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POPSHere Are Some Important Passages in the 2,000 Page Legislation.
Eviscerating Medicare: In addition to reducing future Medicare funding by an estimated $500 billion, the bill fundamentally changes how Medicare pays doctors and hospitals, permitting the government to dictate treatment decisions. Sec. 1302 (pp. 672-692) moves Medicare from a fee-for-service payment system, in which patients choose which doctors to see and doctors are paid for each service they provide, toward what's called a "medical home." (The bill specifies that patients may have to settle for a nurse practitioner rather than a physician as the primary-care provider.) Sec. 1114 (pp. 391-393) replaces physicians with physician assistants in overseeing care for hospice patients. • Secs. 1158-1160 (pp. 499-520) initiates programs to reduce payments for patient care to what it costs in the lowest cost regions of the country. Sec. 1161 (pp. 520-545) cuts payments to Medicare Advantage plans (used by 20% of seniors). Advantage plans have warned this will result in . . . .
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POPSIs Intelligence Sexy? <<<Many traits in many species have evolved through sexual selection specifically to function as fitness indicators that reveal good genes and good health. Sexually selected fitness indicators typically show (1) higher coefficients of phenotypic and genetic variation than survival traits, (2) at least moderate genetic heritabilities and (3) positive correlations with many aspects of an animal's general condition, including body size, body symmetry, parasite resistance, longevity and freedom from deleterious mutations. These diagnostic criteria also appear to describe human intelligence (the g factor).>>> (from abstract). So then, is there some sort of mirror neuron circuitry in the brain that excites a cortical g spot?
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POPSThe value of cord blood—even greater than once imagined! Families who have banked your child’s cord blood (or are considering it) take note -you may have access to “ready-to-use” stem cell therapies that are greater than we imagined. This includes treatments that may help restore, repair and regenerate various tissues and organs that may have been damaged through injury or illness.
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POPSUrge World Leaders: Vote No to Biased Goldstone Report I'm here at the emergency session of the U.N. Human Rights Council, facing a draft resolution by the Arab and Islamic blocs that seeks to endorse the biased Goldstone Report"a 500-page document that falsely accuses Israel of “deliberate attacks” against civilians during its defensive war against Hamas rocket attacks last January. (For details, see www.unwatch.org/goldstone.) Adoption of this dangerous text will trigger proceedings toward the indictment and prosecution of Israeli leaders and officers in the International Criminal Court. What’s at stake is the very survival of democratic societies under the assault of terrorists"enemies of human rights who cynically invoke its protective cover. The debate began yesterday and reaches its climax today. UN Watch will be there to address the assembled delegates. Representing us will be none other than Col. Richard Kemp, former commander of the British forces in Afghanistan,
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POPSFacts are in fact irrelevant It is often more important how is something said than what is actually said. Probably that's the way the human mind works, the memes that are propagated are not the most factual, but the most appealing, intriguing, amusing or surprising. The problem are the consequences for science if the focus is set on communication at any expense instead of accuracy. However, a perfect accuracy with no communication is pointless. Thus, as with all conflicting goals, the way to go is probably a compromise, as it doesn't look like we are changing human nature anytime soon.
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POPSPlanet Robo: Population Will Exceed 1 Million Worldwide by 2010 "DO NOT TAKE A BATH WITH YOUR ROBOT WHILE JUGGLING CHAINSAWS." Best advice I’ve heard all year. But where are all of these robots? Mostly they are things like those little Roombas and Robomowers that creep in and around tech-savvy homes. The author identifies a looming problem, with military contractors driving the manufacture and spread of Robosapiens, we need to begin focusing on the ethics of their use for civilian applications. Getting a robot to identify the enemy under military situations is quite different from relying on them to patrol civilian streets. It’s no longer a great stretch to imagine robocops in patrol cars in the near future.
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POPS Obama as Dr. Evil Part of this was due to opposition to specific policies, and a belief that on certain critical issues, America has acted unilaterally, without regard for the interests of others. This has fed an almost reflexive anti-Americanism, which too often has served as an excuse for our collective inaction. Like all of you, my responsibility is to act in the interest of my nation and my people, and I will never apologize for defending those interests. But it is my deeply held belief that in the year 2009 " more than at any point in human history " the interests of nations and peoples are shared. It irks me that Obama believes that our interests are shared. Our interests could be shared, if Iran didn’t want to obliterate Israel, for example. However, presently that is not a shared interest of the United States. Obama courts the world, telling them how he appeases them"closing Guantanamo Bay, ending torture, ending weapons systems, ridding the world of nuclear weapons, and so on . .
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POPSBin Laden Message to Europe: Withdraw from Afghanistan I clipped the most intriguing phrases. Go to clip source to read entire message. The closing paragraph: His message seems to be Europe, you still have a chance. Don't go down with the American ship. Happy is whoever learns a lesson from the mistakes committed by others. Modest precautions are better than expensive follow-up care. Returning to truth is better than insisting on falsehood. And peace be upon those who follow the path of righteousness.
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POPSAdministration Will Cut Border Patrol Deployed on U.S-Mexico Border A Department of Homeland Security annual performance review updated by the Obama administration on May 7 said the Border Patrol “plans to move several hundred Agents from the Southwest Border to the Northern Border to meet the FY 2010 staffing requirements, with only a small increase in new agents for the Southwest Border in the same year.” Easterling said on Tuesday that in fiscal 2009, 17,399 Border Patrol agents have been deployed on the U.S.-Mexico border. In fiscal year 2010, the Border Patrol plans to decrease that by 384 agents, leaving 17,015 deployed along the Mexican frontier. At the same time, the number of Border Patrol agents deployed on the U.S.-Canada border will be increased by 414, from a fiscal 2009 total of 1,798 agents to a fiscal 2010 total of 2,212. Read full article: By Terence P. Jeffrey, Editor-in-Chief CNS NEWS.COM http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/54514
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POPSThe Other Ongoing World Shame: Darfur As the author indicates, when you have lots of "show," there is often very little "go." Take away all the glitter and false starts and Darfur is still one of the leading killing grounds in the world. Is Sudan's oil worth that much?
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POPSCBI gets HC nod to book govt officials in ashram deaths
MUMBAI: The Bombay high court has given the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) the go-ahead to book persons, including government officials, responsible for providing sub-standard food to tribal children in state-run ashram schools. The court also ordered the government to fix responsibility and initiate action against officers who provided bug-infested food to the children in such special schools. The court was hearing a public interest litigation on the condition of schools and the death of five children in one such school in Dahanu. The CBI submitted a confidential report to the court detailing how the food was infested with bugs. Additional solicitor-general Darius Khambata informed the court: "except at two places, foodgrains in all other godowns were not fit for human consumption.'' The court was also told that four students had died of snake bites at different ashram schools in the state. The court said that the CBI was free to file additional charge sheets if re
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POPSThere is Now a Scientific Way to Measure Smelly Farts "The contraption could even have use outside of fraternity houses, Clain says, as a biosensor for harmful hydrogen-sulfide-producing bacteria in hospitals. Or dentists could use it to measure oral malodor. They’ve also received some interest from doctors with four-legged patients. “You can test the health of livestock through the quality of their farts,” Salas says. “Smell and sound can tell you a lot about their bowel movements.” When it came time to present the invention in class, though, Clain and Salas had to test their detector by making raspberry sounds and breathing on it—human exhalations contain enough hydrogen sulfide to trigger the sensor. “It’s hard to fart something really smelly on command,” Clain laments. “Besides, it provided a nicer atmosphere for those around us.” Still, their professor saw fit to award the project a well-deserved A."
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POPSMeta Brain Growth Process I came across this site looking for material on nootropics. I have read many sites that contain SOME good information, but also a lot of New Age theories, which weren't of interest to me. This looks like a great resource.
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POPSYour desire to know I love the principle of curiosity. I use it all the time with children in my family therapy practice. It is the key way to get them engaged. If you can't engage them, then you can't help them, is what my work often comes down to. The same truth can apply to marketing or any form of relationship building activity. What are you thoughts? True? Not true? Click the comment button or tweet us a reply...hey 140 characters is just enough to wet your curiosity isn't it?
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POPSSuper Bacteria Check this baby out ! Deinococcus radiodurans is a fabulous bacteria. It may well be our servant to help us explore new worlds. These are the same bacteria you may have already heard of, but have forgotten. Back in the '70s they were adapted to help clean uo those nasty oil spills. Now we are heading into new territories, such as cleaning water & oxygen, and adapting to humans for survival on other planets. If you really want to see what's going on click on the links to further your education about them and your curiosity.
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POPSTranslating human feelings into computer data.
Such tools could help companies pinpoint the effect of specific issues on customer perceptions, helping them respond with appropriate marketing and public relations strategies. For casual Web surfers, simpler incarnations of sentiment analysis are sprouting up in the form of lightweight tools like Tweetfeel, Twendz and Twitrratr. These sites allow users to take the pulse of Twitter users about particular topics. A quick search on Tweetfeel, for example, reveals that 77 percent of recent tweeters liked the movie “Julie & Julia.” But the same search on Twitrratr reveals a few misfires. The site assigned a negative score to a tweet reading “julie and julia was truly delightful!!” That same message ended with “we all felt very hungry afterwards” " and the system took the word “hungry” to indicate a negative sentiment. While the more advanced algorithms used by Scout Labs, Jodange and Newssift employ advanced analytics to avoid such pitfalls, none of these serv
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POPSAn enemy of today's capitalistic economic system..... QFS: Hitler was intent on having a community of mutual interest that desired mutual success instead of one that was divided over the control of money or differing values. THE COMMON INTEREST BEFORE SELF-INTEREST - THAT IS THE SPIRIT OF THE PROGRAM. BREAKING OF THE THRALDOM OF INTEREST - THAT IS THE KERNEL OF NATIONAL SOCIALISM. In these straightforward statements of intent, Hitler translated his ideology into a plan of action which would prove its popularity with the German people throughout the coming years. For many, the abruptness of its departure from the tradition of politics as practiced in the western world was as much of a shock as its liberal nature and foresight of the emerging problems of western democracy.
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POPSPepsiCo Chooses to Continue Using GE Ingredients Despite Evidence of Harm
The list of evil corporations grows longer. What else would you label a corporation that continues to use ingredients proven to cause toxicity in the kidney and liver? They sure as hell cannot be considered beneficial or benevolent. US law does not require GE foods be tested for toxicity so PepsiCo will continue to use the material without conscience. To quote Pepsi's response to the proposal: "We believe that genetically-modified products can play a role in generating positive economic, social and environmental contributions to societies around the world; particularly in times of food shortages." PepsiCo’s belief system (making money no matter what) doesn’t fit in with lab test results therefore disregard the tests. Incredibly, Monsanto had this to say: "Monsanto should not have to vouchsafe the safety of biotech food. Our interest is in selling as much of it as possible. Assuring its safety is the FDA's job." That’s my definition of an evil corporation.
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POPSPresident Pantywaist in Retreat: Obama Hoists The White Flag Over Stalinist Health Care Proposals it might persuade them to buy into his socialist scheme, the primary objective of which was not relief of suffering but expansion of Big Government. Now that is in tatters. Politically, it is interesting to analyse why. Obama has no notion of cautious, consensual reform: he wants a Union of Soviet States of America and he wants it now. A realist would have taken up the existing reform proposals, perhaps radicalised them a little, and tried to take them forward. Above all, he would not have alienated the pro-life lobby by rolling abortion into the plan. But not Obama. He brings to the White House the abilities and experience of a Chicago community organiser. As Sarah Palin witheringly said: “I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a ‘community organiser’ except that you have actual responsibilities.”
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POPSWelcome To Documentary Heaven, Feed Your Brain Documentary Heaven was set up early July 2009 to provide the public with a vast collection of documentaries spanning across every genre out there. We intend on continuously updating the site on a daily basis to bring you nothing but the very best. The Idea Behind This Site: We understand that the internet can be a very interesting place filled with much to do, but have you ever had one of those days where there seems to be absolutely nothing amongst that vast collection of websites out there that could possibly interest you? Well now there is documentaryheaven.com. So whenever your bored, just relaxing or simply in the mood to watch something interesting, why not pop onto our site and find a documentary that takes your interest! There is no hidden agenda here, you see we simply just want to freely entertain the masses!!
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POPSCOERCIVE CARE: Real Concerns About the Health Care Bill, The Tyranny of Good Intentions
The health care bill is all about Federal control over every "free" American. Insurance would be mandatory and compulsory and the government gives you "options" through coercion, including the IRS leaning on you ("penalty") if you try to "opt out" and retain your basic human rights, i.e. private property (how you spend your own money), control of your body, and freedom of choice. Then your entire privacy is jeapordized as the Federal government becomes your legal guardian and Nanny, supervising, monitoring, and tracking (in real electronic time) every health procedure and examination of every minutia of your life. So much for "freedom" then. Moreover, information is power, and this personal information on you provides the government the means of coercing you into what Big Brother thinks is "in your best interest", i.e. really the interest of the Collectivist State. A Healthcare National ID card has been discussed. The principle is nothing other than Communism.
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