Category: News

In need of a common sense U-turn

It’s not often The Seattle Times’ editorial opinions are pointed the wrong way in regards to common sense. Except for a car parked in the wrong direction on a freeway, apparently [“The right ruling on a wrong-way car,” Opinion, editorial, Dec. 7].

If no ticket can be given because a police officer didn’t see the car drive in the wrong direction, then that would also mean a body with four bullet holes can’t be murder unless a police officer saw the shooting. Or a drunken driver isn’t drunk unless the police officer saw the drinks consumed.

And so forth, on and on.

The editorial writers need to make a common- sense U- turn, and hope a police officer doesn’t see it.

— Don Johnson, Kirkland

Traffic ticket sent to Supreme Court?

Having a traffic ticket reviewed by the Washington Supreme Court doesn’t say much for the intermediate judges in the appeals courts, or any other decision-makers in the system who allowed this farce to proceed.

I suggest the appeals cost be apportioned out to those involved, and deducted from their termination pay.

— Terry Slaton, Federal Way

Only true reform is single-payer option

It is now crunch time for our U.S. members of Congress to show their core values about representing the vast majority of us who want and need real health-care affordability and access [“Senate reaches deal to strike public option from health bill,” page one, 9].

I, along with my wife, children, friends and relatives, will be watching very closely, as our elected senators and representatives decide whom they stand with.

Will they stand with the voters who put them in office, or the behemoth insurance companies that are stuffing their pockets with money and/or promising massive payouts behind closed doors, after leaving office.

I know the only true reform comes through the single-payer option, with a distant second place being a strong public option. Anything else is a sellout, and an outrageous abandonment of my family, relatives, friends and fellow countrymen.

— Gary Ochsner, Seattle

A Christian Scientists’ spiritual health care

The article “Christian Scientists lobby to add prayer to health bill” [News, Nov. 26] seems to conclude with the impression that Christian Science healing is ineffective.

Those who have never witnessed or experienced physical healing through the study of Christian Science may be persuaded to place it in the category of questionable faith healing or mere positive thinking, which it definitely is not.

When I was 12, my mother was diagnosed, treated and labeled incurable by three independent medical specialists. Our family then witnessed her complete healing solely by Christian Science treatment recommended by a neighbor.

For more than 50 years since then, I have relied solely on Christian Science to maintain my own health because of its dependable results when correctly adhered to. Because of this, I have no recorded medical history.

Some of the healings I’ve experienced through Christian Science treatment are blood poisoning, broken arm and foot, abscessed tooth, influenza, migraine, impaired eyesight, dislocated hip, heart problem and back injury. There have been a multitude of others, which proves to me and to those who have witnessed it, Christian Science offers a remarkable, Bible-based system of spiritual health care.

— Julie Foskett, Edmonds

Blaming the Republicans

I was amazed reading the column “$10 an hour with 2 kids? IRS pounces” [NWSunday, Dec. 6], but the greatest shock was columnist Danny Westneat’s efforts to blame this on Republicans.

No, there’s no bias in the printed media press. Westneat seems to have forgotten that it was the Republicans who tried to abolish the IRS in the 1980s.

I think the Democrats love the IRS — the more income they can divorce from American citizens, the more they can spend, and the more they can control our lives.

Conservative Republicans have longed for the day when the IRS remains only as a past nightmare.

— Richard Monson, Goldendale

This is what my tax dollars paid for?

An article describing a smuggling ring in the small city of Pacific has sickened me [“Pair accused of smuggling, enslaving illegal immigrants,” NWFriday, Nov. 27]. I have so many questions, which produce skirting answers from public officials of any stature.

Why do my tax dollars fund enforcement of pathetic minor infractions, which do not directly protect members of the community?

How did my tax dollars support upgrading police cruisers to high performance secret-service-style sports cars?

I drive through Pacific five days a week in 25-mph zones. It is well known that speed enforcement is a high priority in this city.

Now I’m informed that I have been coasting by the dwelling of violent smugglers. The sexual, physical and emotional abuse was reported in 2006, verifiably. Realistic people know it has been going on for much longer, but the children’s cries for help were ignored.

Will protecting our safety ever supersede the importance of creating city revenue?

My guess is, no. I will continue to drive past meth addicts, and possible prostitutes because the almighty buck is more important than our present and future safety.

— Erin Anderson, Puyallup

To Our Clients, Colleagues and Friends,  

• We think that the paperless office is clearly the future for mortgage banking, but for everyone doing it successfully, we see someone for whom it just doesn’t seem to help speed up the process. We’d love to hear of your real success stories out there. Or any real disappointments.
• A pretty high rating in the Dumb Bank Names Hall of Fame goes to a California bank with the improbable name Bank on It.  The stock in this small bank trades, under the symbol BKOT.
• The always curious Chris Brown analyzed the big banks last week, and here are the Texas Ratios for the five biggest.

Isn’t it interesting that the two banks that most investors are worried about, BofA and Citi, have the lowest (i.e. best) ratios?  For those new to this, a Texas Ratio of 36% means, at its most basic, that for every $100 of capital and loan loss reserves, the bank has $36 of bad loans. Bad loans are defined as non-accruals, REO, plus loans 30 days or more delinquent.  We prefer using 90 days and would settle for 60. A number over 100 is supposed to be a very good predictor of the bank failing. 

• When the Texas ratio gets too high, it’s also a predictor of the Bank’s obvious need to raise new capital.  From the bank’s perspective, it’s a simple issue:  Do they raise capital and stay alive, or do they not raise capital and fail.  From the shareholders perspective, the possibilities are (1) Does the bank not raise capital and fail, and (2) if it does raise capital, does the bank survive but with my interest as a shareholder being wiped out.   This refers to highly dilutive capital raises, and we’d love to see the dilution numbers for the typical deal the past year or so. Temecula Valley Bank almost did a deal to raise new capital which would have saved the bank. Unfortunately for the shareholders, it would have been 95% dilutive. Deals like this remind us of the line uttered during the Vietnam War, that ‘We had to destroy the village to save it.”
• Hey, we have an idea. An analyst at Oppenheimer was the guy during the S&L crisis twenty years ago who coined the term Texas Ratio, so we’ll claim authorship of a new phrase, the Vietnam Strategy.  This will refer to a strategy of raising dilutive capital that saves the bank but destroys the shareholders.  If you’re at a Board meeting and your investment banker tells you “We have good news…. we can raise capital for you”, ask him about the bad news.  Ask him if it involves a Vietnam Strategy.
• We just re-read Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle, the story of a Lithuanian immigrant family that comes to America and goes through truly horrible struggles. The most devastating mistake was the decision to use all their money for the down payment on a house that was way beyond their means. All the nightmares that follow start with the father losing his house to the bank.  The book was published in 1906, but it sure seems relevant to 2009.
  To fellow libertarians, now that you’ve read Atlas Shrugged, please read The Jungle. It will convince you that Ayn Rand’s cold-hearted philosophy needs to be tempered with a good dose of compassion. 

• Be careful about the clichés you use. What if you have a Texas Ratio of 200%, a C&D and a Prompt Corrective Action letter, but you tell your Board that you’ll be okay, that  “No way the FDIC seizes the bank.  That’ll happen the day it snows in San Francisco ” knowing that it never snows here.  Um, a few days ago it snowed throughout the San Francisco Bay Area.

• Kevin Tam answered our question about General Motors, noting that GM’s market capitalization, which was once more than $40 billion, is now about $372 million. He  contrasts that to Peet’s Coffee with a market cap of $400 million.  GM once epitomized the industrial might of America .  Have Starbucks and Peet’s now replaced the once iconic GM as epitomes of American business?
• Is the demise of General Motors as an American icon a sad thing, or is it just a reflection of the times? In terms of symbolizing America and our great strengths, wouldn’t we prefer that the world see Microsoft, Apple, and even Google as symbols of American business rather than an auto maker?

• Remember our mentioning the song “Get an ugly girl to marry you”?  A very senior officer at a multi-billion dollar bank (we’re not naming names) sent in the second line, completing the opening “If you want to be happy for the rest of your life, never make a pretty woman your wife, so for my personal point of view, get an ugly girl to marry you.”  This song was truly a phenomenon at parties. Everyone would sing along loudly, but when it came to the last part – “Get an ugly girl to marry you” – people would stop dancing, look up at the ceiling, and shout those last words at the top of their lungs.  They’d then laugh hysterically, as if it were the first time they’d heard the song.
• Good news:  A secondary marketing person wrote us that they sang the “Ugly Woman Song” at parties when she was in college around 8-9 years ago. It still lives!  Long after you’ve graduated from college and completely forgotten the point of Beowulf, you’ll still remember that song, and isn’t that precisely what college is all about?  And speaking of Beowulf,  wasn’t that about the worst book you ever read?  Even the Cliff Notes were incomprehensible.
• In a few weeks it will be 2010, so let’s look back fifty years to 1960. Financial historian Barbara Campbell tells us that the total national debt was $286 billion, a first class stamp was $.04, a gallon of gas was $0.25, a brand new Chevrolet was $2,600, and the average salary was $4,743.  The nostalgia for that decade implies that it was the best time imaginable, which like most generalizations, is only partly true.
• So before we get too nostalgic for the 60’s, remember that 55,000 American boys were killed in Vietnam, 10,000 Soviet missiles were aimed at us, blacks couldn’t vote, eat in most restaurants, or sleep in a hotel in the South, tens of millions of Americans lived in crushing poverty, and woman couldn’t get hired for most jobs other than as secretaries and teachers. If a woman got pregnant against her wishes, she had to go to back alley for an abortion, our air and water were horribly polluted, many men died of heart attacks in their 40’s and 50’s, and very few women survived breast cancer.  It was a fun decade in many ways, but it was also scarred with horrible assassinations, a draining war, and all the upheaval that accompanies change.
• We asked, tongue in check, what a Mojo was, and we got 30-35 responses, among them: “Mojo is when everything is working for you, and our Mojo has been working, with a 100% increase in volume this year.”  Or from a woman in Sacramento “I’ve always considered Mojo the same asswagger.”  And   “Mojo is a proper noun! You either have it or you don’t!”  From Kelly in Phoenix “It’s a presence.”  And from Illinois “Greenspan does not have it. Brett Favre does.”  Or this one ”It’s as simple as…. 20 kids in a room and you can clearly see who has Mojo and who does not!”  Here’s one that’s a good guess but is wrong “It’s the same as a Soul Patch.” Here’s another wrong answer:  “Jim Morrison sang about it in L.A. Woman when he sings “There’s a Mojo rising”.  Most likely, he was referring to the sun or moon.”   And about 20 people sent us the definition right from the dictionary.
• For your viewing pleasure, here are the bank holding companies with the biggest credit card portfolios.

What’s interesting is how quickly the numbers drop off.  The 15^th biggest is Popular Bank with $1.1 billion, #21 is Bank of the West at $385 million, and #29 is First Horizon at $151 million.  These are all from the December 1 issue of American Banker.

• And how about Richmond , California ’s Mechanics Bank?  These guys just don’t believe in stock splits, so one share is $11,000.
• Next time you see the Salvation Army people, why not slip $5 into the pot instead of a quarter. It’s a good organization doing good things. And next time a homeless person outside the supermarket asks for spare change, why not take him inside with you and buy him some food?

Garrett, Watts & Co.   special article:  How to Use Return on Capital to Determine ProfitiablityHelping mortgage lenders increase revenues, control costs, and better manage risk.

• Joe Garrett         ([email protected])
• Mike McAuley      ([email protected])
• Corky Watts         ([email protected])

Filed under: Japan, Nissan

Here’s a bit of interesting folklore for you history-obsessed car buffs out there. Nissan (then selling Datsuns) was tricked into coming to America. Seems that Nissan never planned to sell cars here, as they felt that their diminutive, economical rides were too small and slow for the mighty U.S. market. However, one man felt different: Nobushige Wakatsuki.

The year was 1958 and Wakatsuki had a job with Marubeni Trading Corp. where he was charged with finding Japanese products to import into the U.S. Wakatsuki approached Datsun’s management and asked them if they’d be interested in bringing the brand Stateside. After all, Toyota had just began selling cars to Americans in 1957. Wakatsuki was humiliated when he heard their blunt reply, “No.”

But Cazy Nobe — as Nissan execs would later refer to the then 29-year-old — refused to let a good business opportunity go to waste. He went ahead and procured some cars from Nissan under the pretense of a marketing exercise and proceeded to put them on sale. All of this was done behind Nissan’s back. Which really pissed them off. In fact, it took another full year of pestering before Nissan took over the dealer network Crazy Nobe established here in 1960. However, the joke is on them, as Nissan/Infiniti sold nearly 1,000,000 cars in the US last year.

Nobushige Wakatsuki died on November 13, 2009 at the age of 81. Thanks for all the good memories, Mr. Wakatsuki.

[Source: Automotive News – Sub. Req. | Image: Fudge]

Nobushige Wakatsuki, the man responsible for bringing Nissan/Datsun to U.S. dies at 81 originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 09 Dec 2009 17:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

As an avid infosthetics reader, you should be well accustomed with the notion of infographically animated movies. Well, you might be surprised that the latest infographic movie in Australia has caused a storm of controversy, which even motivated the country’s Prime Minister to step in and comment that the company in question should have ”a long hard look at itself”.

The background is not that complex. Westpac, one of the only 4 large banks in Australia, recently raised its variable mortgage rate with 0.45 percentage points, nearly twice the level of the Reserve Bank’s 0.25 percentage points increase, and significantly more than its 3 other competitors. While this initiative was already enough to score some major headlines in the national press, the bank tried to smooth things over by sending hundreds of thousands of Westpac customers an email on Monday night from the bank’s retail chief explaining its supercharged interest rates.

Included in the email was an infographically animated video titled “Cool Bananas”, justifying the bank’s decision to raise interest rates by comparing the business of banking with selling banana smoothies. Just as a storm hits and destroys a banana field, and increases the prices of banana smoothies, the banks were hit by a crisis of their own, increasing their cost of lending. For those outside Australia, the chosen theme subtly points to an Australian phenomenon in its recent past, namely the banana shortage caused by Cyclone Harry in 2006, which increased banana prices across the country by 400-500%.

Australian banana farmers, advertising executives (already embarrassed worldwide by the recent Vegemite “iSnack 2.0” rename debacle), local politicians and bank customers somehow did not like the gesture. Their comments range from the utterly condescending tone of the movie, to the implied comparison between “an act of God” (the hurricane) and the (self-inflicted?) current banking crisis.

Read some the press coverage here and here.

Watch the infographic video in question below. (sorry for the bad quality, cannot seem to find better version)

Vaska herbatergent is making a switch to greener packaging which is a smart move in my opinion as it will help convince eco-savvy shoppers to use their laundry detergent. I actually like Vaska a lot. It’s one of my two current favorite green laundry detergents.

However, one of my issues with them when I first tried it was their packaging. The packaging wasn’t actually terrible before. The bottles of Vaska are made with from up to 50 percent post-consumer content, and can be recycled in most major cities. Both the bottle and lid carry a recycling reminder which is awesome (and rarer than you might think among green companies). That said, I think people are more likely to recycle cardboard so I noted that it’d be nice if a box option was offered.

Now though they’re offering newly packaged detergent at Sam’s Club Stores in California and Nevada. The new greener package called, Jerribox, consists of a plastic bag contained within a 50% post-consumer recycled paperboard exterior. The Jerribox saves approximately 62%* plastic usage compared to the plastic bottles that are currently the industry standard.

In addition to the Jerribox, Vaska’s laundry line includes 48 oz and 96 oz lavender scented and unscented herbatergent, oxybleach (non-chlorine), herbasoft fabric softener and spotoff spot remover. Many of Vaska’s products carry the EPA’s DfE seal and all are biodegradable and gray water safe.

I’d be WAY more likely to buy Vaska in the new packaging since it cuts down on even more waste. Also cool to note, back when I first reviewed this detergent, the company told me that they’re working on a powder too. Right now the only downside is that the new packaging seems to only be available at Sam’s Club, but Vaska does plan to make the Jerribox available to other retailers in 2010.

Visit Vaska to learn more.

Post from: Blisstree

Vaska detergent moves to greener packaging

You really need to watch this.  News to follow.

   <<< click

http://www.flixxy.com/best-christmas-lights-display.htm

Amazing Christmas display with 176 channels and 45,000 lights! The show is so popular that it requires a crew of 3 people to manage the traffic. 

————

Short Sales Mitigate First-Lien Severities, BarCap Says – By DIANA GOLOBAY – Short sales may be partially responsible for the falling of first-lien severities in most non-agency sectors, according to securitization research Friday by Barclays Capital (BarCap).  Mark-to-market loan-to-value shifts and the rising share of short sales in recent liquidations can mostly explain the severity declines.  – HousingWire

————

Why Didn’t Canada’s Housing Market Go Bust? – James MacGee – hattip Ira Artman – FRB Cleveland     (hint: down payment/homeowners equity)  
————

House Flipping Makes a Comeback – By JAMES R. HAGERTY – … Now, a different breed of flipper is proliferating: one who seeks bargains at foreclosure auctions. Unlike the boom-time flippers, the latest generation needs cold cash, lots of local-market knowledge and strong nerves. … – Wall Street Journal

It’s not hard. We promise.

Maybe this year you’re hosting company for the first time? Or perhaps you’re already an expert entertainer but never serve cheese because you just don’t know how to make sensical combinations?

Here, all you need to know: 5 basic guidelines, for amateurs and masters alike.

Read Full Post

Chart du Jour: Unemployment Around the World – According to the IMF, despite early signs of an economic recovery, most countries around the world should see unemployment rates rise from 2009-2010. – Plan B Economics
————

on market reaction to unemployment – … We are seeing the first signs of improvement in the jobs data and the equity market is nervous? What gives?  The now famous risk trade works on the premises that the dollar liquidity and zero rates would be around for quite some time.  The Fed is on hold for one simple reason – employment weakness. As long as the US jobs market stays weak, the “cat is away and mice can play”. – Sober Look Blog

Barney Frank’s House bill H.R. 3996 – impact on secured lending – …  It would require secured creditors, like repurchase agreement lenders and the Federal Home Loan Bank system, to bear losses of as much as 20 percent to cover the costs of a systemically significant bank failure. … – has list of 5 increased risks to financial system – Sober Look Blog

————

China’s Consumption Conundrum – Tom Lindmark – looks at the question if China can increase consumer consumption from already high levels to spur further recovery – But Then What Blog
————

Who in America is Paying Taxes? – great chart – 7% of the people pay 70% of income taxes and 47% pay zero federal taxes. …  – Plan B Economics

————

Too many people pay no income tax – Scott Grannis – … Nuni, a very good friend of mine, made a similar comment to me this morning:  If we talk about the unfairness of those making a lot of money and not sharing enough with those who don’t make a lot of money, how about the unfairness of those who don’t pay any taxes asking to increase taxes on the rich? The fair thing to do would be to say that only those who pay taxes should be able to give an opinion about raising taxes. The rest are just going along for a free ride. And that’s definitively unfair … – Calafia Beach Pundit

————

Low interest rates lure banks to take risk: study – … The study from the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) found evidence of a significant link between an extended period of low interest rates prior to the financial crisis and banks’ risk-taking.  …”It is important…that prudential authorities be especially vigilant during periods of unusually low interest rates, particularly if they are accompanied by other signs of risk-taking, such as rapid credit and asset price increases.” … – Reuters
————

The Government Bubble When will it pop? – Brian S. Wesbury and Robert Stein – … In other words, loose money has created a temporary mirage in which a massive increase in government spending appears to be an easy burden to carry. In particular, the mirage of low rates colors the public’s view of legislative efforts to fully nationalize the U.S. health care system, making it seem more affordable than it is in reality.  How is this any different than the housing market from a few years back? … – Forbes

————

Lending Squeeze Drags On – By LIZ RAPPAPORT and SERENA NG – 2 interesting points – …   One measure of the retreat in consumer lending: In 2005, over six billion credit-card offers flooded consumers’ mailboxes. This year just 1.4 billion have been sent out, according to Synovate, a market-research firm … and … These securitization markets provided as much as 50% of consumer lending in the years leading up to the crisis, says Tim Ryan of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, a financial-industry trade group. “Without [the securitization markets], it’s very difficult to replicate the amount of money moving into the economy,” he says – Wall Street Journal

Asia, Globe | Long Now Locations

It is a small monastery hung far up on a cliff overlooking a spectacular valley. It is also one of thirteen small monasteries or “tiger’s lairs” where the Guru Rinpoche or “Precious Master” also known as the “second Buddha” of Bhutan is said to have meditated.

Padmasambava was a Brahmin royal who spread Tentric Buddhism through Bhutan and Tibet, in the 700s, and is seen in those areas as nearly as holy as the Buddha himself.

As legend has it, Padmasambava landed at Paro Taktsang to meditate when he brought Buddhism to Bhutan in the seventh century. He is said to have arrived on a flying tiger which had recently been his Tibetan concubine. He then meditated in a cave high on the mountain for four months after which hs subdued the local ‘demons’ and began the conversion of the Bhutanese to Buddhism.

For those without flying tiger concubines, getting to the Tiger’s Nest is significantly more difficult. There is a two hour climb from the valley floor, which is already quite high at 7000 feet, to the Tiger’s Nest 3000 feet above, 10,000 feet above sea level. As one climbs the well-maintained but very steep trail over ever more vertical switchbacks, the monastery seems to appear and disappear in and out of the trees and the mists. After two hours of a long slow climb — going slow is recommended to help manage the pace of the altitude — one arrives at the only beginning of the entrance to the Tiger’s Nest, a rock outcropping overlooking a vast chasm, with the monastery on the other side.

Beneath the promontory of rock, and across the chasm from the monastery, the cliff drops a couple of thousand feet to the gorge below. Carved into the exposed cliff face are stone steps with absolutely no handrails. This is they way to the Tiger’s Nest monastery.

Despite the reservations of visitors to navigate the terrifying looking steps, Bhutanese mothers with small babys can be seen floating up the steps with the greatest of ease. The steps lead down into the gorge, which provides the separation, and isolation the Tiger’s Nest has enjoyed for all these centuries.

As one climbs into the canyon, a one hundred meter high water fall at the deep end of the canyon appears immediately in front, with the path traversing directly across it’s base. Once down and across the front of the water fall the steps start back up toward the Tiger’s Nest once again, over 700 steps in all.

After removing one’s shoes one can enter the Tiger’s Nest and climb the several levels within, visiting three temples and gasping at the unreal view. High and deep inside is the cold cave where Padmasambabva is said to have meditated and one can feel the chill breath coming from the cave.

The return journey is much faster, but equally dramatic.

In conjunction with the Long Now Foundation. Modified from original text by Peter Schwartz at the Long Now Blog.

Filed under: Motorsports, UK

BRDC President Damon Hill and Silvestone Managing Director Richard Phillips announce the new deal

Following months of negotiations and uncertainty, the British Racing Drivers Club has signed a deal with the FIA and Formula One Management to keep the British Grand Prix at Silverstone for the next seventeen years, starting with next year’s race.

The deal is struck for the same amount of time (with a cancellation clause after ten years) that rival circuit Donington Park had signed with Bernie Ecclestone. That deal fell through, however, and Donington has gone into bankruptcy. In order to meet Formula One’s demands, Silverstone – which first hosted the event in 1948 and has hosted it every year since 1987 – will undertake a massive renovation project.

Included in the plans are new grandstands, a new paddock area with new pits, and a potential switch to a new track layout. The Arena circuit was carved out of sections of the existing grand prix circuit for use by MotoGP, which will also be racing at Silverstone in the coming year. By containing it within the main area, the Arena circuit offers spectators a better view of the action, and the BRDC (headed by 1996 World Champion Damon Hill) has submitted the layout for FIA approval. Press release after the jump.

[Source: Silverstone]

Continue reading Silverstone secures the British Grand Prix for the next 17 years

Silverstone secures the British Grand Prix for the next 17 years originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 09 Dec 2009 17:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

The paper reviewed here is a Brazilian study –  ‘Use of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) in a Cardiac Emergency Room – Chest Pain Unit’ by Nardi and colleagues and freely available here. In the introduction the authors state that

‘The objective of the study described herein is to use a self-reporting measure to estimate the prevalence of anxiety and depression in patients admitted to chest pain units‘

Methodology

In the methodology section the authors discuss the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. They use the Portuguese version and cite the work that has been done to validate this scale. Characteristics of the sampling were as follows:-

• Patient included were those with chest pain ‘who were admitted to the Chest Pain Unit of a private hospital in Rio de Janeiro’
• The study period was May to August 2006
• Patients were stratified into four groups according to the intensity of the chest pain

Exclusion criteria were

• ’severe clinical conditions’
• ’severe respiratory failure’
• ‘hemodynamic instability’
• ‘neurological conditions with cognitive involvement’
• Dementia
• Delirium
• ‘Any psychiatric disorder that causes changes in awareness or in formal thought processes’

Nursing staff or doctors assessed subjects using the portugues version of the HADS. If the subject scored above 8 on the HADS they were referred to a psychiatrist.

Results

There are a lot of results from the study which can be viewed in the original paper via the link above. There were 167 questionnaires administered and 130 subjects remained after exclusion criteria were applied. The mean age was 61.2 years and 58.5% of the sample were men. In the subjects ‘probable angina’ was the most likely category which the authors had categorised according to the intensity of the chest pain (after the initial stratification further relevant tests were undertaken). 44.6% of the sample scored higher than 8 on the anxiety component which was the threshold used for diagnosing anxiety with 93.7% sensitivity (although this is used as an aid to diagnosis).

After the results of the investigations were available, the researchers were able to divide the groups into those where a physical cause for the chest pain could be determined (PDC) and those where it could not (PIC).

• Anxiety was recorded (according to the HADS threshold) in 34.8% of the subjects diagnosed with acute coronary syndrome.
• Anxiety was recorded in 33.9% of the subjects diagnosed with non-acute coronary syndrome PDC
• Anxiety was recorded in 53.5% of the subjects in the PIC group

The prevalence in the PIC and PDC groups was significantly different using the Chi-squared test (p=0.025) and this is roughly a 20% difference in prevalence rates between the groups.

Conclusions

The authors discuss the significance of their findings and suggest that the HADS could be a useful tool in this setting in both the PDC and PIC groups. I couldn’t see figures for those who were referred to psychiatrists and diagnosed with an anxiety disorder nor could I see a reference to the diagnostic criteria that would be used for case ascertainment under these circumstances. This would be a useful method to examine the meaning of the HADS scores in this population. The large percentage difference between the prevalences in the PIC and PDC groups as well as the  p values for the Chi-Squared test are suggestive of a higher prevalence of anxiety disorders in the former group although case ascertainment would provide convincing evidence. What I found interesting was that the HADS has proved successful enough to be translated into Portuguese and is being used in research in Brazil as well as showing these preliminary benefits of use in the setting in this study. While it could be argued that chest pain in itself could produce anxiety and influence the test scores the lower anxiety scores in people in the PDC group argues against this significantly influencing the HADS anxiety component scores.

Twitter

You can follow ‘The Amazing World of Psychiatry’ Twitter by clicking on this link

Podcast

You can listen to this post on Odiogo by clicking on this link (there may be a small delay between publishing of the blog article and the availability of the podcast).

TAWOP Channel

You can follow the TAWOP Channel on YouTube by clicking on this link

Responses

If you have any comments, you can leave them below or alternatively e-mail [email protected]

Disclaimer

The comments made here represent the opinions of the author and do not represent the profession or any body/organisation. The comments made here are not meant as a source of medical advice and those seeking medical advice are advised to consult with their own doctor. The author is not responsible for the contents of any external sites that are linked to in this blog.

The New York Times revealed yesterday that the NCAA is conducting a wide-ranging investigation into recruiting practices by the University of Tennessee. Specifically, they concern the use of recruiting hostesses from the school’s Orange Pride organization, an ambassador-like club directly affiliated with the university that is comprised of both men and women . They exist on most campuses and help serve as representatives to the school for many events, and also sometimes escort potential recruits in all sports around campus. It seems that the women of Orange Pride have attracted quite a bit of attention to themselves lately for their uncanny ability to successfully land recent football recruits.

The controversy surrounds an unspecified number of visits made by these women to some potential recruits’ high school football games this fall–one over 200 miles away. In this specific incident, hostesses are reported to have brought signs that read ‘Come to Tennessee’. The NCAA is conducting interviews with four potential recruits, including Marcus Lattimore of James F. Byrnes high school in Duncan, SC, who saw the signs. “I haven’t seen no other schools do that. It’s crazy,” said Lattimore. He also described the hostesses as “real pretty, real nice and just real cool.” He said he thought they had “a lot” of influence in two of his teammates’ commitments to Tennessee. Often times, these hostesses exchange social networking information with recruits, like Myspace and Facebook, or send them text messages.

Since these hostesses are a formal part of the university, these alledged ‘off-campus’ visits could be considered secondary recruiting violations, if not more. Tennessee AD Mike Hamilton confirmed the investigation, but refused to elaborate further.

This incident marks the sixth time that secondary violations have been reported during coach Lane Kiffin’s tenure. The NCAA’s enforcement division gets involved if similar incidents continue to get reported. The investigation appears to revolve around if these visits were impromptu ones made by the hostesses, or if they may have been directed by the university in some fashion. Certainly the latter case, if true, would constitute a more serious scenario.

For me, I think the NCAA should clamp down on this pretty hard for all schools. It has the potential to get way out of hand, especially with all the electronic means of communication these days. We’ve even seen coaches themselves push that envelope. If they had the male hosts doing this, no one would care, but have pretty girls do it and the intent is pretty clear.

© fanblogs.com

View the original post or comment on Tennessee Recruiting Hostesses Trigger NCAA Investigation…

We’ve seen the ridiculous pressure that lobbyists and diplomats have been putting on Canada to put in place significantly more draconian copyright law, without any evidence that it’s needed and even though it’s opposed by the vast majority of Canadian citizens. However, now things are just getting bizarre. A totally separate issue involving Canadian and US trade is that Canada is (reasonably) upset by various “buy American” provisions that are being pushed by various local governments despite the fact that anyone with any economic knowledge at all recognizes that “Buy American” provisions do more harm to American interests. This is an important issue, and there are lots of ways to address it. But it’s flat-out ridiculous to believe that the “answer” to the Buy American issue is for Canadians to capitulate to American interests in implementing much more draconian copyright law. And yet, that’s exactly what an American lobbyist just told a Canadian Parliamentary gathering recently.

Scotty Greenwood, an American lobbyist with a history of serious conflicts of interest in her dual role as a lobbyist and as an executive director of the Canadian-American Business Council, spoke at the gathering and offered what she believed is a simple solution: Canadian politicians “could solve Buy America tomorrow,” if they just agreed to capitulate on copyright, even though the two issues have absolutely nothing to do with one another. Luckily, Canadian copyright expert Howard Knopf was on hand to ask Greenwood how that could possibly make any sense at all. Apparently, the only answer he got was that Canada should implement the copyright law demanded by American lobbyists because it’s “in Canada’s best interest.” Uh huh.

Of course, it’s pure fantasy to claim that by implementing draconian copyright law in Canada that most people want, the “Buy American” issue will go away. In most cases, Buy American is not being pushed by the federal government, but by more local politicians who have a more populist position (i.e., protecting the jobs of local workers). They couldn’t care any less about copyright in Canada. But, it does show just how low the copyright lobby has stooped to push more draconian copyright laws in Canada, when they’re now trying to tie it to a totally different trade issue.

Permalink | Comments | Email This Story