Drug 'may prevent stroke damage'

 

 

 

Clots block the flow of blood, starving the brain of oxygen

 

It may be possible to use a drug to prevent some of the lasting and crippling damage caused by a stroke, according to doctors in the US and Canada. A safety trial, published in the Lancet Neurology medical journal, suggested the chemical NA-1 was safe to use.

The study on 185 people also hinted that patients given the drug developed fewer regions of damaged brain tissue. Tests in primates had suggested NA-1 prevented brain cells dying when a stroke starved them of oxygen.

A small trial was set up at 14 hospitals in the US and Canada. Patients who took part were having an operation to repair a brain aneurysm, a weakened blood vessel which could rupture, are at increased risk of a stroke. Ninety-two people had the drug injected into a vein, while another 93 were injected with salty water.
 
The doctors concluded that NA-1 was safe, with only two patients having mild side effects. However, brain scans also showed that fewer brain lesions, damaged areas of tissue, formed in patients given the drug. The doctors involved said the study provided evidence that "neuroprotection is achievable" but said that "a larger trial is necessary to investigate the robustness of the effect".

Prof Markku Kaste, from Helsinki University Central Hospital, said: "Age is the greatest risk factor for stroke. Because of the global population ageing, the number and burden of strokes will increase."
He said previous trials to use drugs to protect the brain had resulted in failure. His said this drug still need to be assessed in much larger clinical trials before its effectiveness was known.

Another Mammoth Released From the Permafrost...Thankyou Global Warming

Joanna Carver, reporter

An 11-year-old Russian boy stumbled across the 30,000-year-old remains of a woolly mammoth, an experience that was surely either incredibly exciting or permanently traumatizing.
According to the Moscow News, Yevgeny Salinder found the 500-kilogram beast in the tundra of the Taymyr peninsula in northern Russia. Scientists laboured for a week with axes and steam to dig it out of the permafrost it's been encased in for centuries.
Woolly mammoths have been found in the permafrost in Siberia since at least 1929, but this is one of the best preserved. Its tusks, mouth and rib cage are clearly visible.

The mammoth is being called Zhenya, sharing a nickname with the boy who discovered it, but is officially the Sopkarga mammoth. There are plans for it to be studied by palaeontologists in Moscow and St Petersburg before going on display permanently at the Taymyr Natural History Museum.
It seems inevitable with such a discovery that the possibility of cloning a mammoth will be revived. A team of Japanese scientists are working with DNA from a carcass in a Russian laboratory to produce a clone. A big obstacle, of course, is degraded, ice-damaged DNA.

Mitt's Cheat Sheet

 

 

Did Romney push the debate rules by bringing debate instructions on stage with him? His campaign staff said no. Spokeswoman Andrea Saul said the thing Romney pulled out of his

pocket was actually a handkerchief.



Dear Maxy,

My husband is upset with me because I haven't accepted his request on Facebook . What's the big deal ? I married the man , and we are friends in real life . I have nothing to hide from him . I just don't want to be his friend on Facebook . I don't want to have a cyber-relationship with him . I want to have a real relationship with him . I don't use Facebook that much anyway . Am I in the wrong for not accepting his request ?

Wife

Dear Wife ,
Not accepting your husband's Facebook request when you have accepted requests from other people sends a negative message to him . It says that you do not welcome him into a particular part of your life . While you may not think there is anything wrong with that , it makes sense he would . His perspective is that likely that if you welcome others , why not him ?
His perspective is valid . This doesn't mean that your husband should be involved in every aspect of your life . For example , he probably wouldn't expect to listen in while you are talking on the phone with your girfriends . He probably doesn't want to go with you to the beauty salon . But Facebook is a different matter . It is a public forum where people go to connect with one another .
If you have nothing to hide , prove it by exccepting your husband's Facebook request . Tell him you treasure the one-on-one interaction that you and he share and that you don't want to have a cyber-relationship . He can enter your Facebook space , but make it clear to him that you don't intend to develop a relationship with him there .
Maxy

Dear Maxy , I have a unique style . I wear my hair kind of funky , and it's partly dyed pink . I also wear crazy colors on nail polish . It shows my fun side , I think .

Usually it's no big deal , but recently I have had a problem . I have been interviewing for a part-time job that can help tide me over while I'm finishing school . I'm beginng to think that my style is getting in my way . When I have gone to a few interviews , the people have been corfial but totally oninterested .

I love my style , but I also need a job . How can I have both ?

Unemployed Cutie

Dear Unemployed Cutie ,
Whether or not it should , the way you choose to look makes a difference . The good news is that there are all kinds of jobs out there .
Chances are you can find a place to work that will embrace your style , such as in the art world , in certain hospitality areas and in telephone marketing .
Maxy

Dear Maxy ,

My boyfriend of seven months recently ended things suddenly . "Ethan" is Mormon , and I'm Lutheran . We were planning a future together . Ethan claims he wants to go on a mission and cannot prepare to do God's work while having a girlfriend . He said we could still be friends .
But here's the thing . He started hanging out with "Susan" the same month he broke up with me . He told me she was a new "friend" and also Moron . He denied there was anything between them . I am having trouble moving on because I don't feel Ethan is telling me the truth . He's already ripped out my heart . The least he can do is be honest .
Right now , he barely acts like an acquaintance , let alone a friend . What should I do ?
Confused

Dear Confused ,
While Ethan is undoubtedly being honest about his upcoming missionary trip , I think he is being less so about the breakup . At least part of that has to do with your religious differences and his new interest in Susan . This is surely what you already suspect . I wish Ethan had the courage to come clean , but don't count on it . Accept that your relationship has run its course . Regardless of his next move , yours should be to put him behind you .
Maxy

Dear Mitt

Dear Mitt,
Congrats on the debate; looks like you pulled it off with aplomb. You showed self assurance and poise and you have a nice smile.  Your assistants had done their homework and you were well rehearsed on all the relevant points.  You showed just the right amount of passion, Mitt, ( although  you went a bit over-board on the gesticulation ) and were challenging and oh, so courteous. You showed style and emerged reinvigorated.

Hardly anyone noticed that you fudged over a few things, danced around others and skipped some completely. Not so for the hard working president. It was 90 minutes the Obama campaign could have done without. Obama answered seriously, a little hesitantly, often with his head down and frankly looked tired. You won a reprieve for yourself, Mitt, pretty much on the basis of your demeanor after being derided for months for an anaemic, gaffe-strewn campaign, where your staff has had to work overtime to pull your feet out of your mouth. Even some of your biggest critics have resurrected  you from under your mountain of faux pas and alarming, projected policies and once again consider you a contender.

But Mitt, candidates very rarely land punches on their opponent in the eyes of the viewer whose mind has already been made up. And television debates rarely swing election campaigns. You stand in comparison to a man who has been doing the job for four years and doing it well in the eyes of the whole world. Your 90 minutes cannot stand up to that. And in matters of substance, Mitt, you spent one third of the debate denying you were going to cut taxes for the rich, despite a mountain of evidence to the contrary (  What about $5 trillion in tax cuts you have been promising the wealthy throughout your campaign? )  You said you were going to repeal Obama Care but offered nothing to replace it with. On tax reform, healthcare and regulating Wall Street you alluded to 'Plan B' but neglected to tell us what it was. The stalling produced Mr Obama's best line of the debate: "Is the reason Governor Romney is keeping all these plans secret because they're too good?"

 We heard no mention of your private equity firm, Bain Capital, ( a company which reportedly moved American jobs overseas )  or the 47% of Americans you disowned. Not a peep about your stubborn resistance to release your tax records.  We did not hear about the automobile industry that Mr Obama saved  from going to hell in a handbasket.  All salient points that, hopefully, come out in the next debate.

 Did Mr Obama communicate so poorly? The evidence may well be less dramatic than the judgment of the commentariat. Mitt, a debate which went so badly for Obama could ironically have produced more ammunition for his campaign if he reviews the subject matter you gave him.
 Letting your opponent get aggressive with you can be a good tactic when you are the new kid on the block; not the best strategy when you are the boss. The President was criticized for being hesitant and subdued. Some Democrats even faulted the president for refraining, during the debate, from criticizing your leadership of Bain Capital. Consider Mitt, that possibly, the president was being a gentleman and sticking to the rules of debating which prohibit  invective and mud slinging. Obama certainly resumed those attacks on Thursday during a campaign speech, while also taking a jab at your sizeable personal fortune. So get your mitts on Mitt, it's back to the fray. And who knows who will come out on top at the next debate.
What kind of name is 'MITT' anyway??

The observant Genie

Vice-presidential candidates Joe Biden and Paul Ryan will meet in Danville, Kentucky on the 11th of October, before the second presidential debate on the16th of October

Do the Debates Matter ?

This election campaign has largely been about reputation sullying, endless ads, rife with half-truths and quotations taken out of context. This is the first chance America has had to see the two men who would be president face to face and to hear what they have to say to each other.

 

 

The experts say that, yes, in a close election the debates can matter. What matters most is not the closely drawn intellectual argument about rival policy platforms, but the body language and the pithy one-liner that sums up an opponent's faults. The tone was set by the very first presidential TV debate: John Kennedy vs Richard Nixon in 1960. One commentator at the time said JFK looked like "a bronzed warrior" whereas Tricky Dicky appeared sick, unshaven and sweaty. Ronald Reagan's put-down of Jimmy Carter in 1979, ( "There you go again") encapsulated the feelings of many that the incumbent was a bit wordy and long-winded, and allowed Reagan to appear sharp and unthreatening.

President Obama sees debates as a "jump-ball" - a moment when a team can grab control of a game from a difficult position.  His convention speech was disappointing and workmanlike so we hope that he does  indeed grab control of this debate. He is most certainly capable.

Mr Romney, on the other hand, is behind in most opinion polls - badly so in the vital swing states - and needs a win. But the debates serve another purpose. While they only occasionally change minds, they do leave voters much better informed. They explore how candidates would govern - provide a kind of manifesto, a promissory note for the next four years.

Plan on watching the debate if you can. It will provide the best and most honest comparison of the two men that you have had so far. Your future depends on one of them.

Debate: 9:00-10:30 Eastern Time...October the 3rd

James Meredith Still At War After Fifty Years

 

 

 



On October 1, 1962 James Meredith enrolled as the first African American student at the segregated University of Mississippi. White students and anti-desegregation supporters protested his enrollment by rioting on the Oxford campus. US Marshalls were brought in to protect the 28-year-old as he went to class.

President John F. Kennedy also sent members of the National Guard to restore order.
It is regarded as an iconic moment in the US civil rights history, but Mr Meredith has always felt uncomfortable being labeled as part of that movement.

In an interview with the British writer and director Sol B River, Mr Meredith explains why race remains the crucial issue in America and why he still feels 'at war against a system of white supremacy'.