NUTS!

Nut Consumption Linked to Reduced Death Rate, Study Suggests
Science Daily

In the largest study of its kind, people who ate a daily handful of nuts were 20 percent less likely to die from any cause over a 30-year period than were those who didn't consume nuts, say scientists from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Brigham and Women's Hospital, and the Harvard School of Public Health.

Their report, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, contains further good news. The regular nut-eaters were found to be more slender than those who didn't eat nuts, a finding that should alleviate the widespread worry that eating a lot of nuts will lead to overweight.

The report also looked at the protective effect on specific causes of death.

"The most obvious benefit was a reduction of 29 percent in deaths from heart disease -- the major killer of people in America," said Charles S. Fuchs, MD, MPH, director of the Gastrointestinal Cancer Center at Dana-Farber, who is the senior author of the report. "But we also saw a significant reduction -- 11 percent -- in the risk of dying from cancer," added Fuchs, who is also affiliated with the Channing Division of Network Medicine at Brigham and Women's.

Caregivers at Lawrence & Memorial Hospital "Won't be Bullied," Remain Committed to Patients and their Families

Nurses, techs respond to threats of lockout, workplace intimidation by corporate bosses as possible strike nears over delivery of care

Lawrence & Memorial management uses old school intimidation tactics

From Matt O’Connor 

New London - Bedside patient caregivers are responding to their employer's attempts to intimidate the workforce into accepting proposals that fail to protect community access to healthcare services at Lawrence & Memorial (L&M) Hospital. 

The CEO of Lawrence & Memorial Corporation (LMC), the acute care facility's operator, on Friday threatened to lockout employees in the event of a strike, harming efforts to reach a mutual settlement. The CEO also announced indefinite plans to rely on replacement workers to treat patients, raising questions about management's commitment to the hospital's reputation for delivering high quality care.

Get Priorities Straight

Will Congress Learn Its Budget Lessons?

By Dennis Van Roekel in American Forum

Will Congress ever get its act together? That question is likely on the minds of many Americans, but the latest impasse should actually serve as a reminder that we need to redouble our efforts to make sure Congress focuses on the right priorities and moves the country forward. As a former educator, I do not believe in giving up on anyone, even a Congress that always seems to be at loggerheads. Here are a few key budget lessons that Congress should heed.

These Rhinos Need Their Own Guns

Warning: This bright conservation idea may make your head explode.
By Jim Hightower

Have you ever heard of the rabbit hunter’s nightmare? 

A guy dreams that he and a few of his buddies have fanned out across some brushland to scare-up and shoot a few hares. They kill a couple, but then, one of the hunting buddies who’d headed down a slope into a thicket on the right suddenly comes bolting up the slope, all wild-eyed and screaming at the others: “Run, run — the rabbits have guns!”

I thought of this recalibration of the hunting equation when I read that an outfit called the “Dallas Safari Club” had come up with a truly novel idea for saving Namibia’s rare Black Rhinoceros, which is teetering on the edge of extinction. 

Several hundred thousand of these unique animals existed a century ago, but only 1,800 remain in this African nation today.

So, thinking waaaay out of the box, the safari club says it will contribute to the Black Rhino conservation cause by auctioning off to one of the club’s lucky members the chance to [WARNING: The following could make your head explode] go to Namibia with a really big gun, and shoot one of the magnificent, endangered creatures dead. Yes, to save the black rhino, kill it.

Where the "spin" in SPN comes from

RI’s ‘stink tank’: the Center for Freedom and Prosperity

By Bob Plain Rhode Island’s Future

Something stinks in Rhode Island, and according to StinkTanks.org, that smell  is the Ocean State Center for Freedom and Prosperity.

A new report which follows Koch brother and other corporate spending through the State Policy Network to its state-based advocacy groups says the Center for Freedom and Prosperity, “claims to be focused on issues important to the people of Rhode Island, it actually pushes an agenda dictated by its national right-wing funders and partners.”

Lots of calories, but looks tasty

Savory Shaved Brussels Sprouts

Photo and text by KARA DiCAMILLO, ecoRI.org

Brussels sprouts have become a tradition at our Thanksgiving table. I have to laugh as I read that line again, but I have grown to love them. I remember my dad eating Brussels sprouts when I was growing up and I, like most kids, wanted nothing to do with them.

I didn’t try Brussels sprouts until about five years ago and couldn’t believe what I had been missing. They were fresh, roasted and caramelized, and a long way from the frozen, wrinkly, miniature cabbages from my childhood.

This is peak season for Brussels sprouts, and when they are fresh they actually don’t need much seasoning. This side dish is an easy one and takes hardly any time to prepare. That means you can test it a few days before Thanksgiving if you’re skeptical. But I can almost guarantee you’ll fall in love with Brussels sprouts just like me. 

No deal in contract talks at Lawrence & Memorial

Strike Looms at Westerly Hospital's owner
From AFT Connecticut

EDITOR'S NOTE: the New London Day and Stonington Patch report that L&M management are bringing in the scabs (strike-breakers) this weekend for training. If no deal is reached this week, management intends to LOCK OUT its nurses and technicians, replacing them with scabs.

Lawrence & Memorial (L&M) Hospital registered nurse (RN) Lisa D'Abrosca and L&M Hospital Sleep Lab technician Stephanie Johnson made the following statement on negotiations with representatives of Lawrence & Memorial Corporation (LMC):

“In an effort to ensure patient care, and avert the first strike at a hospital in Connecticut in 33 years, today we offered to drop our previous job security proposals in negotiations with the corporation. Instead, we proposed that both sides simply abide by the eventual ruling of an administrative law judge on the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) complaint over unfair labor practices that involve shifting healthcare services and jobs away from the hospital. 

Who Deserves Our Thanks for Truly American Food?

Until 1492, Europeans had never tried potatoes, cranberries, corn, or turkey.
By Jill Richardson

What do turkey, sweet potatoes, and cranberries have in common?

Yes, you eat them on Thanksgiving. Additionally, they are all distinctly American foods. So are potatoes and the corn in your corn bread.

Believe it or not, the day that Columbus blundered into the Americas back in 1492, Europeans (and Asians and Africans) had none of those foods.

Thanksgiving is perhaps the one day a year when we Americans celebrate with truly American food.

True then, true now

Fire problem and pricing a challenge

Tesla in the Mass Market
From: MoveForward, in ENN.com, Electric Forum, More from this Affiliate

Tesla image via Shutterstock.

Tesla Motors is a company which seems to go from strength to strength and indeed to all intents and purposes this is a company, which has dragged the electric vehicle market kicking, and screaming to the point of mass acceptance. Anybody who has even looked at electric vehicles will be well aware that Tesla began life at the top end of the luxury car market and once this particular niche was dominated the company began to look further down the electric car food chain.

The company is looking to introduce a mass-market affordable electric vehicle within the next four or five years and despite skepticism by some experts there are few who would bet against Elon Musk leading the company onwards and upwards. But will Tesla ever really crack the mass market?

Rhode Island's shame

Dirty tricks, broken promises and voter suppression in RI

By Sean Monahan – in Rhode Island’s Future. See more at: http://www.rifuture.org/dirty-tricks-broken-promises-and-voter-suppression-in-ri.html#sthash.u8qYNvyd.dpuf

The Justice Department is challenging the legality of North Carolina’s and Texas’ voter ID laws on civil rights grounds, and they have good reason. These laws disproportionately disenfranchise people of color, Latinos, immigrants, women, queer people, students, seniors, the disabled, and, particularly, the poor – demographics that have a harder time than many getting an accepted ID.

The nation-wide conservative push for this legislation is a politically-motivated attack on universal suffrage and a threat to American democracy. Like poll taxes and literacy tests these laws belong in history books on the Jim Crow South, certainly not in 21^st Century Rhode Island. 

Unfortunately, House Democratic Party leadership seems to be throwing universal suffrage under the bus for their own electoral advantage against progressive candidates, whose lower-income and minority supporters are less likely to have accepted IDs.

Avoid these common mistakes

From Fake Science

Astronomy Picture of the Day

The Jets of NGC 1097 

From NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day

Enigmatic spiral galaxy NGC 1097 shines in southern skies, about 45 million light-years away in the chemical constellation Fornax. Its blue spiral arms are mottled with pinkish star forming regions in this colorful galaxy portrait.

They seem to have wrapped around a small companion galaxy below and left of center, about 40,000 light-years from the spiral's luminous core.

That's not NGC 1097's most peculiar feature, though. The very deep exposure hints of faint, mysterious jets, most easily seen to extend well beyond the bluish arms toward the lower right.

In fact, four faint jets are ultimately recognized in optical images of NGC 1097. The jets trace an X centered on the galaxy's nucleus, but probably don't originate there. Instead, they could be fossil star streams, trails left over from the capture and disruption of a much smaller galaxy in the large spiral's ancient past. 

A Seyfert galaxy, NGC 1097's nucleus also harbors a supermassive black hole.

OMG PD

Twerk What Your Mama Gave You

Posted by Samantha Turner (Editor)

One East Providence police officer may be a wee bit mentally scarred after a rather interesting encounter with a belligerent bar patron last week.

While officers helped staff at East Bay Tavern clear out the remaining customers, an officer noticed one man attempting to leave the establishment with his beer. When the officer told him he couldn’t take the drink with him, the 22-year-old man allegedly threw the cup on the ground, spilling it.

Roast, don’t fry

Crispy Smashed Rosemary Potatoes
Photo and text by LISA KELLY, EcoRI.org

Is there anything better than a good roasted potato?

I love any potato recipe that doesn’t require frying. Topped with some chickpea gravy or vegan cheddar and you’ve got yourself an insanely delicious dish that any carnivore would be happy to eat. Plus, smooshing potatoes is fun.