Sunday, November 28th, 2010
Stephan:
NEW YORK — November 23, 2010 — Contrary to widespread belief, patients with abnormal liver function who are given long-term statin treatment do not face an increased risk of liver disease, according to a study published online first and appearing in an upcoming print issue of The Lancet.
In fact, statins can improve liver function in patients with abnormal liver tests. Moreover, this study is the first to show a substantially greater cardiovascular benefit in patients with abnormal liver function tests compared with patients who have normal liver tests.
These findings suggest that statins are a safe and promising treatment strategy for patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD).
A rare adverse effect of statin use is increased levels of liver enzymes or serum transaminases like alanine aminotransferase (ALT). As a result, many physicians are reluctant to prescribe statins to patients with elevated ALT.
The safety and efficacy of long-term statin treatment in patients with NAFLD is unclear. Previous small and short-term studies in patients with raised ALT levels because of NAFLD have suggested that they are safe and improve liver tests and liver histology.
To provide more evidence, Vasilis Athyros, MD, Hippokration University Hospital, Thessaloniki, Greece, and Dimitri Mikhailidis, MD, University College London, London, […]
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Sunday, November 28th, 2010
, - Agence France-Presse (France)
Stephan: Yet another indicator of the decay of American infrastructure: 'According to Akamai's Q3 State of the Internet report, the United States' Internet speed did not qualify for a place in the top 10 list of countries with the fastest Internet in the world, and its average overall speed has actually decreased by 2.4% year-over-year from 2008 to 2009.' http://mashable.com/2010/01/16/united-states-internet-speed/. This article is talking about 100 megabit, the average in the U.S. is 3.9 megabit, and there are still large sections of the country operating at old-fashioned dial-up speeds, much slower than that.
The United States actually ranked 18 out of the 203 nations tested in terms of average connection speeds, falling behind speed leaders like South Korea, Japan and Hong Kong.
HONG KONG — The latest generation of wireless Internet that will allow people to watch a crystal clear movie or live sporting event on the street or atop a hill is being deployed throughout Hong Kong.
The Long Term Evolution (LTE) network will give super high speeds across the city and could mean the end of computers ever needing to be plugged into a wall for a connection to the net.
The so-called ‘fourth generation’ system is being rolled out by Hong Kong mobile network operator CSL in partnership with telecoms equipment maker ZTE Corporation.
‘The first launch of an LTE network any place in Asia is truly historic,’ Joseph O’Konek, CSL’s chief executive, told AFP.
‘For a lot of people, this will be their first experience of the Internet. They are at a huge advantage to previous Internet generations because they are leapfrogging all those fixed line technologies.
‘It is truly going to unleash the power of human networks as this kind of system rolls out more and more across the world.’
LTE enables faster data downloads and uploads on mobile devices compared with a third-generation network.
The system will give speeds of up to 100 megabits per second (Mbps) and should make the high quality […]
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Saturday, November 27th, 2010
TIME JOHNSON, - McClatchy Newspapers
Stephan: At one level this seems like good news. At another it seems kind of pathetic. In general I think you would be wise to plan that for the next 10 years you are on your own. The Climate Change Deniers are going to do everything in their power to block an effective response, and most of America doesn't care, or doesn't believe there is a problem, so there won't be enough of a public outcry to change things. Eventually it will become such a crisis that there will have to be a worldwide response. But, by then, it may be too late to mitigate many of the worst effects and, in any case, in the short-term, don't look for much.
MEXICO CITY – Global megacities such as Mexico City, Seoul, Paris and Los Angeles are more populous than scores of countries, and devour huge amounts of energy, but they’ve carried no weight in United Nations climate change talks.
Until now.
Next week, when envoys come together in Cancun for a follow-up session to last year’s rancorous U.N. climate talks in Copenhagen, Mexico City’s mayor will be on hand to trumpet how the world’s great cities are finding ways to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions blamed for higher global temperatures.
Few expect the Cancun meeting to make progress toward an agreement on emissions reductions, which scientists say are critical to heading off extreme weather, crop failures and rising sea levels. But as nations dither, hundreds of cities are pledging to rein in emissions, slash energy usage, and turn to renewable energy sources.
Mayors say they see greater urgency than national leaders do.
‘When there is a flood, a drought, torrential rains, those who show their face before the citizens and must offer a response are the mayors. So they are the ones who are most worried by the risks,’ said Marta Delgado, the environmental secretary for Mexico City.
‘We’re leading the way,’ Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa […]
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Saturday, November 27th, 2010
REX WYLER, Columnist - Greenpeace
Stephan: All the Climate Change Deniers better buckle up we are in for a very scary ride, in part because they have attempted to block all rational response to this issue. SR reader and Greenpeace co-founder, Rex Wyler, writes about one aspect of this change that is already impacting the world's cities.
Cities at sea level around the world – including Bangkok, New Orleans, Shanghai and Amsterdam – are bracing themselves for rising seas and sinking ground. Populations on river deltas, atolls and islands face flooding and displacement. Sea-level rise accumulates slowly, measured in millimetres a year, but the incremental pace can deceive us. Sea-level rise, particularly when combined with sinking land, presents a growing problem.
Consider that the rate of sea-level rise is itself rising. Sea rise remained virtually zero over the last several millennia. Then, in the 20th century, the sea rose about 20 centimeters. Now, today, the rate has reached about 30 centimeters per century, and still increasing. Recently, oceanographers have boosted their predictions of 21st century sea level rise from about 20 centimetres to a metre or more.
Sea-level rise is not uniform around the world. Gravitational forces, including the gravity of ice caps themselves, cause uneven fluctuations. Meanwhile, some coastal plains sink as others rise, so exaggerating sea-level rise in some regions and cancelling it in others. Furthermore, if humanity cannot change its hydrocarbon habits quickly enough, we risk runaway warming that could accelerate sea-level rise.
In an extreme runaway scenario, a complete melting of the Greenland ice sheet would […]
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Saturday, November 27th, 2010
LESLIE KAUFMAN, - The New York Times
Stephan: Here is the real world result Rex Wyler was writing about.
If the moon is going to be full the night before Hazel Peck needs her car, for example, she parks it on a parallel block, away from the river. The next morning, she walks through a neighbor’s backyard to avoid the two-to-three-foot-deep puddle that routinely accumulates on her street after high tides.
For Ms. Peck and her neighbors, it is the only way to live with the encroaching sea.
As sea levels rise, tidal flooding is increasingly disrupting life here and all along the East Coast, a development many climate scientists link to global warming.
But Norfolk is worse off. Situated just west of the mouth of Chesapeake Bay, it is bordered on three sides by water, including several rivers, like the Lafayette, that are actually long tidal streams that feed into the bay and eventually the ocean.
Like many other cities, Norfolk was built on filled-in marsh. Now that fill is settling and compacting. In addition, the city is in an area where significant natural sinking of land is occurring. The result is that Norfolk has experienced the highest relative increase in sea level on the East Coast - 14.5 inches since 1930, according to readings by the Sewells Point naval station here.
Climate […]
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