Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/175922245?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Saturday, December 17, 2011
Esophageal Cancer: Facts and Figures (ContributorNetwork)
British journalist and author Christopher Hitchens died Thursday at 62 from complications of esophageal cancer. The well-known contributing editor of Vanity Fair magazine had been diagnosed in June 2010. Here are some key facts and figures about esophageal cancer.
* Men develop esophageal cancer four times more frequently than women and also have a higher mortality than women.
* Esophageal cancer ranks seventh as the cause of cancer deaths among men.
* This year in the United States, approximately 17,000 adults will receive a new diagnosis of esophageal cancer.
* Approximately 15,000 deaths will be attributed to esophageal cancer this year.
* The lifetime risk of esophageal cancer in the United States is estimated to be 1 in 125 for men and 1 in 400 for women.
* Symptoms include difficulty swallowing, chest pain, unexplained weight loss, fatigue, choking while eating, indigestion, vomiting, persistent hiccups and hoarseness. Symptoms frequently do not appear in the early stages of esophageal cancer.
* The most common age for esophageal cancer to occur is between 45 and 70.
* Risk factors include drinking alcohol, chewing tobacco, obesity, drinking extremely hot liquids, bile reflux, GERD, smoking, Barrett's esophagus, radiation to the upper abdomen or chest, eating foods preserved in lye and eating too few fruits and vegetables.
* Endoscopy and barium swallow are usually done to make a diagnosis of esophageal cancer.
* Since symptoms do not usually occur until the later stages, treatment options carry a poor survival rate.
* Treatment may involve surgery and almost always involves chemotherapy and radiation combined.
* In the U.S., the five-year survival rate is 17 percent, excluding patients who die from other causes. For anyone with early stage esophageal cancer, the survival rates are higher.
* Esophageal cancer is much more prevalent in countries other than the U.S. For example in places such as northern China, India, Iran and southern Africa the rates are 10 to 100 times higher,
* Two types of esophageal cancer are the most common and are named after the cells at their point of origin. These include adenocarcinoma, which begins in the lower part of the esophagus and is the most common in western societies, and is caused most often by reflux and Barrett's esophagus. The second type is squamous cell carcinoma, which begins in the lining of the middle and upper esophagus. This type is most often caused by smoking and alcohol use and is the most common worldwide.
* Squamous cell carcinoma occurs three times more often in blacks than whites, while adenocarcinoma is most prevalent in white males.
Margie Miklas is a critical-care nurse with more than 30 years' experience. She currently works in South Florida in a cardiovascular ICU with a specialty certification in cardiac surgery.
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Friday, December 16, 2011
Analysis: Growth to bear brunt of euro crisis cure (Reuters)
LONDON (Reuters) ? Europe's economic prospects next year are so bleak that 2011, for all the euro's agonies, has every chance of being remembered fondly.
In forging a fiscal compact that aims to put the single currency on a firmer long-term footing, euro zone leaders have set the 17-nation bloc on course for prolonged austerity.
Given powerhouse Germany's insistence on budgetary rigor, policy tightening that reinforces the cyclical downturn was politically predictable. And given the unforgiving mood of the bond markets, such an outcome was perhaps unavoidable.
Still, in the eyes of a number of economists, the euro zone's policy settings risk making the process of whittling down debt tougher than it needs to be.
First, because pro-growth reforms are playing second fiddle to rapid deficit-cutting; and second, because debtor/deficit countries on the euro zone periphery are being asked to bear a greater burden than creditor/surplus countries in correcting the current account imbalances that are at the heart of the single currency's existential crisis.
"It's been clear for some time that the stronger north Europeans, led by Germany, need to stop tightening their economic policies and adopt at least mildly expansionary policies," said Fred Bergsten, director of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, a think tank in Washington.
In addition, Bergsten said he was convinced that the European Central Bank (ECB) would quickly follow up last week's quarter-point cut in its main short-term interest rate with two more quarter-point reductions.
"In the public discussions, there's been an excessive weighting to austerity," Bergsten told reporters in a conference call. "If Europe goes into a deep recession, that obviously makes the adjustment program more difficult to carry out, both in economic and political terms, so the Europeans need to add a pro-growth dimension to the financial engineering that has been the focus of their activity so far."
DUTCH SLOWDOWN
Underlining the speed of the deterioration in the economic outlook, a leading Dutch think tank forecast on Tuesday that the economy would shrink 0.5 percent next year. As recently as mid-September, the Netherlands' Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis (CPB), which advises the cabinet, had projected 1.0 percent growth for 2012.
And underscoring how an economic downturn wreaks havoc with public finances, the CPB revised up its forecast of the 2012 Dutch budget deficit from 2.9 percent of GDP to 4.6 percent -- above the 3 percent limit that the euro zone's leaders vowed last week to respect on pain of quasi-automatic sanctions.
For Dario Perkins, an economist at Lombard Street Research, a consultancy in London, the belt-tightening prescribed by Germany and its ally France is the wrong solution to the euro crisis. Spain and Ireland, now deeply indebted, would have comfortably met the new fiscal rules before the 2008 recession.
Nor does the fiscal pact address future imbalances in the euro zone and the flow of debts they imply, Perkins said in a report.
"Deep structural, competitiveness and trade imbalances remain. Austerity does nothing to improve these, except via the unintended route of encouraging depression and deflation," Perkins wrote.
Indeed, austerity merely compounds economic weakness, leading to further austerity. "Greece has neatly illustrated this and it's hard to see how rolling this same policy out for a wider set of other European economies could lead to a more favorable outcome," he said.
STRUCTURAL SLOG
In a sign Germany expects a sharp slowdown, Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Tuesday that the euro zone needed growth as well as budget discipline. Smart energy grids and rural broadband networks were two areas where investment could give a lift to the economy.
But for Germany the main route back to growth lies through structural reforms that address an economy's underlying shortcomings such as inadequate education levels and rigid labor laws. By their very nature, deep-seated changes to the very fabric of a society are a long-term undertaking.
"This takes years. You don't raise the quality of human capital in three years," said Antonio Garcia Pascual, an economist at Barclays Capital in London.
One way to narrow the debtor/creditor competitiveness gap would be to bring about a depreciation in the real exchange rate of weaker countries by engineering a big shift in relative inflation rates, noted Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney.
In short, Germany would be asked to put aside its visceral fear of inflation for the good of euro zone balance.
"However, it is not clear that ongoing deflation in the periphery and higher inflation in the core would prove any more tolerable than it did between the United Kingdom and the United States under the postwar gold standard of the 1920s and 1930s," Carney said in Toronto on Monday.
With no alternative short-term adjustment path available to Europe, Carney said the combination of fiscal austerity and structural change would mean falling wages, high unemployment and tight credit.
"A sustained process of relative wage adjustment will be necessary, implying large declines in living standards for a period in up to one-third of the euro area," he said.
Will bond investors and voters buy into a strategy of prolonged stagnation? Perkins with Lombard Street Research is skeptical. A failed auction or weak economic data could trigger significant market volatility, forcing policymakers into radical measures, he argued.
"If the Germans and French really see fiscal union as the only solution, they have to be prepared to pay for it. If they won't pay, the ECB will have to. More likely, some countries will eventually realize the futility of the austerity death-spiral and decide to leave the euro area," he wrote.
(Reporting by Alan Wheatley)
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Video: Drilling Leases Up for Sale
CNBC's Hampton Pearson reports the Interior Department will begin selling leases to tracts of the Gulf of Mexico, with CNBC's Eamon Javers. Also, the NTSB recommends a total ban on cell phones while driving; and CME chairman Terry Duffy testifies Jon ...
Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/cnbc/45661992/
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Wednesday, December 7, 2011
The Impact of Going Green on the U.S. Postal Service (ContributorNetwork)
Green business practices such as paperless billing and online catalog shopping may be good for the environment but are bad news for the U.S. Postal Service. The fiscal woes of the Postal Service prompted an announcement of employee layoffs and decreasing service today, according to the Associated Press.
The impact of online bill paying, automatic paycheck deposits and using the Internet to send photos, documents and invitations played a big role in the financial struggles plaguing the Postal Service. According to the Bill.Com Green website, paying just 20 bills per month online saves 1 pound of paper, 7 pounds of greenhouse gases, 1 square foot of forest preservation and 4 gallons of waste.
Ohioans shared their thoughts on the impact going green had on the U.S. Postal Service via instant messaging, Twitter, email and in-person interviews.
* "I use the post office regularly to ship the items I handmake and sell on Etsy. I like the flat rate shipping boxes and would hate to have to switch to a for-profit carrier. The costs are higher when dealing with UPS or FedEx and far less convenient. I do not want to start having to buy boxes and pass that cost onto my buyers. I do everything I can online to avoid the unnecessary use of paper, so I understand how being green has negatively impacted the post office." -- Meika Reynolds, fiber artist, Cincinnati.
* "I live in a rural area and we only have three post offices in the entire county. Home delivery is not possible for everyone who lives here. I support going paperless and do all of my bill paying and most of my shopping without sending a check, but feel badly for our local post office workers who may lose their jobs. The elderly who cannot get to town to the post office may have trouble getting their social security or retirement checks. I hope they all switch to automatic deposit and get a debit card so they can take care of their needs." -- Patty Triplet, retired nurse, Creola.
* "The U.S. Postal Service will continue to decline because most people do not send bills through the mail anymore. The next generation of adults will be even less likely to utilize the post office unless they are sending a package at Christmas because they have grown up with the Internet. The cost of paying the public employees is a lot higher than what commercial carriers must endure because of union guidelines." -- Ben Walters, small business owner, Lancaster.
* "Right now sending packages via UPS or FedEx is a hassle. There is not a FedEx drop box in my small town. If the post office cuts back services further then hopefully the commercial carriers will make using their service a lot easier to get new business. The demand for the post office is not likely to increase in the future. Paying bills electronically is just simpler and more earth friendly." -- Beth Jenkins, veterinarian assistant, Carbon Hill.
* "Placing offices inside grocery stores may garner more customers because of convenience while reducing the overhead of operating a building. Paying online and shopping via websites and not paper catalogs will keep increasing in the years to come." -- Olivia Wagner, Ohio University student, Athens.
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Will Google Chrome kill Firefox? (The Week)
New York ? Google's Chrome browser is gaining ground, while Mozilla's Firefox is flailing
Last week, it was reported that Google's rapidly rising Chrome browser had surpassed Firefox for the first time in popularity. According to research firm StatCounter Global Stats, Chrome accounted for 25.96 of the global browser usage in November, second to Internet Explorer. That's up from just 13.35 percent a year ago. Mozilla's Firefox had 25.23 percent of the market share in November, down from 31.17 last November and part of a slow but steady decline. That decline, along with uncertainty surrounding a key revenue-generating partnership Mozilla has with Google, has many asking if Firefox is doomed:
Firefox is definitely in trouble: "It hasn't been a good year for Mozilla and its flagship product, the Firefox browser," says Ed Bott at ZD Net. It's lost significant market share to Google Chrome and some important execs have left. The company also relies on a partnership with Google for much of its revenue, and that partnership is now in question. In an age where consumers want their browser to be the same one that their apps rely on, Google and Microsoft could well push Firefox into irrelevance.
"Firefox faces uncertain future as Google deal apparently ends"
And Mozilla has made some poor decisions: In an attempt to keep up, Mozilla has gone from version 3 to version 8 in less than 12 months, says Garry Pryzyklenk at Search Enginge Watch. Those quick changes were a "recipe for disaster." IT administrators couldn't update their users' computers quickly enough. The new versions were plagued with compatibility and functionality issues, and users were rightfully annoyed. What was once a solid, reliable browser has become anything but.
"Browser wars: How Chrome overtook Firefox for the first time"
Firefox is going down, unless someone steps in: "If nothing changes, Chrome will soon vault [further] ahead of Firefox," says Henry Blodget at Business Insider. Last year, Mozilla's deal with Google ?? Google pays Mozilla to feature a little search window in the top right corner of the Firefox browser ? accounted for 84 percent of the company's revenue. If, as seems likely, Google pulls the plug, Firefox will feel the pain. Microsoft could step in and help Mozilla strike a blow against Google, but that doesn't seem to be happening. And, even so, it's likely Microsoft could only prolong Firefox's life for a year or two.
"And has Google now killed off Firefox completely by pulling the plug on its toolbar deal?*"
View this article on TheWeek.com
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Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Red Hat releases Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.2
Today Red Hat announces the availability of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.2, the latest iteration of their flagship Linux distribution. I don't usually cover every point release of every Linux distribution, but since I've covered recent releases from Canonical and SUSE I thought I'd give Red Hat some coverage, too. RHEL 6.2 is in some ways a remarkable release, and in other ways completely uninteresting. It's uninteresting in that there are no real surprises: this is a regularly scheduled update to the RHEL 6 product line, and it was released right on time. Red Hat customers have driven most of what's included in this release, in the form of bug reports and feature requests. RHEL 6.2 is uninteresting, too, because Red Hat's promise to their enterprise customers is API and ABI compatibility for the life of the product. But this is also a reason why this release is so interesting.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/BjLDfQmlehA/
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