Not worthy of a thread News

[mookie]

https://www.youtube.com/results?q=black ... a=N&tab=w1

Fire in the Black Forest. My folks live at County Line Road north of Woodmoor.

[E.H. Ruddock]

https://www.youtube.com/results?q=black%20forest%20fire%20%2B%20video&rlz=1C1CHFX_enUS518US518&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=w1

Fire in the Black Forest. My folks live at County Line Road north of Woodmoor.

That sucks, mookie, sorry. I've been in contact with some friends out there. Crazy to hear about Royal Gorge Bridge too. I used to live on the Academy base for a while. Hope your folks do ok.

[mookie]

The evac line was expanded again. My folks spent all day yesterday packing things up. They'll be fine. Their house may not be though. My grandpa thinks their house is way too big anyways. (He's staying with them)

My sister lives in Canon City. They were saying last night on the news that they may be able to open the Gorge up to rafting and helicopter tours again in just a few days.

[nyquillyn]

The evac line was expanded again. My folks spent all day yesterday packing things up. They'll be fine. Their house may not be though. My grandpa thinks their house is way too big anyways. (He's staying with them)

My sister lives in Canon City. They were saying last night on the news that they may be able to open the Gorge up to rafting and helicopter tours again in just a few days.

My mother and best friend went through a similar situation last year when fires swept through New Mexico. Good luck to you and your family, mookie.

[Jorge]

Two big trains collided yesterday, here in Argentina. 3 dead and 200+ injured, some very badly.

[mookie]

The evac line was expanded again. My folks spent all day yesterday packing things up. They'll be fine. Their house may not be though. My grandpa thinks their house is way too big anyways. (He's staying with them)

My sister lives in Canon City. They were saying last night on the news that they may be able to open the Gorge up to rafting and helicopter tours again in just a few days.

My mother and best friend went through a similar situation last year when fires swept through New Mexico. Good luck to you and your family, mookie.

https://www.facebook.com/eric.anson/med ... 830&type=1

This is a collection of photos from the past few days.

Thanks. You know it then, it sucks! Even if your home is spared, it sucks. Packing, trying not to panic, hoping for some good rain and not the bullshit that evaporates before it hits the ground - it all wears on you. My parents have packed up twice in two years. They mitigate their property though, so we'll see. I'll worry if/when Woodmoor flares up.

[KurtLeon]

A text about the Brazillian Riot:
http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-988431

[Biff Pocoroba]

Exodus International, one of the largest and best known Christian ministries devoted to a "pray the gay away" approach to sexually conflicted individuals, has disbanded.

http://news.yahoo.com/christian-group-a ... 20199.html

[Let's all laugh at Rangers]

Exodus International, one of the largest and best known Christian ministries devoted to a "pray the gay away" approach to sexually conflicted individuals, has disbanded.

http://news.yahoo.com/christian-group-a ... 20199.html

Let's all laugh at Rangers like this

[McParadigm]

Exodus International, one of the largest and best known Christian ministries devoted to a "pray the gay away" approach to sexually conflicted individuals, has disbanded.

http://news.yahoo.com/christian-group-a ... 20199.html

Every time I see a headline regarding faith organizations opposing homosexuality, Orson Scott Card comes to my mind. I have to assume that his "I don't think we should grant homosexuals the same rights we do blacks" is among the most awkward moments in "I'm a big fan of yours" journalistic interview history.

[nyquillyn]

AMA declares obesity a disease

The move by the American Medical Assn. board means that one-third of adults and 17% of children in the U.S. have a medical condition that requires treatment.



By Melissa Healy and Anna Gorman, Los Angeles Times

The American Medical Assn. voted Tuesday to declare obesity a disease, a move that effectively defines 78 million American adults and 12 million children as having a medical condition requiring treatment.

The nation's leading physicians organization took the vote after debating whether the action would do more to help affected patients get useful treatment or would further stigmatize a condition with many causes and few easy fixes.

In the end, members of the AMA's House of Delegates rejected cautionary advice from their own experts and extended the new status to a condition that affects more than one-third of adults and 17% of children in the United States.

"Recognizing obesity as a disease will help change the way the medical community tackles this complex issue that affects approximately 1 in 3 Americans," said Dr. Patrice Harris, an AMA board member.

Tuesday's vote is certain to step up pressure on health insurance companies to reimburse physicians for the time-consuming task of discussing obesity's health risks with patients whose body mass index exceeds 30. It should also encourage doctors to direct these patients to weight-loss programs and to monitor their often-fitful progress.

The federally funded Medicare program, which insures an estimated 13 million obese Americans who are over 65 or disabled, already covers the costs of "intensive behavioral therapy" for obese patients, as well as bariatric surgery for those with additional health conditions. But coverage for such obesity treatments has been uneven among private insurers.

Insurers who are members of the California Assn. of Health Plans cover many services to treat medical conditions associated with obesity, including bariatric surgery and diabetes, said President and Chief Executive Patrick Johnston.

The AMA's decision essentially makes diagnosis and treatment of obesity a physician's professional obligation. As such, it should encourage primary care physicians to get over their discomfort about raising weight concerns with obese patients. Studies have found that more than half of obese patients have never been told by a medical professional they need to lose weight — a result not only of some doctors' reluctance to offend but of their unwillingness to open a lengthy consultation for which they might not be reimbursed.

Past AMA documents have referred to obesity as an "urgent chronic condition," a "major health concern" and a "complex disorder." The vote now lifts obesity above the status of a health condition, disorder or marker for heightened risk of disease — as high cholesterol is for heart disease, for instance.

"As things stand now, primary care physicians tend to look at obesity as a behavior problem," said Dr. Rexford Ahima of University of Pennsylvania's Institute for Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism. "This will force primary care physicians to address it, even if we don't have a cure for it."

The new designation follows a steep 30-year climb in Americans' weight — and growing public concern over the resulting tidal wave of expensive health problems. Treatment of such obesity-related illnesses as cardiovascular disease, Type 2 diabetes and certain cancers drives up the nation's medical bill by more than $150 billion a year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Projected increases in the obesity rate could boost that figure by an additional $550 billion over the next 20 years, a recent Duke University study concluded.

In laying out the case for and against the redefinition of obesity, the AMA's Council on Science and Public Health argued that more widespread recognition of obesity as a disease "could result in greater investments by government and the private sector to develop and reimburse obesity treatments."

The Food and Drug Administration, which has approved just two new prescription weight-loss medications since 1999, would probably face increased pressure to approve new obesity drugs, spurring new drug development and more widespread prescribing by physicians, the council noted.

"The greater urgency a disease label confers" also might boost support for obesity-prevention programs such as physical education initiatives and reforms to school lunch, the council added. In addition, it speculated that "employers may be required to cover obesity treatments for their employees and may be less able to discriminate on the basis of body weight."

But the council also said that making obesity a disease could deepen the stigma attached to being overweight and doom some patients to endless nagging — even if they were otherwise healthy or had lost enough weight to improve their health.

It might also shift the nation's focus too much toward expensive drug and surgical treatments and away from measures to encourage healthy diets and regular exercise, the council wrote in a background memo for AMA members.

Dr. Daniel H. Bessesen, an endocrinologist and obesity expert at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, called the AMA's shift "a double-edged sword." Though the semantic change may reflect "a growing awareness that obesity is not someone's fault," he worried that "the term disease is stigmatizing, and people who are obese don't need more stigmatizing."

http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la- ... 2080.story

[Biff Pocoroba]

I can't believe the Paula Deen story blew up like it did.
I know there's questions of her hiring and promotions practices but it seems the meat of the story is that she has used that one big racial slur in the past. As a child of semi-rural 1970s Georgia I heard that word fairly regularly; it really didn't go away or have as harsh of a stigma attached to it until the early/mid 80s before being re-adopted by segments of black culture. My question, one that I have not seen an answer, is "how long in the past has been since that word was used and in what context?".

[Fuck You Jobu]

http://perezhilton.com/fitperez/2013-06 ... cnkgz5gbB8

Local Man Eats 413 Red Lobster Biscuits, Enters World's Most Avoidable Coma!

OF COURSE we're hearing about this on a Monday! Nothing like this ever happens on a Thursday, Thursdays are normal as shizz! Ha!
Listen, we're all for Red Lobster's Cheddar Bay Biscuits: they're delicious. They're unhealthy, but they taste awesome! We are NOT all for eating more than like two of them, let alone over 400.
A local food writer did not think like we do, though, and consumed 413 of them — and he was immediately sent to a hospital, where he has slipped into a coma. Now when people joke about going into a 'food coma' after eating a lot and being sleepy, they know that it's a real thing, and is no laughing matter!
Kevin Shalin is better known as The Mighty Rib, where he spoke about not eating at a Red Lobster since he was 5 years old. Here's what another writer said what happened:
“He had no clue what to expect. He sat down at the bar while we were waiting on a table and he decided to try one of the biscuits. He thought they were the most wonderful thing he ever placed in his mouth.”
If you didn't know, the biscuits are free and unlimited, and about 150 calories each. They have approximately 1/8th of a stick of butter in each — so Kevin ate the equivalent of 51.5 sticks of butter. Another guest said this:
“After he ate the first one he looked at us and asked if the biscuits are really free. I said ‘heck yeah those are free, eat as many as you want’. After about 30 I see him over asking the manager what was the record for most biscuits ate. He just came back and said I think I can do 415, and started really digging in. His beard was covered in crumbs.”
Apparently he felt dizzy after #412, and was encouraged to stop. He didn't, though, and his brilliant decision to do an impromptu eating contest resulted in him falling to the ground convulsing. Apparently the butter from the biscuits have blocked signals coming from his brain.
An official statement says that they have drained approximately TWO GALLONS of butter already and expect him to make a full recovery.
We're glad he's okay, but maybe he shouldn't be making his own decisions from here on out! LOLz!

[BurtReynolds]

genius!

[Biff Pocoroba]

Those biscuits are quite tasty.

[Harry Lime]

They unveiled an atheist monument in Florida. First one on government property.

Aw shit, take that Jesus!

[simple schoolboy]

They unveiled an atheist monument in Florida. First one on government property.

Aw shit, take that Jesus!

American Atheists sounds like a group of people that hate their (religious) parents and have confused the appropriate target of their hatred with organized religion. By all means make sure that other faiths (and non faiths) get a fair shake in state mandated school, but as far as this sort of thing goes its probably best to leave it well alone. That is unless your goal is to be the PETA of atheist/secularist groups and just do things that get a lot of press so you can raise money.

This is just a few steps removed from narcing on your neighbor for having an unpermitted deck.

[@SkitchP]

This is just a few steps removed from narcing on your neighbor for having an unpermitted deck.

you mean unpermitted secret wasp nest cavern?

[Fuck You Jobu]

This is just a few steps removed from narcing on your neighbor for having an unpermitted deck.

you mean unpermitted secret wasp nest cavern?

We def don't need more of this

[simple schoolboy]

BART strike coincided with my girlfriends first day at a job in San Francisco. It only took us 3+ hours to drive 36 miles. =/

Dear public sector unions,
Go f*** yourself.
-simple schoolboy