Sunday, August 15th, 2010
JUSTIN GILLIS, - The New York Times
Stephan:
The summer’s heat waves baked the eastern United States, parts of Africa and eastern Asia, and above all Russia, which lost millions of acres of wheat and thousands of lives in a drought worse than any other in the historical record.
Seemingly disconnected, these far-flung disasters are reviving the question of whether global warming is causing more weather extremes.
The collective answer of the scientific community can be boiled down to a single word: probably.
‘The climate is changing,
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Sunday, August 15th, 2010
THOMAS H. MAUGH II, - Los Angeles Times
Stephan: This must be read with caution as to causality, but it would give me pause if I were the parent of a teen; why take the chance when there are other options?
A major new international study released Friday has found that adolescents who take acetaminophen, better known under the brand name Tylenol, have a higher risk of asthma, allergic nasal conditions and the skin disorder eczema.
Those who took the common painkiller as infrequently as once a month had twice the normal risk of developing the disorders. Experts noted, however, that the study does not show that the drug causes the problems. In fact, some said, it is equally likely that the children were taking the drug because they were already suffering from asthma.
Acetaminophen is widely viewed as a very safe drug-one reason why hospitals use it routinely as a painkiller instead of aspirin or ibuprofen. The major problem associated with it is liver damage caused by overdoses. Recently, however, there has been a growing drumbeat about possible dangers from the drug. One study, for example, found that acetaminophen increased the risk of hearing loss in men. And some others have hinted that the drug is linked to asthma in newborns whose mothers used the drug during pregnancy and in young children exposed to it.
The new findings were reported in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine by researchers […]
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Sunday, August 15th, 2010
ALEC MACGILLIS, Staff Writer - The Washington Post
Stephan: In my view the government should have created a modern WPA project. When people have work they feel better about themselves and their prospects. When they have money in their pockets they spend it, and grocers, dry cleaners, and local stores have customers. The local economy improves.
As Americans puzzle over why the economic stimulus package enacted more than a year ago has failed to restore vigorous job growth, one explanation has emerged from new reports: A lot of the money is not yet out the door.
Detroit is struggling with 14 percent unemployment, but as of June 30 the city had spent less than 1 percent of the $8.8 million in stimulus funds it received for energy-efficiency initiatives. In budget-strapped Arizona, Phoenix has spent even less of its $15.2 million, and in hard-hit South Florida, Fort Lauderdale has spent $66,000 of its $2 million.
The $862 billion package was divided roughly in thirds among tax cuts, aid to states and the unemployed, and investments in infrastructure, health care and other areas. The first two have delivered most of their boost, but much of the investment spending is moving far more slowly. At the end of July, nearly 18 months after the stimulus passed, more than half of the $275 billion in investments had yet to be spent.
Underlying the slow pace is a defining tension: Officials want to get money out the door to jolt the economy but want to spend it carefully enough to meet long-term policy aims […]
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Saturday, August 14th, 2010
ANDRES SCHIPANI, - BBC News (U.K.)
Stephan: I find this, like the eye surgery many Asians undergo, to be rather sad. But that it is a trend cannot be denied.
At a busy street corner in La Paz, a boy is announcing something for sale. It’s not sweets, nor newspapers, nor a shoeshine but
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Saturday, August 14th, 2010
LYNARI MORALES, - The Gallup Organization
Stephan: A healthy democracy must have a reliably trustworthy media that commands respect. This poll reflects the result of the corporatization of media and the subsequent shift from information to sensoids that occurred when profit not objective information became the media's principle priority. (To read about sensoids go to the SR archives and search on the word.)
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Americans continue to express near-record-low confidence in newspapers and television news — with no more than 25% of Americans saying they have a ‘great deal’ or ‘quite a lot’ of confidence in either. These views have hardly budged since falling more than 10 percentage points from 2003-2007.
The findings are from Gallup’s annual Confidence in Institutions survey, which found the military faring best and Congress faring worst of 16 institutions tested. Americans’ confidence in newspapers and television news is on par with Americans’ lackluster confidence in banks and slightly better than their dismal rating of Health Management Organizations and big business.
The decline in trust since 2003 is also evident in a 2009 Gallup poll that asked about confidence and trust in the ‘mass media’ more broadly. While perceptions of media bias present a viable hypothesis, Americans have not over the same period grown any more likely to say the news media are too conservative or too liberal.
No matter the cause, it is clear the media as a whole are not gaining new fans as they struggle to serve and compete with growing demand for online news, social media, and mobile platforms. The Pew Project for Excellence in Journalism’s […]
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