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Taking aspirin regularly may reduce a person’s risk of developing pancreatic cancer in half
Taking aspirin regularly may reduce a person’s risk of developing pancreatic cancer in half—and the degree of protection could increase the longer the aspirin is taken.
Pancreatic cancer is among the deadliest cancers, with the five-year survival rate at less than 5 percent. By the time it is diagnosed, it is usually too late to treat successfully.
For a new study, published in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, researchers collected data from a Connecticut population study of 362 newly diagnosed pancreatic cancer patients and a control group of 690 disease-free people. They analyzed associations between risk of pancreatic cancer and past aspirin use.
The study, which took place from 2005 to 2009, looked at regular use of both low-dose aspirin (75 to 325 mg. per day, taken for heart disease prevention) and regular-dose aspirin (325 to 1,200 mg. taken for pain or anti-inflammation purposes).
Overall, both low-dose and regular-dose aspirin reduced the risk for developing pancreatic cancer by half. Significantly, among those who took aspirin for more than 10 years, the risk reduction was even higher—60 percent.
more
http://www.futurity.org/aspirin-can-cut-pancreatic-cancer-risk-much-60-724202/
Ninety-nine percent of the ocean's plastic is missing
Millions of tons. That’s how much plastic should be floating in the world’s oceans, given our ubiquitous use of the stuff. But a new study finds that 99% of this plastic is missing. One disturbing possibility: Fish are eating it.
If that’s the case, “there is potential for this plastic to enter the global ocean food web,” says Carlos Duarte, an oceanographer at the University of Western Australia, Crawley. “And we are part of this food web.”
Humans produce almost 300 million tons of plastic each year. Most of this ends up in landfills or waste pits, but a 1970s National Academy of Sciences study estimated that 0.1% of all plastic washes into the oceans from land, carried by rivers, floods, or storms, or dumped by maritime vessels. Some of this material becomes trapped in Arctic ice and some, landing on beaches, can even turn into rocks made of plastic. But the vast majority should still be floating out there in the sea, trapped in midocean gyres—large eddies in the center of oceans, like the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
To figure out how much refuse is floating in those garbage patches, four ships of the Malaspina expedition, a global research project studying the oceans, fished for plastic across all five major ocean gyres in 2010 and 2011. After months of trailing fine mesh nets around the world, the vessels came up light—by a lot. Instead of the millions of tons scientists had expected, the researchers calculated the global load of ocean plastic to be about only 40,000 tons at the most, the researchers report online today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. “We can’t account for 99% of the plastic that we have in the ocean,” says Duarte, the team’s leader.
more
http://news.sciencemag.org/environment/2014/06/ninety-nine-percent-oceans-plastic-missing
Cassini Probe Celebrates 10 Years at Saturn Today
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A NASA spacecraft marks a big milestone today (June 30) — a decade exploring Saturn and its many moons.
Since arriving in orbit around Saturn 10 years ago today, the Cassini probe has made a number of unprecedented observations and discoveries. Although the spacecraft was originally approved for a four-year mission, it has been granted three mission extensions, allowing it to continue roaming the gas giant’s system.
"Having a healthy, long-lived spacecraft at Saturn has afforded us a precious opportunity," Linda Spilker, Cassini project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, said in a statement. "By having a decade there with Cassini, we have been privileged to witness never-before-seen events that are changing our understanding of how planetary systems form and what conditions might lead to habitats for life." [See amazing images taken by Cassini]
For example, Cassini has helped scientists learn more about what kinds of molecules populate our solar system. The spacecraft discovered plumes containing water-ice shooting out into space from the south polar region of Saturn’s moon Enceladus.
more
http://www.space.com/26391-cassini-spacecraft-10-years-saturn.html
http://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2014/06/Saturn_s_shadows
Pipeline proponents consider explosives in ocean to scare whales from potential oil slicks
The proponents of two controversial pipelines to British Columbia’s coast say they would consider deploying underwater firecrackers, helicopters and clanging pipes, among other methods, to ensure whales don’t swim toward any disastrous oil spill that might result from increased tanker traffic carrying bitumen to Asia.
It’s called hazing and documents obtained by The Globe and Mail show the methods have been studied carefully by U.S. scientists before and since the disastrous Exxon Valdez oil spill killed 22 orcas in 1989. Last month, the Washington State Department of Ecology asked Trans Mountain to describe any plans it might have to help whales in a spill. In the preamble to its request filed with the National Energy Board, the department notes the proposed expanded pipeline would contribute to “potential cumulative effects on sensory disturbance,” something that “was determined to be significant for southern resident killer whales.”
“NOAA [National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration] identified oil spills as an acute extinction threat to the southern resident killer whales,” the U.S. department says in its request for information from the pipeline project.
“Please describe any Trans Mountain plans to minimize the direct acute threat to marine mammals in general and southern resident killer whales in particular by applying techniques such as the use of ‘hazing’ to drive the animals out of areas heavily affected by surface oil slicks,” says the request for information.
more
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/us-considers-dropping-bombs-in-ocean-to-scare-whales-from-potential-oil-slicks/article19387821/
Arizona Man Arrested After Mistaking Car For Alien Spaceship
BRYANT, AZ- An Arizona man was arrested after police say he followed a couple around town harassing and threatening them because he thought the car was a spaceship and the driver was an alien.
The driver of the car was nervous enough to call police and feel threatened to the point he considered the concealed carry weapon he had with him.
The man in custody was 44-year-old-James Bushart.
When police stopped Bushart, he was found with meth, a pipe used to smoke meth, and he was charged with DWI and Disorderly Conduct
more
http://www.myfoxorlando.com/story/25833539/arizona-man-arrested-after
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