Tag: Open Thread

I’m going to deviate from the usual news sources that I use for news. Today’s main sources will be from the other side of the pond and the Pacific. Mishima is part of the inspiration for the slight change from the “usual suspects” as sources. It’s good to see what their perspective is on world affairs and what we here in the US are missing from our MSM. America needs to hear how others perceive the news.

Demonstrators march during an anti-war protest in Washington, DC. Thousands of anti-war protesters took to the streets of the US capital Saturday, on the seventh anniversary of the US-led war in Iraq in a show of frustration widely ignored by the media and public.

(AFP/Nicholas Kamm)

Sat Mar 20, 7:24 pm ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Thousands of anti-war protesters took to the streets of the US capital Saturday, on the seventh anniversary of the US-led war in Iraq in a show of frustration widely ignored by the media and public.

As the National Marathon wound down in the city, protesters after midday gathered outside the White House bearing signs alluding to the high cost of the war both in money and human lives and decrying the use of unmanned aircraft, or drones, to bomb US enemies.

Under sunny skies and the watchful but discreet gaze of uniformed police, some demonstrators carried coffins draped in the Iraqi and Afghan flags in homage to civilian deaths the fighting in both countries has caused.

As always, this is also an Open Thread.

Happy Vernal Equinox. At 1332 hrs EDT, it will officially be Spring. Hurrah! A time when we start thinking about gardens, spring cleaning, Easter, Passover, barbecues, parks beached vacations…..The sun hovers directly over the equator and there is an equal amount of day and night. We Wiccans call this day Ostara and decorate with green candles, spring flowers and colored hard boiled eggs, symbols of fertility and the new growing season.

Welcome to this week’s Health and Fitness. This is an Open Thread.

Women More Likely to Die After Heart Attack

Study Suggests Women Aren’t Treated as Aggressively as Men Who Have Heart Attacks

By Charlene Laino

WebMD Health News

Reviewed by Laura J. Martin, MD

March 16, 2010 (Atlanta) — Better heart treatment of women could help close the gender gap in heart deaths. Women would be more likely to survive a heart attack if they were treated more like men, French researchers say.

In a study of more than 3,500 people admitted to the hospital for a heart attack, women were far less likely than men to get angiography to visualize heart artery blockages or angioplasty to open up blocked arteries.

Women were about twice as likely to die within a month of having the heart attack, according to the study, presented at the American College of Cardiology’s annual meeting.

The higher death rate in women “is related to the fact that they don’t get the same treatments as men,” says Maria Rosa Costanzo, MD, an American Heart Association spokeswoman who was not involved with the study.

Women do not have the typical “chest pain” that is related to a heart attack. They often ignore the symptoms of tightness in the chest and indigestion that is not relieved with antacids are more typical symptoms in women.

Symptoms may appear up to a month before attack

Research by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) indicates that women often experience new or different physical symptoms as long as a month or more before experiencing heart attacks.

Among the 515 women studied, 95-percent said they knew their symptoms were new or different a month or more before experiencing their heart attack, or Acute Myocardial Infarction (AMI). The symptoms most commonly reported were unusual fatigue (70.6-percent), sleep disturbance (47.8-percent), and shortness of breath (42.1-percent).

Many women never had chest pains

Surprisingly, fewer than 30% reported having chest pain or discomfort prior to their heart attacks, and 43% reported have no chest pain during any phase of the attack. Most doctors, however, continue to consider chest pain as the most important heart attack symptom in both women and men.

The women’s major symptoms prior to their heart attack included:

# Unusual fatigue – 70%

# Sleep disturbance – 48%

# Shortness of breath – 42%

# Indigestion – 39%

# Anxiety – 35%

Major symptoms during the heart attack include:

# Shortness of breath – 58%

# Weakness – 55%

# Unusual fatigue – 43%

# Cold sweat – 39%

# Dizziness – 39%

As is now custom, I’ll try to include the more interesting and pertinent articles that will help the community awareness of their health and bodies. This essay will not be posted anywhere else due to constraints on my time. Please feel free to make suggestions for improvement and ask questions, I’ll answer as best I can.  

Good afternoon. I’ll be your editor through the weekend, keeping you informed and entertained. This is also an Open Thread.

Reuters) – President Barack Obama, under pressure to keep a campaign promise to revamp U.S. immigration policy, embraced a “promising, bipartisan framework” on Thursday offered by two senior senators.

Obama said the proposal by Democrat Charles Schumer and Republican Lindsey Graham, which features a new identification card for U.S. citizens and legal immigrants who want a job, “can and should be the basis for moving us forward.”

Here I am again, you substitute editor of the Afternoon Edition. Our editor-in-chief, ek hornbeck is recharging his “batteries” and gearing up to Live Blog the NCAA Championships. I’m even more clueless about basketball than I am about Baseball or American football, ask me about sailing or le football, I’m much better versed.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – The NCAA tournament is famous for the little guys shocking the marquee powerhouses and turning into the darlings of March.

Upsets happen.

In every region, every year.

With one lopsided exception: No. 1 vs. No. 16.

When brackets are e-mailed to the office staff after the 65-team field is set, typing the “W” in that 1-16 matchup is about as automatic an annual occurrence as ringing in the New Year on Dec. 31. With good reason: The Washington Generals have better odds at victory over the Harlem Globetrotters than a No. 16 seed does over a No. 1.

so where’s today’s Open Thread??? Allow me…

“Not all treasure is silver and gold, mate.”

Afternoon Edition is an Open Thread

1 Haiti reveals ambitious $11.5 bln reconstruction plan

by Andrew Gully, AFP

Wed Mar 17, 5:15 am ET

Wednesday Morning Science Supplement is an Open Thread

1 Despite ban, African ivory flows to Asia

by Anne Chaon, AFP

Tue Mar 16, 7:08 am ET

Afternoon Edition is an Open Thread

1 Technology helps Liberia turn the page on ‘blood timber’

by Zoom Dosso, AFP

2 hrs 20 mins ago

Chew on this and have at it. I am done with these so-called Liberal/Progressives who support this crap of a bill and are willing to sacrifice their principles for Obama.

Why I can’t support the HCR bill (Updated)

Arguably, healthcare reform has been the be-all and end-all of this website since June 2009. So we’re almost at a full calendar year now since the monumental moment when this teeny, tiny, little hope-shaped baby was given to Congress by the White House, and President Obama basically said, “Do something with this! Make me proud!”

Unfortunately, both Congress (both houses, with more blame being placed upon the Senate rather than the House) and the White House have managed to fuck it up beyond all recognition.

After months of debating, and rolling the facts over in my head, I simply cannot support this healthcare “reform” package. Essentially, I think it’s a crock of shit. Unless this bill can and will include a public option (or if Alan Grayson’s bill gains any traction), then please (PLEASE!) kill this motherfucking piece of crap!

Colorado you Rock!

Afternoon Edition is an Open Thread

30 Top Story Final.

1 Sarkozy party grapples with French vote setback

by Roland Lloyd Parry, AFP

1 hr 31 mins ago