Gotcha! Powerball prize-sharing joke hits 1M shares on Facebook

Some people have to feel real stupid tonight. Or, maybe not. Anything is worth a shot right?

A joke Facebook post by a man claiming to have a winning Powerball lottery ticket has been shared 1 million times just in the 24 hours since it was posted.

Nolan Daniels posted an image of himself on the social network holding a Powerball ticket Thursday evening. He claimed it was a winning ticket and that if his friends shared the photo, he would give a million dollars to one of them at random. As the post was made public (and remains so as of this writing), it went viral, spreading from Facebook to blogs and various websites.

Even a cursory examination of the photo shows it to be the crudest of manipulations, with the telltale signs of simple copying and pasting to make the numbers appear to be a winning permutation. And those familiar with the rules may also have noticed that the numbers are not printed in numerical order, as they would be on a real ticket.

Despite the ruse being glaringly obvious, the photo — and some folks' hopes for a cut of the dough — has spread like wildfire. NBC News has contacted Daniels for comment, and will update this post if we hear back from him. (Source)

From the Marijuana Files: Why Are We Testing Newborns for Pot?

       Good Day World!

It seems I don’t have to look far nowadays to find a story dealing with marijuana. Some are strange. Some are ridiculous. Some are funny. Some are shocking. Some leave you shaking your head in dull wonder. I’ll leave it to you to decide which the following story about marijuana is:

  “The science is alarmingly inconclusive, but the punishment for mothers is severe. Employees at US hospitals are testing more and more newborns for cannabis exposure. And, with alarming frequency, they are getting the wrong results. So say a pair of recent studies documenting the unreliability of infant drug testing.

  In the most recent trial, published in the September edition of the Journal of Clinical Chemistry , investigators at the University of Utah School of Medicine evaluated the rate of unconfirmed "positive" immunoassay test results in infant and non-infant urine samples over a 52-week period.

  Shockingly, authors found that positive tests for carboxy THC, a byproduct of THC screened for in immunoassay urine tests, were 59 times less likely to be confirmed in infant urine specimens as compared to non-infant urine samples.       Overall, 47 percent of the infant positive immunoassay urine samples evaluated did not test for the presence of carboxy THC when confirmatory assay measures were later performed.

  “No child-health expert would characterize recreational drug use during pregnancy as a good idea,” writes Time.com columnist Maia Szalavitz. “But it’s not at all clear that the benefits, if any, of newborn marijuana screening – particularly given how selectively the tests are administered – justify the potential harm it can cause to families.”
Richard Wexler, executive director of the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform agrees, telling Time.com that the emotional damage caused by removing an infant child from their mothers, as well as the risk of abuse inherent to foster care, far outweigh any risks to the child that may be caused by maternal marijuana use during pregnancy.

   In fact, the potential health effects of maternal marijuana use on infant birth weight and early development have been subject to scientific scrutiny for several decades. One of the earliest and most often cited studies on the topic comes from Dr. Melanie Dreher and colleagues, who assessed neonatal outcomes in Jamaica, where it is customary for many women to ingest cannabis, often in tea, during pregnancy to combat symptoms of morning sickness.

Writing in the journal  Pediatrics in 1994, Dreher and colleagues reported no significant physical or psychological differences in newborns of heavy marijuana-using mothers at three days old, and found that exposed children performed better on a variety of physiological and autonomic tests than non-exposed children at 30 days. (This latter trend was suggested to have been a result of the socio-economic status of the mothers rather than a result of pre-natal pot exposure.) (Source)

Time for me to walk on down the road…

Scientist warn public: Grapefruit juice can interact badly with your medication

               Good Day World!
If you kick-start your day with a glass of grapefruit juice, be careful.
Canadian scientists say the number of common drugs that can interact badly with the tart citrus is climbing, with the potential for dangerous, even deadly, results.
Twenty-six new drugs that can cause serious harm when mixed with grapefruit have been introduced in the past four years alone, bringing the total to 43, said Dr. David Bailey, a clinical pharmacologist at the Lawson Health Institute Research Center in London, Ontario. That’s an average of more than six new drugs a year.
“What I’ve seen has been disturbing,” said Bailey, lead author on a study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. “It’s hard to avoid putting a drug out on the market that is not affected by grapefruit juice.”

More than 85 drugs that interact with whole grapefruit, grapefruit concentrate or fresh grapefruit juice have been identified, though not all have serious consequences. Those that do, however, can cause problems that include acute kidney failure, respiratory failure, gastric bleeding -- and worse.
“When I say sudden death, I’m not being sensational,” said Bailey, who said 13 drugs may be lethal when mixed with grapefruit.
The heart drug dronedarone, or Multaq, for instance, has a very high risk of interaction when taken with grapefruit, which may cause a rare form of ventricular tachycardia or rapid heart rhythm, the researchers found.
the prescription painkiller oxycodone with grapefruit can cause serious breathing problems, and adding the fruit to a dose of the popular statin simvastatin, or Zocor, can lead to rhabdomyolysis, a breakdown of muscle fibers that can lead to kidney damage.
To see a complete list of drugs that interact with grapefruit, click here.
The trouble with grapefruit has been known for two decades, ever since Bailey and his colleagues first discovered that ingestion of the fruit with certain prescription drugs can concentrate the medication in a patient’s bloodstream.
Drinking less than a cup of grapefruit juice once a day for three days, for instance, can lead to a 330 percent concentration of simvastatin, the researchers reported.
“I’ve seen a 10-fold increase in some patients,” Bailey said. And it doesn’t matter whether the grapefruit is consumed hours before the pills, the researchers found.
The problem is caused by an active ingredient in some citrus fruits, including grapefruit, limes and pomelos. Even the Seville oranges used in marmalades can trigger it. The fruits produce organic chemical compounds called furanocoumarins, which interfere with a human digestive enzyme.
That enzyme, called CYP3A4, helps metabolize toxic substances to keep them from getting into the bloodstream. Typically, that means the enzyme inactivates the effects of about 50 percent of all medications. Doctors adjust for that when prescribing drugs.

However, when the furanocoumarins in citrus inhibit that enzyme, the drugs can become concentrated in a patient’s system. In some cases, it can be like getting a triple or quadruple dose of medication, Bailey said.
Drugs known to interact with grapefruit do carry warnings, but Bailey said he believes that neither doctors nor patients may take the threat seriously enough.
“Basically, most people are sort of aware of grapefruit juice drug interactions, but I don’t think it’s in the forefront of their mind on a regular basis,” he said.
It’s not clear how many people actually are harmed by grapefruit interactions, mostly because the side effects are often not recognized as being related to the citrus, said Bailey, who included eight case reports in his study. “For every case report, there are at least 100 that have never been reported,” he said.
Part of the concern lies in the fact that people older than 45 are most likely to consume grapefruit juice -- and to take prescription drugs. Seniors older than 70 have the most trouble tolerating excessively high levels of drugs, Bailey noted.

“These are the individuals with the greatest chance of exposure," he said.
Patients worried about the interaction of grapefruit with their medications should talk with their doctors, Bailey said. And doctors should make sure to ask about grapefruit consumption when prescribing drugs.
Some grapefruit lovers may have cut back already because of the risk of drug interaction. Consumption of grapefruit juice has dropped in the past decade, falling from .44 gallons of juice per person per year in 2000 to .15 gallons per person in 2011, according to figures from the Florida Department of Citrus.
Officials there say that although some drugs do interact with grapefruit, most do not. In most cases, doctors can prescribe drugs in the same class that don’t interact, noted Karen Mathis, a department spokeswoman.
“These medications often can provide the same therapeutic effect with no need to avoid grapefruit juice,” she said in a statement. And not all citrus poses a problem, Bailey noted. Sweet oranges, such as navel and Valencia varieties, don’t contain the damaging compound.
“You have an alternative there,” he suggested. “If you want to take your medications with orange juice, you’re home free.” (Source)
Time for me to walk on down the road…

Court Calls for Corrective Ads: Tobacco Firms Ordered to Say They Lied about Smoking Dangers

            Good Day World!

I can still remember how grouchy I was that first week of January 2000. I quit smoking cigarettes cold turkey after nearly 30 years of the bad habit. I was eating Altoids (curiously strong mints) by the handful. But as the days turned into months I saw the positive results…and was impressed.

I got my sense of smell and taste back (although it took nearly a year for my taste buds to fully recoup). I was taking deep breaths and not hacking like a chimney sweep. It felt good not hear my lungs rattle as I talked. Most of my clothes were so sodden with nicotine that I had to throw them out and start over.

Once I broke that terrible addiction, I looked into the lies the tobacco industry was telling the public with the refreshed eyes of a new found anti-tobacco zealot. It’s been a slow process getting the tobacco industry to this point but now it’s really time for them to eat crow:

A federal judge on Tuesday ordered tobacco companies to publish corrective statements that say they lied about the dangers of smoking and that disclose smoking's health effects, including the death on average of 1,200 people a day.

U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler previously had said she wanted the industry to pay for corrective statements in various types of advertisements. But Tuesday's ruling is the first time she's laid out what the statements will say.

Each corrective ad is to be prefaced by a statement that a federal court has concluded that the defendant tobacco companies "deliberately deceived the American public about the ."

Among the required statements are that more people than murder, AIDS, suicide, drugs, car crashes and alcohol combined, and that "secondhand smoke kills over 3,000 Americans a year."

The corrective statements are part of a case the government brought in 1999 under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations. Kessler ruled in that case in 2006 that the nation's largest cigarette makers concealed the dangers of smoking for decades, and said she wanted the industry to pay for "corrective statements" in various types of ads, both broadcast and print. The Justice Department proposed corrective statements, which Kessler used as the basis for some of the ones she ordered Tuesday.

Tobacco companies had urged Kessler to reject the government's proposed industry-financed corrective statements; the companies called them "forced public confessions." They also said the statements were designed to "shame and humiliate" them. They had argued for statements that include the health effects and addictive qualities of smoking.

Kessler wrote that all of the corrective statements are based on specific findings of fact made by the court.

"This court made a number of explicit findings that the tobacco companies perpetuated fraud and deceived the public regarding the addictiveness of cigarettes and nicotine," she said.

A spokesman for Altria Group Inc., owner of the nation's biggest tobacco company, Philip Morris USA, said the company was studying the court's decision and did not provide any further comment. A spokesman for Reynolds American Inc., parent company of No. 2 cigarette maker, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., said the company was reviewing the ruling and considering its next steps.

The statements Kessler chose included five categories: adverse health effects of smoking; addictiveness of smoking and nicotine; lack of significant health benefit from smoking cigarettesmarked as "low tar," "light," etc.; manipulation of cigarette design and composition to ensure optimum nicotine delivery; and adverse health effects of exposure to secondhand smoke.

Among the statements within those categories:

• "Smoking kills, on average, 1,200 Americans. Every day." 
• "Defendant tobacco companies intentionally designed cigarettes to make them more addictive." 
• "When you smoke, the nicotine actually changes the brain — that's why quitting is so hard." 
• "All cigarettes cause cancer, lung disease, heart attacks and premature death — lights, low tar, ultra lights and naturals. There is no safe cigarette." 
• "Secondhand smoke causes lung cancer and coronary heart disease in adults who do not smoke." "Children exposed to secondhand smoke are at an increased risk for sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), acute respiratory infections, ear problems, severe asthma and reduced lung function." 
• "There is no safe level of exposure to secondhand smoke."

  Justice Department spokesman Charles Miller said the department was pleased with the order.

  

  Matt Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, called it an important ruling.

  "The most critical part of the ruling is that it requires the tobacco companies to state clearly that the court found that they deceived the American public and that they are telling the truth now only because the court is ordering them to do so," Myers said in an interview. "This isn't the last word, but this is a vitally important step because this should resolve exactly what the tobacco companies are required to say."

  In July, a federal appeals court rejected efforts by the tobacco companies to overrule Kessler's ruling requiring corrective statements. The companies had argued that a 2009 law that gave the Food and Drug Administration authority over the industry eliminated "any reasonable likelihood" that they would commit future RICO violations.

  In her ruling Tuesday, Kessler ordered the tobacco companies and Justice Department to meet beginning next month to address how to implement the corrective statements, including whether they will be put in inserts with cigarette packs and on websites, TV and newspaper ads. Those discussions are to conclude by March. (source)

  Time for me to walk on down the road….and not tobacco road either!

  Time for me to walk on down

Three family members drown attempting to save their dog at Big Lagoon Beach

        Good Day World!

I can’t get the image out of my mind.

A family’s pet dog runs out into the breakers at Big Lagoon Beach (a mere 15 miles or so from where I live) and get’s swept out to sea by 10-foot swells. The family, a man, woman, and teenage son – all standing nearby - jumped in…one by-one…the first to save the pet then the others followed for whatever reason.

Big Lagoon is located about 32 miles north of Eureka in Humboldt County.

It ends badly. Like it has for so many others who fell victim to our deadly north coast surf. It wasn’t a sneaker wave this time, something we’re also known for. No. I’m not sure what to call this tragedy. The waves were just to big and strong. The water too cold. They loved their pet too much? Is that possible? Love is a mighty motivator. A rescue that turned into a rescue?

The local authorities found the body of the man and the woman yesterday.They’re still looking for the teenage son as I write this. The U.S. Coast Guard reported the daughter of the couple called for help. Did she witness this terrible turn of events? It appears she did. My heart goes out to her. The final irony here; the dog managed to make it to safety.

I’m looking down into the eyes of my eight-year old pug Millie and wondering just how far I’d go to save her life? I hope I never have to find out.

Time for me to walk on down the road… sadly

Game Over! Walmart workers kill shoplifter who lifted 2 DVD players

       Good Day World!

I hope the individuals who ran down the shoplifter at Walmart feel it was worth it to kill for that stolen merchandise. When he was gagging for air under the weight of all three of them (one had a chokehold on him too) I wonder if they thought their actions were going to get them declared heroes? Maybe they thought they’d get a holiday bonus for saving Walmart’s bottom line.

More than likely though, the knuckleheads didn’t think at all. They over-reacted. They stepped over the line and death was the result. I will never condone stealing from stores, but no product is worth a person’s life. Logic was left at the curb with the two DVD players.

VIA THE ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION -

The Black Friday shopping weekend apparently took a tragic turn early Sunday morning when an alleged shoplifter died while being apprehended by employees and a contract security officer outside a Lithonia Walmart.

Two associates who helped catch and subdue the suspect before police arrived have been placed on leave; the security officer who police say may have placed the suspected thief in a choke hold, is no longer working for Walmart.

“No amount of merchandise is worth someone’s life,” Walmart spokesperson Dianna Gee said Sunday in a statement that emphasized that it was early in the investigation into the incident and all the facts were not known yet. “Associates are trained to disengage from situations that would put themselves or others at risk.”

DeKalb police say that the unidentified man took two DVD players from the Walmart at 5401 Fairington Road around 1:30 a.m. The man, who appeared to be middle aged, exited through the front door, but was caught by the trio in the parking lot where a “physical altercation” took place, according to the police report.

When police arrived, they found the trio on top of the man. An officer who handcuffed the suspected shoplifter detected no resistance from him and ordered the employees off. Police found the man to be unresponsive and bleeding from his nose and mouth. Emergency units responded and transported him to DMC-Hillandale Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

“This is truly a sad situation,” Gee said. “We don’t know all of the facts right now. We’re in the process of working with law enforcement to deterimine all of the facts and cooperating and providing any information we have to assist in the investigation.

The preliminary investigation indicates the victim was placed in a choke hold by the security officer. The cause and manner of death is to be determined by the DeKalb Medical Examiner’s office. A spokesman said no information on the victim would be released until Monday.The two Walmart associates involved in the incident have been suspended with pay pending the outcome of the investigation, Gee said, adding that, “The security officer involved will no longer be providing services to us.”

Time for me to walk on down the road…disgusted

As It Stands: Congress: A rest home for old politicians

 By Dave Stancliff/For The Times-Standard
I’ve got an idea that could break the gridlock in Congress. Not immediately, but by the time the next elections roll around. We’re stuck with the current crew of ideology-driven drones and party-first clowns for now.
It’s never too soon to work on changing things however. The idea? Simple. Term limits. We’ve already settled that issue in regards to the presidency with the ratification of the 22nd amendment in February of 1951.        
Several attempts have been made to limit the number of terms Senators and Congressmen can hold office. Most attempts seek to limit the time in office to 12 years, which would limit Senators to 2 terms and House members to 6 terms.

As part of the Contract with America in 1994, House Republicans attempted to established 12-year terms limits for Congress. However, they failed to achieve the 2/3 majority required to pass such an amendment.
Whatever the role of the Contract, Republicans were elected to a majority of both houses of Congress for the first time since 1953, and several parts of the Contract were enacted. Some elements did not pass in Congress, while others were vetoed by, or substantially altered in negotiations with President Bill Clinton, who would later sarcastically refer to it as the "Contract on America.”
  I’ve always contended that having life-long members in Congress is detrimental to our system of government.
As of November 24, 2012, 66 of the current 100 members range in age from their early 60’s to their late 80s. Four senators are in their 80s, 24 are in their 70s,  and 38 are in their 60s.
Let’s face it, that’s a little “long in the teeth” to be actively introducing and voting on legislation. There’s no way they are as alert as a 50-year old member. I don’t care what anyone says. Talk about being rigid. Many of those old coots are mentally living in the 50s and don’t truly represent what Americans feel today.

In February of this year the senate soundly rejected the idea of term limits with a 24-75 vote. Sen. Jim DeMint’s (R-S.C.) amendment would have expressed the non-binding sense of the Senate that the Constitution to place limits on how long members of Congress can serve.
I’m not surprised. The members of Congress have a good deal and don’t want anything to change. The perks they get are seldom found outside of government. So it seems we’re stuck. Or, maybe not.
People have been going on about this term limit thing for decades with no progress. But the times, they are changing. We have the internet and social media like FaceBook and Twitter that can galvanize movements and generate change.

Up to now the American people have had their hands tied as the members of Congress protected themselves and made sure no one rocked the boat. The subject would come up, and they’d act like they were really considering it, but lo and behold, nothing was ever passed.
We’ve all heard about the Arab Spring, Occupy, and other social movements by people demanding change from their governments.

Social media has been a key in those changes. There’s no reason a groundswell movement involving millions of Americans couldn’t put these insulated lawmakers on notice.
We know they’re never going to fix the problem. They don’t see it as a problem. Dying on the job is what they all hope to do.
I would be remiss in not noting that these geezers keep getting re-elected. 
That’s the part I don’t get. How do people expect change to happen when the status quo in Congress is maintained? Don’t expect the mainstream media to take up this issue, as most of it is owned by one of the two ruling political parties.
Twelve years in office should be more than enough. I don’t have anything against a person’s age, but at some point in our lives we all need to retire and let young blood and fresh ideas take over.
   As It Stands, when you have a group of old timer’s hobbling down the halls of Congress it’s time to call it a rest home for politicians!

What a surprise! I had no idea that my blog was worth so much

I’ve really noticed a big increase in my viewer traffic this year, but I had no idea what that equated to in terms of the value of my blog. Since my partnership with Learnist a lot of good things have been happening. When I checked a hosting site for blogs today I was stunned to see this one is worth $69,000!

Since sharing this information I’ve had some people ask me if I’m going to sell my blog? The answer is no. I enjoy doing it too much and don’t want to start another one. If I keep going in the direction I am, the worth will continue to increase. Maybe some day (if I need too) I’ll sell it.

As for now, it’s blogging as usual and thank you for contributing to my success by visiting! A big hug to all my readers! Thanks!

A piece of music history for sale: Rejected Silver Beatles audition tape to go up for auction

    Good Day World!

Have you ever made a colossal error in your life? Did something that later turned out to be so dumb you vowed never to share it with anyone? Not even for a price?

Don’t feel too bad my friend, because I doubt you could have topped Dick Rowe’s bad move. 

The Beatles audition tape rejected by a record label executive in arguably the biggest blunder in pop history has resurfaced and will go on sale at a London auction next week.

Ted Owen of The Fame Bureau, an auction house specializing in pop memorabilia, said the 10-song tape was recorded on New Year's Day, 1962, at label Decca's studios in north London.

Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison and Pete Best - who would later be replaced on drums by Ringo Starr - performed up to 15 songs at the session, 10 of which appear on the tape to be sold on Nov. 27.

The band members had been driven from Liverpool to London the night before, and, despite getting lost on the way managed to get to the studios in time for the infamous session paid for by their manager Brian Epstein.

Decca's senior A&R (artists and repertoire) representative Dick Rowe, who later became known as "the man who turned down the Beatles," decided against signing them in favor of Brian Poole & The Tremeloes who also auditioned that day.

"Guitar groups are on their way out, Mr. Epstein," he is widely quoted as saying.

Rowe did, however, sign the Rolling Stones, who went on to become one of the biggest acts in British rock, and experts dispute whether it was him or a more junior colleague who passed the Beatles over.

There are bootleg versions of the session in existence, but the "safety master," or back-up tape, on offer at auction is unique, Owen said.

"The most important thing about this is the quality," he told Reuters. "There are bootlegs out there, horrible bootlegs -- some are at the wrong speed, others are crackily and taken from a cassette off an acetate (disc).

"This quality we have never heard." Despite its rarity, the tape has been estimated to fetch $29,000 to $32,000, which Owen said had been set by the owner and was a "sensible" starting point.

He added that only a handful of collectors were likely to bid for the piece of pop history, and, given that the Beatles own the copyright through their company, a commercial record release based on the tape was extremely unlikely.

Marked as the "Silver Beatles," which the "Fab Four" were briefly called, the tape comes with a hand-written track list and black-and-white photograph of the musicians posing in leather jackets that would be been used for the record sleeve. (source)

Time for me to walk on down the road….

Who would have guessed? Drinking Soda Can Damage Your Knees

     Good Day World!

One of life’s little challenges for me is dealing with osteoarthritis in my knees. I do whatever I can to take care of my fossilizing knees and was surprised to read about some research that said soda was bad for them…men’s knees that is; not women’s!

If you have bad knees you might want to lay off the soda. New research has found that men with osteoarthritis of the knee who drink sugary soft drinks fare worse than those who avoid the sweet stuff.

The study, presented at meeting of the American College of Rheumatology in Washington, found the more soda men drink, the greater the risk their arthritis will progress and cause more pain.

And here’s the kicker: It’s not because soda drinkers pack on more pounds, causing greater wear and tear on their knees. The researchers were surprised to discover the link between arthritis and soft drinks could not solely be explained by excess weight from drinking too many sodas, said Bing Lu, M.D., assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and biostatistician at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.

Dr. Lu, who led the study, said he and his colleagues don’t know why high-calorie soft drinks worsen osteoarthritis in men — but not women. But the researchers speculate that several ingredients in sugary drinks damage bone health. Caffeine, for instance, can promote osteoporosis, phosphoric acid may interfere with calcium absorption, and high fructose corn syrup — a common sweetener in carbonated beverages — can also negatively affect bone. Dr. Lu added that sex hormones may also explain the gender differences.

The American Beverage Association criticized the study and noted the researchers could not say for sure whether there is a cause-and-effect relationship between soda and the progression of osteoarthritis.

Researchers examined 2,149 osteoarthritis patients — 3,066 knees — and surveyed them about the frequency of their non-diet soft drink consumption. They tracked the progression of the participants’ arthritis over a four-year period.

After taking into account excess weight and other risk factors for knee osteoarthritis, the researchers found men who drank five or more soft drinks a week had a greater progression of their disease — by twice as much, based on standard measures of osteoarthritis — compared with men who did not drink sugary soda.

The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health, Pfizer Inc., Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation, Merck Research Laboratories, and GlaxoSmithKline — the makers of anti-arthritis drugs.

An estimated 1 in 100 people have knee osteoarthritis — a condition in which the cartilage in the joint wears away, reducing its ability to reduce friction and act as a biological shock absorber, causing pain and other symptoms. Known risk factors for the disease include obesity, age, prior injury to the knee, and extreme stress to the joints — as occurs with some athletes and people who engage in physically demanding jobs or other activities.

Osteoarthritis is one of the most common reasons for knee joint replacement surgery. (Source)

Time for me to walk on down the road…slowly!

As It Stands Wishes You A Happy Thanksgiving!