dkf
dkf's JournalCan someone explain the difference in the concept of an assault weapon vs semi-automatic weapon,
Vs a glock type handgun vs a revolver?
And I don't mean the government definition, but the capabilities from a gun user perspective.
How do these clips factor in? Are they interchangeable where the clip itself can be changed to change the capacity? Or is it made for just that one?
Or is it a range of capabilities with arbitrary cut off points?
The human microbiome Me, myself, us
Looking at human beings as ecosystems that contain many collaborating and competing species could change the practice of medicine
That bacteria can cause disease is no revelation. But the diseases in question are. Often, they are not acute infections of the sort 20th-century medicine has been so good at dealing with (and which have coloured doctors’ views of bacteria in ways that have made medical science slow to appreciate the richness and relevance of people’s microbial ecosystems). They are, rather, the chronic illnesses that are now, at least in the rich world, the main focus of medical attention. For, from obesity and diabetes, via heart disease, asthma and multiple sclerosis, to neurological conditions such as autism, the microbiome seems to play a crucial role.
The link with heart disease is twofold: an observation in people, and an experiment on mice. The observation in people was made by Jeremy Nicholson of Imperial College, London. Dr Nicholson, who studies the links between metabolic products and disease, has shown that the amount of formic acid in someone’s urine is inversely related to his blood pressure—a risk factor for cardiac problems. The connection appears to be an effect that formic acid has on the kidneys: it acts as a signalling molecule, changing the amount of salt they absorb back into the body from blood plasma that is destined to become urine. Since the predominant source of formic acid is the gut microbiome, Dr Nicholson thinks the mix of bacteria there is a factor in heart disease.
The link with diabetes was noticed in morbidly obese people who had opted for a procedure known as Roux-en-Y, which short-circuits the small intestine and thus reduces the amount of food the body can absorb. Such people are almost always diabetic. As a treatment for obesity, Roux-en-Y is effective. As a treatment for diabetes, it is extraordinary. In 80% of cases the condition vanishes within days. Experiments conducted on mice by Dr Nicholson and his colleagues show that Roux-en-Y causes the composition of the gut microbiome to change. Dr Nicholson thinks this explains the sudden disappearance of diabetes.
In the case of multiple sclerosis, a confirmatory study was published last year by Kerstin Berer and her colleagues at the Max Planck Institute for Immunobiology and Epigenetics in Freiburg, Germany. They showed, again in mice, that gut bacteria are indeed involved in triggering the reaction that causes the body’s immune system to turn against certain nerve cells and strip away their insulation in precisely the way that leads to multiple sclerosis.
Much more...
http://www.economist.com/node/21560523
Neuroscience of the Gut: the brain is shaped by bacteria in the digestive tract
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=the-neuroscience-of-gutPeople may advise you to listen to your gut instincts: now research suggests that your gut may have more impact on your thoughts than you ever realized. Scientists from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden and the Genome Institute of Singapore led by Sven Pettersson recently reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that normal gut flora, the bacteria that inhabit our intestines, have a significant impact on brain development and subsequent adult behavior.
We human beings may think of ourselves as a highly evolved species of conscious individuals, but we are all far less human than most of us appreciate. Scientists have long recognized that the bacterial cells inhabiting our skin and gut outnumber human cells by ten-to-one. Indeed, Princeton University scientist Bonnie Bassler compared the approximately 30,000 human genes found in the average human to the more than 3 million bacterial genes inhabiting us, concluding that we are at most one percent human. We are only beginning to understand the sort of impact our bacterial passengers have on our daily lives.
Moreover, these bacteria have been implicated in the development of neurological and behavioral disorders. For example, gut bacteria may have an influence on the body’s use of vitamin B6, which in turn has profound effects on the health of nerve and muscle cells. They modulate immune tolerance and, because of this, they may have an influence on autoimmune diseases, such as multiple sclerosis. They have been shown to influence anxiety-related behavior, although there is controversy regarding whether gut bacteria exacerbate or ameliorate stress related anxiety responses. In autism and other pervasive developmental disorders, there are reports that the specific bacterial species present in the gut are altered and that gastrointestinal problems exacerbate behavioral symptoms. A newly developed biochemical test for autism is based, in part, upon the end products of bacterial metabolism.
But this new study is the first to extensively evaluate the influence of gut bacteria on the biochemistry and development of the brain. The scientists raised mice lacking normal gut microflora, then compared their behavior, brain chemistry and brain development to mice having normal gut bacteria. The microbe-free animals were more active and, in specific behavioral tests, were less anxious than microbe-colonized mice. In one test of anxiety, animals were given the choice of staying in the relative safety of a dark box, or of venturing into a lighted box. Bacteria-free animals spent significantly more time in the light box than their bacterially colonized littermates. Similarly, in another test of anxiety, animals were given the choice of venturing out on an elevated and unprotected bar to explore their environment, or remain in the relative safety of a similar bar protected by enclosing walls. Once again, the microbe-free animals proved themselves bolder than their colonized kin.
Will central banks cancel government debt?
As the IMF meetings close in Tokyo this weekend, it is obvious that governments are struggling to find the correct balance between controlling public debt, which now exceeds 110 per cent of GDP for the advanced economies, and boosting the rate of economic growth. The former objective requires more budgetary tightening, while the latter requires the opposite. Is there any way around this?
One radical option now being discussed is to cancel (or, in polite language, “restructure”) part of the government debt that has been acquired by the central banks as a consequence of quantitative easing (QE). After all, the government and the central bank are both firmly within the public sector, so a consolidated public sector balance sheet would net this debt out entirely.
This option has always been viewed as extremely dangerous on inflationary grounds, and has never been publicly discussed by senior central bankers, as far as I am aware [1]. However, Adair Turner, the chairman of the UK Financial Services Agency, and reportedly a candidate to become the next governor of the Bank of England, made a speech last week that said more unorthodox options, including “further integration of different aspects of policy”, might need to be considered in the UK.
Two separate journalists (Robert Peston of the BBC and Simon Jenkins of The Guardian) said that Lord Turner’s “private view” is that some part of the Bank’s gilts holdings might be cancelled in order to boost the economy. Lord Turner distanced himself in public from this suggestion on Saturday. However, the notion will now be widely discussed. It is easy to see how the idea could appeal to a finance minister facing the need to tighten fiscal policy during a recession in order to bring down the public debt ratio.
Why is this such a radical idea? No one in the private sector would lose out from the cancellation of these bonds, which have already been purchased at market prices by the central bank in exchange for cash. The loser, however, would be the central bank itself, which would instantly wipe out its capital base if such a course were followed. The crucial question is whether this matters and, if so, how.
http://blogs.ft.com/gavyndavies/2012/10/14/will-central-banks-cancel-government-debt/?
So how do these assault rifle/gun bans work?
Do they generally grandfather in old pieces but ban new ones? Or do they ban all existing ones requiring confiscation and surrender? Do you get compensated?
Are you allowed to leave these for your kids? Or must you turn them in at the owner's death? Can you sell them to someone else?
Milk prices could rise to $6 to $8 a gallon if Congress does not pass a new farm bill
WASHINGTON — Forget the fiscal crisis and the automatic budget cuts. Come Jan. 1, there is a threat that milk prices could rise to $6 to $8 a gallon if Congress does not pass a new farm bill that amends farm policy dating back to the Truman presidency.
Lost in the political standoff between the Obama administration and Congressional Republicans over the budget is a virtually forgotten impasse over a farm bill that covers billions of dollars in agriculture programs. Without last-minute Congressional action, the government would have to follow an antiquated 1949 farm law that would force Washington to buy milk at wildly inflated prices, creating higher prices in the dairy case. Milk now costs an average of $3.65 a gallon.
Higher prices would be based on what dairy farm production costs were in 1949, when milk production was almost all done by hand. Because of adjustments for inflation and other technical formulas, the government would be forced by law to buy milk at roughly twice the current market prices to maintain a stable milk market.
Under the current program, the government sets a minimum price to cover dairy farmers’ production costs. If the market price drops below that, the government buys dairy products from farmers to buoy prices and increase demand. Since milk prices have remained above that minimum price in recent years, dairy farmers usually do better by selling their products commercially rather than to the government.
But if 1949 rules go into effect, the government would be required to buy dairy products at around $40 per hundredweight — roughly twice the current market price — to drive up the price of milk to cover dairy producers’ cost.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/21/us/milk-prices-could-double-as-farm-bill-stalls.html?ei=5065&adxnnl=1&partner=MYWAY&adxnnlx=1356095192-La9z3tHixRUxlw1pEGpmwg&_r=0
Gun Sales Escalate After Mass Shootings
http://www.cnbc.com/id/100331181At Freedom Firearms in Fort Wayne, Indiana there is hardly anything left in the store. Managing partner Angie Freeland told CNBC sales have "gone through the roof". With little left to sell, she will probably close for what is typically her busiest day of the year, December 24.
"It started on Monday with the AR-15s going out the door," she said. "Once those were gone they were buying anything with a high capacity magazine."
The rush to buy guns comes in the wake of last Friday's massacre in Newtown, CT. Twenty year old Adam Lanza shot twenty children between the ages of six and seven, and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School. He killed them all with a semi-automatic rifle made by Bushmaster called the AR-15, before killing himself with a handgun. (Read More: Obama Consoles Connecticut Town, Vows Effort to Tame Violence)
The year-end surge in sales comes at the end of what gun retailers describe as a very strong year. Fears the re-election of President Obama would result in stricter gun laws drove those numbers for the first eleven months of 2011. Now the December surge could be halted by a lack of supply. Parro said he is low on inventory but cannot get through to his distributors, and Freedom Firearm's Freeland said the seven or eight distributors she deals with around the country, are all out of inventory.
For the last month Jerry McCall has hung a sign outside his store, Texas Guns, in San Antonio, Texas reading "Get Your AKs and ARs before the ban." The sign referrs to the assault rifle the AK-47, and the AR-15, and his belief that a re-elected Obama would prevent future purchases of them. McCall said he has sold everything on his wall, along with all his ARs and AKs in stock. He said the twelve distributors who supply him with these guns are out of stock too.
Would it be so bad if we dropped medicare doc reimbursements by 27%
http://money.cnn.com/2012/11/08/news/economy/fiscal-cliff/index.htmlWhy isn't that somewhere we should be able to cut expenses?
If doctors want to stop treating the elderly I don't imagine that will go over well.
72% of Xbox 360 Gamers Approve of "More Military Drone Strikes"
Posted by timothy on Thursday October 25, @09:53AM
from the ok-but-what-about-pepsi-drinkers? dept.
An anonymous reader writes
"During the latest presidential debate, Xbox 360 owners were being polled live, as the debate was progressing, on a number of different questions, and asked to answer 'Yes,' 'No,' or 'Don't Know' using their gamepad. Out of these questions, one particular question produced a surprising result: Xbox 360 owners were asked 'Do you support more use of drone aircraft to attack suspected terrorists?' 20% answered this question with 'No'. 8% answered 'Don't know.' And a whopping 72% answered the question 'Yes.' This raises an interesting question in and of itself: Is the average Xbox 360 player at all aware that drone strikes in countries like Pakistan cause a serious number of civilian deaths on a regular basis? Or do Xbox 360 gamers live in a parallel, game-inspired universe, where a real world 'Drone Strike' is something seriously cool, just like it is cool to use it in popular games like Call of Duty? In other words, does playing simulated war games like COD on a game console on a daily basis, and enjoying these games, cause gamers to become blinkered to the at times seriously dire real world consequences of using military tactics like drone strikes for real?"
http://games.slashdot.org/story/12/10/25/1453232/72-of-xbox-360-gamers-approve-of-more-military-drone-strikes?utm_source=feedburner
Inouye asked Abercrombie to appoint Hanabusa to Senate after his death
In a letter to Gov. Neil Abercrombie that was delivered at 11 a.m. on Monday, just hours before his death, Senator Daniel Inouye apologized for his inability to fulfill his term and made a request for his successor to the United States Senate, according to his office.
Inouye's representatives said that his last wish was for U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa to replace him, citing her intellect and presence and saying it would be a seamless transition if he were to choose her.
http://m.hawaiinewsnow.com/autojuice?targetUrl=http%3a%2f%2fwww.hawaiinewsnow.com%2fstory%2f20367486%2finouye-asked-abercrombie-to-appoint-colleen-hanabusa-to-senate-after-his-death
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