Fact Check: Health Care Reform Claims

WASHINGTON, Nov. 24, 2009

(CBS) Congress has begun its Thanksgiving break, with Senate Democrats going home thankful they cleared a major hurdle on health care reform after voting to open a floor debate when they get back next week.

Meanwhile, debate continues all over the airwaves about what the House and Senate bills would really mean for ordinary Americans. CBS News congressional correspondent Nancy Cordes has a reality check.

Add the Senate and House bills together and they are 4,064 pages worth of reforms that Democrats say will revolutionize the health care system and Republicans say will bankrupt it.

No wonder many Americans have doubts. Citizens told us they think Congress is "Rushing it through. They should give it more thought," and, "I don't think I want a public option because I don't think the government handles things too well."

Concerns run so deep, that the most recent CBS News poll shows only 40 percent of Americans approve of the proposed health care plans in Congress while 45 percent disapprove.

Special Report: Health Care Reform

Polls show one of their main concerns is the price tag: around $1 trillion over 10 years. Reality check takes a closer look.

Claim: The health care proposals will boost the deficit >>>

It's a fact

Subtraction facts are facts you should know just by thinking, not counting. Once you know these facts, you can subtract
any number easily.

and much more>>>

9/11 - strange facts

Encyclopaedia Britannica 1768: 10 weird facts

Published: 10:40AM GMT 10 Nov 2009

Encyclopaedia Britannica have begun a search for the oldest edition still in private hands.

Written in 1768, the very first edition provides insights into how vastly man’s priorities have shifted between the eighteenth century and today. The three-volume book includes, for example, 40 pages devoted to the diseases of horses, and 40 pages about algebra – but no information about children.

To inspire readers to raid dusty bookshelves, charity shops and attics, we have picked out some of the weirdest and most wonderful facts about the world, as it was written in 1768.

1. Humans and monsters

Homo sapiens were sub divided into five varieties: the American, the European, the Asiatic, the African and the monstrous.

2. Medicine

Cures for flatulence included drinking chamomile tea and blowing smoke from a pipe ‘through the anus.’

Visiting the dentist was, literally, a pain in the backside; cures for toothache include drinking laxatives, or bleeding in the foot. If the tooth is rotten ‘it will be best to burn the nervous cord which is the seat of the pain with a cautery; and then the cavity may be filled up with a mixture of wax and maslich’. Or, the French way was to fill the hole with another human/animal tooth of the right size.

Drinking tea or coffee was a common cure for heart-burn. Alternatively hot wine infused with camomile flowers and sugar was also thought to work.

3. Chocolate consumption>>>

The Daily Maine Fact

The Daily Maine Fact from Around Maine: On Nov. 14, 1915, the Portland Sunday Press & Portland Sunday Times reported on the visit home of the Feeney brothers. Known as Frank and Jack Ford in Hollywood, they spent their vacation here shooting two movies, Chicken Hearted Jim and The Yellow Streak. Jack would later be known as John Ford, one of Hollywood's great directors. (Source: "John and Francis Ford in New England," Moving Image Review, Summer 1998. Bucksport: Northeast Historic Film.)

The Daily Maine Fact

The Daily Maine Fact from Around Maine: Maine's infant death rate per 1,000 live births: In 1900: 267.5; In 1915: 135.7; In 1935: 62.3; In 1950: 31.2; In 1975: 13.2; In 1990: 5.9. (Source: Maine Statistical Almanac, a web site produced by Publius Research, a public affairs consulting firm, and hosted by MaineStreet Communications, Gray.)

Blog Action Day 2009: Climate Factoids

Submitted by Samah Elsayed on Thu, 2009-10-15 23:49

Today is Blog Action Day, an annual event where bloggers worldwide combine their energies to highlight a specific issue. Over 10,000 sites from more than 150 countries, are participating in this years discussion on climate change.

As part of EarthTrends contribution we will be highlighting a few key climate change trends and statistics.

The concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has risen by nearly 30% over the last century.

Figure 1: Global Atmospheric CO2>>>