Minnesota bans anti-bacterial chemical from soaps

Source: Associated Press

It's widely used nationwide as a germ-killing ingredient in soaps, deodorants and even toothpaste, but it's being banned in Minnesota.

Gov. Mark Dayton on Friday signed a bill to make Minnesota the first state to prohibit the use of triclosan in most retail consumer hygiene products. The Minnesota House and Senate passed it earlier last week because of health and environmental concerns about the chemical. The ban isn't due to take effect until Jan. 1, 2017, but one of its lead sponsors, state Sen. John Marty, predicted Monday that the odds are good that most manufacturers will phase out triclosan by then anyway.

"While this is an effort to ban triclosan from one of the 50 states, I think it will have a greater impact than that," Marty said.

The Roseville Democrat said other states and the federal government are likely to act, too. And he said come companies are already catching on that there's no marketing advantage to keeping triclosan in its products. He noted that Procter & Gamble's Crest toothpaste is now marketing itself as triclosan-free.


Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/minnesota-bans-anti-bacterial-chemical-205151860.html

This Abused Starved Dog Was Thrown Down A Trash Chute. Then, A Miracle Happened.

Meet Patrick. At first, your heart will cringe at the sight of him. Patrick was found wrapped in a garbage bag and stuffed down a chute. A garbage truck was ready to take him away, until he was rescued at the last moment.


http://sfglobe.com/?id=336&src=share_fb_new_336

Amazing!

TPP talks end on a more momentum note today

Source: New Straights Times

The ninth ministerial meeting for the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) ended today on a more momentum, with both Japan and US stepping up on their resolve to narrow their differences in the market access for their agriculture and automotive products.

The two-day meeting did not pledge any new timelines for the conclusion of the talks which have been going on for the past four years.

The TPP negotiations involve Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States and Vietnam.

The momentum comes on the heels of the US-Japan negotiations last month, as well as the results of the Chief Negotiators meeting last week in Ho Chi Minh City.

Read more: http://www.nst.com.my/business/latest/tpp-talks-end-on-a-more-momentum-note-today-1.601587

Russia's President Putin arrives in China for state visit

Source: BBC

Russia's President Vladimir Putin has arrived in Shanghai ahead of a summit at which Russia and China are hoping to deepen ties.

The two countries will make a "substantial" announcement and sign agreements, said Xinhua.

They will also kick off a joint military exercise involving their navies.

The summit comes as Russia and China face criticism over disputes in Ukraine and the South China Sea.


Read more: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-27481454

Prostate cancer 'may be a sexually transmitted disease'

Prostate cancer may be a sexually transmitted disease caused by a common yet often silent infection passed on during intercourse, scientists say - but experts say proof is still lacking.

Although several cancers are caused by infections, Cancer Research UK says it is too early to add prostate cancer to this list.

The University of California scientists tested human prostate cells in the lab.

They found a sex infection called trichomoniasis aided cancer growth.

More research is now needed to confirm the link, they say in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).*

snip

Prof Patricia Johnson and colleagues found the parasite that causes trichomoniasis - Trichomonas vaginalis - secretes a protein that causes inflammation and increased growth and invasion of benign and cancerous prostate cells.

Read More: http://www.bbc.com/news/health-27466853

Why is the African continent poor?

Reference Pricing: Obamacare Consumer Protection Weakened

Imagine you’re in your fifties and, after years of living in pain, you decide finally to get that knee replacement. Your physician recommends a local hospital, where he happens to have privileges. You are a savvy consumer, so first you make sure that that the hospital is part of your insurance network. It is. You get the procedure and then, a few weeks later, you get the bill—for $15,000. That can’t be right, you think. Your plan, which you get from your employer, is supposed to limit your out-of-pocket spending to only a few thousand dollars a year. The Affordable Care Act makes a similar guarantee.

You’re right about what the plan says it allows and what Obamacare is supposed to require. But you’re on the hook for that money anyway. You can thank a new way paying for medical services—and a tentative decision by the Obama Admninistration, little noticed until the AP’s Roberto Alonso-Zaldivar wrote about it last week, allowing employers and their insurers to use the scheme without much oversight.

The system is called “reference pricing” and my health economist friends love it. They think it will mean less spending on health care—first, by encouraging people to shop for better deals and, eventually, by encouraging hospitals to lower their prices. But the consumer advocates and insurance experts I know are queasy over the rules governing its use. Without more safeguards, they worry, beneficiaries won’t understand the new system and will end up running up many thousands of dollars in bills—thereby weakening one of Obamacare’s most important new protections.

Both groups make a pretty good case.

Read More: http://www.newrepublic.com/article/117812/reference-pricing-obamacare-consumer-protection-weakened

S.F. casting call for pubic hair documentary

If you are a woman brimming with pubic hair pride and you’ve been looking for someone to tell about it, Sunday is your lucky day.

The Center for Sex & Culture, a San Francisco organization dedicated to providing sexual education, advocacy and research, has put out a casting call for women to appear in a forthcoming documentary about all things pubic hair.

The film, produced by Los Angeles-based journalist Chloe Schildhause, aims to explore “trends in pubic hair and the continuing evolution of where our pubes are headed next,” according to the casting call.'

Participants will be filmed from the waist down only and can remain anonymous if they wish, but Schildhause plans to submit the final product to various film festivals. So anyone who appears in the movie should be comfortable with their voice, accompanied by an image of their nether region, reaching a wide audience.'

Read More: http://blog.sfgate.com/stew/2014/05/15/s-f-casting-call-for-pubic-hair-documentary/

Roommates buy lumpy used couch, find $40K in cash

For all the screaming and carrying on, their neighbors thought they'd won the lottery. But it was a lumpy old sofa stuffed with $40,000 in cash that had three young roommates raising a ruckus.

And here's the other side of the ticket: They returned the money to the 91-year-old widow whose couch had been given away.

"We just pulled out envelopes and envelopes," said Cally Guasti, a social worker with Family of Woodstock who shares an apartment with two friends in New Paltz, 75 miles north of New York City. "My mouth was literally hanging open — everybody's was — it was an unfathomable amount."

Guasti told The Associated Press on Thursday that she and her friends had bought the beat-up couch and a chair for $55 at a Salvation Army thrift shop in March. They noticed the arm cushions were weirdly lumpy. Then, one night in April, one of them, State University of New York at New Paltz student Reese Werkhoven, opened a zipper on one arm and found an envelope.

Read More: http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Roommates-buy-lumpy-used-couch-find-40K-in-cash-5480271.php

Google gets take-down requests after European court ruling: source

Source: Reuters

Google Inc is already getting requests to remove objectionable personal information from its search engine after Europe's top court ruled that subjects have the "right to be forgotten," a source familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.

The world's No. 1 Internet search company has yet to figure out how to handle an expected flood of requests after Tuesday's ruling, said the source, who is not authorized to speak on the record about the issue.

The decision by the Court of Justice of the European Union, which affects the region's 500 citizens, requires that Internet search services remove information deemed "inadequate, irrelevant or no longer relevant." Failure to do so can result in fines.

Google will need to build up an "army of removal experts" in each of the 28 European Union countries, including those where Google does not have operations, the source said. Whether those staffers merely remove controversial links or actually judge the merits of individual take-down requests are among the many questions Google has yet to figure out, the source said.


Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/google-gets-down-requests-european-court-ruling-source-183010113--sector.html