The Lighter Side of the News

[Rusty Edge]

I had a battle with slugs eating flowers along the house foundation one year. I used traps baited with beer as it turned out, the traps worked well enough, but they became skunk feeders. I guess they like slugs marinated in beer. My wife didn't really like the skunks that close to where she sits and watches tv. Don't have as many flowers any more.

[Unorthodox]

My place is a slug nightmare factory.  Snails to a lesser degree.  Judging from leftover lye, it's been that way for a while.

I always appreciated the skunks when I could get them.  The owls may or may not have been predating, but when we hit horror movie levels, I took to spraying a vinegar solution just before dawn, and it was a losing battle.  Beer traps were overwhelmed. 

Slug bait is sold for a reason.  Placed after harvest, biodegraded before planting.  Havent had serious problems since.  (admittedly I cant even judge this year with no garden)

[Buster's Uncle]

...gwilly, I don't know if cats burp, but I've been making an intense study of Mom's ferals for months now, and they do do things that sound like coughs and hiccups...

[gwillybj]

The New York Times
SCIENCE
Meet the Greenland Shark. It Could Be the Longest-Living Vertebrate.
Trilobites
By NICHOLAS ST. FLEUR AUG. 11, 2016
 
Video By JULIUS NIELSEN 1:16 Publish Date August 11, 2016.

The Greenland shark is a ludicrously late bloomer.

This lazy-looking, Arctic predator reaches sexual maturity when it’s about 150 years old. Though more than a century of prepubescence might sound bad, there’s a bright side for the sea creature. Once it hits adulthood, it still has another hundred years to live. Maybe even more.

The Greenland shark has a life expectancy of at least 272 years, according to a study published Thursday in Science. If its findings are correct, that makes it the longest-living vertebrate animal in the world, surpassing some sea turtles (about 100 years) tortoises (between 100 and 200 years), and bowhead whales (around 200 years).

But that number, 272, doesn’t tell the whole story of these underwater geezers.

Researchers estimated that two of the 28 Greenland sharks they observed were over three centuries old.


A Greenland shark in the icy waters of Disko Bay, western Greenland. Researchers studied the eye lenses of deceased sharks to estimate their ages. Credit Julius Nielsen

“The oldest shark that we’ve analyzed, it’s amazing,” said Julius Nielsen, a doctoral candidate at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark and lead author on the study. In their paper they report that it could be 392 years old.

But even that number, 392, doesn’t complete the story. The oldest shark could actually be 120 years older, he said. Mr. Nielsen and his colleagues used radiocarbon dating and statistical methods to measure the sharks’ ages. The tools can only provide accurate age ranges for each specimen, not an exact age.
“We are 95 percent certain that it is between 272 and 512 years,” Mr. Nielsen said. “This is the first time ever anyone has made an age range of uncertainty of 240 years and they still consider it a success.”

Even at the lower end of the range, the Greenland shark still takes the gold for living things with backbones in the old-timers Olympics.

To calculate the ages, the researchers studied the eye lenses of each shark they found. The eye lenses first develop when the sharks are still inside their mothers, and as time goes by, they grow like onions, adding layer after layer of tissue. By cutting away the layers and analyzing the nucleus of the center of the eyelens, the team can gauge how old each shark is. Similar techniques have been used to estimate the age of bowhead whales.

All the sharks the team analyzed were females that were already dead. Previous studies had determined that the sharks become sexually mature when they are about 13 feet long. The new study determined that those that size or bigger were at least 150 years old. Males were left out because they were harder to find, but the team thinks life expectancy and the age when they reach adulthood will be similar.

Greenland sharks are found throughout the North Atlantic. They are plump and gray, and many have a characteristic parasite latched to the corner of one or both eyes. Researchers aren’t sure what the parasites do, but they are ubiquitous among the species.

The sharks are slow-growing, adding about a centimeter a year. The biggest in the study was about 16.5 feet, but they can potentially grow larger than 18 feet. A behemoth that big could be around 400 or 500 years old, according to Mr. Nielsen’s estimates.

Impressive, but it’s still bested by some of Earth’s inhabitants that lack backbones, like the 507-year-old ocean quahog, the 4,847 year old bristlecone pine and the seemingly immortal jellyfish.

© 2016 The New York Times Company

[gwillybj]

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/08/22/epipen-price-rise-sparks-concern-for-allergy-sufferers/

This topic makes me so angry because it affects me in a life-or-death way. I am deathly allergic to the stings of all species of bees, and must keep EpiPens in my house and van.

The New York Times
FAMILY
EpiPen Price Rise Sparks Concern for Allergy Sufferers
By TARA PARKER-POPE and RACHEL RABKIN PEACHMAN
AUGUST 22, 2016 6:05 PM


Credit Karen Kasmauski for The New York Times

A steep increase in the price of the EpiPen, a lifesaving injection device for people with severe allergies, has sparked outrage among consumers and lawmakers who worry that parents won’t be able to afford the pens for children heading back to school.

With a quick stab to the thigh, the EpiPen dispenses epinephrine, a drug that reverses swelling, closing of the airways and other symptoms of a severe allergic reaction to bee stings, peanuts or other allergens.

Mylan, the pharmaceutical company, acquired the decades-old product in 2007, when pharmacies paid less than $100 for a two-pen set, and has since been steadily raising the wholesale price. In 2009, a pharmacy paid $103.50 for a set. By July 2013 the price was up to $264.50, and it rose 75 percent to $461 by last May. This May the price spiked again to $608.61, according to data provided by Elsevier Clinical Solutions’ Gold Standard Drug Database.

Doctors advise allergic patients to carry two EpiPens with them at all times in case an extra dose is needed to quell a severe reaction. Most parents buy multiple EpiPens for home, in the car and school and may replace them annually, depending on the expiration date.

Mylan has declined to comment on the price hike, issuing a statement pointing the finger at high-deductible health plans that require consumers to pay much more out of pocket for many drugs. The company said a $100 coupon they offer for the product means most people don’t pay anything for the pens.

But how the price hike affects consumers varies widely, depending on the prices charged by their local pharmacy and the details of their insurance plan. People without insurance or with high-deductible insurance plans can’t always use the coupon and are paying about $640 a set, said Michael Rea, the chief executive of Rx Savings Solutions in Overland Park, Kan. Other patients say that even with good insurance, their copayments are as much as four times higher than in the past.

Naomi Shulman of Northampton, Mass., has a 12-year-old daughter who is allergic to cashews and keeps EpiPens at home and school. Last year, Ms. Schulman’s out-of-pocket copayment for an EpiPen two-pack was $100. But because EpiPens may expire after a year, Ms. Shulman had to buy another two-pack to send along to her daughter’s camp this summer. Her cost for the same two pens was $400.

“I called the insurance company and asked why it was so high and was told that, actually, it’s $700 total, and my co-pay is $400,” she said.

For the first time in 10 years, Ms. Shulman said she briefly considered forgoing the purchase, but didn’t want to risk it. “It’s very wrong,” she said. “It’s gouging parents about their children’s lives. It’s not like letting them sniffle. It’s life or death.”

Laurent Barr of Clark, N.J., said her copayment on EpiPens has risen from $141 to $245 in a year, and she will spend $735 this year for a supply of three EpiPen sets. Her 6-year-old daughter Leah is allergic to rice, tree nuts and mushrooms.

“The price of EpiPens has been getting progressively worse over the years, but now it is just obscene,” Ms. Barr said.

The price hike has caught the attention of Washington lawmakers. Senator Amy Klobuchar, Democrat of Minnesota, who has a daughter who carries an EpiPen, has called on the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Federal Trade Commission to review whether the price hikes violate any anti-competition rules. Last year, the drug maker Sanofi recalled a competing product, Auvi-Q, because it may not have been delivering the correct amount of epinephrine, leaving the EpiPen as the primary emergency treatment for severe allergic reactions.

“This is a mainstream product that people carry, and it’s getting harder and harder for people to afford it,” said Senator Klobuchar. “It’s just another example of what we keep seeing, outrageous price increases when a monopoly situation ends up in a company’s lap.”

Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa called on Mylan to explain the price hikes, noting that they impose a burden on both parents and school districts, who often keep supplies of the pen at the ready.

A petition to Congress protesting the price increase, called “Stop the EpiPen Price Gouging,” has emerged on social media. It has collected more than 48,000 signatures.

Tonya Winders, president of the Allergy & Asthma Network, said her group is planning to work with other advocacy organizations to make the EpiPen a more universally-covered expense through a federal preventative services task force. She said most families are not feeling the impact of the EpiPen price hike because they have commercial insurance plans with lower copayments and deductibles. The families most affected by the price hike are those who don’t have insurance or those with high-deductible health plans, she said.

“A lot of the families that are being hit with sticker shock are the ones that opted into high-deductible health plans in 2016,” Ms. Winders said. “We believe that Mylan should design a program specifically for those in that high-deductible rate.”

In April, a pharmacist told Sarah Brown of Boulder, Colo., that her copayment on an EpiPen two-pack would be $585, even with a $100 coupon from Mylan. She said she had no choice but to take her chances and hold on to her expired EpiPens instead. “It was a gamble,” she said.

In August, Ms. Brown’s family switched insurance plans so they could afford three packs for home, school and a grandmother’s house. Now, with the new policy and the Mylan coupon, she gets her pens at no charge. “The difference in insurance coverage means being able to afford them or not,” Ms. Brown said.

© 2016 The New York Times Company

[Bearu]

The prevalence of the monopolies in the pharmaceutical market remains a common phenomenon in the United States of America. Why does anybody find the concept shocking? Why do the senators only protest on their own when the issue affects one of their precious darlings?

[Rusty Edge]

I'm supposed to have them because I'm on immunotherapy, and conceivably too much of that or that plus something else could be dangerous, but I doubt that anything other than penicillin would be life-threatening for me. I suppose there is always the possibility of moldy bread... anyway, I've never used the pens, and they are usually good for 15 months.

I thought they were pretty pricey at 2/$100+  Well, I can probably pay or do without, but this is just wrong.

We need a new word-  PHARMOTERRORISM!

[gwillybj]

Well, I looked at mine, and I have 2 in the kitchen that expired July 2015 and 2 in the van that expired June 2015 and July 2016. I have to wait 2 or 3 months before I can think about having the copay to order new ones. It's so stupid to have to take risks like this.

[Buster's Uncle]

If I need something like that, life or death - I'll just die at those prices.

[Rusty Edge]

"Expired" April 2016.

Guess I need to call the ENT's office tomorrow.

Well, the wife and I have discussed this, and think it's more a matter of being prescribed the pens as a CYA by the doctor/malpractice insurance than a genuine need.  I think we'll let this slide until and when the doctor brings it up again.

Well, I guess you can get a bottle and syringe much more affordably, buy that doesn't mean a kid could do that safely.

[Rusty Edge]

If I need something like that, life or death - I'll just die at those prices.

I appreciate the sentiment and the pride, because I've been there, but if it ever comes to that ask me for help, don't drop dead over hundreds of dollars, and leave me depressed when Mylochka explains what happened, and there's nothing I can do about it

Just so you know.

[Buster's Uncle]

I'm not going to need it...

[Unorthodox]

My niece (6) just found out she'll be needing one.   Cashews...

[Rusty Edge]

My niece (6) just found out she'll be needing one.   Cashews...

That's an allergy that makes sense to me, because the shrubby tree they come from is poisonous, or at least contains a compound similar to poison Ivy.

I'm glad I looked that up to confirm. I've never had an issue with cashews or poison oak, but as it turns out, cashews are bad for people who get the type of kidney stones I do. Good thing to know!

[Unorthodox]

My niece (6) just found out she'll be needing one.   Cashews...

That's an allergy that makes sense to me, because the shrubby tree they come from is poisonous, or at least contains a compound similar to poison Ivy.

I'm glad I looked that up to confirm. I've never had an issue with cashews or poison oak, but as it turns out, cashews are bad for people who get the type of kidney stones I do. Good thing to know!

More of a no history of it on either side of the family oddity, I guess.  They have her off all nuts until they can do a scratch test. 

My own allergy problems have shown just how odd allergies can get, though. 

Melons:  Deadly to eat or touch.
Sunflowers:  Pollen irritating, seeds ok to eat, oil deadly to touch.
Mango:  Touch, but not eat.
Ragweed/related flowers:  Deadly to touch/breathe
Corn: Pollen deadly to touch, ok to eat when cooked