• Pinboard Links

    Flap’s Blog.com Links and Comments for November 4th

    These are my links for November 4th.

    • Stroke Damage to Insular Cortex Boosts Smoking Cessation– Smokers who suffer a stroke that causes a lesion at the insular cortex are more than 5 times more likely to stop their nicotine habit than those whose stroke did not result in such a lesion, according to a new study.In addition, the researchers found that preparedness to change also influenced successful smoking cessation poststroke.

      The study results were not surprising, given that research has already shown that biological and psychological factors help explain smoking cessation in patients with stroke, said the study’s lead author, Rosa Su?er Soler, PhD, from the Neurology Department, Josep Trueta Hospital, Girona, Spain.

      Biologically, the insular cortex may play an important role in emotional decision-making, and in terms of psychology, smoking behavior may be explained by stages, processes, and levels of change, Dr. Su?er told Medscape Medical News. “Before you stop smoking, you must be aware that you have a problem and take the decision to stop smoking.”

      The study was published online November 3 in Stroke.

    • Vaccination Exemptions Rise in California Amid Concerns– Increasing rates of unvaccinated young children with “personal belief exemptions” from vaccination requirements are becoming worrisome, according to research presented here at the American Public Health Association (APHA) 139th Annual Meeting.Recent concern about vaccine safety appears to be gaining strength, and state regulations requiring parents to vaccinate their children before they can attend public schools vary. In California, obtaining a personal belief exemption could not be easier — parents are only required to sign their name to a 2-sentence standard exemption statement on the back of the vaccination requirement form.

      In evaluating data on the rates of exemptions from the California Department of Public Health, the state’s Department of Education and the US Census, researchers found that in 2010, the state had about 11,500 kindergartners with personal belief exemptions, representing a 25% increase over the previous 2 years.

      The increasing rate indicates that, for kindergartners who have adhered to vaccination schedules, exposure to children with personal belief exemptions is about 2.3 per 100 children.

      Because children with the exemptions tend to be found in clusters, the rate of children with exemptions who are exposed to other children who also have exemptions — a higher-risk combination — was 15.6 per 100 in 2010, said lead author Alison Buttenheim, PhD, MBA, from the University of Pennsylvania’s Robert Wood Johnson Health & Society Scholars Program in Philadelphia.

      “The average kindergartner with a personal belief exemption attends a school where the exemption rate is 15 per 100, and we see that figure increasing all the time,” she reported.

      Previous data from the fall of 2008 showed that 10% of the nearly half-million kindergartners in California attended schools where personal belief exemption rates exceeded 5%, and as many as 61% of kindergartners with 1 or more personal belief exemptions (n = 9196) attended schools where the personal exemption rate exceeded 5%. Among those, a third attended schools where the personal belief exemption rate exceeded 20%.

      In a separate study conducted by the same team, the researchers investigated the concerns that parents have about vaccines by evaluating data on the specific vaccines received by 168 patients at a pediatric practice in Philadelphia where the practitioner, though pro-vaccine, is known to accommodate parents who seek alternative vaccination options.

    • Sales Taxes and the Internet– Online commerce is a big, big business, accounting for nearly one-tenth of retail sales in the United States. It is a lively and growing sector, a bright spot in our troubled economy — thus the gloomy shadow of the taxman inevitably falls upon it, in the form of a bill proposed by Republican senators Mike Enzi of Wyoming and Lamar Alexander of Tennessee. A similar bill was proposed by Democratic senator Dick Durbin of Illinois earlier in the year, and a separate effort is afoot to have the so-called supercommittee institute new Internet-tax measures as part of its deficit-reduction plan.But it’s not all about big business: The Enzi-Alexander bill would affect entrepreneurs with as little as $500,000 a year in sales.

      Contrary to most accounts, there is no sales-tax loophole for online retailers. Customers who buy goods online are in most cases required to pay a “use tax” equivalent to the sales tax they would have paid in a conventional transaction. The problem, from the tax-consumers’ point of view, is that most taxpayers do not comply with the law. The state and local governments that depend upon sales-tax revenue protest that they are strapped for cash. That isn’t entirely true, either: Those jurisdictions are spending more money than ever, most of it on salaries and benefits for the legion of bureaucrats and commissars they maintain.

      But in spite of their swollen payrolls and work forces, state and local governments apparently cannot be bothered to hire tax agents in sufficient numbers, thus the now universal practice of their requiring businesses to do their sales-tax collecting for them. The Internet-tax measures under consideration would not expand governments’ power to tax, but its power to conscript businesses into acting as tax collectors.

      The original sin here is government’s delegating its tax-collecting duties to private businesses. If government wishes to levy a tax, let it do the work of collecting it. It is true that this would prove burdensome to cities and states. It is also burdensome to the conscripted businesses. The difference is that collecting taxes is government’s duty, not Amazon’s.

    • Stu’s Dangerous Dozen: Unsafe House Incumbents – Dan Lungren (R-Calif.). Another election means another problem for Lungren, who somehow wins despite his reluctance to raise money. He will be running in a 46 percent McCain district this time, compared with the 48 percent McCain district he ran in last time, but he also will draw the same opponent, Ami Bera. Bera, a doctor who raises money nationally from Indian-Americans, ran a competitive race in a terrible year for a Democrat, so he hopes the better environment will help him close the 7-point gap he had in 2010.
    • GOP Candidate Beats Obama in Swing States on Jobs, Deficit – Voters in 12 key swing states are substantially more likely to feel that a generic “Republican candidate” for president would do a better job than President Obama of handling the federal deficit and debt, and are slightly more likely to prefer the Republican on the issue of unemployment. Swing-state voters are split on the question of whether Obama or the Republican candidate would do a better job of handing healthcare as well as terrorism and international threats.
    • Colgate recalls mouthwash over contamination fears– Colgate-Palmolive is removing up to 50,000 bottles of Periogard mouthwash from store shelves in the U.K. due to possible bacterial contamination.The micro-organisms may be harmful to some people with weakened immune systems or some lung conditions, according to the company.

      Up to 11 other countries, including some where the product has a different brand name, are also involved in the recall of 300-mL containers containing chlorhexidine.

      “The presence of micro-organisms has been detected in some retained production samples of Periogard,” Colgate-Palmolive said in a statement. “Under certain circumstances, these micro-organisms may be harmful to individuals with compromised health. Accordingly, in order to ensure the safety of our consumers, in cooperation with the Medicine and Health Regulatory Authority, Colgate-Palmolive UK is recalling all Periogard.”

    • ADA updates guidelines for managing ONJ risk patients– A patient receiving antiresorptive therapy for the prevention and treatment of osteoporosis has a low risk of developing osteonecrosis of the jaw (ONJ), and benefits of the medication outweigh the risk of ONJ, according to an advisory statement from the ADA.The statement, “Managing the Care of Patients Receiving Antiresorptive Therapy for Prevention and Treatment of Osteoporosis,” is based on a literature review by an advisory committee of the ADA Council on Scientific Affairs and updates ADA’s 2008 advisory statement (Journal of the American Dental Association, November 2011, Vol. 142:11, pp. 1243-1251).

      ONJ associated with antiresorptive agents has mostly been referred to as bisphosphonate-associated ONJ, but nonbisphosphonate antiresorptive agents are now available that also could be associated with ONJ, the panel noted. That is why they refer to the condition as antiresorptive agent-induced ONJ (ARONJ).

      A relatively new condition, bisphosphonate-associated ONJ, has received tremendous media attention because of a flurry of lawsuits against the makers of Fosamax and Zometa alleging that the medications led to ONJ.

      These lawsuits have been a factor in raising patients’ and dentists’ awareness of the condition, according to Helen Ristic, PhD, director of scientific information for the ADA’s Division of Science and one of the panelists who contributed to the report.

    • Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Targets California GOP Representatives With Ad Campaign » Flap’s California Blog – Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Targets California GOP Representatives With Ad Campaign
    • Flap’s Dentistry Blog: Do Those Wisdom Teeth REALLY Need to Come Out? – Do Those Wisdom Teeth REALLY Need to Come Out?
    • The Afternoon Flap: November 4, 2011 | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – The Afternoon Flap: November 4, 2011 #tcot #catcot
    • Cain accuser stands by sexual harassment complaint – CNN.com – Cain accuser stands by sexual harassment complaint
  • Pinboard Links,  The Afternoon Flap

    The Afternoon Flap: November 4, 2011

    These are my links for November 4th PM.

    • Cain accuser stands by sexual harassment complaint– One of the women who accused Republican presidential contender Herman Cain of sexual harassment released a statement through her lawyer Friday stating that she “stands by” her complaint, which was made “in good faith about a series of inappropriate behaviors and unwanted advances.”There was “more than one incident” of harassment involving Cain and his client over the span of a couple of months in 1999, attorney Joel Bennett said.

      Bennett said his client, married for 26 years, will not reveal her identity because “she and her husband see no value in revisiting this matter now nor in discussing the matter any further publicly or privately.”

      “In fact,” he added, “it would be extremely painful for her to do so.”

      Bennett released the statement after reaching an agreement to do so with the National Restaurant Association, the organization headed by Cain during the time of the alleged harassment. The group had reached an agreement with the alleged victim that included a series of confidentiality and non-disparagement provisions.

      Dawn Sweeney, the current head of the association, issued a statement confirming that in July 1999, Bennett’s client “filed a formal internal complaint, in accordance with the association’s existing policies prohibiting discrimination and harassment.”

      Cain, she noted, “disputed the allegations in the complaint.”

      The controversy has dominated Cain’s front-running campaign for the past week. A defiant Cain insists he did nothing wrong, and will not let the issue deter him.

      For its part, Cain’s campaign said earlier Friday it is considering filing a lawsuit against Politico, the news organization which broke the harassment story last Sunday.

    • Laura Richardson to be proved by House Ethics Committee– The House Ethics Committee has approved a full-scale investigation into allegations against Rep. Laura Richardson, rejecting the California Democrat’s efforts to head off the probe.The decision is a serious blow to Richardson’s already troubled reelection chances in 2012. And it also likely to reignite the debate in some circles whether African-American lawmakers are targeted for ethical or criminal probes at a higher rate than their white counterparts. Richardson raised the race issue in a statement Friday, saying she would explore whether the Ethics Committee “has engaged in discriminatory conduct.”
    • State of the blogosphere 2011: Using social networks for self-promotion – For its annual look at the blogging world, Technorati surveyed 4,114 bloggers in 45 countries. This year, the focus was on why and how they blog, their connections with brands and how they use social media.
      Meet the bloggersThose surveyed are mostly hobbyists (61 percent) who don’t post daily. In fact, only 11 percent of surveyed bloggers were posting on a daily basis. Thirteen percent of bloggers are doing it for extra income on the side, and only 5 percent are bonafide professional full-timers bloggers. Of the pros, 37 percent say it makes up the majority of their income. The remainder of the bloggers are doing it to promote a brand or company — 13 percent are entrepreneurs and 8 percent are corporate.

      For the most part, the bloggers are educated, married parents between 25 and 44 years old. Though still mostly male (59 percent), there was a gender shift from last year when 64 percent were men.

      Eighty percent have been blogging for over two years, and half for over four years. Bloggers are juggling an average of three different blogs, up from two last year. It’s interesting that bloggers are maintaining or increasing the amount of time they put into their blogs after launching, instead of losing interest or moving onto the next new thing.

    • Another poll shows Gingrich on the rise– If you need more evidence that Newt Gingrich’s bid for the GOP presidential nomination is on the rise, check out a new poll by ABC News and the Washington Post.According to the survey, out Friday morning, 12% of Republicans and independents who lean toward the GOP say they support the former House Speaker for their party’s presidential nomination. That’s up five points from one month ago. Gingrich is in fourth place in the new poll, one percentage point behind Texas Gov. Rick Perry.

      Gingrich was in third place at 10% support in a Quinnipiac University national poll released Wednesday, up seven points from late August. He stands at 12% in a recent Fox News Poll and at 10% in a recent CBS/New York Times survey.

      And it’s not just national polling. In Iowa, the first state to vote in the primary and caucus calendar, Gingrich is in fourth place, at 10%, according to a recent CNN/Time/ORC International Poll of registered Republicans.

      Gingrich’s campaign was left for dead by many in late spring, after a number of top advisers and staffers quit and the campaign faced financial difficulties.

      But the former House Speaker has performed well in eight presidential debates held this year, acting as the elder statesman while many of his rivals for the nomination attacked each other. And his fundraising appears to be picking up. Gingrich says he raised more money in October than the $800,000 he brought in during the previous three months.

    • House to launch ethics investigation of Rep. Laura Richardson– The House Ethics Committee voted Thursday to launch an investigation into whether Rep. Laura Richardson pressured her congressional staff to work on her campaign, adding to her political troubles as she faces a tough reelection campaign next year.The investigation is expected to be announced Friday. The panel, equally divided between Democrats and Republicans, largely operates in secret. Members voted unanimously to form a four-member investigative subcommittee — with power to subpoena witnesses and documents — to examine whether the Long Beach Democrat violated House standards of conduct. The investigation is likely to take months.

      A source familiar with the preliminary inquiry discussed it on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. At least eight current and former Richardson staff members told investigators they felt compelled to work on her 2010 reelection campaign on their own time, the source said. Some said House resources, such as congressional phones and copying machines, were used in the campaign, the source said.

  • Day By Day,  Occupy Wall Street,  Rudy Giuliani

    Day By Day November 4, 2011 – Think

    Day By Day by Chris Muir

    The press won’t report what is going on with the Occupy Wall street protesters, because many of them believe in their struggle – just like President Obama.

    But, the President is coming up for re-election next year and many think #OWS will be a millstone around his neck.

    “I believe that Barack Obama owns the Occupy Wall Street movement,” Rudy Giuliani said at the Defending the American Dream Summit. “It would not have happened, it would not have happened but for his class warfare. And remember, as it gets worse and worse because it’s going to get worse and worse, where it came from. Barack Obama. He praised it. He supported it. He agrees with it. He sympathizes with it. And as it gets worse and worse, I believe this will be the millstone around Barack Obama’s neck that will take his presidency down.”

    “How about you occupy a job. How about working? Working. I know that’s tough,” Giuliani also said.

  • Pinboard Links,  The Morning Flap

    The Morning Flap: November 4, 2011

     

    These are my links for November 3rd through November 4th:

    • New Herman Cain SuperPAC ad: ‘A high-tech lynching’– A slick, dramatic new web ad in support of Herman Cain hammers on the comparison between the allegations against him and the confirmation hearings of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.The spot, from the super PAC Americans for Herman Cain, uses footage of Thomas at his confirmation hearing responding to sexual harassment allegations: “It is a high-tech lynching for uppity blacks who in any way deign to think for themselves. It is a message that unless you kowtow to an old order you will be lynched, destroyed, caricatured rather than hung from a tree.”The ad also quotes various black liberals (Al Sharpton, Cornel West) criticizing Cain. At the end the words, “Don’t let liberals do it again” appear on the screen.
    • Gallup Poll: Obama, Romney Tied Nationally and in Swing States – Registered voters nationally and in 12 key swing states are evenly divided in their preferences for president in the 2012 election between President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney. Romney is at least somewhat more competitive versus Obama than either Rick Perry or Herman Cain, in polling conducted before the recent allegations of sexual harassment against Cain surfaced.
    • U.S. Payrolls Rose in October; Jobless Rate 9%– U.S. employment climbed in October at the slowest pace in four months, illustrating the “frustratingly slow” progress cited by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke this week.The 80,000 increase in payrolls was less than forecast and followed gains in the prior two months that were revised up by 102,000, Labor Department figures showed today in Washington. The unemployment rate fell to a six-month low of 9 percent from 9.1 percent even as the labor force expanded.The crisis in Europe and looming deadline on U.S. budget talks may be prompting companies to hold back on concern failure to reach resolutions will put the global recovery at risk. Fed policy makers project the jobless rate won’t drop under 8 percent until 2013 at the earliest, one reason why Bernanke this week said additional stimulus “remains on the table.”“We’re making progress at a very slow pace,” said John Silvia, chief economist at Wells Fargo Securities LLC in Charlotte, North Carolina, who projected an 85,000 gain in payrolls. “It indicates continued consumer spending, getting a little better over time. The labor market is consistent with moderate economic growth.”

      The median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey was for a gain of 95,000. Payroll estimates of 91 economists ranged from increases of 50,000 to 150,000.

    • Cain rises in Post-ABC poll despite scandal; most Republicans dismiss allegations– Businessman Herman Cain and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney are running nearly even atop the field of 2012 GOP presidential hopefuls, a new Washington Post-ABC News poll shows, with most Republicans dismissing the harassment allegations that over the past week have roiled Cain’s campaign.Seven in 10 Republicans say reports that Cain made unwanted advances toward two employees when he was head of the National Restaurant Association in the 1990s — allegations which have been stiffly rebutted by Cain’s campaign — do not matter when it comes to picking a candidate.But the potential threat to his burgeoning campaign is evident as well, with Cain slipping to third place among those who see the charges as serious, and Republican women significantly more likely than men to say the scandal makes them less apt to support Cain.The poll was conducted Oct. 31 through Nov. 3, starting the evening after Politico first reported the harassment allegations. Support for Cain was basically steady over the four nights of interviewing, even as new charges against him surfaced.

      Nearly a quarter of all Republicans and GOP-leaning independents now back Cain as the party’s nominee, his best showing in Post-ABC polls this year, and up significantly from early October. At 23 percent nationally, Cain is neck-and-neck with Romney (24 percent) atop the GOP field.

    • 91% of Recruiters Use Social Networks to Screen Candidates!– Just how important is your social footprint now if you are looking for a job, well, 91% of recruiters use social networks to screen candidates now.In a recent study by the social media monitoring server Reppler, results showed more than 90% of recruiters and hiring managers have visited a potential candidate’s profile on a social network as part of the screening process. And a whopping 69% of recruiters have rejected a candidate based on content found on his or her social networking profiles — an almost equal proportion of recruiters 68%, though, have hired a candidate based on his or her presence on those networks.
    • @Flap Twitter Updates for 2011-11-04 | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – @Flap Twitter Updates for 2011-11-04 #tcot #catcot
    • Dilbert November 3, 2011 – Ugly » Flap’s California Blog – Dilbert November 3, 2011 – Ugly
    • President 2012 Poll Watch: Obama Faces an Uphill Path to Re-Election in Key Battleground States | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – President 2012 Poll Watch: Obama Faces an Uphill Path to Re-Election in Key Battleground States #tcot #catcot
    • PJ Media » BREAKING: PJM Sources Report Details of Alleged Cain Incident – BREAKING: PJM Sources Report Details of Alleged Cain Incident
    • Celebrity Gossip | Entertainment News | Celebrity News | TMZ.com – Pete Rose Sued By Dentist — He Charlie Hustled Me!! |
    • SB 202 California Initiative Law Referendum Effort Sputters » Flap’s California Blog – SB 202 California Initiative Law Referendum Effort Sputters
    • 12 charged with bilking Medicare of $95 million – CNN.com – 12 charged with bilking Medicare of $95 million: “Federal authorities have charged 12 people in connection with …
    • Thousands of lives could be saved if rest of UK adopted average diet in England, study concludes – Thousands of lives could be saved if rest of UK adopted average diet in England, study concludes: “Around 4,000 …
    • Pete Rose Sued By Dentist — He Charlie Hustled Me!! | TMZ.com – Pete Rose Sued By Dentist — He Charlie Hustled Me!!: “Baseball won’t have him back … and now, Pete Rose’s den…
    • Flap’s Smiles and Health Headlines: November 3, 2011 | Smiles For A Lifetime – Temporary (Locum Tenens) Dentistry – Flap’s Smiles and Health Headlines: November 3, 2011
    • The Afternoon Flap: November 3, 2011 | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – The Afternoon Flap: November 3, 2011 #tcot #catcot
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    @Flap Twitter Updates for 2011-11-04

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