BTG's varicose-vein drug successful in U.S. study (Reuters)

LONDON (Reuters) ? British pharmaceutical firm BTG said the first of two U.S. trials of its varicose vein treatment Varisolve had met all its end-points, bringing a launch of the long-delayed product a step closer.

Varisolve is a ground-breaking treatment that uses an injectable foam to dissolve the veins as an alternative to stripping.

Its development, however, received a major setback in 2003 when regulators in the United States halted a trial of the drug over concerns about side effects of the foam and its active agent Polidocanol.

BTG's Chief Executive Louise Makin said on Monday that she was "delighted" with the outcome of the first trial.

She said the results of a second study would follow, and the group was on track to submit an application to U.S. regulators by the end of the year.

BTG, which also sells niche anti-poison treatments, decided in 2010 to market Varisolve itself in the United States rather than sharing development costs with a partner.

Shares in BTG, which have risen 15 percent in the last three months, closed at 323.7 pence on Friday, valuing the firm at 1.06 billion pounds ($1.66 billion).

($1 = 0.6383 British pounds)

(Reporting by Paul Sandle; Editing by Sarah Young)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/health/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120130/hl_nm/us_btg

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Dentist who used paper clips gets year in jail

(AP) ? A former Massachusetts dentist was sentenced to one year in jail Monday for using paper clips instead of stainless steel posts in root canals.

Dr. Michael Clair pleaded guilty earlier this month to a list of charges, including assault and battery, defrauding Medicaid of $130,000, illegally prescribing medications and witness intimidation.

Prosecutors said Clair sometimes used sections of paper clips when performing root canals in an effort to save money. Some of his patients reported infections and other problems.

Brenda Almeida said her teenage son's tooth turned black and had to be removed after Clair performed a root canal on him in 2005. She said Clair also performed shoddy dental work on her other two children.

Almeida, who watched Clair get sentenced in Fall River Superior Court Monday, said she was angry about what she considers to be a light sentence.

"He put my kids in pain for months ... I hope he rots there," she said after Judge Richard Moses sentenced Clair to a year in the Bristol County House of Correction.

Prosecutors, who asked for a sentence of five to seven years, declined to comment immediately after the sentence was imposed.

Clair, who had a dental practice in Fall River, now lives in Crofton, Md.

The judge said he considered Clair's acceptance of responsibility, lack of a criminal record and "certain mental health issues" Clair is dealing with in deciding on the one-year sentence. He did not give any specifics on the mental health issues.

Clair's lawyer, John Dingee, declined to comment.

Moses granted a request from prosecutors to order Clair to stay away from his victims and seven people who worked in his office. Assistant Attorney General Toby Unger said Clair's former staff members "have expressed concern for their safety," but did not elaborate.

Moses sentenced Clair to 2? years, with all but one year suspended, followed by five years of probation.

Clair did not speak during the sentencing, except to thank the judge.

"Thank you, your honor, for your consideration," he said.

Clair's license to practice dentistry was suspended in Massachusetts in 2006. A spokesman for Attorney General Martha Coakley said Clair is no longer licensed to practice dentistry in any state.

Prosecutors said Clair was suspended by Medicaid in 2002, but continued to file claims from August 2003 to June 2005 by using the names of other dentists in his practice.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/apdefault/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-01-30-Paper%20Clips-Dentist/id-deaa8bd3dd2b4f11bd5fbb22e71e6f9d

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Something's fishy in urban backyards

The aquarium in the living room of Meir and Leah Lazar's home isn't just for decoration. The tilapia and bluegills packed into the 50-gallon glass tank are waiting their turn to wind up on dinner plates.

Out back, Meir Lazar is putting the finishing touches on a bigger new home for the fish inside a plastic-covered greenhouse. There, he hopes, the waste from the fish he's tending will help him raise enough lettuce, tomatoes and other produce to feed his family of five year-round.

Sustainability is more than a buzzword for Lazar, 32, a computer systems administrator and teacher who's pursuing aquaponics in his small suburban backyard off Greenspring Avenue. He said he's inspired in part by news reports about food tainted by pesticides, bacteria and even radiation from the Japanese nuclear disaster last year.

"I think it's incumbent on every person to start growing their own food so they can take back some of the control over their health, over what's in their food," he said. "Plus, you have a deeper appreciation of what you've grown and what you're about to eat."

Aquaponics has been around at least since the early 1970s, when the New Alchemy Institute in Massachusetts started promoting backyard fish farming and organic gardening inside greenhouses it dubbed "bioshelters."

It has gained new attention in recent years, not just from advocates of sustainable agriculture but from those who believe aquaponics can help fill needs in poor urban communities for healthier food and jobs.

One of the aquaponics ventures taking shape in Baltimore is at the Cylburn Aboretum. Sponsored by the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future, it would raise tilapia and produce for sale in the city's "food deserts," where fresh locally grown produce isn't readily available at corner markets and convenience stores.

With a budget of about $10,000 and the help of interns, friends and volunteers, microbiologist Dave Love has assembled his fish and produce farm. Four blue 250-gallon plastic tanks will be used to raise tilapia, which are hardy and fast-growing. The fish excrement and nutrient-fouled water are to be piped from the bottom of the tanks into a couple of other tanks where the ammonia in the wastewater is converted by bacterial action into a form of nitrogen that can feed plants.

The enriched water is then to be piped through two large shallow troughs in which Love plans to raise leafy greens and other vegetables. Thus cleaned up, the water is then pumped back to the fish tanks.

"It's sort of like the next step into urban agriculture," Love said.

Love said he hoped to put fish in the tanks by spring and to open the operation to researchers, visiting school groups and others. Before the year is out, if all goes well, the operation will be producing 120 pounds of tilapia for consumption every six weeks.

Lazar said if he can feed his family this way, anyone can. He started out with a hydroponics garden a few years back, he recalled, then tried his hand a couple of years ago with an indoor aquaponics operation ? in their basement bedroom ? after a friend turned him on to it.

Lazar decided last year to scale up, and he moved his aquaponics operation to the backyard in the spring, raising his fish at first in an in-ground pond. He said his neighbors weren't wild at first about how he was transforming his backyard, so he has worked to win them over with homemade jam.

Once cold weather hit, Lazar said, he realized he needed to enclose his entire operation. Tilapia are tropical fish and will start dying if water temperatures dip to 50 degrees Fahrenheit. His turned belly-up one frigid day, though many revived once rescued and moved indoors.

Before he can put the tilapia back, though, Lazar has to complete construction of a "rocket mass heater," a special type of wood-burning brick fireplace, to warm the water. Once everything's finished and fine-tuned, Lazar said, he hopes to harvest 100 full-size tilapia a year from his operation, and plenty of greens.

"It doesn't look like much, but it works," he said. "I want to show that anybody can do it."

tim.wheeler@baltsun.com

Source: http://feeds.latimes.com/~r/latimes/news/science/~3/NdW0Lk6dpnI/la-na-fish-farming-20120129,0,78187.story

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BP emails reveal company veiling spill rate (AP)

NEW ORLEANS ? On the day the Deepwater Horizon sank in the Gulf of Mexico, BP officials warned in an internal email conversation that if the well was not protected by the blow-out preventer at the drill site, crude oil could burst into the Gulf of Mexico at a rate of 3.4 million gallons a day, an amount a million gallons higher than what the U.S. government ultimately estimated spilled daily from the site.

The memo, which BP agreed to release Friday as part of federal court proceedings, suggests BP managers recognized the potential of the disaster in its early hours, and the company officials sought to make sure that the model-developed information wasn't shared with those outside the company. The emails also suggest BP was having heated discussions with Coast Guard officials over the potential of the oil spill.

The memo was released as part of the court proceedings to determine the division of responsibility for the nation's worst offshore oil disaster, which began when the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon exploded April 20, 2010, killing 11 men about 50 miles southeast of the Louisiana coast. The first phase of the trial is set to start Feb. 27.

BP officials declined to comment on the emails late Friday.

The official amount of oil that flowed from the well was pegged at 206 million gallons from at least April 22 until the well was capped on July 15, a period of 85 days. That's a daily flow rate of about 2.4 million gallons ? two-thirds of the way to BP's projection of what could leak from the well if it was an "open hole." BP has disputed the government's estimates.

Having an accurate flow rate estimate is needed to determine how much in civil and criminal penalties BP and the other companies drilling the well face under the Clean Water Act.

In the memo, one BP official urges not to share the flow-rate projections and refers to the "difficult discussions" BP was having at the time with the Coast Guard.

Gary Imm, a BP manager, told Rob Marshall, BP's subsea manager in the Gulf, to tell the modeler doing the estimates "not to communicate to anyone on this."

"A number of people have been looking at this we already have had difficult discussions with the USCG on the numbers," Imm said in the email string, referring to the Coast Guard and flow estimates.

On April 23, the Coast Guard, relying on BP's remotely operated vehicles, reported that no oil was leaking from the well a mile under the sea. A day later, Coast Guard Rear Adm. Mary Landry announced that oil was leaking an estimated rate of 42,000 gallons a day. The Coast Guard and BP did not divulge how they determined that figure.

In the second week after the spill, the official flow rate was increased to 210,000 gallons a day. The government continued to use that number until May 27.

On May 24, BP informed Congress that they had used an "undisclosed method to generate much higher figures" than official estimates, according to a report from a presidential commission investigating the spill. BP estimated that the flow rates were between 210,000 gallons and 1.6 million gallons a day, the January 2011 report said.

As the spill grew into weeks and months, and soiled fishing grounds, beaches and coastal marshes, independent scientists began to question official flow rates. Eventually, the federal government convened teams of government and independent scientists to determine how much oil leaked out of the well and came up with an official estimate of about 2.4 million gallons of oil a day on average.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/environment/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120128/ap_on_re_us/us_gulf_oil_spill_flow_rate

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Thailand elephants now poached for their meat

A new taste for eating elephant meat ? everything from trunks to sex organs ? has emerged in Thailand and could pose a new threat to the survival of the species.

Wildlife officials told The Associated Press that they were alerted to the practice after finding two elephants slaughtered last month in a national park in western Thailand.

"The poachers took away the elephants' sex organs and trunks ... for human consumption," Damrong Phidet, director-general of Thailand's wildlife agency, said in a telephone interview. Some meat was to be consumed without cooking, like "elephant sashimi," he said.

Poachers typically just remove tusks, which are most commonly found on Asian male elephants and fetch thousands of dollars on the black market. A market for elephant meat, however, could lead to killing of the wider elephant population, Damrong said.

"If you keep hunting elephants for this, then they'll become extinct," he said.

Consuming elephant meat is not common in Thailand, but some Asian cultures believe consuming animals' reproductive organs can boost sexual prowess.

Damrong said the elephant meat was ordered by restaurants in Phuket, a popular travel destination in the country's south. It wasn't clear if the diners were foreigners.

The accusation drew a quick rebuttal from Phuket Governor Tri Akradecha, who told Thai media that he had never heard of such restaurants but ordered officials to look into the matter.

Poachers seek 'big money'
Poaching elephants is banned, and trafficking or possessing poached animal parts also is illegal. Elephant tusks are sought in the illegal ivory trade, and baby wild elephants are sometimes poached to be trained for talent shows.

"The situation has come to a crisis point. The longer we allow these cruel acts to happen, the sooner they will become extinct," Damrong said.

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The quest for ivory remains the top reason poachers kill elephants in Thailand, other environmentalists say.

Soraida Salwala, the founder of Friends of the Asian Elephant foundation, said a full grown pair of tusks could be sold from 1 million to 2 million baht ($31,600 to $63,300), while the estimated value of an elephant's penis is more than 30,000 baht ($950).

"There's only a handful of people who like to eat elephant meat, but once there's demand, poachers will find it hard to resist the big money," she cautioned.

Thailand has fewer than 3,000 wild elephants and about 4,000 domesticated elephants, according to the National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department.

The pachyderms were a mainstay of the logging industry in the northern and western parts of the country until logging contracts were revoked in the late 1980s.

Domesticated animals today are used mainly for heavy lifting and entertainment.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46159448/ns/us_news-environment/

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Calming for Pets by PetNaturals - calmingforpets.com

The first 500 people to sign up at http://www.calmingforpets.com will receive a free trial size of PetNaturals Calming treats, and everyone gets a coupon. This looks like a really cool product- the ingredients are all natural and it helps your pet relax without making them feel groggy.

I'm not sure when this first launched, so you should probably sign up soon! I can't wait to try it with my dog. Just click on the dog or the cat on the main page to sign up.

Source: http://dealspl.us/freebies/p_calming-for-pets-by-petnaturals

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The 'punishing' iPhone factories: Will Apple customers care? (The Week)

New York ? The New York Times delivers another expos? on Apple's Chinese manufacturing practices, focusing on the human costs behind iPhones and iPads. Backlash, anyone?

A day after Apple reported jaw-dropping quarterly profits, The New York Times ran a front-page follow-up to its blockbuster story on why Apple and its tech rivals make their gadgets and gizmos in China. The new story focuses on the "punishing" conditions at the Chinese factories that assemble and make the parts for iPhones and iPads ? everything from grueling seven-day-a-week shifts to worker suicides. Apple audits its suppliers each year, and was first to report many of the abuses at Foxconn and other plants. But "we've known about labor abuses in some factories for four years, and they're still going on," a former Apple executive tells The Times. "Why? Because the system works for us. Suppliers would change everything tomorrow if Apple told them they didn't have another choice." Apple CEO Tim Cook calls the article's insinuations "patently false and offensive." Will Apple's customers agree?

It's time to boycott Apple: Thanks to The Times, you now know that "23 people died to build your iPhone or iPad and 273 were injured," says Peter Cohan at?Forbes. Apple apparently doesn't care about these Chinese workers. The company only cares about the impact these needless deaths "could have on its image among those self-congratulating customers" who pay "such a high premium for the privilege of owning an Apple product." We must "boycott Apple to stop the carnage."
"23 died building your iWorld: Time to boycott Apple?"

I don't see people clamoring for costlier iPhones:?Sometimes, customers do demand more humane factory conditions,?says Sam Gustin at?TIME. Remember the "campaign several years ago to pressure Nike to improve working conditions in its factories"? Still, I don't see the same happening for Apple.?Are Americans really willing to demand better working conditions in China if it means more expensive iProducts and hot new models rolled out at a slower rate? "Seems unlikely."
"Should Americans care about Apple's iPhone-factory conditions?"

This is about much more than Apple:?Every tech company uses the same Chinese factories,?says Larry Dignan at?ZDNet. So Apple "has every right to be miffed about the Times report."?It's "being singled out," probably because as "the big dog on the tech block," it makes for a better story. But it's not even just a tech industry problem: "Everything you own comes from a supply chain that probably has multiple things you just don't want to know about." If we're not willing to stop consuming, we should at least admit this "this flap about worker safety isn't about Apple.... It's about us."
"Apple's supply chain flap: It's really about us"

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Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/oped/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/theweek/20120127/cm_theweek/223790

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Romanians take to streets in austerity winter (Reuters)

BUCHAREST, Jan 27 ? In December 1989, art student Titi Amzar risked his life to join the demonstrations in University Square that brought down reviled communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.

Now 43, Amzar is back on the square demanding much the same thing - a new leader for Romania.

"All these post-communist governments have been incompetent," Amzar, now a designer, told Reuters at the crossing of broad boulevards in central Bucharest where some 50 protesters were killed more than 20 years ago.

"The political class is the main culprit for the collapse of our economic system and the ills of the society."

Protests against President Traian Basescu and his close ally, Prime Minister Emil Boc, have occurred daily for two weeks and spread around the country, initially against proposed health reforms but quickly broadening to express unhappiness with tough austerity measures and corruption.

Many demonstrators, like Amzar, have also criticized the opposition and questioned if any of Romania's current leaders can fix the country's problems.

The unrest, the worst in more than a decade, is still far from serious enough to sway policy or threaten the government.

But it may derail Boc's chances in parliamentary elections late in 2012 and leave Basescu, who will not face the voters until presidential elections in 2014, stuck in an unhappy marriage with his opponents.

Basescu has a theoretically non-executive position but makes almost all major Romanian policy announcements himself, including wage and pension cuts in 2010, a new International Monetary Fund deal and withdrawal of the healthcare reforms.

The bluff former sea captain, president since 2004, made a serious misstep when he criticized the popular deputy health minister Raed Arafat, prompting his resignation and sparking the demonstrations.

Basescu had accused Arafat, a Palestinian-born doctor who created Romania's widely admired main emergency response system, of being a left-winger - a sensitive thing to say in post-communist Romania - after he opposed privatization of the health system.

STILL POOR

While Romania has made huge strides in the last 20 years, its per capita income is still less than half the EU average and it is still markedly poorer than other former communist countries like Poland and Hungary. Many villages and even some parts of Bucharest still have no running water or electricity.

Romanians tended to suffer quietly under communism and there was no equivalent of 1956 in Hungary or the 1968 Prague Spring. But tempers boiled over in 1989 after years of food and energy shortages and Romania's revolution was that year's bloodiest, with more than 1,000 killed.

The thousands who have taken to the streets this month chose

University Square, where the 1989 protesters assembled and now known as 'Kilometer Zero of Democracy', to echo the events of that year.

They are angry about lack of progress in catching up with other members of the European Union and a perception that politicians are more interested in lining their pockets than working to improve the country.

"Romanians put up with a lot if they perceive the government to be fair, but this government has come to be seen as acting unilaterally and imposing discretionary cuts," said Alina Mungiu-Pippidi of the Romanian Academic Society thinktank.

The demonstrators wave placards comparing Basescu with Ceausescu and Dracula, saying he is sucking the nation's blood. But they also criticize the opposition, some of whose MPs have said they will push for Basescu's impeachment.

Although the protests have been mostly peaceful, demonstrators have thrown bricks and set fires, prompting the police to respond with tear gas.

"A large majority of the population would now like 'Basescu out' but beats a retreat when the talk turns to who they would like to put in," wrote Grigore Cartianu, editor of daily Adevarul.

LONG WAY BACK

The Basescu/Boc team presided over boom and bust and passed some of Europe's harshest austerity to balance the economy, including 25 percent salary cuts and a 5 point hike in value added tax.

About three quarters of the population think the country is heading in the wrong direction, a Eurobarometer survey showed.

"The whole system is wrong ... otherwise how can one explain that people who work legally don't have the basics assured from a state salary?" said 42-year-old Daniela Lupu, a public clerk who lives on a monthly wage of just 700 lei ($210) a month.

Boc has effectively admitted the weakness of his Democrat-Liberal party's position by reappointing Arafat and has a long way back from 18 percent in opinion polls, compared with about 50 percent for the USL, an uneasy leftist alliance.

The USL has promised to revoke some austerity measures and if it sticks together and polls well enough to take power it would be stuck with Basescu - who can delay and try to block legislation - until 2014.

Ultimately Boc and Basescu will be judged on results. But with growth of only about 2 percent expected this year, the clock is ticking.

"If in spring some growth starts coming then they can start reaping benefit. If it doesn't come by then, it's too late," said Guy Burrow, partner at consultancy Candole in Bucharest.

Amzar, protesting in the chill breeze on University Square, runs his own small advertising business which has been hurt by dwindling demand, though he has not been directly affected by salary or pension cuts.

"It is clear that incompetence, siphoning of public money and improper laws designed for cronies have affected the whole economy," he said.

"I don't love Basescu's government nor do I like the opposition - all the politicians now are like dogs fighting over a bone."

($1 = 3.4134 Romanian lei)

(Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120127/wl_nm/us_romania_protests

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How To Film a Horse Trapped in Barbed Wire (and Not Have PETA Up Your Ass) [Video]

So Steven Spielberg is making a movie all about WAR HORSES. It doesn't really have the same ring as WAR DOGS, but whatever, I'll entertain the idea. However, you can't really film horses getting beat up and not expect a public uproar. So how'd they do it? Puppeteers. More »


Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/zQz_l7v-X38/how-to-film-a-horse-trapped-in-barbwire-and-not-have-peta-up-your-ass

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Mr. Miyagi returns in Vita's Reality Fighters (Digital Trends)

The Karate Kid actor Pat Morita may have died in 2005, but his character in the hit movie franchise will make a return this March in Reality Fighters for the PlayStation Vita.

Over at the official PlayStation Blog, the announcement of Mr. Miyagi?s return was accompanied by a few screenshots of the character and some details about the role he?ll play in the game.

?We specifically chose Mr. Miyagi for several reasons. Firstly, we needed someone who was a true fighting master who could easily take on the best fighters from around the world, but was also wise, and capable of teaching the player,? explained Mitsuo Hirakawa of SCE XDev Studio. ?Plus we had to consider the tongue-in-cheek nature of the game; some of our fight styles include ballet and break dance, as well as some unusual weapons like a toilet plunger. We needed someone who was tough, but also had a softer, more humorous side.?

Daniel-san?s Karate Kid mentor will serve as both instructor and playable character in the game, and be voiced by accomplished Call of Duty and Metal Gear Solid voice actor Jim Ward. Players will not only be able to unlock Miyagi himself, but also his handyman uniform and family headband.

?Before we decided on Mr. Miyagi, we shortlisted various characters such as Jackie Chan, Bruce Lee, Chuck Norris, Jet Li and even Mike Myers,? added Hirakawa. ?It became clear that Mr. Miyagi ticked all the boxes for us in terms of a true master who has a humorous side. The Karate Kid movie being a worldwide hit and a film that we were all huge fans of also helped a little.?

Reality Fighters will hit shelves March 13 for the PS Vita.

This article was originally posted on Digital Trends

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Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/digitaltrends/20120126/tc_digitaltrends/mrmiyagireturnsinvitasrealityfighters

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