Weird News of the World Thread - Part 1

[KevanG]

Next time someone tells you that act horrified and ask them why they want you to die. Then explain about the article when they get totally confused.

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Ambitious Panty Raider Swipes 200 Pairs From Victoria's Secret

Augusta, Ga., police are investigating the theft of 200 pairs of panties from the Victoria's Secret location at the local mall. Security footage shows a man walking into the store around 11:45 a.m. on Friday, filling a bag with underwear, and walking out.

The panty raider is still at large.

It's unclear what he's planning to do with that much women's underwear, but the more innocent options include trying to sell it for some percentage of its $1,900 retail value or giving all 200 pairs to one lucky woman, who won't have to do laundry again until 2015.

http://chronicle.augusta.com/news/c...-panties-stolen-victorias-secret?v=1405862167

How does he even get away with that many pairs of panties? Any lone man that walks into a lingerie shop and doesn't immediately ask the clerk for help with a purchase should be looked at as suspect

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Over 100 Evacuated After Train Collision in Wisconsin

Three train engines and ten railcars derailed in Slinger, Wisc. last night, spilling 5,000 gallons of diesel fuel, and injuring two people. More than 100 homes were evacuated after the incident, NBC reports.

A Canadian National Railway train derailed at about 8:30 p.m., then collided with another train, according to Reuters and the Chicago Tribune. Two crew members sustained non-life-threatening injuries, and a nearby propane tank exploded after the crash.

Hazmat officials put equipment in place to contain the diesel fuel, which spilled from the engine of one of the derailed trains. The cause of the crash is under investigation, and Slinger residents were allowed to return to their homes this morning.

http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/slinger-wisconsin-train-derailment-267912681.html

You would think at this point train derailment would be a thing of the past but you can never account for human error I guess.

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Five Injured After Hot Air Balloon Hits Power Lines

[YT]x8j9DtMyrpE[/YT]

A hot air balloon crashed into power lines in Clinton, Mass. late Saturday, burning five people on board in the resulting explosion. The balloon apparently struck the power lines while attempting to land.

The FAA confirmed to WBZ-TV in Boston, "A Colt Balloon was attempting to land in a residential area near Clinton, MA when it struck a power line and caught on fire today at 7:40 p.m."

Dennis MacDonald told the Worcester Telegram that his girlfriend saw the balloon hit the power lines from the front window of his home.

"She said, 'It's not going to clear those wires,'" MacDonald, said. "You could see the operator was trying to pump up the propane. It just didn't go up."

http://boston.cbslocal.com/2014/07/19/hot-air-balloon-crashes-into-power-lines-in-clinton/

And that is one more reason I will never ride in those things

 

[HaplessHenchman]

Five Injured After Hot Air Balloon Hits Power Lines

[YT]x8j9DtMyrpE[/YT]



http://boston.cbslocal.com/2014/07/19/hot-air-balloon-crashes-into-power-lines-in-clinton/

And that is one more reason I will never ride in those things

Yeah, hot air balloons scare me too. My wife keeps trying to get me to go for a ride in one but I keep refusing. I will show her this article and see what she says. Hopefully it will get her off my back for awhile.

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Stranded Hiker With Broken Leg Survived on Bugs and Snow for Six Days

A California hiker was climbing Mount Goddard in northern Kings Canyon National Park alone when he was stranded on the 13,000-foot mountain with a broken leg. He survived by eating melted snow and bugs.

According to the NY Daily News, a boulder fell on Gregg Hein's leg, breaking it and making him unable to climb back down the mountain. Because he was in an isolated area, he was unable to call for help. And because he wasn't expected to return for two more days, he knew he'd have to wait at least that long before someone noticed he was missing. He spoke to ABC News:

"I entertained the idea of potentially dying a couple of times. I was either going to crawl my way out or someone was going to rescue me."

He explained that he ate crickets and moths and would drink melted snow to survive, before he was finally rescued by a passing helicopter six days later. He spent a week in the hospital and is now healing, telling ABC News that he plans to go on another hike—not alone—once he recovers completely:

"Having those six days of just living with complete intent and purpose is quite refreshing, really. And then, to really be thankful for what you have in your life."

Hmm. Maybe be really thankful that you don't actually have to go on anymore hikes?

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nat...gs-snow-6-days-breaking-leg-article-1.1873791

That is pretty hardcore

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Woman in ​Bangladesh Factory Collapse Forced to Amputate Her Own Arm

A woman who was trapped in last year's garment factory collapse in Bangladesh, which killed 1,134 people and injured more than 2,400, now tells the story of having to amputate her own arm to escape the rubble.

26-year-old Rojina Begum tells her story for the first time for the BBC documentary Clothes to Die For. According to The Mirror, Begum spent three days trapped in the rubble before hearing the voice of a doctor who had come to help her escape:

A doctor had found her but the only way she could be freed was to amputate her left arm which was partly crushed under a beam.

The 26-year-old mum said: "The doctor tried to amputate it but couldn't reach.

"I said, 'No matter how hard it is, amputate my arm'. He said 'I'm giving you a saw and you can do it yourself.'"

At first she said she didn't have the strength, to which the doctor reportedly replied "Give it a try." She did, and was finally able to free herself. She told the Mirror:

"I never thought that I'd have to *amputate my own arm. But I was forced to by the situation."

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/brave-woman-trapped-bangladesh-factory-3885387

That is way more hardcore

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Giant Rubber Duck Can't Catch A Break, Washes Away in Chinese Flood

A giant, 59-foot rubber duck made by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman, was happily floating on the Nanming River in China's Guizhou Province, when it went missing on Wednesday night after days of heavy rain, local media reports say. The duck weighs 1 ton.

This isn't the first time the enormous ducky has faced problems. When the art installation bird arrived in a Taiwanese port in December, it exploded while on display in "unexplained circumstances."

Via the BBC:

The 18 metre (50 foot) inflatable duck suddenly collapsed on Tuesday, only 11 days after it had been put on display in the port at Keelung.

Organisers are unsure as to the cause of its demise, but one theory is that it was attacked by eagles.

After a week of heavy rainfall in southwest China, the downtrodden duck (a replacement after the unfortunate exploding incident) took another hit as it dislodged from its 10-ton metal platform and washed away, nowhere to be found.

Yan Jianxin, a coordinator of the duck exhibit on the Nanming River told the Wall Street Journal, "The duck flopped over and was flushed away really quickly by the torrential flood. It disappeared right in front of me in several seconds."

The Wall Street Journal reports that the wild duck hunt has begun as local radio stations urge citizens, "If you live along the river and see an 18-meter tall big yellow duck, please call 5961027." Description: giant, yellow, is a duck.

http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-28364613

You wouldn't think it would be that easy to lose a 1 ton rubber ducky

 

[Monsieur Xavier]

Stranded Hiker With Broken Leg Survived on Bugs and Snow for Six Days

That is pretty hardcore

Indeed, hiking alone with no cell phone is hardcore

 

[HaplessHenchman]

Giant Rubber Duck Can't Catch A Break, Washes Away in Chinese Flood

http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-28364613

You wouldn't think it would be that easy to lose a 1 ton rubber ducky

I hope they had insurance on that duck. Then they can flip the "bill" when it doesn't turn up.

Ha! I "quack" myself up. t:

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Indeed, hiking alone with no cell phone is hardcore

No that's just stupid. Crawling around eating bugs and snow for days is the hardcore part. Still doesn't have anything on the lady who sawed her own freaking arm off, that is truly hardcore.

 

[Alex_Spider]

ISPs launch toothless four strikes anti-piracy initiative

UK internet service providers have teamed up with representatives from the creative industries to launch a system that will send alerts to subscribers if they are suspected of committing piracy.

Under the Voluntary Copyright Alert Programme (Vcap), ISPs will send out alerts to customers if they suspect their account has been used for unlawful filesharing. The alerts will then offer up advice on how to find legitimate sources of content. Up to four of these warnings will be sent to households per year, but there are no sanctions for ignoring the warnings. This appears to be a watered-down version of the three strikes approach to tackling copyright infringement, which was mooted in 2012 and threatened infringers with legal action. It appears to rely on the assumption that people who engage in filesharing don't know that what they are doing is illegal.

Business secretary Vince Cable said that the UK has "unrivalled creativity" but "too often that content is open to abuse by some who don't play by the rules".

"That is why we are working with industry to ensure that intellectual property rights are understood and respected. Education is at the heart of this drive so people understand that piracy isn't a victimless crime -- but actually causes business to fail, harms the industry and costs jobs."

The alert system falls under a new partnership between ISPs and the creative industries called Creative Content UK. The partnership will also see the launch of a multi-media piracy education campaign, partly funded by government. The aim is to raise awareness about the range of legitimate online content services available in a bid to reduce copyright infringement.

The partners involved in Creative Content UK include the Motion Picture Association (MPA), the BPI, BT, Sky Broadband, TalkTalk and Virgin Media. It has the backing of other organisations including the BBC, Equity, the Film Distributors Association and ITV.

Creative Content UK builds on other initiatives including site blocking and working with the advertising industry and payment processors to cut of revenue to sites that host copyright-infringing content.

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-07/21/four-strikes-copyright

Ugh, this sucks.

 

[KevanG]

Giant Rubber Duck Can't Catch A Break, Washes Away in Chinese Flood

http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-28364613

You wouldn't think it would be that easy to lose a 1 ton rubber ducky

Meanwhile stoners all around the coast have been reported hearing the song 'Rubber Duckie' as it floats by.

 

[Alex_Spider]

http://inhabitat.com/mcdonalds-kfc-and-starbucks-pulled-into-chinese-rotten-meat-scandal/

McDonalds, KFC and Starbucks Pulled Into Chinese Rotten Meat Scandal

The latest Chinese meat scandal is spreading, with reports confirming that Chinese McDonalds, Burger King, KFC and Starbucks outlets all purchased meat products originally sourced from Shanghai Husi Food Co Ltd. Shanghai Husi was shut down by authorities on Sunday after television station Dragon TV showed footage of workers repackaging and relabeling expired beef and chicken products and throwing meat that had fallen onto the factory floor back into mixing machines.

Food safety is of high concern to Chinese consumers after a series of public health scandals, including the 2008 melamine-tainted milk scandal, which caused the deaths of six children and poisoned thousands of others. International fast food brands have long been held in high regard in China due to their occupational health and safety practices and food handling policies. The trouble in this instance is that outlets have purchased meat products from an outside source that did not share the same quality control values.

Related: $1.6 Million Worth of Rat Meat Passed Off as Lamb in China

China’s Food and Drug Administration has instructed regional offices to make spot checks on all food outlets that have used Shanghai Husi products. Other factories managed by Shanghai Husi’s parent company, OSI, will also be inspected to make sure food safety is not an even wider issue for the company. While all fast food outlets affected rapidly and voluntarily removed products from sale, the regulator has ordered McDonalds to seal over 4,500 cartons of suspect meat products and Chinese Pizza Hut outlets to seal more than 500 cartons of beef as potential evidence. The case could now be handed over to police.

The scandal has also spread further, with McDonalds outlets in Tokyo receiving chicken nuggets from Shanghai Husi. McDonalds Japan issued a statement that it had removed the products from sale and had sourced alternative supplies. McDonalds, Starbucks, Burger King, and Pizza Hut and KFC parent company Yum Brands Inc. all took to social media to assure customers that none of their products currently available for sale were tainted. However, that will probably be cold comfort to consumers as one of the Shanghai Husi managers interviewed by Dragon TV stated that company executives had approved the unsafe food handling practices and that they had been in place for several years.

lol. Does this surprise anyone?

 

[Alex_Spider]

Wave Power Transforms a Dumping Ground into a Sparkling Glass Beach

The site is a reminder of the power of the sea, but is still no excuse for all the littering and polluting that preceded it. Nowadays the beach is an unofficial tourist attraction and is owned by the California State Park System who is working on incorporating it into the MacKerricher State Park which surrounds it.

http://inhabitat.com/wave-power-transforms-a-dumping-ground-into-a-sparkling-glass-beach/

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Man Dies on Beach After Sand Tunnel Collapses, Burying Him Alive

Adam Pye, 26, was killed at a Bay Area beach in California on Monday after a 10-foot-deep hole he was digging collapsed on him. At least 30 people—including emergency personnel and bystanders—tried to dig him out, but in the end he was buried for 35 minutes. He was pronounced dead on the scene.

According to the Cal Fire department, "Pye dug a roughly 10-foot-deep hole at Francis State Beach and was standing in it around 5:30pm Monday when the sand started caving in around him." Fire Capt. Jonathan Cox told NBC News, "A lot of people jumped into action, which was both helpful and oppressive." A witness said people were using buckets and their hands to try to help dig.

Cox said he can only point to one similar incident in California in the last 20 years. Earlier this summer, a Virginia man died in the Outer Banks of North Carolina while trying to connect two six-foot-deep holes with a sand tunnel.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2702309/Man-dies-beach-BURIED-ALIVE-sand-tunnel-digging.html

When are people going to learn you can't make tunnels at the beach? You have to have supports and whatnot. That's a horrible way to go too

 

[HaplessHenchman]

George Harrison Tree killed by...beetles

In the truth is stranger than fiction department, Los Angeles Councilman Tom LaBonge, whose district includes Griffith Park, told Pop & Hiss over the weekend that the pine tree planted in 2004 near Griffith Observatory in memory of George Harrison will be replanted shortly because the original tree died as the result of an insect infestation.Yes, the George Harrison Tree was killed by beetles.


Except for the loss of tree life, Harrison likely would have been amused at the irony. He once said his biggest break in life was getting into the Beatles; his second biggest was getting out.
The sapling went in, unobtrusively, near the observatory with a small plaque at the base to commemorate the former Beatle, who died in 2001, because he spent his final days in Los Angeles and because he was an avid gardener for much of his adult life.


He famously bought a rundown mansion in England that once belonged to a British lord named Sir Frankie Crisp --the name showed up in the title of Harrison’s song “Ballad of Sir Frankie Crisp (Let It Roll)" from his 1970 solo album “All Things Must Pass” -- and over the course of many years transformed the overgrown gardens into lush, beautiful grounds surrounding his home.
The memorial tree in Griffith Park had grown to more than 10 feet tall as of 2013, but LaBonge said the tree beetle onslaught was too much for the tree. Trees in Griffith Park have occasionally been the victims of bark beetles and ladybug beetles, among other tree-unfriendly creatures.
LaBonge was on hand Saturday night at the Greek Theatre for the final stop on Ringo Starr’s All-Star Band 2014 U.S. tour.


A date hasn’t been set for the replanting.

http://www.latimes.com/entertainmen...ison-tree-beetles-replant-20140721-story.html

I guess irony can be pretty ironic sometimes...

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Haha I saw that on Facebook yesterday and thought it was an Onion article. So many stupid and fake articles on there I just skim past them most of the time

 

[HaplessHenchman]

Haha I saw that on Facebook yesterday and thought it was an Onion article. So many stupid and fake articles on there I just skim past them most of the time

Yeah, when my wife told me about it last night I thought she was joking. No way could that be real, right? So she went on-line and showed me the article.

I guess instead of "all you need is love", all this tree needs is bug spray.

 

[Alex_Spider]

Beef environment cost 10 times that of other livestock

A new study suggests that the production of beef is around 10 times more damaging to the environment than any other form of livestock.

Scientists measured the environment inputs required to produce the main US sources of protein.

Beef cattle need 28 times more land and 11 times more irrigation water than pork, poultry, eggs or dairy.

The research has been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

While it has long been known that beef has a greater environmental impact than other meats, the authors of this paper say theirs is is the first to quantify the scale in a comparative way.

Beef footprint
The researchers developed a uniform methodology that they were able to apply to all five livestock categories and to four measures of environmental performance.

"We have a sharp view of the comparative impact that beef, pork, poultry, dairy and eggs have in terms of land and water use, reactive nitrogen discharge, and greenhouse gas emissions," lead author Prof Gidon Eshel, from Bard College in New York, told BBC News.

"The uniformity and expansive scope is novel, unique, and important," he said.

The scientists used data from from 2000-2010 from the US department of agriculture to calculate the amount of resources required for all the feed consumed by edible livestock.

They then worked out the amount of hay, silage and concentrates such as soybeans required by the different species to put on a kilo of weight.

They also include greenhouse gas emissions not just from the production of feed for animals but from their digestion and manure.

As ruminants, cattle can survive on a wide variety of plants but they have a very low energy conversion efficiency from what they eat.

As a result, beef comes out clearly as the food animal with the biggest environmental impact.
As well as the effects on land and water, cattle release five times more greenhouse gas and consume six times more nitrogen than eggs or poultry.

Cutting down on beef can have a big environmental impact they say. But the same is not true for all livestock.

"One can reasonably be an environmentally mindful eater, designing one's diet with its environmental impact in mind, while not resorting to exclusive reliance on plant food sources," said Prof Eshel.

"In fact, eliminating beef, and replacing it with relatively efficiency animal-based alternatives such as eggs, can achieve an environmental improvement comparable to switching to plant food source."

Other researchers say the conclusions of the new study are applicable in Europe, even though the work is based on US data.

"The overall environmental footprint of beef is particularly large because it combines a low production efficiency with very high volume," said Prof Mark Sutton, from the UK's Centre for Ecology and Hydrology.

"The result is that the researchers estimate that over 60% of the environmental burden of livestock in the US results from beef. Although the exact numbers will be different for Europe (expecting a larger role of dairy), the overall message will be similar: Cattle dominate the livestock footprint of both Europe and US."

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-28409704

 

[Alex_Spider]

http://www.alternet.org/environment/journalistic-malpractice-media-enables-right-wing-politicization-science

Journalistic Malpractice: The Media Enables the Right-Wing Politicization of Science

We’re at a particularly hyper-partisan moment in our country. As such, one would think the existence of a scientific consensus on a policy issue would offer the mainstream media a welcome oasis from the mirage of social media myths and the desert of dueling soundbites that all too often crowd out informed comment. Using such a consensus as a no ******** baseline, an objective journalist could more honestly explore opposing arguments, measure them against evidence, and judge their veracity. This is no small thing, because if modern journalism is to continue to live up to its Constitutional promise, it can’t merely be about telling the who, what,whenand where of the world anymore, it must go beyond that to explain the how and why.

But time and again, the establishment media fails at reaching this higher bar. Instead of contextualizing policy debates by weaving in extant scientific knowledge or academic research, the national press all too readily churns out formulaic stories filled with superficial horserace reporting. A press corps so consistently unmoored from facts becomes very vulnerable, however, when one of our nation’s two political parties undertakes a proverbial war on science. With very little effort, policy debates can get hijacked and devolve from discussing relevant facts to lobbing ad hominem insults. This simple-minded journalistic approach renders the underlying science of any issue moot. But it’s a safer career move, since it just wouldn’t do well for an “objective” journalist to always be pointing out that, on issue after issue, one party has become fully detached from scientific reality. In a “both sides do it” media culture, no party or ideology can ever lose legitimacy, no matter how crackpot its ideas about how the world works.

Exhibit A in the mainstream media’s failure to execute this due diligence is its consistently ill-informed climate change coverage. Even though an overwhelming majority of climate scientists agree that global warming is real and man-made, the media rarely, if ever, treats this mountain of evidence as a given. Instead, it treats this reality very much like a battle of opinions or, more accurately, of belief systems: Liberals believe in climate change, conservatives don’t. Climate change is not an ideological principle or a policy outcome about which reasonable people can disagree, though; it’s an observable phenomenon. So when the media enables anyone to deny the existence of climate change, it is tantamount to journalistic malpractice.

Nevertheless, this malpractice happens every single day. Whether pigeonholing global warming as a niche topic,soliciting denialist voices and granting them an outsized platform, or outright disappearing of the crisis, the press regularly plays into conservatives’ hands, helping them manufacture dissent and sow confusion amongst the public even though none exists in the scientific community. Among Tea Partiers, disbelief in anthropogenic climate change has become something of an article of faith, so much so that, contra the parable of Noah, no amount of catastrophic warnings can change their stubborn minds. And in much the same way that Pope Urban VIII’s Vatican concocted an “investigation” to disprove Galileo’s proof of a sun-centered solar system, right-wing denialists have cooked up numerous alternative climate change theories that neatly conform to their worldview, but which all fall apart under scientific scrutiny.

The public policy ramifications of this media failure hit home again this past Monday. That’s when the Roberts Court’s conservative majority ruled in favor of Hobby Lobby, a craft retailer that sued the federal government for infringing on its religious freedom. At the core of the company’s objections was its claim that four of the 20 methods of contraception mandated by the Afforable Care Act are abortifacients (i.e. they terminate an in-progress pregnancy).

The good news: just like climate change, there was an overwhelming scientific consensus about this claim. Let’s be totally clear—the idea that IUDs and morning-after pills are abortifacients is clearly rejected by medical science. And no less than the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institute of Health, the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American Medical Association, and the Mayo Clinic agree. To all of these organizations, to whom we trust to regulate, advise, and train our nation’s professional healthcare providers, pregnancy begins when a fertilized egg is successfully implanted in the uterus, so IUDs and Plan B morning-after pills are contraceptives. Full stop. So, case dismissed, right?

The bad news, of course, was that there was an overwhelming scientific consensus about this claim, and just like with climate change, conservatives on the court simply didn’t care. Never mind that the medical facts in the case strongly suggested Hobby Lobby had no real standing to sue in the first place. In fact, on page 9 of Justice Alito’s majority ruling, we find this inconvenient truth conveniently tucked away down in a footnote:

“The owners of the companies involved in these cases and others who believe that life begins at conception regard these four methods as causing abortions, but federal regulations, which define pregnancy as beginning at implantation.”

The whole Hobby Lobby case, in other words, was built upon a willfully accepted fallacy. Monday’s Supreme Court decision wasn’t a victory for religious freedom over the government as much it was a triumph of religious belief over science. (There’s also rank hypocrisy and disingenuousness at work here as well. Hobby Lobby’s employee retirement plan invests in the very pharmaceutical companies that make emergency contraception. And up until two years ago,Hobby Lobby’s health insurance plan actually offered IUDs and Plan B. Only after being contacted by a right-wing legal group—hunting for a proxy in their fight to weaken Obamacar—did the company conveniently discover its religious objection.)

Nevertheless, right-wing and “pro-life” supporters have so successfully muddied the facts about contraception, the press demonstrated little interest in correcting them. Case in point, the New York Times’ big, lead story on the decision, which whistled right past the plaintiff’s key claim:

“The health care law and related regulations require many employers to provide female workers with comprehensive insurance coverage for a variety of methods of contraception. The companies objected to some of the methods. “No one has disputed the sincerity of their religious beliefs,” Justice Alito wrote. The dissenters agreed.

“The companies said they had no objection to some forms of contraception, including condoms, diaphragms, sponges, several kinds of birth control pills and sterilization surgery. Justice Ginsburg wrote that other companies may object to all contraception, and that the ruling would seem to allow them to opt out of any contraception coverage.”

Notice something missing here? For some reason, the Times tells us all about which specific contraceptives Hobby Lobby doesn’t object to, but we never learn which ones they do object to, and more importantly, why, and if their objections had any scientific merit.

The Washington Post’s Supreme Court write-up at least included more specifics than the Times, but its scattershot approach leads it to fall back into the same old false equivalence framing:

“Some businesses object to offering contraception at all, while others, like the companies that brought the challenge to the Supreme Court, say offering certain types of birth control, such as IUDs, make them complicit in abortion.”

[…11 paragraphs later…]

“In this case, the companies’ owners say that four of the 20 contraceptives approved by the FDA work after an egg has been fertilized and thus are abortifacients. While many, if not most, doctors and scientists disagree, Alito said the point is that the owners believe offering such services—such as the morning-after pill and IUDs—violates their religious faiths.”

Notice, again, how Alito’s whole justification for ruling against Obamacare rests upon what the Hobby Lobby owners believe. Does the Post pushback on this citing expert medical analysis? Does it point out a lot of people believe a lot of crazy things with no basis in fact but they still don’t merit a judicial carve-out from federal health regulations. Not really. It equivocates with “many, if not most doctors and scientists disagree,” an intentionally squishy qualifier that offers little more than the pretense of context.

Tellingly, mainstream media coverage, overall, wasn’t much better than Fox News. This was how they didn’t get it right: “Dozens of companies, including Hobby Lobby, claim religious objections to covering some or all contraceptives. The methods and devices at issue before the Supreme Court were those the plaintiffs say can work after conception.” In fact, the latest research suggests that IUDs and Plan B actually don’t work after conception. But even if they do, it’s important to remember that the scientific consensus clearly says that preventing a fertilized egg from implanting is not an abortion. In fact, the Affordable Care Act is explicitly forbidden from funding coverage for abortions. That “dozens of companies” are making—or, more precisely, making up—an argument to the contrary shouldn’t be worth a bucket of warm spit when it comes to crafting public health policy.

This doesn’t stop some conservatives from trying to have it both ways—to both dismiss scientific consensus while pretending its on their side. Back in May, for example, GOP Senator Marco Rubio even went so far as to claim the “science is settled” that life begins at conception. No sir.Others on the right have tried to polarize the medical definition of pregnancy, claiming it is “an odd insistence” of “the Left” without mentioning all the nonpartisan medical professional organizations that endorse this same conclusion. Getting points for chutzpah and projection, one obtuse conservative snarkily dinged the “anti-Science Left” for failing to recognize that you can’t produce a life without a fertilized egg. Of course, you can’t produce life beyond a few cells unless that fertilized egg is implanted in a woman’s uterus, but then disappearing women out of the discussion of contraceptive choice and reproductive rights is another common tactic among the right. On a related note, Alito’s 49-page opinion only mentioned “woman” or “women” 13 times.

By failing to honestly address the science at the root of the Hobby Lobby case, the media has fallen for the same old conservative spin that, for years, has also corrupted its climate change coverage. In a way, it mirrors the actions of the Roberts Court’s conservative majority, which similarly granted greater weight to the plaintiffs’religious interpretation of medical science than toactual medical science itself. Sadly, this brazen act of judicial corporate activism was compounded by a tragic failure of explanatory journalism. And thanks to the latter, the public is less informed about broad consequences of the former. As now almost anyone—or anything, for that matter—can construct a so-called religious freedom if science and the evidentiary process need not be involved in defining the boundaries of said freedoms.

The Hobby Lobby case has set us upon a dangerously slippery legal slope. By endowing for-profit companies with unprecedented rights over their employees and unheard of freedoms from federal regulations, conservatives have set the conditions for future corporate discrimination as well as delegitimization of the government. But it is also a broader, cautionary tale about how poorly the mainstream media holds conservatives accountable for their often specious scientific claims. Facts are the most precious currency of journalists, but if they aren’t willing to speak scientific truth to power—whether it’s on reproductive rights or evolution or climate change—it’s not just the press’s reputation that suffers. We all do.

Interesting points.

 

[Alex_Spider]

Science Of Persuasion

Animation describing the Universal Principles of Persuasion based on the research of Dr. Robert Cialdini, Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Marketing, Arizona State University.

Dr. Robert Cialdini & Steve Martin are co-authors (together with Dr. Noah Goldstein) of the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Business Week International Bestseller Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to be Persuasive.

 

[Alex_Spider]

A Tokyo doctor who has moved to western Japan urges fellow doctors to promote radiation protection: A message from Dr. Mita to his colleagues in Kodaira, Tokyo

Doctor Shigeru Mita, who recently moved to Okayama-city, Okayama prefecture, to open a new clinic there, wrote a short essay in the newsletter published by Association of Doctors in Kodaira, metropolitan Tokyo.
Although the target readers for this essay were not the general public, it has been cited in a weekly e-mail magazine published by journalist Kota Kino****a, who has been organizing actions to urge people to leave radiation affected areas (including Tokyo) since 3.11, 2011.

On many occasions, public talks and gatherings, both Dr. Mita and Mr. Kino****a have acknowledged the danger of radiation and they have called out for immediate action for radiation protection.

In November 2013, WNSCR translated an essay that Dr. Mita wrote for parents concerned about radiation: (Please read the article here). Despite the interests of many parents in Japan, there are very few doctors who show serious concern on the issues of radiation, and commenting on the issue publicly is even rarer.

It is the opinion of WNSCR that Dr. Mita’s views have significant meaning for the general public, especially for those who are interested in the health impact of radiation on the general population. We have permission to translate a new essay of Dr. Mita, through Mr. Kino****a

Spoiler

Why did I leave Tokyo?
Shigeru Mita ( Mita clinic)

To my fellow doctors,

I closed the clinic in March 2014, which had served the community of Kodaira for more than 50 years, since my father’s generation, and I have started a new Mita clinic in Okayama-city on April 21.

I had been a member of the board of directors in the Kodaira medical association since the 1990’s, the time I started practicing medicine at my father’s clinic. For the last 10 years, I had worked to establish a disaster emergency response in the city.

In Tokyo, the first mission of the disaster response concerns how to deal with earthquakes.
In the event of a South Eastern Earthquake, which is highly expectable, it is reasonable to assume a scenario of meltdown in the Hamaoka nuclear power plant in Shizuoka prefecture, followed by radiation contamination in Tokyo.

I have been worried about the possibility of radiation contamination in Tokyo, so I had repeatedly requested the medical association, the municipal government and the local public health department to stock medical iodine. However, every time my request was turned down; the reason given was that Tokyo did not expect such an event. Hence there was no plan for preparing for the event.

In the afternoon of March 11, 2011, Tokyo experienced slow but great motions in the earthquake. I thought, “now this is what’s called long-period seismic motions. The South Eastern Sea earthquake, with the following Hamaoka NPP accident, are finally coming”. Instead, the source of the earthquake was in Tohoku. The temperature of the reactors in Fukushima Daiichi NPP rose and it caused massive explosions, followed by meltdowns and melt-through.

It is clear that Eastern Japan and Metropolitan Tokyo have been contaminated with radiation.

Contamination of the soil can be shown by measuring Bq/kg. Within the 23 districts of Metropolitan Tokyo, contamination in the east part is 1000-4000 Bq/kg and the west part is 300-1000 Bq/kg. The contamination of Kiev, the capital city of Ukraine, is 500 Bq/kg (Ce137 only). West Germany after the Chernobyl accident has 90 Bq/kg, Italy has 100 and France has 30 Bq/kg on average. Many cases of health problems have been reported in Germany and Italy. Shinjuku, the location of the Tokyo municipal government, was measured at 0.5-1.5 Bq/kg before 2011. Kodaira currently has 200-300 Bq/kg contamination.

I recommend all of you to watch the NHK program, “ETV special: Chernobyl nuclear accident: Report from a contaminated land”, which is available on Internet. I think it is important to acknowledge what people who visited Belarus and Ukraine, and heard the stories of the locals, have seen and felt there, and listen to those who served in rescue operations in Chernobyl in the past more than 20 years.

Their experience tells them that Tokyo should no longer be inhabited, and that those who insist on living in Tokyo must take regular breaks in safer areas.

Issues such as depopulation and state decline continue to burden the lives of second and third generation Ukrainians and Belarusians today, and I fear that this may be the future of Eastern Japan.

Since December 2011, I have conducted thyroid ultrasound examinations, thyroid function tests, general blood tests and biochemical tests on about 2000 people, mostly families in the Tokyo metropolitan area expressing concerns on the effects of radiation. I have observed that white blood cells, especially neutrophils, are decreasing among children under the age of 10. There are cases of significant decline in the number of neutrophils in 0-1 year-olds born after the earthquake (<1000). In both cases, conditions tend to improve by moving to Western Japan (Neutrophils 0-->4500). Patients report nosebleed, hair loss, lack of energy, subcutaneous bleeding, visible urinary hemorrhage, skin inflammations, coughs and various other non-specific symptoms.

Kodaira, in western Tokyo, is one of the least-contaminated areas in Kanto; however, we began to notice changes in children&#8217;s blood test results around mid-2013 even in this area. Contamination in Tokyo is progressing, and further worsened by urban radiation concentration, or the effect by which urban sanitation systems such as the sewage system, garbage collection and incineration condense radiation, because contaminated waste is gathered and compressed. Data measured by citizens&#8217; groups showed that radiation levels on the riverbeds of Kawabori River in Higashiyamato and Higashimurayama in Tokyo have increased drastically in the last 1-2 years.

Other concerns I have include symptoms reported by general patients, such as persistent asthma and sinusitis. The patients show notable improvement once they move away.
I also observe high occurrences of rheumatic polymyalgia characterized by complaints such as &#8220;difficulty turning over,&#8221; &#8220;inability to dress and undress,&#8221; and &#8220;inability to stand up&#8221; among my middle-aged and older patients. Could these be the same symptoms of muscle rheumatism that were recorded in Chernobyl?

Changes are also noticeable in the manifestation of contagious diseases such as influenza, hand-foot-and-mouth disease and shingles.

Many patients report experiencing unfamiliar symptoms or sensing unusual changes in their bodies. Perhaps they feel comfortable speaking to me, knowing that my clinic posted signs informing of possible radiation-related symptoms immediately after the nuclear accident. Many young couples with small children and women worried about their grandchildren visit my clinic and earnestly engage in the discussion, and there is not a single patient who resists my critical views on the impacts of radiation.
Ever since 3.11, everybody living in Eastern Japan including Tokyo is a victim, and everybody is involved.

We discovered that our knowledge from the discipline of radiology was completely useless in the face of a nuclear disaster. The keyword here is &#8220;long-term low-level internal irradiation.&#8221; This differs greatly from medical irradiation or simple external exposure to radiation. I do not want to get involved in political issues; nonetheless, I must state that the policies of the WHO, the IAEA or the Japanese government cannot be trusted. They are simply far too distanced from the harsh realities that people in Chernobyl still face today.

The patients from Eastern Japan that I see here in Okayama have confirmed the feelings that I have had for a long time, since I was based in Tokyo. People are truly suffering from this utter lack of support. Since 3.11, mothers have researched frantically on radiation to protect their children. They studied in the midst of their hostile surroundings in Tokyo, where they could no longer trust either government offices or their children&#8217;s schools. Family doctors were willing to listen about other symptoms, but their faces turned red at the slightest mention of radiation and ignored the mothers&#8217; questions. Mothers could not even talk openly to friends anymore as the atmosphere in Tokyo became more and more stifled.

I believe that it is our duty as medical doctors to instruct and increase awareness among the Japanese public. This is our role as experts, having knowledge of health that the general public does not possess. Three years have quickly passed since the disaster. No medical schools or books elaborate on radiation sickness. Nevertheless, if the power to save our citizens and future generations exists somewhere, it does not lie within the government or any academic association, but in the hands of individual clinical doctors ourselves.

Residents of Tokyo are unfortunately not in the position to pity the affected regions of Tohoku because they are victims themselves. Time is running short. I took an earlier step forward and evacuated to the west. My fellow doctors of medicine, I am waiting for you here. And to the people in Eastern Japan still hesitating, all my support goes to facilitating and enabling your evacuation, relocation, or a temporary relief in Western Japan.

(Translation by WNSCR team)

This is very concerning if true.

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Surgeons Discover 10-Year-Old Sex Toy Inside Woman's Vagina

A 38-year-old Scottish woman who complained to doctors about weight loss, incontinence, and lethargy had a sex toy inside her vagina that had been in place for ten years, according to a report in the Journal of Sexual Medicine.

Surgeons at the Aberdeen Royal Infirmary removed the five-inch toy, reporting that it had caused the woman near-life-threatening damage. She had a condition called vesicovaginal &#64257;stula — a passage that allows urine to flow into the vagina — the Daily Mail reports, as well as a obstructive uropathy, which causes urine to become backed up in the kidneys.

The woman said she used the toy one drunken night with her partner a decade ago, and that she couldn't remember whether she had removed it (she had not, apparently). According to the Journal of Sexual Medicine, she can now claim the dubious honor of having held a sex toy in her vagina for a longer time than anybody else in the world. Congratulations!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/a...tml?ITO=1490&ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490

How do you just forget something is up your vajayjay?

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Tylenol Is Useless for Back Pain

If you are a human who has successfully survived past the age of 30, chances are you've experienced lower back pain, a condition brought on by excessive sitting, standing, inactivity, or moving. A new study says: there is no relief.

A new large-scale study published in The Lancet finds that acetaminophen (also called paracetamol)—the active ingredient in Tylenol and the most common pain reliever in America—is just as useless as a placebo against back pain.

No differences in the number of days to recovery were found between the treatment groups—median time to recovery was 17 days in the regular paracetamol group, 17 days in the as-needed paracetamol group, and 16 days in the placebo group. Paracetamol also had no effect on short-term pain levels, disability, function, sleep quality, or quality of life. The number of participants reporting adverse events was similar between the groups.

Damn that crap is mad worthless. You know what I find to be a really good solution for back pain, though? NOTHING.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/23/us-health-paracetamol-back-idUSKBN0FS2GD20140723

Bad news for all us old folks