Coffee drinkers at a lower risk of dying from a variety of diseases
Your morning cup of coffee may start to taste even better after a major government study found that frequent coffee drinkers have a lower risk of dying from a variety of diseases, compared with people who drink little or no coffee.
The report…analyzed the coffee-drinking habits of more than 400,000 men and women ages 50 to 71, making it the largest-ever study of the relationship between coffee consumption and health…
As expected, the researchers found that the regular coffee drinkers in the group were also more likely to be smokers. They ate more red meat and fewer fruits and vegetables, exercised less and drank more alcohol – all behaviors associated with poor health.
But once the researchers controlled for those risks, the data showed that the more coffee a person consumed, the less likely he or she was to die from a number of health problems, including diabetes, heart disease, respiratory disease, stroke, infections and even injuries and accidents.
Over all, the risk of dying during the 14-year study period was about 10 percent lower for men and about 15 percent lower for women who drank anywhere from two cups to six or more cups of coffee a day. The association between coffee and lower risk of dying was similar whether the coffee drinker consumed caffeinated or decaffeinated coffee. [That's certainly useful.]
Neal D. Freedman, the study’s lead author and an investigator for the National Cancer Institute, cautioned that the findings, based on observational data, show only an association between coffee consumption and lower risk for disease, so it isn’t known whether drinking more coffee will lead to better health. As a result, Dr. Freedman said that people should be conservative in interpreting the data, but that regular coffee drinkers can be reassured.
“It’s a modest effect,” he said. “But the biggest concern for a long time has been that drinking coffee is a risky thing to do. Our results, and some of those of more recent studies, provide reassurance for coffee drinkers that this isn’t the case. The people who are regularly drinking coffee have a similar risk of death as nondrinkers, and there might be a modest benefit…”
Phew! Actually, that’s a non-phew. I’ve been through coffee scares before. Inevitably, follow-on research negated the negatives and often discovered positives overlooked.
It is less than startling that the complex molecules resulting from brewing coffee contain many surprises. Coffee as a popular beverage has already exceeded the range of use one might expect from its use simply as stimulant. I admit to feeling smug that one of my morning pleasures has more positive characteristics than I assumed.
Now, I just need someone to determine what food group increases the likelihood of my fellow Americans acquiring a lifetime interest in education, science and honest government. I’d buy farmland tomorrow and start cultivation.
How Mitt Romney gets away with his lying
I keep your phone number under my pillow, George
Yesterday, Mitt Romney gave a big speech in which he accused Obama of lighting a “prairie fire of debt.” It’s a good line, and it has received widespread media coverage.
Romney’s speech has already been dissected by Jonathan Chait and Steve Benen. They note that it’s entirely at odds with conventional understanding of how deficits work, and utterly disconnected from context, rendering it almost unquantifiably misleading.
But I wanted to make another point. If you scan through all the media attention Romney’s speech received, you are hard-pressed to find any news accounts that tell readers the following rather relevant points:
1) Nonpartisan experts believe Romney’s plans would increase the deficit far more than Obama’s would.
2) George W. Bush’s policies arguably are more responsible for increasing the deficit than Obama’s are…
This shouldn’t be a matter of partisan opinion. On the first point, independent experts think an actual set of facts exists that can be used to determine what the impact of Romney’s policies on the deficit would be. And according to those experts, based on what we know now, Romney’s policies would explode the deficit far more than Obama’s would.
The nonpartisan Tax Policy Center has taken a close look at this question. It has determined that relative to current policy — that is, if you keep the Bush tax cuts in place, as Romney wants to do — Romney’s tax cutting plans would increase the deficit by nearly $5 trillion over 10 years. That’s on top of keeping the Bush tax cuts for the rich. Romney has promised to close various loopholes to pay for his tax cuts, but he hasn’t specified which ones. Until he does, the Tax Policy Center concludes, his plan would cost $5 trillion — which would be added, yes, to the deficit.
By contrast, Obama’s plans would not increase the deficit by anything close to that amount. Relative to current policy, the Tax Policy Center has found, Obama’s plan would reduce the deficit by approximately $2 trillion over the next decade. Now, under Obama, the deficit would still increase. That’s because current policy means we’re forgoing the $4.5 trillion in revenues we’d gain if we let all the Bush tax cuts expire. But neither candidate is going to do that. Obama, however, would end the Bush tax cuts for the rich and bring in revenues through a variety of other tax increases. Bottom line: relative to current policy, Obama’s plan would reduce the deficit by bringing in $180 billion or more in revenues a year, or approximately $2 trillion over 10 years; Romney’s plan would increase the deficit by nearly $500 billion a year — $5 trillion over ten years…
On the second point, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has determined that the policies put in place under Bush are the main driver of the deficits that are projected over the next decade.
The only debate about Romney’s advocacy, so far, is whether he’s ignorant of how many times he’s flip-flopped on questions of policy and economics — whether he’s ignorant of real facts [which I sincerely doubt - the man is unethical not stupid] — or whether he chooses to tell the lie du jour for whichever audience he confronts.
The reason he gets away with any of this is the incompetence of the Talking Heads, the media flunkeys posing as journalists.
Italian university — Politecnico di Milano — switches to English
From opera at La Scala to football at the San Siro stadium, from the catwalks of fashion week to the soaring architecture of the cathedral, Milan is crowded with Italian icons. Which makes it even more of a cultural earthquake that one of Italy’s leading universities – the Politecnico di Milano – is going to switch to the English language.
The university has announced that from 2014 most of its degree courses – including all its graduate courses – will be taught and assessed entirely in English rather than Italian.
The waters of globalisation are rising around higher education – and the university believes that if it remains Italian-speaking it risks isolation and will be unable to compete as an international institution.
“We strongly believe our classes should be international classes – and the only way to have international classes is to use the English language,” says the university’s rector, Giovanni Azzone…
He says that his university’s experiment will “open up a window of change for other universities”, predicting that in five to 10 years other Italian universities with global ambitions will also switch to English…
But what is driving this cultural change? Is it the intellectual equivalent of pop bands like Abba singing in English to reach a wider market?
Professor Azzone says a university wants to reach the widest market in ideas – and English has become the language of higher education, particularly in science and engineering. “I would have preferred if Italian was the common language, it would have been easier for me – but we have to accept real life,” he says.
When English is the language of international business, he also believes that learning in English will make his students more employable…
The need to attract overseas students and researchers, including from the UK and non-English speaking countries, is another important reason for switching to English as the primary language…
But Professor Azzone also pointed to the bigger economic geography of higher education.
European universities face being caught between two competing powers – the wealthy heavy weights in the United States and the rising countries of Asia.
RTFA for many more details, arguments for and against. Poisonally, I think Azzone has hit on a good idea though much of the argument he raises is only window dressing. It’s unlikely that the major centers for education in Italy will switch exclusively to English. But, he’ll be in a position to attract students who want that environment for one or another of the projected reasons.
His premise that European universities must choose between the United States and Asia is absurd. And if it were a fact, I’d suggest he come down on the side of some American CEOs who have their grandchildren learning Chinese. 
Catholic Cardinal tries to block Secretary Sebelius from speaking at Georgetown University
Daylife/Getty Images used by permission
The already-boiling debate about Georgetown University’s decision to invite Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to speak during graduation hit the highest levels of Catholic Washington on Tuesday, with the region’s archbishop slamming the school’s president for the “shocking” invitation and saying the real issue was being distorted.
The real issue is the princes of the church trying to censor science and reality, a mind free of the shutters of superstition.
…Sebelius was a key architect of the 2010 health-care law, and she authored the requirement that employers, including most religious ones, provide their employees with contraception coverage.
On Tuesday, the archdiocese of Washington, led by Cardinal Donald Wuerl, criticized Georgetown President John J. DeGioia for remarks he issued a day earlier — apparently to address the controversy — saying DeGioia had mischaracterized the issue as being about birth control. As the region’s top Catholic official, Wuerl is responsible for making sure Catholic institutions, including Georgetown, follow church teachings…
The Catholic bishops have led opposition to the mandate, arguing that it violates religious freedom. Liberal and moderate Catholics and other religious advocates also opposed the mandate when it was announced in January but their opposition died down after the White House shifted the requirement from the employers to insurance companies.
Addressing the controversy Monday, DeGioia noted that debate about the mandate “dominated public discourse” in the months after Sebelius was invited in January to speak at an awards ceremony for the school’s Public Policy Institute…
The back and forth reflects the intense debates among American Catholics about the degree to which Catholic institutions should reflect the official teachings of the church on contraception and other things.
Meanwhile, the Catholic Church and other equally restrictive religions join Republicans to continue their onslaught not only on education and science; but, on the right of women to manage their own reproductive decisions. Politics that are the opposite of liberty.
Villagers in Turkey mistake migratory bird for Israeli spy
A migratory bird has caused alarm in a village in south-eastern Turkey after locals mistook it for an Israeli spy.
Villagers’ suspicions were aroused when the bird, a common European bee-eater, was found dead in a field with a metal ring around its leg stamped “Israel”.
They called the police after deciding its nostrils were unusually large and may have carried a microchip fitted by Israeli intelligence for spying. It was taken to government experts for examination and declared safe.
The BBC’s Jonathan Head, in Istanbul, says the regional office of the Turkish agriculture ministry examined the colourfully plumed corpse and assured residents of the village, near the city of Gaziantep, that it was common practice to fit a ring to migratory birds in order to track their movements.
An official at the ministry told the BBC that it took some effort to persuade local police that the little bee-eater posed no threat to national security.
At one point a counterterrorism unit became involved in the case.
Couldn’t happen in the United States. Right? Because we have Homeland Security to oversee all the potential dangers of terrorism. No real chance of conspiracy theories getting started.
I’ll take me Wellies off, now.
Judge has $28 million stashed in 5 banks — salary is $935/month
Conchita Carpio-Morales verifies records from 82 bank accounts = $28.7 million
Prosecutors in the impeachment trial of Renato C. Corona, the chief justice of the Philippines, presented evidence on Monday that he had deposited $28.7 million into various bank accounts.
According to financial documents presented by the prosecution, Mr. Corona maintains 82 dollar-denominated accounts in five banks in the Philippines…
Mr. Corona was impeached in December by the Philippine House of Representatives. He is being tried by the Senate, which will decide if he is guilty of using his position to enrich himself and delivering biased decisions. If convicted, he faces removal from office…
Prosecutors rested their case on Feb. 28, but were unable to access Mr. Corona’s dollar accounts because of strict Philippine secrecy laws regarding bank deposits in foreign currencies.
The account information was permitted to be entered as evidence on Monday because of a provision in the secrecy laws that grants the Anti-Money Laundering Council, a semiautonomous Philippine government agency, access to bank records related to suspicious accounts.
Conchita Carpio-Morales, the ombudsman of the Philippines, investigated the bank accounts in coordination with the council. In an odd twist, Mr. Corona’s lawyers called Ms. Carpio-Morales to the stand on Monday to refute news reports of the accounts. Her testimony produced the opposite result: she confirmed the news accounts and produced the records indicating the $28.7 million in deposits.
“That was the biggest blunder of the impeachment trial,” Mr. Casiple said.
Wow! It’s a good thing we needn’t fear anything like that happening in the United States of America.
Right?
Conservative moderates can’t find presidential candidate
A well-funded U.S. non-profit group using the Internet to find a centrist candidate to run for president said on Tuesday it had failed to generate enough interest in any one nominee.
The group, Americans Elect, was creating a third party in which voters were to choose someone challenge Democratic President Barack Obama and presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney in the November election.
The group qualified to get its candidates onto the ballot in 27 states in November and raised millions of dollars, prompting concern among some Republicans [mostly] and Democrats that it could affect the outcome in what is expected to be a close election.
Americans Elect Chief Executive Kahlil Byrd said no candidate had received enough support by a deadline of midnight on Monday to enter its “online convention” in June.
He left the door open for the group to continue seeking a candidate. “There is, however, an almost universal desire among delegates, leadership and millions of Americans who have supported AE to see a credible candidate emerge from this process,” Byrd said in a statement.
Third party candidates have not come close to winning U.S. presidential elections, but they have affected them.
What I read tells me the group would have loved to find a moderate Republican who cared to run against the party that characterizes moderate Republicans as RINOs. Republicans In Name Only. Unless you sign pledges to obey Grover Norquist, Karl Rove, Rick Santorum and, of course, Rush Limbaugh you’re no longer qualified to use the label.
That excises a number of former Republican Presidents and a large body of traditional American conservatives from achieving anything under the holy tent that party now presumes to shield it from the heavens.
In truth, Democrats haven’t that problem. Obama talks like a Progressive [which means nutballs think he's a radical]. At best, he’s set out to achieve what have always been liberal goals and that he stuck through to the end and got some passed – still doesn’t make his politics more than Liberal. In some cases, liberal Republican when you look at the historic point of origin.
There’s another topic worth addressing – but, I won’t take the time, now. It’s how do you really build a self-sustaining 3rd Party in the United States? I believe it has to build at the local level well before you attempt to influence a national election – except as a negative.
‘Somebody lied to me’ about list of priests suspected of abuse!
Monsignor William Lynn
A lawyer for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia testified Monday that church officials lied to him about the whereabouts of a hidden list of 35 priests suspected of sexually abusing children.
“Everyone I spoke to said they didn’t know where it was,” Timothy Coyne, former director of legal services for the archdiocese, told jurors at the landmark child sexual abuse and conspiracy trial of two Philadelphia priests. “Somebody lied to me…”
One safe drilled open by a locksmith contained an accordion-style file folder that housed a memo ordering the shredding of the list of 35 Catholic priests accused or found guilty of sexual misconduct, the list of priests and other personnel documents…
Both the memo and list were in the safe. That memo remains a contested piece of evidence in the child sexual abuse and conspiracy trial of two Philadelphia priests. It was discovered in February, shortly after Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua died in January.
The fate of one of them, Monsignor William Lynn, may depend on whether jurors believe the list he compiled proves he transferred suspected priests or, as the defense claims, he informed his superiors that clergy members were assaulting children…
On trial are the Rev. James Brennan, who is accused of the attempted rape of a 14-year-old, and Lynn, who is accused of covering it up…
Prosecutors are using the memo, the list of priests — and testimony from a host of witnesses with allegations against priests who are not on trial — to build their case that Lynn knowingly shuffled predator priests to unwitting parishes.
Lynn’s attorneys said the documents show that Lynn had informed his superiors — including Bevilacqua — that priests in the archdiocese were assaulting children…
I won’t wander of into what-ifs and what-should’ve-been. But, reflect on your own which of those scenario seems likely – given that nothing was done about the priests who were abusing children – after mention of the existence of this list?
Pic of the Day
Photographer Tony Beck snapped this shot of northern map turtles all gathered on a sun-catching log in Lake Opinicon, Ontario, Canada.
