Non Political Current Events Thread

NTP66
Posts: 60742
Joined: Sun Oct 04, 2015 2:00 pm
Location: FUCΚ! Even in the future nothing works.

Non Political Current Events Thread

Postby NTP66 » Thu Aug 22, 2019 3:53 pm

The card isn't horrible for a noob, but the douchiness of the physical card is another story. Here's your card, but don't keep it in leather, near denim, or other credit cards. Makes perfect sense.

Kane
Posts: 5145
Joined: Fri Dec 28, 2018 10:31 pm
Location: Stavromula Beta

Non Political Current Events Thread

Postby Kane » Thu Aug 22, 2019 4:58 pm

Here's this card. Don't put it in a wallet or your pants.

AuthorTony
Posts: 8950
Joined: Wed Mar 25, 2015 11:18 am

Non Political Current Events Thread

Postby AuthorTony » Thu Aug 22, 2019 5:20 pm

https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/22/us/safew ... index.html
More than $1 million in cocaine was found hidden in boxes of bananas at three grocery stores

AuthorTony
Posts: 8950
Joined: Wed Mar 25, 2015 11:18 am

Non Political Current Events Thread

Postby AuthorTony » Thu Aug 22, 2019 7:56 pm

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/22/heal ... study.html
This Daily Pill Cut Heart Attacks by Half. Why Isn’t Everyone Getting It?

Freddy Rumsen
Posts: 35313
Joined: Wed Mar 25, 2015 11:50 am
Location: "Order is the only possibility of rest." -- Wendell Berry

Non Political Current Events Thread

Postby Freddy Rumsen » Thu Aug 22, 2019 8:28 pm

Are the cocaine and pills related?

AuthorTony
Posts: 8950
Joined: Wed Mar 25, 2015 11:18 am

Non Political Current Events Thread

Postby AuthorTony » Thu Aug 22, 2019 8:48 pm

I don't think cocaine would be good for your heart.

NTP66
Posts: 60742
Joined: Sun Oct 04, 2015 2:00 pm
Location: FUCΚ! Even in the future nothing works.

Non Political Current Events Thread

Postby NTP66 » Fri Aug 23, 2019 4:58 am

Blocked article for me.

shafnutz05
Posts: 50381
Joined: Tue Mar 24, 2015 7:27 pm
Location: A moron or a fascist...but not both.

Non Political Current Events Thread

Postby shafnutz05 » Fri Aug 23, 2019 7:11 am

Every day financial bigshot @AuthorTony strolls in here and posts his New York Times articles from behind the paywall, knowing that we can't read them. The nerve....

Gaucho
Posts: 49584
Joined: Wed Mar 25, 2015 5:31 pm
Location: shootzepucklefraude

Non Political Current Events Thread

Postby Gaucho » Fri Aug 23, 2019 7:20 am

:lol:

DigitalGypsy66
Posts: 19681
Joined: Wed Mar 25, 2015 7:33 pm
Location: Iodine State

Non Political Current Events Thread

Postby DigitalGypsy66 » Fri Aug 23, 2019 8:53 am

The privacy/incognito tab trick no longer works? Washington Post finally broke that trick as well.
Giving people an inexpensive pill containing generic drugs that prevent heart attacks — an idea first proposed 20 years ago but rarely tested — worked quite well in a new study, slashing the rate of heart attacks by more than half among those who regularly took the pills.

If other studies now underway find similar results, such multidrug cocktails — sometimes called “polypills” — given to vast numbers of older people could radically change the way cardiologists fight the soaring rates of heart disease and strokes in poor and middle-income countries

Even if the concept is ultimately adopted, there will be battles over the ingredients. The pill in the study, which involved the participation of 6,800 rural villagers aged 50 to 75 in Iran, contained a cholesterol-lowering statin, two blood-pressure drugs and a low-dose aspirin.

But the study, called PolyIran and published Thursday by The Lancet, was designed 14 years ago. More recent research in wealthy countries has questioned the wisdom of giving some drugs — particularly aspirin — to older people with no history of disease.

The stakes are high. As more residents of poor countries survive childhood into middle age and beyond — and as rising incomes contribute to their adoption of cigarette smoking and diets high in sugar and fat — a polypill offers a way to help millions lead longer, healthier lives.

About 18 million people a year die of cardiovascular disease, and 80 percent of them are in poor and middle-income countries threatened by rising rates of obesity, diabetes, tobacco use and sedentary living.

Medical experts, however, are sharply divided over the polypill concept.

Its advocates — including some prominent cardiologists — point to the study as evidence that the World Health Organization should endorse distributing such pills without a prescription to hundreds of millions of people over age 50 around the globe. Some have estimated that widespread use could cut cardiac death rates by 60 to 80 percent.

“The polypill concept is very important and it’s surprising that it’s taking so long for people to accept it,” said Dr. Salim Yusuf, director of the Population Health Research Institute at McMaster University in Canada and an expert on cardiac health in poor countries, who was not involved in the Iran study. “This study takes us one step closer.”

Other leading cardiologists consider the approach unethical and dangerous. Because aspirin, statins and blood-pressure drugs all have side effects, they argue, no one should get them without first being assessed for risk factors like high blood pressure, high cholesterol or family history.

“I’m a skeptic of the one-size-fits-all, four-drugs-for-everyone approach,” said Dr. Steven E. Nissen, head of the department of cardiovascular medicine at the Cleveland Clinic. “It runs counter to what most of us in the U.S. consider good medical practice.”

Simple tests, including cholesterol tests that use only a finger prick, are available, he noted.

Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, a former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and now the president of Resolve to Save Lives, an organization that seeks to lower worldwide cardiac deaths, said he thought a four-drug pill like the one used in the study was appropriate only for people who had suffered a cardiac event.

Some blood pressure medications are safe enough to give to untested people, he said, but aspirin, which can cause bleeding in the brain, and statins, which can, in rare cases, cause liver and muscle damage, are not.

The Iran study was conducted by doctors from Tehran University, the University of Birmingham in Britain and other institutions.

It was the first study of such a multidrug pill that was large and long-lasting enough to measure “clinical outcomes” — how many people actually had heart attacks, strokes or episodes of heart failure while taking the pills, rather than just how many, for example, lowered their blood pressure or cholesterol.

Similar studies are underway in many countries.

However, since there is so much controversy about the ingredients used in the medication, each study has its own pill recipe.

Dr. Yusuf is leading the TIPS 3 trial on about 5,700 people in Bangladesh, Canada, Colombia, India, Malaysia, the Philippines, Tanzania and Tunisia; it uses a pill containing three blood-pressure drugs and a statin. (The trial’s three other “arms” use low-dose aspirin, vitamin D and a placebo pill.) It is expected to end in March.

And the SECURE trial is recruiting about 3,200 patients in seven European countries who are over 65 and have already had one heart attack. Its pill contains aspirin, a statin and a single blood-pressure drug. It is expected to end in late 2021.

In the Iran trial, those assigned to take pills had a third fewer cardiac events over five years than the control group, whose participants got face-to-face advice and monthly text reminders to lose weight, stop smoking, eat healthy food and exercise.

(Because it was conducted in northern Iran, they were also advised to avoid another local habit — opium smoking.)

All participants were asked to return their used blister packs of pills. Those who appeared to have taken at least 70 percent of them had the highest protective effect — 57 percent fewer cardiac events.

The rates of serious adverse events were similar in both groups. Only a few in each trial arm suffered from bleeding in the brain, the stomach or the intestines, all of which can be caused by aspirin.

Mysteriously, although the cholesterol levels of those who got the pills dropped significantly during the trial, their blood pressure levels did not.

That puzzled several experts who looked at the results, including Dr. Frieden, who said the two anti-hypertension drugs used — a diuretic and an ACE inhibitor — should have significantly cut blood-pressure levels.

“That result doesn’t make sense,” he said.

Dr. Tom Marshall, a cardiac disease prevention specialist at the University of Birmingham and a co-author of the study, acknowledged the anomaly, saying, “I wish I had the answer.”

Baseline blood pressures in the population were not high, averaging 130 over 79, he said.

Dr. Frieden said he was also troubled that the trial did not explain whether blood pressure readings were taken by machine or by people with stethoscopes. Some machines and some poorly trained humans get inaccurate results, he said.

The trial was conducted in the “Golestan Cohort,” a group of more than 50,000 Turkmen-speaking people currently enrolled in cancer studies administered by Iranian researchers in coordination with the W.H.O. and the National Cancer Institute.

Dr. Rekha Mankad, director of the Women’s Heart Clinic at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, who was not involved in the Iran study, said it had some flaws, including early problems with how clusters were chosen and the fact that each cluster inevitably included some people already on heart-disease medication.

Nonetheless, she said, the overall study was well-designed and she particularly praised the fact that half the participants were women.

“And,” she added, “the adherence rate was fantastic.”

More than 80 percent of the study participants took most of their pills.

Poor adherence, she said, is one of the biggest problems that polypills are meant to fight.

Not only do poor people have little access to doctors or pharmacies, she noted, but “patients constantly say, ‘Listen, doc, I take too many pills,’ and drop something.”

“This is one pill with all the major things patients need,” she added. “Now we need to see how difficult it will be to apply it to the real world.”

Kane
Posts: 5145
Joined: Fri Dec 28, 2018 10:31 pm
Location: Stavromula Beta

Non Political Current Events Thread

Postby Kane » Fri Aug 23, 2019 8:55 am

Plagarizer.

DigitalGypsy66
Posts: 19681
Joined: Wed Mar 25, 2015 7:33 pm
Location: Iodine State

Non Political Current Events Thread

Postby DigitalGypsy66 » Fri Aug 23, 2019 8:55 am

It's fascinating how much we need legitimate news coverage and the papers of record are gradually cutting off free access. The paywalls should've been in place 10+ years ago, like the Wall Street Journal. But live and learn, I guess...

MrKennethTKangaroo
Posts: 12408
Joined: Sat Mar 28, 2015 3:50 pm

Non Political Current Events Thread

Postby MrKennethTKangaroo » Fri Aug 23, 2019 9:02 am

It's fascinating how much we need legitimate news coverage and the papers of record are gradually cutting off free access. The paywalls should've been in place 10+ years ago, like the Wall Street Journal. But live and learn, I guess...
I think it was apple that threw out the possibility of a apple music esque subscription service for news where you pay xxx per month for access to an assload of different newspapers. notwithstanding the ethical issues with the service, I think it could be a boon to the newspaper industry.

Also, if you live in Pittsburgh you should subscribe to Print, which is a print only (they don't even publish stuff online behind a paywall) newspaper for Pittsburgh's east end.

DigitalGypsy66
Posts: 19681
Joined: Wed Mar 25, 2015 7:33 pm
Location: Iodine State

Non Political Current Events Thread

Postby DigitalGypsy66 » Fri Aug 23, 2019 9:12 am

Yeah, Apple News+ is interesting, I haven't really looked into it more than the initial announcement. I would love to see a tiered service - $5 a month for 5 newspapers/magazines, $10 for 10, and so on. That's really the only way people would shell out money for subscriptions.

I had a couple of years of the Washington Post for free because of some connection to an account I made to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. They thought I was a subscriber to the PG (which I never was), so I got a sub to the Post for a couple of years, pre-Bezos. I let it expire, and now everytime I browse the paper online, I get an email asking for me to resubscribe. Plus, they block privacy tab access for some content. Bezos don't play. :lol:

MrKennethTKangaroo
Posts: 12408
Joined: Sat Mar 28, 2015 3:50 pm

Non Political Current Events Thread

Postby MrKennethTKangaroo » Fri Aug 23, 2019 9:56 am

I read four papers regularly:

Post gazette daily (at lunch)
WSJ daily (After dinner)
Pittsburgh Business Times (weekly publication)
Print (Weekly publication)

I am a hypocrite I suppose, because I only subscribe to print. my employer has a subscription for the rest of those papers. I am the only person that ever touches the wsj at work and only occasionally will someone look at the post gazette.

the funny thing about me and newspapers is that I believe that they are important for society as a whole, but at the same time, I think the post gazette is a piece of crap, and the trib is even worse. that being said, if either one want away completely, i'd be very upset because they bring a lot of value to the city.

Troy Loney
Posts: 27518
Joined: Wed Mar 25, 2015 3:03 pm

Non Political Current Events Thread

Postby Troy Loney » Fri Aug 23, 2019 9:59 am

People want free content, the idea of paying for a print newspaper makes millennials angry.

Tech is consolidating more and more of our daily lives, not sure how local newspapers will move forward from here.

Morkle
Posts: 23026
Joined: Wed Mar 25, 2015 4:09 pm
Location: Pittsburgh

Non Political Current Events Thread

Postby Morkle » Fri Aug 23, 2019 10:51 am

They don't. I would imagine within the next ten years, the print media aspect of delivering news will likely die out. Only major players would remain, honestly.

shafnutz05
Posts: 50381
Joined: Tue Mar 24, 2015 7:27 pm
Location: A moron or a fascist...but not both.

Non Political Current Events Thread

Postby shafnutz05 » Fri Aug 23, 2019 12:55 pm

People want free content, the idea of paying for a print newspaper makes millennials angry.
Which is really sad, because there is something immensely satisfying to me about going down to the bottom of the driveway and picking up a fresh paper to read. One of those areas where I really wish we could go back.

willeyeam
Posts: 39565
Joined: Wed Mar 25, 2015 12:49 pm
Location: hodgepodge of nothingness

Non Political Current Events Thread

Postby willeyeam » Fri Aug 23, 2019 2:32 pm


NTP66
Posts: 60742
Joined: Sun Oct 04, 2015 2:00 pm
Location: FUCΚ! Even in the future nothing works.

Non Political Current Events Thread

Postby NTP66 » Fri Aug 23, 2019 2:36 pm

I ain’t clicking on 70 separate links. Get outta here with that trash.

willeyeam
Posts: 39565
Joined: Wed Mar 25, 2015 12:49 pm
Location: hodgepodge of nothingness

Non Political Current Events Thread

Postby willeyeam » Fri Aug 23, 2019 2:47 pm

looks like millenials killed links too

tifosi77
Posts: 51514
Joined: Wed Mar 25, 2015 1:07 pm
Location: Batuu

Non Political Current Events Thread

Postby tifosi77 » Fri Aug 23, 2019 7:10 pm

I subscribe to the NY Times, WaPo, LA Times, The Economist, but let my Foreign Policy sub lapse.

AuthorTony
Posts: 8950
Joined: Wed Mar 25, 2015 11:18 am

Non Political Current Events Thread

Postby AuthorTony » Sat Aug 24, 2019 2:33 pm

https://www.inquirer.com/science/volunt ... 90824.html
Philadelphia has a mysterious critter found nowhere else. Meet the volunteers tracking it.

Dickie Dunn
Posts: 28101
Joined: Thu Mar 26, 2015 12:12 pm
Location: Methuselah Honeysuckle

Non Political Current Events Thread

Postby Dickie Dunn » Sat Aug 24, 2019 2:57 pm

Gritty?

MR25
Posts: 18481
Joined: Wed Mar 25, 2015 2:58 pm
Location: Gamehendge

Non Political Current Events Thread

Postby MR25 » Sat Aug 24, 2019 4:22 pm


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 116 guests