Miss Piggy's Grocery Store Checkout Headlines

[Mazmaz]

MY GOD AHAHAHAHAHA
holy fuck

[Guitarman]

Hepatitis C Medicine Trial Shows 100% Cure Rate

Nov 10 (Reuters) - Gilead Sciences Inc on Saturday reported a 100 percent cure rate using a combination of drugs in a small number of patients with the most common and hardest to treat form of hepatitis C.

Rival Abbott Laboratories Inc, meanwhile, said a trio of its oral medicines to treat hepatitis C produced unprecedented cure rates in a larger number of patients who had failed to benefit from standard treatment, as well as very high cure rates for newly treated patients.

Data from both companies' mid-stage trials were released Saturday at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Study of Liver Disease in Boston. Gilead's study, dubbed Electron, examined 25 patients with genotype 1 chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection who were treated for 12 weeks with a combination of three drugs: sofosbuvir, ribavirin and GS-5885.

GS-5885 is from a promising new class of drugs known as NS5A inhibitors, which prevent the hepatitis C virus from replicating.

The infection was undetectable four weeks after completing therapy in all of the patients who had never received this combination of drugs before, Gilead said.

The drugs generally were well tolerated in the study, Gilead said.

In the sofosbuvir combined with GS-5885 and ribavirin patient groups, one patient dropped out because of an adverse side effect that the company said was unrelated to the drugs.

Sofosbuvir and GS-5885 are still being studied for their safety and efficacy.

The biopharmaceutical company will present the data on Tuesday at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases in Boston.

Mark Schoenebaum, a biotech analyst with ISI Group, said in a research note that he expects Gilead shares to rise on Monday based on these "best case" results.

UBS analyst Matthew Roden said "these data strongly support Gilead's leadership position" in the hepatitis C virus space.

Gilead recently started the first Phase 3 trial evaluating a fixed-dose combination of sofosbuvir and GS-5885 in patients with genotype 1 chronic hepatitis C virus infection who had not received these drugs before.

This study is evaluating the fixed-dose combination with and without ribavirin for 12- and 24-weeks in 800 patients, 20 percent of whom have evidence of cirrhosis, or liver scarring. (Reporting By Debra Sherman; Editing by Vicki Allen)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/1...n_2109723.html

[Ragnus]

http://www.baltimoresun.com/entertai...,2823480.story

Kevin Clash, voice of Elmo, leaves 'Sesame Street' following underage sex accusations
Baltimore native takes 'leave of absence' from show to address allegations he had sex with a 16-year-old boy, TMZ says

Kevin Clash, the voice of Elmo on "Sesame Street," is taking a leave of absence from the show in the aftermath of allegations that he had sex with an underage boy, which surfaced Monday on the website TMZ.

The Baltimore-born Clash has vehemently denied the accusations. According to TMZ, the 23-year-old accuser says the two began a sexual relationship seven years ago, when he was 16 and Clash, 45. Clash has acknowledged he had a relationship with the man, but said that it didn't begin until after he had become an adult.

"I am a gay man. I have never been ashamed of this or tried to hide it, but felt it was a personal and private matter," Clash said in a statement released by his publicist Monday morning. "I had a relationship with the accuser. It was between two consenting adults and I am deeply saddened that he is trying to characterize it as something other than what it was."

Officials at Sesame Workshop, which produces the long-running PBS children's show, released a statement saying they were contacted by the accuser in June and "took immediate action." After a "thorough investigation," they said, they found the "allegation of underage conduct to be unsubstantiated." The relationship was personal, Sesame Workshop officials wrote, and "unrelated to the workplace."

The accuser has since contacted Andreozzi and Associates, a legal firm that represented one of the victims in the case of former Penn State assistant coach Jerry Sandusky, TMZ reported. Andreozzi sent a letter to Sesame Workshop, accusing the company of trying to "discredit the victim in order to protect its employee and the image of one of its most valuable characters. …This approach places a greater value on a puppet than the well-being of a young man," according to TMZ.

A receptionist at the Harrisburg, Pa.-based law firm said she had been told to respond to inquiries about the case by saying, "The report is not accurate." She said she could provide no further comment.

Sesame officials said they met with the accuser twice and had "repeated communications with him." They told TMZ they asked for additional evidence from the accuser but never received it, the website reported.

Officials also told TMZ that they found emails between Clash and the accuser that did not include evidence of a sexual relationship, TMZ reported.

In their statement, Sesame officials said their investigation "did reveal that Kevin exercised poor judgment and violated company policy regarding Internet usage and he was disciplined."

"Kevin insists that the allegation of underage conduct is false and defamatory and he is taking actions to protect his reputation," Sesame Workshop officials wrote. "We have granted him a leave of absence to do so."

In their statement, Sesame officials assured that Elmo "is bigger than any one person and will continue to be an integral part of 'Sesame Street.' "

[Cail]

http://www.bluegartr.com/threads/113396-Elmo-no!

[Ragnus]

Somehow I missed that one. Ah well.

[Guitarman]

China vying with Japan for the "weird" throne:

Applicants for Chinese airlines must pass armpit sniff test

Some jobseekers in China have to worry about how their armpits smell when they apply for jobs.

China's fourth largest airline recently implemented a 'sniff' test for new pilots. Hi-Nan Airlines is making sure they don't hire pilots with bad body odor. Recruiters are literally smelling the armpits of potential employees.

An airlines spokesperson said it's a customer service issue. Passengers shouldn't have to experience bad smells.

China has recently become somewhat obsessed with cleanliness, instituting a 2-fly rule for public toilets -- to limit insects.

Would this smell test fly in the U.S.?

http://www.kgw.com/news/world/179189631.html

[Ragnus]

Little to no regulation on what goes into food and products, obsessed with cleanliness. Weird.

[Byrthnoth]

Today I learned that the US doesn't have the most backwards abortion laws in the developed world: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012...aw-woman-death

The case of a woman denied an abortion at an Irish hospital who later died of blood poisoning must prompt the state to loosen its almost total ban on terminations, a member of one of the coalition parties in Dublin has said.
Two investigations – one by Ireland's health executive, the other by the hospital – are now under way into the circumstances of the death of the 31-year-old dentist at University Hospital Galway (UHG) who was denied a medical termination and allegedly told: "This is a Catholic country."

Savita Halappanavar's death has highlighted how the ban even can prevent women with life-threatening medical conditions getting an abortion in Irish hospitals.

She had turned up at UHG on 21 October and was found to be miscarrying but died of septicaemia a week later. She had asked medical staff several times over a three-day period to terminate the pregnancy.

An Irish Labour deputy in the Dáil, Patrick Nulty, said that in light of Halappanavar's death there was "pressing and urgent need" for parliament to "show responsibility and legislate", calling on his party and its Fine Gael partners to press ahead with reforming the abortion law.

It is understood her family is now considering taking legal action, arguing that the foetus should have been removed earlier to save the woman's life.

Her husband, Praveen Halappanavar, said her repeated requests were turned down because she was 17 weeks pregnant and staff could detect a foetal heartbeat. The 34-year-old engineer has since revealed that his wife spent two and a half days "in agony" until the foetal heartbeat stopped.

After the dead foetus was removed, he said, his wife was taken to the hospital's intensive care unit where she died on 28 October.

Recounting her final days in UHG, he said: "Savita was really in agony. She was very upset, but she accepted she was losing the baby. When the consultant came on the ward rounds on Monday morning Savita asked if they could not save the baby could they induce to end the pregnancy. The consultant said: 'As long as there is a foetal heartbeat we can't do anything.'

"Again on Tuesday morning, the ward rounds and the same discussion. The consultant said it was the law, that this is a Catholic country. Savita [an Indian Hindu] said: 'I am neither Irish nor Catholic,' but they said there was nothing they could do.

"That evening she developed shakes and shivering and she was vomiting. She went to use the toilet and she collapsed. There were big alarms and a doctor took blood and started her on antibiotics.
"The next morning I said she was so sick and asked again that they just end it, but they said they couldn't."

He recollected the moment he heard that medical staff were moving his wife into intensive care.

"They said they were shifting her to intensive care. Her heart and pulse were low, her temperature was high. She was sedated and critical but stable. She stayed stable on Friday but by 7pm on Saturday they said her heart, kidneys and liver weren't functioning. She was critically ill. That night, we lost her."

The hospital said it could not discuss the details of an individual patient with the media but expressed its sympathy to the family.

A spokesman for the hospital, which is part of a group of medical centres in western Ireland, said: "Galway Roscommon University Hospitals Group (GRUHG) co-operates fully with coroners' inquests. In general, in the case of a maternal death, a number of procedures are followed, including a risk review of the case and the completion of a maternal death notification form.

"External experts are involved in the review and the family of the deceased are consulted on the terms of reference, are interviewed by the review team and given a copy of the final report."
The taoiseach, Enda Kenny, said he would not be rushed into any measures while the two independent inquiries were under way.

His health minister, James Reilly, is understood to have received a report meanwhile from a group of experts exploring the possibility of reforming Ireland's abortion laws. Women who have had terminations in England for medical reasons called on Reilly on Wednesday to publish the findings as soon as possible in the light of Savita Halappanavar's death.

"I think it would be only appropriate that the two investigations that are being carried out here are concluded," Kenny said.

At present the coalition government is preparing a report on possible legal reforms of abortion legislation in the light of a European court ruling in 2009 that declared the absolute ban to be a breach of women's human rights.
Nulty, TD for Dublin West, said: "The heartbreaking tragedy of the death of Savita Praveen Halappanavar is something which should cause every citizen in our republic to pause and reflect."

He added that the government should no longer "hide behind reports and delay tactics. It must act to protect women and their health. This issue cannot be swept aside and ignored as successive governments have done."

Intervention by the European court of human rights has forced Ireland to make some minimal changes to its abortion ban. Since the 1992 X case, in which a 14-year-old rape victim took on the state's ban not only on her having a termination in Ireland but also on her travelling abroad for an abortion, there have been some exceptional circumstances.

Since Europe ruled that there was a risk to the child's life if she was forced to go ahead with the pregnancy, guidelines have been set down on these rare and exceptional cases.

Ireland's Medical Council guidelines state that "abortion is illegal in Ireland except where there is a real and substantial risk to the life (as distinct from the health) of the mother".

It adds: "Under current legal precedent, this exception includes where there is a clear and substantial risk to the life of the mother arising from a threat of suicide."

The guidance also informs doctors that they "should undertake a full assessment of any such risk in light of the clinical research on this issue".

And it advises that "rare complications can arise where therapeutic intervention (including termination of a pregnancy) is required at a stage when, due to extreme immaturity of the baby, there may be little or no hope of the baby surviving.

"In these exceptional circumstances, it may be necessary to intervene to terminate the pregnancy to protect the life of the mother, while making every effort to preserve the life of the baby."

However, such decisions are often left to the discretion of individual doctors and their medical teams. The pressure group Terminations for Medical Reasons Ireland, which campaigns for women whose babies would die if they went full term into their pregnancies, points out that in many cases some Irish doctors will not even advise women on their rights to travel abroad for abortions, let alone recommend emergency terminations in Ireland.

[Kerberoz]

...I think I'm going to be physically ill. That is fucking horrific.

[Cail]

'Mount Doom' Likely to Blow Soon

Mount Ruapehu, a New Zealand volcano that stood in for Mount Doom in the "Lord of the Rings" movies, seems to be heading for an eruption.

New Zealand's Department of Conservation (DOC) has warned hikers to keep off the summit, saying that recent temperature readings of the volcano indicate an increased likelihood of an eruption in the coming weeks.

The crater of Mount Ruapehu is usually filled with a snow-melt lake, and a peculiar temperature difference between the lake and the ground beneath it has led scientists to issue the warning.

"We think that the temperature a few hundred meters beneath Crater Lake is about 800 Celsius [1,472 degrees Fahrenheit], but the lake itself is only about 20 C [68 F]," said volcanologist Steven Sherburn, in an alert bulletin released by GNS Science, a New Zealand geologic hazard monitoring organization. "This suggests the vent is partly blocked, which may be leading to a pressure buildup beneath Crater Lake." [10 Biggest Volcano Eruptions in History]

The pressure could give way in the form of an eruption, minor or major.

"Sooner or later that situation will be rectified, either in a small, relatively passive way, or with a significant eruption," DOC volcanic risk manager Harry Keys told Radio New Zealand.

Ruapehu, New Zealand's largest active volcano, last erupted in 2007, propelling a large rock onto the leg of a nearby climber who recovered after having his leg amputated. Historically, it has had major eruptions every 20 to 50 years, according to DOC, with the last big ones coming in 1995 and 1996.

The volcano shared the role of Mount Doom in Peter Jackson's "Lord of the Rings" movie trilogy, but Ruapehu might be thought of as more of a stunt double than a featured player. Long shots of Mount Doom in the films showed nearby Mount Ngauruhoe, while scenes that supposedly took place on the slopes of Mount Doom were filmed on Ruapehu.

Mount Ngauruhoe, also an active volcano, last erupted in 1975. Mount Doom last erupted at the end of the Third Age of Middle Earth.

[BaneTheBrawler]

New Zealand is like that guy who always has the best cosplay costume in the room, always acting in character and doing a really good job of it.

[Silenka]

New Zealand is like that guy who always has the best cosplay costume in the room, always acting in character and doing a really good job of it.

I was thinking something along those lines too. I'm not sure if it's stupid or awesome. I hope the volcano doesn't blow too badly, think of the sheep D:

[myreality]

Man Appears To Knock Teen Girl Unconscious With Punch, Attack Captured On CCTV

In this disturbing CCTV footage, a man is seen jogging up to a young girl and punching her in the head.

According to the Daily Mail, the unprovoked attack occurred last week in east London. As the news website writes:

This is the shocking moment a 16-year-old girl was beaten unconscious and fell headfirst onto the pavement after a thug ran up from behind and knocked her out cold…
At just after 12.30pm the thug is shown running up behind the teenager and taking a massive swing with his right fist, causing the teen to black out instantly and crash to the ground.

The Newham Recorder reports the man allegedly followed the girl from her home. The teen was later treated at a hospital for bruises and cuts; she was released the same day.

The Metropolitan Police told the Daily Mail that teen said she didn't know the attacker. Police are still looking for the man.

This is not the first time in recent months that unprovoked violent behavior has been captured on CCTV in Britain.

In September, the Liverpool Echo reported that a 20-year-old woman broke her eye socket after getting punched in the face by a gang member. The woman had reportedly been out with friends at a bar in a Liverpool suburb when she got caught in the middle of a gang brawl. The incident was caught on camera.

Earlier this month, British Transport Police in London said they were looking for a woman who allegedly punched a 51-year-old in the face, leaving her with a broken nose. The victim had reportedly been standing at a train station with her boyfriend when she was attacked.

“This was a vicious and unprovoked attack on a lady who was simply trying to make her way home,” investigating officer PC Robert Reed told the Hackney Gazette at the time.

[Cyn]

I was knocked unconscious that way once, and it was fucking terrible. Scary as fuck, one second you are walking and the next you're on the ground wondering what the fuck happened. Hopefully they catch the dude.

The guy that did it to me kept attacking though. Knocked a tooth loose, bloodied my nose and split my temple open before I even had a chance to recover. Then ran once I was aware enough of what was going on to kick him in the kneecap. Can't understand how someone feels like a human being after doing some chickenshit thing like that. Clocking a 16 year old girl in the back of the head can't possibly make you feel like anything other than a punk ass bitch.

[myreality]

I was knocked unconscious that way once, and it was fucking terrible. Scary as fuck, one second you are walking and the next you're on the ground wondering what the fuck happened. Hopefully they catch the dude.

The guy that did it to me kept attacking though. Knocked a tooth loose, bloodied my nose and split my temple open before I even had a chance to recover. Then ran once I was aware enough of what was going on to kick him in the kneecap. Can't understand how someone feels like a human being after doing some chickenshit thing like that. Clocking a 16 year old girl in the back of the head can't possibly make you feel like anything other than a punk ass bitch.

Yikes that some scary shit, i cant imagine going through something like that.

A while ago one of my friends got hit in the back of the head with a baseball bat which cracked his skull and put him in a coma for over a week. But he sleeps around a lot and probably slept with some dudes girlfriend and or wife.

[Cyn]

It's not really life shattering, for me it was just the sheer panic of the moment and a dental bill to have my tooth checked out. And ruining a really nice shirt with bloodstains.

It's one of those situations where cops assure you that they are going to do everything they can to help you out, then forget about it and go sit and wait for the next dispatch call. Like getting your car stereo stolen. (which has happened to me twice.... grrr.)

[Kanriel]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-20454417

100 car pile up Thanksgiving morning.

Everything is bigger in Texas...

[Rhinox]

{insert 1000 mexicans dead joke}

[Cail]

ROCKLAND, Maine — A 62-year-old Cushing man will spend five days in jail after pleading guilty Wednesday to assaulting his estranged wife.

Fred E. Thomas pleaded guilty to 180 days in jail with all but five days suspended and was placed on probation for a year for domestic violence assault and indecent conduct. A third charge of unlawful sexual contact was dismissed.

The incident occurred in July in Warren when his wife of 39 years, who was estranged from him, stayed at his place. He offered her $20 for sex, and when she refused he took out his penis and struck her with it, according to the prosecution’s version of events to which he pleaded guilty.

Defense Attorney Justin Andrus said Thomas was tremendously upset that his marriage of 39 years was ending. He said his estranged wife was planning to go to Pakistan to meet a man she met online.

“This was not his normal conduct,” Andrus told Justice Jeffrey Hjelm during the sentencing hearing in Knox County Superior Court.

Assistant District Attorney Christopher Fernald asked for Thomas to serve seven days in jail while Andrus asked for just probation and no jail time.

Hjelm said a jail term was appropriate in this case.

“This was sexually aggressive conduct. This couldn’t be much more offensive,” Hjelm said.

The wife did not seek jail time for Thomas but did ask that he undergo counseling for anger management, which was ordered.

[Kerberoz]

What a dick move.