More than 1,300 girls in the United Kingdom have experienced negative reactions to the government-mandated Cervarix vaccine for the human papillomavirus (HPV), according to adverse events reports collected from doctors by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).
"When they introduced this new vaccine, we had major concerns about its safety," said Jackie Fletcher of Jabs, a support group for those negatively affected by vaccines. "The current statistics detailing adverse reactions -- including cases of epilepsy and convulsions -- bears out that we were right to be concerned."
Cervarix, manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline, inoculates patients against strains 16 and 18 of HPV, which are believed to be responsible for 70 percent of cervical cancer cases. The British government began a program to vaccinate all secondary school girls in September 2008, and 700,000 have received the injections so far. The government's plan is to have all girls under the age of 18 vaccinated by 2011.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
1300 Girls Harmed by HPV Vaccines in UK; Bizarre Side Effects Like Paralysis and Epilepsy
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Treehugger's Best Regional Politician
Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty was selected by Treehugger as their best regional politician, joining international environmental advocates like former U.S. President Bill Clinton, Australian PM Kevin Rudd and San Fransisco Mayor Gavin Newsom for this prestigeous honour.
Read all about it at:
http://www.treehugger.com/
Best Regional Politician: Dalton McGuinty
The citizens of Ontario, Canada really didn't expect much when they elected Dalton McGuinty in one of those "throw the bums out" elections in 2003. Were they in for a surprise.
Since then, the change has been extraordinary: He invested in the health care system, banned junk food in schools, prohibited smoking just about anywhere (including private cars if children under 15 are in them), removed taxes on bikes, brought in free immunizations, protected boreal forests, instituted wine and liquor bottle deposit returns, changed the definition of marriage to include homosexual couples. On the energy front: He also closed coal fired power plants and promised to eliminate coal from the province by 2014, changed the rules to encourage alternative energy, and is introducing a controversial but important green energy plan. Not only that but he declared a green belt the size of the Province of Prince Edward Island; and recently announced a massive investment in rapid transit for Toronto.
Unlike the "checks and balances" in American government, in Canada if you have a majority government you can pretty much do what you want. Dalton McGuinty has consistently used that power to make this province greener, to control development and to try and fix our energy problems. Some have accused him of turning us into a nanny state; others of not doing nearly enough. However I do think it is fair to say that he has surprised us all with an extraordinary list of accomplishments and more in the works. --Lloyd Alter
Lancer Evolution chosen as Women’s World Car of the Year contender
The Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution is a one of a kind high performance sports sedan that represents the ultimate in road licensed Mitsubishi vehicles. The Evolution showcases several outstanding technologies, including: a 291 hp, 2.0 litre DOHC, turbocharged-intercooled engine; the brilliant 6-speed Twin Clutch Sportronic® Shift Transmission (TC-SST) an automated manual transmission capable of executing lightning quick gear changes with no drop off in engine power; Super All-Wheel Control (S-AWC), a vehicle dynamic control network that provides an extraordinary level of control at individual wheels. An award winner in its own right, Super All-Wheel Control was recently named best new technology by the Automotive Journalists Association of Canada (AJAC).
This landmark award was initiated by Sandy Myhre, a journalist from Auckland, New Zealand. It brings together ten top women automotive journalists from North America, India, South Africa, the U.K., Australia and Europe. These well respected women will vote on vehicles that are new to the market between September 2008 and September 2009, and on sale in at least ten countries. The judges from Canada are Regina Chan, founder and Editorial Director of AutoNerve Magazine, and Jil McIntosh, reviewer for The Toronto Star (Wheels Section) and Assistant Editor of CanadianDriver.com.
Saturday, May 16, 2009
2006 Copain Roussanne
2006 Copain Roussanne
James Berry Vineyard, Paso Robles
Very small production winery in Paso dedicated to making organic single vineyard wines that are true to the varietal characteristics.
Aromas: lemon cream pie, white flowers, orange dreamsicle, fennel, beeswax
Body: Medium
Color: Straw Yellow
From their website: Bees wax, lemon curd and fennel pollen aromas are pure and full on the nose. Crisp acidity buttresses the waxy roussanne character and keeps the zesty pear and lychee flavors lively on the palate. A beautifully seamless finish is long and pure with long lingering honeycomb like flavors.
IZZY AND GEORGE GONE FROM GREY’S?
It was a big night on TV for finales and a very emotional night on Grey's Anatomy. We had already heard that Katherine Heigl and T.R. Knight were preparing to leave and with the way last night's episode ended, their characters Izzy Stevens and George O'Malley appeared to be gone. In a stunning climax to the episode, Izzy flatlined after a risky surgery to remove a brain tumor and George appeared set to meet his maker after getting hit by a bus. There was one thing missing: Nobody called out "time of death".
Friday, May 15, 2009
ISV CAMPUS STAFF IN AUSTRALIA!
ISV Campus Staff are set to hit the shores of Australia to promote ISV's phenomenal volunteer and adventure programs!
Any past participants are invited to help our Campus Staff on their respective Universities to spread the good word of ISV to thousands of other students so they too can experience the trip of a lifetime!
The schedule for recruiting down under is as follows:
Week beginning March 16: Monash University - Caufield Campus
Week beginning March 23: University of Melbourne
Week beginning March 30: Monash University - Clayton
Week beginning April 6: Deakin - Burwood
Week beginning April 20: Latrobe - Bundoora
Week beginning April 27: Swinburne, Griffith - Mt Gravatt, JCU, Strathfield, UWS - Campbelltown, UWA - Bankstown, Southern Cross University
Week beginning May 4: University of Sydney, QUT, University of South Australia, Curtin University - Perth
Week beginning May 11: University of New South Wales, University of Queensland, Flinders University, Edith Cowan University
Week beginning May 18: Woolongong University, University of Canberra, University of Adelaide, Murdoch University
Week beginning May 25: Macquarie University, ANU (Canberra), UTAS - Hobart, University of Western Australia
Week beginning June 1: Newcastle, UTS, University of Ballarat, CSU - Bathurst, CSU - Albury, Wodonga - University of Southern Queensland
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Purina Event Center Groundbreaking
I wrote about the canine event center awhile ago and wanted to follow up on it, since it's now in the development stage. This video is a good laugh - and indication that this new "state-of-the-art 84,000 sq. foot INDOOR facility" is going to be a big hit at least with the four-legged crowd!
In the video, you can see a team of Parson Russell Terriers in hard hats (good laugh, there) as they "break ground"... It looks like they're digging their way to China! LOL
As a "loyal supporter of dog fancy, Purina is building this world-class facility to accommodate thousands of dogs and their owners and handler at 40 to 60 events a year." If you attend one, send us some pics. We'd love to share!
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Addicts and homeless perceived as objects
Not surprisingly, there isn't much help for them
Peter McKnight
Vancouver Sun
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Last summer, Stephen Hwang of the University of Toronto and St. Michael's Hospital wrote a commentary, endorsed by more than 130 other scientists and health professionals, which began by asking the reader to consider the following hypothetical scenario:
"An innovative new intervention for people with diabetes is developed. Health Canada provides funding to a highly accomplished group of academic health scientists, who have no financial conflicts of interest with respect to the new intervention, to conduct research on its effectiveness.
"Their work shows that the new intervention significantly reduces the incidence of a variety of diabetic complications. Despite a careful search for possible adverse effects of the intervention, none are detected. Over a three-year period, the group's research findings are published in leading medical journals, including the New England Journal of Medicine, The Lancet and BMJ [British Medical Journal].
"In response, the federal government calls the research inconclusive and states its position that the only acceptable therapies for diabetes are those that either prevent or completely cure this condition. Two national organizations state their opposition to the intervention because they fear that the availability of an intervention that reduces the risk of diabetic complications will cause people with diabetes to eat more food and become more obese.
"The government indicates that, unless additional research can address its concerns within a year, it will likely move to ban the new intervention. Meanwhile, institutions other than the one at which the research was initially conducted are forbidden to provide the intervention."
With developments over the last year, we can now update this scenario by adding the following: The government did move to ban the intervention, and decided to spend millions of dollars appealing a court decision that prevented it from doing so. And it continued its attacks on the intervention, and on physicians who provide it, despite recent evidence that it is not only effective, but cost-effective.
Hwang's thought experiment was, of course, intended to highlight the disconnect between the way the government addresses drug addiction and the way it treats other medical problems. For as Hwang says, the scenario "becomes true to life if one substitutes 'drug addiction' for 'diabetes,' 'drug-related harms' for 'diabetic complications,' and 'supervised injection facility for injection drug users' for 'new intervention.' "
This disconnect has led many people in the health care professions, including Hwang, to charge that the government's position is driven by ideology rather than evidence. But thanks to a commentary in the current issue of the Canadian Medical Association Journal, a much more disturbing hypothesis now presents itself. And as disturbing as it is, it is a hypothesis for which there is substantial evidence.
In commenting on a study in the CMAJ which suggested that Insite might lead to a cost savings of $14-20 million over a decade, New York researchers Don Des Jarlais, Kamyar Arasteh and Holly Hagan state that "humanity and the right to optimal health for all [should] be the framework for assessing the effectiveness of public health interventions."
Saturday, May 9, 2009
FACTORY FARMING FLU – OR H1N1 AS THE PORK INDUSTRY PREFERS TO CALL IT
Boston’s once notorious Charles Street Jail was transformed by a five-year, $150 million renovation into one of the city’s most expensive hotels. Where prisoners once rioted and planned their escape, rooms go from $319 to $5,500 per night.
Where Inmates Once Tried to Escape, Travelers Are Paying Top Dollar To Get In
By JEREMY HUBBARD and JAKE WHITMAN
Boston, May 6, 2009
CLICK HERE to watch Jeremy's report on the Liberty Hotel
When you first walk in Boston’s Liberty Hotel it looks like any fancy four-star hotel. But not far past the welcoming doorman are the old iron bars and narrow catwalks-- not so subtle reminders that this place has a criminal past.
Welcome to what was once Boston’s dreaded Charles Street Jail. A nasty, run-down slammer where some of the city’s hardened, most violent criminals served time.
For over 130 years, some were willing to risk death just to get out of this place. Now after a $150 million restoration, celebrities, tourists and business travelers are willing to spend hundreds, even thousands to get in.
Famous guests lists, then and now
Over the years it housed some of Boston’s most notorious criminals: Mayor James Michael Curley, convicted in 1904 for taking a civil service test for a friend; suffragettes arrested for protesting President Woodrow Wilson in 1919; Frank Abangale, the counterfeiter whose story inspired the movie “Catch Me If You Can”, starring Leonardo DiCaprio. Even confessed Boston Strangler Albert DeSalvo is said to have passed through.
Now as the Liberty Hotel, the guest list has included the likes of Mick Jagger, Meg Ryan, Eva Mendes and Annette Bening.
It may be part of a trend: hotel guests willing to spend big bucks to live like an inmate, or at least where an inmate once did. The Four Seasons in Istanbul used to be a lock-up. There’s even been some talk of turning part of Alcatraz into a hotel, to cash in on the curiosity of what it would be like to stay at “the rock.”
From international model to inhumane conditions
When the Charles Street Jail opened in 1851, it was touted as an international model for how prisons should be built. The massive granite building had a 90-foot central rotunda, large windows for plenty of light and four wings of cells forming a cross. It was the first prison in America to give inmates their own cell, and at 8 by 11 feet in size, the lodgings were considered “roomy” back then.
Over the years, that reputation changed when the jail became overcrowded, prone to riots and filthy beyond description. In the early 1970’s the inmates filed a lawsuit claiming cruel and unusual punishment. When a federal judge secretly stayed the night to see for himself in 1973, he ordered the place shut down. It would be another 17 years though, in 1990, when the last inmates were transferred out.
Unlocking the prison’s past
For ten years the prison sat empty, home only to pigeons that left two tons of droppings in the rafters.
"The walls were thick with lead paint, there were birds everywhere. It was a pretty scary place," says developer Dick Freeman.
Architects spent five years turning the Charles Street jail into the Liberty Hotel. They were careful to preserve many of the prison’s features, including the heavy iron cell doors and original brick walls.
"This has gotta be this great moment in Boston history, when this old building which was full of so much sorrow, can turn into something with so much joy,” said architect Gary Johnson.
The Liberty Hotel has also embraced its shady past with a sense of humor. One of its restaurants is called “Scampo,” Italian for escape. The hotel’s cocktail bar is called “Clink.” And a nightclub is located in the basement, in what was once the prison’s “drunk tank,” the place where the intoxicated were once kept overnight. Now it’s one of the city’s hottest night clubs, it is appropriately named “Alibi.”
Some of the inmates who did hard time, and the prison employees who kept watch over them, have actually come back to visit.
"We had a gentleman who applied for the director of security job, he said ‘I know the building cold, I was a security guard there.’"
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Santa Monica Daily Press Publishes Op-Ed Supporting LEAN Act
http://www.smdp.com/Articl
We Can All Help Make the Country Healthier
By Marsha Cohen
March 20, 2009
Obesity, heart disease, and diabetes are all health problems on the rise. They are also conditions that can be minimized and controlled through proper nutrition. With today's fast-paced lives, taking the time to determine the nutritional breakdown for everything we eat is easier said than done.
And nowhere is this more difficult that when we are eating out, as Americans do more and more each year.
Here in California we saw a step forward with the passage last year of state Sen. Alex Padilla's SB 1420 — requiring nutritional labeling of menu items in chain restaurants. Now, with the introduction of the federal LEAN (Labeling Education and Nutrition) Act, we have a chance to achieve a uniform national standard, so consumers in all states and communities can benefit.
The LEAN Act would provide consumers dining out at chain restaurants with 20 or more outlets with the kind of nutritional labeling information they need inorder to understand the choices they are making and then use that information in ways that are best for their unique health needs. H.R. 1398 is based on the highly successful federal Nutrition Labeling and Education Act (NLEA), sponsored by our own Congressman Henry Waxman nearly two decades ago, which provided consumers who purchase packaged foods and beverages with comprehensive nutrition information about the food they were buying.
Although this information is now taken for granted, at the time it was a monumental step forward in helping all consumers make healthy choices. The LEAN Act will expand NLEA to include food sold by chain restaurants, giving consumers that same information when they dine out.
But exactly what information consumers are getting is critical.
While current California law requires calorie disclosure on menu boards, having access to only this information out of context can be counterproductive. Just because a jelly donut has fewer calories than a whole wheat bagel does not make it a healthier breakfast option.
Making truly healthy choices requires access to many factors besides calories, including the level of carbohydrates, protein, fiber, sugars, sodium, fat, and cholesterol. The LEAN Act requires that this full spectrum of nutritional information be made available to anyone who requests it prior to the point of purchase.
Neither national law, nor state and local regulations — even here in California — would give consumers access to more nutritional information when dining out.
There are many reasons to act now on moving forward with a national nutritional labeling standard for restaurants. In addition to California's alarmingly high obesity rate of 22.6 percent, a recent public opinion poll conducted by Peter D. Hart Research Associates confirms that, while consumers accept responsibility for making their own food choices when eating out, they want more nutrition information to help them to do so.
Moreover, establishing a national nutrition standard has never been more pertinent. With all the discussion of healthcare reform, this bill allows all Americans to proactively reduce the risks of many of our nation's most costly health conditions.
The NLEA has had a profound effect on the choices we make at the grocery store, by providing us with comprehensive nutrition information, and the LEAN Act can do the same in restaurants. It provides consumers with a complete array of nutritional information, while also taking into account the needs of widely varying restaurants to assess their own situation and the desires of their customers in deciding how best to provide the information.
The LEAN Act provides us with the opportunity to effect a change in the lives of millions of American consumers. It is more than just a change we can believe in — it is change we can all help implement, for ourselves and for our families.
Marsha K. Cohen is a cognitive nutritionist in Beverly Hills. She can be reached at
marsha@marshacohennutritio
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Fans and Yao Ming May 2009
"What is your favorite American song?" "Star-Spangled Banner. I listen to it at least 82 times a year." - Yao Ming
I love Yao Ming, gotta say it...gonna scream it from a mountaintop.
I hope you got fun cardboard cutouts. Like Michael Jordan or Yao Ming.
Did you know.. Rockets outmuscle Lakers, take opener: Yao Ming, who briefly left with a knee injur.
Lakers drop opener to Rockets, 100-92: Yao Ming, who briefly left with a knee injury in the closing minutes, had
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Did the Pan-American Health Organization Drop the Ball?
Still, one question unresolved is why there was an eight day gap between the time that Mexico first identified troubling patterns of flu and when these WHO emergency procedures kicked in. Public health experts with whom I have spoken initially suspected that the delay was caused by Mexican authorities who were slow to report their findings to the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO), the WHO's regional headquarters in Washington, D.C. According to a report in the Associated Press, however, this is not so. Mexico's chief epidemiologist Dr. Miguel Angel Lezana tells the AP that he reported to PAHO about "alarming occurrences of flu and atypical pneumonia in Mexico" back on April 16. He claims that his messages to PAHO went unreturned.
When the dust settles questions about this eight day gap should be answered. Like I said, the WHO deserves praise for how it has handled Swine Flu Influenza A(H1N1) once an emergency was declared. Why it took so long to do so is something that the WHO and its member states will have to investigate.
Photo: PAHO's iconic headquarters in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood of Washington, D.C.