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[SoNotHer]

Australia Passes Carbon Tax

11/08/2011
SustainableBusiness.com News

Australia passed carbon tax legislation today!

The landmark law, passed in the Senate today, makes Australia the first major economy to put a tax on carbon. The lower house passed the law in mid-October. Taxing carbon will greatly increase energy efficiency and provide incentives for polluters to shift to renewable energy and replace outdated technology. It will provide the certainty corporations need to make serious changes and investments, while helping Australia meet its goal of reducing carbon emissions 5% below 2000 levels by 2020 and 80% by 2050.

"Today Australia has a price on carbon as the law of our land. This comes after a quarter of a century of scientific warnings, 37 parliamentary inquiries, and years of bitter debate and division," says Prime Minister Julia Gillard in a press conference. The tax, which affects the country's 500 biggest polluters, starts in July 2012 at $25 per ton. It will be followed by a carbon trading program in 2015, when polluters can buy carbon offsets from projects overseas, such as the Mexico efficient light bulb project we wrote about yesterday.

The carbon market in Australia is projected to reach $15.5 billion by 2015, after which carbon permit sales could raise $27 billion in the first four years.

Details on Carbon Tax Program

Initially, the biggest polluters would be taxed at A$23 (US$25) per ton, but many wouldn't actually pay that. Aluminum and steel manufacturers and other exporters that have intensive emissions would get almost all carbon permits for free for three years. The coal industry would get an injection of A$1.3 billion to help it reduce emissions and the steel industry would get A$300 million. And there's billions of dollars in compensation for business and households in the event that electricity prices rise (expected to rise less than 1%). 90% of workers will get a tax cut, worth an average A$300 a year.

The legislation allows companies to offset a percentage of emissions by purchasing carbon credits under the Carbon Farming Initiative, which rewards farmers for generating tradeable carbon offsets from agricultural projects.

Through actions like planting trees, reducing fertilizer use and cutting methane emissions from livestock, farmers would receive carbon credits to sell into the nation's carbon trading platform. Land use in Australia accounts for roughly 23% of the country's greenhouse gas emissions. The bill also creates an A$10 billion independent Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) to encourage private investment in renewable energy, and a A$3.2 billion Australian Renewable Energy Agency.

CEFC will run for 5 years beginning in 2013. Half the money is allocated for energy efficiency and to support commercialization of low carbon technologies, and half goes to renewable energy. The Australian Renewable Energy Agency will give grants for research and development for promising clean energy technologies, and to help them reach commercial scale.

Major companies across many industries pledged their support for a carbon tax, including GE, Fujitsu, IKEA, Alstom and Pacific Hydro:

"As major Australian and international corporations and representative associations operating across the Australian economy we strongly support the introduction of a well designed carbon price to support the transition to a low-carbon economy. EU's market, which accounts for 97% of carbon trades, has been struggling this year as austerity has greatly reduced the price of carbon. Still, the global carbon market is estimated at $142 billion in 2010, according to the World Bank.

New Zealand has a similar, much smaller program, and Europe has a cap-and-trade program. India has a tax on coal. China, South Korea and South Africa are planning programs that cap carbon, and California is leading the US with a cap-and-trade program that begins in 2013.

Australia is one of the highest greenhouse gas emitters in the world and relies on coal for 80% of electricity. The country is the largest coal exporter in the world.

"We cannot be stranded with a high-pollution economy as the world changes," says Prime Minister Gillard. Putting a price on carbon is "the cheapest, fairest way to cut pollution and build a clean energy economy," says a spokesperson from the prime minister's office. The carbon tax is widely expected to spur multi-billion dollar investments in renewable energy and to lead to the phase-out of aging coal plants.

[ruffryder]

There will be a nationwide test of the emergency alarm system at 2 pm EST. Nov 9th on the tv. There will be a brief interruption lasting about 30 seconds. Don't be alarmed people. THIS IS ONLY A TEST!

hehe.. < wonder if they are getting ready for 2012 > :P

http://www.fema.gov/emergency/ipaws/eas_info.shtm

[AtLast]

Ohio Repeals Kasich’s Union Law in Vote That Sets Stage for 2012 Election
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-1...-for-2012.html

Mississippi 'Personhood' Amendment Vote Fails

http://www.blogrunner.com/snapshot/D...nt_vote_fails/


Maybe there is hope, afterall....

[ruffryder]

maybe old news ? Very interesting nonetheless. Massive asteroid 2005 YU55 flew by earth Nov. 8, 6:28 p.m. ET. It was 201,700 miles from our little blue planet,
which is a little less than 8,000 miles in diameter. That's closer than the moon's orbit (239,000 miles on average) ABC News.

Supposedly this is also a UFO

[EnderD_503]

An openly gay woman has been elected leader of the Scottish Conservatives after the membership rejected her leading rival's radical proposals to create a new centre-right party.

Ruth Davidson, 32, widely seen as David Cameron's favourite, was chosen to lead the Scottish Conservative and Unionist party by a comfortable margin after the most bitterly-fought and divisive leadership campaign in party history.

Officials in London believe that Davidson, a lesbian and the youngest of the four candidates, will be able to freshen up the Tories' faltering appeal to Scottish voters.

She has only been an MSP for six months after working as a senior aide to Annabel Goldie, the departing party leader and campaigned against any significant increases in the Scottish parliament's powers.

Her victory saves the prime minister from the embarrassment of watching the UK party being split by Davidson's rival for the leadership, Murdo Fraser.

In a statement released on her election, Davidson said: "With the radical, generational change that I represent, this is a unique opportunity for us to rebuild the party and to once again become a powerful, meaningful and relevant force in Scottish politics and in Scottish life."

A former Territorial Army officer and kick-boxer, Davidson campaigned vigorously against Fraser's dramatic proposals to scrap the party and replace it with a new "progressive" organisation which would be independent of David Cameron's Tories.

Fraser's proposals, based on his belief that the Tory brand was "toxic" to Scottish voters, won the support of many prominent Scottish figures, including the Tory MEP Struan Stevenson, Sir Malcolm Rifkind, Alex Fergusson, the former Holyrood presiding officer, and a clear majority of the 11 MSPs not standing in the leadership election.

He said it would revitalise centre-right politics and enable the rebranded Tories to attract hundreds of thousands of disenchanted voters. Failing to do so would see the party disappear, he said. The proposals instead led to civil war within the party, and were described as "madness" by his critics.

Davidson, who only joined the party in 2009 to fight the Glasgow North East byelection after a career as a BBC journalist, vigorously attacked Fraser's proposition.

Supported by other senior figures such as Lord Forsyth, she accused Fraser of an "existential crisis" and "wringing his hands" about the future of the party, which has repeatedly fared badly in the polls. The party has only succeeded in returning one MP to Westminster in the last three elections, and lost two seats at Holyrood in May.

Her victory now presents the Scottish Tories with the delicate task of reuniting a party left deeply split and in open warfare over Fraser's proposals. She remains the most politically and professionally inexperienced party leader at Holyrood.

She said: "A political party isn't a leader. A political party is its membership and I want to bring our members, at all levels, much closer together and to take our party forward in unity.

"We've had a number of very robust hustings up and down the country. [It] has been lively, it has been energetic but it has really engaged our members. All of us can be proud about how we've increased the debate about Scottish Conservatism going forward, a Scottish Conservatism that will be alive and kicking."

Davidson was quickly congratulated on her victory by her Labour and Liberal Democrat opposite numbers. Iain Gray, acting leader of the Scottish Labour party, said: "She has shown a lot of energy and drive to win her party's election. While I disagree with her fundamentally on politics I look forward to the contribution she will make to the Scottish parliament."

Willie Rennie, leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats, added: "I am really pleased to congratulate Ruth on her new appointment as leader of the Scottish Conservatives. I look forward to working with her, in her new role, as we strive to hold the SNP government to account."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2...ect-gay-leader

[SoNotHer]

Thai PM pledges flood relief as fight for Bangkok goes on

From: Alan Raybould and Prapan Chankaew, Reuters, BANGKOK
Published November 9, 2011 07:04 AM


Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra pledged more than $4 billion on Wednesday to help Thailand recover from the worst floods in half a century, as workers slowed the flow of water threatening the commercial heart of the capital, Bangkok.

Evacuation orders have spread to a third of Bangkok's districts, mostly in the north of the densely populated city of 12 million people, since late October, as floodwater strewn with trash slowly seeps in from northern and northeastern provinces. Yingluck, a political novice elected this year, said about 120 billion baht ($3.9 billion) had been set aside for a flood recovery effort, a figure that rises to 130 billion baht ($4.2 billion) when local government funds are added.

On the streets of Bangkok, few see an end to the slow-moving disaster that began after tropical storm Nock-ten battered Southeast Asia in late July. Since then, at least 529 people have been killed, many electrocuted or drowned, in floods that have affected 63 of Thailand's 77 provinces.

Some hard-hit regions have started to recover since the end of the August-to-October monsoon season, with only 24 provinces now classified as flooded. But for low-lying Bangkok, the disaster is far from over, as the authorities struggle to keep inner-city neighborhoods and business districts dry.

"I'm concerned about more water reaching Bangkok and I just want to know when it will recede. It's rising and it should recede but when will that be?" said Bangkok resident, Nee Jiranantawat, 53. Others said they feared they may run low on food and other supplies, especially in homes flooded in waist-high water.

Nikom Teo-au, a 56-year-old garage owner, said he was facing difficulty delivering food to his family at his home on a street under up to 1.5 meters (4.9 ft) of water in Bangkok's Din Daeng neighborhood, just 7 km (4.3 miles) from the main Silom business district where buildings are ringed with sand bags.

Yingluck, a 46-year-old former businesswoman and sister of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, said the money would ease the suffering of victims and repair damaged infrastructure.

Credit: REUTERS/Adrees Latif

[SoNotHer]

From -

http://news.yahoo.com/two-rhino-spec...002321952.html

Several species of rhino have been poached into extinction or to the point of no return, according to an update of the Red List of Threatened Species, the gold standard for animal and plant conservation. All told, a quarter of all mammal species assessed are at risk of extinction, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which compiles the list, said on Thursday.



About a third of the 61,900 species now catalogued by the IUCN are classified as "vulnerable," "endangered," "critically endangered," or extinct, with some groups, such as amphibians and reptiles, in particularly rapid decline. Rhinoceros have been hit especially hard in recent years. Their fearsome horns -- prized for dagger handles in the Middle East and traditional medicine in east Asia -- can fetch hundreds of thousands of dollars on the black market.

The new assessment shows that a subspecies of the western black rhino (Diceros bicornis longipes) native to western Africa is now extinct, joining a long list of creatures -- from the Tasmanian tiger to the Arabian gazelle -- that no longer stride the planet. Central Africa's northern white rhino (Ceratotherium simum cottoni) is listed as "possibly extinct in the wild", while the Javan rhino (Rhinoceros sondaicus) is making a last stand after the remaining specimen of its Vietnamese counterpart was killed by poachers last year.

"Human beings are stewards of the earth and we are responsible for protecting the species that share our environment," Simon Stuart, head of the IUCN Species Survival Commission, said in a statement. "In the case of both the western black and the northern white rhinos the situation could have had very different results if suggested conservation measures had been implemented." There were a few slivers of good news showing that species can be prevented from slipping into oblivion.

The southern white rhino subspecies (Ceratotherium simum simum) is back from the brink, its numbers up from 100 at the end of the 19th century to some 20,000 today. Central Asia's Przewalski's horse (Equus ferus), meanwhile, has moved from a status of critically endangered to endangered.

"We have the knowledge that conservation works if executed in a timely manner," said Jane Smart, the Global Species Programme director.

The general trend, however, is an acceleration in extinction across a wide spectrum of fauna and flora. Indeed, many scientists say Earth is on the edge of a so-called great extinction event, only the sixth in half-a-billion years. Some groups are especially vulnerable. In Madagascar, home to a dazzlingly rich diversity of life, an alarming 40 percent of reptiles are threatened.

Plant species are disappearing too. Such was the fate of the Chinese water fir (Glyptostrobus pensilis), once common in China but now apparently extinct in the wild due to habitat loss. The new classification also recognises new species, including 26 recently discovered amphibians such as the blessed poison frog (Ranitomeya benedicta) and the summers' poison frog (Ranitomeya summersi).

Both are threatened by habitat loss and harvesting for the international pet trade. "The world is full of marvelous species that are rapidly moving towards becoming things of myth and legend," said the IUCN's Jean-Christophe Vie.

[AtLast]

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_1...abuse-scandal/

What is bugging the hell out of me is that most of the news is about Paterno's firing instead of the fact that he as well as several key administrators at Penn State did NOTHING to stop this over 15 years!!! Now, students are rioting over Paterno's firing and there are even jokes about being "Sanduskied!!" What the hell is wrong with people?

This is no different than all of the Catholic bishops that did nothing about priests sexually abusing kids for years and covering for them or just moving them to another parish.

What really is awful is that Sandusky used an at-risk youth program he helped start as a means to get to these kids. yeah- at risk, you bet- these kids are number one targets for this kind of manipulation by authority figures.

Police reports should have been made by Penn State officials immediately upon reports and the grad student that saw Sandusky abusing a 10 year old in the shower in the athletic department was 28 years old at the time- he should have called the police immediately.

So, Penn State students only care about Paterno being fired??

[Toughy]

I hope Paterno and everyone else who found out about this in 2002 gets their ass prosecuted and tossed in prison. I don't give a shit if Paterno completed his school obligation by reporting it to higher ups. He had an ethical mandate to put that coach on administrative leave and to go to the police. I don't know about Penn, but I do believe if this happened in CA, Paterno would be a mandated reporter....meaning if it was reported to him he legally must go to the police.

It makes me sick to my stomach.

[Sassy]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/...l9M_story.html


By Associated Press, Updated: Thursday, November 10, 8:30 PM

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Barbara Grier, a founder of what once was the world’s largest publishing house of literature about gays and lesbians, has died. She was 78.

Her partner in life and business, Donna McBride, said Grier died of cancer on Thursday at a hospital in Tallahassee, Fla.



Tallahassee-based Naiad Press was best known for publishing “Lesbian Nuns: Breaking Silence” in 1985. Fifty-one former or current nuns contributed to the book. It described relationships in their religious communities that sometimes turned into love affairs.

“It was her belief that through literature she could make lesbians feel good about themselves and find a happy life,” McBride said from her home in nearby Carrabelle, Fla.

Naiad was publishing 36 books a year before she and Grier sold the company to Bella Books, another publisher of literature about lesbians in Tallahassee, and retired in 2003, McBride said.

Grier was “a savior to isolated lesbians all over the world, many of whom feel intense gratitude,” author Karin Kallmaker told The Associated Press. “I have no doubt that books save lives and Barbara put books into the lesbian universe at a rate no one in that era matched.”

Kallmaker’s first novel was published by Naiad Press in 1989 and she’s now editorial director of Bella Books.

Grier was born on Nov. 4, 1933 in Cincinnati and realized at an early age she was a lesbian, according to the Ohio Historical Society’s Gay Ohio History Initiative. She began writing for The Ladder and later became the editor of the San Francisco-based lesbian magazine.

She met McBride, then a librarian, in 1967 while living in Kansas City, Mo. They launched the publishing house with two other women in 1973 with a $2,000 investment, keeping their regular jobs and working on Naiad from their home after hours. Most of their titles were romances and mysteries, McBride said.

They moved to Florida and had their first big success when they published in 1983 Katherine Forrest’s first novel, “Curious Wine.” It sold more than 400,000 copies.

“It would be hard to imagine a more significant figure in the growth and development of lesbian publishing in the 20th century than Barbara Grier,” Forrest told the AP. “Or a more towering and central figure in lesbian culture.”

Grier explained the reasons for their efforts in a 1993 interview with The Associated Press.

“We’re doing this because of commitment as well as money,” Grier said. “We’re getting to live our lives exactly as we want to — and make a living. We’re getting rich and we’re happy and what more can you ask for?”

McBride said their happiest moment together was on Sept. 5, 2008, when they wed in California after same-sex marriages were legalized there.

Grier’s body was cremated and there will be no funeral service, McBride said. She said she’ll probably scatter her ashes in the Bahamas, Grier’s favorite place.

___

Associated Press writer Karen Sloan contributed to this report from London.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

[Sassy]

Originally Posted by Sassy

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/...l9M_story.html


By Associated Press, Updated: Thursday, November 10, 8:30 PM

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Barbara Grier, a founder of what once was the world’s largest publishing house of literature about gays and lesbians, has died. She was 78.

Her partner in life and business, Donna McBride, said Grier died of cancer on Thursday at a hospital in Tallahassee, Fla.



Tallahassee-based Naiad Press was best known for publishing “Lesbian Nuns: Breaking Silence” in 1985. Fifty-one former or current nuns contributed to the book. It described relationships in their religious communities that sometimes turned into love affairs.

“It was her belief that through literature she could make lesbians feel good about themselves and find a happy life,” McBride said from her home in nearby Carrabelle, Fla.

Naiad was publishing 36 books a year before she and Grier sold the company to Bella Books, another publisher of literature about lesbians in Tallahassee, and retired in 2003, McBride said.

Grier was “a savior to isolated lesbians all over the world, many of whom feel intense gratitude,” author Karin Kallmaker told The Associated Press. “I have no doubt that books save lives and Barbara put books into the lesbian universe at a rate no one in that era matched.”

Kallmaker’s first novel was published by Naiad Press in 1989 and she’s now editorial director of Bella Books.

Grier was born on Nov. 4, 1933 in Cincinnati and realized at an early age she was a lesbian, according to the Ohio Historical Society’s Gay Ohio History Initiative. She began writing for The Ladder and later became the editor of the San Francisco-based lesbian magazine.

She met McBride, then a librarian, in 1967 while living in Kansas City, Mo. They launched the publishing house with two other women in 1973 with a $2,000 investment, keeping their regular jobs and working on Naiad from their home after hours. Most of their titles were romances and mysteries, McBride said.

They moved to Florida and had their first big success when they published in 1983 Katherine Forrest’s first novel, “Curious Wine.” It sold more than 400,000 copies.

“It would be hard to imagine a more significant figure in the growth and development of lesbian publishing in the 20th century than Barbara Grier,” Forrest told the AP. “Or a more towering and central figure in lesbian culture.”

Grier explained the reasons for their efforts in a 1993 interview with The Associated Press.

“We’re doing this because of commitment as well as money,” Grier said. “We’re getting to live our lives exactly as we want to — and make a living. We’re getting rich and we’re happy and what more can you ask for?”

McBride said their happiest moment together was on Sept. 5, 2008, when they wed in California after same-sex marriages were legalized there.

Grier’s body was cremated and there will be no funeral service, McBride said. She said she’ll probably scatter her ashes in the Bahamas, Grier’s favorite place.

___

Associated Press writer Karen Sloan contributed to this report from London.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

I'll be interested to see if the newspaper in Tallahassee covers this. It's in our own backyard. Guess we'll see.

[SoNotHer]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/1...n_1086226.html

GENEVA -- The Western Black Rhino of Africa has been declared officially extinct, and two other subspecies of rhinoceros are close to meeting the same fate, a leading conservation group said Thursday.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature said a recent reassessment of the Western Black Rhino had led it to declare the species extinct, adding that the Northern White Rhino of central Africa is now "possibly extinct" in the wild and the Javan Rhino is "probably extinct" in Vietnam, after poachers killed the last animal there in 2010. A small but declining population of the Javan Rhino survives on the Indonesian island of Java, it added.

"A lack of political support and willpower for conservation efforts in many rhino habitats, international organized crime groups targeting rhinos and increasing illegal demand for rhino horns and commercial poaching are the main threats faced by rhinos," the group said in a statement accompanying the latest update of its so-called Red List of endangered species.

About a quarter of all mammals are at risk of extinction, IUCN said, adding that some species have been brought back from the brink with successful conservation programs. The Southern White Rhino numbered just 100 animals at the end of the 19th century, but has since flourished and now has a population of over 20,000.

The Przewalski's Horse, a type of wild horse from Central Asia, has come back from extinction after a successful breeding program in captivity. The Red List now contains almost 62,000 species of plants and animals, whose status is constantly monitored by conservationists.

[SoNotHer]

http://news.yahoo.com/world-five-yea...170519443.html

The world has just five years to avoid being trapped in a scenario of perilous climate change and extreme weather events, the International Energy Agency (IEA) warned on Wednesday. On current trends, "rising fossil energy use will lead to irreversible and potentially catastrophic climate change," the IEA concluded in its annual World Energy Outlook report.

"The door to 2.0 C is closing," it said, referring to the 2.0 Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) cap on global warming widely accepted by scientists and governments as the ceiling for averting unmanageable climate damage.

Without further action, by 2017 the total CO2 emissions compatible with the 2.0 C goal will be "locked in" by power plants, factories and other carbon-emitting sources either built or planned, the IEA said. Global infrastructure already accounts for more than 75 percent of that limit.

To meet energy needs while still averting climate catastrophe, governments must engineer a shift away from carbon-intensive fossil fuels, the agency said bluntly. "As each year passes without clear signals to drive investment in clean energy, the 'lock-in' of high-carbon infrastructure is making it harder and more expensive to meet our energy security and climate goals," said IEA chief economist Fatih Birol.

The report outlines two scenarios for future energy consumption and emissions of greenhouse gases. A "new policies" scenario incorporates existing government promises into a projection up to 2035.

A "450 scenario" lays out a timetable for curbing carbon emissions so that atmospheric concentration of CO2 stays under 450 parts per million (ppm), roughly equivalent to the 2.0 C target. The current level is about 390 ppm.

Even taking into account current commitments, CO2 emitted over the next 25 years will amount to three-quarters of the total emitted since 1900, leading to a 3.5 C (6.3 F) average increase in temperature since that date.
Business-as-usual emissions would put the world "on an even more dangerous track toward an increase of 6.0 C (10.8 F)," the report says.

Scientists who have modelled the impacts on biodiversity, agriculture and human settlement say a 6 C world would be close to unlivable due to violent extremes of drought, flooding, heatwaves and storms. The planet's average temperature has risen by about 1.0 C (1.8 F) over the last century, with forecasts for future warming ranging from an additional 1.0 C to 5.0 C (9.0 F) by 2100.

The report forecasts a one-third jump in primary energy demand by 2035, with 90 percent of this growth in developing economies. Half of that demand will likely be met by increased use of coal, the most carbon-intensive of all major fossil fuels.

China -- already the world's top coal consumer -- is on track to use nearly 70 percent more energy than the United States by that date, it says. Even under the "new policies" scenario progress toward a low-carbon economy will be halting. The share of fossil fuels in global primary energy consumption falls from around 81 percent today to 75 percent in 2035, while renewables increase from 13 percent of the mix today to 18 percent.

This scenario already assumes a huge boost in subsidies for renewables, from $64 billion today to $250 billion in 2035. "One wonders how many more worrying figures the world needs," commented Connie Hedegaard, the European Union's climate commissioner.

The report "shows that the world is heading for a fossil-fuel lock-in. This is another urgent call to move to a low-carbon economy," she said in a statement. Setting a global price on carbon, slashing fossil fuel subsidies, boosting renewable energy and energy efficiency and revised tax codes are all tools for achieving that end, she added.

[Kobi]

I have a thing about statin drugs which I think can be very harmful to adults. I shutter to think about what they do to kids.




CHICAGO (AP) — Every child should be tested for high cholesterol as early as age 9 — surprising new advice from a government panel that suggests screening kids in grade school for a problem more common in middle age.

The idea will come as a shock to most parents. And it's certain to stir debate.

The doctors on the expert panel that announced the new guidelines Friday concede there is little proof that testing now will prevent heart attacks decades later. But many doctors say waiting might be too late for children who have hidden risks.

Fat deposits form in the heart arteries in childhood but don't usually harden them and cause symptoms until later in life. The panel urges cholesterol screening between ages 9 and 11 — before puberty, when cholesterol temporarily dips — and again between ages 17 and 21.

The panel also suggests diabetes screening every two years starting as early as 9 for children who are overweight and have other risks for Type 2 diabetes, including family history.

The new guidelines are from an expert panel appointed by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute and endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Some facts everyone agrees on:

— By the fourth grade, 10 to 13 percent of U.S. children have high cholesterol, defined as a score of 200 or more.

— Half of children with high cholesterol will also have it as adults, raising their risk of heart disease.

— One third of U.S. children and teens are obese or overweight, which makes high cholesterol and diabetes more likely.

Until now, cholesterol testing has only been done for kids with a known family history of early heart disease or inherited high cholesterol, or with risk factors such as obesity, diabetes or high blood pressure. That approach misses about 30 percent of kids with high cholesterol.

"If we screen at age 20, it may be already too late," said one of the guideline panel members, Dr. Elaine Urbina, director of preventive cardiology at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center. "To me, it's not controversial at all. We should have been doing this for years."

Elizabeth Duruz didn't want to take that chance. Her 10-year-old daughter, Joscelyn Benninghoff, has been on cholesterol-lowering medicines since she was 5 because high cholesterol runs in her family. They live in Cincinnati.

"We decided when she was 5 that we would get her screened early on. She tested really high" despite being active and not overweight, Duruz said. "We're doing what we need to do for her now, and that gives me hope that she'll be healthy."

Dr. Roger Blumenthal, who is preventive cardiology chief at Johns Hopkins Medical Center and had no role in the guidelines, said he thinks his 12-year-old son should be tested because he has a cousin with very high "bad" cholesterol who needed heart bypass surgery for clogged arteries in his 40s.

"I'm very supportive" of universal screening, he said. "The knowledge of their cholesterol numbers as well as their blood sugar levels can be very helpful for the physicians and their families about which patients are headed toward diabetes."

Dr. William Cooper, a pediatrics and preventive medicine professor at Vanderbilt University, said expanding the testing guidelines "would seem to me to make sense."

But he added: "One of the risks would be that we would be treating more kids, potentially, and we don't know yet the implications of what we're treating. Are we treating a number or are we treating a risk factor?"

That's the reason a different group of government advisers, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, concluded in 2007 that not enough is known about the possible benefits and risks to recommend for or against cholesterol screening for children and teens.

One of its leaders, Dr. Michael LeFevre, a family medicine specialist at the University of Missouri, said that for the task force to declare screening beneficial there must be evidence that treatment improves health, such as preventing heart attacks, rather than just nudging down a number — the cholesterol score.

"Some of the argument is that we need to treat children when they're 14 or 15 to keep them from having a heart attack when they're 50, and that's a pretty long lag time," he said.

The guidelines say that cholesterol drugs likely would be recommended for less than 1 percent of kids tested, and they shouldn't be used in children younger than 10 unless they have severe problems.

"We'll also continue to encourage parents and children to make positive lifestyle choices to prevent risk factors from occurring," steps such as diet and exercise, said Dr. Gordan Tomaselli, president of the American Heart Association. The group praised the guidelines and will host a presentation on them Sunday at its annual conference in Florida.

Cholesterol tests cost around $80 and usually are covered by health insurance. Several of the 14 doctors on the guidelines panel have received consulting fees or have had other financial ties to makers of cholesterol medicines.

Typically, cholesterol drugs are used indefinitely but they are generally safe, said Dr. Sarah Blumenschein, director of preventive cardiology at Children's Medical Center in Dallas, who had no role in the guidelines but supports them.

"You have to start early. It's much easier to change children's behavior when they're 5 or 10 or 12" than when they're older, she said.

The guidelines also say doctors should:

— Take yearly blood pressure measurements for children starting at age 3.

— Start routine anti-smoking advice when kids are ages 5 to 9, and counsel parents of infants not to smoke in the home.

— Review infants' family history of obesity and start tracking body mass index, or BMI, a measure of obesity, at age 2.

The panel also suggests using more frank terms for kids who are overweight and obese than some government agencies have used in the past. Children whose BMI is in the 85th to 95th percentile should be called overweight, not "at risk for overweight," and kids whose BMI is in the 95th percentile or higher should be called obese, not "overweight — even kids as young as age 2, the panel said.

"Some might feel that 'obese' is an unacceptable term for children and parents," so doctors should "use descriptive terminology that is appropriate for each child and family," the guidelines recommend.

They were released online Friday by the journal Pediatrics.

__

http://news.yahoo.com/doctors-test-k...203530834.html

[AtLast]

Originally Posted by Kobi

I have a thing about statin drugs which I think can be very harmful to adults. I shutter to think about what they do to kids.




CHICAGO (AP) — Every child should be tested for high cholesterol as early as age 9 — surprising new advice from a government panel that suggests screening kids in grade school for a problem more common in middle age.

The idea will come as a shock to most parents. And it's certain to stir debate.

The doctors on the expert panel that announced the new guidelines Friday concede there is little proof that testing now will prevent heart attacks decades later. But many doctors say waiting might be too late for children who have hidden risks.

Fat deposits form in the heart arteries in childhood but don't usually harden them and cause symptoms until later in life. The panel urges cholesterol screening between ages 9 and 11 — before puberty, when cholesterol temporarily dips — and again between ages 17 and 21.

The panel also suggests diabetes screening every two years starting as early as 9 for children who are overweight and have other risks for Type 2 diabetes, including family history.

The new guidelines are from an expert panel appointed by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute and endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Some facts everyone agrees on:

— By the fourth grade, 10 to 13 percent of U.S. children have high cholesterol, defined as a score of 200 or more.

— Half of children with high cholesterol will also have it as adults, raising their risk of heart disease.

— One third of U.S. children and teens are obese or overweight, which makes high cholesterol and diabetes more likely.

Until now, cholesterol testing has only been done for kids with a known family history of early heart disease or inherited high cholesterol, or with risk factors such as obesity, diabetes or high blood pressure. That approach misses about 30 percent of kids with high cholesterol.

"If we screen at age 20, it may be already too late," said one of the guideline panel members, Dr. Elaine Urbina, director of preventive cardiology at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center. "To me, it's not controversial at all. We should have been doing this for years."

Elizabeth Duruz didn't want to take that chance. Her 10-year-old daughter, Joscelyn Benninghoff, has been on cholesterol-lowering medicines since she was 5 because high cholesterol runs in her family. They live in Cincinnati.

"We decided when she was 5 that we would get her screened early on. She tested really high" despite being active and not overweight, Duruz said. "We're doing what we need to do for her now, and that gives me hope that she'll be healthy."

Dr. Roger Blumenthal, who is preventive cardiology chief at Johns Hopkins Medical Center and had no role in the guidelines, said he thinks his 12-year-old son should be tested because he has a cousin with very high "bad" cholesterol who needed heart bypass surgery for clogged arteries in his 40s.

"I'm very supportive" of universal screening, he said. "The knowledge of their cholesterol numbers as well as their blood sugar levels can be very helpful for the physicians and their families about which patients are headed toward diabetes."

Dr. William Cooper, a pediatrics and preventive medicine professor at Vanderbilt University, said expanding the testing guidelines "would seem to me to make sense."

But he added: "One of the risks would be that we would be treating more kids, potentially, and we don't know yet the implications of what we're treating. Are we treating a number or are we treating a risk factor?"

That's the reason a different group of government advisers, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, concluded in 2007 that not enough is known about the possible benefits and risks to recommend for or against cholesterol screening for children and teens.

One of its leaders, Dr. Michael LeFevre, a family medicine specialist at the University of Missouri, said that for the task force to declare screening beneficial there must be evidence that treatment improves health, such as preventing heart attacks, rather than just nudging down a number — the cholesterol score.

"Some of the argument is that we need to treat children when they're 14 or 15 to keep them from having a heart attack when they're 50, and that's a pretty long lag time," he said.

The guidelines say that cholesterol drugs likely would be recommended for less than 1 percent of kids tested, and they shouldn't be used in children younger than 10 unless they have severe problems.

"We'll also continue to encourage parents and children to make positive lifestyle choices to prevent risk factors from occurring," steps such as diet and exercise, said Dr. Gordan Tomaselli, president of the American Heart Association. The group praised the guidelines and will host a presentation on them Sunday at its annual conference in Florida.

Cholesterol tests cost around $80 and usually are covered by health insurance. Several of the 14 doctors on the guidelines panel have received consulting fees or have had other financial ties to makers of cholesterol medicines.

Typically, cholesterol drugs are used indefinitely but they are generally safe, said Dr. Sarah Blumenschein, director of preventive cardiology at Children's Medical Center in Dallas, who had no role in the guidelines but supports them.

"You have to start early. It's much easier to change children's behavior when they're 5 or 10 or 12" than when they're older, she said.

The guidelines also say doctors should:

— Take yearly blood pressure measurements for children starting at age 3.

— Start routine anti-smoking advice when kids are ages 5 to 9, and counsel parents of infants not to smoke in the home.

— Review infants' family history of obesity and start tracking body mass index, or BMI, a measure of obesity, at age 2.

The panel also suggests using more frank terms for kids who are overweight and obese than some government agencies have used in the past. Children whose BMI is in the 85th to 95th percentile should be called overweight, not "at risk for overweight," and kids whose BMI is in the 95th percentile or higher should be called obese, not "overweight — even kids as young as age 2, the panel said.

"Some might feel that 'obese' is an unacceptable term for children and parents," so doctors should "use descriptive terminology that is appropriate for each child and family," the guidelines recommend.

They were released online Friday by the journal Pediatrics.

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http://news.yahoo.com/doctors-test-k...203530834.html

I agree- these drugs can cause all kinds of problems. What bothers me the most, however, is our continued denial about what the climbing rates of childhood obesity is playing with the health of our children. We have to combat poverty and educate both kids and parents about not only nutrition but how to cook and prepare foods! And this applies to every economic group.

I don't think we ought to take giving kids any prescription or OTC drug lightly- ever. And shouldn't we be more involved with prevention?

[SoNotHer]

http://news.yahoo.com/early-sexual-a...160823517.html

Early sexual abuse increases heart risks

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Women who were repeatedly sexually abused as girls have a 62 percent higher risk of heart problems later in life compared with women who were not abused, U.S. researchers said on Sunday.

The findings, presented at the American Heart Association meeting in Orlando, Florida, underscored the lasting physical effects of early sexual abuse.

Much of the increased risk was related to coping strategies among abuse survivors such as overeating, alcohol use and smoking.

"The single biggest factor explaining the link between severe child abuse and adult cardiovascular disease was the tendency of abused girls to have gained more weight throughout adolescence and into adulthood," Janet Rich-Edwards of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, who led the study, said in a statement.

The team analyzed data from a study of more than 67,000 nurses. Nine percent of these women had reported severe physical abuse and 11 percent reported being raped in their childhood or adolescence.

The team found that repeated episodes of forced sex in childhood or adolescence translated into a 62 percent higher risk of heart attacks and strokes later in life.

Physical abuse also took a toll. Women who had been beaten in their youth had a 45 percent higher risk of heart trouble.

There was no increased heart risk in women who reported mild to moderate physical or sexual abuse.

Much of the effect was related to higher rates of obesity, smoking, alcohol use, high blood pressure and diabetes, which accounted for 41 percent of the increased risk of heart problems among women who had been physically abused and 37 percent of the association with sexual abuse, the team said.

The findings suggest severe physical and sexual abuse are significant risk factors for future heart disease, and women and their doctors need to take steps to reduce this risk.

"We need to learn more about specific psychological, lifestyle, and medical interventions to improve the health of abuse survivors." Rich-Edwards said in a statement.

(Reporting by Julie Steenhuysen; Editing by Peter Cooney)

[AtLast]

Originally Posted by SoNotHer

http://news.yahoo.com/early-sexual-a...160823517.html

Early sexual abuse increases heart risks

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Women who were repeatedly sexually abused as girls have a 62 percent higher risk of heart problems later in life compared with women who were not abused, U.S. researchers said on Sunday.

The findings, presented at the American Heart Association meeting in Orlando, Florida, underscored the lasting physical effects of early sexual abuse.

Much of the increased risk was related to coping strategies among abuse survivors such as overeating, alcohol use and smoking.

"The single biggest factor explaining the link between severe child abuse and adult cardiovascular disease was the tendency of abused girls to have gained more weight throughout adolescence and into adulthood," Janet Rich-Edwards of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, who led the study, said in a statement.

The team analyzed data from a study of more than 67,000 nurses. Nine percent of these women had reported severe physical abuse and 11 percent reported being raped in their childhood or adolescence.

The team found that repeated episodes of forced sex in childhood or adolescence translated into a 62 percent higher risk of heart attacks and strokes later in life.

Physical abuse also took a toll. Women who had been beaten in their youth had a 45 percent higher risk of heart trouble.

There was no increased heart risk in women who reported mild to moderate physical or sexual abuse.

Much of the effect was related to higher rates of obesity, smoking, alcohol use, high blood pressure and diabetes, which accounted for 41 percent of the increased risk of heart problems among women who had been physically abused and 37 percent of the association with sexual abuse, the team said.

The findings suggest severe physical and sexual abuse are significant risk factors for future heart disease, and women and their doctors need to take steps to reduce this risk.

"We need to learn more about specific psychological, lifestyle, and medical interventions to improve the health of abuse survivors." Rich-Edwards said in a statement.

(Reporting by Julie Steenhuysen; Editing by Peter Cooney)

These results certainly go along with my prior work with teen child sexual abuse- every single patient I worked with developed some type of body weight problem from obesity to severe eating disorders such as bulmia and anorexia. Stats that reflect that nearly 80% of women are either sexually abused or harrassed in the US is startling. Look at this and the rate of obesity among our young people along with the increases of heart problems, diabetes and even stroke in our young people related to obesity. And these rates have risen for boys- and so has our awareness of just how often they are victims of sexual abuse (finally, we are getting this!).

Frankly, US society has been more than a little bit in denail about sex abuse of children (and sexual harrassment in the work place). When are we going to deal with why the hell so many people sexually abuse children? Come on, this indicates some things we need to be dealing with for both girls/women and boys/men. Lets get our heads out of the sand!

A really good area for involvement is Michelle Obama's work and support about childhood obesity in the US. There are recent programs and educational pursuits about this cropping up that might help us combat this problem- and the relationship to it and sexual abuse.

A link for "Let's Move"-

http://www.letsmove.gov/

[SoNotHer]

Great post and thank you for your good work. Yes, the denial is deep and widespread. I think the Penn State scandal speaks to that.

The numbers and percentages are telling, and anyone living with or working with children and teens should be looking carefully at signals like weight and self mutilation and substance abuse.

Originally Posted by AtLast

These results certainly go along with my prior work with teen child sexual abuse- every single patient I worked with developed some type of body weight problem from obesity to severe eating disorders such as bulmia and anorexia. Stats that reflect that nearly 80% of women are either sexually abused or harrassed in the US is startling. Look at this and the rate of obesity among our young people along with the increases of heart problems, diabetes and even stroke in our young people related to obesity. And these rates have risen for boys- and so has our awareness of just how often they are victims of sexual abuse (finally, we are getting this!).

Frankly, US society has been more than a little bit in denail about sex abuse of children (and sexual harrassment in the work place). When are we going to deal with why the hell so many people sexually abuse children? Come on, this indicates some things we need to be dealing with for both girls/women and boys/men. Lets get our heads out of the sand!

A really good area for involvement is Michelle Obama's work and support about childhood obesity in the US. There are recent programs and educational pursuits about this cropping up that might help us combat this problem- and the relationship to it and sexual abuse.

A link for "Let's Move"-

http://www.letsmove.gov/

[SoNotHer]

Solar Design From MIT Does Double Duty

MIT researchers say a hybrid solar-thermoelectric system they’re working on would provide a big advantage over conventional solar cells or solar thermal systems, particularly for household use: the ability to produce heat and electricity simultaneously. They propose accomplishing this mean feat through a clever reconfiguration of the standard parabolic trough.

In a typical parabolic system (like the one pictured below), a curved mirror reflects sunlight onto a liquid-filled tube, and the hot water produced in that tube is used either to drive a turbine to produce power, or for heat for industrial uses or space heating. The MIT team – Professor Evelyn Wang and grad student Nenad Miljkovic – is working on hybridizing the system to do both at once by modifing that tube with a series of concentric tubes within it.



Their first tube-within-the-tube would contain the thermoelectric material, which would take advantage of a temperature gradient to produce power. This thermoelectric system would have pretty low efficiency, the researchers say – but that’s OK, because homes generally don’t need too much electricity. They need some, but they need a lot more heat – and the MIT design produces that by using an even narrower tube at the center of their device containing what’s called a thermosiphon. This is a device that “draws heat away from the ‘cold’ part of a thermoelectric system,” according to MIT, “passively transferring heat from the thermoelectric cold side and alleviating the need to pump cooling fluid as in a conventional parabolic-trough system.”

The heat carried away by the thermosiphon could then be used to heat water for, well, hot water, but also space heating and industrial processes.

Abraham Kribus, a professor of mechanical engineering at Tel Aviv University in Israel who was not involved in this research, told MIT that in their paper on their work, Wang and Miljkovic describe a “a fresh approach to solar energy conversion” but that some questions remain – as would be expected. “This is the situation at early stage with every nonconventional idea,” Kribus said. “Overall, the paper shows a nice start and a very capable team behind it.”

http://www.enn.com/energy/article/43548

http://www.matternetwork.com/2011/11...m-mit-does.cfm

[AtLast]

Originally Posted by SoNotHer

Great post and thank you for your good work. Yes, the denial is deep and widespread. I think the Penn State scandal speaks to that.

The numbers and percentages are telling, and anyone living with or working with children and teens should be looking carefully at signals like weight and self mutilation and substance abuse.

Absolutely! Significant weight changes in kids gets missed often concerning sex abuse along with these other indicators. Plus it can involve serious eating disorders not related to sex abuse that can be deadly. Weight gain often is not looked at as a potential medical condition unless the parents are educated around nutrition and where their kids should be in terms of height. Also, one of the most missed symptoms of clinical depression in teens is irritability- so often explained away by usual teenage hormone fluctuations.

Oh yes, Penn State and denial- and the old boys networks at play with schools in college football where a lot of $ is brought into the school by sports teams. I like athletics, but, there needs to be some big changes in school athletics.
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I also wanted to post this NYT article for discussion-

The New Progressive Movement

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/13/op...me&ref=general