NYC Police Commissioner Bratton is an innovator. He has stood by the laws while pointing to wrongful actions of police.

It is absolutely hideous to listen to Senate Republicans talking about public safety in committee hearings when it comes to sentencing guidelines while completely ignoring the fact they don't regulate guns. Wow.

I thought Senator Cornyn made a valuable contribution in noting prisoners released from Texas prisons do so with marketable skills. 

Sorry, I have a very difficult time taking seriously those that want to continue to imprison people because it is a less costly alternative to crime in society. Also, the people calling for continued imprisonment as a means to making the American street safer, have no priority to gun control. Call me crazy but I do believe the two go together. 

I realize the prisoner release is focused on non-violent offenders. I can't help but wonder what these former prisoners find interesting about the violent culture they now call home. Then there is the realization of the "Dead Black Man Culture" resulting in incarceration of police. I am fairly sure they are at confused by the juxtaposition of police and law in the year 2015.

What also comes to mind is the return of voting rights to those released. The current change in law does not change the reality these former prisoners will not have their voting rights returned to them necessarily.

October 16, 2015
By Mark Kennedy

New York (AP) — The New York City Police Department (click here) is turning to a new tool in its effort to teach its future officers about tolerance and understanding — drama.
The city's Police Academy has added the one-act play "Anne & Emmett" by Janet Langhart Cohen to its recruit training this fall. The play is an imaginary conversation between Anne Frank, who died in a Nazi concentration camp, and Emmett Till, who was killed by racists in Mississippi in 1955.
The play will be performed for some 1,100 recruits at their academy in Queens over two performances on Thursday, part of a push by the department to prepare future police officers to overcome community mistrust and their own bias.
"Sometimes you can't get it in a text book. Sometimes you can't get it in a lecture. But you can get it when human emotions are played live on the stage and that humanity can connect," Cohen said Friday.
"If the play can reach one man or woman with a badge and a gun, I'm happy. Their training can take them only so far. The body cams will only cover so much. At some point, I'm hoping their humanity will kick in and hopefully this play with revive that humanity."...

Sensitivity training is part of the issues facing police today, but, it is not a 100 percent fix. I think there is a great deal of concern for the prisoner releases. We are asking a lot of our police who serve and protect the public. They are fair demands of the police and their unions should be looking to education as a way of supporting there members as the country moves forward with better sentencing laws.

In the case of New York City, I would expect police and even fire personnel union leadership to be in touch with Commissioner Bratton to find ways to serve the best interest of their members and the public. Unlawful deaths of citizens of any race does not make for a public willing to consider their police as vital members of the community. The unions need to move into a less confrontation profile to one concerned for the community as well.

Typical. Reagan Republicans chronically want the USA to be turned into a business. This time it is the Strategic Energy Reserve.

Congress is completely obtunded to reality. There was a time in the USA when people elected to office wanted to know the FACTS and act on them rather than giving a 95 percent priority to political funding parties.

To begin there is no reason to sell the Strategic Energy Reserves to fund the USA budget.  Funding short falls can be realized by ending the bloated OCO funds and returning it to an Executive Branch budget.

Secondly, there are several reasons to uphold the US Oil Export Ban. Does the USA actually appreciate the relationship it has with other countries that do export oil? Or is the idea of the USA exportation of oil to further degrade any fiscal stability of Russia? Because further degrading of the global oil markets hits many more countries than Russia. As a matter of fact there are USA allies that are densely dependent on that oil market such as Norway and the Netherlands that offshore oil in the North Atlantic.

The USA Congress is on an all time high to pander to the petroleum industry before their dual house majority fades away. That is cronyism. There is no need for the USA to export oil or any other petroleum product. There is less and less demand for petroleum/fossil fuel energy every day. It is by far the worst time to allow oil exports from the USA. It would only serve to completely destroy the global oil markets. It is hideous. The export ban would serve to completely fail any of it's purpose. If the idea is to support jobs and pay for the national budget that is completely absurd. 

July 23, 2015
By Timothy Gardner

...Furthermore, (click here) a 40-year-old ban on U.S. crude oil exports has already helped lead to a domestic oil glut, pushing down U.S. prices to more than $6 per barrel lower than the global Brent benchmark .
"Tapping the SPR and not allowing exports of domestic oil would be a catastrophe," said Amy Myers Jaffe, head of Energy and Sustainability at the University of California at Davis, and a consultant who advises governments on energy. "Oil would be trapped here and you'd hurt domestic production." Selling oil to raise cash for projects unrelated to bolstering energy security also has stiff opponents in Senators Lisa Murkowski and Maria Cantwell, the Republican and Democratic leaders of the Senate energy committee. It is uncertain whether the drugs bill and the highway bill will pass both chambers of Congress, but idea of tapping the SPR is unlikely to fade....

It isn't enough to have the oil market glut occur while the petroleum industry financed it's greed in North Dakota by 90% of it's projected income. The projected income was a completely idiotic estimate. Now the USA petroleum industry is failing and the banks bought into the idea they would be bailed out when such things as the oil export ban was upheld.

"W"rong.

The banks may very well have to eat this one. And why? Because they didn't learn the from 2008. 

Banks don't understand or are selective in their understanding of what supply and demand does to a product? Is the idea that the 'buy-hold-sell' of Wall Street is short sighted is more than obvious. There is no reliable expertise in the global financial markets as evidenced by the oil markets and the greed merchants of the American petroleum industry.

The winters of the USA require the strategic oil reserve be maintained intact and perhaps expanded. This while the expansion of alternative energies are being built as quickly as possible to bring a reasonable solution to the demand of the American people. Did the strategic energy reserve ever picture being needed to the point of protecting the people from freezing to death? Of course, that doesn't occur to Republicans. Republicans only react to the dangers of living in America due to the climate crisis until the dramatic damages are done and the deaths counted. Then there is that very sad "State of Emergency" that requires federal monies. 

Decades of neglect by the Republicans and their pandering to their cronies have brought the American people to the point where tragedy is served up daily. If it isn't heat, drought and water rationing, it is freezing temperatures and failing infrastructure that requires snow trucks to dump the snow into the Atlantic. The gross negligence of the Republican Party and now it's majorities is immoral and a complete pander to the petroleum industry.

I'll end this with a picture all too real to the obtunded rule of Reagan Republicans. 

Here we do again with the Republicans UNABLE to grow the USA economy except for oil world ideas. I don't think so.

THE PROFITABILITY OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT KILLS. Thank you, Ronald Reagan. (click here)

Space exploration had a great day.

President Obama hosted 300 students, 11 astronauts and Bill Nye at the White House for the second Astronomy Night. Among the students was Ahmed Mohamed, the Texas boy whose clock project was mistaken for a bomb. WBIR

This study reflects on the future of nuclear technology post Fukushima Daiichi.

It is worth reading, because, the public opinion globally of nuclear energy has changed with the exception of countries such as Iran. The public matters. Republican legislators like to claim there are jobs in every aspect of energy and it should be exploited to the maximum. That is counter culture to the American public. I think it is time the American Public's opinion matters and the end of cronyism brought to reality.

 

Anticipating the future (click here) is difficult in any situation, but assessing the prospects for nuclear power in the next fifty years presents especially complex challenges. The public perception of nuclear power has changed and continues to change. Once viewed as a miracle of modern technology, nuclear power came to be perceived by many as a potential catastrophe; now it is viewed as a potential, albeit potentially still dangerous, source of green power. Conventional wisdom in the 1960s held that nuclear power could dominate the electricity sectors of developed countries, while less than twenty years later, many predicted the complete demise of the U.S. nuclear industry following the Three Mile Island accident in 1979. Yet neither attitude fully forecast the situation today: a nuclear industry that is not dominant, but is far from dead. Indeed, the history of long-range planning for nuclear power serves as a caution for anyone wishing to make predictions about the state of the industry over the next half-century. Nonetheless, it is critical to assess its role in the future energy mix: decisions taken now will impact the energy sector for many years. This assessment requires both a review of past planning strategies and a new approach that considers alternate scenarios that may differ radically from business as usual....

Any nuclear contamination site should receive priority.

I am sure Senator Brown of Ohio can provide help in continuity with employment of workers and accomplish completion of this important mission.

July 11, 2014

...“We recently received correspondence from workers (click here) at the site and local community leaders expressing concern with the funding situation for the project,” the senators wrote. “They indicated they have been told that WARN Act notices could shortly be issued to employees at the site due to a lack of funds. We find these rumors incredibly disturbing because Congress provided DOE the funds it requested for Fiscal Year 2014.”...

With the understanding there will be a completed mission to remove nuclear contamination, the reclamation of the land depends on the level of radiation that may still be evident even after the clean up. My concern is the clean up is driven by reclamation and not safety. Reclamation should not be the first promise regarding these sites.

Why Russia, Mr. McCain?

20 October 2015

After securing a beachhead in Syria, (click here) the terrorists wish to destabilize whole new regions, widen their expansion and recruit more fighters, including from Russia and former Soviet republics, the Russian president said at a meeting with the country's military top brass.

The extremists from the Middle East “have been recruiting militants and continue doing so in many countries, unfortunately including Russia and CIS countries,” Vladimir Putin said, adding that Moscow launched its air operation in Syria as a preventive action against Islamic State extremists....

Russia is more of an ally, than it ever is not.

The countries not part of NATO need the oversight of an ally that seeks to protect their borders and their people. Where The West leaves off Russia is always waiting in the wings. It is the way the world works.  

August 14, 2014
By Juan Cole
The list of powers eager to see Daesh Iclick here) (what Arabs call ISIS or ISIL) defeated grew larger this weekend with a report in the Financial Times that Iraqi foreign minister Ibrahim Jaafari received a pledge from his counterpart Wang Yi that China would intervene against Daesh from the air. It was not clear whether China was offering to fly fighter jets or just programmed missile strikes....

Rarely does the global community find China involved in any military effort, except, perhaps in the Pacific. But, Daesh is a global threat and China has no taste for a civil war.

 

Steven Spielberg loves Christmas.

He likes to add dimension to being a kid at a special time of year and he is doing it again with Star Wars, The Force Awakens.

He is ingrained in the American fantasy culture and we love it. 

He released his tour of history with War Horse on Christmas, too.

SuperPacs are created as a business, a very nice business and not necessarily a political standard.

There is some talk about Donald Trump speaking to acquaintances about a SuperPAC while he was deciding his run for President. The argument is that Donald Trump's brand is self-funded.

He is self funded. He has an election organization that accepts donors because people like to contribute to candidates. It is all a very smart strategy to win. As far as a conversation about a SuperPAC before his announcement, what else is new? He would be a fool not to discuss the issue with people important to him. But, I think his reasoning as I understand it was to allow an official PAC to exist to allow people a channel for monies rather than allowing free lancing organizations to taint his political image.

It is reasonable to believe every candidate at some point in their announcement process will be talking to people that want to form a SuperPAC in their name. I think it was Bush this time that was called out on his fundraising while not yet announced. Donald Trump didn't do any of that.

PACs are very nice businesses. They have lots of money for lots of fun. I think they are among the worst aspects of politics and provide no benefit to the truth. Basically, the message I think political PACs carry is ruthlessness. They'll do anything to get their point or political leanings across. They do this without the benefit of a candidates' input while holding a degree of dignity, ie: the Swift Boaters which somehow "W" could not bring himself to rein in for the lies they told. 

So, when it comes to saying Donald Trump is a phony and isn't financing his own run or is pure in seeking to protect the loyalty to his constituents; perhaps the word isn't purity, but, legal and untarnished. Donald Trump has run a legal campaign for the nomination and has primarily sponsored himself in that run. I don't think the jet donates it's own fuel, does it? 

April 15, 2014
By Julie Patel

...Fewer than one in seven of the roughly 300 super PACs (click here) and “hybrid” PACs that spent money in 2013 put funds toward calling for the election or defeat of a federal candidate, according to the Center for Public Integrity’s analysis of recent FEC filings.

That was one in seven appropriated their funds for the election or defeat of.

Given that 2013 was not a regular election year, it's not surprising that super PACs weren't out buying ads. But critics say the groups could have used 2013 to stockpile cash ahead of midterm elections this November. Instead, they collectively burned through more than half of the $143 million they raised last year. Nearly two-thirds of super PACs and hybrid PACs spent more than they saved.

Many of these committees operated as piggy banks for golf expenses and steakhouse soirees or vehicles for filling the bank accounts of consulting firms and super PAC executives. Others have grown so big and sophisticated that they operate more like political party committees than independent outfits....

The FBI was so correct....

...Zararias Moussaoui didn't get on the flight.

There is no doubt what the USA intelligence knew!

There is nothing illuminating in stating that 911 was going to happen if "W" was pursuing the intelligence actively rather than planning his next book reading at a kindergarten.

The entire operation that day was quivering at the fact the FBI was absolutely correct! 

Germany told the USA about Atta and that was long before 911.  

When political idiots try to state 911 was always going to happen anyway they eliminate the pursuit of it's reality if "W" and Cheney actually gave a damn about the country rather than war. 

The excuses for not ? figuring it all out ? are as much idiotic as the fact the attacks happened.  

Cheney wasn't interested. He obstructed the entire reality from the second seat of power in the USA government. Don't tell me for one minute the attacks weren't going to happen if the intelligence was actively pursued. The intelligence included hijacking jets. That was never made clear to any airline. Don't even try it. 

The American people were subverted by their own Executive Branch. My god.   Zacarias Moussaoui was known. 

I didn't know there was such a thing as Republican sainthood.

Evidently, the political right wing wants to eliminate not simply women's health needs, but, the research, too.

There are open and wrongful attacks on Planned Parenthood. I would be interested in knowing what are the dates of the supposed illegal status of harvesting and selling fetal tissue in Texas?

August 15, 2015

Andrea K. McDaniels and Meredith Cohn

When Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine professor (click here) Akhilesh Pandey conducts research on cancer, he often turns to the best replica for studying the human disorder: fetal tissue.He could use animals or a computer model, but he says nothing else provides results that are as accurate.
"If we want to study a process, it's best to study the real thing," said Pandey, who has used fetal tissue for more than a decade to better understand pancreatic and breast cancers and leukemia. "Models can be insufficient in mimicking what we want to study. Even today we don't understand all the biological processes. We can make a little bit of skin in the lab or cartilage, but not organs. For that, there is more complicated interplay."
Scientists like Pandey have used tissue from aborted fetuses in their research for years, but debate over the practice has re-emerged after Planned Parenthood was recently accused by anti-abortion activists of profiting from the practice....

The political right wing is stating this is illegal. Clearly it is not. At least not in many states. The medical societies of the USA fought long and hard to conduct this research when "W" was first elected and he banned it from our country. So, this is simply a new attack on the same medical institutions that have created a moral environment for research that saves women's lives.

April 17, 2015
By Operation Rescue By Cheryl Sullenger

Worcester, MA – A loss in court (click here) and increased public outrage over fetal parts trafficking has prompted StemExpress, to sever its ties with Planned Parenthood and recalibrate its public profile to one that is “predominately” focused — at least outwardly — on adult blood and tissue procurement.
This news came in the same week that Operation Rescue obtained purchase orders that show the University of Massachusetts Medical School paid StemExpress a total of $29,000 for human fetal cadaverous tissue, (presumably harvested from Planned Parenthood abortions), for the purpose of creating “humanized” mice.
StemExpress is a biotech company in Placerville, California, that has been featured in video exposés released by the Center for Medical Progress, which show the company partnering with Planned Parenthood to harvest and profit from the sale of aborted baby parts....






No one has done anything wrong and there is a good chance any laws to stop the research by limiting availability of aborted fetus will be unconstitutional. No one is harvesting babies when they could have been born into a family. That would be murder and the world would not tolerate such a thing. These are voluntary abortions and the fetal tissue is sold for the purpose of maintaining women's health options at the clinic end and research to further the wellness of women at the receiving end of the transaction. There is not a darn thing wrong here.

The political right wing are threatening the lives of women. Just that simple.

Get them out of Afghanistan. NOW!

October 19, 2015

By Reuters

An American F-16 aircraft (click here) was hit by small arms fire while conducting a patrol in Afghanistan last week, U.S. military officials said on Monday.

The jet was flying a routine combat air patrol in Paktia province in eastern Afghanistan on Oct. 13 when it was hit by small arms fire, a U.S. military official said.

The fire hit one of the aircraft's stabilizers and damaged one of the munitions it was carrying, said a second official, Captain Jeff Davis, a spokesman for the Department of Defense.

"As a precautionary measure it jettisoned two of its fuel tanks (and) three of its munitions before safely returning to the base," Davis said....

It would be interesting to realize what happened on the ground when the fuel tanks hit and whether or not the munitions exploded along with jettisoned fuel or was it gathered up by the Taliban and/or Afghan children.

Small arms fire at jets that lose their fuel tanks and jettison their munitions is probably a really interesting strategy. Just like robbing banks to fund the wars.

We are such an obliging country. We do all sorts of predictably stupid things that creates and propagates the furtherance of war wherever we find it.

Don't get me wrong, I think the safety of the pilot comes first. The practices of losing military equipment and supplies should come before the death of a pilot. But, it is the idea war is preferred is what I believe a very bad habit of the USA military.

In most of my social circles it would be coined as "shooting yourself in the foot."

Anyone find out if the Iranians got that drone back in the air? It is such a nice piece of machinery I thought maybe.

Sadly, the deaths at Hajj are higher than first assessed.

October 19, 2015
by Jon Gambrell

Dubai, United Arab Emirates — The crush and stampede (click here) that struck the hajj last month in Saudi Arabia killed at least 2,110 pilgrims, a new Associated Press tally showed Monday, after officials in the kingdom met to discuss the tragedy.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Naif bin Abdul Aziz, who is also the kingdom's interior minister, oversaw the meeting late Sunday, according to the official Saudi Press Agency. It did not mention any official response to the rising death toll. The country's own toll since Sept. 26 has stood at 769 people killed and 934 injured.
"The crown prince was reassured on the progress of the investigations," the SPA report said. "He directed the committee's members to continue their efforts to find the causes of the accident, praying to Allah Almighty to accept the martyrs and wishing the injured a speedy recovery."
King Salman ordered the investigation into the Sept. 24 tragedy in Mina, just outside the holy city of Mecca. The disaster was the deadliest in the history of the annual pilgrimage, and came after a crane collapse in Mecca earlier that month killed 111 worshippers. The twin disasters marred the first hajj to be overseen by the king since he ascended to the throne at the start of this year....

Today, Lindsay Graham stated as soon as the British left Libya the late Ambassador should have been ordered out of the country at that time.

Senator Graham doesn't get it, but, saying such idiot things he is playing politics with the dead of Benghazi. 

Senator Graham has far more serious issues facing his constituency than planning the next war for the USA. He and his staff should be in South Carolina working up assessments and planning the request for funding following the devastating and deadly climate crisis storm that hit his state.

And if Senator Graham believes the activity of the personnel of the USA should measure their activities according to that of our allies, then he needs to demand our military leave Afghanistan ASAP. They are the only ones of NATO still there to pressure the decisions of the elections of 2016. I remind. The Taliban does not pose a threat to the USA.

There is an interesting statement made today in the Republican primary.

It relates directly to the truth. The truth I posted on this blog Sunday night regarding the support of "W"s administration and their purposeful lack of action to prevent the attacks of September 11, 2015.

Jeb Bush stated from a podium, not within the interview cited and primarily for his donors to hear, '..those. that hold my brother responsible for 9-11 have been marginalized....'

I find the statement more than interesting and as a political strategy this blog has identified called "plausible deniability." 

From the beginning, when Senator Feinstein called Dick Cheney regarding the CIA PDB everyone knows as "Bin Laden Determined to strike in the US," the strategy to allow terror to exist to the people of the USA, was plausible deniability. The PDB clearly stated the attack was anticipated within three months. Cheney stated that would not be addressed for six months. That is denying the FACT our intelligence services knew clearly there was a threat anticipated. The reasons the Bush/Cheney White House found deniability a preferred status of the PDB is obvious. Neocons love war. What the American people didn't bargain for was that reality. When "W" wrangled his way into the White House in 2000, that FACT about Neocons was unthinkable.

When Jeb Bush stated verbally within the past 24 hours, '..those. that hold my brother responsible for 9-11 have been marginalized....' was addressing his $100 or more million dollar PAC. To make that statement obvious, the former governor was saying the deniability of the terror attack has worked well all these years. He fully expected it to continue to work until he reached the White House in 2016.

So, voters need to realize when a Neocon and his party use every aspect of voter oppression to reach the White House there is an agenda of violence and war. It is a preferred status. It is a preferred status even in the face of the dissolution of the Soviet Union without firing as shot.  

I think it is obvious plausible deniability and the installation of fear would be completely clear to the majority of Americans these days. It is a definite political tool used by the Republicans. They deny a lot of things. They deny corruption all the time. They deny women need institutions such as Planned Parenthood and extended medicaid coverage. They deny there is a need to rein in gun violence. They deny there is gross disparity in USA treasury income and the national debt. They denied the jobs needed for an entire generation we now call Millennials. They deny the climate crisis while South Carolina was unpredicted due to lack of proper modeling protocols which caused enormous and unfathomable destruction of the state's infrastructure.

So, the truth about the prevention of terrorist attacks before the actual downing of the World Trade Towers was completely abandoned. The "W" administration preferred the OK Corral on a global basis than protecting Americans.

9-11 could have been detected and averted. There really is no doubt about that. The 911 Commission and Iraq Study Group established stark realities the people of the USA still haven't identified as chosen failures of the "W" administration. Make no doubt about it. "W" ordered the attacks into Iraq in the face of absolutely no finding of WMD by the UN security personnel in Iraq. After the attacks were carried out and it was stated, "You broke it, you bought it," David Kay did not find any evidence of WMD either.

Neocons are real. They play by rules most Americans abhor. And plausible deniability is their game. Make no mistake JEB! is exactly that and his inability to sincerely campaign is the fact he isn't interested in the truth or THE FACTS.

Don't embarrass yourselves by actually believing "W" brother.

Our children and their future is more important than war and there should never be plausible deniability to take their future from them.

When visiting Israel take the passport and pack the body armor.

October 19, 2015

Jerusalem (AP) " An Eritrean migrant shot (click here) by an Israeli security guard and then attacked by bystanders who mistook him for an assailant in a deadly bus station attack has died of his wounds, Israeli hospital officials said Monday.
The mistaken shooting of the migrant, for reasons that remain unclear, seemed to capture the current climate of ratcheted up tensions among Israelis after months of seemingly random lone-wolf attacks by Palestinians.
"It's terrible," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon. "It shows you what a terrible situation we are in."
The daily newspaper Yediot Ahronot left no ambiguity as to exactly why the man, identified as Mulu Habtom Zerhom, was shot. Monday's headline read: "Just because of his skin color."...

What is the DEFENSE BUDGET in Iraq?

October 19, 2015

Baghdad (AP) A government spokesman (click here) says Iraq's Cabinet has approved next year's budget, sending it to parliament for final approval.
Spokesman Saad al-Hadithi told The Associated Press Monday that the 2016 budget of 106 trillion Iraqi dinars (about $91 billion) will run with a deficit of 23 trillion dinars ($19.72 billion). Al-Hadithi added that the deficit will be relieved through loans from local and international lenders.
He said the budget calculations are based on an assumed oil price of $45 a barrel with an average daily crude oil output of 3.6 million barrels.
Iraq holds the world's fourth largest oil reserves, some 143.1 billion barrels, and oil revenues make up nearly 95 percent of its budget. Like other oil-reliant countries, Iraq's economy has suffered due to plummeting oil prices since last year.

China has always had extensive policies regarding the Panda. Maybe all countries should consider the level of brutality exhibited in Europe before participating in breeding or sale programs.

That is a great bear. Fun. What a ham.

A ban on participation with Europe could be effective and/or demands for excellent treatment or return them to their homeland.

19 October 2015

If European zoos (click here) continue to publicly dissect dead animals, Russia will have to review exchange agreements with such institutions, Environment Minister Sergey Donskoy has stated.

“If they continue to make such attempts we could reconsider all agreements with our colleagues. For me it is hard to even think about the possibility of our animals being shown to the public like this,” the minister told the Izvestia daily. “In any way, when we transfer some animals to foreign zoos, we always keep a record of their future fate,” he said.

Donskoy also added that the Russian authorities always request foreign partners to treat all animals with great care and this does not only include ones that were born in Russia.

The comment came days after the public autopsy of a dead lion in a zoo in the Danish city of Odense. It was performed in front of spectators, including small children. The stunt caused a global outcry, especially after the release of pictures and videos of children who started to cry when they saw the grizzly scene.

In 2014, staff at Copenhagen zoo publicly killed an 18-month old giraffe, dressed the carcass and subsequently fed the meat to lions. This happened despite worldwide protests and attempts to save the animal, which although healthy, had a weak gene pool, which is not allowed by international zoological bodies....

British Dental Journal 219, E6 (2015)
Published online: 25 September 2015

Paracetamol (click here) overdose secondary to dental pain: a case series

I. Siddique, H. Mahmood & R. Mohammed-Al

Introduction There have been documented cases of serious and life-threatening health effects due to patients taking unintentional analgesia overdose secondary to dental pain. We aimed to determine firstly what proportion of unintentional paracetamol overdose cases admitted to an acute medical assessment unit (MAU) were secondary to dental pain, secondly what proportion of such cases encountered barriers to accessing emergency dental care and finally what clinical burden such cases placed on the hospital services....

Paracetamol is an over the counter pain reliever / analgesic. It is found to be causing overdoes after dental work. I thought it was interesting from the stand point of how people are naive of their own ability to over medicate unintentionally. The USA had something similar with Tylenol over a longer period of time which resulted in liver damage.

People believe the labels. First World countries have people that are label readers. They trust. They trust labels because it is a place where their government is suppose to have authority to warn them of dangers. It would be nice of governments actually did protect citizens rather than allow pharmaceutical companies a pass on protects.

Over doses are serious business. Most people don't worry about overdoes and think more is better to solve their pain problems. When there is going to be significant pain other than over the counter medications should be considered.

Over the Counter medications should have a warning about overdose potential that can harm consumers. Over the past ten years we have seen medications that were once prescribed allowed to be sold directly to consumers. If this is what is to come of self-medication then the dangers have to be made obvious.

"Morning Papers"

The Rooster

"Okeydoke"

High School football season is beginning.

September 27. 2015
By Josh Barnett

On the same day (click here) that the high school football community in New Jersey was mourning the death of Warren Hills Regional quarterback Evan Murray, Bartlesville, Okla., was celebrating the life of Ben Hamm.
The funeral for Hamm, 16, was held Saturday morning. Hamm, a junior from Bartlesville’s Wesleyan Christian School, died Sept. 19 from injuries he suffered in game eight days earlier.
The death of Murray and Hamm follow the death of Franklin Parrish (Winnsboro, La.) player Tyrell Cameron in a Sept. 4 game in Louisiana. Late Friday night, Franklin Parish beat Richwood in overtime, its first victory since Cameron’s death.
According to the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research at the University of North Carolina, five high school players died last season of causes directly related to football such as head and spine injuries. Seven more high school players died from indirect causes such as heatstroke.
“This put a lot of things in perspective,” Franklin Parish coach Barry Sebren told USA TODAY High School Sports on Sunday. “You have to try to learn from those moments and take the opportunity to recognize that this thing it’s serious. Some things you thought were serious before are not really. These situations help you understand what’s important and what’s not important.”...

Young men are dying of brain trauma in high school. I think the President needs to get involved and halt the high school football season to evaluate what is going on with these young men. Our teenagers are traumatized. It needs to be addressed.


October 18, 2015
By Patrick Redford

Last night, junior Cam’ron Matthews of Alto High School in Alto, (click here) Texas died after collapsing near the end of the first half of his school’s game against Carlisle High. According to NBC, Matthews complained of dizziness and suffered a seizure on the sidelines. Matthews was airlifted out of the stadium and taken to a hospital in Tyler, about 50 miles away.

The school made the following announcement last night:

Cam’ron Matthews, passed away Saturday, October 17th. He was a junior and a member of the Yellow Jacket Varsity Football team. Please keep the Matthews family, our school and community in your prayers....

The year 2015-2016 is proving to be a repeat of 2014-2015. While there were some deaths related to heat, the majority of the deaths last year and this year are due to head trauma.

November 30, 2014
By Erik Brady

..."No one should die playing the game they love," (click here) his mother told USA TODAY Sports.
Penny Gilbert and Dean Janes want to spare other parents their pain. That's why they sat at a conference table in their attorneys' office here recently, telling stories about their strong-willed son and his life and death.
"We don't want to take away football," Gilbert said. "We just want to make it safer. We don't want Damon to be just a statistic."
The statistics are damning: Janes is one of eight players last year whose deaths were directly related to high school football, according to the National Center for Catastrophic Sport Injury Research at the University of North Carolina. This season, five players have died of causes directly related to football, such as head and spine injuries.
Nine high school football players died last season of indirect causes, such as heatstroke. There have been nine more such deaths this season, seven from high school.
And yet for those same seasons, there have been no fatalities directly related to pro, semipro, college and youth football. Which raises the question: Why are high school football players dying at a time when players from other levels are not?
"We're trying to wrap our minds around that," said Kevin Guskiewicz, founding director of the Matthew Gfeller Sport-Related Traumatic Brain Injury Research Center at North Carolina and who also directs the catastrophic injury center's traumatic injury division.
High school football players suffer three times as many catastrophic injuries as college players — meaning deaths, permanent disability injuries, neck fractures and serious head injuries, among other conditions, according to a 2007 study in the American Journal of Sports Medicine.
Three high school football players died in one week at the end of September and beginning of October, including Tom Cutinella, 16, whose undefeated Shoreham-Wading River High School team from Long Island, N.Y., claimed an emotional victory in the Class IV championship game on Sunday. The Suffolk County Football Coaches Association has created a memorial award in his name....

"Good Night, Moon"

The waxing crescent

5.7 days old

32.1% lit

Scientists state Jupiter's Red Spot is shrinking.

...Scientists (click here) have used the maps to spot an unusual wave near the equator -- similar to formations seen in Earth's atmosphere when cyclones are beginning to form -- that's only been seen once before on Jupiter....

...But as these images confirm, the GRS continues to shrink in size. It may have reduced by as much as half in the few hundred years we've been keeping tabs on it. These images show that it's about 150 miles shorter now than it was in 2014, and that it's growing rounder in shape. Its core is also growing less distinct than the rest of it, in terms of color....