Mediaboss Marketing

NEW YORK - Okay, admit it. We're all crazy about our dogs.

We watch them on YouTube and post their pictures on Facebook.

But now it's time for dogs to have a social network of their own. At least that's what the brains behind a New York startup think.

Take, for example, a dog named Bandit.

"He had plenty of friends back in San Francisco," his owner Anthony McGee says. "But now it's time for him to meet new friends in New York."

So McGee used the startup site MatchPuppy.com to find puppy playdates, a clear indication that social networking has indeed gone to the dogs.

Site founder Michael Chiang says the original business plan was to help with 'puppy love,' connecting owners looking to breed their pets. But eventually the team decided "just friends" was okay too.

"We realized there was a bigger need in the market, to help dog owners kind of facilitate playdates online," Chiang says.

Matches are made by neighborhood, breed, and age. But some pet owners have the same kinds of concerns with it as with 'human' online matchmaking.

"I would be a little concerned, because I don't know the dog," said prospective puppy-dater Shameika Bloice.

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'Match Puppy': Social Networking Has Gone to the Dogs

A sample of E. coli, a bacteria which can be fatal if untreated. Picture: AP Source: AP

THE overuse of antibiotics is causing the spread of dangerous superbugs and threatening to throw medical science back decades, experts warn.

A recent study has found one in five urinary-tract infections - caused by E. coli - are now resistant to first-use antibiotics.

Adelaide Professor John Turnidge, who chairs the Australian Group on Antimicrobial Resistance, which carried out the research, said the increase in superbugs - those which are resistant to multiple antibiotics - would cause deaths.

What was once an easily treated infection would instead require hospitalisation and "last-line" antibiotics, Prof Turnidge said. Once a bug builds up resistance to these antibiotics, there would be nothing left to use.

"If we can't eliminate the bacteria, chances are that it will take them away ... people will die," Prof Turnidge said.

"People died of simple infections in the past and (now) only a small proportion of those that get infections will die." The AGAR report found that 21 per cent of E. coli samples were resistant to trimethoprim, 21 per cent were also resistant to amoxycillin-clavulanate, and 15 per cent resistant to cephazolin. Resistance to ampicillin was even more widespread, being found in 43 per cent of samples.

Prof Turnidge said GPs and the public needed to reduce their reliance on antibiotics.

"People think antibiotics will make them better quicker, but if it's a virus it won't make any difference," he said.

"The whole health-care system needs to recognise that there is a serious responsibility here to be prudent in their use of antibiotics and to save them for those who genuinely need them, not to be giving them to people just in case.

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Antibiotic overuse creating killer bugs

Theory rival spy 'trained in the dark arts of the secret services' murdered British agent Mystery of second mobile phone containing video of victim dancing naked in nothing but cowboy boots

By Daniel Miller

PUBLISHED: 05:54 EST, 6 May 2012 | UPDATED: 02:16 EST, 7 May 2012

Murdered by a foreign agent? MI6 codebreaker Gareth Williams

Detectives investigating the mysterious death of the body-in-the-bag spy believe a killer could have slipped back into his flat through a skylight to cover his tracks, it has been claimed.

MI6 codebreaker Gareth Williams was found dead in his London flat in 2010. A coroner ruled that he was 'probably killed illegally and his family remain convinced he was the victim of a rival agent.

Many close to the case believe he was assassinated by a spy working for foreign powers because of his work for MI6 and the US National Security Agency.

Speculation over the exact nature of his work has been growing since Foreign Secretary William Hague signed a public interest in order to stop details being released on security grounds.

It has been claimed that MI6 and the government eavesdropping centre GCHQ, to which Williams was attached, have been working on a computer virus designed to disrupt Iran's nuclear programme.

Questions are also being asked as to how MI6 came into possession of a second iPhone belonging to Mr Williams when Police found only one at his flat.

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Did spy-in-bag killer slip back into the flat through skylight to cover his tracks? New theory emerges over MI6 ...

The Issue: The increase in fatalities due to C. diff, the deadliest virus contracted in US hospitals.

***

As a medical provider, weve been trying to shed light on the issue of hospital infections (A Killer Hospitals Pretend To Fight, PostOpinion, Besty McCaughey).

The instance of nosocomial infections in hospitals is rampant and often under-reported. Many hospitals do not publish their number of infections annually in an effort to avoid negative press and public scrutiny.

However, in the instance of spine surgery, some studies report a 20-plus percent rate of post-operative infection.

Our practice focuses on minimally invasive outpatient spine surgery. As of today, weve done over 600 surgeries with a 0 percent infection rate.

The benefits of outpatient surgery far overwhelm those of hospital surgeries. Patients return home from surgery the same day, substantially reducing the risk of infection.

Despite these results, insurers are still hesitant to refer patients to outpatient centers and continue to refer patients to hospitals where they are at a significant risk for post-operative infection.

Daniel Goldberg

Director

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And the sick get sicker

Press freedom celebrated with unity talks and ethics review

By Bob Howarth

DILI (Pacific Scoop / Pacific Media Watch): The tiny new nation of East Timor, now known as Timor-Leste, has celebrated World Press Freedom Day with an hour-long forum involving its leading journalists and in-house gatherings at media houses.

The most positive news to come from Timor-Leste came from the forum in Tetum language on the national network TVTL.

Moderated by TVTL anchor, Elitorio Souza , veteran journalist and head of the Syndicate of Journalists Ote Otelio was joined by Mouzhino Lopes, director of the new daily newspaper Independente, and the head of the Association of TL journalists, Tito Felipe.

Lopes, who is secretary-general of the TL Press Club, is well-known to many Pacific journalists after graduating in 2005 from Divine Word University in Madang, PNG.

The wide-ranging forum covered issues such as salary ranges (where the average reporter earns about US$120 monthly), ethics and political and commercial challenges and the rights of media workers.

The forum on May 4 found virtually no examples of outright political pressure or threats to reporters during the recent presidential elections, apart from an incident where a candidate seized a tape in Los Palos from reporter who failed to understand the concept of off-the-record briefings.

Training and access to internet was also a major issue.

Limited internet access For example the University of Timor-Lestes journalism students have no on-campus internet access and have to pay $1 an hour at internet cafes for research and communication.

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Press freedom celebrated with unity and ethics review