Author Archives
In short, I review clinical research on an almost daily basis. What I post tends to be articles that are relevant to the readers in addition to some curiosities that have intriguing potential.
As a hobby, I truly enjoy the puzzle-solving play that statistics and programming as in the python language bring to the table. I just do not enjoy problem-solving, I love problem-solving and the childlike inspiration and exploration of that innocent exhilaration of discovering something new.
Enjoy ;-)
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Blockbusters: Can EEGs predict a movie’s success better than surveys?
Public Release: 25-Feb-2015 American Marketing Association Seventy five percent of movies earn a net loss during their run in theaters. A new study in the Journal of Marketing Research finds that brain activity visible through EEG measures may be a… Read More ›
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IS Jihadists destroy Ancient statues in Iraq
Thursday, 26 February 2015 The Islamic State (IS) group has released a video showing the destruction of statues in Iraq, the BBC reports. The video shows statues being smashed using sledgehammers in what appears to be a museum in… Read More ›
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Decline in smoking rates may increase lung cancer mortality
Public Release: 24-Feb-2015 ROCHESTER, Minn. — A decline in smoking rates may mean that many people who could have benefited from early detection of lung cancer are dying because they don’t qualify for low-dose CT scans, according to a group… Read More ›
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Astronomers find impossibly large black hole
Public Release: 25-Feb-2015 Astronomers have found a huge black hole which was powering the brightest object in the early universe. The black hole’s mass is 12 billion solar masses, and the surrounding quasar pumped out 10^15 times the sun’s energy… Read More ›
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Baby formula poses higher arsenic risk to newborns than breast milk, Dartmouth study shows
Public Release: 23-Feb-2015 Dartmouth College HANOVER, N.H. – In the first U.S. study of urinary arsenic in babies, Dartmouth College researchers found that formula-fed infants had higher arsenic levels than breast-fed infants, and that breast milk itself contained very low… Read More ›
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Your privacy online: Health information at serious risk of abuse
Public Release: 23-Feb-2015 Annenberg research uncovers privacy risks from surfing health web sites University of Pennsylvania Annenberg School for Communication There is a significant risk to your privacy whenever you visit a health-related web page. An analysis of over 80,000… Read More ›
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Long-term nitrogen fertilizer use disrupts plant-microbe mutualisms
Public Release: 23-Feb-2015 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — When exposed to nitrogen fertilizer over a period of years, nitrogen-fixing bacteria called rhizobia evolve to become less beneficial to legumes – the plants they normally serve, researchers report… Read More ›
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Flouride in water could be linked to weight gain and depression according new study
EEV – I am adding the Citation reference : J Epidemiol Community Health doi:10.1136/jech-2014-204971 Tap water Maria Chiorando Tuesday, February 24, 2015 8:22 AM Flouride levels could play a part in hypothyroidism New research led by a public health expert at… Read More ›
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Education ‘experts’ may lack expertise, study finds
Public Release: 20-Feb-2015 CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The people most often cited as “education experts” in blogs and news stories may have the backing of influential organizations – but have little background in education and education policy, a new study suggests…. Read More ›
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Damascus livid after Turkey’s incursion onto Syrian soil, to salvage its relics and evacuate 40 Turkish soldiers who had been guarding them
Sunday, 22 February 2015 The Syrian government has said a Turkish incursion into the north of the country was an act of “flagrant aggression.” Damascus said it would hold Ankara responsible after they went into Syria to evacuate personnel and… Read More ›
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Mouse embryo with big brain: Evolving a bigger brain with human DNA
Mouse embryo with big brain: Evolving a bigger brain with human DNA — ScienceDaily The human version of a DNA sequence called HARE5 turns on a gene important for brain development (gene activity is stained blue), and causes a mouse… Read More ›
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Statin Data Criminally Manipulated to Deceive Doctors
Statin Data Criminally Manipulated to Deceive Doctors = Their paper is an analysis of the data in the statin trials which led them to conclude that “statin advocates have used statistical deception to create the illusion that statins are ‘wonder… Read More ›
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Statin drug data criminaly manipulated to show exaggerated benefit and reduced risk?
“This means that only one out of 100 people treated with a statin will have one less heart attack. Statin researchers, however, don’t present the 1% effect to the public. Instead they transform the 1% effect using another statistic, called… Read More ›
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Does dark matter cause mass extinctions and geologic upheavals?
Public Release: 19-Feb-2015 New York University Research by New York University Biology Professor Michael Rampino concludes that Earth’s infrequent but predictable path around and through our Galaxy’s disc may have a direct and significant effect on geological and biological phenomena… Read More ›
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Invasive weed’s genetically evolve to survive herbicide Roundup Weed Killer
Public Release: 19-Feb-2015 Invasive weed’s resistance to well-known herbicide stems from increase in gene copies Kansas State University MANHATTAN, Kansas — A recent study by a Kansas State University weed scientist finds why the invasive weed kochia is like a… Read More ›
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Gene may help reduce GM contamination
Public Release: 19-Feb-2015 Genetically modified crops have long drawn fire from opponents worried about potential contamination of conventional crops and other plants. Now a plant gene discovered by University of Guelph scientists might help farmers reduce the risk of GM… Read More ›
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New insights into origins of the world’s languages
Public Release: 18-Feb-2015 Study by Berkeley linguists gives evidence that ‘Indo-European’ languages first emerged ca. 6500 years ago Linguists have long agreed that languages from English to Greek to Hindi, known as ‘Indo-European languages’, are the modern descendants of a… Read More ›
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Corporate crime in the pharmaceutical industry is common, serious and repetitive
Requested Re-print of BMJ 2012;345:e8462 – Original PDF File: Pharma Crime Pays Corporate crime in the pharmaceutical industry is common, serious and repetitive by Peter C. Gøtzsche, Professor MD, DrMedSci, MSc Nordic Cochrane Centre Rigshospitalet, Dept. 7811 Copenhagen 14 Dec 2012 A short version of… Read More ›
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A close call of 0.8 light years
Astronomers identify the closest known flyby of a star to our solar system: A dim star that passed through the Oort Cloud 70,000 years ago University of Rochester Scholz’s Star during Its Flyby of the Solar System IMAGE: This is… Read More ›
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Common cold virus may become paralytic and replace the Polio Virus
“We are in the process of eradicating polio worldwide, but if we eliminate the poliovirus and cease polio vaccinations, our immune systems wouldn’t produce antibodies against polio, and Coxsackievirus could theoretically fill the niche of eradicated polio” he said. Requested… Read More ›
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A formula for predicting innovation
Public Release: 14-Feb-2015 By the time she was six years old, Nadya Bliss had already figured out her professional calling. She knew that one day she would be a mathematician. “I’m a geek at heart,” confesses Bliss, now the assistant… Read More ›
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Data-storage for eternity, stored in the form of DNA
How can we preserve our knowledge today for the next millennia? Researchers have found a way to store information in the form of DNA, presumably preserving it for nearly an eternity. Scrolls thousands of years old provide us with a… Read More ›
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Judge Tosses 16 Kilos of Meth Evidence
By CAMERON LANGFORD CORPUS CHRISTI (CN) – Sixteen kilos of methamphetamine the Border Patrol found in an SUV was struck from the record by a federal judge because the agents didn’t get the driver’s consent to X-ray the vehicle. After… Read More ›
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Saudi Linked to Bin Laden Fatwa as Gov’t Rests
By ADAM KLASFELD MANHATTAN (CN) – The case against alleged al-Qaida propagandist Khalid al-Fawwaz drew to a close on Thursday with evidence linking the Saudi to Osama bin Laden’s infamous fatwa seeking the murder of U.S. citizens everywhere. Issued in… Read More ›
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Screen name matters in the online dating game
Public Release: 12-Feb-2015 The BMJ Choosing a screen name with a letter starting in the top half of the alphabet is as important as an attractive photo and a fluent headline in the online dating game, reveals an analysis of… Read More ›
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Hand washing focus in hospitals has led to rise in worker dermatitis
Public Release: 12-Feb-2015 A new study from The University of Manchester has revealed that the incidence of dermatitis has increased 4.5 times in health care workers following increased hand hygiene as a drive to reduce infections such as MRSA has… Read More ›
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Juvenile gang members in US top 1 million, new study finds
Public Release: 12-Feb-2015 Sam Houston State University HUNTSVILLE, TX (2/12/15) — There are over one million juvenile gang members in the U.S., more than three times the number estimated by law enforcement, according to a recent study. “Gang membership between… Read More ›
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BMJ investigation reveals network of links between public health scientists and sugar industry
Public Release: 11-Feb-2015 BMJ-British Medical Journal Public health scientists and a government committee working on nutritional advice receive funding from the very companies whose products are widely held to be responsible for the obesity crisis, an investigation by The BMJ… Read More ›
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Unwanted impact of antibiotics broader, more complex than previously known
Public Release: 10-Feb-2015 40 percent of all adults and 70 percent of all children take one or more antibiotics every year They also kill intestinal epithelium. Destruction of the intestinal epithelium is important because this is the site of nutrient… Read More ›
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Clinton Foundation Donors Found to be Clients of Controversial Swiss Bank
BUSINESS 05:39 11.02.2015(updated 08:10 11.02.2015 As US prosecutors consider filing criminal charges against UK-based HSBC for aiding tax evaders, several major donors to a Clinton-family foundation are revealed to have ties to the bank’s controversial Swiss division. The Bill, Hillary… Read More ›
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Case against Merck allegedly providing false data on vaccine efficacy allowed to advance
Antitrust, FCA Claims On Merck Mumps Vaccine To Advance By Dan Packel Law360, Philadelphia (September 05, 2014, 6:12 PM ET) — Two lawsuits accusing Merck & Co. Inc. of lying about the efficacy of its mumps inoculation in order to… Read More ›
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In the quantum world, the future affects the past: Hindsight and foresight together more accurately ‘predict’ a quantum system’s state
Date: February 9, 2015 In the quantum world, the future predicts the past. Playing a guessing game with a superconducting circuit called a qubit, a physicist has discovered a way to narrow the odds of correctly guessing the state of a… Read More ›
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Quantum Theory Shows No Big Bang, Universe Has no Beginning
Tuesday, 10 February 2015 The universe may have existed forever, according to a new model that applies quantum correction terms to complement Einstein’s theory of general relativity. The model may also account for dark matter and dark energy, resolving… Read More ›
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Vaccines for measles, mumps and rubella in children risk associations
EEV: At request: Here is the reaction rates to each strain of MMR from: DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD004407.pub3 *This should be helpful in you determining which risk is more favorable. Vaccines for measles, mumps and rubella in children Results from two very large… Read More ›
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Chinese Hackers may of used the Anthem Data Breach as a back-door way to spy on U.S. defense officials, corporations and others, according to wire reports.
LOS ANGELES (CN) – Anthem Blue Cross allowed hackers to steal personal information from 80 million customers, a class action claims in Federal Court. Two such class actions were filed in Los Angeles Thursday and another in Birmingham, Ala. Federal… Read More ›
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Aluminum in Vaccines, a Bad Mix
Aluminum in Vaccines, a Bad Mix – A study of whooping cough vaccinations in Gothenburg a few years ago showed that almost one per cent of the children developed pruritic nodules in the area of the vaccination. Three out of… Read More ›
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Do cops need college?
Public Release: 5-Feb-2015 Michigan State University EAST LANSING, Mich. — A new study suggests college-educated cops are dissatisfied with the job, have negative views of their supervisors and don’t necessarily favor community policing, a strategy aimed partly at reducing the… Read More ›
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Dirt mounds made by termites in Africa, South America, Asia could prevent spread of deserts
Public Release: 5-Feb-2015 Termites create oases of moisture, plant life National Science Foundation Termites might not top the list of humanity’s favorite insects, but new research suggests that their large dirt mounds are crucial to stopping deserts from spreading into… Read More ›
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Arsenic is the biggest public-health problem for water in the United States– the most toxic thing we drink
Public Release: 5-Feb-2015 Reports from Columbia’s Superfund program show many US wells tainted with arsenic Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health February 4, 2015 — Naturally occurring arsenic in private wells threatens people in many U.S. states and parts… Read More ›
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Gallup CEO Corrects Past ‘Misleading’ Statement on Unemployment Rate
Gallup CEO and Chairman Jim Clifton said that the number of full-time jobs as a percent of the total population was the lowest it had ever been. WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – The official unemployment rate was not the misleading part, but… Read More ›
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Monarch Butterflies food supply 99% destroyed by Monsanto’s herbicide
Friday, 06 February 2015 The multinational agricultural giant Monsanto’s signature herbicide Roundup Ready is leading to the decimation of Monarch butterfly populations, according to a report issued by the US environment watchdog Center for Food Safety. “This report is… Read More ›
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1 in 3 people would risk shorter life rather than take daily pill to avoid heart disease
Public Release: 3-Feb-2015 American Heart Association Rapid Access Journal Report American Heart Association One in three people say they would risk living a shorter life instead of taking a daily pill to prevent cardiovascular disease, according to new research in… Read More ›
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One in 2 people in the UK will get cancer
Public Release: 3-Feb-2015 Cancer Research UK One in two people will develop cancer at some point in their lives, according to the most accurate forecast to date from Cancer Research UK, and published in the British Journal of Cancer today… Read More ›
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Study finds our thoughts are susceptible to external influence — even against our will
Public Release: 3-Feb-2015 San Francisco State University For a recent San Francisco State University study, participants were asked to look at a commonplace image but avoid thinking of the word that corresponds with the image or how many letters are… Read More ›
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American parents awarded £600,000 in compensation after their son developed autism as a result of MMR vaccine
EEV: Requested Repost of the December Court Order : Clean PDF File Here: campbell-smith-mojabi-proffer-12-13-2012 In the United States Court of Federal Claims OFFICE OF SPECIAL MASTERS Filed: December 13, 2012 * * * * * * * * * * *… Read More ›
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Cocaine Suppressed for Language Glitch
Wednesday, February 04, 2015Last Update: 2:40 PM PT CORPUS CHRISTI (CN) – Eight kilos of cocaine the Border Patrol found in a car can’t be used as evidence because the driver didn’t know he could object to the search, a… Read More ›
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ECB Pulls The Trigger: Blocks Funding To Greece
Wednesday, 04 February 2015 Just what the market had hoped would not happen… •ECB SAYS IT LIFTS WAIVER ON GREEK GOVERNMENT DEBT AS COLLATERAL •ECB SAYS IT CAN’T ASSUME SUCCESSFUL CONCLUSION OF GREECE REVIEW What this means simply is that… Read More ›
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NBC’s Brian Williams recants Iraq story after soldiers protest
‘I spent much of the weekend thinking I’d gone crazy. I feel terrible about making this mistake By Travis J. Tritten Stars and Stripes Published: February 4, 2015 WASHINGTON — NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams admitted Wednesday he was… Read More ›
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Aluminum in vaccine combinations may be over 100 times the level required to induce neurodevelopmental delays in preterm infants
EEV: Links will bring you to the JAMA site: Effect of Routine Vaccination on Aluminum and Essential Element Levels in Preterm Infants Tammy Z. Movsas, MD, MPH1,2; Nigel Paneth, MD, MPH2,3; Wilson Rumbeiha, DVM, PhD, DABT, DABVT, VDPAM5; Justin Zyskowski, BA4; Ira… Read More ›
Engineering Evil 