Monday, September 17th, 2012
HENRY FOUNTAIN, - The New York Times
Stephan: I have been predicting this for several years, and see this report as very good news, indeed. This is going to be a major part of the new medicine, and will end the vile trade in human organs, and the rapacious mark ups on anti-reaction drugs organ recipients are required to pay.
STOCKHOLM - Andemariam Beyene sat by the hospital window, the low Arctic sun on his face, and talked about the time he thought he would die.
Two and a half years ago doctors in Iceland, where Mr. Beyene was studying to be an engineer, discovered a golf-ball-size tumor growing into his windpipe. Despite surgery and radiation, it kept growing. In the spring of 2011, when Mr. Beyene came to Sweden to see another doctor, he was practically out of options. ‘I was almost dead,
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Sunday, September 16th, 2012
GLENN GREENWALD, - The Guardian (U.K.)
Stephan: I too have noticed the odd behavior of the corporate media in relation to the Islamic world. In a culture that still foments over events in the 13th century, why is it a surprise that 15 years of US directed war involving massive invasions, enormous death and injury, and even more property and infrastructure destruction should result in anti-Americanism and hatred. This essay raises some of the major trophes. This is what the neocons have wrought.
One prominent strain shaping American reaction to the protests in the Muslim world is bafflement, and even anger, that those Muslims are not more grateful to the US. After all, goes this thinking, the US bestowed them with the gifts of freedom and democracy – the very rights they are now exercising – so how could they possibly be anything other than thankful? Under this worldview, it is especially confounding that the US, their savior and freedom-provider, would be the target of their rage.
On Wednesday, USA Today published an article with the headline ‘After attacks in Egypt and Libya, USA Today asks: Why?’ The paper appeared to tell its readers that it was the US that freed the Egyptian people from tyranny:
‘Attacks in Libya that left four US diplomats dead – including Ambassador Christopher Stevens – and a mob invasion of the US Embassy in Cairo, in which the US flag was torn to shreds, have left many to wonder: How can people the USA helped free from murderous dictators treat it in such a way?’
Did you know that the ‘USA helped free’ Egyptians from their murderous dictator? On Thursday night, NBC News published a nine-minute […]
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Sunday, September 16th, 2012
Stephan: This is very interesting. Both Germany and Japan are now committed to eliminating nuclear energy as a power source.
The Japanese government announced a dramatic turn in its energy policy Friday, vowing to make the densely populated island nation nuclear-free by the 2030s.
Last year’s tsunami-triggered disaster at the Fukushima nuclear power complex forced evacuation of more than 160,000 and contaminated huge swaths of territory north of Tokyo. Prior to the accident, nuclear plants provided nearly a third of Japan’s power generation, and the government had planned to increase that proportion to more than half.
In unveiling the new policy, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda acknowledged that the vast majority of Japanese support the zero option on nuclear power. The new blueprint calls for investing almost $500 billion over the next two decades to expand renewable sources like wind and solar power, the NHK broadcast network reported.
The energy plan sets forward a three-pronged approach to phasing out nuclear power generation after the March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami that inundated the Fukushima plant and set off the worst nuclear accident since the Chernobyl meltdown in 1986 in Ukraine.
A 40-year limit has been set on operation of existing plants, construction of new nuclear-generation facilities is prohibited and any further restarts of Japan’s 48 idled nuclear plants will be contingent on their meeting strengthened […]
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Sunday, September 16th, 2012
, - The Washington Post/The Portland Press Herald
Stephan: If this taxation goes through the Catholic Church will be compelled to undertake fundamental change. This is a change of a cultural perspective and legal recognition that goes back 1,000 or, depending on how one parses it, 2,000 years. A major deal by any calculation.
ALCALA DE HENARES, Spain — Cash-strapped officials in Europe are looking for a way to ease their financial burden by upending centuries of tradition and seeking to tap one of the last untouched sources of wealth: the Catholic Church.
This cathedral in Santiago de Compostela is among the Catholic Church’s holdings in Spain. One of Spain’s largest landowners, the church could owe up to $3.9 million in taxes a year – but it’s also facing its own financial troubles.
The net worth of the Vatican and the Catholic Church’s dioceses is believed to be astronomical. The Vatican’s gold alone is thought to be worth several billion dollars.
Thousands of public officials who have seen the financial crisis hit their budgets are chipping away at the various tax breaks and privileges the church has enjoyed for centuries.
But the church is facing its own money troubles. Offerings from parishioners have nosedived, and it has been accused of using shady bank accounts and hiding suspect transactions.
Now, along come officials like Ricardo Rubio.
Rubio is leading an effort to impose a tax on all church property in Alcala used for non-religious purposes. The financial impact on the Catholic Church could be devastating. As one of Spain’s largest landowners […]
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Sunday, September 16th, 2012
COLIN BARRAS, - New Scientist (U.K.)
Stephan: Here is a novel look at how the placebo process evolved.
On the face of it, the placebo effect makes no sense. Someone suffering from a low-level infection will recover just as nicely whether they take an active drug or a simple sugar pill. This suggests people are able to heal themselves unaided – so why wait for a sugar pill to prompt recovery?
New evidence from a computer model offers a possible evolutionary explanation, and suggests that the immune system has an on-off switch controlled by the mind.
It all starts with the observation that something similar to the placebo effect occurs in many animals, says Peter Trimmer, a biologist at the University of Bristol, UK. For instance, Siberian hamsters do little to fight an infection if the lights above their lab cage mimic the short days and long nights of winter. But changing the lighting pattern to give the impression of summer causes them to mount a full immune response.
Likewise, those people who think they are taking a drug but are really receiving a placebo can have a response which is twice that of those who receive no pills (Annals of Family Medicine, doi.org/cckm8b). In Siberian hamsters and people, intervention creates a mental cue that kick-starts the immune response.
There is a […]
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