Balancing medicine and media careers

Michael Banks from The Doctors Channel talks to CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta about balancing a medical career and life in the media.

Sanjay Gupta (born October 23, 1969) is an American neurosurgeon and media personality on health-related issues based in Atlanta, Georgia. An assistant professor of neurosurgery at Emory University School of Medicine and associate chief of the neurosurgery service at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, he is best known as CNN's chief medical correspondent, hosting the network's weekend health program House Call with Dr. Sanjay Gupta and making frequent appearances on their American Morning, Larry King Live, and Anderson Cooper 360° programs.

Giancarlo Elia Valori, professor, economist and journalist, is the winner of the XXX edition of the Ischia Mediterranean Award. The recognition was awarded "for the acute analysis and original reporting on geopolitical and economic dell'Area - the fruit of direct knowledge developed into successful books and articles in newspapers and magazines with international significance." The jury presided by Alfonso Ruffo and composed by Claudio Azzolini, Francesco Cervelli, Annamaria Chiariello, Giordano Bruno Guerri, Maurizio Maddaloni, Nicola Marrazzo, Angela Riccio, Gennaro Sangiuliano, Antonio Sasso, and Marcello Veneziani ruled at the meeting held in Rome at the headquarters of Vodafone.

Madoff secretary says she thinks he's not cooperating with investigators to protect others

Bernard Madoff's longtime secretary said Wednesday that she believes the disgraced financier is not cooperating with authorities in order to protect others, and that he was a flirtatious boss who frequented massage parlors.

On April 21 Rabbi Schneier was decorated Grande Ufficiale dell’Ordine della Stella della Solidarietà Italiana” (Grand Official of the Order of the Italian Star of Solidarity) at the Consulate General of Italy. With him, the new Arcibishop of the City of New York Timothy Dolan.

I love you God because you saved my life from death. I saw six million people, all part of my family, dying for their only fault: being Jewish. As I survivor I felt I had to pay back on a daily basis. If I survived, I survived for a reason. Because I was not better than those who perished. I had to give back.

Posted by Bob Grant, The-Scientist.com

A Los Angeles County grand jury arraigned two animal rights activists yesterday (Apr. 20) charged with ten felonies, including stalking and conspiracy to threaten a public officer or school employee, for allegedly harassing University of California, Los Angeles, scientists who use animals in their research.

CNN's Zain Verjee reports on the pope saying condoms actually contribute to the HIV/AIDS problem in Africa.

The Vatican on Wednesday defended Pope Benedict's opposition to the use of condoms to stop the spread of AIDS as scientists and countries including his native Germany criticized it as unrealistic and dangerous.

Benedict, arriving in Africa, said on Tuesday that condoms "increase the problem" of AIDS. The comment, made to reporters aboard his plane, caused a worldwide storm of criticism.

The Vatican on Wednesday defended Pope Benedict's opposition to the use of condoms to stop the spread of AIDS as scientists and countries including his native Germany criticized it as unrealistic and dangerous.

Benedict, arriving in Africa, said on Tuesday that condoms "increase the problem" of AIDS. The comment, made to reporters aboard his plane, caused a worldwide storm of criticism.

"My reaction is that this represents a major step backwards in terms of global health education, is entirely counter-productive, and is likely to lead to increases in HIV infection in Africa and elsewhere," said Prof Quentin Sattentau, Professor of Immunology at Britain's Oxford University.

President Obama signed an order reversing the Bush administration's strict limits on human embryonic stem cell research.

From tiny embryonic cells to the large-scale physics of global warming, President Barack Obama urged researchers on Monday to follow science and not ideology as he abolished contentious Bush-era restraints on stem-cell research. "Our government has forced what I believe is a false choice between sound science and moral values," Obama declared as he signed documents changing U.S. science policy and removing what some researchers have said were shackles on their work.

By Peter Schmidt, The Health Care Blog

The Obama team is talking very seriously about including health information technology in his “main street” stimulus package. While I generally agree with the predictions of doom and gloom for providers saddled with the burden of data entry, this creates a potentially huge opportunity for Health 2.0.

Middle East: Giancarlo Elia Valori condemnation of Hamas and calls for humanitarian measures for Palestinian civilians

In a message to the Ambassador of Israel in Italy, Gideon Meir, the president of "Israel 60", Giancarlo Elia Valori, expressed solidarity with the Jewish people and confirmed the strong condemnation to the terrorist actions of Hamas, stressing that the effects of these brutal acts "damages the interests and legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people, digging a ditch between two civil societies destined to live side by side."

Giancarlo Elia Valori was confirmed today to the leadership of La Centrale Finanziaria Generale, in which also was incorporated The Central Development of the Mediterranean. Addittionaly to President Valori, was elected as Vice president Tarak Ben Ammar, (financier and Adviser of Mediobanca),and Alberto Gotti, Sergio Balbinot (Generali), Vittorio Fini (Vice-President Banca Popolare dell'Emilia Romagna), the former Rector of Bocconi Carlo Secchi (Allianz), Niccolo' Azzolini (Amenduni and Popular Catholic), Ercole Galizzi (Return Holding), Beniamino Itri (Partners & Partecipation), Fabio Aparo (Investments ), Massimo Faccioli Pintozzi, Franco Barbaro and Mauro Ardesi as Officers. “The Assembly also appointed to the board, which is chaired by Andrea Monorchio, former controller general of the State, the following members: Paolo Grecco and Giorgio Berta. The Board of Directors, at the end of the Assembly, has confirmed Alberto Gotti as Managing Director and established an Executive Committee, which includes: the Chairman, the Managing Director, plus Barbaro, Azzollini and Ardesi.

By: Ogan Gurel, MD
View Dr. Gurel's BIO

Pharma Finance 2008 - Roma

The distinction between invention and innovation was discussed in a previous series of three articles:

Part I: Concepts of Innovation, Invention Should Now Be Regarded Differently
Part II: Invention Needs to Be Left Free; Innovation Must Be Managed
Part III: Innovation vs. Invention: Accelerating Development

Having spent the last few days in Rome, I’ve had the chance to reflect upon the rise and fall of empires, the invention/innovation concepts described in the above articles and the relation between these and the fate of nations.

One of Italy’s most eminent and prominent figures warns that Iran’s budding nuclear weapons program poses an “immediate threat” to the United States, Israel and the West, but that Washington needs to cautiously deal with the problem.

If not, Giancarlo Valori tells Newsmax, the United States could give “rise to power, which will be equally violent and dangerous, of the current opponents of Iran.”

Valori (pictured with Shimon Peres), a noted businessman, professor and economist, notes that if Israel is the key antagonist and policies toward Iran are “shaped by Tel Aviv,” actions against Tehran could imperil relations between the United States and Europe.

An eye opening video depicting our planet Earth if the entire population was reduced to one hundred people.

The idea of reducing the world’s population to a community of only 100 people is very useful and important. It makes us easily understand the differences in the world.

There are many types of reports that use the Earth’s population reduced to 100 people, especially in the Internet. Ideas like this should be more often shared, especially nowadays when the world seems to be in need of dialogue and understanding among different cultures, in a way that it has never been before.

Hu Jintao started his political ascent at the top leadership of the Communist Party of China by managing the repression of the demonstrations which took place in Lhasa, Tibet in 1989 . He was selected as Head of the Party in Tibet due to his reputation as “reformer”. After his relations with Jiang Nanxiang, his first supporter in the CCP hierarchy, he was appointed as instructor at the Party School of the Tsinghua University. After the “Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution” which started in 1967, Hu Jintao was sent to the Gansu province for one year and was subsequently assigned to No. 813 Sub-Bureau, Fourth Engineering Bureau, Ministry for Water Conservancy, in charge of water resources and electric energy production.

Source: ScienceDebate2008.com

Democrats, Republicans agree on need, disagree on issues; health care tops list

See Charts of this Data Online

A new poll (charts, pdf, 3.1mb) shows that 85% of U.S. adults agree that the presidential candidates should participate in a debate on how science can be used to tackle America’s major challenges. The poll found no difference between Democrats and Republicans on this question. A majority (84%) also agree that scientific innovations are improving our standard of living.

Source: Newsmax.com

Imagine if President Bush, after 9/11, simply declared war on oil and put the whole nation behind ending our crippling dependence on it.

Imagine if we had spent the money we allocated to the war in Iraq toward eliminating the oil addiction. The tab for the Iraq war hovers around the $1 trillion mark and grows at a clip of at least $12 billion a month. The Congressional Budget Office projects that the cost through 2017, including hidden costs such as veterans’ benefits, could total $2.4 trillion.

Prof. Giancarlo Valori has written an enlightening book on the peoples, cultures and civilizations around the Mediterranean – from ancient times to the present – that provide the reader with a sweeping account of the riveting chapters of its history.

By: Giancarlo Elia Valori

The following is adapted from a speech given at Yeshiva University in New York.

Basically we can say that today in Europe we witness the resurgence of a new anti-Semitism which, after all, shows strong signs of continuity with the traditional Judeophobia.

Statistics show that in 2006 - the last year for which updated and reliable information exist - in Europe about 2,200 violent acts of anti-Semitism were perpetrated against Jews or assets and buildings belonging to the Jewish Community or its members.

It is worth noting - and this has its own political relevance – that most European countries have no specific statistics on anti-Semitism violent actions. When statistics and data are available, they report a lower number of cases than the actions really perpetrated.

Next Tuesday the authoritative American Jewish Community will “crown” Giancarlo Elia Valori

There are great expectations in New York for the arrival of Giancarlo Elia Valori, President of Sviluppo del Mediterraneo SpA and Sviluppo Lazio SpA who, on Tuesday evening, will officially take the Chair for Peace at the Rabbi Arthur Schneier Center of International Affairs of the Yeshiva University, the prestigious private university of the American Jewish Community.