Friday, November 15, 2013
CONTACT ME AT: manessmorrison2@yahoo.com


News Clips For The Day


Newspaper retracts 1863 editorial that panned Gettysburg Address as 'silly' – NBC

By Eric M. Johnson, Reuters

A Pennsylvania newspaper on Thursday retracted an 1863 editorial that dismissed President Abraham Lincoln's now revered Gettysburg Address delivered during the U.S. Civil War as "silly remarks" deserving a "veil of oblivion."

The editorial published on November 24, 1863, missed the "momentous importance, timeless eloquence, and lasting significance" of Lincoln's speech delivered days earlier, The Patriot-News of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, said on its website.
Lincoln's brief address delivered at the dedication of a national cemetery at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, has grown to become one of the best known speeches in U.S. history. The 150th anniversary of the address will be observed on Tuesday.
"Our predecessors, perhaps under the influence of partisanship, or of strong drink, as was common in the profession at the time, called President Lincoln's words 'silly remarks,' deserving 'a veil of oblivion'," the newspaper said.
"The Patriot-News regrets the error."

The battle at Gettysburg months before on July 1-3, 1863, is regarded as a turning point in the Civil War, the bloodiest war in American history that preserved the United States as a single country and led to the abolition of slavery.
The Patriot & Union, as the newspaper was formerly named, dismissed Lincoln's words as a political overture.

"We pass over the silly remarks of the President. For the credit of the nation we are willing that the veil of oblivion shall be dropped over them, and that they shall be no more repeated or thought of," the editorial read.
Harrisburg is about 40 miles northeast of Gettysburg.


It is for this reason that I don't read all political news articles – they are so often biased and simply not interested in dealing in the truth. I think, sometimes, it takes time for the full meaning of something new to percolate through to our consciousness, too, especially something as complex and thought provoking as the Gettysburg Address. It is one of the most beautiful pieces of prose I have ever read.

Abraham Lincoln prosecuted the Civil War until the bloody end, but not without a full awareness of the horrors of it all. The results of maintaining the Union and stopping the practice of slavery were worth the cost. It is ironic that even within the last few years there are some parts of the society who are circulating petitions for their area to secede from the US, or from one of the states. They want a simple solution to complicated problems, or a return to a distant past. They are, luckily, in the minority and not likely to succeed.





McDonald's to spend $3B on new, remodeled Golden Arches – NBC
Lisa Baertlein Reuters

McDonald's Corp. said Thursday it plans to spend about $3 billion next year to open 1,500 to 1,600 new restaurants and remodel about 1,000 others. 
As part of that expansion, it will add another window to speed up its drive-thru service.

The world's biggest hamburger chain, which recently has struggled to meaningfully expand sales at established restaurants after years of outpacing its rivals, last month trimmed its 2013 capital spending outlook by $100 million to $3 billion and delayed some new restaurant openings until next year due to softness in China and some other emerging markets.

McDonald's says it's testing a "Fast Forward Drive-Thru," which will be featured in new and renovated restaurants starting next year.
Under the current setup, customers place their orders, then drive up to a window where they pick up their food. The Fast Forward Drive-Thru will let customers drive to a third stop if their orders aren't ready. 

McDonald's gets about 70 percent of its sales from the drive-thru, according to Richard Adams, who now runs a consulting firm for franchisees. 
The company known for Big Mac hamburgers and skinny, crispy french fries also laid out forecasts Thursday for 2014 commodity costs and other expenses. 
It expects overall commodity costs for 2014 to increase 1 percent to 2 percent in the United States and 1.5 percent to 2.5 percent in Europe. 

It also expects general and administrative costs to increase about $200 million, due to such factors as higher employee expenses and costs associated with its owner/operator convention and Winter Olympic sponsorship. 
McDonald's also repeated its prior forecast for 2014 of expected sales growth of 3 percent to 5 percent at restaurants open at least a year.


This article takes me back to 1960 with my date, sitting in the car and playing around with each other as we ate our small amazingly inexpensive hamburgers and fries. It was a simpler time. I am sorry to hear that they have run into hard times, though I must admit I myself deserted them for Burger King and then for Wendy's, my current favorite. They were one of a kind when they were new, and it didn't take much excitement to constitute a fun evening.

Opening up in Europe was a success at first, but the novelty wears off, I guess. They could do with a thicker, juicier slab of meat and the customer's choice of toppings. Pickles and ketchup with a small amount of mustard tastes pretty plain. Of course, their Big Mac is another matter entirely. I think it's hard to beat the Big Mac, though I can't eat that much at one sitting, but I can always save the rest for supper. Maybe a face-lift in their stores and the Fast Forward drive through will help them. I do hope they stay afloat, just because of those good memories from my youth.





Obamacare fix puts insurers in a tough spot – NBC
Bertha Coombs and JeeYeon Park CNBC

President Barack Obama's administrative fix for health insurance cancellations that have angered millions of Americans seems simple enough — allow insurers to extend their plans for another year. But for the insurance industry, reversing cancellations this far along is anything but simple.

"It is unclear how, as a practical matter, the changes proposed today by the president can be put into effect," said Jim Donelon, the president of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, in a statement. "Changing the rules through administrative action at this late date creates uncertainty and may not address the underlying issues."

Over the past month, insurers have sent nearly 5 million cancellation notices for plans on the individual and small- business market that did not meet the new Obamacare standards. The administrative fix will allow those plans to be extended for another year, despite not meeting benefit requirements under the Affordable Care Act.
But the fix is voluntary, putting the onus for renewing the plans on individual insurers and state regulators to approve the policies. The problem lies in trying to set new prices and approvals for the canceled plans that expire on Dec. 31, under an extremely compressed time frame.

"We support efforts to allow people to keep what they have," said an Aetna spokesperson in a statement. "However, we will need cooperation and expedited approval from state regulators to remove the barriers that would make it difficult to make this change in such a short period of time."

"State regulators will need to allow us to update our policies and secure appropriate rates so we can get these plans back in the market," the spokesperson said.
For coverage starting Jan. 1, insurance customers need to enroll in a plan and pay their premium by Dec.15. Insurance industry consultant Robert Laszewski, of Health Policy and Strategy Associates, said it's nearly impossible for insurers to complete these steps in just one month.

"This means that the insurance companies have 32 days to reprogram their computer systems for policies, rates and eligibility, send notices to the policyholders and then enter those decisions back into their systems without creating massive billing, claim payment and provider eligibility list mistakes," he said.

Stan Hupfeld, former CEO of Integris Health, Oklahoma's largest health system, agreed. Obama's new fix "is possible, but the logistics of doing it with just a few days left in the policy year are extremely difficult. We've put [insurance companies] in an untenable situation. This is sort of a Hail Mary pass — in the end, [the fix] shifts the blame and makes [the insurance companies] the culprits," he said.
Hupfeld then compared the situation to the debt ceiling argument.
"Let's do it for a year — and let's be back here again a year from now, making the exact same argument. It makes absolutely no sense."

State insurance commissioners, who regulate the market, said they were also concerned about the president's decision.
Washington state's insurance commissioner, Mike Kreidler, said in a statement that he had "serious concerns" about Obama's proposal and will not allow insurers to extend individual policies.

Beyond the administrative burden, Citi analyst Carl McDonald said the change presents a risk of building a less healthy and less profitable pool of insurance buyers on the state exchanges.

"The people in the individual pool today are presumably healthier than the uninsured, so if consumers choose to take advantage of this offer and renew their individual policy, it could cause the exchange risk pool to deteriorate," he wrote in a research note to clients.

McDonald said renewing the canceled plans should not impact revenues, but the potential deterioration of the exchange market will pose a risk for insurers WellPoint, Humana and Health Net, which have all pursued an aggressive exchange strategy for 2014.

The potential for fewer healthy people on the exchanges will have a negative impact on the overall insurance market, said Karen Ignagni, president and CEO of industry trade group America's Health Insurance Plans.
"Changing the rules after health plans have already met the requirements of the law could destabilize the market and result in higher premiums for consumers," she said in a statement. "Additional steps must be taken to stabilize the marketplace and mitigate the adverse impact on consumers."

Meanwhile, Howard Dean voiced a slightly more optimistic tone.
"I believe that when Obamacare is in effect, people really are going to be satisfied and happy with it—I do," the former governor of Vermont said. "It wasn't my idea of how to do this but it can work, could work and should work."


The president's fix only lasts one year and doesn't mandate coverage under the previous policy terms. This means we still need legislative action to mandate coverage into the future. I assume that will go forward as it has been begun, and hopefully the legislation will be correctly written to solve the problems. The insurance companies will have to scramble to meet the deadline of Obama's fix. It is a major problem on all fronts, but I feel fairly sure the stressful month upcoming will see the problems solved. Maybe the insurance companies can simplify their notification procedures to save time. It will be difficult, but I think it's possible. I hope so, at any rate. I'll be looking forward to seeing what the legislation looks like.






Ancient DNA suggests European hunters tamed the first dogs – NBC
Alan Boyle, Science Editor NBC News

This 26,000-year-old wolf skull was found in Belgium's Trou des Nutons Cave. Researchers analyzed ancient and modern-day DNA from wolves and dogs to trace genetic relationships going back tens of thousands of years.

Millennia-old canine DNA has thrown a new twist into the debate over the origin of dogs — supporting the view that European hunter-gatherers were the first to domesticate the species.

The focus on ancient DNA provides "a new perspective on dog origins," Robert Wayne, an evolutionary biologist at the University of California at Los Angeles, said in a Science interview.

"Really to our surprise, it suggests that the origin of modern dogs was from Europe, not from the Middle East or east Asia — and that it occurred about 20,000 years ago," said Wayne, who is the senior author of a study published in Friday's issue of the journal Science.

The findings open up a new way to address the key questions surrounding the origins of "man's best friend": When, where and how did humans domesticate dogs?
The "when" varies from 12,000 to more than 30,000 years ago. Scientists have pointed to the Middle East, Africa, Eurasia and east Asia as the "where." And there are two leading scenarios for the "how": Some favor the view that wolves co-evolved with humans to give rise to ancient hunting dogs ("Hunter's Helpers"). Others suggest that dog domestication was facilitated by the rise of agriculture and the resulting heaps of trash that could be scavenged (portraying dogs as "Dumpster Divers").
The new results support the "Hunter's Helper" hypothesis.

The tale told by DNA
To trace dog ancestry, Wayne and his colleagues collected samples of mitochondrial DNA from the remains of 10 ancient wolflike animals and eight doglike animals, ranging in age from 1,000 years to 36,000 years ago. They also took samples from 77 modern-day dogs, 49 wolves and four coyotes. Then they grouped together the DNA signatures into an evolutionary tree diagram.

The groupings of modern-day dogs were most closely related not to the modern-day wolves, but to the ancient canines from Europe. That led the researchers to conclude that dogs were derived from a now-extinct wolf breed sometime between 18,000 and 32,000 years ago — before the rise of agriculture, when hunter-gatherers roamed Europe.

The results came as a surprise to Wayne because just three years ago, he was part of a team that determined dogs probably originated in the Middle East. The ancient DNA tells a radically different tale.

Wayne now suggests that wolves may have started going down the domestication route by following human hunters on the trail. "One can imagine wolves first taking advantage of the carcasses that humans left behind — a natural role for any large carnivore — and then over time moving more closely into the human niche through a co-evolutionary process," Wayne said in a UCLA news release.

Wayne thinks the earlier DNA results pointed to the Middle East because of interbreeding between dogs and wolves during later stages in domestication. "As hunter-gatherers moved around the globe, their dogs trailing behind probably interbred with wolves," he said.

The researchers also say their findings imply that the oldest dog bones ever discovered — a 33,000-year-old skull from Russia and a 36,000-year-old skull from Belgium — "may represent aborted domestication episodes." In other words, humans tried multiple times to domesticate dogs, and the earliest efforts apparently fizzled out.

Filling out the story
In the Science paper, Wayne and his colleagues acknowledge that their findings don't tell the full story of dog domestication. For one thing, scientists can glean only limited genetic data from mitochondrial DNA, which resides in tiny energy-producing structures outside the cell's nucleus. DNA from the nucleus itself would provide a more complete picture, but it's hard to extract high-quality nuclear DNA from ancient specimens.

Also, the researchers weren't able to find mitochondrial DNA samples from ancient canines in the Middle East or China. "In fact, no ancient dog remains older than 13,000 years are known from these regions," they wrote.
For those reasons, "one has to be a little bit careful about interpreting this data," said Erik Axelsson, an evolutionary geneticist from Sweden's Uppsala University. Axelsson wasn't involved in the Science study, but he was part of a team that found evidence of canine adaptation to starchy diets thousands of years ago. That study, published in the journal Nature, supported the "Dumpster Diver" hypothesis for dog domestication.

"I think that we just don't have enough data to say it's one or the other hypothesis right now," Axelsson told NBC News. "I think it's still an open question, but this is certainly an important step. ... It seems that ancient DNA might be a way forward in resolving the origin of dogs."

Wayne suspects that follow-up research will flesh out the central findings laid out by the Science study. "This is not the end-story in the debate about dog domestication," he said, "but I think it is a powerful argument opposing other hypotheses of origin."

Update for 8:30 p.m. ET Nov. 14: University of Arizona psychology professor Clive D.L. Wynne says he doesn't think the latest findings settle the debate over domestication. "I don't think the geneticists have the reliable evidence to date the origin of dogs," he told NBC News.

Wynne, who is also director of research for Wolf Park in Indiana, pointed out that geneticists were saying back in 1997 that dogs originated more than 100,000 years ago. (Wayne was one of the researchers behind that study.) Wynne still favors the "Dumpster Diver" hypothesis, and cites archaeological evidence indicating that dog domestication took hold when humans settled down in communities sometime around 10,000 to 15,000 years ago.  



More about the origin of dogs:
Were first dogs our best friends, or vermin?
DNA identifies big dogs from 30,000 B.C.
Scientists pinpoint the origins of little dogs
DNA shows America's first dogs came from Asia
NBC News archive on the science of dogs


This NBC article offers links to the additional stories about dog origins copied above. I am interested in dog origins because I'm very fond of dogs, but it is important to archeologists because the domestication of dogs and horses made the life of hunter-gatherer societies much more effective.

One of my favorite series of novels comes from Jean Auel who writes about hunter-gathering people from the time of the cave paintings in Europe. She captures a wolf cub and raises it, using it for hunting and in a few cases for self protection. I think the presence of a wolf skull in a cave in Belgium from 26,000 years ago is pretty good proof that someone at that time was trying to domesticate the animal, rather than simply eating him. Of course a wolf skull might be a prize piece of evidence of a bold hunter's expertise, or even an object of worship. Wolves are powerful animals and could have been revered as gods.

I can't get too much information about ancient times. I'm very interested in the survival skills of the human race before civilization. I could be a “survivalist” if I were sufficiently worried about our society today. People on small farms 50 years ago in the south had to know some survival skills, and I can remember my grandmother talking about those days. It intrigued me even when I was a child.




International child porn investigation leads to 339 arrests, including 76 in the U.S. – CBS
By Julia Dahl
Canadian police say, Brian Way, 42, ran video company at heart of child porn operation; multi-nation investigation led to arrests, announced on Nov. 14, 2013, of nearly 350 suspects

An international investigation called "Operation Spade" has led to the arrests of 76 people in the U.S. on charges related to child pornography, according to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, which teamed with the Toronto Police Service to conduct the investigation.

According to a statement released Thursday by the Postal Inspection Service, the operation began in October 2010 when Toronto Police contacted the service after determining that a company called Azoz Film was "selling videos of child exploitation through the U.S. Mail."

The company was shut down in May 2011, and since that time 263 people have been arrested across the globe, as well as 76 in the U.S. Those charged include school employees, law enforcement officials and registered sex offenders.
Postal Inspector Lori McCallister told CBS News' Crimesider that of those 76 arrests, there have so far been three jury convictions, 13 guilty pleas and sentenced ranging from two years for possession of child pornography to 25 years for production of child pornography. McCallister also said that arrests related to this case will continue.


I'm glad to see some substantial penalties being applied to these sleeze bags. I don't understand what sort of psychology these people have that causes them to want to have sex with a child. All too often they get away with “a slap on the wrist” and soon return to the streets to continue their perverse activities. Unfortunately, there are undoubtedly thousands more who didn't get caught. It's a sad statement on our society.





Mechanic's innovation may become next vaginal delivery aid – CBS
By Ryan Jaslow
A wine bottle trick and a serendipitous dream reportedly are what's behind a cheap medical device that may be a game changer for reducing delivery complications in women and their newborns across the globe.

The product is called the "Odon device," and the New York Times reports it's the brainchild of a 59-year-old Argentine mechanic named Jorge Odon. He claims he had the idea come to him in a dream after winning a bet with his buddies to remove a cork stuck in a glass bottle without breaking it.

An inserter with a small plastic bell is placed in the vagina, with the bell resting on the baby's head. When the doctor activates the device, two plastic sleeves shoot down from inside the inserter. The sleeves go over the bell and over the newborn's head, effectively separating it from the birth canal. A small amount of air is then pumped into a chamber, which causes the sleeves to inflate and firmly grasp the baby's entire head.

The inserter portion and bell is then removed, leaving one end of the plastic sleeves securely holding the baby's head and the other outside the vagina. A doctor can pull the baby out of the birth canal by grabbing handles attached to the sleeves, aided by the sliding surfaces of the lubricated vagina and smooth plastic.

Odon reportedly got the idea from a YouTube video, which showed a person dislodging a cork from a wine bottle by rolling up a plastic bag, placing it in the bottle and inflating it, before pulling out the bag and cork in one swoop.

The night Odon won the bet, he said had a dream that this concept could work on babies stuck in a birth canal, a condition which led to nerve damage in his aunt.
He woke up his wife who "said I was crazy and went back to sleep," he told the Times.
He then turned his dream into a prototype using a glass jar, his daughter's toy doll and a fabric bag sewn by his wife. Eventually, he pitched the product to a hospital chief in Buenos Aires who directed him to Dr. Mario Merialdi, a maternal and perinatial health researcher at the World Health Organization. The health official was wowed by the concept, and commissioned preliminary testing in 2008 at Des Moine University in Iowa.

"This critical moment of life is one in which there's been very little advancement for years," Merialdi told the paper.
The device can come in handy when vaginal delivery is stalled. Sometimes in delivery, a baby will not be pushed out despite the cervix being fully dilated and the baby having descended head first into the birth canal, according to the Mayo Clinic.
In that case, doctors might turn to tools like forceps or a vacuum to extract the baby, or suggest the mother undergo a C-section.

These options are typically recommended for women who have pushed for two to three hours but have not made any progress. Forceps and vacuum extraction are also sometimes performed if the doctor has concerns about the baby's heartbeat during labor or the mom has a heart condition, and doctors don't want her to push for too long, Mayo added.

While not delivering the baby fast enough could risk the lives of both the child and the mother due to hemorrhaging, infection, suffocation for the baby and other trauma, these assisted delivery techniques could pose health risks as well.
Moms may experience pain, vaginal tearing, urinary or fecal incontinence, anemia caused by blood loss and other injuries. Babies may develop scalp wounds, facial injuries and fractures and other damage. That's where the Odon device may serve as an alternative.

/ http://www.odondevice.org/device.php
Odon reportedly got the idea from a YouTube video, which showed a person dislodging a cork from a wine bottle by rolling up a plastic bag, placing it in the bottle and inflating it, before pulling out the bag and cork in one swoop.
The night Odon won the bet, he said had a dream that this concept could work on babies stuck in a birth canal, a condition which led to nerve damage in his aunt.
He woke up his wife who "said I was crazy and went back to sleep," he told the Times.
He then turned his dream into a prototype using a glass jar, his daughter's toy doll and a fabric bag sewn by his wife. Eventually, he pitched the product to a hospital chief in Buenos Aires who directed him to Dr. Mario Merialdi, a maternal and perinatial health researcher at the World Health Organization.

The health official was wowed by the concept, and commissioned preliminary testing in 2008 at Des Moine University in Iowa.
"This critical moment of life is one in which there's been very little advancement for years," Merialdi told the paper.
The device can come in handy when vaginal delivery is stalled. Sometimes in delivery, a baby will not be pushed out despite the cervix being fully dilated and the baby having descended head first into the birth canal, according to the Mayo Clinic.
In that case, doctors might turn to tools like forceps or a vacuum to extract the baby, or suggest the mother undergo a C-section.

These options are typically recommended for women who have pushed for two to three hours but have not made any progress. Forceps and vacuum extraction are also sometimes performed if the doctor has concerns about the baby's heartbeat during labor or the mom has a heart condition, and doctors don't want her to push for too long, Mayo added.

While not delivering the baby fast enough could risk the lives of both the child and the mother due to hemorrhaging, infection, suffocation for the baby and other trauma, these assisted delivery techniques could pose health risks as well.
Moms may experience pain, vaginal tearing, urinary or fecal incontinence, anemia caused by blood loss and other injuries. Babies may develop scalp wounds, facial injuries and fractures and other damage.

That's where the Odon device may serve as an alternative.
The World Health Organization says the device may be safer and easier to apply than a forceps or vacuum extractor because it reduces contact between the baby's head and birth canal, which in turn may reduce infection risk.

The device won the "Saving Lives at Birth: A Grand Challenge for Development" award. The WHO adds it has potential for wide application in lower-income areas with limited resources or access to surgical equipment.

It has already been tested at health clinics in Argentina and rural South Africa, according to the device's website. More testing is in the works in other countries and will be overseen by the WHO, the Times adds.

The device also found a manufacturer in medical supply-maker Becton, Dickinson and Company (BD) based Franklin Lakes, N.J., according to the report. No word yet on what it will sell for, but it will cost less than $50 to make.
The Odon device website has more information on how the product works.


I often feel that we have enough gadgets, already, but this one is truly a life saver, and it only costs $50.00 to produce! Like many really revolutionary ideas, Odun was not intending to come up with a new idea. It came to him in a dream. The human brain is wonderful in the way it works. That's why psychology is so interesting. I hope this man is going to be rich from this, rather than having his invention stolen by somebody, such as the company that produces it. It's a great achievement and will prevent babies being brain damaged from lack of oxygen in the birth process.