PPI...

 

At prescription strength, proton-pump inhibitors are associated with a potential 25% increased risk of early death from any cause, suggests new research published  in the British Medical Journal.

The drugs, known as PPIs, suppress excess acid in the stomach. Generally, prescription formulas are taken by patients with severe conditions for long periods, while lower-dose over-the-counter formulas are approved for only short-term use.

 According to author Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly of the Washington University School of Medicine. "A number of studies reported that use (of these drugs) is associated with a number of adverse events including kidney disease, fractures, pneumonia, dementia, C. diff infections and cardiovascular disease," he said.

Al-Aly and his co-authors say the biological reason for a link between PPIs and increased risk of early death is not clear. Evidence suggests that these drugs change how genes express themselves, increasing some DNA activities while decreasing others. It is these genetic differences that may contribute to earlier deaths.

Decency...

Germany is taking on Facebook, threatening criminal action against the world’s biggest social media company if it doesn’t stem the swelling tide of racist postings.  Entries such as “gas the Jews” are examples of the repugnant postings that have appeared online, said Piotr Malachowski, spokesman for the German Ministry of Justice.

 “What you are seeing on Facebook is not just racist comment, it is a violation of Germany’s criminal code,” he said. “Facebook can be held criminally liable for users’ illegal hate speech.”

German law prohibits speech that denies the Holocaust, disparages minorities, or insults public figures. Malachowski said the government asked Facebook two years ago to do a better job of filtering hate postings. Germany is now demanding a meaningful response by early this year, or it will take legal action against the social media giant that has 1.8 billion users worldwide.
Germany also is asking Google and Twitter to rein in objectionable posts.

Facebook denies claims that it is not taking down expressions of hate quickly enough. It has hired a German technology company to monitor and delete content that is illegal in Germany and other European countries. Six hundred people, fluent in several languages, scan the site daily.

Stop...

CNN...

A chance...

Self...

Mean...

Discussion...

Workin...

If you listen to many Republicans in Washington, the Affordable Care Act’s insurance markets are in a “death spiral,” “imploding,” “collapsing” or “will fall of their own weight

Mr. Ryan is right that the Obamacare market has endured hardships. It isn’t as competitive as many of its advocates had hoped, and shoppers in many parts of the country have only one insurer to choose from

But insurers say lawmakers need to make fixes in order for them to remain in the market and have praised some of the early steps taken by the Trump Administration to stabilize the market.

You call it Repeal and replace, or fix Obama care... It wasn't the end of the road and we haven't got Trump-care yet. But it is the politicians tactic to scare the public and they may get some publicity out of this cruel game.  Just a thought.

Spells...*

Two recently deciphered papyri were discovered and translated, dated to the third century. The spells are written in Greek, a language widely used in Egypt at the time.

Ancient, magical spells of love, subjugation and sex,  may sound like a "Game of Thrones" episode, but these evildoings are also found on two recently deciphered papyri from Egypt.

One spell invokes the gods to "burn the heart" of a woman until she loves the spell caster.  Another spell, targeted at a male, uses a series of magical words to "subject" him, forcing him to do whatever the caster wants.

The two spells were not targeted at a specific person, only need to insert the name of the person being targeted sort of like an ancient "Mad Libs."

Archaeologists Bernard Grenfell and Arthur Hunt discovered the spells in Oxyrhynchus, Egypt, more than 100 years ago, among a haul of hundreds of thousands of papyri.   Many of them are now owned by the Egypt Exploration Society and are housed and studied at the University of Oxford in England.

 Nothing new under the Sun.   Been used since. Just a thought.