Saturday, January 1st, 2011
JOHN TIERNEY, - The New York Times
Stephan: Here is some good news. For the second time those who think over-population and resource scarcity will ruin the world lose their bet. I have never thought those scenarios were correct. There are many things I am concerned about, as you know, but over-population and resource scarcity are not amongst them. I would happily have taken the bet, even though I think this analysis simplistic.
It is my belief that by 2050 we will have largely completed the Green Transition in the energy sector, and energy per se will no longer be the defining concern it is today. But getting there, particularly for an America whose government seems committed to old energy is not going to be easy. But on the whole I take my good news where I can find it.
Five years ago, Matthew R. Simmons and I bet $5,000. It was a wager about the future of energy supplies – a Malthusian pessimist versus a Cornucopian optimist – and now the day of reckoning is nigh: Jan. 1, 2011.
The bet was occasioned by a cover article in August 2005 in The New York Times Magazine titled ‘The Breaking Point.
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Saturday, January 1st, 2011
JEREMY LAURANCE, - The Independent (U.K.)
Stephan: This is a remarkably stupid policy, whose principal effect will be to create a black market in herbal remedies -- psst... want to score some high grade camomile?
Hundreds of herbal medicinal products will be banned from sale in Britain next year under what campaigners say is a ‘discriminatory and disproportionate’ European law.
With four months to go before the EU-wide ban is implemented, thousands of patients face the loss of herbal remedies that have been used in the UK for decades.
From 1 May 2011, traditional herbal medicinal products must be licensed or prescribed by a registered herbal practitioner to comply with an EU directive passed in 2004. The directive was introduced in response to rising concern over adverse effects caused by herbal medicines.
The UK Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has issued more than a dozen safety alerts in the past two years, including one over aristolochia, a banned toxic plant derivative which caused kidney failure in two women.
Herbal practitioners say it is impossible for most herbal medicines to meet the licensing requirements for safety and quality, which are intended to be similar to those for pharmaceutical drugs, because of the cost of testing.
According to the Alliance for Natural Health (ANH), which represents herbal practitioners, not a single product used in traditional Chinese medicine or ayurvedic medicine has been licensed. In Europe, around 200 products from 27 […]
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Saturday, January 1st, 2011
Stephan: The housing crisis is far from over, as this report makes clear.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. home foreclosures jumped in the third quarter and banks’ efforts to keep borrowers in their homes dropped as the housing market continues to struggle, U.S. bank regulators said on Wednesday.
The regulators said one reason for the increase in foreclosures is that banks have ‘exhausted’ options for keeping many delinquent borrowers in their homes through programs such as loan modifications.
Newly-initiated foreclosures increased to 382,000 in the third quarter, a 31.2 percent jump over the previous quarter and a 3.7 percent rise from the same quarter a year ago, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) said in a quarterly mortgage report.
The number of foreclosures in process increased to 1.2 million, a 4.5 percent increase from the second quarter and a 10.1 percent increase from a year ago, according to the regulators.
They said during a briefing that the numbers could send ‘mixed signals’ about the health of the U.S. housing market.
Regulators also said a possible reason for the foreclosure uptick in the quarter was that a large pool of borrowers who were being considered for home retention programs but did not qualify moved through the system.
‘I think you’ll […]
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Saturday, January 1st, 2011
LARA SALAHI, ABC News Medical Unit - medpage TODAY
Stephan: We pay over four times more than any other industrialized country for our Illness Profit System, and our drug costs bear no resemblance to the rest of the world -- our drugs are more expensive, again, by orders of magnitude. Yet the illness profit model can't provide universal healthcare or, it now becomes clear, even the drugs to treat those who are covered.
Many hospital patients are not getting potentially life-saving treatments because of what may be the largest U.S. hospital drug shortage in more than 20 years.
Most of the drugs in short supply are injectables, including sedating agents such as propofol (Diprivan), the popular blood thinner heparin, and hard-hitting chemotherapy drugs like doxorubicin (Adriamycin).
‘I’ve been in practice more than 30 years and this is the first time I’ve encountered shortages that may affect patient care,’ said Dr. Michael Link, president-elect of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.
Limited manufacturing, lagging production time, and lack of profits from these drugs are contributing to the shortage, according to an August 2010 editorial published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The production cost outweighs the profits for some companies.
Doctors at local hospitals are frustrated and many times they’re not even informed of the shortage, according to survey results released in September by the Institute for Safe Medication Practices. Of those surveyed, 85% said they were given little to no information on how long the shortages would last.
When the ABC News Medical Unit asked more than a dozen doctors nationwide about the situation in their area, many confirmed that they, too, were experiencing shortages and had […]
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Saturday, January 1st, 2011
Stephan: There must be something in the water in Texas that nurtures a special kind of self-destructive troglodyte. If the atmosphere was not common to all of us I would say leave them to, in a generation they will kill themselves off. Sadly, that is not the case and they can do us all harm.
Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott asked a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., on Thursday to block the Environmental Protection Agency from taking over greenhouse gas permits until the court can review the state’s lawsuit against the federal agency.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had declined Wednesday to issue a stay that would delay the EPA’s plans as the suit moves forward. Texas seeks to stop the agency from implementing a plan for regulating the gases that would start Sunday.
‘Once again the federal government is overreaching and improperly intruding upon the state of Texas and its legal rights,’ Abbott said. ‘The EPA is both unlawfully commandeering Texas’ environmental enforcement program and violating federal laws that give the state and its residents the opportunity to fully participate in the regulatory process.’ Abbott filed his appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
The EPA took the unprecedented step this month of announcing that it will directly issue permits to Texas industries after the state refused to comply with the regulations.
About 200 Texas facilities continue to operate with air and water permits that are out of date or have been disapproved by the EPA. The agency believes […]
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