October 21, 2006

Virtual scans as good as regular colonoscopy

Oct 18, 2006- “Virtual” colonoscopies done using a computer-assisted X-ray are nearly as accurate as the standard kind and may entice reluctant patients into having the embarrassing procedure, U.S. researchers said...

... only 6.4 percent of patients required follow-up with optical colonoscopy, which involves threading a tiny camera on a tube through the rectum and into the colon.

...Pickhardt’s team used three-dimensional computed tomography colonography, commonly known as virtual colonoscopy, to screen 1,110 adults with an average age of 58. The virtual procedure is noninvasive and involves passing the patient through a scanning machine.

...“The advantages of virtual colonoscopy over optical colonoscopy at our institution are that it is safer, faster, less costly, more convenient, involves an easier bowel prep, and yet is just as effective for detecting important polyps and cancers.”

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15316594/

Geologist: Earth has lots and lots of oil

Oct. 20, 2006 -- A University of Washington economic geologist says there is lots of crude oil left for human use.

Eric Cheney said Friday in a news release that changing economics, technological advances and efforts such as recycling and substitution make the world's mineral resources virtually infinite.

For instance, oil deposits unreachable 40 years ago can be tapped using improved technology, and oil once too costly to extract from tar sands, organic matter or coal is now worth manufacturing. Though some resources might be costlier now, they still are needed.

"The most common question I get is, 'When are we going to run out of oil?' The correct response is, 'Never,'" said Cheney. "It might be a heck of a lot more expensive than it is now, but there will always be some oil available at a price, perhaps $10 to $100 a gallon."

Cheney also said that gasoline prices today, adjusted for inflation, are about what they were in the early part of the last century. Current prices seem inordinately high, he said, because crude oil was at an extremely low price, $10 a barrel, eight years ago and now fetches around $58 a barrel.

http://upi.com/NewsTrack/view.php?StoryID=20061020-044158-9693r

Great article! See how you’re doing compared to Grampy & Grammy:

The Average American: 1967 And Today (click on link)

http://www.forbes.com/home/economy/2006/10/16/demographics-income-population-biz_cx_tvr_1017median.html

We needed a study for this?
Good early family life may counter depression gene
Oct 18 - A loving, supportive family can be enough to override a genetic vulnerability to depression, new research suggests.

Studies have found that people who carry a "short" version of the serotonin transporter gene -- known as 5-HTTLPR -- tend to be more susceptible to depression than people without this gene variant.

But the new findings, published in the journal Biological Psychiatry, show that to be true only of gene carriers who grew up in a stressful home environment. In contrast, the investigators found that young adult gene carriers whose families were warm and supportive had a reduced risk of depression.

The findings point to the importance of nurture, and not only nature, in the development of depression, according to the study authors.

"A strong family life can be enough to reverse the effects of this risk factor," lead author Dr. Shelley E. Taylor, a professor of psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles, told Reuters Health.

On the other hand, a dysfunctional family life may create the stress that sends genetically vulnerable people into depression, the study findings suggest...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061018/hl_nm/good_gene_dc

Terror suspect contributed to school 'religion guidelines'

October 19, 2006- A man arrested as a terror suspect for allegedly trying to transport $340,000 from a group tied to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, and who reputedly had connections to Osama bin Laden, helped write the "Religious Expression in Public Schools" guidelines issued by President Clinton during his tenure in office.

And that could explain why students at a California school were told as part of their required classes they would become Muslims and pray to Allah – and a federal judge approved that, and why an Oregon school this year is delivering similar lessons to its students…

Abdurahman Alamoudi, who was president of the American Muslim Council and a supporter of Hamas and Hezbollah, worked with President Clinton and the American Civil Liberties Union when the guidelines, launched by Clinton in 1995, were being developed, according to reports.

Those are the same guidelines that the ACLU's Nadine Strossen referred to for authority when supporting organization lawsuits to restrict Christmas celebrations and the removal of the Nativity from public display, the reports said...

...When Clinton issued the guidelines, he announced that they had been developed by "35 religious groups" but didn't disclose that many of those were civil rights organizations such as the ACLU, and committed whole-heartedly to the separation of church and state.

Alamoudi, who ended up serving time in jail, also founded the American Muslim Foundation and the American Muslim Armed Forces and Veterans Affairs Council...

(Begin barf alert) But under those guidelines, California, and now Oregon students, are allowed to be told as part of their public schooling: "You are beginning a simulation of the history and culture of Islam. It is important to study the origins of this religion and how it has affected mankind. … It is impossible to study Islam without understanding the relationship between the teaching of Prophet Muhammad and the entire Mid-Eastern culture. It was the early Muslims, primarily the Arabs, who shaped the future of a wide area of Europe, Africa, and Asia. Muslim contributions are extraordinary in art, architecture, philosophy, science, mathematics, government, and of course, religion." (End barf alert) much more at: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=52519

Prosperity Amid the Gloom

George F. Will 10/19/2006

....Recently Bill Clinton, at the British Labor Party's annual conference, delivered what the Times of London described as a "relaxed, almost rambling" and "easy anecdotal" speech to an enthralled audience of leftists eager for evidence of American disappointments. Never a connoisseur of understatement, Clinton said America is "now outsourcing college-education jobs to India."

But Clinton-as-Cassandra should not persuade college students to abandon their quest for diplomas: The unemployment rate among college graduates is 2 percent…

…"Worst economy since Herbert Hoover," John Kerry said in 2004, while that year's growth (3.9 percent). Nancy Pelosi vows that if Democrats capture Congress they will "jump-start our economy." A "jump-start " is administered to a stalled vehicle. …since the Bush tax cuts went into effect in 2003, the economy's growth rate (3.5 percent) has been better than the average for the 1980s (3.1) and 1990s (3.3). Today's unemployment rate (4.6 percent) is lower than the average for the 1990s (5.8) -- lower, in fact, than the average for the past 40 years (6.0)…

...Economic hypochondria, a derangement associated with affluence, is a byproduct of the welfare state: An entitlement mentality gives Americans a low pain threshold -- witness their recurring hysteria about nominal rather than real gasoline prices...Economic hypochondria is also bred by news media that consider the phrase "good news" an oxymoron, even as the U.S. economy, which has performed better than any other major industrial economy since 2001, drives the Dow to record highs...

...The Jack No. 2 well, in deep water 170 miles southwest of New Orleans, recently discovered a field with perhaps 15 billion barrels of oil -- a 50 percent increase in proven U.S. reserves. This news triggered a gusher of journalistic gloom: More oil means more woe -- a reprieve for that enemy of humanity, the internal combustion engine, and more global warming, more air pollution, more highway fatalities, more suburban sprawl...

...result of President Bush's tax cuts: federal revenue as a share of GDP was 18.4 percent, slightly above the post-1962 average of 18.2. And the federal budget deficit was $247.7 billion, just 1.9 percent of the $13.1 trillion GDP. That is below the average for the 1970s (2.1), 1980s (3.0) and 1990s (2.2)...taxes -- particularly those paid by middle-class families with children -- have declined substantially.

(Excerpt) Read more at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/18/AR2006101801502.html

Election poll notices of Foley switch barred

(I thought “every vote must count”, well, if people don’t understand who their vote is going to then it’s not being counted properly)

...Ballot issues have swirled around the district since Oct. 2, when state party leaders chose Negron to replace Foley, who resigned too late to print new ballots....

...a circuit judge ruled Wednesday against posting notices in polling places that a vote for Mark Foley will count for Joe Negron in the 16th Congressional District.

"Venturing into explanations regarding the ballot itself is fraught with problems," Leon County Circuit Judge Janet Ferris wrote...

...Negron, a state legislator from Stuart, joined the legal debate Wednesday in hopes of finding a way to inform voters that he - not Foley, who gave up his U.S. House seat on Sept. 29 - is the Republican candidate in the race.

...[Democratic Party] attorney Arthur Anderson said. "Any signage in the polling location really runs the risk of promoting a particular individual." ...The state Democratic Party filed a legal challenge last week to stop the eight county elections supervisors in the district from posting signs that say:

"a vote for Foley will count for Negron; a vote for Tim Mahoney, the Democratic candidate, will count for Mahoney; and a vote for Emmie Ross, who is unaffiliated, will count for Ross...."

(seems pretty fair to me!)

...Secretary of State Sue Cobb said "Educating voters is paramount, especially when there is a last-minute change to the ballot," Cobb spokeswoman Jenny Nash said. "It's a common-sense approach to avoid confusion at the polls."

Karen Thurman, head of the Florida Democratic Party and lead plaintiff in the suit, said she was "satisfied" with the ruling...

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/pbccentral/content/local_news/epaper/2006/10/19/m1a_SIGNS_1019.html

This was definitely a poor choice of words for the banner. But no outrage over someone in the protest dressed as a suicide bomber in London…?:

Man convicted for anti Muslim banner

A protest in London against the publication of a cartoon depicting the prophet Mohammed as a terrorist incensed an Aberporth man, who painted an anti-Muslim slogan on a white sheet and draped it over his garden fence.

The words in bold red paint stated: "Kill all Muslims who threaten us and our way of life. Enoch Powell was right."

...When prosecutor Maggie Hughes pointed out that the banner did not mention extremists Mathewson said: "That's what I meant by those who threaten us and our way of life.'"

Adding that during the protest in London a Muslim was dressed as a suicide bomber he asked: "Why was he not arrested?"

One of his neighbours, a retired Army officer with 23 years service, told the court he reported the matter to the police because "This could have come to the attention of Islamic extremists, and we could have had a visitation." (OK, so he feared Islamic extremists not the banner)

http://www.tivysideadvertiser.co.uk/news/latestnews/display.var.972417.0.man_convicted_for_anti_muslim_banner.php

Apparently the news media and the Democratic party do confer develop to strategies together.This from an ABCNews blog:
Mature and Incurably Green
ABC News: The Note 10-19-06

…The Old Media — giddy with excitement over the prospect of the Bush-Cheney-Rove-Mehlman machine losing, filled with guilt over complicity in an Iraq war it wants ended, flush with anticipation over two years of anti-Bush leaks from a gavel-wielding Henry Waxman, and substantially more interested in revelations about congressional pages than in trying to tell voters the truth about whether or not the economy is strong and getting stronger — can barely contain itself on its secret morning conference calls with Howard Dean and George Soros, during which it was agreed just this morning that, yes, we can keep the meta-narrative: "The Democrats are going to beat Bush and run Congress!!" going for another 19 days, without interruption…

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/TheNote/story?id=156238

China May Flip Against Iran

http://www.americanthinker.com/articles.php?article_id=5950

I guess time will tell if this analysis is correct.

David Bennett <><

http://www.freewill-predestination.com

http://www.knology.net/~lonesomedove