Women do not know about one of the biggest health risks linked to drinking too much – a raised chance of breast cancer, says a survey. While most knew that excessive alcohol intake could lead to liver disease or liver cancer, fewer than one in five linked it to breast cancer. The YouGov survey of nearly 2,000 men and women was described as ‘shocking’ by health minister Dawn Primarolo. An estimated four million UK women drink more than recommended levels. While there are many different risk factors for developing breast cancer, including family history and obesity, the association between alcohol and breast cancer is well established. There are more than 45,000 new cases of breast cancer in the UK every year, and the ‘lifetime risk’ of developing it is approximately one in nine. Women who drink one large glass of wine a day, which means 21 units of alcohol a week compared with the recommended 15, increase this by a fifth. Drinking two glasses a night boosts it by a third, while three big glasses mean more than a 50% increase. False beliefs The survey found that 82% of women were […]
WASHINGTON — The Federal Bureau of Investigation is struggling to find enough agents and resources to investigate criminal wrongdoing tied to the country’s economic crisis, according to current and former bureau officials. The bureau slashed its criminal investigative work force to expand its national security role after the Sept. 11 attacks, shifting more than 1,800 agents, or nearly one-third of all agents in criminal programs, to terrorism and intelligence duties. Current and former officials say the cutbacks have left the bureau seriously exposed in investigating areas like white-collar crime, which has taken on urgent importance in recent weeks because of the nation’s economic woes. The pressure on the F.B.I. has recently increased with the disclosure of criminal investigations into some of the largest players in the financial collapse, including Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The F.B.I. is planning to double the number of agents working financial crimes by reassigning several hundred agents amid a mood of national alarm. But some people inside and out of the Justice Department wonder where the agents will come from and whether they will be enough. So depleted are the ranks of the F.B.I.’s white-collar investigators that executives in the private sector say […]
Providing toilets, safe water is top route to reducing world poverty: UN University Mapping vulnerable communities essential to global health and poverty Simply installing toilets where needed throughout the world and ensuring safe water supplies would do more to end crippling poverty and improve world health than any other possible measure, according to an analysis released today by the United Nations University. The analysis says better water and sanitation reduces poverty in three ways. * New service business opportunities are created for local entrepreneurs; * Significant savings are achieved in the public health sector; and * Individual productivity is greater in contributing to local and national economies. UNU also calls on the world’s research community to help fill major knowledge gaps that impede progress in addressing the twin global scourges of unsafe water and poor sanitation. Information gaps include such seemingly obvious measures as common definitions and worldwide maps to identify communities most vulnerable to health-related problems as a result of poor access to sanitation and safe water. UNU also calls for creation of a ‘tool-box’ to help policy-makers […]
The final days of the third quarter may have marked the start of the freefalling economy, but the third quarter as a whole was a healthy one for venture capital investments. For the July-to-September period, just over 900 deals added up to $7.1 billion of activity by venture capitalists, totals that are within historic norms for venture capital investing. That’s the good word from the MoneyTree Report issued Saturday morning by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association. But there were cautionary words as well. ‘While overall venture investing hasn’t yet been impacted by the turmoil in the financial markets, as evidenced by the $7 billion plus invested in Q3, we do expect to see a dip in investing over the next several quarters,’ Tracy T. Lefteroff, global managing partner of the venture capital practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers, said in a statement. The dollar figures for the third quarter were down about 7 percent sequentially from the second quarter ($7.7 billion in 1,033 deals). That works out, though, to a rise of about 5 percent in the average value of a deal, to $7.8 million. First-time deals tallied $1.5 billion in the third quarter, a 12 […]
Growing up as a Catholic, I spent much of my youth kneeling at the front of a church, inhaling incense. At every mass, the priest would grab the brass incense burner from the alter boy and wave it at the congregation as a benediction, spewing smoke in my direction. Little did I, or my parents, know that the priest was also sending a mind-altering drug wafting in my direction. Incense might be symbolic in religious ceremonies, but it has also, perhaps not so coincidentally, played a role in gathering the faithful into the fold. A team of international neuroscientists has just announced that a component of the resin made from Boswellia trees, more commonly called Frankincense (yes, the same stuff brought to baby Jesus by the Three Kings), biochemically relieves anxiety in mice, and presumably people. Although religion is usually considered a purely cultural construction, it might also have deep psychotropic roots. Sociologists, philosophers and anthropologists have always looked beyond the spiritual to explain why organized religion was invented and why it stills plays a major role in all human societies. Religion is, first and foremost, about community. Unlike groups that are formed by blood connections, […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
