tagged w/ Trigger
-
The reasons behind suicide are complex. Isolation, depression are known to influence suicide rates, but can living in mountains trigger suicidal thoughts?The reasons behind suicide are complex. Isolation, depression are known to influence... more
-
-
Alstom
-
added this
-
1 year ago
- |
-
The company is trying to shore up its balance sheet, but increased investment from the region could trigger reviews in Washington, given the oil company's U.S. subsidiary.
:http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-bp-investors-20100708,0,5530286.storyThe company is trying to shore up its balance sheet, but increased investment from the... more
-
-
An international research team, lead by French astrophysicists from the Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Toulouse-Tarbes, has detected a magnetic field at the surface of the supergiant star Betelgeuse. With about 15 times the solar mass, 1,000 solar radii and a luminosity 100,000 times higher than the Sun's, Betelgeuse is a star reaching the end of its life while burning the last remaining nuclear fuel at its disposal before exploding as a supernova. http://www.makeahistory.com/index.php/submit-an-article/407-betelgeuseAn international research team, lead by French astrophysicists from the Laboratoire... more
-
-
worrg
-
added this
-
1 year ago
- |
-
Ramping up the rhetoric of war in a volatile region can lead to a misstep and once the dogs of war are off their leash, it will be hard to bring them to heel
April 3, 2010 |
When Israeli Minister without Portfolio Yossi Peled said recently that a war with Lebanon's Hezbollah was "just a matter of time" and that such a conflict would include Syria, most observers dismissed the comment as little more than posturing by a right-wing former general. But Peled's threat has been backed by Israeli military maneuvers near the Lebanese border, violations of Lebanese airspace, and the deployment of an anti- missile system on Israel's northern border.
The Lebanese are certainly not treating it as Likud bombast.
"We hear a lot of Israeli threats day in and day out, and not only threats," Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri told the BBC. "We see what is happening on the ground and in our airspace.during the past two months-every day we have Israeli airplanes entering Lebanese airspace." Hariri added that he considered the situation "really dangerous."
The increasing tension was behind the recent visit to Beirut by Senator Philippe Marini, French President Nicholas Sarkozy's special envoy to Lebanon. After Marini met with Hariri, Christian Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea, and Hezbollah leaders, the envoy said that he feared a Hezbollah-Israel rematch could easily become a regional war.
Rhetoric all over the region is heating up.
Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman first said that Israel would never return the Golan Heights to Syria, prompting Syria's Foreign Minister Walid al- Muallem to comment that Israel "should not test Syria's determination." Lieberman responded by taking direct aim at Syrian President Bashar Assad: "In the next war, not only will you lose, but you and your family will lose the regime."
Israel attacked Lebanon in 2006 following a Hezbollah raid that captured two Israeli soldiers. The 34-day war cost Lebanon more than 1,000 dead, and tens of billions of dollars in damage to bridges, roads, airports, and towns. But the war also saw the once-invincible Israeli Self-Defense Forces (IDF) fought to a bloody standstill, and a barrage of some 4,000 Hezbollah rockets into Israel.
Many in the Israeli military would love to re-establish the IDF's reputation by beating up on Hezbollah, but the Shiite-based militia has broad support throughout Lebanon, as the last elections demonstrated. While the "pro-western" March 14 Movement won the most seats-largely as a result of ethnic gerrymandering-the Hezbollah bloc won the most votes. In any case, the March 14 Movement has begun to unravel with the defection of Druze leader Walid Jumblatt.
Lebanon's military is no match for Israel. It has a small army and its air force consists of two grounded 1950s vintage Hawker Hunter fighter-bombers, plus a motley collection of helicopters, most of which are not operational. In the 2007 fight with Islamic extremists in Tripoli, Lebanese Army soldiers pitched bombs out of French Gazelle helicopters by hand.
The Israelis are threatening to flatten the entire country if it comes to war-"taking off the gloves" as Israel military analyst Yisrael Katzover puts it-and they certainly have the capabilities to inflict a stunning amount of damage. But Hezbollah claims it has some thunder of its own. Hassan Nasrallah, the group's leader, vows to bring Tel Aviv's Ben-Gurion Airport under fire if Israel bombs Beirut's Rafik Hariri International Airport as it did in 2006. "If you hit our ports, we will hit your ports," Nasrallah said Feb. 21.
Does the war have the potential to become regional?
Only if Israel decides to make it so. While the Netanyahu government talks about Hezbollah being little more than a cat's paw for Iran and Syria, the group has deep roots in the country's long-repressed Shiite majority. It does receive arms from both Damascus and Iran, and Teheran also gives the group about $200 million a year in aid. That is, however, a tiny portion of Hezbollah's annual budget.
Lebanon's Shiites are also quite different than their Iranian counterparts. While Iran's mullahs dominate civil and economic matters, Lebanon's Shiites are suspicious of direct involvement in government, because they believe that it will ultimately corrupt Islam. A number of Iraq's Shiites, including Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, come from a similar current in the Shiite sect.
Hezbollah is quite aware of the damage that Israel can inflict, and, is consequently unlikely to do anything provocative. As Azmi Bishara, a Palestinian and former Israeli Knesset members writes in Al-Ahram, "Hezbollah has made it clear it intends to avoid giving Israel any excuse to go to war."
Israel has moved its new Iron Dome anti-missile system to its northern border, even though the original plan was to deploy it in the south to intercept rockets fired from Gaza. The system is supposed to be up and running by June. "Making Iron Dome operational will transform Israel's diplomatic and security situation," says Israeli Defense Ministry director general Pinhas Buchris.
Given that Hezbollah has not fired a rocket at Israel since the summer of 2006, why would Tel Aviv move Iron Dome to the northern border unless it was to assure the Israeli public that it will not come under fire in the advent of a new war? In any case, Iron Dome is unlikely to transform anything, since anti-missile systems tend to be more about hype and hope than performance.
There is, of course, the possibility that the Israelis will bet the house and hit Lebanon, Syria and possibly Iran's nuclear facilities. The rhetoric coming out of the Netanyahu government ties all three countries together, which is why Peled lumped Syria with Lebanon. The standard line coming out of Tel Aviv is that Iran is behind everything, including Hamas.
Many in the Israeli establishment openly advocate attacking Iran. Danny Yaton, former head of Israel's intelligence agency, Mossad, told the German Council on Foreign Relations "The entire world should take military action to prevent Iran from getting the bomb."
The Sunday Times (London) reports, "According to well-placed sources, Israel is speeding up preparations for a possible attack on Iran's nuclear sites." The Israeli daily Haaretz says that the Netanyahu government is asking the Obama administration to supply Israel with GBU-28 "bunker buster" bombs and refueling tanker aircraft, both which would be essential for a strike at Iran.
But some in the Israeli military establishment seems reluctant to launch such an attack. Brigadier-General Uzi Eilam, an Israel war hero and a man the Sunday Times calls a "pillar of the defense establishment," says that Iran is a "very, very, very long way from building a nuclear capacity." Eilam charges, "The intelligence community is spreading frightening voices about Iran," and that such an attack would be "counter productive."
Maybe this is all saber rattling aimed at getting the U.S. to step up the pressure on Iran, Syria and Lebanon. Maybe, as Eilam charges, it is all about the IDF getting "a bigger budget." Maybe it is a diversion from the charges that Israel committed war crimes in its invasion of Gaza, its settlement building on the West Bank, and the diplomatic storm it has reaped from its assassination of a Hamas official in Dubai.
But ramping up the rhetoric of war in a volatile region can lead to a misstep-by accident or design-and once the dogs of war are off their leash, it will be hard to bring them to heel.
Late development: The U.S. is transporting 387 bunker-busters, including BLU-110 and massive BLU-117 bombs, to the British controlled Island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, suggesting that Washington is still contemplating an attack on Iran-or wants Teheran to think so.Ramping up the rhetoric of war in a volatile region can lead to a misstep and once the... more
-
-
Expansion of Medicare looks good. But mandated insurance will result in people opting for lowest cost plans with least coverage, which will do nothing for the current medical debt problem that so many face when confronted with serious illness. 51% of foreclosures are due to medical debt.
Rockefeller introduced a 90% rule that requires insurers to spend at least 90% of premiums on healthcare and not on administrative costs or profits. But there's nothing to stop them from raising premiums to make up the difference.
People from 27-55 are still out of luck in terms of high quality, affordable insurance. In the base bill, the basic, lowest level qualified program in the exchange has a very low actuarial level, 60%, which is worse than 99% of employer-based plans. What that basically means is that patients will have to pay, between premiums and out of pocket costs, 40% on average of their supposedly covered costs. Lots of people, mandated to buy insurance, are going to be choosing this lowest level program because it will be the least expensive. There will be some basic preventive care included in the package, but in the event of a serious illness or injury, the people in this plan will still face huge bills. The House bill sets that lowest level at 70%.
Medicaid eligibility expansion has been dropped, apparently confirming what Rockefeller said yesterday. He had been attempting to raise the eligibility to 150% of poverty, but it remains at the level in the base bill, 133%. The House bill sets Medicaid eligibility at 150% of poverty. http://bit.ly/8T1Z3a
Then there's the Ten Questions from Jon Cohn at The New Republic:
1. Would funds from the younger people on Medicare mix with the funds from the traditional, over-65 population?
2. Which older workers get to buy Medicare--and when?
3. Would the Medicare buy-in have some sort of risk adjustment?
4. Will there be subsidies or some other form of financial assistance before 2014?
5. Would the Medicare buy-in include supplemental benefits--or an option to buy them?
6. Would the Medicare buy-in pay Medicare rates?
7. Has somebody thought through the expansion and retooling of the Office of Personnel Management?
8. If there is a trigger mechanism, what conditions pull it?
9. If there is a trigger mechanism, what kind of plan appears if the trigger gets pulled?
10. How do you enforce the 90 percent rule?Expansion of Medicare looks good. But mandated insurance will result in people opting... more
-
-
Senate Democrats reached a tentative deal on the public option Tuesday night. In exchange for dropping the contentious provision, medicare will be expanded for those of age 55+ (may start in 2011), a national insurance plan would be administered by the same federal agency that oversees the respected Federal Employees Health Benefits Program(the insurance options within that plan would be offered by private, nonprofit entities) and finally, a national public option would kick in if insurance companies did not meet certain coverage standards (aka a trigger).
In addition, there was movement towards placing tighter regulations on the insurance industry. A proposal from Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.V.) would require insurers to spend at least 90 percent of premium money on medical care, rather than on administrative costs or profits. Lastly, the agreement also includes a proposal from Rockefeller to reauthorize the Children’s Health Insurance Program, which was set to expire in Oct. 1, 2013.
The plan has been sent to the all mighty, non-partisan, Congressional Budget Office which crunches #s and predicts a legislation's effect.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1209/30371.htmlSenate Democrats reached a tentative deal on the public option Tuesday night. In... more
-
-
FRIDAY, Nov. 6 (HealthDay News) -- Do you remember the first time you smelled a type of flower? You almost certainly don't, but new research suggests that your brain might.
In the study, published online Nov. 5 in the journal Current Biology, researchers
showed objects to adult study participants. They paired the objects with pleasant or unpleasant odors and sounds.
"We found that the first pairing or association between an object and a smell had a distinct signature in the brain," Yaara Yeshurun, of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, co-author of the study, said in a news release from the journal's publisher. "This 'etching' of initial odor memories in the brain was equal for good and bad smells, yet was unique to odor."
At the same time, the researchers scanned the brains of the participants using functional MRI technology.
A week later, the researchers showed the same objects to the study participants and scanned their brains to see if there was a link to the sounds and smells.
The study participants were more likely to remember an association if the link was unpleasant. But there was more: A part of the brain connected to the sense of smell activated when they linked a smell to an object.
The researchers think there's something unique about the first time we smell something.
"We expected a unique representation of initial or 'first' olfactory associations, but did not expect that it would materialize even in cases where the behavioral evidence did not indicate a stronger memory," Yeshurun said. "In our paradigm, initial and later olfactory associations were remembered equally well, but only first associations had the unique brain representation."
The research could eventually help scientists
boost memories, Yeshurun said. "Perhaps more importantly, it may help us generate methods to better forget early and powerful memories, such as trauma."
http://health.usnews.com/articles/health/healthday/2009/11/06/new-smells-etched-in-brain-study.htmlFRIDAY, Nov. 6 (HealthDay News) -- Do you remember the first time you smelled a type... more
-
-
President Barack Obama is actively discouraging Senate Democrats in their effort to include a public insurance option with a state opt-out clause as part of health care reform. In its place, say multiple Democratic sources, Obama has indicated a preference for an alternative policy, favored by the insurance industry, which would see a public plan "triggered" into effect in the future by a failure of the industry to meet certain benchmarks.
The administration retreat runs counter to the letter and the spirit of Obama's presidential campaign. The man who ran on the "Audacity of Hope" has now taken a more conservative stand than Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), leaving progressives with a mix of confusion and outrage. Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill have battled conservatives in their own party in an effort to get the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster. Now tantalizingly close, they are calling for Obama to step up.
"The leadership understands that this is a somewhat risky strategy, but we may be within striking distance. A signal from the president could be enough to put us over the top," said one Senate Democratic leadership aide. Such pleading is exceedingly rare on Capitol Hill and comes only after Senate leaders exhausted every effort to encourage Obama to engage.
(Continued at Link)President Barack Obama is actively discouraging Senate Democrats in their effort to... more
-
-
Chique
-
added this
-
2 years ago
- |
