Health

From a Reuters article of the same title on MSNBC.com:

Israeli doctors have turned to a novel method to boost success rates of fertility treatments -clowning around. Although funny men with red noses and big feet are popular on children's wards in hospitals they are rarely, if ever, seen entertaining women trying to get pregnant. But after introducing clown therapy to patients having in-vitro fertilization, doctors at Assaf Harofeh Medical Center in Zerifin, Israel, said the conception rate rose from 20 to 35 percent.

From a blog post of the same title in Greg Stevenson's blog (see his blog post for more);

With the consumption of so many violent stories in my youth, why have I not grown into a homicidal maniac? Especially since that is exactly what our society tells us happens. Violence is a problem in our society, as it is in most. Many have decided that the cause of this problem is the portrayal of violent stories in the media. Children who watch violent shows, they say, build up aggression and are taught that violence is the way to release that aggression and solve problems. Thus, they imitate in real life what they watch on screen. I have long suspected this was a shallow, naive, and ill-informed response to a complex problem. I certainly do not want to minimize the problem of societal violence nor minimize the role that the media may legitimately play, but blaming television or film violence as the primary cause is a bit like blaming the Hostess company for your weight problem. We often crave easy solutions to complex problems. The truth is that many factors are at play: the abdication of parental responsibility, societal attitudes, school culture, etc. Focusing on the media as the primary problem and suggesting shielding children from all violent content without distinction is problematic for two reasons: 1) It removes the focus from the other significant causes and thus creates a situation where removal of violent content becomes the "solution" that may not solve anything. 2) It distorts the actual role of violent stories in a culture... The fact is that violent stories permeate the Bible from beginning to end. .. Do we ignore the role of violence in the Bible or do we acknowledge that violent stories can be valuable catalysts for moral growth? I did not really know how to address the complexity of the role that violent stories play for children until I read a controversial book by Gerard Jones titled Killing Monsters: Why Children NEED Fantasy, Super Hero, and Make-Believe Violence... He argues that fantasy violence is essential for the proper emotional development of children. He tells stories of children who grow up in families where all access to violent stories are removed, and yet the child still cuts their toast into the shape of a gun and plays with it. He consults child psychologists who argue that playing Cowboys and Indians or pretending to be Darth Vader are healthy ways for children to cope with this world and to learn how to live peacefully in it. And what about all the studies showing media violence makes people violent? Jones examines these studies and demonstrates persuasively that they do not show quite what they claim to show and sometimes actually demonstrate the opposite. Jones is careful to distinguish between fantasy violence (the focus of his book) and realistic portrayals of violence that are not appropriate or helpful to children. Many would counter that children are not capable of distinguishing between reality and fantasy. For a handful of kids, that is true. But Jones argues, and numerous psychologists back him up, that our children are very capable of making that distinction and often do a better job of it than adults.

I have a similar experience. I certainly wasn't sheltered from violence as a kid (I LOVED professional wrestling!), but I have no personal interest or experience in violence. I've tried to keep my boys sheltered from it, yet battling the "bad guys" and each other with swords and guns is their favorite activity. I can buy that this is natural and harmless. However, I also have to think that repeated viewing of realistic portrayals of violence must tend to desensitize to it in real life (a recent study said the same about video game violence)...

From an article of the same title in the LA Times by Henry Chu:

As temp jobs go, Saroj Mehli has landed what she feels is a pretty sweet deal. It's a nine-month gig, no special skills needed, and the only real labor comes at the end - when she gives birth. If everything goes according to plan, Mehli, 32, will deliver a healthy baby early next year. But rather than join her other three children, the newborn will be handed over to an American couple who are unable to bear a child on their own and are hiring Mehli to do it for them. She'll be paid about $5,000 for acting as a surrogate mother, a bonanza that would take her more than six years to earn on her salary as a schoolteacher in a village near here. "I might renovate or add to the house, or spend it on my kids' education or my daughter's wedding," Mehli said. Beyond the money, she said, there is the reward of bringing happiness to a childless couple in the United States, where such a service would cost them thousands of dollars more, not to mention the potential legal hassles. Driven by many of the same factors that have led Western businesses to outsource some of their operations to India in recent years, an increasing number of infertile couples from abroad are coming here in search of women such as Mehli who are willing, in effect, to rent out their wombs… Current figures are tough to pin down, but the Indian Council of Medical Research estimates that helping residents and visitors beget children could bloom into a nearly $6-billion-a-year industry.

From a Reuters article of the same title by Lesley Wroughton on Yahoo News:

The world's richest countries are falling short on pledges made last year to provide Africa with life-saving AIDS drugs, expanded trade and increased aid, said rocker-activist Bono… "They started out to climb an Everest but over the past year they got lost at base camp," Bono told Reuters in an interview after the release of a report by his lobby group Debt, AIDS, Trade, Africa group, or DATA… The report said wealthy countries had delivered on their promise to cancel the debts of 19 poor countries, most of them in Africa, with 44 countries eligible under World Bank and International Monetary Fund programs… The report said relief from burdensome debt payments in Cameroon, Mozambique, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia has already swelled spending on education, health and AIDS… The report said much more was needed to provide access to drug therapy to fight HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Globally, AIDS funding has grown to $8.3 billion in 2005 from $300 million in the late 1990's. In Africa, the number of people being treated rose to 800,000 last year from 100,000 in 2003. DATA said, however, that donors were spending half of what was needed to meet the goal of getting AIDS treatment to at least four million Africans by 2010. The report commended the United States for leadership on AIDS programs in Africa, and Britain and France for their contributions to a Geneva-based global fund for AIDS. Canada, Italy, Japan and Germany were laggards, it said. "Breaking your promise is always bad but breaking a promise to people whose life depends on it is unforgivable," said Bono, who recently traveled to Africa. The report castigated the G8 for failure to reach a trade deal that would open markets for African products

From an AP article of the same title on MSNBC.com:

A former handyman has won more than $400,000 in a lawsuit over a penile implant that gave him a 10-year erection. Charles "Chick" Lennon, 68, received the steel and plastic implant in 1996, about two years before Viagra went on the market. The Dura-II is designed to allow impotent men to position the penis upward for sex, then lower it. But Lennon could not position his penis downward. He said he could no longer hug people, ride a bike, swim or wear bathing trunks because of the pain and embarrassment. He has become a recluse and is uncomfortable being around his grandchildren, his lawyer said… Lennon cannot get the implant removed because of health problems, including open-heart surgery, his lawyer said.