Welcome to the Overnight News Digest (OND) for Tuesday, August 14, 2012.
OND is a regular
community feature on Daily Kos, consisting of news stories from around the world, sometimes coupled with a daily theme, original research or commentary. Editors of OND impart their own presentation styles and content choices, typically publishing near 12:00AM Eastern Time.
Creation and early water-bearing of the OND concept came from our very own Magnifico - proper respect is due.
---
This diary is named for its "Hump Point" video: Powerhouse by The Raymond Scott Quintette
Please feel free to browse and add your own links, content or thoughts in the Comments section.
Any timestamps shown are relative to each publication.
---------------------------------------
|
|
Top News |
|
Medicaid cuts create nursing home crisis
By (UPI)
|
Saratoga County, N.Y., is grappling with a growing deficit at a needed public nursing home created by cuts in Medicaid made in Washington, officials say.
The Arthur Webb Group, hired to prepare a report on the public 277-bed nursing home in Ballston Spa told the county Public Health Committee Monday that the county cannot continue to support the facility without major changes to its operating model, tax increases or employee layoffs, the Albany-Times Union reported.
. . .
To stop the financial hemorrhaging, the county would have to increase taxes by at least 20 percent or lay off 120 employees -- 35 percent of its workforce, the study said.
In most states, Medicaid pays for 60 percent of all nursing home residents. Since the recession, states have had a larger demand for Medicaid funding with more people who qualify and less state revenue, resulting in cuts in Medicaid.
|
The Hunt Is On for Biological Signs of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
By Susan Young
|
A consortium of U.S. psychiatrists, neurobiologists, data scientists, and more will pool resources in an effort to find a better means of diagnosing and potentially treating post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a condition that can lead to debilitating anxiety or depression as well as cardiovascular disease.
Nearly eight million adults in the United States suffer from PTSD. War veterans are affected at a higher rate than the rest of the population, but civilians who are assaulted, survive a severe accident, or suddenly lose a loved one are also at risk. While there are treatments, clinicians have to use trial and error to determine whether medication, psychological therapy, or a combination will work best, and in some cases none of these strategies are effective.
The consortium plans to study both civilians and military personnel who have recently been in automobile accidents (some 9 percent of American accident survivors develop PTSD, according to the National Center for PTSD). The idea is to enroll people before symptoms begin to appear, so that researches can study how and in whom the disorder unfolds. The consortium will draw from genetic data, brain imaging, physiological measurements, and more to try to identify patterns that can be used to diagnose the disease and potentially improve treatment.
. . .
PTSD is currently diagnosed solely on the basis of clinical interviews, and patients sometimes misrepresent their feelings, often because they are trying to avoid the memories and emotions associated with their trauma. Nearly half of PTSD patients are not identified, by some estimates.
|
Hunting laws: Should children hunt alone?
By Phil Mercer
|
Condemned by some as a bloodthirsty move to impose a violent culture on children, authorities in Australia's most populous state are considering a plan to allow under-18s to hunt feral animals on their own with knives, dogs and bows and arrows.
The hunting lobby in New South Wales says the proposal will encourage more families to take up their sport and also to help stop the damage inflicted on the environment by hordes of wild pigs, foxes and rabbits.
. . .
"The very clear intent of the gun lobby is to normalise firearms. They want to see firearms as just like a tennis racket, just another piece of sporting equipment. They want to de-link firearms and the violence they cause from what they see as a legitimate sport of hunting and shooting.
"Now there are legitimate elements to hunting and shooting but what we don't want is to glorify it and promote it as a widespread culture, because otherwise we are going to be normalising firearms and we'll go down the same path the United States has where suddenly it becomes your right to have a gun. And that has never been the case here in New South Wales."
|
Tunisian women protest to demand equality
By (BBC)
|
Thousands of Tunisians have protested in the capital, Tunis, against moves by the Islamist-led government which they fear will reduce women's rights.
The government has unveiled a draft constitution which refers to women as "complementary to men".
. . .
Tunisia was one of the most secular Arab states before the Islamist Ennahda party won elections last year.
. . .
The 1956 constitution said that women and men were equal, banned polygamy and introduced civil divorce and marriage.
|
|
|
|
International |
|
Australia court backs new tobacco laws
By (Al Jazeera)
|
Australia's highest court has upheld tough new anti-tobacco marketing laws, dismissing a legal challenge from global cigarette companies in a major test case between tobacco giants and anti-smoking campaigners.
Leading global tobacco manufacturers, including British American Tobacco, Britain's Imperial Tobacco, Philip Morris and Japan Tobacco, had challenged the law, claiming the rules were unconstitutional because they effectively extinguished their intellectual property rights.
. . .
The laws are in line with World Health Organisation recommendations and are being watched closely by Britain, Norway, New Zealand, Canada and India, who are considering similar measures to help fight smoking.
|
Do Host Cities Get an Economic 'Olympic Bounce'?
By (ScienceDaily)
|
The Olympics have always been associated with cities, but it's only in modern times that they've been used as a tool of urban transformation, says George Papakis, an instructor and doctoral candidate at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM).
. . .
"After the 1936 Games in Berlin, it became obvious that the Olympics could be much more than a simple athletic competition," he says. "But it was the Rome Olympics in 1960 that signaled the passage to large-scale interventions, so characteristic of today's Games. Since then, the Olympics started to become increasingly grandiose, requiring much higher investments, and leaving a much larger footprint on the urban environment of host cities."
Today, the investment by cities is massive. It is estimated that for hosting the 2008 Games, officials in Beijing spent more than $40 billion.
. . .
Whether cities have been successful as a result of hosting the Olympics depends on how success is defined and who's defining it, says Papakis. The Greek government declared the 2004 Games a success because major problems were avoided, but in retrospect many in Greece feel the Olympics were a disaster, he says. The Montreal Olympics of 1976 also took a financial toll, with the province finally paying off debt for the event in 2006.
|
Beijing firm that guarantees 3 billion Yuan worth of loans is on the verge of collapse
By Mamta Badkar
|
. . . as loan guarantee company Zhongdan Investment Credit Guarantee Co. that has over 3 billion yuan in loan guarantee contracts stands on the brink of bankruptcy according to Caixin Online, concerns about a financial crisis are beginning to surface too.
. . .
Zhongdan, as Caixin Online explains pushed borrowers to take out bank loans based on guarantees from the company, and then give a portion of it to Zhongdan for it invest in its own wealth management products. Zhongdan would use those investments to acquire stakes in small companies like pawn shops, which we've previously mentioned are a part of China's shadow banking system, and investment consulting firms.
Since such use of funding "completely violated banking rules" according to Chovanec and to circumvent the issue Zhongdan set up a shell supplier company for instance, got a loan approved by a bank and then de-registered the company.
. . .
"The concern in China is that — like that tornado — a drop in the local property market, or a decline in exports, could hit all borrowers at once, overwhelming the local credit guarantee company and leaving the banks high and dry. The risk is exacerbated by the fact that many credit guarantee companies were capitalized with loans from the same banks whose other loans they are guaranteeing. In effect, banks are insuring themselves, or each other, and would still end up holding the bag on loan losses that are supposedly insured.
|
|
|
|
USA Politics, Economy, Major Events |
|
1.7 million can defer deportation
By (UPI)
|
Officials said about 1.7 million undocumented immigrants could be allowed to work and live openly in the United States after applying for a temporary reprieve.
President Obama's initiative, put into place by executive order after Congress failed to pass the Dream Act, would grant temporary two-year stays of deportation for young undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States when they were children.
. . .
"The release of the new form and instructions to allow individuals to request consideration of deferred action for childhood arrivals from USCIS marks an important step in our implementation of this new process," said Director Alejandro Mayorkas.
|
Sacramento Boy Scouts responds to petition from gay fired employee
By Ed Fletcher
|
The local Boy Scouts of America office released a statement Tuesday hoping to head off a new round of attention associated with the July firing of a gay camp staff member.
. . .
Griffin is expected to deliver, on Wednesday, nearly 80,000 signatures gathered on an online petition asked that the local Golden Empire Council reject the national "anti-gay policy and reinstate Tim Griffin."
. . .
"Contrary to media reports, the Golden Empire Council did not remove this camp staff member because of his sexual orientation or the BSA's membership standards policy," the BSA statement reads.
|
Scores of wildfires burn across western US
By (BBC)
|
The US Forest Service reported 62 large uncontained fires, mostly in the states of Idaho, Nevada, Utah and California.
A fire in the north-western US state of Washington has burned at least 60 houses and 24,000 acres (9,712 ha) since it started on Monday.
. . .
In Utah, a fire sparked by lightning covered 21,800 acres, threatened a herd of wild horses and forced the closure of the historic Pony Express Road that runs through the state's western desert.
|
|
Welcome to the "Hump Point" of this OND.
News can be sobering and engrossing - at this point in the diary, an offering of brief escapism:
Random notes related to this video:
. . .
Scott's Quintette (actually a sextet) first recorded "Powerhouse" in New York on February 20, 1937, along with three other titles. . .
Both "Powerhouse" and "The Toy Trumpet" remained in Scott’s repertoire for decades, both were adapted for Warner Brothers cartoon soundtracks by WB music director Carl Stalling along with a dozen other Scott titles, and both have been recorded by numerous other artists. Stalling, who spiced his scores with Powerhouse dozens of times, never created a complete version of the work, with all his adaptations existing as excerpts.
. . .
Structurally, Powerhouse consists of two distinct - and seemingly unrelated - musical themes, played at different tempos. Both have been used in numerous cartoons. The first theme, sometimes referred to as "Powerhouse A", is a frantic passage typically employed in chase and high-speed vehicle scenes to imply whirlwind velocity. The slower theme, "Powerhouse B", is the "assembly line" music, which sometimes accompanies scenes of repetitive, machine-like activity. Powerhouse in its entirety places "B" in the center while "A" opens and closes the work in the sequence A-B-A (Ternary form).
Back to what's happening:
|
|
Environment and Greening |
|
Obama’s stimulus package was a ginormous clean energy bill, says Michael Grunwald
By David Roberts
|
. . . the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, known colloquially as “the stimulus bill.” Hashed out during the transition and passed almost immediately after Obama was inaugurated, it served as an early test of the GOP strategy of total opposition and real-time mythmaking. Republicans understand that Americans are suspicious of government spending in the abstract but supportive of most specific spending programs, so they aggressively pushed the line that the stimulus was a gigantic bucket of government pork, doled out to politically connected cronies, spent on silly and wasteful projects, failing in its stated goals. “The failed stimulus” became one of those annoying but successful right-wing verbal tics. The media mostly went along.
. . .
Obama promised that he would double renewable power generation during his first term, and he did. In 2008, people had the sense that renewable energy was a tiny industry in the United States. What they forget is it was a tiny dead industry — because these wind and solar projects were essentially financed through tax credits, which required people with tax liability, and everybody had lost money, so nobody needed [the tax credits]. By changing those to a cash grant, it instantly unlocked this industry. Another thing that’s helped to create the wind and solar industry were advanced manufacturing tax credits, which were a gigantic deal. I think there were about 200 factories that got these credits. The classic example is Abengoa [Solar], which had shut down projects in Illinois, Texas, some other places. The day the stimulus passed, their chairman announced they were pouring $6 billion into U.S. projects.
For advanced biofuels, [the stimulus bill] created this $800 million program that essentially financed new refineries. And so you got the first 18 advanced biofuel refineries in the country just through that 1 percent of the clean energy funding. And there were some loan guarantees for that as well. There was also a whole geothermal technology program that went from about $20 million a year to $400 million. It’s leading right now to a real boom in geothermal production.
You can argue about this kind of green industrial policy, but it did what it was supposed to do. . .
|
Pesticide-resistant insects add insult to drought injury
By Tom Laskawy
|
Last winter, I wrote about evidence that one of Monsanto’s flagship GMO product lines — seeds engineered to produce the pesticide Bt — was succumbing to corn rootworms, the exact insects it was designed to kill. The evidence was somewhat thin — the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) received reports from several states that indicated a problem — and certainly not decisive enough to prevent Monsanto from issuing an outright denial.
But now comes a report from Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) on the damage rootworms are doing to the current corn crop and the very real concern farmers have that Monsanto’s seeds are no longer helping them control pests. The EPA is treating these latest reports seriously; according to the article, EPA officials visited some “problem fields” to observe possible evidence of resistance while awaiting results from Monsanto’s own scientists.
. . .
The sad irony is that farmers don’t need to transform themselves into organic farmers to keep their crops from being worm food — though that may be the best approach for developing more drought-tolerant fields. Historically, farmers managed corn rootworms through traditional crop rotations. These rootworms eat corn exclusively, so by alternating a corn crop with soy or another alternative, farmers would deprive the insects of food and the rootworm larvae would die off. This, by the way, is an age-old technique (originally part of the Native American Three Sisters agricultural tradition) that generates profits only for the farmer — not for seed companies.
|
|
|
|
Science and Health |
|
Meditation Reduces Loneliness
By (ScienceDaily)
|
. . .
Researchers at UCLA now report that a simple meditation program lasting just eight weeks reduced loneliness in older adults. Further, knowing that loneliness is associated with an increase in the activity of inflammation-related genes that can promote a variety of diseases, the researchers examined gene expression and found that this same form of meditation significantly reduced expression of inflammatory genes.
. . .
Remarkably, the researchers said, MBSR also altered the genes and protein markers of inflammation, including the inflammatory marker C-reactive protein (CRP) and a group of genes regulated by the transcription factor NF-kB. CRP is a potent risk factor for heart disease, and NF-kB is a molecular signal that activates inflammation.
Inflammation is a natural component of the immune system and can help fight a wide variety of bodily insults, ranging from infections to a whack by a hammer. But chronic inflammation is now known to be a primary player in the pathology of many diseases and psychological disorders.
"Our work presents the first evidence showing that a psychological intervention that decreases loneliness also reduces pro-inflammatory gene expression," Cole said. "If this is borne out by further research, MBSR could be a valuable tool to improve the quality of life for many elderly."
|
Study Demonstrates That One Extinction Leads to Another
By (ScienceDaily)
|
When a carnivore becomes extinct, other predatory species could soon follow, according to new research. Scientists have previously put forward this theory, but a University of Exeter team has now carried out the first experiment to prove it.
Published August 15, 2012 in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters, the study shows how the demise of one carnivore species can indirectly cause another to become extinct. The University of Exeter team believes any extinction can create a ripple effect across a food web, with far-reaching consequences for many other animals.
. . .
"Our research highlights the fact that a 'single species' approach to conservation can be ineffective and even counter-productive. For example, protecting cod could lead to increased fishing pressure on other predatory fish which then, by the mechanism we have demonstrated here, could lead to further negative effects on the cod."
|
Study: Fighting bullies pushed evolution
By (UPI)
|
Stopping bullying has an evolutionary basis, a U.S. researcher says, preventing them from monopolizing resources so groups can increase their odds of survival.
. . .
The findings suggest people evolved a genetic drive to help weak individuals fight back, ultimately leading to widespread cooperation among humans as well as empathy and compassion.
"Based on the results, helping the victim then is the evolutionary 'right' thing to do, not only from a victim's point of view or a societal point of view, but also the helper's point of view," Gavrilets told the Los Angeles Times.
|
Doctors could prescribe exercise
By (UPI)
|
. . .
In a commentary published in The Journal of Physiology, Dr. Michael Joyner -- a physiologist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. -- wrote that physical inactivity affects the health not only of many obese patients, but also people of normal weight, such as workers with desk jobs, patients immobilized for long periods after injuries or surgery, and women on extended bed rest during pregnancies.
. . .
"I would argue that physical inactivity is the root cause of many of the common problems that we have," Joyner wrote. "If we were to medicalize it, we could then develop a way, just like we've done for addiction, cigarettes and other things, to give people treatments, and lifelong treatments, that focus on behavioral modifications and physical activity."
Several chronic medical conditions are associated with poor capacity to exercise, including fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome and postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome -- better known as POTS, a syndrome marked by an excessive heart rate and flu-like symptoms when standing or a given level of exercise, Joyner said.
|
Exercising in midlife protects heart, says research
By Michelle Roberts
|
Making sure you get enough exercise in midlife will help protect your heart, according to research.
Even those who make the switch in their late 40s and 50s can still benefit, the study of over 4,000 people suggests.
. . .
In the study, which is published in the journal Circulation, people who did the recommended 2.5 hours of exercise a week had the lower levels of inflammatory markers in their blood.
|
|
|
|
Technology |
|
Prostitutes Turn Airbnb Apartment Into Brothel
By Jesus Diaz
|
Airbnb—the service that allows you to get some easy money by renting your place to strangers—has risks. You know your things can get stolen, your place can get trashed, your sofa can get infested by someone else's pubic hair—and now, your apartment can get turned into a brothel.
. . .
The owners were on a four-week vacation when they arrived to find a note by the police: 'your house has been a whorehouse for a month and we had to raid it. Sorry about that!' More or less. Apparently, the police had been following the suspects for a while. When they broke into the house, the prostitutes were in bed with two punters.
|
Vertical Turbine Charges EVs "Greenly" -- As Long as Breeze is Blowing
By Jason Mick
|
The electric vehicle boom has thus far been more of a fizzle, but sales are slowly creeping upwards as the industry examines this approach to making good on fuel economy requirements. One key aspect of making electric vehicles desirable to consumers is deploying public charging infrastructure so that drivers can charge their vehicles while travelling or at work.
. . .
But General Electric Comp. (GE) and Urban Green Energy (UGE) have come up with a new vertical-wind turbine powered charged dubbed "Sanya Skypump". GE makes the base WattStation, which comes equipped with a touch screen, while UGE produces the turbine.
. . .
UGE and GE hope to bring the charger to shopping malls/plazas and university across the U.S. and Australia by the end of the year. We're guessing this new "green" EV charger will be a big hit in eco-minded California, one of the few states with a significant plug-in and battery electric vehicle population.
|
Singapore Researchers Pioneer 100,000 DPI Color Printing Method
By Jason Mick
|
Using tiny patterned metal nano-discs researchers at the Agency for Science, Technology, and Research (A*STAR) Institute of Materials Research and Engineering (IMRE) in Singapore have created [press release] a 100,000 dots-per-inch (dpi) print, the highest resolution color print ever produced.
. . .
The key was to switch from a dye-based process or a lithography-type process. Lithography refers to process that deposits coating material in a static pattern on another material.
. . .
There's the obvious application of this technology -- high resolution color printing. But researchers say the technology could also be used for high-density optical storage and to create high-resolution reflective color displays.
|
|
|
|
Cultural |
|
Anglican stance on same-sex marriage 'morally contemptible', says gay cleric
By Lizzy Davies
|
The most senior openly gay cleric in Britain has accused the Church of England of pursuing a "morally contemptible" policy on same-sex marriage, denouncing it for moving "in the opposite direction" to society and criticising Rowan Williams for changing his "public position" on the issue as soon as he was made Archbishop of Canterbury.
In a new preface to his 1990 booklet on gay relationships, Jeffrey John, the Dean of St Albans, writes that, by setting themselves against same-sex marriage, the bishops of the Church have prioritised the union of the Anglican communion over the rights of gay Christians.
"This policy may be institutionally expedient, but it is morally contemptible," he writes in an abridged extract of the preface published in the Guardian. "Worst of all, by appeasing their persecutors it betrays the truly heroic gay Christians of Africa who stand up for justice and truth at risk of their lives. For the mission of the Church of England the present policy is a disaster."
|
Teenagers Listen to More Music on YouTube Than Anywhere Else
By Mario Aguilar
|
A new report from Nielsen on music consumption habits is packed with loads of surprises about the young consumers of the world. In the last year, only 50-percent of teenagers actually bothered to buy a CD. Who knew? But the more significant news is that 64-percent of teens listen to music on YouTube.
It's important to note that these teens aren't looking for new music on YouTube—the video streaming site accounts for only seven-percent of music discovery. That means that all of those teens are using YouTube to pull up songs they already know like a simple, on-demand music service they don't have to pay for. . .
|
Pakistan's army steps up radio wars
By Aijaz Maher
|
The army is considered to be one of Pakistan's shrewdest commercial operators, running bakeries, factories and even expanding into tourism.
. . .
"Pakistan's state institutions decided to respond to the propaganda aired by Maulana Fazlullah in Swat. For security reasons it was not possible to do it without the army's involvement," says FM 96's chief executive Aqeel Malik, who is also a serving officer of the Pakistani army.
Although the army eventually triumphed, driving militants out and allowing the many thousands who fled their repressive regime to return, it was not long before the army itself stood accused of abuses such as extra-judicial killings.
. . .
Simply being present in people's lives in such places is enough, observers contend. From its studios in Islamabad, the army is now broadcasting to 16 cities and towns in areas where militants once held power - including Swat and Malakand. The army has plans to expand this coverage to 44 cities.
|
|
Meteor Blades is known to offer an enlightening Evening Open Diary - you might consider checking that out tonight if you haven't already. |