First Food or Freedom? ቅድሚያ ዳቦ ወይስ ነፃነት?: March 2017

Thursday, March 30, 2017

marijuana use raises an adult’s risk of stroke and heart failure.

New research analyzing millions of U.S. medical records suggests that marijuana use raises an adult’s risk of stroke and heart failure.

The study couldn’t prove cause-and-effect, but the researchers said they tried to account for other heart risk factors.

“Even when we corrected for known risk factors, we still found a higher rate of both stroke and heart failure in these patients,” explained lead researcher Dr. Aditi Kalla, a cardiologist at Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia.

“That leads us to believe that there is something else going on besides just obesity or diet-related cardiovascular side effects,” Kalla said in a news release from the American College of Cardiology (ACC).
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Her team is slated to present its findings March 18 at the ACC’s annual meeting, in Washington, D.C.

In the study, Kalla’s group looked at 20 million health records of patients aged 18 to 55 who were discharged from one of more than a thousand hospitals across the United States in 2009 and 2010.

Of those patients, 1.5 percent said they’d used marijuana.

Such use was associated with a much higher risk for stroke, heart failure, coronary artery disease and sudden cardiac death. Pot use was also tied to common heart disease risk factors such as obesity, high blood pressure, smoking and drinking, the researchers said.

After adjusting for those risk factors, the researchers concluded that marijuana use was independently associated with a 26 percent increased risk of stroke and a 10 percent increased risk of heart failure.

“More research will be needed to understand the [reasons] behind this effect,” Kalla said.

Not everyone agreed the findings are cause for alarm, however.

Paul Armentaro is deputy director of NORML, a marijuana advocacy group. He called the increase in heart risk, “a relatively nominal one,” and said the study “is inconsistent with the findings of several other longitudinal studies finding that those who consume cannabis, but not tobacco, suffer no greater likelihood of adverse events compared to those with no history of use.”

NORML agrees that certain groups -- adolescents, pregnant or nursing mothers, people with a history of psychiatric illness, or those with a prior history of heart disease -- may want to avoid marijuana due to the potential effects on health.

But others may want to talk the issue over with their doctors. “As with any medication, patients should consult thoroughly with their physician before deciding whether the medical use of cannabis is safe and appropriate,” Armentaro said.

Study author Kalla noted that medical or recreational marijuana use is now legal in more than half of U.S. states -- so a better understanding of its health effects is needed.

“Like all other drugs, whether they’re prescribed or not prescribed, we want to know the effects and side effects of this drug,” Kalla said. “It’s important for physicians to know these effects so we can better educate patients, such as those who are inquiring about the safety of cannabis or even asking for a prescription for cannabis.”

Two heart specialists agreed.

The new study “suggests that marijuana may not be as safe as proponents for its legalization claim,” said Dr. Andrew Rogove, who directs stroke care at Southside Hospital in Bay Shore, N.Y. He believes that “further studies need to be performed to elucidate how marijuana use can increase risk for stroke and heart failure and if any particular way that it is used confers a higher risk.”

Dr. Shazia Alam directs inpatient stroke services at Winthrop-University Hospital, in Mineola, N.Y. She believes there’s a growing number of patients of all ages with a history of marijuana use.

“As more of our patients will be on marijuana in the near future given the legalization trend, this study reminds us how important it is to ask about marijuana use early on and inform them of any potential consequences,” she said.

“Moreover, we have been seeing increased strokes in the younger population, therefore routinely inquiring about marijuana use may become an integral part in stroke prevention,” Alam added.

Because these findings are to be presented at a medical meeting, they should be considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

EU member states rumers over the Brexit- British out from EU

A businessman walks under a tunnel near The Houses of Parliament on March 21, in London, England. Article 50 will be triggered on March 29, and the process that will take…BRUSSELS — In the bitter breakup between Britain and the European Union, Britons on Wednesday will finally file the divorce papers. But the 27 spurned partner nations of Europe may have far more at stake.

French leaders are fearful of their country’s insurgent anti-E.U. forces, who will chalk up any British gain from the divorce settlement as a reason to file exit papers of their own. Italian leaders are combating anti-establishment parties who may gang up to hold a Brexit-style referendum. And surging anti-E.U. campaigners elsewhere are eager to press any advantage they see from the negotiations, which will start after Wednesday’s formal notice from Downing Street.

The decision triggers a two-year clock before Britain drops down the E.U. escape hatch. In the meantime, the two sides will haggle over such matters as the cost of the exit — upward of $65 billion, the European Union says — and whether British retirees can keep living under Spain’s golden sun. The British are hoping that Europe will go easy on them to soften any hit to fragile economies. But with E.U. unity at stake, Brussels can hardly afford to be kind, leaders say.

The outcome may be a jarring wake-up call to British leaders who say that their nation has opted for a latter-day declaration of independence, one that will give the country back its rightful place as one of the world’s eminent powers.

“The United Kingdom remains a partner of the Union, but by necessity it will pay the consequences, because that is the choice it has made,” French President François Hollande said Saturday at a pomp-filled ceremony in Rome marking the 60th anniversary of the treaty that laid the foundation for the European Union.

Hollande is trying to thwart the surging anti-E.U. leader Marine Le Pen, whose rat-a-tat nationalistic call to arms has made her the most popular politician in France ahead of presidential elections in April and May. Even if she ultimately falls short of the Élysée Palace, she will remain a ballot-box threat who will stiffen the spine of whichever French leader is charged with negotiating Britain’s departure in March 2019.

Leaders elsewhere in Europe are facing similar concerns — and in a bloc notable for its fractious disputes in recent years, they have been unusually unified in taking a tough line against Britain. Any new deal between the European Union and Britain will have to be ratified by all of Europe’s parliaments, giving extra leverage to the toughest holdouts.

“In order to maintain Europe in the long term, but above all to strengthen Europe in the long term, we must preserve and defend the achievements of European integration,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel told the German Parliament last week.

It was a gentle but unmistakable reminder that Europe’s most powerful leader is committed to preserving club benefits for E.U. members — but cutting them off for those who no longer want to pay the dues.

It would be hard to overstate just how much Britain has at stake in the negotiations that will come after Wednesday’s divorce notice, known as an Article 50 notification after the once-obscure section of a European treaty that governs breakups.

The nation’s international trading relationships and laws will all be on the line when British negotiators square off with their erstwhile European Union partners. Decades of E.U. integration have meant open access to European markets for British goods, services and workers — and all of it will now need to be untangled during a brief window. Even Britain’s integrity as a single country could be in question if Scotland opts to hold an independence referendum, because Scottish voters favored remaining in the European Union.

Analysts think the downside costs of a bad deal — or, perhaps even worse, no deal — would be considerable. About half of Britain’s international trade runs through the European Union, and its trading relationships outside the bloc are governed by the body’s rules. Economists have warned that an unfavorable outcome for Britain could seriously harm the world’s fifth-largest economy.

But if Britons’ concerns are focused largely on their pocketbooks, Europeans are facing a more existential threat: the possibility that the E.U. breakup doesn’t stop with Britain. The imbalance creates all the more incentive for European leaders to take a tough line.

“This free-trade agreement cannot be equivalent to what exists today. And we should all prepare ourselves for that situation,” Michel Barnier, a French former politician who has served as the European Union’s lead negotiator, told regional officials last week.

Barnier said he plans to insist on finalizing the terms of the split before beginning talks on a new trade deal. Given the speedy negotiating timeline, that stance will put intense pressure on the British. E.U. leaders will meet April 29 to finalize Barnier’s negotiating guidelines.

“If Brexit leads to a bright, prosperous future in the U.K., that is something that could lead to a domino effect,” said Janis Emmanouilidis, the director of studies at the Brussels-based European Policy Centre, an influential think tank that often advises E.U. policymakers.

“It clearly will have to be something which is not better than when they were inside the club. The red lines we have drawn, I think we will clearly stick to them,” he said.

Despite the risks, British leaders have emphasized the benefits of coming out from under the thumb of an E.U. bureaucracy that Brexit advocates regard as an intolerable infringement on U.K. sovereignty.

Prime Minister Theresa May outlined her negotiating aims in a January speech that identified control over immigration levels, an exemption from the European Court of Justice and freedom to negotiate Britain’s own trade deals as her red-line demands.

“We seek a new and equal partnership — between an independent, self-governing, global Britain and our friends and allies in the E.U. Not partial membership of the E.U., associate membership of the E.U., or anything that leaves us half in, half out,” she said.

Many European officials considered the speech a step toward a more realistic British stance because it recognized that the United Kingdom would need to sacrifice some of the benefits of E.U. membership if it also wanted to forsake the responsibilities.

Until then, Britain’s position had been caricatured by the oft-repeated “pro-cake, pro-eating it” stance of Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson.

But analysts say Britain is still probably asking for more than Europe can give, and is setting itself up for disappointment.

Simon Tilford, deputy director of the pro-E.U., London-based Center for European Reform, said British officials are “naive” because they don’t realize their demands are seen across the continent as an example of “egregious free riding.”

“It would appear that they realize they can’t have their cake and eat it. But it’s wrong to say that the British government understands now what is possible and what isn’t,” Tilford said. “They’re still much too optimistic about the amount of leverage Britain has in this process, and the amount of wiggle room the other side has.”

In particular, Tilford said, British leaders underestimate just how much of an incentive their European counterparts have to ensure Britain doesn’t walk away with an attractive deal that would contribute to E.U. disintegration.

Other analysts think a failure to reach a deal is a distinct possibility — and perhaps even likely.

Longtime British diplomat John Kerr, who wrote Article 50 on behalf of the European Union, has said there is a “less than 50/50 chance” that Britain can conclude divorce talks and reach agreement on a new relationship with the bloc by the time the two-year deadline comes around in 2019.

The two-year deadline was imposed in part to deter countries from contemplating an exit, and gives the union a distinct advantage over any country that decides to bolt.

If Britain and the European Union fail to reach agreement on new trade terms, World Trade Organization rules would kick in — meaning considerably higher tariffs on the flow of goods and services across the English Channel.

That probably would hurt both sides — but economists say it would hurt Britain more.

“The negotiation process will be quite damaging and negative all around,” said Stefan Lehne, a former senior Austrian diplomat. “Any kind of divorce is always pretty nasty.”

Washngton Post

Wednesday, March 29, 2017

Austria issues Burka ban

The Burka ban, which was voted by the government on Tuesday and is heavily criticized in advance, is part of a new integration program. The Red and Black government had agreed on the cornerstones of the package after its coalition re-launch in January. In addition to the Burka bodywork, there are other items of clothing that hide the face of women in the public space.

The ban on facial expression came up against criticism in the run-up to the decision. The human rights organization, Amnesty International, for example, considered the ban on "inappropriate, disproportionate and not least fundamental."

The Islamic religious community sees this as an interference with the right to respect for private life, freedom of expression and freedom of expression. The Austrian Chamber of Law rejects the Burka ban as an "expression of a state of education".

The prohibition provides for a fine of 150 euros. With the ban, Austria is one of the few EU countries in which full body veils or facial veils (Nikab) are not tolerated. These include France, Belgium and Bulgaria. In Switzerland, an SVP proposal from the National Council was rejected by the Council of States three weeks ago.

Koran distribution prohibited

According to the new integration program, distribution of Korans is also prohibited in Austria. In addition, the package provides for an obligatory integration year, in which special German and value courses are to be attended. The measures apply to recognized refugees and asylum seekers with a good lead perspective.

Asylum seekers are also to perform unpaid charitable work. If you refuse, you have to take cuts in the minimum security. "This is the only way for people to work towards the respect of the majority society," said Integration Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Sebastian Kurz, from the conservative ÖVP.

Three months after her application for asylum, refugees can also work legally in the future. State Secretary Muna Duzdar from the SPÖ spoke of a "paradigm shift". The government expects a cost of 200 million euros for all measures by the end of 2018. (rub / sda) Said Integration and Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz from the conservative ÖVP. Three months after her application for asylum, refugees can also work legally in the future. State Secretary Muna Duzdar from the SPÖ spoke of a "paradigm shift". The government expects a cost of 200 million euros for all measures by the end of 2018. (rub / sda) Said Integration and Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz from the conservative ÖVP. Three months after her application for asylum, refugees can also work legally in the future. State Secretary Muna Duzdar from the SPÖ spoke of a "paradigm shift". The government expects a cost of 200 million euros for all measures by the end of 2018. (rub / sda)

A Husband forgets his wife on a vaccation

Actually it should be a nice trip to his 80th birthday: The Brite Maurice Hunter got a Spanish trip from his children for himself and his wife Carolyn.

But at the airport London Stansted happens the incredible: While birthday child Maurice sits in the plane and points towards Spain, his wife is still at the gate.

Drama begins before the toilet
She waits for her toilets before her husband. How the faux pas came, both in an early morning broadcast on British television ( the video of the "shooting" above ). Carolyn reports that her husband actually just wanted to go to the toilet. When he did not come back after a while, the pensioner worried.

Did Maurice have a heart attack?
Could it be that Maurice has suffered a heart attack on the toilet? The British informed airport staff who searched the toilets - but found no one. What the worried wife did not know was that her husband had already come back from the toilet, had seen the long queue at the counter, and was worried about not having any room left in the machine.

Separate seats in the plane
Maurice stood up without looking at his wife. His wife was certainly already without him somewhere in the queue. Because both have separate seats in the plane and he sees in the crowd a woman, which looks similar to his Carolyn, he finally settles down calmly into his seat.

Maurice makes a quick return flight
Meanwhile, the abandoned has learned that her husband has boarded the plane. The concern about Maurice probably changes to a proper portion of trouble. But a few hours later, the couple are reunited: Maurice notices in Spain that his companion is missing and books a quick return to London. However, the trip to Spain has failed - the couple spent the holiday in England. Soure : MSN.com RED

Tuesday, March 28, 2017

The world’s first mall for recycled goods

Last week I wrote about the Edinburgh Remakery, and how they are trying to foster a culture of repair. It’s one of the most shared posts I’ve ever written, and there’s clearly a real interest in this whole idea. Lots of you have been in touch to share similar projects, including this one from Sweden.

ReTuna Återbruksgalleria is a mall dedicated entirely to repaired and upcycled goods. It combines a traditional municipal recycling centre with a shopping centre, so that people can drop off goods that they no longer need, and then browse for something new – perhaps stopping off at the cafe in between. It’s the first mall of its kind in Sweden, and as far as they know, the first in the world.

Staff at the recycling depot intercept and sort incoming goods as they are dropped off, putting aside those that can be repaired or refurbished. They are then passed on to workshops to be renovated and sold on in one of the 14 shops in the shopping centre. There are specialist outlets for furniture, computers and audio equipment, clothes, toys, bikes, gardening tools, and building materials. Everything for sale in these stores is secondhand.

The centre also includes a cafe/restaurant with lots of organic options, an exhibition area, conference facilities and a training college for studying recycling. And if you’re wondering about the name, the ‘tuna’ is short for Eskilstuna, the town where you will find this intriguing place.

There are so many good things about this project. Residents can get rid of unwanted stuff, same as they would anywhere else. But rather than burdening local government with that disposal, it turns that waste into an opportunity. Goods are diverted from the waste stream and put back into circulation, saving the materials and embodied energy. 50 new jobs were created in repair and retail. The centre itself is operated by the municipality, but the shops are private businesses and social enterprises, so it creates space for start-ups and local artisans.

It’s a stark contrast to my local recycling centre, which is little more than a loop of road with skips, and you drive around and drop off your stuff in the relevant dump – fridges here, rubble there, carpets over there. It is taken away and most of it is recycled eventually, but in every skip there’s a huge amount of reusable material. There are mountains of appliances that could be repaired, and bikes that just need a little maintenance, but they are all treated as scrap. I’ve seen guitars in the scrap wood bin, destined to be plywood when all they needed was new strings and a polish. Imagine if those items were rescued and given a new life. Every town recycling centre could have a number of workshops and retail points on site, or could partner with shops nearby.

ReTuna Återbruksgalleria is a living demonstration of the circular economy, a very practical way of unlocking the value in what we throw away, and it’s a project we could all learn from. Eskilstuna got there first, but perhaps one day you’ll find something very similar in your own town.

Jeremy Williams

Monday, March 27, 2017

United Airlines Kicks Girl Wearing Leggings Off Flight

Social Media Users Slam United on Twitter After They Reportedly Wouldn't Allow Girls to Wear Leggings on Flight

United Airlines is facing major backlash after a woman tweeted that gate agents were not allowing young girls onto a flight because they were wearing leggings.

Shannon Watts, a mother-of-five from Colorado and founder of movement Moms Demand Action, shared her experience on a recent flight on Twitter, writing that the young passengers were forced to change before boarding a flight from Denver to Minneapolis.

“A @united gate agent isn’t letting girls in leggings get on flight from Denver to Minneapolis because spandex is not allowed?” she tweeted on Sunday. “She’s forcing them to change or put dresses on over leggings or they can’t board. Since when does @united police women’s clothing?”

© AP Photo/David J. Phillip, File In this July 8, 2015, file photo, United Airlines planes are parked at their gates as another plane, top, taxis past them at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston.

Although some were allowed onto the plane after modifying or changing their outfits, she tweeted that two girls, one of whom was 10-years-old, were not allowed on the flight. Watts asked United for an explanation.

“They just boarded after being forced to change or put dresses on over the top of their clothing. Is this your policy?” Watts asked the airline.
United responded to Watts on Twitter, writing that they “have the right to refuse transport for passengers who are barefoot or not properly clothed.”

While United does state this rule on their website, there is no details on what “properly clothed” implies.
“A 10-year-old girl in gray leggings. She looked normal and appropriate,” Watts responded. “Apparently @united is policing the clothing of women and girls.”
Many woman expressed their outrage at the situation while tweeting at the airline. In response to one tweet that defended wearing leggings for their comfort on flights, United doubled down on their action to remove the girls.
“United shall have the right to refuse passengers who are not properly clothed via our Contract of Carriage,” they wrote.

Furious Twitter users flooded United with responses, voicing their disagreement and confusion with the policy — and its lack of clear definition on what clothing is not acceptable.
“I’ve worn leggings on United flights dozens of times,” wrote one woman. “Very strange to enforce this rule randomly.”