There are plenty of theories about what FRBs could be. The signals are similar to those given off by pulsars and magnetars – rapidly-rotating neutron stars surrounded by powerful magnetic fields – but the problem there is that these signals pulse repeatedly, while the majority of FRBs are a one-and-done deal. Of course, […]
Tuesday, September 5th, 2017
Kate Womersley, - ProPublica
Stephan: Great Britain pays only a fraction of what the U.S. pays per capita for healthcare and yet gets notably superior health outcomes. That's not an abstraction, that's human lives. Here's what I mean.
Credit: Federica Bordoni/ProPublica
At 11:58 p.m. this past June 25, Helen Taylor gave birth to her first baby, a boy, at West Suffolk Hospital in the east of England. At 11:59 p.m., with 15 seconds to spare before midnight, his sister was born. The obstetrician and her team were pleased; the cesarean section was going smoothly, fulfilling Helen’s wish that her twins share a birthday.
But 40 minutes later, Helen had lost over a third of her blood.
Enraptured by new motherhood, she barely noticed when the obstetrician’s head appeared around the surgical drape. “We need to give you a drug to help stop the bleeding, is that OK?” Helen nodded. Ten minutes passed before the question came again. Then again. The fourth time, Helen realized something was seriously wrong.
During pregnancy, the uterine blood vessels that nourish the fetus are wide open. Once the baby is delivered and the placenta removed, these vessels should constrict and close. If they don’t, as with Helen, the mother can bleed profusely. She may reach a […]
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Tuesday, September 5th, 2017
David Oliver, Associate Editor - US News & World Report
Stephan: When I travelled in the U.S. recently I have noticed how in the Southern states particularly obesity has become the norm, particularly with women. This is going to have long term consequences for both the individuals and society. Notice that the 10 worst states are all Red value states. It is not a coincidence, it is social policies.
Obesity rates ticked up in four states this past year – Colorado Minnesota, Washington and West Virginia
Credit: Stockphoto
The bad news: Obesity remains a public health epidemic in this country. The good news: Adult obesity rates appear to be leveling off, though the progress won’t necessarily last forever.
That’s according to The State of Obesity, an annual report from non-profit Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, out now.
No state’s obesity rate was more than 25 percent as of 2000. But for 2016, the report found adult obesity rates hit more than 35 percent in five states, followed by 30 percent in 25 states and 25 percent in 46 states.
Obesity rates ticked up in four states this past year – Colorado, Minnesota, Washingtonand West Virginia. It ticked down in Kansas while remaining unchanged across the other states in the U.S. The report covering the year 2015, out last year, was the first time in the history of the report that found […]
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Tuesday, September 5th, 2017
Oliver Milman , - The Guardian (U.K.)
Stephan: This is a future that we are going to live through more and more. It is increasingly going to be a question of personal integrity.
Evacuees of the powerful storm are taking shelter across the city, including here at the George R Brown Convention Center in downtown Houston.
Photograph: Carlos Barria/Reuters
HOUSTON — Rocio Fuentes weighed up the cost of getting some new sofas for her new apartment in Pasadena, Texas, and decided the family budget could just about stretch to it. Just one month after moving in, Hurricane Harveyswept through and the Fuenteses were left not only with the ruined furniture but also an ongoing rental demand for a dwelling they had to flee.
“At first we didn’t think it would be that bad, but then the water came through the wall and up through the carpet,” Fuentes said. “Once we saw the water wasn’t going to stop, we left.”
Fuentes, her husband Jaime and their five children, ages ranging from seven months to 14 years, were plucked from the floodwaters by her […]
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