Right here, baby!
Researchers have developed a “man-made” scorpion venom to be used in the treatment of brain tumours.
The venom is used as a carrier to deliver radioactive iodine into tumour cells left behind after surgery has removed the bulk of the tumour.
So far the technique has been tested in 18 patients and further trials are under way, a report in the Journal of Clinical Oncology says.
Initial findings suggest the treatment is well-tolerated and may be effective.
Well, who knew?
The purchase of surgical equipment should be bound by the same fair trade rules as foodstuffs like coffee, sugar or bananas, a researcher suggests.
Dr Mahmood Bhutta said he had anecdotal evidence there was exploitation of workers in developing countries.
In the British Medical Journal, the ear, nose and throat doctor said it was down to purchasers such as the NHS to press for fair trade.
The Department of Health said buying equipment was down to NHS trusts.
Gotta love those weekend warrior types. Even the president of Bolivia is one:
Bolivian President Evo Morales has suffered a broken nose after being fouled by a goalkeeper during an indoor football match.
The president’s team was playing a local side, the Independence Warriors, in the rural region of Cochabamba.
Mr Morales was treated at a local clinic and order to rest for two days, his office said.
Sometimes, Google Alerts do the most amazing things. Their emphasis on the right-wing falsification of the news cannot be underestimated. Partly, I think, the vast right-wing crapaganda machine is to blame, but sometimes I wonder if Google isn’t complicit. It’s either that, or they’re being gamed–and someone’s gotta call them on it. Fair and balanced they are not.
Take, for example, this charming screed by one Douglas MacKinnon, which landed in my mailbox today. It’s called, evocatively enough, “Chavez is to be shunned”:
Late last year, Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez attacked me by name on his national television program. He said I was a spy for the CIA getting paid to orchestrate a propaganda campaign designed to hurt his re-election chances this December.
In reality, I’m nothing more than a private citizen married to a Venezuelan, and deeply worried about the massive militarization of Venezuela and the non-stop courting by Chavez of terrorist leaders around the world.
A little gem of US hypocrisy, pointed out by “The International Forecaster”, Bob Chapman, via Vheadline.com:
The Bush administration has again tried to convince Russia not to sell arms to Venezuela. As part of a world tour, President Chavez was in Russia this week, striving for a seat on the UN Security Council and was meeting potential voters.
The US says the sales to Venezuela will upset the balance of power in Latin America … which is ridiculous.
Chavez was forced to purchase military equipment from other countries because the US refused parts for existing military equipment in Venezuela.
Scientists have long been saying otherwise, and here’s one more study to prove it…
New Zealand troops who served in the Vietnam War suffered significant genetic damage from exposure to Agent Orange, a study suggests.
The chemical was used by the US military in Vietnam in the 1960s.
It has been blamed for a variety of medical conditions suffered by soldiers and up to four million Vietnamese.
The study by New Zealand’s scientists could have a big effect on campaigners’ efforts to sue major chemical firms and the US government, correspondents say.
How’s this for karma being a bitch?
An obscure law approved a decade ago by a Republican-controlled Congress has made the Bush administration nervous that officials and troops involved in handling detainee matters might be accused of committing war crimes and prosecuted at some point in U.S. courts.
Senior officials have responded by drafting legislation that would grant U.S. personnel involved in the terrorism fight new protections against prosecution for past violations of the War Crimes Act of 1996. That law criminalizes violations of the Geneva Conventions governing conduct in war and threatens the death penalty if U.S.-held detainees die in custody from abusive treatment.
And may you keep getting more Bolivarian with every passing year.
Check THIS out:
So much for that trite “We are all Israelis now” meme.
BTW, GriperBlade has an excellent post with a damning picture unto itself. Perhaps this is what’s got the Israel-uber-alles crowd so…isolated?
