Once You Pop, You"ll Probably Want to Induce Vomiting

At Hey WTF? News, the privacy of our visitors is of extreme importance to us (See this article to learn more about Privacy Policies.). This privacy policy document outlines the types of personal information is received and collected by Hey WTF? News and how it is used.

Log Files

Like many other Web sites, Hey WTF? News makes use of log files. The information inside the log files includes internet protocol (IP) addresses, type of browser, Internet Service Provider (ISP), date/time stamp, referring/exit pages, and number of clicks to analyze trends, administer the site, track user"s movement around the site, and gather demographic information. IP addresses, and other such information are not linked to any information that is personally identifiable.

Cookies and Web Beacons

Hey WTF? News does use cookies to store information about visitors preferences, record user-specific information on which pages the user access or visit, customize Web page content based on visitors browser type or other information that the visitor sends via their browser.

DoubleClick DART Cookie

• Google, as a third party vendor, uses cookies to serve ads on Hey WTF? News.
• Google"s use of the DART cookie enables it to serve ads to users based on their visit to Hey WTF? News and other sites on the Internet.
• Users may opt out of the use of the DART cookie by visiting the Google ad and content network privacy policy at the following URL - http://www.google.com/privacy_ads.html.

These third-party ad servers or ad networks use technology to the advertisements and links that appear on Hey WTF? News send directly to your browsers. They automatically receive your IP address when this occurs. Other technologies ( such as cookies, JavaScript, or Web Beacons ) may also be used by the third-party ad networks to measure the effectiveness of their advertisements and / or to personalize the advertising content that you see.

Hey WTF? News has no access to or control over these cookies that are used by third-party advertisers.

You should consult the respective privacy policies of these third-party ad servers for more detailed information on their practices as well as for instructions about how to opt-out of certain practices. Hey WTF? News"s privacy policy does not apply to, and we cannot control the activities of, such other advertisers or web sites.

If you wish to disable cookies, you may do so through your individual browser options. More detailed information about cookie management with specific web browsers can be found at the browser"s respective websites.

Once You Pop, You"ll Probably Want to Induce Vomiting

Most of What You Think You Know About Milk Is Probably Dairy Industry Lies

The powerful dairy lobby has been spreading dangerous health claims about milk for decades.

Got milk allergy? Many people including Native Americans and people of Asian, African and South American descent are lactose intolerant and can’t and don"t drink milk. That is the way nature made them over epochs and no one ever died of a dairy deficiency.

But there is money in dairy. That is why American fast food companies try to bring the love of dairy to cultures where it traditionally hasn"t existed. And that is why the National Dairy Promotion and Research Board and the National Fluid Milk Processor Promotion Board in the US disseminate “educational” materials that address “misconceptions about lactose intolerance” according to research in Born With a Junk Food Deficiency, How Flaks, Quacks, and Hacks Pimp the Public Health. The marketing groups bragged to Congress that they regularly assure people in such ethnic groups that their lactose intolerance “should not be a barrier to including milk in the diet,” in an ongoing effort to help US dairy farmers. Ka-ching.

Battling “misconceptions” about lactose intolerance is only one of many marketing campaigns by the dairy lobby. Since the 1990s, the National Dairy Promotion and Research Board and the National Fluid Milk Processor Promotion Board have partnered with the USDA to push milk drinking, which had been falling since the 1970s, especially among teens and tweens. The promotions even have included partnerships with fast-food restaurants like Wendy’s and McDonald’s, who would seem unlikely comrades for a government agency sworn to protect the public health.

The milk campaigns began in the early 1990s with the catchphrase “Milk: It Does a Body Good” and used top model Tyra Banks and musician Marc Anthony to push milk for strong bones. “One in five victims of osteoporosis is male,” said the Banks ads. “Don’t worry. Calcium can help prevent it.” “Shake it, don’t break it. Want strong bones?” said the Anthony ad.  “Drinking enough lowfat milk now can help prevent osteoporosis later.” The ads were targeted toward African Americans, Latinos and men though all of the groups are among the least likely to get osteoporosis!

Next, the dairy lobby promoted milk as a treatment for premenstrual syndrome or PMS. Television ads showed bumbling boyfriends and husbands rushing to the store for milk to detoxify their stricken women. The ads disappeared as it became evident the study on which the campaign was based credited calcium not milk with helping PMS. And calcium is found in many sources besides milk–including the calcium-fortified juices that the milk ads are designed to sell against. Oops.

Then milk marketers tried to portray milk as a diet food that would help people lose weight until the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) Bureau of Consumer Protection told them to cease “until further research provides stronger, more conclusive evidence of an association between dairy consumption and weight loss.”

Susan Ruland, spokesperson for the National Fluid Milk Processor Promotion Board, begged to differ. “There’s a strong body of scientific evidence that demonstrates a connection between dairy and weight loss,” she said, although she promised that future ads would comply. After the FTC clampdown, marketing materials claimed that low-fat dairy products do not necessarily add weight and may have “certain nutrients that can help consumers meet dietary requirements”–pretty much the definition of “food” when you think about. Soon the ads “went negative” and read, “Soft drinks and other sweetened beverages are now the leading source of calories in a teen’s diet and these nutrient-void beverages are increasingly taking the place of milk.” Take that!

The factually-challenged campaigns did not made a dent in posters of mustache-wearing actors, sports figures, musicians and models shipped to 60,000 US elementary schools and 45,000 middle schools in outrageous promotion of private industry by the government. In-school milk promotions have included  the “Healthiest Student Bodies,” which promised students they could win an iPod, Fender guitar and other prizes if they visited the milk marketing site. And students at three California high schools got a chance to create their own “Got Milk?” campaigns to sell milk to their peers and win a $ 2,000, an all-expense-paid trip to San Francisco to present their ideas to the milk advertising agency.

Needless to say, milk is hardly a health food that the government should be promoting to children. It is linked to obesity, cholesterol and other life-long health problems. Mega dairies are also notorious for environmental, worker and animal abuse and often called “environmental crack houses.”

Of course, in addition to its marketing efforts with the USDA, the dairy industry has rolled out products and supplements that help people with lactose intolerance “enjoy all the great taste of dairy and avoid the discomfort,” and drink more milk. Now, Big Pharma is joining in the dairy industry"s decades-long history of recruiting more milk drinkers with specious marketing.  Big Pharma now suggests that people can overcome their milk allergy by taking a genetically altered drug that is linked to cancers and deaths!

The drug Xolair, omalizumab, a member of an immune-suppressing class of drugs, reduced symptoms of milk allergies said researchers at the recent American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology annual meeting. “I think the evidence is pretty strong that it does make a significant difference,” said a coauthor of the research, Hugh Sampson, MD of Mount Sinai Hospital who reports eight financial links to Big Pharma companies.

Xolair and other recombinant DNA-derived monoclonal antibody drugs like Cimzia, Enbrel, Humira and Remicade can make as much as $ 10,000 to $ 20,000 a year per patient for Big Pharma. In patients who actually need them, like those with autoimmune diseases, they are important drugs. But since the “MoAbs” debuted, it has been a race to the bottom for Big Pharma to find everyday conditions which could justify prescribing the expensive, injected drugs.

Remember how antipsychotic drugs like Seroquel, approved for schizophrenia, soon became drugs of choice for every day depression and the “blues”? That is the same marketing plan for MoAbs (called “indication creep”) which are now marketed for everyday asthma, skin conditions, indigestion and now, apparently food allergies. If private and government health insurers want to fork over millions for the bio-engineered Franken drugs which are “meddling with Mother Nature,” according to the People"s Pharmacy that merely loots tax dollars and raises insurance premiums. But the drugs also kill.

MoAbs cause TB, cancers and super infections according to their labels because they suppress the immune system. Xolair was investigated by the FDA for links to heart attack and stroke and 77 people who took Xolair had life-threatening allergic responses in a year and a half, according to FDA reports. This is a drug to treat milk allergies?

There is also a shadow over Xolair’s clinical trials. They were conducted at Vivra which was investigated twice by the FDA for procedural irregularities. Trials of Xolair and at least seven other drugs were corrupted by protocol violations and outright falsifications, according to a former clinical research subinvestigator who worked at the facility. San Mateo, Calif.-based Vivra Asthma & Allergy was the nation’s largest respiratory disease physician practices until a merger with Lakewood, Colo.-based Gambro in 1997 and with El Segundo, Calif.-based DaVita in 2005.

Once again Pharma has a dangerous, expensive drug that almost no one needs and is creating lame and contrived uses. And once again the dairy industry will sink as low as it needs to, to sell product. Does anyone believe someone should tamper with their immune system just to drink milk? Except, of course, Big Pharma and the dairy industry?

 

Related Stories

• Why American Milk Might Be Worse For You Than Milk in Other Parts of the World

AlterNet.org Main RSS Feed

Most of What You Think You Know About Milk Is Probably Dairy Industry Lies

Andrea Mitchell On Bridge Controversy: "I Think The Democrats Are Probably Overdoing It"

DAVID GREGORY: And he could have this investigation around for a long while, and that’s what I was asking the assemblyman about.

ANDREA MITCHELL: I mean, I think what he has to focus on is the investigation. He probably should not have gone to Florida and fulfilled that commitment. Because in Florida, if he’s, first of all, behind a gated community with the wealthy, with Ken Langone, who’s also telling the New York Times at the same time he didn’t hire the right people. So, there’s criticism–

DAVID GREGORY: Wait. You’re cautioning about who he’s surrounding himself with, right?

ANDREA MITCHELL: And this is Langone, who wanted him to run in 2012. He was one of his strongest supporters. I think the Democrats are probably overdoing it by following him around and trailing him, looking like they’re piling on. But he’s got to deal with the investigation and make sure that if everything he said is correct, he’s home free. But he’s got to make sure, and there are a lot of emails out there.

RealClearPolitics Video Log

Andrea Mitchell On Bridge Controversy: "I Think The Democrats Are Probably Overdoing It"

Deflation "ogre" probably won"t come to life

Deflation "ogre" probably won"t come to life
http://s1.reutersmedia.net/resources/r/?m=02&d=20140119&t=2&i=830843519&w=580&fh=&fw=&ll=&pl=&r=CBREA0I1J6700

By Andy Bruce

LONDON Sun Jan 19, 2014 2:51pm EST

A delegate is silhouetted as she passes by a sign for the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos January 26, 2013.

Credit: Reuters/Pascal Lauener

LONDON (Reuters) – Talk that some of the world’s major developed countries are flirting with deflation, a damaging and sustained spiral of falling prices, probably won’t turn to reality, according to the consensus of market economists.

Described last week by the head of the International Monetary Fund as the “ogre that must be fought”, deflation is so feared because it sparks a vicious cycle of behavior that is difficult to reverse – as the last 20 years in Japan has shown.

If consumers and businesses start to expect prices of goods and services to fall in future they will postpone spending, depressing the economy and causing prices to fall further.

But that is not on the cards, according to hundreds of economists polled last week.

While inflation will remain weak through this year for most developed countries, none of the more than 150 economists polled by Reuters forecast even a quarter of consumer price declines in any of the Group of Seven countries.

“We think the threat of deflation is somewhat overdone. The obvious comparison is with Japan in the 1990s and 2000s, where there was genuinely a deflationary situation,” said Philip Shaw, chief economist at Investec.

“But the Japanese experience suggests that deflation is much more of a risk when credit institutions have broken down. And that isn’t the case for the majority of developed economies.”

Although credit flows in the euro zone are weak and some banks might need recapitalizing, Shaw argues their situation is still healthier than that of Japan 15 years ago.

NO COMPLACENCY

In any case, the weakness of inflation will likely preoccupy central bankers from major industrialized countries at this week’s meeting of politicians and policymakers at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

“It looks as though low inflation is a reflection of the waning powers of central banks as they have resorted to unconventional monetary stimulus measures,” wrote Stephen King, group chief economist at HSBC, in an outlook for the world economy.

“It is already abundantly obvious that unconventional policies have had a bigger impact on financial asset values than on the real economy.”

Even if market economists think deflation an unlikely scenario, few would argue it should be treated lightly by policymakers.

As the severe global recession of 2009 showed, the consensus of market economists and policymakers alike can be completely wrong.

“The IMF has to show it’s not being complacent,” said Shaw.

“But with regard to the recovery potential, I’d be much more concerned if inflation jumped up because of a surge of energy prices and food costs, as we saw in 2011.”

IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde’s deflation ogre may seem a distant menace to many forecasters, but they were largely in agreement with her on the outlook for the global economy – namely that its growth should pick up this year.

Last week’s Reuters poll showed the world economy will snap a three-year run of slowing growth by expanding 3.6 percent this year compared with 2.9 percent in 2013 – almost exactly in line with the IMF’s forecasts.

RICH-POOR GAP

How the spoils of that growth will be split will be a key theme of this year’s Davos meeting, starting on Wednesday.

A chronic gap between rich and poor is yawning wider, posing the biggest single risk to the world in 2014, even as economies in many countries start to recover, the World Economic Forum said on Thursday.

Its annual assessment of global dangers, which will set the scene for its meeting in Davos, concludes that income disparity and attendant social unrest are the issues most likely to have a big impact on the world economy in the next decade.

This week’s economic data will at least give an early flavor of whether the global economy is on track to meet expectations of faster growth, and where it might be centered.

Markit’s first batch of purchasing managers indexes (PMI) of 2014, due on Thursday, will show how the world’s manufacturers started the year in the United States, the euro zone and China.

The Chinese PMI could prove to be of particular interest, given the mixed readings from industrial indicators towards the end of last year in the world’s second-biggest economy.

Scores of factories in China’s manufacturing heartlands have closed earlier than usual for the country’s biggest annual holiday due to weak orders and rising costs, workers and owners say, suggesting a rocky outlook for a key sector of the economy.

Housing sales figures in the United States and January’s consumer confidence reading for the euro zone, both on Thursday, make up the rest of the key data for this week. Economists expect a modest improvement on both fronts.

(Editing by Greg Mahlich)

• Link this


• Share this


• Digg this


• Email


• Print


• Reprints

Reuters: Business News

Read more about Deflation "ogre" probably won"t come to life and other interesting subjects concerning Business at TheDailyNewsReport.com

McConnell: "Handful Of Things" In Obamacare Are "Probably OK" (VIDEO)

Sahil Kapur August 15, 2013, 1:30 PM

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said in an interview published Wednesday that a “handful of things” in Obamacare “probably are OK.”

“I mean, there are a handful of things in the 2,700 page bill that probably are OK,” he told the Kentucky TV station WYMT. “But that doesn’t warrant a 2,700 page takeover of all American health care.”

McConnell, who is spending the month at home campaigning for his 2014 re-election bid, called Obamacare “single worst piece of legislation passed in the last 50 years in the country. We need to get rid of it, and I think we get rid of it piece by piece.”

In an ordinary political environment, McConnell’s remarks would hardly be newsworthy. A bill as long and complicated as the Affordable Care Act, which despite its maze of regulations is fundamentally modeled on free-market ideas and includes many Republican amendments, will surely have some elements a GOP lawmaker can support.

While he didn’t explain which provisions are acceptable to him, last year various Republicans voiced support for popular Obamacare components such as protections for people with preexisting conditions, letting Americans under 27 remain on a parent’s insurance plan and closing the Medicare prescription drug coverage gap for seniors.

But the political environment surrounding Obamacare is anything but ordinary — with the ferocious Republican assault on the bill, the party’s exaggerated warnings that it will ruin American freedom, and the base’s determination to scrap every last bit of it. So McConnell’s remarks quickly became fodder for his conservative primary challenger, Matt Bevin, who accused the GOP leader’s of “flip-flop[ping] on repealing Obamacare in its entirety.”

“We have to do whatever it takes to repeal Obamacare, and if we can’t repeal it, we have a responsibility to the American people to defund it,” Bevin said in a statement Thursday, responding to McConnell’s remarks. “If Mitch McConnell had ever worked in the private sector, he might understand that. If Senator McConnell is not willing to act to end Obamacare, he needs to get out of the way.”

That McConnell is being attacked for his remark illustrates the box Republicans have put themselves in while feeding conservatives’ greatest fears about the Affordable Care Act. That same dynamic is evident as right-leaning groups mount an all-out push to defund Obamacare in a resolution to keep government open after Sept. 30 — an idea that veteran Republicans like McConnell recognize is politically infeasible and self-defeating.

Sahil Kapur

Sahil Kapur is TPM’s senior congressional reporter and Supreme Court correspondent. His articles covering politics and public policy have been published in The Huffington Post, The Guardian and The New Republic. He can be reached at sahil [at] talkingpointsmemo.com.

TPM News

McConnell: "Handful Of Things" In Obamacare Are "Probably OK" (VIDEO)

Canada blast missing "probably dead"

11 July 2013
Last updated at 00:51 ET

Lac-Megantic resident Adrien Aubert filmed the aftermath of the blast

Canadian police have said 30 people still missing since Saturday’s train disaster in a Quebec town are “most probably dead”.

Twenty bodies have already been found after a runaway train carrying oil derailed and exploded in Lac-Megantic.

The train operator’s boss blamed a local engineer for the accident, saying he had probably failed to set a series of hand brakes.

At least 30 buildings were razed by the fireball from the explosion.

This forced some 2,000 town residents to flee their homes.

‘Burnt to ashes’

On Wednesday, Quebec police inspector Michel Forget told the families of the missing that their loved ones were “most probably dead in this tragedy”.

Rail World boss Ed Burkhardt: “It is very questionable whether the hand brakes were properly applied. In fact I’ll say they weren’t.”

“It is with great sadness that I give you this news,” he said.

Police say one of the 20 recovered bodies has been identified and the victim’s relatives have been notified.

No official list of missing people has yet been released, but unofficial accounts have been circulating on social media.

Authorities have asked the relatives of those still missing to provide DNA samples by bringing in toothbrushes, razors and other items.

But the authorities have also warned some of the bodies may have been burnt to ashes in the explosion.

‘Serious gaps’

Earlier on Wednesday, Rail World chief executive officer Edward Burkhardt was heckled by Lac-Megantic residents as he made his first visit to the town.

Mr Burkhardt revealed that the engineer – who was in charge of driving the train – had been suspended without pay.

“I think he did something wrong,” Mr Burkhardt said, flanked by police escorts.

Continue reading the main story

At the scene

Ed Burkhardt was no doubt speaking figuratively when he said he would have to wear a bulletproof vest in Lac-Megantic. Yet judging by his reception and the tone of the questions put to him, such concerns may have been relevant.

His candid admission that the train’s engineer may have been to blame may have won him kudos with some, but for others it only adds to the growing mistrust of freight train companies. Opponents point out that not only are there more trains carrying potentially hazardous cargo, but the trains are getting longer – the one that exploded into a fireball was made up of more than 70 pressurised oil containers.

Hotel receptionist Charlotte Selby told me she would like to see an end to the oil trains all together. Her 16-year-old daughter Karyne phoned early on Saturday morning and told her: “Mum, Lac-Megantic doesn’t exist anymore.”

“It’s hard to explain why someone didn’t do something. We think he applied some hand brakes but the question is: did he apply enough of them?

“He said he applied 11 hand brakes. We think that’s not true. Initially we believed him but now we don’t.”

Meanwhile, Quebec Premier Pauline Marois said the company’s response to the crash had been lacking.

“We have realised there are serious gaps from the railway company from not having been there and not communicating with the public,” Ms Marois said as she announced a 60m Canadian dollar (£38m; $ 57m) fund to help victims and to rebuild the town.

Criminal negligence

Police are still searching the disaster site, and the heart of the town is being treated as a crime scene.

At the centre of the destruction was the Musi-Cafe, a popular bar that was filled at the time of the explosion.

Police earlier said investigators had ruled out terrorism as a cause of the disaster, but criminal negligence remained under consideration.

The train, carrying 72 cars of crude oil, was parked shortly before midnight on Friday in the town of Nantes about seven miles (11km) away.

Local firefighters were later called to put out a fire on the train.

While tackling that blaze, they shut down a locomotive that had apparently been left running to keep the brakes engaged.

Shortly afterwards the train began moving downhill in an 18-minute journey, gathering speed until it derailed in Lac-Megantic and exploded.

The fire department and the train’s owners have appeared in recent days to point the finger at one another over the disaster.

Mr Burkhardt suggested on Tuesday evening that firefighters shared some of the blame.

The train was carrying oil from the Bakken oil region in the US state of North Dakota to a refinery on the east coast of Canada.

Are you in Quebec? Did you witness the train blast? Please send us your comments and experiences.

Send your pictures and videos to yourpics@bbc.co.uk or text them to 61124 (UK) or +44 7624 800 100 (International). If you have a large file you can upload here.

Read the terms and conditions

Powered By WizardRSS.com | Full Text RSS Feed | Amazon Affiliate software for Amazon Store websites | Android Forums | WordPress Tutorials
BBC News – Home

Canada blast missing "probably dead"