Breast Feeding Saves Lives and Money

April 7th, 2010

Captain Obvious strikes again.

Via: CBS News:

The lives of nearly 900 babies would be saved each year, along with billions of dollars, if 90 percent of U.S. women breast-fed their babies for the first six months of life, a cost analysis says.

Those startling results, published online Monday in the journal Pediatrics, are only an estimate. But several experts who reviewed the analysis said the methods and conclusions seem sound.

“The health care system has got to be aware that breast-feeding makes a profound difference,” said Dr. Ruth Lawrence, who heads the American Academy of Pediatrics’ breast-feeding section.

The findings suggest that there are hundreds of deaths and many more costly illnesses each year from health problems that breast-feeding may help prevent. These include stomach viruses, ear infections, asthma, juvenile diabetes, Sudden Infant Death Syndrome and even childhood leukemia.

The magnitude of health benefits linked to breast-feeding is vastly underappreciated, said lead author Dr. Melissa Bartick, an internist and instructor at Harvard Medical School. Breast-feeding is sometimes considered a lifestyle choice, but Bartick calls it a public health issue.

Among the benefits: Breast milk contains antibodies that help babies fight infections; it also can affect insulin levels in the blood, which may make breast-fed babies less likely to develop diabetes and obesity.

The analysis studied the prevalence of 10 common childhood illnesses, costs of treating those diseases, including hospitalization, and the level of disease protection other studies have linked with breast-feeding.

“We know that breastfeeding gives babies important antibodies to protect against disease. We also know that breastfeeding is a way for moms to bond with their babies,” CBS News medical correspondent Dr. Jennier Ashton said on the “CBS Evening News” Monday. “Today’s study is the first to look at the impact of breastfeeding exclusively for six months on reducing several major costly diseases.”


And Now… A Federal Sales Tax?

April 7th, 2010

Via: Reuters:

The United States should consider raising taxes to help bring deficits under control and may need to consider a European-style value-added tax, White House adviser Paul Volcker said on Tuesday.

Volcker, answering a question from the audience at a New York Historical Society event, said the value-added tax “was not as toxic an idea” as it has been in the past and also said a carbon or other energy-related tax may become necessary.

Though he acknowledged that both were still unpopular ideas, he said getting entitlement costs and the U.S. budget deficit under control may require such moves. “If at the end of the day we need to raise taxes, we should raise taxes,” he said.


Not The Onion: More Job Seekers Opting for Cosmetic Procedures

April 6th, 2010

Here’s one for your When Batshit Insanity Just Doesn’t Cut It file folder.

Via: CBS News:

In this troubled economy, you may be thinking about beefing up your resume or adding to your portfolio, but how about going under the knife? As CBS 2’s Mai Martinez found, hundreds of people in the Chicago area are turning to plastic surgery to keep or land a job.

In his 10 years as facial plastic surgeon, Dr. Steven Dayan has had no shortage of patients in his downtown Chicago office. But these days, Dr. Dayan says more and more are looking for an edge in the challenging job market.

“A good 10 to 15 percent of my patients who come in now are requesting treatments in order to make them do better in the workplace,” said Dr. Dayan.


List of Apocalyptic and Post-Apocalyptic Fiction

April 6th, 2010

Via: Wikipedia:

This is a list of apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction works, sorted by the nature of the catastrophe portrayed.


The Secret History of Silicon Valley

April 6th, 2010

Via: Google Tech Talks / YouTube:


President Ford Approved Warrantless Domestic Surveillance in 1974

April 6th, 2010

Via: Wired:

While the country was embroiled in a national debate over excessive government surveillance in 1974, President Gerald Ford authorized the Federal Bureau of Investigation to conduct warrantless domestic surveillance, according to a classified memo recently obtained by the Center for Investigative Reporting.

The memo, signed Dec. 19, 1974, was issued just one month before the Senate established an 11-member panel, known as the Church Committee, to investigate government surveillance programs. The Church Committee would ultimately uncover other unconstitutional spying activities, such as that conducted by the National Security Agency under the rubric of Operation Shamrock. Two days after the memo was signed, investigative reporter Seymour Hersh, writing in The New York Times, disclosed a covert government spying program that focused on monitoring political activists in the U.S.

Ford became president after Richard Nixon’s resignation in the wake of the Watergate spying scandal, and he later supported passage of the pro-privacy Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978, which placed restrictions on wiretapping and required law enforcement to obtain permission from a special court to conduct domestic intelligence surveillance.

But according to the recently released top-secret memo, just two years earlier, Ford had secretly authorized Attorney General William B. Saxbe “to approve, without prior judicial warrants, specific electronic surveillance within the United States which may be requested by the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.”

Ford wrote in the memo to Saxbe that he had “been advised by you [Saxbe] and by the Department of State that such surveillance is consistent with the Constitution, laws and treaties of the United States.”

“This could be Bush after 9/11 or Obama after becoming president, but it’s President Ford 35 years ago, coping with Cold War struggles,” John Laprise, a visiting assistant professor at Northwestern University, told the center. “It’s really a stunning document that raises all sorts of questions.”

Ford’s order authorized surveillance for foreign intelligence and counterintelligence purposes, and would have involved spying on Americans or foreigners in the U. S. who were suspected of spying for foreign countries or foreign-based political groups. The open-ended surveillance authority could only be revoked by Ford or by order of a future president.

It’s not known to what extent the surveillance might have involved U.S. citizens or whether there was a specific incident or investigation that prompted the memo. In the memo, Ford writes that he “carefully reviewed the issues raised in your request for confirmation of authority and delegation with respect to warrantless electronic surveillance within the United States.”

The surveillance had to be in service of several objectives — to protect the United States against attacks by a foreign power, to obtain foreign intelligence that was deemed to be essential to national security, or to obtain information that the secretary of state or the national security adviser deemed necessary to foreign affairs.

Ford wrote that the warrantless surveillance would only be authorized with the personal approval of the attorney general “upon submission of a written request by the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation providing complete justification for the conduct of such surveillance, including identification of the agency and presidential appointee initiating the request” and that only “the minimum physical intrusion necessary to obtain the information sought will be used.”

The National Archives obtained the memo, which it shared with the Center for Investigative Reporting, based in California. A previous, slightly redacted version of the memo was released in 2006.

A federal judge ruled last week that the George W. Bush administration violated the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act when the NSA eavesdropped on the telephone conversations of two American lawyers who represented a now-defunct Saudi charity.


No Criminal Charges Likely in AIG Collapse

April 6th, 2010

Don’t crack the seal on the AIG mess. Oh no. The smell alone would be too much to handle.

Via: CBS News:

CBS NEWS has learned that former AIG executive Joseph Cassano – the prime focus of the investigation into its collapse – will meet with Department of Justice attorneys next week in what will likely be an end to the two year criminal investigation into the company.

Sources tell CBS News that the criminal case against Cassano – once called “the Man who Crashed the World” – has “hit a brick wall” – meaning that it is likely no one will be held criminally liable for the downfall of the company that triggered a $182 billion dollar federal bailout.

Sources tell CBS News federal investigators have been unable to uncover any evidence that Cassano lied to his bosses or shareholders about financial problems at AIG.

In recent months, Cassano’s lawyers – citing internal documents – argued that he never broke the law. Instead, he simply got caught up in a financial tsunami that engulfed Wall Street.

Research Credit: ltcolonelnemo


Classified U.S. Military Video Depicts Murder of Iraqi Civilians and Two Reuters Journalists

April 5th, 2010

Via: collateralmurder.com:

WikiLeaks has released a classified US military video depicting the indiscriminate slaying of over a dozen people in the Iraqi suburb of New Baghdad — including two Reuters news staff.

Reuters has been trying to obtain the video through the Freedom of Information Act, without success since the time of the attack. The video, shot from an Apache helicopter gun-site, clearly shows the unprovoked slaying of a wounded Reuters employee and his rescuers. Two young children involved in the rescue were also seriously wounded.

The military did not reveal how the Reuters staff were killed, and stated that they did not know how the children were injured.

After demands by Reuters, the incident was investigated and the U.S. military concluded that the actions of the soldiers were in accordance with the law of armed conflict and its own “Rules of Engagement”.

Consequently, WikiLeaks has released the classified Rules of Engagement for 2006, 2007 and 2008, revealing these rules before, during, and after the killings.

WikiLeaks has released both the original 38 minutes video and a shorter version with an initial analysis. Subtitles have been added to both versions from the radio transmissions.

Short / Annotated:

Uncut:


U.S. Special Forces Soldiers Dug Bullets Out of Their Victims’ Bodies After a Botched Night Raid, Washed the Wounds with Alcohol, Then Lied to Superiors About What Happened

April 5th, 2010

Via: Times Online:

US special forces soldiers dug bullets out of their victims’ bodies in the bloody aftermath of a botched night raid, then washed the wounds with alcohol before lying to their superiors about what happened, Afghan investigators have told The Times.

Two pregnant women, a teenage girl, a police officer and his brother were shot on February 12 when US and Afghan special forces stormed their home in Khataba village, outside Gardez in eastern Afghanistan. The precise composition of the force has never been made public.

The claims were made as Nato admitted responsibility for all the deaths for the first time last night. It had initially claimed that the women had been dead for several hours when the assault force discovered their bodies.

“Despite earlier reports we have determined that the women were accidentally killed as a result of the joint force firing at the men,” said Lieutenant-Colonel Todd Breasseale, a Nato spokesman. The coalition continued to deny that there had been a cover-up and said that its legal investigation, which is ongoing, had found no evidence of inappropriate conduct.


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