#2
Federal criminal prosecutors are investigating whether securities firms booked inflated prices of mortgages despite knowledge of their true valuations. Rating firms are also being investigated for assigning ratings that were too high for instruments backed by subprime mortgages. Collateralized Debt Obligations were loaded with overvalued subprime -- and passed on with the Triple-A seal of sound risk
A lesbian member of a blood-drinking vampire cult and her lover have been sentenced to life in prison for the sexually-motivated murder of their housemate.
Coming soon to a drive-in theatre near you, no doubt.
Posted by: Mike ||
03/07/2008 08:55 ||
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#3
A psychologist found Parashumti, who drank blood as part of a vampire subculture, had very strong sexual sadistic tendencies and was sexually aroused by physical torture and violence.
She's certainly got a promising future upon her release, in US Democratic politics.
Guess who!
In the wake of a Midwestern woman being sickened by lead-tainted dental work that was outsourced to China, consumers are being asked to inquire about the origins of their crowns, veneers, bridges and dentures.
Millions of dental prostheses are being prescribed by dentists in the United States but are made in labs in China, India, the Philippines, Mexico, Eastern Europe, Costa Rica and elsewhere. Many experts are concerned about the outsourcing because raw materials used abroad may not meet U.S. standards. Proving once again that you get what you pay for.
Foreign labs produce a substantial proportion of Americans' restorative appliances, and are supposed to follow rules, said Bennett Napier, co-executive director of the National Association of Dental Laboratories in Tallahassee. "The FDA regulates the raw materials used ... [and] these labs have to register with the FDA and they are supposed to use FDA-approved materials. But the FDA is inspecting less than 1 percent of the restorations that are coming in from foreign dental laboratories," he said. Risk analysis suggests we don't need the FDA anymore. For the wrong reason.
The new scare rekindles memories of lead-contaminated products from China last year.
Long Island dental lab owners Leslie and Terry Cloper say consumers should be concerned because "patients do not know where their lab work is being done. When you buy food or clothing there is a label requirement," she said. "But when you have something inserted in your mouth there isn't," Leslie Cloper said.
The couple, who own Lema Dental Lab in East Setauket, receive constant inquiries from foreign laboratories seeking work. Although the Clopers say they've resisted the pressure, other area labs and dentists find overseas pricing attractive. With the aid of global overnight shipping, dental appliances are ready in about the same amount of time they would have taken locally. Ah, the second dance partner it takes to tango. Ever heard of the local news station? Tell them about the situation and see what happens to that second dance partner.
Toxic levels of lead were found in the dental work of a 73-year-old Ohio woman whose crown was made in China. The case was reported last week by an Ohio television station. So sorry. >-(
Afterward, officials at the American Dental Association notified federal regulatory agencies, calling on the government to investigate the case and to determine whether it's isolated or indicative of a wider trend. In a statement last week, the dental association said it has begun its own investigation.
"We will communicate our findings to the public and the dental profession, as well as to the appropriate government agencies," association officials said in a statement. Dental officials added: "The ADA is taking this report very seriously. However, we do want to keep it in perspective. There simply isn't enough information available to presume that the presence of lead in dental crowns or other prostheses is widespread."
The National Association of Dental Laboratories estimates between 15 and 20 percent of all restoration work is outsourced - and patients are unaware.
Dentists, often affected by what insurers are willing to pay, find the low-cost foreign work attractive, the Clopers said. Their lab, for example, charges dentists $128 for a single crown fused to a metal base, but labs in China do it for $29. Now can I sue my insurer for shooting iself in the foot?
The American Dental Association encourages patients to discuss concerns about the safety of their dental crowns or other prosthetic devices with their dentists. The quality and the safety of dental materials you receive should matter most. Some questions you can discuss with your dentist:
Do you fashion your own crowns, bridges and other dental materials in the office or buy them from a dental lab?
Where is the dental lab located?
Does the lab outsource crowns or bridges to a foreign country?
What materials are going to be used in my restoration?
What other options do I have? Buy local and save yourself some lead poisoning!
So does anyone out there know if filling material itself is suspect, either ceramic or silver?
#1
Some people will do anything to make (or save) a buck. Retail cost to do a root canal & crown on the same tooth is about $1,000. Most people have 32 teeth. It's still far cheaper to yank out bad teeth than to repair them. Maybe previous generations had a better idea.
#2
Why do you think your dentist is so reticent to pull a tooth now days? Because he knows he can nurse that tooth along an milk $1500 to $2,000 out of it over the next few years. An extraction prolly only costs $150 0r $200.
#4
Pulling a tooth can cause a cascade of problem, the least of which is the remaining teeth shifting. Resulting bite problems lead to temporal-mandibular joint problems, which lead to muscle relationships shifting elsewhere in the body, et voila! Apparently causeless pain, pain drug addictions like Rush Limbaugh... On the other hand, the shifting teeth may merely result in gingivitis, periodontitis and a heart attack.
I'd rather spend the money to save the tooth, if possible. I will demand American from now on, though.
sinse is blind to the homonym of too. It's one of his little quirks.
#1
Since 'Daylight' now covers far more months then 'Standard', how about just shifting the country east time wise? Eastern becomes Atlantic, Central becomes Eastern, Mountain becomes Central, and Pacific becomes Mountain [with Arizona doing whatever it wants to do]. Message for the beltway boobies - We have other points of time reference other than 19th Century railroad operations.
#2
Not good at all, my cows have faded and my curtains give less milk!
Posted by: farmin B hard ||
03/07/2008 17:11 Comments ||
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#3
"From our standpoint, it gives us an extra hour of daylight at night, so we're able to get more things done," says Beretta. "(But) for the first week or so, it's tough for the cows to adjust."
Of course it is; have you ever tried to hold a clock and reset the time without opposing thumbs?
( This story just begs for Gary Larsen to illustrate it)
#7
Anonymoose, I think the gentleman with the fancy black car was a customer, not a pimp. badanov, is Ukranian close enough to Russian for you to understand what was said?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/07/2008 18:17 Comments ||
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#3
Poster BJ THOMAS reply of March 2, 2008 to Poster KATHY DOBRONYI [same date] > "How about MACROEVOLUTION? Show me one example of it happening right now...". >
So-called "MORGELLONS"??? VARIOUS NETTERS > Mankind vv MORGELLONS, etal. may dev FEATHERS, like DINOSAURIA ESPEC IN RESPONSE TO "GLOBAL COOLING" = NEW ICE AGE(S); or "go back to the future" and dev amphib FISH SCALES, ala PRE-DINO ANCIENT LIFE OR SPACE ALIENS???
#1
What's more, their force is only generated by a spinning superconductor, not any other kind of matter. "We cannot find a mechanism to explain this in either general relativity or quantum mechanics,"
"...This gravitomagnetism is a feeble phenomenon: an object orbiting close to the Earth should be shifted just a few nanometres per year. In contrast, the gravitomagnetic force Tajmar's team have seen is trillions of times stronger, which is why they are treating the results so cautiously. What's more, their force is only generated by a spinning superconductor, not any other kind of matter..."
#4
This phenomenon has already been documented. It doesn't end well.
Posted by: ed ||
03/07/2008 21:59 Comments ||
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#5
ION, NEWSVINE SCIENCE > NEAR EARTH OBJECTS:PREPARING FOR DOOMSDAY. USDOD satellites detect several 1-kiloton explosions per year as due to colliding space rocks; and much bigger space kabooms every several years.
*TO BAD ASTRONOMY BLOG - DO I HAVE TO SAY "TOLD YA"! Also explains ANOTHER one two days ago. ALSO OCCURRING THIS WEEK > ULTRA-SLOW FIREBALLS IN UPPER ATMOSPHERE, as observed visually over Guam [US 193 debris???]. IMO TOO SLOW TO BE SPACE ROCKS - POSSIBLE, BUT HIGHLY UNLIKELY.
The elderly parking lot attendant wasn't in a good mood!
Neither was Sam Bierstock. It was around 1 a.m., and Bierstock, a Delray Beach , Fla., eye doctor, business consultant, corporate speaker and musician, was bone tired after appearing at an event.
He pulled up in his car, and the parking attendant began to speak. "I took two bullets for this country and look what I'm doing," he said bitterly. At first, Bierstock didn't know what to say to the World War II veteran. But he rolled down his window and told the man, "Really, from the bottom of my heart, I want to thank you."
Then the old soldier began to cry.
"That really got to me," Bierstock says.
Cut to today.
Bierstock, 58, and John Melnick, 54, of Pompano Beach - a member of Bierstock's band, Dr. Sam and the Managed Care Band -have written a song inspired by that old soldier in the airport parking lot. The mournful "Before You Go" does more than salute those who fought in WWII. It encourages people to go out of their way to thank the aging warriors before they die.
"If we had lost that particular war, our whole way of life would have been shot," says Bierstock, who plays harmonica. "The WW II soldiers are now dying at the rate of about 2,000 every day. I thought we needed to thank them."
The song is striking a chord. Within four days of Bierstock placing it on the Web, the song and accompanying photo essay have bounced around nine countries, producing tears and heartfelt thanks from veterans, their sons and daughters and grandchildren.
"It made me cry," wrote one veteran's son. Another sent an e-mail saying that only after his father consumed several glasses of wine would he discuss "the unspeakable horrors" he and other soldiers had witnessed in places such as Anzio , Iwo Jima, Bataan and Omaha Beach . "I can never thank them enough," the son wrote. "Thank you for thinking about them."
Bierstock and Melnick thought about shipping it off to a professional singer, maybe a Lee Greenwood type, but because time was running out for so many veterans, they decided it was best to release it quickly, for free, on the Web. They've sent the song to Sen. John McCain and others in Washington Already they have been invited to perform it in Houston for a Veterans Day tribute - this after just a few days on the Web. They hope every veteran in America gets a chance to hear it.
GOD BLESS EVERY veteran...
and THANK you to those of you veterans who may receive this!
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
