Democracy...*

Swedes...*

Image is not related.

Sweden's government instituted a military draft for both men and women, because of what its defense minister called a deteriorating security environment in Europe and around Sweden.

Sweden abolished compulsory military service for men in 2010 because there were enough volunteers to meet its military needs. It has never had a military draft for women.

The government said "the all-volunteer recruitment hasn't provided the Armed Forces with enough trained personnel. The re-activating of conscription is needed for military readiness."

In 2013, Neighboring Norway introduced a law applying military conscription to both sexes.             Join the draft....

I Ceee...*

In 1999, the Justice Department broke up a “vitamin cartel” that had been led by European companies,  [Roche and BASF]. The companies overcharged big food and beverage makers like Kellogg, Coca-Cola and Nestlé. Eventually the makers of bulk vitamins agreed to pay more than $1.5 billion to settle the accusations.

Soon afterward, the Chinese gained a dominant share, and after several big European producers left the business, the Chinese companies began raising prices. By 2001, the Chinese companies were acting as a cartel and fixing the price of vitamin C.

A group of American companies accused the Chinese producers of acting in concert to raise prices in violation of United States antitrust laws. The case is significant because China produces about 80 percent of the world’s supply of ascorbic acid, or vitamin C, an important ingredient in food and soft drink items as well as animal feed and cosmetics.

The Chinese vitamin C makers was ordered by a United States District Court to pay $162.3 million in fines after a jury found the companies guilty of price-fixing.

The case was striking because of the unusual defense that the Chinese companies mounted. While acknowledging in court that they had colluded to set prices, lawyers said they were compelled to do so by the Chinese government.  

The verdict was the second time in two decades that vitamin makers had been accused of violating antitrust laws.         Just a thought.

Regardless...*

Surgery and chemotherapy treatments for her breast cancer had knocked the energy right out of her and all she wanted to do was snuggle under the bedcovers all day.  

Now research bears out what many found by instinct. Exercise helps people battling the fatigue caused by cancer and by its treatment and usually does it better than drugs do.

Karen Mustian of the University of Rochester looked through all the studies they could find on the various ways to help cancer patients get their energy back. Exercise was the clear winner, they reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association's JAMA Oncology.

So exercise regardless.  

Didn't Work...*

Pix...

 

 The 14-year-old claims he and Stephanie Peterson had a relationship. He told his mum and dad that he had been sneaking out at night to have sex. He claims they had sex several times, including once in her car parked in a driveway and twice inside a barn at his house.

According to the boy, his grades began to suffer because he was spending so much time with Peterson.

During interviews, it is claimed the teenager told investigators it all started when she started sending him images of herself in a state of undress.

Peterson resigned from her position as science teacher at New Smyrna Beach middle school in Florida, two days before her arrest.

It was also revealed that Peterson is going through a divorce, and began proceedings last month.
The media will be dancing their way to the bank with this story. But it is a sad one.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/

Today...

Blacklisted...*

A Concord high school administrator was the victim in a scandal after a nude video illegally taken by a student inside a locker room at a private club was distributed on social media, CBS reports.

Outside Clayton Valley Charter High School parents approached KPIX cameras waiving suspension slips for their children looking for answers.

The teens are accused of distributing a nude photo still from a video of Clayton Valley Charter High School Executive Director David Lindzey. The video was taken in an off-campus locker room at a private club in Walnut Creek.

“Right around fourth period, everyone had it on their phone,” said student Jacob Aviola, whose sister was suspended for five days for having the picture on her phone.

It seems to me that there is more to this story than just this.... Just a thought.

Profit...*

High prices for cancer medicines aren't the only reason they cost insurers and patients so much.

Waste pads the bill, a study finds, because infused cancer drugs are distributed in the U.S. in vials that usually contain more medicine than most patients need. Most of the time that excess is thrown out, even though it's perfectly good and worth hundreds or thousands of dollars.

Researchers at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York estimate that wasted cancer medicine in the U.S. this year will add up to nearly $3 billion in excess costs.

 It's proved difficult to rein in that spending, partly because there are so many competing interests, many of which benefit financially from waste and pricing systems that are murky at best. Meanwhile, cancer medicines are one of the highest-priced, fastest-growing drug categories.

Many of the laws support this waste and big pharma maximize the profit. dispensing medication in a smaller bottle by pharmacy cuts the expiration date to max one year. This is a huge profit particularly that most of this transfer ends up expired. Look at the laws. Just a thought.

Passively...*

Warren Buffett gives some sound investment advice for the average investor explaining how they can usually out-perform most “knowledgeable,” high-fee professional fund managers, financial advisers, and actively-managed funds, by investing passively in low-cost index funds like the Vanguard S&P500 Index fund (annual expense ratio of only 0.05%).