says senior author Avtar Roopra, a UW-Madison assistant professor of neurology. It is estimated one percent of the earth’s population is epileptic. So far there have been no side-effects found in tests with rats; the treatment may be available for humans in 5 years, allowing epilepsy to be managed much like diabetes.
Oceanographers have estimated that the yearly amount of chemical power stored by phytoplankton in the form of new organic matter at roughly 63 terawatts (63 trillion watts). In 2001, humans collectively consumed a comparatively measly 13.5 terawatts. Their study found that the marine biosphere —- the chain of sea life anchored by phytoplankton —- invests around one percent (1 terawatt) of its chemical power in mechanical energy, manifested in the swimming motions of creatures ranging from whales and fish to shrimp and krill. Those swimming motions mix the water, and the sum of all that phytoplankton-fueled stirring contributes to climate control. They have predicted theoretically that the amount of mixing caused by ocean swimmers is comparable to the deep ocean mixing caused by the wind blowing on the ocean surface and the effects of the tides. In fact biosphere mixing appears to provide about one third the power required to bring the deep, cold waters of the world ocean to the surface, which in turn completes the ocean’s conveyor belt circulation critical to the global climate system.
Spurred by high rates of asthma and lead poisoning among their children, Hispanic immigrants are embracing green values like never before – on their own terms. Hispanic activists and politicians talk openly about building a unique green movement that distances itself from mainstream environmental groups, even as those organizations hope to tap into newfound Hispanic political clout. Those involved in the nascent movement cite a gap between the priorities of traditional environmentalists, who may focus on saving endangered species and preserving roadless areas, and the practical concerns of many Hispanic immigrants, who confront thick smog and lead-laced water every day in inner-city neighborhoods. Many also are wary of groups like the Sierra Club, which has debated whether to make U.S. immigration control part of its platform.
Even China Daily now admits that an “unexpected environmental accident” occurred in China roughly every other day in the first half of this year, a situation the government is all too aware of. The head of the department charged with enforcing environmental law and inspecting the accident sites says the only way the job can be done any better is with more trained personnel.
I was not happy – and not surprised – to read the following: The Energy Department cannot meet its own post-Sept. 11 security standards to repel a terrorist force at Oak Ridge, the Ft. Knox of uranium, a facility in Tennessee that stores an estimated 189 metric tons of bomb-grade material, agency officials acknowledged. The material is stored in five masonry and wood-frame buildings at the Y-12 facility, a key part of the nation’s nuclear weapons infrastructure at the Oak Ridge site near Knoxville. The risk is that terrorists will gain access to highly enriched uranium and then within minutes construct a crude but powerful improvised nuclear device, or IND. It is believed such a device could have a yield equal to that of the Hiroshima atomic bomb. Y-12 security officials downplayed the threat: “There are better odds that an asteroid would hit Oak Ridge than the likelihood that terrorists would have the access and time to build and detonate an IND.” At the Tennessee site, the department has 527 guards, provided by the private security firm Wackenhut Services Inc. To meet the federal security standard — known as a “design basis threat” — would have required a force of 800 guards. But the Bush administration has refused funding for that size security force. An analysis by a D.C. watchdog group found that a terrorist assault team would have more firepower than the Wackenhut guards. It also showed that an improvised nuclear device would destroy much of Knoxville and cause an estimated 60,000 deaths.
Link
A White House staff member and National Security Agency employees were among 6,000 people who bought bogus online college degrees from a diploma mill, a federal judge has been told.[snip]
“We’re not going to disclose who bought these degrees until after the trial is under way,” U.S. Attorney James A. McDevitt told the newspaper.
Material provided to the defense by the Justice Department shows at least 135 government employees, also including some from the Department of Health and Human Services, bought college or university degrees to use in seeking promotions or pay raises, Schweda said.
The defense team also is seeking access to an Office of Personnel Management report which reportedly provides more detail on federal employees who are believed to have purchased the bogus degrees to enhance their portfolios.
The White House employee who reportedly bought a degree is the subject of a separate investigation, Schweda said.
So, it’s not what you know, it’s not only who you know, it’s knowing where to buy your diploma.
Three weeks to a Dem win?: Bill Clinton:Voters know something is wrong
But, Are we facing a Rahm Emmanuel rigged Pro-War Democratic Congress?
History repeats, an accusation: America is reported to be grooming a `thug’ to stand up to Hamas – Telegraph, UK
We won’t cut and run No sir, never mind that the looong war project is under strength, overstretched that we can’t help out.
Britain is so short of helicopters in Afghanistan that military chiefs are being forced to scour the world for civilian aircraft to support its troops after the US rejected a plea to help plug the shortfall
Guess because we plan to maintain full strength,140,000, in Iraq until 2010, said to be the result of careful planning.. Mr. (Fixer) James Baker may have something to say about that.
Ahmed Chalabi says NO way (unless I’m the one?) A fine mess. America knows how. Call for five-man junta to end the anarchy.
This weekend, thousands around the world participated in the campaign, Stand Up Against Poverty
Just off our shores 33,000 AIDS orphans in Dominican Republic
A thug to stand up to Hamas, 5 thugs to stand up to Iraqi insurgency and a barrelfull of thugs in the White House to guard against reality. Who says Dubya has no plan?
A plan! Oh yes.well timed as always.
Rove’s just in time delivery: Court to give Saddam’s verdict Nov.5
And, Yes we found evidence of N.Korea’s nuclear test. However,today the IAEA said to be unsure whether N.Korea conducted nuclear test.
Click here for larger image…