| Horrors of Hongwei
The lives of residents in a village in northern China are being destroyed by high rates of cancer and what is claimed to be cerebral palsy among their children yet no one has come up with an answer. Steven Ribet reports W ith one of his meaty hands, Xing Fengshan pushes a red and gold box of Honghe cigarettes across the table to me. We haven't even eaten lunch and the thickset northern Chinese has all but smoked his way through a whole packet. A thought flickers across my mind that I should warn him of the dangers to his health. Yet such advice seems laughable here. Outside I can see the rods and pipes of the fractionating towers within the Hongwei Petrochemical Park. Sunlight percolates through polluted air. Then it filters through two grimy window layers fitted to ward off the harsh winter in these parts.
Bill Simmons Time to fix the NBA playoffs We'll remember the 2007 NBA ...
All right, I guess that was some tooting. But I did try to warn you.) By the time the Spurs extended their lead to the high 20s and Mike Breen started sobbing on-air that he had been stuck with so many lousy playoff games while Dick Freaking Stockton got to call the Mavs-Warriors series, the 2006-07 season, for all intent and purpose, had been rammed with a giant pitchfork like the one Jason Voorhees used in "Friday the 13th 3D." So it was natural for everyone to start thinking about the summer, free agency, the draft and everything else. At the same time, we've reached a point that the off-court stuff has become consistently more fascinating. Tuesday morning, I wasn't sure whether Game 3 of the Spurs-Cavs series would be good, but I definitely knew hoopshype.com's NBA Rumors page would give me 20-25 minutes of enjoyable links and rumors.
Mindfulness Takes On New Meaning In The Anxiety Age
When I begin to discuss mindfulness with clients, colleagues and friends, Ive learned to preface the discussion with the idea that it seems easy to do, but it is in fact harder than we imagine. We tend to give in to our ruminations and judgments and fail to observe what really is going on. Instead of running away from unpleasant thoughts, feelings and sensations, mindfulness encourages us to run towards them.
Jon Kabat-Zinn, a leading innovator in bringing the concept of mindfulness to Western medicine, tells patients of his that the meditation that is the core of mindfulness is not for the faint hearted. My grandmother used to say that Aging was not for sissies and the same might be said about mindfulness. It requires the person to take an honest, non-judgmental look at all of ones parts.
Tibet's March Toward Modernization
Modernization has been an important issue confronting countries and regions worldwide in modern times. Since the invasion of the Western powers in the mid-19th century, it has been the most important task of the people of all ethnic groups in China, the Tibetan people included, to get rid of poverty and backwardness, shake off the lot of being trampled upon, and build up an independent, united, strong, democratic and civilized modern country. Since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, and especially since the introduction of reform and opening to the outside world, the modernization drive in China has been burgeoning with each passing day, and achieved successes attracting worldwide attention. China is taking vigorous steps to open even wider and become more prosperous. China's Tibet, with its peaceful liberation in 1951 as the starting point, has carried out regional ethnic autonomy and made a historical leap in its social system following the Democratic Reform in 1959 and the elimination of the feudal serf system.
Lawrence Broxmeyer's Avian Influenza, H5N1 And the Pandemic of 1918
Summary: Researcher/doctor Lawrence Broxmeyer recently, at the express request of the Editor-in-Chief a prominent Elsevier peer-reviewed medical journal, wrote an innovative Editorial dealing with the Pandemic of 1918 and today's bird flu. He speaks of that paper here.
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US research on diabetes drug Avandia has little effect in China
Shanghai. May 25. INTERFAX-CHINA - A research report suggesting that a GlaxoSmithKline-manufactured diabetes drug can increase the risk of heart attack has had little effect on the use of the drug in China, a hospital official told Interfax today. "When a drug causes severe adverse drug reactions or even death, then it will have an impact on the use of the drug in China," said Liu Shijun, chief pharmacist of the Jinan Military Zone General Hospital in Shandong, in reference to reports GSK's Avandia increases the risk of heart attack. Lui said doctors would continue to use Avandia when necessary but that they may be more careful about prescribing the drug to people with a pre-existing heart condition. Avandia, known by its generic name as rosiglitazone maleate, has been widely used in the treatment of type 2 diabetes.
The 'happy berry' sweetens the faithful, sours skeptics
Lately Ive had this dream. Im climbing a remote Himalayan peak, looking for a miraculous healing herb. Somewhere around here, there must be a wrinkled farmer or a robed monk with the antidote to Western stress and excess. Exhausted, I haul myself over a crag and come face to face with fast-talking Discount Dave Sheets, Lansings own Mattress King. In his hand is a one-liter bottle of Himalayan Goji Juice. Despite the frigid wastes around us, his shirt is open to reveal a gold chain and a deep tan. It changed my life immediately, he says. Im drinking it the rest of my life. When I open my eyes, the mountain is gone, but the voice and the words are real. Sheets is sitting across the table from me at his Vegas-style Cadillac Club, pitching the juice of the goji berry, the hottest new herbal dietary supplement on the market.
Langham launches second hotel in China
Langham Hotels International (LHI) is opening a five-star hotel called the Langham Place Hotel in Changchun, north east China. The 34-storey hotel to be accommodated inside the existing Jinzuo Building will comprise 350 bedrooms and 100 serviced apartments, a 3,000sq m (32,300sq ft) multi-purpose function space, including a ballroom, as well as four food and beverage outlets. The hotels Chuan Spa and Residences facility will provide treatments based on Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) philosophies. Changchun Jinzuo Real Estate Development will build the hotel, which will open in 2009. K. S. Lo, chair of the hotel group, said: The boom in the tourism and convention and exhibition industry in Changchun in recent years has spurred a strong demand for quality hotels.
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