Hospices Become Testing Grounds

clipped from blogs.wsj.com As more Americans spend their final days in hospices, drug makers and doctors are asking patients there to take part in tests of new medicines. But the research faces considerable logistical and ethical challenges, this morning’s WSJ reports.

Was $300 a month, now $4 a month

Nice shiny toe nails for everyone. You get old the toe nails get narly, nevermore.

clipped from blogs.wsj.com Digger, the repulsive cartoon character at left, has symbolized many things to many people. Today, Wal-Mart may have put the final nail in his coffin by adding the expensive drug he pitched to its list of $4 generics. Digger sold Lamisil, Novartis’s pill for fungal toenail and fingernail infections. For Novartis, he represented the nastiness of a fungal infection under your nail. For the FDA, he showed that drug companies sometimes go too far in their ads. And some health plan officials saw the Digger ads and other Lamisil pitches as revealing the problem with direct-to-consumer drug advertising: They believed he drove consumers to ask their doctor for a pill they really didn’t need. And the treatment was expensive — more than $300 a month.

Kids' Health

clipped from blogs.wsj.com The fight over expanding the State Children’s Health Insurance Program is “the biggest domestic policy clash” of the Bush presidency and “will reverberate into the 2008 elections,” proclaims the front page of this morning’s Washington Post. As expected, the Senate last night followed the House’s lead and passed a bill to expand the program to cover millions more children at a cost of an additional $35 billion over five years. The increase would be funded largely by higher taxes on cigarettes. The president has promised to veto the bill on the grounds that it would unduly expand the role of government in health care. And that threat, despite the widespread popularity of the measure, is leading some prominent Republicans to break ranks with Bush. “I am very disappointed that before the administration even received the final language, their minds were apparently made up and a line was drawn in the sand opposing this compromise,” said Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), the WaPo reports.

Health Services Priced to Move

Well worth reading. You might need this advice some day. Article shows its worth it to negotiate.

clipped from blogs.wsj.com While HMOs, hospitals and doctors duke out prices behind the scenes, some persistent patients may be having an effect, too. Exhibit A is a Bob Braschler, owner Braschler’s Bakery and Coffee Shop in Red Wing, Minn, and the subject of this recent story from the Minneapolis Star Tribune. He’s the kind of guy conservative health wonks dream about: He recently switched to a high-deductible health plan with a health-savings account, and he went shopping for a deal when he needed cataract surgery for both eyes. He passed up the Mayo Clinic (more than $20,000) and Fairview Red Wing Medical Center ($18,000) and wound up at Minnesota Eye Consultants ($10,000). Hat tip to Health Hombre, who reads more regulations, proposed rules, draft legislation and other stuff than is healthy for any person.

Brain Activity Might Point to Early Alzheimer's

clipped from alzheimersreadingroom.blogspot.com A team at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C., used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to study the brains of 13 patients with mild Alzheimer's disease, 34 patients with mild cognitive impairment, and 28 healthy people (averaging about 73 years of age) as they did a memory task.

Border Fence a Mess

Anyone surprised?

clipped from blogs.usatoday.com A $20 million pilot program to safeguard a 28-mile stretch of rough, mesquite-dotted terrain that straddles a smuggling corridor south of Tucson was supposed to be operational in June but now is expected to be delayed until the end of the year, according to the officials at the Department of Homeland Security who are overseeing it. Ground radar and cameras that were to identify illegal border crossers so that armed patrols could be dispatched to capture them have had trouble distinguishing people and vehicles from cows and bushes. The sensors are also confused by moisture, the officials said.

Do you think you have what it takes to work for Google?

Here are some typical questions from a Google job interview. Did you get the job?

clipped from bobbydelray.blogspot.com How many golf balls can fit in a school bus? You are shrunk to the height of a nickel and your mass is proportionally reduced so as to maintain your original density. You are then thrown into an empty glass blender. The blades will start moving in 60 seconds. What do you do? How would you find out if a machine's stack grows up or down in memory? If you look at a clock and the time is 3:15, what is the angle between the hour and the minute hands? In a country in which people only want boys, every family continues to have children until they have a boy. if they have a girl, they have another child. if they have a boy, they stop. what is the proportion of boys to girls in the country? More on the next page.

The Evolution of Home Ownership rates

Forty three percent of households aged 20-34 already own a house up from 37 percent ten years ago. Sixty nine percent of American households own a home. With subprime loans no longer available and tighter lending controls it appears that the over hang of homes could last for a decade.

clipped from www.google.com

Internet users cut back on sex and friends

clipped from www.google.com Yet a Web survey was the basis for articles by Reuters, the New York Post and InformationWeek claiming that 28% of Americans have let the Internet cut into time they spend with friends and 20% have cut back on sex to spend more time online. Just 20% of respondents said they could go without Web access for a week or more.

Biel May Play Wonder Woman

clipped from news.aol.com (Sept. 25) - If Warner Bros. has it their way, Jessica Biel  will be filling out the blue and red suit of Wonder Woman in their superhero all-star movie "Justice League of America." Variety reports that the "I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry" actress is in talks with the studio to grab Wonder Woman's lasso, in a movie that's expected to feature Superman, Batman, the Flash and Aquaman as well.

Indiana Jones 4 Plot Revealed Here

Don't look if you don't want to know.

clipped from www.nypost.com * Indy, played once again by Harrison Ford, and the Soviet army are both searching for a priceless skull made of crystal in the jungles of South America. * The Russians take Indy hostage and then blackmail him by threatening to kill his ex-girlfriend and mother of his son, Marion Ravenwood, portrayed by Karen Allen. Cast as the son is Shia LaBeouf. * Cate Blanchett plays an evil Russian who grills Indy. "I saw Harrison Ford strapped to a chair and being interrogated," Nelson told the paper.

Indiana Jones Photo's

clipped from news.aol.com Photo Gallery: Jonesing for Discretion Paramount Pictures A man cast as a Russian dancer in Harrison Ford's fourth 'Indiana Jones' movie has revealed possible plot details to his hometown newspaper, angering director Steven Spielberg and producer George Lucas.     1 of 4

Dive Tectonic Plates in Reykjavik

clipped from information.travel.aol.com Location: Reykjavik, Iceland Cost: About $2,000 per person, including hotel and airfare from Heathrow Airport Tour: Explore underwater landscape between two tectonic plates in Iceland's crystal clear waters on a three-day diving expedition with London-based travel firm Black Tomato. More Adrenaline Adventures Up Next: James Bond Bungee

James Bond Bungee Jump

Wow, you need some courage to try this. Think Golden Eye.

clipped from information.travel.aol.com The James Bond Bungee Location: Lake Locarno, Switzerland Cost: About $1,200 per person, including hotel and airfare from Heathrow Airport Tour: Fans of 007 will recognize the Verzasca Dam from 'GoldenEye,' where James Bond bungee jumped a staggering 720 feet. To follow in the agent's footsteps, head to the Swiss and Italian border around Lake Locarno and take the same leap of faith -- a tuxedo and wristwatch with remote detonator are optional. More Adrenaline Adventures Up Next: Shark Diving Travel Guide for Switzerland Travel Guide for Italy Fly to Zurich, Switzerland!

Buy a laptop for a child, get another laptop free

clipped from www.iht.com And he is reaching out to the public to try to give the laptop campaign a boost. The marketing program, to be announced Monday, is called "Give 1 Get 1," in which Americans and Canadians can buy two laptops for $399. One of the machines will be given to a child in a developing nation, and the other one will be shipped to the purchaser by Christmas. The donated computer is a tax-deductible charitable contribution. The program will run for two weeks, with orders accepted from Nov. 12 to Nov. 26. The machines have high-resolution screens, cameras and peer-to-peer technology so the laptops can communicate wirelessly with one another. The machine runs on free, open source software. "Everything in the machine is open to the hacker, so people can poke at it, change it and make it their own," said Bender, a computer researcher. "Part of what we're doing here is broadening the community of users, broadening the base of ideas and contributions, and that will be tremendously valuable."

Crescent Mummy Dogs

clipped from www.boxtops4education.com Crescent Mummy Dogs Hot dogs are all wrapped up in a classic recipe for Halloween...or anytime a chuckle is in order.

Spears' Bodyguard Tells of Her Wild Ways

clipped from news.aol.com Britney Spears' former bodyguard tells News of the World that as a father himself, he "couldn't stand by and let the kids stay around" while Spears allegedly did drugs and abused alcohol. > Full Coverage Britney Spears' former bodyguard Tony Barretto told News of the World that he witnessed Spears nearly overdose, abuse alcohol and neglect her children.

The end of Free Speech?

Punish Columbia for allowing free speech? Isn't this proposal anti-American?

clipped from blogs.usatoday.com Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has a full schedule today, including appearances at Columbia University in New York and, via video, the National Press Club in Washington. Update at 10:37 a.m. ET: State and local officials want to punish Columbia University. The speaker of the state Assembly tells The New York Sun that legislators will "consider reducing capital aid and other financial assistance" to the school in response to the Iranian's appearance. "We should look at everything involving Columbia, whether it be capital projects, city and state, or other related things that we do in the city for them," Councilman David Weprin, chairman of the city's Finance Committee, says.

Travel? You are being Monitored by DHS

clipped from www.washingtonpost.com U.S. Effort More Extensive Than Previously Known The U.S. government is collecting electronic records on the travel habits of millions of Americans who fly, drive or take cruises abroad, retaining data on the persons with whom they travel or plan to stay, the personal items they carry during their journeys, and even the books that travelers have carried, according to documents obtained by a group of civil liberties advocates and statements by government officials. The Automated Targeting System has been used to screen passengers since the mid-1990s, but the collection of data for it has been greatly expanded and automated since 2002, according to former DHS officials.