June 2, 2013

Vinegar cancer test saves lives, India study finds

MUMBAI, India—<snip>

Doctors reported the results Sunday at a cancer conference in Chicago. Experts called the outcome "amazing" and said this quick, cheap test could save tens of thousands of lives each year in developing countries by spotting early signs of cancer, allowing treatment before it's too late.

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Pap smears and tests for HPV, a virus that causes most cervical cancers, have slashed cases and deaths in the United States. But poor countries can't afford those screening tools.

This study tried a test that costs very little and can be done by local people with just two weeks of training and no fancy lab equipment. They swab the cervix with diluted vinegar, which can make abnormal cells briefly change color.

This low-tech visual exam cut the cervical cancer death rate by 31 percent, the study found. It could prevent 22,000 deaths in India and 72,600 worldwide each year, researchers estimate.


Read more: Vinegar cancer test saves lives, India study finds - The Denver Post

http://www.denverpost.com/healthcare/ci_23372863/vinegar-cancer-test-saves-lives-india-study-finds#ixzz2V4BChTdS

June 2, 2013

Rupert Murdoch is now an old man on a lonely throne

By Peter Preston, The Observer
Sunday, June 2, 2013 7:37 EDT

In his 80s, with no clear successor, the media mogul and his spun-off newpaper operation are in a precarious position

Matthew Parris went to the Orwell prizegiving the other day and suddenly saw red. Chris Mullin MP was giving a speech lauding fine investigative journalism – like that of this year’s winner, Andrew Norfolk of the Times – which he firmly asserted was achieved “despite” the efforts of newspaper proprietors. “What sneery, snivelling, ignorant, leftie rubbish,” wrote Parris.

“Who does he think pays for Norfolk’s investigations, or for my columns? Does he know nothing about the losses being clocked up by quality newspapers all over the world? … Does he realise how precarious now is the whole future of daily newspapers in Britain?” Call it, on second thoughts, a Rupert red mist.

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There’s a balance-sheet bonne bouche of $2bn and a wiping away of debts that will help News Corp mark two ride briefly high when it goes solo and public – though no longer listed in London – at the end of June. But there will also be no more lush, adjacent pastures of satellite TV or Hollywood blockbusters to assure US shareholder peace when loss-making papers have to be supported. 21st Century Fox won’t be indulging the boss’s little foibles any longer. Once the presses roll, he’s on his own.

<snip>

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/06/02/rupert-murdoch-is-now-an-old-man-on-a-lonely-throne/

Citizen Murdoch.

June 2, 2013

How to Think About Guns: A New Freakonomics Radio Podcast

http://www.freakonomics.com/2013/02/14/how-to-think-about-guns-a-new-freakonomics-radio-podcast/



<snip>

This episode is a straightforward conversation between Stephen Dubner and Steve Levitt, keeping in mind recent events like the Newtown, Ct., school massacre and long-standing traditions like the American embrace of guns.

<snip>

whether deterrents like capital punishment and sentence enhancements actually work.

We begin this episode with some basic data. In the U.S., there are roughly 11,000 gun homicides and 20,000 gun suicides a year. (Our podcast “The Suicide Paradox” looked into why we hear so much less about the suicides than the homicides.) What we hear about more than anything are the relatively rare but extremely disturbing mass shootings. From the podcast:

Mother Jones magazine recently built a database of mass shootings – four or more fatalities — over the past 30 years. Not everyone likes this database – it excludes, for instance, all gang shootings and armed robberies. But here are those numbers: since 1982, there have been 62 mass shootings with 513 fatalities, or an average of 2 mass shootings and 16.5 fatalities a year. (Now, remember, keep in mind there are 11,000 gun murders each year in total.) Over just the past 10 years, those numbers are a bit higher – about 3 shootings a year, with 26 fatalities. But 2012 was a very bad year: 7 shootings with 72 fatalities, more than 4 times the average number of victims in a year from mass shootings.

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So what could diminish gun violence? We’ve asked that question before; good answers are hard to come by. Levitt says mandatory sentence enhancements work. You’ll also hear about Geoffrey Canada‘s book Fist Stick Knife Gun, which might change the way you think about violence in general.