New Hampshire Health News Digest

Craigslist Meets the Capitalists - Mergers, Acquisitions, Venture Capital, Hedge Funds -- DealBook - New York Times : "Jim Buckmaster, the chief executive of Craigslist, caused lots of head-scratching Thursday as he tried to explain to a bunch of Wall Street types why his company is not interested in “monetizing” his ridiculously popular Web operation. Appearing at the UBS global media conference in New York, Mr. Buckmaster took questions from the bemused audience, which apparently could not get its collective mind around the notion that Craigslist exists to help Web users find jobs, cars, apartments and dates — and not so much to make money. Wendy Davis of MediaPost describes the presentation as a “a culture clash of near-epic proportions.” She recounts how UBS analyst Ben Schachter wanted to know how Craigslist plans to maximize revenue. It doesn’t, Mr. Buckmaster replied (perhaps wondering how Mr. Schachter could possibly not already know this). “That definitely is not part of ...

Drinking and Diabetes Large-scale research consistently finds a 30% to 40% lower risk of diabetes associated with moderate drinking. However, exactly how alcohol reduces the risk of diabetes has not yet been clearly established. New research has now demonstrated that alcohol improves the body’s resistance to insulin, a problem of type 2 or adult onset diabetes. People with type 2 diabetes can’t use glucose effectively because of their resistance to insulin. That’s the hormone that permits glucose to be used by the body’s cells. The research, conducted at the University of Padova Medical School in Italy, tested insulin sensitivity by measuring tolerance to glucose while people drank the equivalent of about three drinks of beverage alcohol. Consuming alcohol directly improved the action of insulin in both healthy and diabetic study participants. However, the effect was much greater among the diabetics. Alcohol also improved fatty acid levels. Alcohol normalized insulin activity among the...

Computers that digest the news to change trading - Business - Times Online : # Reuters 'tags' its own articles # Is the City trader obsolescent? Computers that read news stories and use the information gleaned as a basis for trading will become widespread over the next five years, Reuters said yesterday. The information provider will make available today a tagged version of its news feed — which provides 8,000 news stories a day — to make them easier for computer-based trading systems to digest. It describes the effort as generating “machine-readable news”. Peter Moss, the head of Reuters Enterprise Solutions,said: “In three to five years a much more sophisticated set of algorithmic trading will emerge, based on information as well as market data.” Today about 60 per cent of trading in the United States is conducted by computer; in London the proportion is estimated to be 40 per cent. But the trading patterns used by algorithmic systems are based principally on price and volume...

BREITBART.COM - Iran students heckle Ahmadinejad : "Iranian students have disrupted a speech by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at a prestigious Tehran university, setting fire to his picture and heckling him. 'Some students chanted radical slogans and inflamed the atmosphere of the meeting' at the Amir Kabir University, said the semi-official Fars news agency on Monday, which is close to Ahmadinejad. 'A small number of students shouted 'death to the dictator' and smashed cameras of state television but they were confronted by a bigger group of students in the hall chanting: 'We support Ahmadinejad',' it said. It was the latest in a series of student demonstrations in recent days, the first time in least two years that such protests have taken place on this scale at Iranian universities. Ahmadinejad responded by describing those students chanting the slogans as an 'oppressive' minority."

CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Mark Steyn :: ISG must stand for, uh, Inane Strategy Guesswork So there you have it: an Iraq "Support Group" that brings together the Arab League, the European Union, Iran, Russia, China and the U.N. And with support like that who needs lack of support? It worked in Darfur, where the international community reached unanimous agreement on the urgent need to rent a zeppelin to fly over the beleaguered region trailing a big banner emblazoned "YOU'RE SCREWED." For Dar4.1, they can just divert it to Baghdad. Oh, but lest you think there are no minimum admission criteria to James Baker's "Support Group," relax, it's a very restricted membership: Arabs, Persians, Chinese commies, French obstructionists, Russian assassination squads. But no Jews. Even though Israel is the only country to be required to make specific concessions -- return the Golan Heights, etc. Indeed, insofar as this document has any novelty value, it's in the...

Annan to blast U.S. in farewell - USATODAY.com : "In a farewell speech on U.S. soil today, retiring United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan plans to deliver a tough critique of President Bush's policies. He will accuse the administration of trying to secure the United States from terrorism in part by dominating other nations through force, committing what he termed human rights abuses and taking military action without broad international support. Though Annan has long been a critic of the war in Iraq and other Bush foreign policies, the planned speech is among his toughest and is unusual for a U.N. secretary-general concluding his tenure. Annan's remarks, provided to USA TODAY by his office, list principles for international relations, among them 'respect for human rights and the rule of law.' These ideas can be advanced only 'if America remains true to its principles, including in the struggle against terrorism,' the speech says. 'When it appears ...

Techdirt: School Teaching Kids How To Use Fountain Pens; Do They Teach Math With An Abacus Too? School Teaching Kids How To Use Fountain Pens; Do They Teach Math With An Abacus Too? from the stick-with-the-times dept Now I'm as big a fan of the fountain pen as the next guy, but I'm not exactly convinced that it's vital to teach our school kids how to use one. However, it appears not everyone agrees. Following just a few months after the hand-wringing from some adults that the kids of today are doomed for being better at using computers than being able to write cursive, comes the news of a private school in Scotland that has decided that teaching kids how to write with fountain pens is of utmost importance. Apparently, fountain pens (not other types of pens) boost the kids' self-esteem and improve their academic performance. It's not at all clear how they go about proving this, other than a couple of random anecdotes, but the school is absolutely positive that founta...

Techdirt: How The US Crackdown On Online Gambling Hurt Americans How The US Crackdown On Online Gambling Hurt Americans from the nice-work dept Ah, unintended consequences. This past summer, US authorities arrested David Carruthers, CEO of online betting site BetOnSports, kicking off their latest round of anti-online gambling attempts, leading Carruthers to be fired and the company to stop doing business with US players -- effectively knocking out most of the company's business. Over at The Register, attorney Burke Hansen, explains how this has ended up hurting the American customers of the site a lot more than if they were just allowed to keep gambling. He points out that BetOnSports was quite well respected in the space, and was never known to have problems paying players the money they had won. However, with the company agreeing to settle the lawsuit against it, the courts are trying to get the money out of BetOnSports' bank accounts, which happen to be in Antigua. Antigua, ...

Talabani Criticizes Study on Iraq - washingtonpost.com Iraqi President Jalal Talabani today harshly criticized the Iraq Study Group report, saying it contained "dangerous" recommendations that would "undermine the sovereignty of Iraq and the constitution." Talabani was particularly critical of the 96-page report's recommendations for more centralized control of Iraq's oil wealth, embedding thousands of U.S. troops with Iraq's security forces to advise and speed up their training and legislation to allow thousands of people from Saddam Hussein's ousted Baath party to return to their jobs, according to news reports. "I think that the report is unjust and unfair and contains some dangerous articles which reduce the sovereignty of Iraq and its constitution, and it is against the long struggle of the Iraqi people against dictatorship," Talabani said, according to a Washington Post translation of a statement provided by his office. Talabani made...

Ahmadinejad May Be Heading for His First Major Political Defeat nitially, Ahmadinejad's ambition appeared to be directed at winning a majority of the assembly thus holding a Damocles sword above the head of the incumbent "Supreme Guide" Ali Khamenehi. Some had even suggested that an assembly controlled by the president's supporters would force Khamenehi to resign on health grounds, appointing Ayatollah Muhamad-Taqi Mesbah-Yazdi, Ahmadinejad's theological guru, as "Supreme Guide". Winning control of the Assembly of Experts at this time could be of particular importance because Khamenehi, though still relatively young at 66 years of age, is said to be n declining health. The assembly is elected for eight years and thus may find itself obliged to pick a new "Supreme Guide" before its term is over. Ahmadinejad's plan to win control of the assembly hit two big snags. The first was the refusal of the Council of Guardians of the Constitution, a 12...

Senator: Illegal images must be reported | CNET News.com Millions of commercial Web sites and personal blogs would be required to report illegal images or videos posted by their users or pay fines of up to $300,000, if a new proposal in the U.S. Senate came into law. The legislation, drafted by Sen. John McCain and obtained by CNET News.com, would also require Web sites that offer user profiles to delete pages posted by sex offenders. In a speech on the Senate floor this week, the Arizona Republican and former presidential candidate warned that "technology has contributed to the greater distribution and availability, and, some believe, desire for child pornography." After a report of illegal activity is filed, the Web site must retain any "information relating to the facts or circumstances" of the incident for at least six months. Webmasters would be immune from civil and criminal liability if they followed the specified procedures exactly. McCain's proposal, ca...

Common Sense for Drug Policy: DARE Program Flawed GAO: Research Shows That DARE Is A Failure, Alternative Prevention Programs Do Exist The General Accounting Office released a review of current research regarding alcohol and other drug abuse prevention programs, particularly DARE, on Jan. 16, 2003. The review, Youth Illicit Drug Use Prevention: DARE Long-Term Evaluations and Federal Efforts to Identify Effective Programs, GAO-03-172R, was prepared in response to a request from Sen. Richard Durbin (D-IL). The GAO report found that "In brief, the six long-term evaluations of the DARE elementary school curriculum that we reviewed found no significant differences in illicit drug use between students who received DARE in the fifth or sixth grade (the intervention group) and students who did not )the control group). Three of the evaluations reported that the control groups of students were provided other drug use prevention education. All of the evaluations suggested that DARE had no st...

BREITBART.COM - Haniyeh: Hamas Will Not Recognize Israel The Palestinian prime minister vowed his Hamas-led government will never recognize Israel and will fight for Jerusalem, telling a crowd at an Iranian mosque on Friday that he will resist U.S. pressure to moderate. Ismail Haniyeh's sermon came on the first day of his visit to an increasingly influential ally of the Hamas movement. Iran has given $120 million to the Hamas-led government, which is starved for funds because of a financial blockade by the West. Hamas officials in Gaza said they expected Iran to pledge more money to Haniyeh, around $30 million a month. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because no announcement had been made. Haniyeh's visit came at a crucial time in efforts to revive the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, which hinges on whether Hamas and its moderate Fatah rival can form a national unity government. The Fatah party hopes Hamas will be sidelined enough in a new government to allow a...

Islam gets concessions; infidels get conquered - Los Angeles Times All this illustrates the privileged status that many Muslims expect in the international arena. When Muslims conquer non-Muslim territories — such as Constantinople, not to mention all of North Africa, Spain and southwest Asia — those whom they have conquered as well as their descendants are not to expect any apologies, let alone political or territorial concessions. Herein lies the conundrum. When Islamists wage jihad — past, present and future — conquering and consolidating non-Muslim territories and centers in the name of Islam, never once considering to cede them back to their previous owners, they ultimately demonstrate that they live by the age-old adage "might makes right." That's fine; many people agree with this Hobbesian view. But if we live in a world where the strong rule and the weak submit, why is it that whenever Muslim regions are conquered, such as in the case of Palestine, the same Islami...

Shopping Mall Terror Plot Foiled - December 8, 2006 : "Shopping Mall Terror Plot Foiled FBI: Man planned 'to disrupt Christmas' with 'acts of jihad' DECEMBER 8--An Illinois man plotted to set off hand grenades at a Chicago-area shopping mall in a holiday season terror campaign that was thwarted by federal investigators. According to an FBI affidavit, Derrick Shareef, 22, told a confidential source that he wanted to 'commit violent acts of jihad,' and spoke of killing judges and blowing up public buildings. A copy of the affidavit can be found below. Shareef told the snitch that he sought 'to disrupt Christmas,' adding that, 'I swear by Allah man, I'm down for it too, I'm down for the cause, I'm down to live for the cause and die for the cause, man.' The document does not further describe the supposed cause of Shareef, who was named today in a federal felony complaint. Shareef is quoted telling the FBI source, 'I probably woul...