Author: DFShow

Here’s the Worst Part of the Target Data Breach

December 22, 2013 - Top Stories

Here\'s the Worst Part of the Target Data Breach

Kevin Drum over at Mother Jones has a great piece about the Target data breach. As I’m reading this I kept thinking about the Obamacare website and how everyone kept saying government can’t do anything right. Read this article, and you’ll never complain about Obamacare again. Some highlights…

Over the last decade, most countries have moved toward using credit cards that carry information on embeddable microchips rather than magnetic strips. The additional encryption on so-called smart cards has made the kind of brazen data thefts suffered by Target almost impossible to pull off in most other countries.

Because the U.S. is one of the few places yet to widely deploy such technology, the nation has increasingly become the focus of hackers seeking to steal such information. The stolen data can easily be turned into phony credit cards that are sold on black markets around the world.

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A Tax On Meat Would Reduce Methane Emissions From Livestock, Scientists Say

December 22, 2013 - Top Stories

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A Tax On Meat Would Reduce Methane Emissions From Livestock, Scientists Say

Blame it on the dog.

Katie Valentine from Think Progress writes…

Taxing meat as an attempt to discourage consumers to buy it could be an effective way to reduce methane emissions from livestock, according to a new study.

The analysis also estimates that the greenhouse gas emissions of raising livestock are 19 to 48 times higher than from growing high-protein plant food, such as beans and soy. Last month, a study found that methane emissions in the U.S. were about 1.5 times greater in 2007 and 2008 than previously estimated, and that livestock produced about twice as much methane during that time period than the EPA previously estimated.

In rich countries, cutting back on meat consumption doesn’t take much effort — vegan and vegetarian meat alternatives are getting closer and closer to the real thing, and most grocery stores offer a range of other plant-based protein sources. But as consumers in developing countries like China develop more of a demand for meat, scientists are looking into other ways to reduce livestock’s greenhouse gas footprint. Earlier this year, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) found livestock emissions could be cut by 30 percent just by adopting better farming practices, such as feeding cows more easily-digestible food. Scientists are also looking into tropical grasses called brachiaria, which naturally inhibit the release of nitrous oxide — a gas which, according to the FAO, is responsible for 29 percent of livestock’s emissions. This wouldn’t tackle livestock’s methane problem, but scientists say using enhanced strains of the grass in cattle pastures and as a rotation crop for corn and soybeans could be a viable way to combat livestock emissions.

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Black Women Are 40 Percent More Likely To Die From Breast Cancer Than White Women

December 22, 2013 - Top Stories

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Black Women Are 40 Percent More Likely To Die From Breast Cancer Than White Women

We have a cure. Obamacare.

From Tara Culp-Ressler over at Think Progress…

In the 1980s, the mortality rate for breast cancer was about the same for white and black women. But since then, the breast cancer deaths among the two groups has widened dramatically — and today, black women are 40 percent more likely to die of breast cancer than their white counterparts.

This…

Although 70 percent of white women live at least five years after being diagnosed with breast cancer, that survival rate drops to just 56 percent for African-American women. “Despite 20 years of pink ribbon awareness campaigns and numerous advances in medical treatment that have sharply improved survival rates for women with breast cancer in the United States, the vast majority of those gains have largely bypassed black women,” the New York Times reports.

And this…

That’s largely because black women are less likely to have access to early screening and treatment, and have a lower rate of surgical intervention to stave off the disease. They’re twice as likely to suffer from genetic mutations that predispose them to breast and cervical cancers, but researchers say that isn’t enough to explain the huge gaps in mortality. Breast cancer is still diagnosed more frequently in white women.

And why Obamacare might change this…

Some stark differences emerge between states in this area. Tennessee, Mississippi, and Texas currently have the largest gaps in breast cancer mortality rates, with disparities larger than 12 points. Massachusetts, on the other hand, has a gap of just over two points. Those numbers are directly tied to the number of low-income people of color who struggle to access health services, a population that’s more concentrated in the South.

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Is Arkansas Still Friendly to Bill? Clinton Tests It

December 22, 2013 - Top Stories

Is Arkansas Still Friendly to Bill? Clinton Tests It
Is Arkansas Still Friendly to Bill? Clinton Tests It

Why won’t he go away?

 

 

 

 

 

From today’s New York Times.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — When it came time to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the opening of a dam on the Little Red River this fall, former President Bill Clinton came running. But once he arrived in the state, he had more on his mind than just public works. He summoned Mike Ross , who had driven him around rural Arkansas during his race for governor in 1982 and is now running for governor […]

This is interesting…

When Mr. Clinton began his political career at 28 in the mid-1970s, Arkansas, like the rest of the South, clung to a strongly Democratic identity, with a fiercely populist streak, especially in state and local elections. These days, Republicans are ascendant in state races and Mr. Obama is profoundly unpopular — an Arkansas poll recently recorded his approval rating at 29 percent. Many here view the president as distant from them, with his liberal policies and Chicago roots, and Arkansas lacks a tradition of supporting black candidates in statewide races. During Mr. Obama’s tenure, a congressional delegation that until recently was made up of five Democrats and one Republican now has five Republicans and Mr. Pryor.

Also interesting…

When Mr. Clinton began his political career at 28 in the mid-1970s, Arkansas, like the rest of the South, clung to a strongly Democratic identity, with a fiercely populist streak, especially in state and local elections. These days, Republicans are ascendant in state races and Mr. Obama is profoundly unpopular — an Arkansas poll recently recorded his approval rating at 29 percent. Many here view the president as distant from them, with his liberal policies and Chicago roots, and Arkansas lacks a tradition of supporting black candidates in statewide races. During Mr. Obama’s tenure, a congressional delegation that until recently was made up of five Democrats and one Republican now has five Republicans and Mr. Pryor.

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When the Right to Bear Arms Includes the Mentally Ill

December 22, 2013 - Top Stories

Terrifying article in today’s New York Times.

It is impossible to know just how many gun owners have serious mental health issues.

Most of them?

But an examination of gun seizure records in Connecticut and Indiana, where the police have been granted greater leeway to confiscate firearms, offers perhaps the best sense of just how frequently gun ownership and mental instability mix. Officials with the Connecticut court system When the Right to Bear Arms Includes the Mentally Illhave collected records on more than 700 gun seizure cases since the law was enacted in 1999. That probably represents a partial count at best, however, because court officials did not make a concerted effort to ensure that all cases were reported to them until this year, after the Newtown shooting.

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