What's in the news?

[Lustful Bride]

Pretty sickening story that I wasn't aware of.

In short, a doctor deliberately misdiagnosed patients, telling them that they had aggressive forms of cancer, so that he could make money from their insurers.

Oh god if I was ond of his victims id...god I don't know what I would do....probably go insane and try to chop his ass up.  >:(

[Oniya]

The scale is utterly shocking. The UK had its own murderous doctor in Harold Shipman; I don't know if his name or the case ever made much news in the US but he officially murdered 218 people with the number most likely being closer to 250, primarily elderly women, by giving them lethal injections of diamorphine (basically heroin and, in somewhat of a link between the cases, normally used for pain relief in cases of terminal cancer. As far as I'm aware Fata didn't directly murder people in the way Shipman did and unlike Shipman people have (so far) survived his abuses but considering the fact that chemotherapy is basically the definition of a necessary evil, killing your body and immune system in the hope that the cancer dies before the rest of you and leave long term side effects that may contribute to death in time, it isn't that great a distinction. And as you say we're talking about 550 people here... twice as many as Shipman. Charles Cullen is generally regarded as the most prolific serial killer of the modern era in the US (and possibly the world)... and he is generally seen as having killed about 400.

I browse a couple of US news websites yet I never saw anything about this story. before today.

I'd heard of Shipman, but then again, 'true crime' is one of my big interests.  Fata does have some deaths on his hands, though.  A number of the witnesses were speaking on behalf of deceased loved ones.

[Blythe]

The scale is utterly shocking. The UK had its own murderous doctor in Harold Shipman; I don't know if his name or the case ever made much news in the US but he officially murdered 218 people with the number most likely being closer to 250, primarily elderly women, by giving them lethal injections of diamorphine (basically heroin and, in somewhat of a link between the cases, normally used for pain relief in cases of terminal cancer. As far as I'm aware Fata didn't directly murder people in the way Shipman did and unlike Shipman people have (so far) survived his abuses but considering the fact that chemotherapy is basically the definition of a necessary evil, killing your body and immune system in the hope that the cancer dies before the rest of you and leave long term side effects that may contribute to death in time, it isn't that great a distinction. And as you say we're talking about 550 people here... twice as many as Shipman. Charles Cullen is generally regarded as the most prolific serial killer of the modern era in the US (and possibly the world)... and he is generally seen as having killed about 400.

I browse a couple of US news websites yet I never saw anything about this story. before today.

*shudder* Man, Shipman.

I know that it's over 550 that Fata treated necessarily. I am not sure how many died of the treatments. Frankly...one death was too many. The suffering of those poor people...

It looks like he frauded Medicare out of millions (I heard one figure tossed around was potentially thirty-five million, and prosecutors are seeking life in prison for him.

[Ephiral]

Not safe for life. Seriously, this is depressing as hell.

Over 550 victims of this man put through these unnecessary treatments, it looks like, according to some sources.

Over 550.

For me, the sheer horror of this is mind-boggling. I can't believe the story is not getting more coverage where I live.

Stanislaw Buzynski has been treating actual cancer patients with useless "drugs", charging them $7000-9500/mo out of pocket (insurance won't touch him) for the privilege, and generally violating petty much every ethical guideline imaginable. (Tip of the iceberg: The "Independent Review Board" that oversees his trials is chaired by one of his employees, some of his practicing "doctors" aren't licensed, and he has no oncologists to my knowledge.) He gets away with it because it's a "clinical trial", despite publishing no meaningful or repeatable results.

He has been doing this for forty-one years, and was just recently allowed to resume treatment despite his third miserable failure of an FDA inspection and the somewhat publicized death of a child under his care.

It doesn't surprise me at all any more that we don't hear more about prolific quacks.

[gaggedLouise]

Yeah, I remember the guy. Was in London in 2000 and saw his trial being on top of the news. What's stuck the most in my mind though is the little old lady from his town who told of how she had become somewhat suspicious of him earlier and told her friends, "Oh you mean Dr. Death? No, don't go to 'im. He's a good doctor but you don't last!"  ::)

Doctors and hospitals have a huge responsibility. At a hospital near here, around the time I was born (late seventies) a young and inexperienced guy who had landed a job as a kind of junior nursing worker at a long-term care ward  - I'm not sure of the exact term in English, he didn't have the kind of training that would be required now - was so impressed and shocked with the health state of some of the patients that he decided to act as their angel of mercy. He managed to kill about twenty-five with a mixture of powerful all-surface cleaning liquid and sedatives, mixed into soft drinks and juices, before he was caught. I've heard local doctors saying they personally think he was assisted by someone else on the ward, a doc, or he would not have been able to carry on for months doing it.  *shudders*

OT: After the Greek poll, the Eurozone leaders have declared that Greece has five days to negotiate a serious plan for debt restructuring and internal reforms, or it will have to leave the common currency zone - the dreaded Grexit, for years seen as a politically impossible step.

[Oniya]

Doctors and hospitals have a huge responsibility. At a hospital near here, around the time I was born (late seventies) a young and inexperienced guy who had landed a job as a kind of junior nursing worker at a long-term care ward  - I'm not sure of the exact term in English, he didn't have the kind of training that would be required now - was so impressed and shocked with the health state of some of the patients that he decided to act as their angel of mercy. He managed to kill about twenty-five with a mixture of powerful all-surface cleaning liquid and sedatives, mixed into soft drinks and juices, before he was caught.

When I was looking up the guy that Ephiral posted about, I followed a few links and saw a different guy that marketed something called 'Miracle Mineral Supplement'.  You were supposed to mix it with something acidic, like orange juice, and drink it.  Turns out that the stuff is a 28% solution of sodium chlorite.  Not chloride - chlorite.  For reference, a 25% solution of sodium chlorite is listed in this chemical supply site as Hazardous, Corrosive, with a pH of over 12.  It's typically used in bleaching textiles.  Yeah, the nausea that you got as a side effect was supposed to indicate that it was 'working'.

[gaggedLouise]

When I was looking up the guy that Ephiral posted about, I followed a few links and saw a different guy that marketed something called 'Miracle Mineral Supplement'.  You were supposed to mix it with something acidic, like orange juice, and drink it.  Turns out that the stuff is a 28% solution of sodium chlorite.  Not chloride - chlorite.  For reference, a 25% solution of sodium chlorite is listed in this chemical supply site as Hazardous, Corrosive, with a pH of over 12.  It's typically used in bleaching textiles.  Yeah, the nausea that you got as a side effect was supposed to indicate that it was 'working'.

Yes, in that "mercy killing" affair around here they did notice while it was happening that some of the deceased had corrosive patches and tissue decay inside their mouths and (seen on autopsy) in their bowels, but they had not suspected that those old people had been poisoned.  :-( It took some time for them to join the dots.

Most of those patients were old and frail anyway of course, but they were not actually terminally ill.

[Oniya]

So, yesterday, the New York Stock Exchange shut down because of a 'technical malfunction'.  While there are varying theories as to what happened, this has to be the most interesting version of events.*

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jul/08/new-york-stock-exchange-suspends-trading-wall-street-aftermath?CMP=share_btn_fb

I was met by fires in the streets, the screams of the dying tourists and the shouts of former traders offering sacrifices to their new gods

*

Needless to say, none of the events in the article happened.  NASDAQ remained open, as did the other large exchanges.

[consortium11]

Quite interesting study I became aware of.

Brief overview; in 2007 San Francisco banned major supermarkets and pharmacies (and in 2012 extended this to other retailers) from giving plastic bags to customers with the intention being to protect the environment and reduce littering by getting people to use reusable bags instead. Since then both deaths and hospital visits due to foodborne illnesses have increased by almost 50%. The main cause for this appears to be the reuseable bags themselves becoming contaminated and then passing on that contamination to food the next time they are used.

The obvious solution to the issue (fastidiously washing the bags between use) has it own problems; the reason reuseable bags are preffered is due to the lower environmental impact they have compared to plastic bags. But when you factor in the additional water, need to heat the water to kill the bacteria and use of detergents then the environmental impact of washing bags between use may well exceed that of plastic bags. Moreover (and this is my point as opposed to one mentioned in the study) California is currently in the midst of a long-lasting drought which is putting real pressure on water use; as far as I'm aware it hasn't hit domestic use too hard yet but if it keeps up it will eventually. In that environment asking people to wash a bag at a high temperature every time they want to do some grocery shopping strikes me as being pretty awkward.

[Dashenka]

So.. what about recycled plastic bags? They are less harmfull to the environment and don't kill people.

I think the whole ban on plastic bags is a bit idiotic but that's just my two cents.

[Lustful Bride]

So.. what about recycled plastic bags? They are less harmfull to the environment and don't kill people.

I think the whole ban on plastic bags is a bit idiotic but that's just my two cents.

How would you recycle a plastic bag? Just wash it and then bring it back to the supermarket?....huh...that might not be a bad idea actually, offer people a discount based on how many bags they bring in...

Or do you mean just like putting the bags in a recycling container and letting it be taken to a recycling center?


In other news. The FBI Stopped a terror attack on July 4 and arrested 10 ISIS wannabees.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/fbi-says-thwarted-islamic-state-inspired-attacks-on-july-4/ar-AAcLwOv?ocid=HPCDHP


I imagine those cowards probably shit their collective pants when they saw the feds busting in.

I am the LAW!

[Dashenka]

Make bags out of empty pet bottles or something. It's not my idea at all. But then again I'm not buying that Inconvenient Truth at all so I'm the worst person to ask :)

[Caehlim]

Quite interesting study I became aware of.

An interesting study however I should note that it is by a lawyer and an economist working for a think-tank that attempts to promote "Free Market Environmentalism" and has an ideological opposition to government environmental legislation. (Source)

There are other studies though finding the same result. Such as GROCERY CARRY BAG SANITATION: “A Microbiological Study of Reusable Bags and `First or single-use’ Plastic Bags” which was funded by the Environment and Plastics Industry Council. (Source)

It is concerning that these studies seem to be sponsored by groups who have a vested interest in the marketing and sales of plastic bags. Such as another study ""Assessment of the Potential for Cross Contamination of Food Products by Reusable Shopping Bags," which was noted to be funded by the American Chemistry Council. (Source)

Consumer.org notes:
“A person eating an average bag of salad greens gets more exposure to these bacteria than if they had licked the insides of the dirtiest bag from this study,” says Michael Hansen, senior staff scientist at Consumers Union. “These bacteria can be found lots of places, so no need to go overboard.” (Source)

So, I remain quite skeptical.

[Zillah]

By the way, I heard there may be a China crisis coming soon, or mounting already on the markets and stocks front - which could make the Greek crisis seem small in comparison...

The China crisis is here. It's only some half-baked measures being done by China's government that's staving off the inevitable, and potentially making things worse in the long run. It's going to crash hard before the year's out.

[kylie]

      It certainly sounds like a crisis, though twenty years ago, everyone thought Japan was kaput and I'm not sure how much really changed.  The Japanese have worked even more hours and lived more frugally (some that weren't so frugal before at least)...  But it's almost as if more of the question is how much it impacts other countries.  Japan doesn't seem to shake up the world as much as people talked like in the 80's to early 90's, but it's hardly disappeared or become a dysfunctional country per se.

     It might do a job on the national pride if it got really tight, but it seems hard to underestimate optimism and pride in China these days.  Just the other day I was saying the housing bubble seems to be something of a contemporary pattern working its way around the world, and the very educated young teacher I was speaking with smiled, "Oh if anything like that started to happen here, surely the government would intervene..."  I'm sure there are quite a few discontents, but there's also a large pool of people very used to playing follow the leader through thick and thin, from years of training.  I'm not sure how much of a dent the new investor class would really make on the center, especially as so many of them seem to have been picked for their initial lack of position.

[Dice]

Watching China closely here. If China starts contracting, we are in the shitter. The ABC's main political radio channel is covering the situation as it develops, but otherwise it apears to be out of the public eye. It is quite amazing just how little coverage issues outside of our own national sphere get.

[Ironwolf85]

I think in all honesty it's a lack of any sense of responsibility and long term planning that seems to be contributing a lot of this economic instability since the housing bubble burst. That and a lot of the the social and economic issues that were ignored in the 80's and 90's have come home to roost one at a time.

What I mean by lack of a sense of responsibility is that that stupid "greed is good" & "the market knows best" economic strategies from the 80's that are hanging around in the heads of 40-50 year old investors. Nobody once thought "how will my younger customers keep buying products when they all have low wage jobs because we shipped our good paying ones overseas so we could increase profit margins by 9.52% in january of 1997."
no it was "Make more money, the market will handle the rest naturally."

Capitalisim relies on enlightened self interest to function properly. the key word here is enlightened and when the heck did Ann Ryand become an economic policy shaper? she's a science fiction writer not an economist, and had some extremely racist & ruthless views too.

I sometimes wanna slap these people with the book Wealth of Nations which started the whole captialist system, it has a lot of sound economic advice in it. It also warns against powerful entities dominating the market. People forget Adam Smith had a real big problem with the east india company and devoted the second half of the books to warnings about things like it.

[Lustful Bride]

when the heck did Ayn Ryand become an economic policy shaper? she's a science fiction writer not an economist, and had some extremely racist & ruthless views too.

This.  ;D  +1

I Finally know how to reply to know it alls who ask me "Havent you read Ayn Ryand?"

Looking her up apparently she once said that Native Americans did not have the right to any of their land....*holds up two middle fingers at her photo*

[LisztesFerenc]

  I didn't know anything about her until John Oliver had a segment on her:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8m8cQI4DgM

[Deamonbane]

I am the LAW!

[Dashenka]

Double post sorry.


Amidst all the economical and terrorism related news items, I found something very good as well.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-07-12/myanmars-suu-kyi-says-party-will-run-in-election/6613266

The country's climbing out of the military powers who, in 2010, were (democratically) elected in the first elections since 1990. Suu Kyi's party is sky high favourites to win.

Hopefully, the military powers will accept it if she wins and Myanmar can finally continue their path to democracy.

[Lustful Bride]

Police officer helps out a homeless widow.

http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article26955211.html

I think we could all use a feel good story to reignite that love of humanity :)

[Sara Nilsson]

http://www.thelocal.se/20150709/swedish-military-helps-lost-teddy-return-home

In lighter news, Sweden's military helped a poor lost teddybear find his human :)

[Dashenka]

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/jul/13/heathrow-disruption-climate-change-activists-claim-chained-runway

Imbeciles have cut through a fence at Heathrow airport and are protesting on the northern runway against the expansion of the airport and runways.


I'd say get a big Airbus and run them down. Problem solved.

[gaggedLouise]

Not going to pick a fight over this, but the project for a third runway at Heathrow is actually a first-rank alternative again. There's been a long to-and-fro over many years about how to expand international airport capacity around London, from "Boris Island" in the Thames estuary to expanding Heathrow and/or Gatwick, and a review of the alternatives last month did point to a new runway at Heathrow as a major option, so it's not as if those demonstrators are out marching over something that isn't even on the table.

Anything of this size takes several years to decide and to build, but if you want to try to avert it, the best bet is to act before the project has been passed into law or hard urban planning.