Miscellaneous News

RSS

Homeopathy could soon be declared “baseless and unethical” in Australia

Homeopathy is a branch of alternative medicine based on the principles of “like-cures-like” and “ultra-dilutions”. The first principle says substances that can cause symptoms can be used in diluted form to treat the same symptom in an illness, and the second says the more dilute a substance is, the more potent it is.

14 Mar 2012

Bioethicist calls on Congress to protect physicians in war zones

Greater leadership is needed from the U.S. government to protect physicians and health facilities from increased attacks in armed conflict zones like Syria, experts told members of Congress in a special briefing today.

8 Mar 2012

U.S. Farm Bill has global implications for food security

In this ONE Blog post, Jennifer Wynn, an intern with ONE's policy team, reports on a recent panel discussion held at George Washington University that examined the U.S. Farm Bill and its implications for global hunger and food security.

7 Mar 2012

Dutch mobile euthanasia units stir controversy

Controversy has been stirred by a system of mobile euthanasia units that will travel around the country to respond to the wishes of sick people who wish to end their lives in the Netherlands.

4 Mar 2012

Packaged meats to carry nutrition labels like other food products

Starting this Thursday nutrition labels found on almost all packaged foods can be found for ground meat and poultry as well. Forty of the most popular whole, raw cuts or meat and poultry, such as chicken breast or steak, also will have nutritional information either on the package labels or on display at the store, under a new Department of Agriculture rule. The department's Food Safety and Inspection Service has required nutrition labeling since 1993 for products that are not raw or that contain more than one ingredient.

2 Mar 2012

Aid agencies must implement long-term solutions in Horn of Africa to 'banish hunger'

With each of the three droughts in the Horn of Africa over the last decade, "the international community agreed that long-term measures were needed to prevent another tragedy. But each time, when the rains finally came, the world's good intentions melted away," Jose Graziano de Silva, director-general of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) writes in a Project Syndicate opinion piece.

2 Mar 2012

Cancer cons preying on hope, SBS Dateline

Mexico’s border with America is clustered with clinics providing unusual treatments for cancer - alternatives to conventional medicine that claim to offer a complete cure, even for the terminally ill, in return for tens of thousands of dollars.

1 Mar 2012

Judge overrules proposed graphic cigarette labels

A Washington judge overruled the federal mandate requiring tobacco companies to place graphic images on their products warning of the dangers of smoking. The judge said the requirements were a violation of free speech.

1 Mar 2012

Project uses remote sensing to track and predict impact of climate change

Scientists from the University of Maryland and Beijing Normal University are partnering to track and predict the impact of climate change internationally.

29 Feb 2012

Healthcare Coalition of Texas, Champion Energy Services enter preferred electricity pricing agreement

Scott Fordham, president and chief executive officer, announced that Champion Energy Services has partnered with Healthcare Coalition of Texas (HCT), headquartered in Plano, Texas, to offer their members (which represents 62,000 employees and 9,000 medical staff) preferred pricing for residential electricity throughout the state of Texas.

27 Feb 2012

UH GCSW to host Houston, Leading America's Future round table discussion

The University of Houston (UH) Graduate College of Social Work (GCSW) will host, "Houston, Leading America's Future," a round table discussion addressing what can be done today to ensure the success of Houston's multicultural society at 4 p.m., Friday, Feb. 24 at the UH GCSW building, Room 102.

24 Feb 2012

Eating invasive plant pre-adapts bluetongue lizards against cane toad poisons

An invasive plant may have saved an iconic Australian lizard species from death at the hands of toxic cane toads, according to research published in the March issue of The American Naturalist. It's an interesting case of one invasive species preparing local predators for the arrival of another, says Richard Shine, a biologist at the University of Sydney who led the research.

23 Feb 2012

INFORMS Conference on Business Analytics & Operations Research to take place in April

Analytics, the increasingly important specialty that has been cited by Harvard Business Review, Sloan Management Review, Gartner, and Accenture for aiding better decisions at organizations, will be the focus of a conference hosted by the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS-), the premier organization for advanced analytics professionals.

23 Feb 2012

Internet supplements - one click toward poor performance

Sports Medicine Australia, the peak organisation for professionals in sports medicine and sports science, has urged those considering purchasing performance enhancing products via the internet to think again.

21 Feb 2012

Height, mass and collective experience behind winning Rugby World Cup teams

Rugby teams with the tallest backs, heaviest forwards, and greatest amount of collective experience are likely to be the most successful at World Cup level, reveals research published online in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

21 Feb 2012

Equinix, Carpathia Hosting partner to build new data center for healthcare companies, federal agencies

Equinix, Inc., a provider of global data center services, and Carpathia Hosting, a provider of complex, compliant managed hosting services for government agencies and enterprises, today announced plans to build a 64,000 square foot data center in Dulles, Va. aimed at supporting industry-specific compliant solutions for healthcare companies, federal agencies, and commercial industries.

21 Feb 2012

Mars Inc. pledges to limit candy bars to 250 calories

Mars Inc., the makers of popular candy brands including Snickers, M&M's and Twix, have said that they would stop making chocolate products that exceed 250 calories by the end of next year. The privately-held company also makes Milky Way, 3Musketeers, Bounty, Skittles candies, Juicy Fruit chewing gum and Kudos bars.

18 Feb 2012

NASA awards Endeavor Fellowship to Arizona teacher

Sandra Trevino, a teacher at Buena High School, Sierra Vista, Arizona, has been awarded an Endeavor Fellowship with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). NASA's Endeavor Science Teaching Certificate Project provides live, online training for educators working to earn a STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) certificate from Teachers College, Columbia University, N.Y.

18 Feb 2012

World’s “fattest man” needs an army of carers

Keith Martin, 42, a 58-stone man who is believed to be the world’s fattest person, has revealed he is tended to by seven carers a day, costing an estimated £50,000 a year to the taxpayer.

15 Feb 2012

U.N. food agencies to hold meeting on assistance to Africa's Sahel region

"The leaders of United Nations aid agencies, humanitarian organizations and donor governments will meet on Wednesday in Rome to discuss how to urgently scale up assistance in Africa's Sahel region, where drought and food shortages are threatening millions of lives," the U.N. News Centre reports.

15 Feb 2012