Category Archives: News

2020 Candidates: New York Times Endorses “Both” Amy Klobuchar and Elizabeth Warren For President

From a New York Times Editorial (January 20, 2020):

Any hope of restoring unity in the country will require modesty, a willingness to compromise and the support of the many demographics that make up the Democratic coalition — young and old, in red states and blue, black and brown and white. For Senator Klobuchar, that’s acknowledging the depth of the nation’s dysfunction. For Senator Warren, it’s understanding that the country is more diverse than her base.

NY Times Endorse Amy Klobuchar and Elizabeth Warren for Democratic Presidential Candidate

…Amy Klobuchar has emerged as a standard-bearer for the Democratic center. Her vision goes beyond the incremental. Given the polarization in Washington and beyond, the best chance to enact many progressive plans could be under a Klobuchar administration.

…Elizabeth Warren has emerged as a standard-bearer for the Democratic left…Ms. Warren has proposed to pay for an expanded social safety net by imposing a new tax on wealth. But even if she could push such a bill through the Senate, the idea is constitutionally suspect and would inevitably be bogged down for years in the courts. A conservative judiciary also could constrain a President Warren’s regulatory powers, and roll back access to health care.

Ms. Klobuchar and Ms. Warren right now are the Democrats best equipped to lead that debate. May the best woman win.

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Studies: Openly Given “Placebos” Are Effective For Chronic Pain Relief

From a Wall Street Journal online article:

Researchers in Germany published a study in the journal Pain in December showing that open-label placebos can help relieve chronic lower-back pain, Placebo Expectation of Benefitsreplicating a 2016 study. A similar study by University of Colorado, Boulder researchers found that placebo saline injections reduce chronic lower-back pain.

Two other recent studies showed placebos openly given to cancer patients helped relieve cancer-related fatigue. And a forthcoming study by German researchers found openly giving placebo to elderly patients helped improve knee pain.

More researchers are looking at the idea of placebos—substances that have no actual pharmaceutical effect—as an alternative to traditional pain medications, which can be ineffective and carry significant side effects. Placebos might have particular potential for difficult-to-treat conditions like chronic back pain, cancer-related fatigue and symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome, researchers hope.

As many as 30% to 50% of chronic pain patients will respond to placebos, research suggests. And new studies are helping to identify genetic and brain differences that make certain people more likely to respond.

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Tributes: LIFE Magazine Photographer Bill Ray Dies At 84 (1936 – 2020)

From a The Guardian online release:

Bill Ray, primarily known for his work for Life magazine, has died aged 84. Born in Nebraska in 1936, he graduated from local newspapers to a staff job on Life, and photographed 46 covers for Newsweek. He was famed for his images of celebrities, and also covered the Hells Angels motorcycle club and the aftermath of the Watts riots.

Photographer Bill Ray Elvis

Photographer Bill Ray Art Goes Pop!

Bill Ray Website

 

 

Classic Movie Trailers: “A Streetcar Named Desire” Re-released In UK Before 70th Anniversary (1951)

Vivien Leigh and Marlon Brando star in Elia Kazan’s acclaimed adaptation of Tennessee Williams’ landmark play – back in UK cinemas from 7 February.

a-streetcar-named-desire-original-movie-poster

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Mayo Clinic Health Video: Dangers Of “Sepsis” Now Require Response Teams In Intensive Care Units

Our bodies are very good at fighting infection. The immune system reacts and attacks bacteria and viruses that make us sick. But sometimes the immune reaction is so strong that it damages the body. This is called a septic reaction or sepsis, and the mortality rate associated with it can be high.

In fact, a new study suggests that sepsis is responsible for 20 percent of all deaths worldwide. That’s more deaths than are estimated to be attributable to cancer. At Mayo Clinic, doctors like Kannan Ramar, M.B.B.S., M.D., are trying to change that with a sepsis response team in intensive care units. Their goal: to stop sepsis and save lives.

More health and medical news on the Mayo Clinic News Network. https://newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org/

Travel: How The Dutch Windmills Are Causing The Netherlands To Sink

From an Undark.org online article:

This subsidence means that in a low-lying nation famous for engineering its way around rising seas, the ground is also sinking lower, creating huge problems for the structures built on top. At a certain point, building foundations begin to crack, sinkholes appear, roads destabilize, and the risk of flooding increases. More construction results in more pressing down of the peat — and more subsidence.

TOURISTS VISITING the Netherlands often stop to take selfies in front of one of the country’s more than 1,000 windmills. Afterward, they might taste one of the many varieties of cheese for which the nation is famous. But most are unaware that these two icons of the Netherlands are responsible for causing the nation’s land to sink.

The windmills were used for centuries to drain peatland for cattle grazing and agriculture at large, and that draining — these days done by pumping stations — is causing the land in some places to sink at an average rate of 8 millimeters per year, or about one-third of an inch. (In some areas, researchers put that number higher, at several centimeters per year.)

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Future Of Housing: California Architect And Builder Launch Luxury Container Tiny Homes

From a Dwell.com online article:

BuHaus Container Home interior fold down bedDrawing upon Garnero’s six years of cargotecture experience and Burdge’s design expertise, the duo recently launched the Buhaus: a tiny pre-permitted container home designed for indoor/outdoor living. “People appreciate great design, and most shipping container designs seem to be more low-end,” says Burdge. “We wanted to create a higher-end shipping container living unit.”

In the wake of the 2018 Woolsey Fire that devastated Southern California, Malibu architect Doug Burdge and builder Nate Garnero sought to provide their clients with temporary housing by repurposing shipping containers into fire-resistant tiny homes.

Buhaus—a combination of the words Bauhaus and Malibu—takes cues from the 20th-century movement with its clean, geometric form and focus on functionality. At 160 square feet, the Buhaus Studio Unit is efficiently divided into three sections: a living/sleeping area with a kitchenette, a bathroom, and an outdoor deck.

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International Lectures: Former British Prime Minister Theresa May (Oxford Union Video)

May served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2016 to 2019. Assuming office following the 2016 Brexit referendum, she was tasked with one of the most intractable challenges of any post-war Prime Minister, and successfully negotiated a withdrawal deal with the EU in late 2018. Beyond Brexit, May reversed course on the Conservative government’s controversial programme of austerity, delivering the largest single cash-boost to the NHS in its history, and championed human rights and social justice initiatives, such as ending modern slavery.

The Benazir Bhutto Memorial Lecture was established to honour the life and legacy of Benazir Bhutto, the first female leader of a majority-Muslim country, and a former President of the Oxford Union.

ABOUT THE OXFORD UNION SOCIETY: The Oxford Union is the world’s most prestigious debating society, with an unparalleled reputation for bringing international guests and speakers to Oxford. Since 1823, the Union has been promoting debate and discussion not just in Oxford University, but across the globe.

Politics: Mark Shields & David Brooks On The Latest In Washington (PBS)

Syndicated columnist Mark Shields and New York Times columnist David Brooks join Judy Woodruff to discuss the week’s political news, including the opening of President Trump’s Senate trial and the announcement of his legal team, public opinion on impeachment, 2020 Democrats’ final debate before the Iowa caucuses and Michael Bloomberg’s remarkable ad spend.

Digital Medicine: Apps For Smartphones, Machine Learning To Treat Kidney Disease (The Lancet)

From a The Lancet online article (January 18, 2020):

The Lancet logoSmartphone app-based platforms for urine testing could improve adherence to albumin creatinine ratio (ACR) testing. One study showed screening of at-risk patients almost doubled with a home urine test kit that uses a smartphone camera to easily and accurately quantify ACR from a user-performed urine dipstick. If independently validated in a large, diverse population, this low-cost strategy could change the often dim trajectory for individuals with declining kidney function. Chronic Kidney Disease A Global Crisis Siemens Healthineers

In the outpatient setting, a Japanese team used machine learning and natural language processing to predict disease progression and need for dialysis over 6 months in patients with diabetic nephropathy. And while the increased risk of contrast-induced acute kidney injury has been long appreciated, a machine learning algorithm trained and tested on 3 million adults effectively quantified the degree of kidney injury on the basis of the volume of contrast used and individual patient-level characteristics.

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