News Stories

[cyberdemon]

I suppose the only thing to say is "He's dead Jim" but he lived long and prospered. But like everyone, he eventually had to don the red shirt.

[Urzu 7]

I sense a great disturbance in the force...

*reads about Leonard Nimoy*

Well ain't that ironic?

[Golden Lily]

http://www.thesunchronicle.com/news/...963506f66.html

This girl is so effed up...

[LoweGear]

Originally Posted by Ithekro

Not sure if this counts as news...

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/27/ar...t-83.html?_r=1

Leonard Nimoy has died.

Just a little short of the 50th Anniversary of Star Trek.

He lived long, and he prospered. At 83 he's certainly lived a longer and better life than most.

Godspeed Spock, and may you find your way from the second star to the right, straight on till morning.

[Top Sergeant]

Originally Posted by LoweGear

He lived long, and he prospered. At 83 he's certainly lived a longer and better life than most.

Godspeed Spock, and may you find your way from the second star to the right, straight on till morning.

This could probably be a good tribute to Nimoy's sense of humor and the easy way he accepted the popular culture legend which became attached to him. And its a funny commercial!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPkByAkAdZs

[Solace]

Originally Posted by Top Sergeant

This could probably be a good tribute to Nimoy's sense of humor and the easy way he accepted the popular culture legend which became attached to him. And its a funny commercial!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPkByAkAdZs

Great commercial, and I don't usually say that.

Nimoy wasn't always fond of being Spock in popular culture (he wrote two books about it), but like the other actors, he grew to accept and even embrace it.* Truly a great man.


*Shatner resisted the most, imo. But he definitely changed after Doohan died. I think he deeply regrets not patching things up before then.

[ganbaru]

Jeb Bush enters the lion's den, touts conservative credentials
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/...0LV2IH20150227

Russian opposition mourns murdered leader Nemtsov
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/...0LV2LA20150228

Eight dead in door-to-door Missouri shooting spree
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/...0LV1JC20150228

[Fizix]

Originally Posted by Golden Lily

http://www.thesunchronicle.com/news/...963506f66.html

This girl is so effed up...

Some people are just wrong in the head.

If I read it right, she was encouraging him to get back in the truck so he could kill himself? What that implies about the situation is quite grim.

The part that shocks me though is people feeling that she had done nothing wrong. I can't get my head around that, what she did was appalling, encouraging someone who is obviously vulnerable to take their own lives is sick.

Well I guess she will be away from anywhere where she can cause any more damage for a fairly long time.

[KiraYamatoFan]

Originally Posted by ganbaru

Russian opposition mourns murdered leader Nemtsov
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/...0LV2LA20150228

This is very depressing when you read news like that. It's a sad day for democracy in Russia... for the little bit there may be.

[SaintessHeart]

Nothing Is Wrong With Your Sex Drive

NORTHAMPTON, Mass. — LAST week, Sprout Pharmaceuticals resubmitted its drug flibanserin to the Food and Drug Administration for approval. Flibanserin, in case you haven’t heard, is a drug intended to treat low sexual desire in women. The F.D.A. has rejected it twice already, and will most likely reject it a third time because (if you’re Sprout) the F.D.A. is sexist or (if you’re the F.D.A.) the drug doesn’t work and isn’t safe.

But the biggest problem with the drug — and with the F.D.A.’s consideration of it — is that its backers are attempting to treat something that isn’t a disease.

Flibanserin purportedly treats a condition called hypoactive sexual desire disorder in women. But H.S.D.D. was removed from the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders in 2013, and replaced with a new diagnosis called female sexual interest/arousal disorder, or F.S.I.A.D.

Why the change? Researchers have begun to understand that sexual response is not the linear mechanism they once thought it was. The previous model, originating in the late ’70s, described a lack of “sexual fantasies and desire for sexual activity.” It placed sexual desire first, as if it were a hunger, motivating an individual to pursue satisfaction. Desire was conceptualized as emerging more or less “spontaneously.” And some people do feel they experience desire that way. Desire first, then arousal.

But it turns out many people (perhaps especially women) often experience desire as responsive, emerging in response to, rather than in anticipation of, erotic stimulation. Arousal first, then desire.

Both desire styles are normal and healthy. Neither is associated with pain or any disorder of arousal or orgasm.

The new diagnosis is intended for women who lack both spontaneous and responsive desire, and are distressed by this. For these women, research has found that nonpharmaceutical treatments like sex therapy can be effective.

But I can’t count the number of women I’ve talked with who assume that because their desire is responsive, rather than spontaneous, they have “low desire”; that their ability to enjoy sex with their partner is meaningless if they don’t also feel a persistent urge for it; in short, that they are broken, because their desire isn’t what it’s “supposed” to be.

What these women need is not medical treatment, but a thoughtful exploration of what creates desire between them and their partners. This is likely to include confidence in their bodies, feeling accepted, and (not least) explicitly erotic stimulation. Feeling judged or broken for their sexuality is exactly what they don’t need — and what will make their desire for sex genuinely shut down.

In one extreme example, medical professionals once took seriously the idea that homosexuality was a disease in need of a cure.

In a 1972 issue of The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, the neurologist Robert G. Heath reported that he had recorded the brain activity of a young man suffering from epilepsy and “severe mental illness,” including “a five-year history of overt homosexuality.”

The patient had electrodes implanted in his cortex, which was then thought to control pleasure. He was given a “three-button self-stimulating” device, with which he could zap his own brain for three hours at a time — which he did, about once every 10 seconds. Researchers showed him stag films (read: porn), introduced him to a female prostitute and measured his brain activity during heterosexual intercourse. Dr. Heath said the treatment was effective.

A year later, homosexuality was voted out of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual. Now, of course, only a fringe minority of the medical community would suggest that sexual orientation is anything other than a normal aspect of human sexuality.

This analogy between desire style and sexual orientation is imperfect: There is no reason to suspect that responsive or spontaneous desire is innate. In fact all desire is somewhat responsive, even when it feels spontaneous. But Dr. Heath and Sprout are both part of the long history of trying to call “diseased” what is simply different.

When a woman experiencing responsive desire comes to understand how to make the most of her desire, she opens up the opportunity for greater satisfaction. Outdated science isn’t going to improve our sex lives. But embracing our differences — working with our sexuality, rather than against it — will.

[ganbaru]

'I am not afraid,' Russians march in memory of murdered Putin critic
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/...0LV2LA20150301

U.S.-Israel ties fraying over Netanyahu's planned Iran speech
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/...0LX13D20150301

Obama to veto bill letting Congress weigh in on Iran deal
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/...0LX11320150301

[Nicaea]

Originally Posted by Xellos-_^

i really do think the NATOUS should setup a military base in this city.

That would be provoking war. Russia medled near US borders during the cold wars and Cuba still pays the price for it. Since then, everytime the US medles near the Russian borders, Russia has been more reactionary. The US currently meddling in this whole story is making things go worse as there's no way the EU wants a war in their backyard and there's no way that Russia wil be willing to cooperate when the US is sending warhawks ad McCain to get war starting there.

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by Nicaea

That would be provoking war. Russia medled near US borders during the cold wars and Cuba still pays the price for it. Since then, everytime the US medles near the Russian borders, Russia has been more reactionary. The US currently meddling in this whole story is making things go worse as there's no way the EU wants a war in their backyard and there's no way that Russia wil be willing to cooperate when the US is sending warhawks ad McCain to get war starting there.

And people in the defence industry need to eat you know! Stop meddling with the profit potential of the stocks I hold.

[ganbaru]

Jeb Bush will refuse to sign tax pledges: spokeswoman
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/...0LW0ZL20150301

Kerry rebukes U.N. Rights Council as 'obsessed' with Israel
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/...0LY11E20150302

Edit: Justice Department to Fault Ferguson Police, Seeing Racial Bias in Traffic Stops
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/02/us...=top-news&_r=1

[Ithekro]

Historical news: Battleship Musashi's wreckage found after 70 years.

https://twitter.com/PaulGAllen/statu...31062522982400

[MrTerrorist]

Originally Posted by Ithekro

Not sure if this counts as news...

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/27/ar...t-83.html?_r=1

Leonard Nimoy has died.

Just a little short of the 50th Anniversary of Star Trek.

When i heard the news, i was sad since i enjoyed his character in Star Trek.
May his legacy Live Long And Prosper.

[JokerD]

Originally Posted by Ithekro

Historical news: Battleship Musashi's wreckage found after 70 years.

https://twitter.com/PaulGAllen/statu...31062522982400

Great, now the Space Battleship Yamato can have a sister ship.
Twin Wave Motion Cannon Attack!!

In other news:
Delhi rapist says victim shouldn't have fought back

Insert WTF pic here

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by JokerD

Great, now the Space Battleship Yamato can have a sister ship.
Twin Wave Motion Cannon Attack!!

In other news:
Delhi rapist says victim shouldn't have fought back

Insert WTF pic here

Put him in a US prison. If he gets attacked from behind then he shouldn't "fight back".

[Mr Hat and Clogs]

That's disgusting... how people can think that way boggles the mind. His brother died in prison though, eh? I guess a bit of 'prison justice' for rapists happens even in India.

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by Mr Hat and Clogs

That's disgusting... how people can think that way boggles the mind. His brother died in prison though, eh? I guess a bit of 'prison justice' for rapists happens even in India.

These people are called conservatives. They fear progress and would do anything in their power to stop it.

NIH Distorts Report On Chiropractic And Stroke Risk

Why would an NIH center try to mislead the public about a newly published study that it funded? Last month, NIH’s alternative medicine center, NCCIH, highlighted one of its studies using this headline: “Low risk of stroke after chiropractic spinal manipulation in older patients with neck pain, study finds.”

This sounds reassuring, unless you read the study. It turns out that the risk of stroke was 10% higher in patients who saw a chiropractor compared to those who saw a regular doctor, measured 30 days after treatment. Yet NIH wants us to believe that the study found no serious risk.

Why ask this question? Because earlier studies showed a small but frightening risk of stroke in younger people (45 and below) after chiropractic, caused by dissection of the vertebral artery. Strokes caused by a tear in this artery are extremely rare, but even a tiny possibility of a fatal stroke after a chiropractic manipulation is alarming. As Forbes writer Larry Husten reported last August, the American Heart Association and the American Stroke Association issued a statement warning that chiropractic neck adjustments might cause strokes. The AHA stated:

“Manipulating the neck has been associated with cervical dissection, a type of arterial tear that can lead to stroke.
Although a direct cause-and-effect link has not been established between neck manipulation and the risk of stroke, healthcare providers should inform patients of the association before they undergo neck manipulation.”

I’ve written about this at well, both at Forbes and in The Atlantic Monthly. The risk is small but the consequences can be extremely serious.


So what’s in this new study? The study, led by chiropractor James Whedon at Dartmouth College, was a large-scale survey of Medicare claims involving people aged 66 to 99. Its aim was to answer this question: “what is the probability of stroke following chiropractic spinal manipulation, as compared to a control group of subjects evaluated for neck pain by a primary care physician?” Key findings from the study included these (all from Table 2):

Hazard ratio for stroke at 30 days

All patients 1.10 (10% increase)

Patients aged 75-79 1.93 (93% increase)

Patients aged 80-84 2.50 (2.5 times more likely)

Patients over 85 3.59 (over 3.5 times more likely)

This looks bad: tn all patients, the risk of stroke was 10% higher if they’d seen a chiropractor than if they’d been to a regular doctor. In the older patients, the risk of stroke after 30 days was 1.9 to 3.6 times higher than for 66-69 year-olds. (All four of these results were reported as statistically significant.) Yet the conclusions of the study–and the NIH press release–make no mention of these findings. The study itself concludes only that

“Among Medicare B beneficiaries aged 66 to 99 years with neck pain, incidence of vertebrobasilar stroke was extremely low. Small differences in risk between patients who saw a chiropractor and those who saw a primary care physician are probably not clinically significant.”

Talk about spin! There is no data in the study to support the claim that the risk is not “clinically significant,” but the results clearly state that they are statistically significant. It seems that the authors are trying to discount their own findings. The NIH’s press release is just as bad: it merely parrots the study’s conclusions, opening with the statement that “cervical spine manipulation is unlikely to cause a stroke,” and never mentioning the statistically significant 10% increase in risk, or that the study was led by a chiropractor.

Despite the misleading press release, this new study adds to the evidence that chiropractic carries an increased risk of stroke, especially for older patients. As the American Heart Association recommends, patients should be informed of this risk before submitting themselves to a possibly dangerous neck manipulation. And NIH press officers should read the study before issuing a press release.