Clipmarks | Age requirement Clips

Gene test could 'prevent' heart disease

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 06:11:43 GMT

clipped by: pokkets
clipper's remarks: I believe genetic testing should be an option, not a requirement. That may be a good principle for adults, but the call is for testing to be done on 'at risk' children under 10. I'd be surprised if they could find anyone in the world that wasn't subject to some genetic risk or another. Still, a DNA Database is as good as a chip, or an ID card, and much better than a finger print...but I'm a cynic..or perhaps an optimist with experience.

Clip Source: www.abc.net.au

Anna Salleh

News analysis Australian health authorities could prevent costly heart disease cases with a nationwide genetic screening program, suggest some experts.

To what extent will knowing our genetic predisposition to preventable diseases change our behaviour?

But others caution safeguards are needed, and such tests may not be the quick fix for heart disease.

Three Australian experts this week called for more support to screen families with familial hypercholesterolaemia (FH) - a defective gene that prevents liver cells from taking up cholesterol from the blood.

UK authorities may soon recommend at-risk children under the age of 10 years be screened for the FH gene.

"[The UK proposals] represent an approach we would like to see in Australia," says Dr David Sullivan, president of the Australian Atherosclerosis Society, who spoke at a forum organised by the Australian Science Media Centre

a genetic test could help identify FH early so people could take action to prevent heart disease

Missouri Intermediate Driver License Restrictions

Sun, 11 May 2008 14:53:22 GMT

clipped by: kingsrook
clipper's remarks: Good info about restrictions on the intermediate driver license.

Clip Source: www.mdn.org

Graduated Driver's License Restrictions

This bill would require an increase in the amount of behind-the-wheel driving time required in the instruction permit phase prior to obtaining an intermediate license. Forty hours would be required under this legislation, ten of them nighttime driving hours. This is increased from the current requirement of 20 hours.

In addition, after obtaining an intermediate license, the teen driver would be restricted in the first six months to transporting no more than one passenger under the age of 19 who is not an immediate family member of the driver. After the first six months and for the remainder of the intermediate driver's license, the driver may transport no more than three passengers under the age of 19 who are not immediate family members of the driver.

The Pentagon vs America

Thu, 08 May 2008 18:26:36 GMT

clipped by: earnric
clipper's remarks: Scott Ritter makes some astute observations regarding the military and its relationship with the citizens - and the constitution - it is sworn to protect.

Clip Source: www.truthdig.com

why would I ever encourage a citizen of military age to consider service in the armed forces?

Our military cannot change unless we the people re-establish the link between ourselves and the legislative branch of government and rebuild the bond of trust between citizen and soldier.

This requires good people to serve, even if the conditions of their service are not ideal. Do I want to have an intelligent, morally grounded soldier on the front line in Iraq, making the decisions about the use of force in the framework of an illegal and unjust occupation, or do I want to relinquish that job to a former felon lacking even a high school diploma? Do I want the troops of today led by Bible-wielding zealots or Constitution-wielding patriots? While we struggle to re-establish the bond between citizen and soldier, we have an absolute requirement to ensure we continue to field a military composed of citizen soldiers.

Tags: military, war, soldier

The Kentucky Derby Tragedy

Tue, 06 May 2008 01:44:40 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: Third, we should ban the racing of 2- and 3-year-olds so popular on the U.S. track. In Europe, horses are typically raced later, when their "growth plates" (leg bones) are fully formed and they are less prone to injury. Greedy Americans don't want to spend the money to keep the horse "hanging around" (to wit, not earning money) until they are 4 or 5 years old, and so we race them before their legs are strong enough to handle injury.

Many horses are forced to live 23-7 in their stalls, except for the hour or so per day when they are exercised. The human equivalent would be tying someone to his or her bed for 23 hours per day, only letting them out to run for an hour. Wouldn't you go crazy under those circumstances?

I hope Eight Belles's death serves as something more than a one-day news story. I hope her sacrifice causes every fan of horse racing to stop patronizing the sport or betting on the mounts until major reforms take place.

Clip Source: www.usnews.com

I've been writing these past few weeks about horrendous and fatal equine accidents in the sport of three-day eventing. I own seven hunter/jumper show horses and maintain my own 40-acre horse farm.

There are several things that must be done immediately to spare further equine abuse and death. Mr. Squires touched on some of them, but not all. Yes, new forms of artificial track footing, which have been mandated in California, should be mandated nationwide.

Second, the trend toward breeding thinner-boned thoroughbreds should be banned immediately. Horses are bred for speed, which often means thin-boned legs. The thinner the bone, the more easily it breaks. Horses with broken or fractured legs don't always have to be "euthanized" (I prefer the term slaughter, since that's what it really is). They're often killed when owners decline the alternatives: huge veterinary or board bills to keep injured horses standing in hoists for a year or more to allow their bones to heal.

Tags: barbaro, eight belles, thoroughbred, horse racing, polytrack mandate, bred for speed, age requirement

WiFi Responsibility War Erupts In Utah

Wed, 06 Feb 2008 23:41:30 GMT

clipped by: BartendingBear
clipper's remarks: "It's for the children."

Clip Source: arstechnica.com

A bill that would require those operating WiFi networks to verify users' ages has come under fire. Introduced to the Utah House of Representatives by Rep. Bradley Daw (R-Orem) late last month, the bill seeks to protect children from accessing "material harmful to minors" via public WiFi networks.

If you think that sounds like an unreasonable burden for WiFi operators, you're not alone. XMission, a Salt Lake City-based WiFi provider, said that complying with such a law would cost it upwards of $5,000 per month. XMission CEO Pete Ashdown told The Salt Lake Tribune that the company might be forced to turn off a number of its networks, including those in public libraries, in order to comply with the law.

The age verification requirement is the brainchild of a Utah nonprofit called CP80. Founded by former SCO chairman Ralph Yarro, CP80 seeks to keep pornography away from young eyes by moving it off of port 80.

mind games

Thu, 08 Nov 2007 19:37:16 GMT

clipped by: ahbaathen
clipper's remarks: exercise,mind,games,aerobics,brain

Clip Source: www.readersdigest.com.my

As we age, our brain cells, called neurons, lose the tree-branch-like connections between them. These connections, or synapses, are essential to thought. Quite literally, over time, our brains lose their heft. Perhaps the most striking brain research today is the strong evidence that ''exercise can forestall some of the ageing processes in the brain'', notes Professor Mahoney, dean and professor of applied sport psychology at the University of Wolverhampton in England. ''Certainly, it improves memory.'' Animal studies have shown that, among other brain benefits, aerobic exercise increases capillary development in the brain and that means more blood supply, more nutrients and – a big requirement for brain health – more oxygen.

Tags: aerobics, games, mind, brain, memory

The Classroom vs The Boardroom

Wed, 15 Aug 2007 22:56:23 GMT

clipped by: RayWatkins
clipper's remarks: Historian David Noble , co-founder of the National Coalition for Universities in the Public Interest, teaches at York University. His latest book is The Religion of Technology: The Divinity of Man and the Spirit of Invention, published by Knopf.
1998

Clip Source: www.firstmonday.org

Thus, at the very outset of this new age of higher education, the lines have already been drawn in the struggle which will ultimately determine its shape. On the one side university administrators and their myriad commercial partners, on the other those who constitute the core relation of education: students and teachers. (The chief slogan of the York faculty during the strike was "the classroom vs the boardroom"). It is no accident, then, that the high-tech transformation of higher education is being initiated and implemented from the top down, either without any student and faculty involvement in the decision-making or despite it. At UCLA the administration launched their Initiative during the summer when many faculty are away and there was little possibility of faculty oversight or governance; faculty were thus left out of the loop and kept in the dark about the new web requirement until the last moment.

Tags: education, technology, pedagogy, class

Math as a Civil Right

Sat, 21 Jul 2007 15:33:26 GMT

clipped by: Kore7
clipper's remarks:

The ubiquity of computers makes abstract, quantitative reasoning skills critical to a wide range of job opportunities. "Information age technology put math on the table as a literacy requirement in the same way that industrialism made reading literacy a requirement," says Moses. For that reason, he says, the country needs to raise math education standards for all students.

Clip Source: www.sciencenews.org

Voting rights advocate calls for mathematics literacy

Mathematics literacy is a new civil rights battleground, according to the renowned activist and political organizer Robert Parris Moses. Using the same ideas and methods that he once used to fight for voting rights in the South, Moses is working to increase access to quality mathematics education through the Algebra Project, a nationwide program that he founded.

Before the 1965 Voting Rights Act, many Americans were excluded from participation in their country's democracy through laws that made literacy a requirement to vote. Today, Moses says, many young people are excluded from full participation in the country's economy because they lack mathematical literacy.

Tags: math, mathematics, algebra, computers, technology, education, children, civil rights, usa, robert parris moses

ESRB: Game publishers will need to comply with the age gate requirement

Tue, 26 Jun 2007 02:26:56 GMT

clipped by: skulltula87

Clip Source: www.gamasutra.com

a more active Entertainment Software Ratings Board crackdown regarding publisher produced game trailers

The first notice came from D3 Publisher, whose forthcoming action title Dark Sector has not yet been rated by the ESRB. "We recently received a ruling from the ESRB," the statement reads, "...stating that the two officially released Dark Sector gameplay montages have been deemed to contain excessive or offensive content; and to this end are not to be available for download or viewing, regardless of being placed behind an age gate."

"Game publishers that do not comply with the age gate requirement are subject to enforcement actions by the ESRB," the statement warns, though it makes no mention of precisely what penalties exist for non-compliant sites.

Tags: esrb, dark sector, the darkness, trailer

The Best Exercises to Lose Weight Permanently

Thu, 15 Feb 2007 17:07:20 GMT

clipped by: dreamwords

Clip Source: www.weightlossforall.com

Sitting and reading or watching TV

Here's where we start off the exercise scale but rather than class this as an exercise we refer to this as an activity. It does burn a little more energy than sitting quietly or sleeping, although the extra energy requirement comes from increased brain activity by consciously interpreting what was seen or read. Increased brain activity burns mostly carbohydrates however many other metabolic processes will use fat to fuel the processes, problem is there is very little total calories being burned. At an estimate this activity will burn 1-2* calories per minute which is very low even though up to 80%** will come from muscle burning fat!

Walking

Walking is said to be one of the best exercises for losing weight. The percentage of fat burning is around the 55% ** mark, however as with all exercises it really depends on the intensity of effort.

Aerobic exercise or light Jogging

Aerobic classes are very popular for many trying to lose weight. They can be very effective in burning a large amount of total energy in a single session. However if a person is overweight and/or unfit the class may become too intense for proper fat burning, especially if the individual is highly motivated to keep up with other, fitter members of the class. For this individual breathing would become heavy and this will always result in carbohydrates becoming the predominant fuel, pushing the percentage of fat burning down as low as 30%

Running (7 minute mile average)

At 7 minute mile running we will burn more than 10 *calories per minute and looking at most runners on the street many may deduce that this must be the best exercise to lose weight. Most runners seem so thin and lean but in fact running at this pace would not be the best idea to lose weight. We would probably be burning about 80% carbohydrates and only 20% ** fat.

Walking is a great start for people of any age wishing to lose weight fast.

Tags: diet, home remedies, natural health, natural remedies, strengthening, weight, weight loss

Old cars to be scrapped for free

Mon, 01 Jan 2007 11:08:11 GMT

clipped by: techilovsky

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Old cars to be scrapped for free

Car makers must take care of their old vehicles when they are scrapped

Drivers across the EU can now have their old cars scrapped free of charge, under a new European Union directive that has come into force.

Carmakers are being made responsible for the disposal of old vehicles under the End of Life Vehicles directive.

The requirement was already in place for cars made after 2002, but now applies to all vehicles of any age.

The amount of harmful materials, such as mercury and lead, will now also be reduced in new models by manufacturers.

The aim is to recycle or re-use more than 80% of each vehicle.

Between 8m and 9m tonnes of waste from vehicles that have reached the end of their lives is generated within the EU each year.

Bankruptcy fears

When the idea first surfaced, carmakers argued the directive could cost the industry millions of pounds and threaten struggling car producers with bankruptcy.

A similar scheme will come into operation for the disposal of electrical and electronic goods by the middle of the year.

The average lifespan of a car is 13.5 years and about 2m cars and vans are scrapped each year in the UK alone.

As the value of scrap metal has fallen over the years, motorists in the UK have often been charged about £50 (74 euros) for the disposal of their vehicles by scrap merchants .

But the cost has discouraged many people from doing so, meaning thousands of unwanted cars have simply been abandoned by the roadside.

The cost of removing them then often falls on the local authority.

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Tags: scrap, cars, council

Vit D and Ca Requirement

Wed, 29 Nov 2006 19:20:39 GMT

clipped by: dr_akshra

Clip Source: www.medscape.com

"Adequate calcium is considered a key component of any bone-protective therapeutic regimen," the guidelines note. "Calcium has also been associated with beneficial effects in several nonskeletal disorders, primarily hypertension, colorectal cancer, obesity, and nephrolithiasis, although the extent of those effects has not been fully elucidated."

In the presence of adequate vitamin D status, adequate calcium intake has been shown to reduce bone loss in perimenopausal and postmenopausal women and to reduce fractures in postmenopausal women older than 60 years with low calcium intakes. The calcium requirement rises at menopause, or whenever estrogen is lost because calcium absorption efficiency and renal conservation are both estrogen dependent. For most postmenopausal women, the target calcium intake is 1200 mg/day.

Adequate vitamin D status is required to achieve the nutritional benefits of calcium. The panel defined the vitamin D requirement as 30 ng/mL or more of serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D], usually accomplished with a daily oral intake of at least 400 to 600 IU.

Approximately 3 cups of dairy products daily provide the 1200-mg target. If calcium supplementation is needed, each dose must not exceed the age-appropriate allowance and should be consumed with a large glass of water.

Fortified foods and calcium supplements taken in 500-mg doses maximize absorption in women who do not tolerate dairy products.

Calcium doses higher than 2150 mg daily have been shown to increase renal calculi by 17%, and women with a history of renal calculi should not exceed the age-appropriate dosage and should increase intake of water with calcium.

Tags: preventive health

Is Azureus' Biggest Shortcoming Java?

Thu, 26 Oct 2006 12:33:26 GMT

clipped by: travislaborde
clipper's remarks: Absolutely!

I'd love to run this, but... First I have to install some new version of Java, and deal with that... even their website sucks!

And you just *know* when you're running a Java app... the windows look a bit funky, the buttons are different, the textboxes dont work in the same way regarding "tabs" and cursoring, etc...

All in all - I avoid it like the plague.

Clip Source: www.javalobby.org

Is Azureus' Biggest Shortcoming Java?

Wired.com is running an article on the best bit torrent clients available today , and among the top five is Azureus ; a popular SWT/Java client application, and consistently one of the most actively developed and downloaded projects at Sourceforge.net.

Wired certainly had many good things to say about Azureus, putting it in a subjective third place behind the the official BitTorrent client and µTorrent (microTorrent) . Among the 'good' listed for Azureus are the expansive feature set, the plug-in architecture, and the fact that because it is Java, it is available on a huge slew of platforms.

Ironically, the first and foremost 'Bad' feature listed is... Java. Here are some quotes about why Azureus is in some ways inferior because of Java:

It's built in Java, which hurts the user experience and brings up some compatibility issues [...]
You need to have the latest JRE installed in order for Azureus to operate correctly. [...]

The sluggishness problem becomes a nightmare under heavy traffic loads. [...]

Bloat and the Java requirement are downers, but is there anything Azureus can't do? [...]

They refer to something labeled 'the sluggishness problem' as if it is an unfortunate feature of Java. I also find it particularly interesting that compatibility issues and user experience are listed so early on in the analysis of Azureus. I thought that a major point of Java was to *avoid* compatibility issues? Unfortunately, they don't elaborate on what this means. Likewise, in this day and age I can't imagine that user-experience can be blamed on Java. Whether you are a Swing fan or an SWT fan, both clients are more than capable of keeping up with native widget toolkits. Maybe this should be a complaint for Azureus itself rather than a slight against Java?

What do you think - do you think that Azureus' biggest problem is that it is built in Java?

Tags: bittorrent

Dutch Court OKs Pedophile Party

Thu, 20 Jul 2006 19:52:41 GMT

clipped by: usmc6531

Clip Source: blogs.abcnews.com

A Dutch political party that openly embraces pedophilia won a major legal battle this week, avoiding a possible state ban in a decision handed down by The Hague District Court of the Netherlands.

The PNVD, widely known as the "pedophile" party, caused a stir in May when the group announced on a newly-registered official website its goal of lowering the legal age of sexual consent from 16 to 12 and ultimately scrapping the age requirement altogether. The group believes children should have the right to make sexual decisions without state interference.

"People should be allowed to decide for themselves what they do," the party states on their website. "Children as young as twelve should have the freedom to have sex, vote, gamble and live with whomever they want."

On its website the group also fledged support for the legalization of child pornography and bestiality and recommended that individuals as young as 16 be allowed to perform in pornographic videos.

According to officials at The Hague, the court ruled not to ban the fringe group on the basis that it had done nothing illegal.

"It is not illegal to try democratically to change the system – which is what these people are trying to do," said a Hague spokesperson, summarizing the ruling of Judge H. Hofius.

"They are exercising their freedoms of speech and association, and as such cannot be banned by the state."

Tags: dutch, politics, pedophile

Gore+Clinton=Bill Gates

Thu, 23 Feb 2006 00:00:03 GMT

clipped by: Godfrey Daniel
clipper's remarks: We all know that Al Gore invented the Internets. This Chinese author notes that Bill Clinton is responsible for computers becomin "universally popular among the whole population, and [as result], economic giants of the new age such as Bill Gates were born."

Ok.

Clip Source: www.pressinterpreter.org

If we look at the history of Western education, lowering the requirement for running schools and educating the whole of the population is the one and only way to create a flourishing country. After the American civil war, the first government orders announced by President Lincoln were to educate the entire population, requiring farmers to be educated in agriculture and farming. The result was that within ten years, the US was rapidly reformed from a traditional society where 10 farmers worked to support one grown man, to a modern society where one farmer can support 10 grown men! After the Second World War, for Britain the road to deactivating large numbers of soldiers lay in employing them as dock workers, at the same time, in the US deactivate soldiers unceasingly entered into universities, and as a result the national strengths of both countries were enlarged, to such an extent that they cannot be placed on a par. The most recent example is Clinton's policy of using education to 'save' the country: In his State of the Union address, Clinton stressed that the country was in the middle of a crisis, especially an educational crisis. To know one's shame is to get closer to bravery - American society entered into another stage of educating the entire population, with the emphasis on IT and computing. As a result, computers became universally popular among the whole population, and economic giants of the new age such as Bill Gates were born.

Tags: commentary, china, humor