Friday, January 28th, 2011
Stephan: The bell tolls, but the deaf cannot hear.
JAKARTA, INDONESIA — Anticipating a worsening rate of land subsidence and rising sea levels, the Jakarta administration is considering a plan to construct a giant seawall surrounding the city’s northern coast.
Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo said Wednesday that a feasibility study on the project had been started in December and would be completed in two or three years.
‘In 2025, we are expecting to have a giant seawall protecting the capital from flooding,
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Thursday, January 27th, 2011
MICHAEL SMITH, North American Correspondent - medpage TODAY
Stephan: This is largely the result of weak self-discipline and aggressive constant advertising for chemical, fat, and sugar laden processed foods. This food porn is literally killing us.
An estimated 25.8 million Americans, or 8.3% of the population, have diabetes and almost a third of those don’t know it, the CDC said.
Another 79 million people have prediabetes, with high fasting glucose or hemoglobin A1c levels but not quite at the frank diabetes level, the agency said in its National Diabetes Fact Sheet for 2011.
The estimates suggest the prevalence of the disease is rising: In 2008, the CDC estimated that 23.6 million Americans, or 7.8% of the population, had diabetes and another 57 million adults had prediabetes.
The findings are not a surprise, according to Robert Henry, MD, of the University of California San Diego, who is president for science and medicine of the American Diabetes Association.
‘This just confirms that diabetes is continuing to increase in this country,’ Henry told MedPage Today. ‘We predicted it, and it appears to be true — the epidemic is continuing unabated.’
The new estimates are ‘distressing’ and underscore the need to prevent diabetes and — in those already affected — to manage the illness to prevent complications such as kidney failure and blindness, according to Ann Albright, PhD, director of the CDC’s Division of Diabetes Translation.
In a statement, Albright noted that losing weight and increasing […]
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Thursday, January 27th, 2011
SAM DILLON, - The New York Times
Stephan: It is very hard to have a successful educational system when about 30 per cent of the population is openly anti-intellectual, and contemptuous of science.
On the most recent nationwide science test, about a third of fourth graders and a fifth of high school seniors scored at or above the proficiency level, according to results released Tuesday.
Only one or two students out of every 100 displayed the level of mastery that the federal panel governing the tests defines as advanced, the government said.
‘I was rather dismayed at the relatively lackluster performance at the top of the achievement levels,
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Thursday, January 27th, 2011
ANNA FATA, Daily Texan Staff - The Daily Texan
Stephan: Conservative Christian States also have a higher incidence of unwed pregnancies, a greater incidence of sexually transmitted diseases, and more spousal abuse. It is not polemic to say this, nor liberal cant; it is just a statement of reality. One that is not properly acknowledged. We need to separate church and state and develop public policies that evidence tells us work to produce a healthy citizenry. What prevails in those states clearly does not. And if you are a woman it seems particularly unhealthful.
Divorce is more common among conservative Christians and young people, according to a recent study.
University of Iowa sociology professor Jennifer Glass presented her study on skyrocketing divorce rates in regions highly populated with conservative Christians to an overflowing crowd in Burdine Hall on Friday.
‘Politically and religiously conservative states, especially in the Deep South, exhibit higher divorce rates than politically and religiously liberal states in the Northeast and Midwest,
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Thursday, January 27th, 2011
ALICIA CHANG, - Salon/Associated Press
Stephan: Here again some actual data in a debate notable mostly for its detachment from reality.
Having an abortion does not increase the risk of mental health problems, but having a baby does, one of the largest studies to compare the aftermath of both decisions suggests.
The research by Danish scientists further debunks the notion that terminating a pregnancy can trigger mental illness and shows postpartum depression to be much more of a factor.
Abortion in Denmark has been legal since 1973 — the same year the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Roe v. Wade, which established a right to abortion.
The Danish study included 365,550 teenagers and women who had an abortion or first-time delivery between 1995 and 2007. None had a history of psychiatric problems that required hospitalization. Through various national registries, researchers were able to track mental health counseling at a hospital or outpatient facility before and after an abortion or delivery.
During the study period, 84,620 had an abortion while 280,930 gave birth.
Researchers compared the rate of mental health treatment among women before and after a first abortion. Within the first year after an abortion, 15 per 1,000 women needed psychiatric counseling — similar to the rate seeking help nine months before an abortion.
Researchers say women who seek abortions come from a demographic group more likely […]
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