Daily Review 26/11/2015

16 comments on “Daily Review 26/11/2015 ”

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1. weka 1

   26 November 2015 at 6:21 pm

   The evidence just keeps rolling in. 30+ years of medical and health authority advice about diet and heart disease has been wrong. This has huge implications for both people who have been treated, multiple public and private health systems, and for how we use science.

   All-cause mortality is the most appropriate outcome to use when investigating risk factors for life threatening disease. Section 1 discusses all-cause mortality according to cholesterol levels, as determined by large epidemiological studies in Japan. Overall, an inverse trend is found between all-cause mortality and total (or low density lipoprotein [LDL]) cholesterol levels: mortality is highest in the lowest cholesterol group without exception. If limited to elderly people, this trend is universal. As discussed in Section 2, elderly people with the highest cholesterol levels have the highest survival rates irrespective of where they live in the world.

   Ann Nutr Metab 2015;66(suppl 4):1–116 DOI: 10.1159/000381654

   http://drmalcolmkendrick.org/2015/05/18/hats-off-to-the-japanese/

   http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25925499
   • Rosemary McDonald 1.1

     26 November 2015 at 9:46 pm

     A friend went to his GP for the required medical to renew his Class 2 driving licence. His cholesterol was above the normal range and his BP was slightly high.

     GP wrote out a script for statins to lower his cholesterol.

     Friend said no thanks, I’ll get it down with diet and exercise…and being a fit bugger…he just watched his diet and slightly increased his daily run.

     Cholesterol and BP perfectly normal on next visit to GP…but she REFUSED to issue the medical certificate unless he also took the statins.

     The power of Big Pharma in action.

     (a rebel from way back, he politely told her where to go with her prescription)
   • Editractor 1.2

     26 November 2015 at 11:20 pm

     You can get the full review here – http://www.karger.com/Journal/Issue/266692

     From the introduction:

     “…this is also complicated by the fact that physicians don’t have enough time to study the cholesterol issue by themselves, leaving them simply to accept the information provided by the pharmaceutical industry.”

     I once did some work for a company specialising in publishing “educational” material on behalf of pharmaceutical companies – the sort of pamphlets provided to GPs. It was my task to check that everything stated in the pamphlet could be corroborated by statements in published papers. When I asked what I should do if I found something that contradicted a statement I was told I should ignore it. I don’t work for these companies any more.

     I also really like the tone of the introduction. It’s quite unusual in a scientific paper.
     • weka 1.2.1

       27 November 2015 at 12:07 am

       I thought there was something unusual about the tone too, but I don’t read enough science papers to know what it is.

       “…this is also complicated by the fact that physicians don’t have enough time to study the cholesterol issue by themselves, leaving them simply to accept the information provided by the pharmaceutical industry.”

       I’m not surprised by your story. The amount of corruption in medicine is astounding (as is the reluctance of many people to even look at acknowledging that).

       I’m not sure I buy the whole doctors don’t have time thing. I believe that they then get big pharma info, but I think it’s an abdication of responsibility. It’s like GPs who, when confronted about the realities of antibiotic resistance, say they’ve been overprescribing all these years because their patients insisted on being treated

       We are incredibly stupid as a species at times.
2. McFlock 2

   26 November 2015 at 6:40 pm

   China signs a lease for its first military base in Africa.

   A developmental milestone – the hegemonic heir-apparent is growing up…
3. AsleepWhileWalking 3

   26 November 2015 at 6:43 pm

   I hope it’s ok I post this rather than the thread regarding Turkey shooting down the Russian plane.

   http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2015/11/25/turkey-is-lying-paul-craig-roberts/

   A second reason is that Turkey’s claim that the SU-24 was in Turkey’s airspace for 17 seconds but only traveled 1.15 miles means that the SU-24 was flying at stall speed! The entire Western media was too incompetent to do the basic math!

   A third reason is that, assuming Turkey’s claim of a 17 second airspace violation is true, 17 seconds is not long enough for a Turkish pilot to get clearance for such a serious and reckless act as shooting down a Russian military aircraft. If the SU-24 was flying at a normal speed rather than one that would be unable to keep the aircraft aloft, the alleged airspace violation would not have been long enough to be noticed. A shootdown had to have been pre-arranged.
   • Draco T Bastard 3.1

     26 November 2015 at 11:46 pm

     A second reason is that Turkey’s claim that the SU-24 was in Turkey’s airspace for 17 seconds but only traveled 1.15 miles means that the SU-24 was flying at stall speed!

     No, it isn’t stall speed:

     The variable geometry wing provides excellent STOL performance, allowing a landing speed of 230 km/h (143 mph), even lower than the Sukhoi Su-17 despite substantially greater take-off weight.

     The SU24’s stall speed is less than half that of what they’re reporting.

     It’s probably bombing run speed. High enough to give good manoeuvrability and stability while slow enough to give the pilot time to lock on target and fire.
     • McFlock 3.1.1

       27 November 2015 at 12:26 am

       So what speed, according to the turks, was the fencer going?

       wikipedia says “violated Turkish airspace up to a depth of 2.19 km (1.36 mi) for about 17 seconds”.
       “Up to a depth” itis not “total incursion”. Looking at the alleged path going over the bulge in the border, that’s “violated 4.4km of Turkish airspace for about 17 seconds”. (4.4/17)*60*60=931km/hr. 2.2km being the total length of incursion gives 465km’hr.

       Correct me if I’m wrong, but stall speed my arse.
4. Draco T Bastard 4

   26 November 2015 at 7:52 pm

   BBC sends security guard to protect journalist who received abuse on Twitter after she said she didn’t want children

   She went on to describe the most common response when people hear of her decision to seek sterilisation – “But why?” – and explained that she’s been called “selfish” and has experienced difficulty having her tubes tied, even when going through her GP and Marie Stopes.

   But nothing could have prepared her for the level of abuse she would receive once the article went online.

   It was so vitriolic that she was forced to deactivate her Twitter account, and, as reported by Business Insider, had to be met and escorted from her car to the building by a security guard when she visited the BBC to take part in a Q&A.

   The entitlement that these bigots feel that they have to control others is truly amazing.
   • RedLogix 4.1

     27 November 2015 at 1:17 am

     They were always there .. but these days instead of a few fleeting words of abuse only a few could hear, the net publishes them permanently for tens of millions to read.

     Sometimes I wonder if this is a good thing or not.
     • Draco T Bastard 4.1.1

       27 November 2015 at 2:24 am

       Decent people do make up the majority of the population and thus I think that the more people hear about this type of behaviour the more these bigots will find themselves being ostracised by that majority. Not hearing about it is, IMO, what allows them to flourish as people can’t act on what they don’t know.
5. b waghorn 5

   26 November 2015 at 8:05 pm

   Its truly bizarre that people call her selfish A. We don’t need more people on the planet. B the worlds full of the messed up children of truly selfish people who had kids but didn’t put much effort in to raising them.
   Good on her.
   • weka 5.1

     26 November 2015 at 9:22 pm

     Sounds like it was as much about the fact that she’s a woman writing about tech. A potent combination of a woman working in a field that some men think belongs to them and then having the gall to say she doesn’t want her real job (childbearing).

     “I am used to trolling as I run a women’s tech website but even I was affected this time because it was so vitriolic, so personal and nasty, and so specific about me and my professional life – not even about the issue of having children which I had been writing about.”

     She also said she believes she was targeted more vociferously because she is a woman writing about what some view as a “man’s domain”.
     • Draco T Bastard 5.1.1

       26 November 2015 at 11:53 pm

       +1
6. ianmac 6

   26 November 2015 at 9:04 pm

   Jane must be frustrated:
   From Scoop”
   “In a decision released yesterday, Justice Collins acknowledged the return to court reflected ‘intense frustration’ at the ongoing delays. However, said he was unable ‘at this juncture’ to make orders that could realistically speed up the process for release of the negotiating mandate documents.”
   http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1511/S00428/high-court-cant-make-groser-provide-tppa-information-faster.htm
7. ropata 7

   27 November 2015 at 12:40 am

   Sony hack:
   Upper management and HR negligence exposed thousands of ordinary workers to identity theft. The imperative to show that POS movie “the interview” in the face of threats from the hackers, was more important to the company than employee safety.

   "What it was like to be a rank-and-file Sony employee as the unprecedented cyberattack tore the company apart." https://t.co/YEEdhduY2l— Keith Ng (@keith_ng) November 26, 2015

   Americuh, F*ck yeah

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