Paying individuals for the donation of their bone marrow may become legal, if a lawsuit filed by the Institute for Justice (IJ) succeeds in overturning the current ban. The lawsuit was filed on October 28 in federal court on behalf of patients, doctors, and parents of sick children.
The IJ sued the United States Attorney General Eric Holder over the National Organ Transplant Act of 1984, which makes human organ sales illegal, including financial compensation for bone marrow donations. An overturn of the ban could have a large impact on physicians, donors, and especially patients, including those with myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS).
Bone marrow transplants are an important part of treatment in various types of blood cancers. The stem cells, after being separated from the donated bone marrow and inserted into the recipient’s bloodstream, begin to repopulate the patient’s bone marrow with new blood cells.
For MDS patients, a bone marrow transplant is the only known treatment that can bring about long-term remission. However, a transplant is not an option for all MDS patients; it is generally most effective in younger, healthier patients.
The non-profit group MoreMarrowDonors.org recruited the IJ to file the lawsuit to overturn the ban and allow for compensation to be made to donors.
“We think that there is much folly in a government law standing between a patient and a potentially life-saving program,” said Shaka Mitchell, president of MoreMarrowDonors.org. “To that end, we decided this suit is of paramount importance.”
MoreMarrowDonors.org is proposing a pilot program that will compensate the most needed donors, especially minorities, with $3,000. The money would be in the form of a scholarship, housing grant, or donation to charity. Donors and patients would be matched anonymously through a national registry.
“Our hypothesis is that many people drop off the registry or fail to follow through once contacted because they cannot afford time away from work or other commitments. By providing small scholarships, housing allowances, and gifts to charity, we think we can prevent some of the attrition that eventually leads to patients unable to find marrow matches,” added Mitchell.
In the past, transplants required the removal of bone marrow directly from the pelvic bone. The procedure has become much less invasive and painful since the development of medications that prompt the donor’s stem cells to leave the bone and enter the bloodstream. A machine filters these mobilized stem cells from the circulating blood, and the stem cells are then frozen until transplantation.
But the donor and recipient must still be perfect matches in a bone marrow transplant – even more so than in a kidney transplant. This is where the problem arises – matches are hard to come by, and patients do not have the luxury of time to wait for a match.
An overturn of the current ban could result in more donors in bone marrow registries and a higher potential for matches among MDS patients seeking a bone marrow transplant.
The National Organ Transplant Act of 1984 was originally enacted to prevent the sale of kidneys and other organs that do not regenerate. But critics argue that the original law banning compensation for organs was not meant to pertain to bone marrow – unlike a kidney, bone marrow renews itself.
“Bone marrow got stuck in the statute – by mistake,” said Jeff Rowes, the IJ’s lead attorney on the case. He described bone marrow donation as an unusual form of blood donation. “No reason to treat them like kidneys or livers,” he added.
Criticism and ethical concerns over the proposed payment of bone marrow donors have also been raised (see The New York Times Opinion blog). Some wonder if compensation will negatively affect the number of altruistic donors on the registry.
There is also concern that payment will encourage individuals to conceal health conditions in order for donations to be accepted, leading some to worry about the affect an overturn may have on the quality of the donations.
The lawsuit may take a number of years to work its way through the federal court system. In the meantime, coverage of the lawsuit in the news media may raise awareness of the shortage of bone marrow donors and trigger an influx of donors to the registry.
“The goal is to make a serious dent in the shortage of bone marrow donors,” Rowes said. “Maybe save 1,000 lives a year.”
Origianl story can be found at http://www.mdsbeacon.com/news/2009/11/12/ban-on-payment-for-bone-marrow-donations-challenged-in-lawsuit/
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Sunday, October 25, 2009
When is Daylight Saving Time in 2009 - Time To Fall Back
Ah the ending of Daylight saving (not savings) time is here! The official US Daylight Savings Time Schedule for 2009 is the 1st of November at 2:00 am. It use to end the last Sunday in October but two years ago it was to the first Sunday in November.
Good news for this year is most folks will get to get an extra hour of sleep after enjoying some Halloween festivities. Just remember to turn your clocks back an hour before retiring on October 31st.
The clocks will stay at this setting until the March 14, 2010 – as Daylight Saving time begins the second Sunday in March.
And while you are running around your house setting all the clocks back an hour don’t forget to check your smoke detectors. Fire departments encourage everyone to check their smoke detectors and change the batteries if needed when they change their clocks. Working smoke detectors can double a family’s chance in a fire.
Not all U.S. states and territories observe Daylight Saving Time including Arizona (with the exception of the Navajo Nation), Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. Earlier this year Alaska passed a bill to stop following it as well.
Original article can be found at:
http://www.examiner.com/x-260-Seattle-Parenting-Examiner~y2009m10d24-When-is-Daylight-Saving-Time-in-2009--time-to-Fall-back
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Let Them Drink Water! - What a fat tax really means for America.
Not long after the attack on Pearl Harbor, in the winter of 1942, physiologist A.J. Carlson made a radical suggestion: If the nation's largest citizens were charged a fee—say, $20 for each pound of overweight—we might feed the war effort overseas while working to subdue an "injurious luxury" at home.
Sixty-seven years later, the "fat tax" is back on the table. We're fighting another war—our second-most-expensive ever—and Congress seems on the verge of spending $1 trillion on health care. Once again, a bloated budget may fall on the backs of the bloated public. Some commentators, following Carlson, have lately called for a tax on fat people themselves (cf. the Huffington Post and the New York Times); others, like a team of academics writing in the current issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, propose a hefty surcharge on soft drinks instead.
The notion hasn't generated much enthusiasm in Congress, but fat taxes are spreading through state legislatures: Four-fifths of the union now takes a cut on the sales of junk food or soda. Pleas for a federal fat tax are getting louder, too. The New York Times recently endorsed a penny-per-ounce soda tax, and Michael Pollan has made a convincing argument for why the insurance industry may soon throw its weight behind the proposal. Even President Obama said he likes the idea in a recent interview with Men's Health. (For the record, Stephen Colbert is against the measure: "I do not obey big government; I obey my thirst.")
For all this, the public still has strong reservations about the fat tax. The state-level penalties now in place have turned out to be way too small to make anyone lose weight, and efforts to pass more heavy-handed laws have so far fallen short. But proponents say it's only a matter of time before taxing junk food feels as natural as taxing cigarettes. The latter has been a tremendous success, they argue, in bringing down rates of smoking and death from lung cancer. In theory, a steep tax on sweetened beverages could do the same for overeating and diabetes.
It may take more than an analogy with tobacco to convince voters. As my colleague William Saletan points out, the first step in policing eating habits is to redefine food as something else. If you want to tax the hell out of soda, you need to make people think that it's a drug, not a beverage—that downing a Coke is just like puffing on a cigarette. But is soda as bad as tobacco? Let's ask the neuropundits.
Junk food literally "alters the biological circuitry of our brains," writes David Kessler in this summer's best-seller, The End of Overeating. In a previous book, Kessler detailed his role in prosecuting the war on smoking as the head of the FDA; now he's explaining what makes us fat with all the magisterial jargon of cognitive neuroscience. Eating a chocolate-covered pretzel, he says, activates the brain's pleasure system—the dopamine reward circuit, to be exact—and changes the "functional connectivity among important brain regions." Thus, certain foods—the ones concocted by industrial scientists and laden with salt, sugar, and fat—can circumvent our natural inclinations and trigger "action schemata" for mindless eating. Got that? Junk food is engineered to enslave us. Kessler even has a catchphrase to describe these nefarious snacks: They're hyperpalatable.
Try as we might, we're nearly powerless to resist these treats. That's because evolution has us programmed to experience two forms of hunger. The first kicks in when we're low on energy. As an adaptation, its purpose is simple enough—we eat to stay alive. The second, called hedonic hunger, applies even when we're full—it's the urge to eat for pleasure. When food is scarce, hedonic hunger comes in handy, so we can stock up on calories for the hard times ahead. But in a world of cheap food, the same impulse makes us fat.
Original article can be found at http://www.slate.com/id/2228713/?gt1=38001
Sixty-seven years later, the "fat tax" is back on the table. We're fighting another war—our second-most-expensive ever—and Congress seems on the verge of spending $1 trillion on health care. Once again, a bloated budget may fall on the backs of the bloated public. Some commentators, following Carlson, have lately called for a tax on fat people themselves (cf. the Huffington Post and the New York Times); others, like a team of academics writing in the current issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, propose a hefty surcharge on soft drinks instead.
The notion hasn't generated much enthusiasm in Congress, but fat taxes are spreading through state legislatures: Four-fifths of the union now takes a cut on the sales of junk food or soda. Pleas for a federal fat tax are getting louder, too. The New York Times recently endorsed a penny-per-ounce soda tax, and Michael Pollan has made a convincing argument for why the insurance industry may soon throw its weight behind the proposal. Even President Obama said he likes the idea in a recent interview with Men's Health. (For the record, Stephen Colbert is against the measure: "I do not obey big government; I obey my thirst.")
For all this, the public still has strong reservations about the fat tax. The state-level penalties now in place have turned out to be way too small to make anyone lose weight, and efforts to pass more heavy-handed laws have so far fallen short. But proponents say it's only a matter of time before taxing junk food feels as natural as taxing cigarettes. The latter has been a tremendous success, they argue, in bringing down rates of smoking and death from lung cancer. In theory, a steep tax on sweetened beverages could do the same for overeating and diabetes.
It may take more than an analogy with tobacco to convince voters. As my colleague William Saletan points out, the first step in policing eating habits is to redefine food as something else. If you want to tax the hell out of soda, you need to make people think that it's a drug, not a beverage—that downing a Coke is just like puffing on a cigarette. But is soda as bad as tobacco? Let's ask the neuropundits.
Junk food literally "alters the biological circuitry of our brains," writes David Kessler in this summer's best-seller, The End of Overeating. In a previous book, Kessler detailed his role in prosecuting the war on smoking as the head of the FDA; now he's explaining what makes us fat with all the magisterial jargon of cognitive neuroscience. Eating a chocolate-covered pretzel, he says, activates the brain's pleasure system—the dopamine reward circuit, to be exact—and changes the "functional connectivity among important brain regions." Thus, certain foods—the ones concocted by industrial scientists and laden with salt, sugar, and fat—can circumvent our natural inclinations and trigger "action schemata" for mindless eating. Got that? Junk food is engineered to enslave us. Kessler even has a catchphrase to describe these nefarious snacks: They're hyperpalatable.
Try as we might, we're nearly powerless to resist these treats. That's because evolution has us programmed to experience two forms of hunger. The first kicks in when we're low on energy. As an adaptation, its purpose is simple enough—we eat to stay alive. The second, called hedonic hunger, applies even when we're full—it's the urge to eat for pleasure. When food is scarce, hedonic hunger comes in handy, so we can stock up on calories for the hard times ahead. But in a world of cheap food, the same impulse makes us fat.
Original article can be found at http://www.slate.com/id/2228713/?gt1=38001
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Khloe Kardashian Wedding Pics Available Bright and Early Tomorrow
OK! Magazine" Publishes Offical Khloe Kardashian Wedding Pics Tomorrow
Khloe Kardashian wedding pics will be available tomorrow in all their glory in OK! Magazine. Khloe Kardashian wedding pics were sold to OK! Magazine for $300,000 in a deal brokered by Kris Jenner, Khloe's mother-manager.
So many people are anxiously awaiting official Khloe Kardashian wedding pics. With everything going on in the world, I have
Khloe Kardashian Wedding Pics Available Bright and Early Tomorrow
Costumes | Party Ideas | Kids and Safety | Movies and Music | Scary Stories | More » to stop and wonder why we are so interested in Khloe Kardashian wedding pics.
Perhaps with all the bad things going on in the news such as the Derrion Albert beating and the dual wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, it's refreshing to see a happy couple enjoying a lavish wedding. The Khloe Kardashian wedding pics show us a side of life we don't get to see every day on the news - happiness.
Some would argue that the interest in Khloe Kardashian wedding pics is because of a waning intelligence level in America's youth and young adult population. Similar to the movie Idiocracy, people argue that society is slipping backwards and becoming -dumb.
Personally, I think that people have an interest in Khloe Kardashian wedding pics because her story is interesting. She has a lot of drama going on with Lamar Odom. Not only will the wedding pics show the Kardashian-Jenner clan, they will show many stars rubbing elbows and enjoying a great day together.
Khloe Kardashian wedding pics will highlight a great day, but they won't show the whole picture of the couple's relationship. Lamar Odom has two children with his ex-girlfriend Liza Morales. Khloe Kardashian will have to step in and be there for those children when they are with Lamar.
Khloe Kardashian wedding pics haven't even hit newsstands and people are already wondering how long the couple will last. I like to give people - even celebrities - the benefit of the doubt. Just because Kardashian and Odom didn't date long before they were married doesn't mean they won't last.
PerezHilton.com has a preview of the Khloe Kardashian wedding pics. The cover features mainly the Kardashian sisters, and Lamar blends into the background.
Original article can be found at http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2235739/khloe_kardashian_wedding_pics_available.html?cat=2
Khloe Kardashian wedding pics will be available tomorrow in all their glory in OK! Magazine. Khloe Kardashian wedding pics were sold to OK! Magazine for $300,000 in a deal brokered by Kris Jenner, Khloe's mother-manager.
So many people are anxiously awaiting official Khloe Kardashian wedding pics. With everything going on in the world, I have
Khloe Kardashian Wedding Pics Available Bright and Early Tomorrow
Costumes | Party Ideas | Kids and Safety | Movies and Music | Scary Stories | More » to stop and wonder why we are so interested in Khloe Kardashian wedding pics.
Perhaps with all the bad things going on in the news such as the Derrion Albert beating and the dual wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, it's refreshing to see a happy couple enjoying a lavish wedding. The Khloe Kardashian wedding pics show us a side of life we don't get to see every day on the news - happiness.
Some would argue that the interest in Khloe Kardashian wedding pics is because of a waning intelligence level in America's youth and young adult population. Similar to the movie Idiocracy, people argue that society is slipping backwards and becoming -dumb.
Personally, I think that people have an interest in Khloe Kardashian wedding pics because her story is interesting. She has a lot of drama going on with Lamar Odom. Not only will the wedding pics show the Kardashian-Jenner clan, they will show many stars rubbing elbows and enjoying a great day together.
Khloe Kardashian wedding pics will highlight a great day, but they won't show the whole picture of the couple's relationship. Lamar Odom has two children with his ex-girlfriend Liza Morales. Khloe Kardashian will have to step in and be there for those children when they are with Lamar.
Khloe Kardashian wedding pics haven't even hit newsstands and people are already wondering how long the couple will last. I like to give people - even celebrities - the benefit of the doubt. Just because Kardashian and Odom didn't date long before they were married doesn't mean they won't last.
PerezHilton.com has a preview of the Khloe Kardashian wedding pics. The cover features mainly the Kardashian sisters, and Lamar blends into the background.
Original article can be found at http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2235739/khloe_kardashian_wedding_pics_available.html?cat=2
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Halloween Costume Ideas 2009: From Kim Jong Il to Octomom to more Appropiate Childrens Costumes
Besides gorging on sweets on Halloween, you could also dress up in a Halloween-themed costume and celebrate with family and friends. Halloween parties are common and most people choose to dress up as a favourite cartoon character or animal on this special day. If a loved one is at sea about choosing the right Halloween costume, then you could gift a suitable one. However, while gifting a Halloween costume, ensure that the size is right, neither too tight and nor too loose. Some creative Halloween costume ideas perfect for 2009 are Michael Jackson Halloween Costumes which include with silver sequined gloves, black fedoras and other essential accessories. One could also dress up as Kate Gosselin with a big, asymmetrical tusk of blonde hair in front and a bunch of uneven, fuzzy hair sticking out in back. Other popular costume ideas for Halloween 2009 are Kim Jong Il Costumes, Rod Blagojevich Costumes, Octomom Costumes, Sarah Palin Costumes and many more that imitate models, public leaders, politicians and so on. Celebrities, actors, reality TV stars and others are a great fodder for fun Halloween costumes.
However, while putting together a Halloween costume, do not forget the right accessories. The right accessories, especially with a Halloween theme like fangs, devil horns, angel wings, makeup and trick-or-treating bags will make dressing up fun. Some popular ideas for Halloween costumes for children are Coppenrath Princess Lillifee- Ballet dancer dress-up, Mattel Superman Fly Cape, Mattel Inflatable Suit, Cesar Group Lazy Town Sportacus Muscle Costume, Cesar Group Spiderman Classic Muscle Costume, Rubie’s Power Rangers Red Costume, Hilka McLaren Racing Suit Costume, Rubie’s Power Rangers Black Costume, Vivid WWE Title Belt - Classic World Tag Team Championship Belt, RDP Creative Borat Mankini Thong and Hasbro X-Men Origins Wolverine: Electronic Claw.
Tags: Halloween Costume Ideas 2009, kim jong il costume, kim jong il halloween costume, kim jong il halloween, rod blagojevich halloween costume, octomom costume, halloween costumes for black men, octomom holloweeen costumes, halloween costume ideas, x men costume ideas 2009, octomom news, do it yourself costumes for 2009, 2009 halloween costumes, octomom, halloween ideas, octomom costume halloween, octomom news articles, kim jong costume, halloween kim jong il, best halloween costume ideas, octomom
Original article can be found at http://www.home-living-news.co.uk/decorating/794/halloween-costume-ideas-2009-from-kim-jong-il-to-octomom-to-more-appropiate-childrens-costumes.html
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Samantha Geimer picture: Samantha Geimer picture photo
Samantha Geimer, 45, was Roman Polanski’s victim when she was 13 years old. Geimer has asked the prosecutors to drop the old charges. Geimer said that her family and herself are suffering with the continued pursuit of the case against Roman Polanski.
Polanski’s defence lawyers wanted to get the L.A. Supreme Court disqualified from hearing the case. The Judge Peter Espinoza ruled that there were no grounds to disqualify the case.
Original article can be found at http://news.cnpanyu.com/2009/0927/6202.html
Monday, September 21, 2009
Gwinnett County schools up for $1M national prize
Gwinnett County Public Schools soon may join the elite ranks of school systems in New York City and Boston as one of the top urban school districts in the country.
The 160,000-student district — the largest in Georgia — is one of five finalists for the Broad (pronounced "Brode") Prize for Urban Education, which honors school systems that have showed the most improvement in student achievement, particularly for minorities and low-income students. U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan will announce the winner Wednesday at a ceremony in Washington, D.C.
The prize includes $1 million in scholarships for students graduating from the winning district in 2010 and $250,000 for scholarships for the other systems.
For the county just north of Atlanta, it also means recognition beyond Georgia, where Superintendent J. Alvin Wilbanks is known for narrowing the achievement gap between the white and minority students in his district. Black and Hispanic students make up about half the student population.
"I think we have really moved away from a focus on teaching to a focus on learning. While that may sound simple, it's an extremely complex concept," Wilbanks said in a telephone interview. "When I go to visit a school and a classroom, I don't observe the teacher. I watch the students. Are they engaged? Are they working on assignments? Are they working with each other?"
A team that visited Gwinnett County schools from the Broad Foundation noted the district's tough curriculum that requires more of students than what the state does. The district also has open classrooms where administrators can float in and out, observing how teachers are doing and what students are learning.
About 70 percent of principals' evaluations are based on student performance on tests, which means they are held directly responsible for how much students learn.
"They're doing things that are not really happening around the country," said Erica Lepping, spokeswoman for the Broad Foundation.
About 72 percent of black students in Gwinnett graduate from high school, and 61 percent of Hispanic students get a diploma. That compares with 59 percent of black students nationally, and is on par with the national average for Hispanic students.
The district has steadily increased the rate of black students taking Advanced Placement courses since 2005, hitting 12 percent last year with 44 percent scoring enough to get college credit. That's compared with the national average of 8 percent of black students taking an AP course and only 4 percent passing the test.
For Hispanic students in Gwinnett, the gap between them and their white peers in elementary school reading has narrowed by 9 percentage points since 2006.
For the prize, the other finalists are: Aldine Independent School District in Houston; Broward County Public Schools in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; Long Beach Unified School District in California; and Socorro Independent School District in El Paso, Texas.
The Los Angeles, Calif.-based Broad Foundation has given out the award since 2002 to honor achievement among the nation's 100 largest urban school districts. Previous winners include the New York City Department of Education, Boston Public Schools and Houston Independent School District.
Original article found at http://www.ajc.com/AJC-sharing_/gwinnett-county-schools-up-137097.html
The 160,000-student district — the largest in Georgia — is one of five finalists for the Broad (pronounced "Brode") Prize for Urban Education, which honors school systems that have showed the most improvement in student achievement, particularly for minorities and low-income students. U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan will announce the winner Wednesday at a ceremony in Washington, D.C.
The prize includes $1 million in scholarships for students graduating from the winning district in 2010 and $250,000 for scholarships for the other systems.
For the county just north of Atlanta, it also means recognition beyond Georgia, where Superintendent J. Alvin Wilbanks is known for narrowing the achievement gap between the white and minority students in his district. Black and Hispanic students make up about half the student population.
"I think we have really moved away from a focus on teaching to a focus on learning. While that may sound simple, it's an extremely complex concept," Wilbanks said in a telephone interview. "When I go to visit a school and a classroom, I don't observe the teacher. I watch the students. Are they engaged? Are they working on assignments? Are they working with each other?"
A team that visited Gwinnett County schools from the Broad Foundation noted the district's tough curriculum that requires more of students than what the state does. The district also has open classrooms where administrators can float in and out, observing how teachers are doing and what students are learning.
About 70 percent of principals' evaluations are based on student performance on tests, which means they are held directly responsible for how much students learn.
"They're doing things that are not really happening around the country," said Erica Lepping, spokeswoman for the Broad Foundation.
About 72 percent of black students in Gwinnett graduate from high school, and 61 percent of Hispanic students get a diploma. That compares with 59 percent of black students nationally, and is on par with the national average for Hispanic students.
The district has steadily increased the rate of black students taking Advanced Placement courses since 2005, hitting 12 percent last year with 44 percent scoring enough to get college credit. That's compared with the national average of 8 percent of black students taking an AP course and only 4 percent passing the test.
For Hispanic students in Gwinnett, the gap between them and their white peers in elementary school reading has narrowed by 9 percentage points since 2006.
For the prize, the other finalists are: Aldine Independent School District in Houston; Broward County Public Schools in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; Long Beach Unified School District in California; and Socorro Independent School District in El Paso, Texas.
The Los Angeles, Calif.-based Broad Foundation has given out the award since 2002 to honor achievement among the nation's 100 largest urban school districts. Previous winners include the New York City Department of Education, Boston Public Schools and Houston Independent School District.
Original article found at http://www.ajc.com/AJC-sharing_/gwinnett-county-schools-up-137097.html
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