uniformityville_horror

Who is going to yell and scream about this?

2010-09-03T14:40:00.001-05:00

Pentagon declined to investigate hundreds of purchases of child pornography

By John Cook john Cook Fri Sep 3, 10:30 am ET

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_upshot/20100903/us_yblog_upshot/pentagon-declined-to-investigate-hundreds-of-purchases-of-child-pornography/print

A 2006 Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigation into the purchase of child pornography online turned up more than 250 civilian and military employees of the Defense Department -- including some with the highest available security clearance -- who used credit cards or PayPal to purchase images of children in sexual situations. But the Pentagon investigated only a handful of the cases, Defense Department records show.

The cases turned up during a 2006 ICE inquiry, called Project Flicker, which targeted overseas processing of child-porn payments. As part of the probe, ICE investigators gained access to the names and credit card information of more than 5,000 Americans who had subscribed to websites offering images of child pornography. Many of those individuals provided military email addresses or physical addresses with Army or fleet ZIP codes when they purchased the subscriptions.

In a related inquiry, the Pentagon's Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS) cross-checked the ICE list against military databases to come up with a list of Defense employees and contractors who appeared to be guilty of purchasing child pornography. The names included staffers for the secretary of defense, contractors for the ultra-secretive National Security Agency, and a program manager at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. But the DCIS opened investigations into only 20 percent of the individuals identified, and succeeded in prosecuting just a handful.

The Boston Globe first reported the Pentagon's role in Project Flicker in July, citing DCIS investigative reports (PDF) showing that at least 30 Defense Department employees were investigated.

But new Project Flicker investigative reports obtained by The Upshot through the Freedom of Information Act, which you can read here, show that DCIS investigators identified 264 Defense employees or contractors who had purchased child pornography online. Astonishingly, nine of those had "Top Secret Sensitive Compartmentalized Information" security clearances, meaning they had access to the nation's most sensitive secrets. All told, 76 of the individuals had Secret or higher clearances. But DCIS investigated only 52 of the suspects, and just 10 were ever charged with viewing or purchasing child pornography. Without greater public disclosure of how these cases wound down, it's impossible to know how or whether any of the names listed in the Project Flicker papers came in for additional scrutiny. It's conceivable that some of them were picked up by local law enforcement, but it seems likely that most of the people flagged by the investigation did not have their military careers disrupted in the context of the DCIS inquiry.

Among those charged were Gary Douglass Grant, a captain in the Army Reserves and a judge advocate general, or military prosecutor. After investigators executing a search warrant found child pornography on his computer, he pleaded guilty last year to state charges of possession of obscene matter of a minor in a sexual act in California. Others included contractors for the NSA with Top Secret clearances; one of them -- a former contractor -- fled the country after being indicted and is believed to be in Libya.

But the vast majority of those investigated, including an active-duty lieutenant colonel in the Army and an official in the office of the secretary of defense, were never charged. On top of that, 212 people on ICE's list were never investigated at all.

According to the records, DCIS prioritized the investigations by focusing on people who had security clearances -- since those who have a taste for child pornography can be vulnerable to blackmail and espionage. The documents show that the probe then concentrated on people who had been previously suspected of or convicted of sex crimes, or had access to children as part of their Defense Department duties. But at least some of the people on the Project Flicker list with security clearances were never pursued and could possibly remain on the job: DCIS only investigated 52 people, and 76 of those on the Project Flicker list had clearances.

A DCIS spokesman didn't return phone calls. But the agency's own documents obtained via The Upshot's FOIA request indicate that the decision to press investigations forward hinged largely on questions of the resources available to the investigators. "Due to DCIS headquarters' direction and other DCIS investigative priorities, this investigation is cancelled" is a common summation in the files.

A source familiar with the Project Flicker investigations -- who requested anonymity because public disclosure could jeopardize this person's job -- confirmed that departmental resources, and priorities, were decisive factors in letting inquiries lapse.

DCIS is primarily tasked with rooting out contractor fraud and investigating security breaches; its 400 staffers were already plenty busy before Project Flicker dropped 264 more names onto their caseloads. And child pornography investigations are difficult to prosecute. Many judges wouldn't issue search warrants based on years-old evidence saying the targets subscribed to a kiddie porn website once.

"We were stuck in a situation where we had some great information, but didn't have the resources to run with it," the source told The Upshot. Many of the investigative reports obtained by The Upshot end with a similar citation of scarce resources:

Of course, other federal agencies, including ICE and the FBI, may have prosecuted some of the Project Flicker names the DCIS ignored. But that's unlikely, given that some of the DCIS investigations were closed due to lack of cooperation from ICE.

In one case, involving an Army Reserve corporal in the Pittsburgh area, a DCIS agent expressed exasperation after repeatedly trying to get ICE to collaborate with him on the investigation: "Based upon the complete non-responsiveness of ICE ... it is recommended that [the] matter be closed."

As for the 212 Project Flicker names that DCIS didn't investigate, the source familiar with the investigation said there was no systematic effort to inform their superiors or commanding officers of their suspected purchases of child pornography.

DEMAND WAR CRIMES BE PROSECUTED!!

2010-07-30T18:12:00.001-05:00

WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange: "Transparent Government Tends to Produce Just Government"

http://www.democracynow.org/2010/7/28/wikileaks_founder_julian_assange_transparent_government

We spend the hour with Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, talking about the biggest leak in US history: the release of more than 91,000 classified military records on the war in Afghanistan. As the Pentagon announces it is launching a criminal probe into who leaked the documents, Assange asks what about investigating the "war crimes" revealed in the leaked military records? He also talks about the media, why he isn't coming to the US anytime soon, and what gives him hope. "What keeps us going is our sources. These are the people, presumably, who are inside these organizations, who want change," Assange says. "They are both heroic figures taking much greater risks than I ever do, and they are pushing and showing that they want change in, in fact, an extremely effective way." [includes rush transcript]

Time travel theory avoids grandfather paradox

2010-07-22T02:47:00.001-05:00

Time travel theory avoids grandfather paradox
July 21, 2010 by Lisa Zyga
http://www.physorg.com/news198948917.html

This figure shows CTCs through (a) conventional and (b) post-selected teleportation. Image credit: Seth Lloyd, et al.
(PhysOrg.com) — The possibility of going back in time only to kill your ancestors and prevent your own birth has posed a serious problem for potential time travelers, not even considering the technical details of building a time machine. But a new theory proposed by physicists at MIT suggests that this grandfather paradox could be avoided by using quantum teleportation and "post-selecting" what a time traveler could and could not do. So while murdering one's relatives is unfortunately possible in the present time, such actions would be strictly forbidden if you were to try them during a trip to the past.
Please continue to read on link.

First Amendment suspended in the Gulf of Mexico as spill cover-up goes Orwellian

2010-07-03T13:31:00.001-05:00

First Amendment suspended in the Gulf of Mexico as spill cover-up goes Orwellian

by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
http://www.naturalnews.com/z029130_Gulf_of_Mexico_censorship.html

(NaturalNews) As CNN is now reporting, the U.S. government has issued a new rule that would make it a felony crime for any journalist, reporter, blogger or photographer to approach any oil cleanup operation, equipment or vessel in the Gulf of Mexico. Anyone caught is subject to arrest, a $40,000 fine and prosecution for a federal felony crime.

CNN reporter Anderson Cooper says, "A new law passed today, and back by the force of law and the threat of fines and felony charges, ... will prevent reporters and photographers from getting anywhere close to booms and oil-soaked wildlife just about any place we need to be. By now you're probably familiar with cleanup crews stiff-arming the media, private security blocking cameras, ordinary workers clamming up, some not even saying who they're working for because they're afraid of losing their jobs."

Watch the video clip yourself at NaturalNews.TV: http://naturalnews.tv/v.asp?v=203

The rule, of course, is designed to restrict the media's access to cleanup operations in order to keep images of oil-covered seabirds off the nation's televisions. With this, the Gulf Coast cleanup operation has now entered a weird Orwellian reality where the news is shaped, censored and controlled by the government in order to prevent the public from learning the truth about what's really happening in the Gulf.

The war is on to control your mind

If all this sounds familiar, it's because the U.S. government uses this same tactic during every war. The first casualty of war, as they say, is the truth. There are lots of war images the government doesn't want you to see (like military helicopter pilots shooting up Reuters photographers while screaming "Yee-Haw!" over the comm radios), and there are other images they do want you to see ("surgical strike" explosions from "smart" bombs, which makes it seem like the military is doing something useful). So war reporting is carefully monopolized by the government to deliver precisely the images they want you to see while censoring everything else.

Now the same Big Brother approach is being used in the Gulf of Mexico: Criminalize journalists, censor the story and try to keep the American people ignorant of what's really happening. It's just the latest tactic from a government that no longer even recognizes the U.S. Constitution or its Bill of Rights. Because the very first right is Freedom of Speech, which absolutely includes the right to walk onto a public beach and take photographs of something happening out in the open, on public waters. It is one of the most basic rights of our citizens and our press.

But now the Obama administration has stripped away those rights, transforming journalists into criminals. Now, we might expect something like this from Chavez, or Castro or even the communist leaders of China, but here in the United States, we've all been promised we lived in "the land of the free." Obama apparently does not subscribe to that philosophy anymore (if he ever did).

So how does criminalizing journalists equate to "land of the free?" It doesn't, obviously. Forget freedom. (Your government already has.) This is about controlling your mind to make sure you don't visually see the truth of what the oil industry has done to your oceans, your shorelines and your beaches. This is all about keeping you ignorant with a total media blackout of the real story of what's happening in the Gulf.

The real story, you see, is just too ugly. And the government has fracked up the cleanup effort to such a ridiculous extent that instead of the "transparency" they once promised, they're now resorting to the threat of arrest for all journalists who try to get close enough to cover the story.

Yes, this is happening right now in America. This isn't a hoax. I know, it sounds more like something you might hear about in Saudi Arabia, or Venezuela or some other nation run by dictators. But now it's happening right here in the USA.

As Anderson Cooper reported on CNN:

"Now the government is getting in on the act. Despite what Admiral Thad Allen promised about transparency just nearly a month ago.

Thad Allen: "The media will have uninhibited access anywhere we're doing operations..."

Anderson Cooper: The Coast Guard today announced new rules keeping photographers, reporters and anyone else from coming with 65 feet of any response vessel or booms out on the water or on beaches. What this means is that oil-soaked birds on an island surrounded by a boom, you can't get close enough to take that picture. Shot of oil on beaches with booms? Stay 65 feet away. Pictures of oil-soaked booms uselessly laying in the water because they haven't been collected like they should? You can't get close enough to see that. Believe me, that is out there. But you only know that if you get close to it, and now you can't without permission. Violators could face a fine of $40,000 and Class D felony charges."

See the video yourself at: http://naturalnews.tv/v.asp?v=203

Higher Education's Bubble Is About To Burst

2010-06-11T19:24:00.001-05:00

Glenn Reynolds: Higher education's bubble is about to burst

By: GLENN HARLAN REYNOLDS
Contributor
June 6, 2010

It's a story of an industry that may sound familiar.

The buyers think what they're buying will appreciate in value, making them rich in the future. The product grows more and more elaborate, and more and more expensive, but the expense is offset by cheap credit provided by sellers eager to encourage buyers to buy.

Buyers see that everyone else is taking on mounds of debt, and so are more comfortable when they do so themselves; besides, for a generation, the value of what they're buying has gone up steadily. What could go wrong? Everything continues smoothly until, at some point, it doesn't.

Yes, this sounds like the housing bubble, but I'm afraid it's also sounding a lot like a still-inflating higher education bubble. And despite (or because of) the fact that my day job involves higher education, I think it's better for us to face up to what's going on before the bubble bursts messily.

College has gotten a lot more expensive. A recent Money magazine report notes: "After adjusting for financial aid, the amount families pay for college has skyrocketed 439 percent since 1982. ... Normal supply and demand can't begin to explain cost increases of this magnitude."

Consumers would balk, except for two things.

First -- as with the housing bubble -- cheap and readily available credit has let people borrow to finance education. They're willing to do so because of (1) consumer ignorance, as students (and, often, their parents) don't fully grasp just how harsh the impact of student loan payments will be after graduation; and (2) a belief that, whatever the cost, a college education is a necessary ticket to future prosperity.

Bubbles burst when there are no longer enough excessively optimistic and ignorant folks to fuel them. And there are signs that this is beginning to happen already.

A New York Times profile last week described Courtney Munna, a 26-year-old graduate of New York University with nearly $100,000 in student loan debt -- debt that her degree in Religious and Women's Studies did not equip her to repay. Payments on the debt are about $700 per month, equivalent to a respectable house payment, and a major bite on her monthly income of $2,300 as a photographer's assistant earning an hourly wage.

And, unlike a bad mortgage on an underwater house, Munna can't simply walk away from her student loans, which cannot be expunged in a bankruptcy. She's stuck in a financial trap.

Some might say that she deserves it -- who borrows $100,000 to finance a degree in women's and religious studies that won't make you any money? She should have wised up, and others should learn from her mistake, instead of learning too late, as she did: "I don't want to spend the rest of my life slaving away to pay for an education I got for four years and would happily give back."

But bubbles burst when people catch on, and there's some evidence that people are beginning to catch on. Student loan demand, according to a recent report in the Washington Post, is going soft, and students are expressing a willingness to go to a cheaper school rather than run up debt. Things haven't collapsed yet, but they're looking shakier -- kind of like the housing market looked in 2007.

So what happens if the bubble collapses? Will it be a tragedy, with millions of Americans losing their path to higher-paying jobs?

Maybe not. College is often described as a path to prosperity, but is it? A college education can help people make more money in three different ways.

First, it may actually make them more economically productive by teaching them skills valued in the workplace: Computer programming, nursing or engineering, say. (Religious and women's studies, not so much.)

Second, it may provide a credential that employers want, not because it represents actual skills, but because it's a weeding tool that doesn't produce civil-rights suits as, say, IQ tests might. A four-year college degree, even if its holder acquired no actual skills, at least indicates some ability to show up on time and perform as instructed.

And, third, a college degree -- at least an elite one -- may hook its holder up with a useful social network that can provide jobs and opportunities in the future. (This is more true if it's a degree from Yale than if it's one from Eastern Kentucky, but it's true everywhere to some degree).

While an individual might rationally pursue all three of these, only the first one -- actual added skills -- produces a net benefit for society. The other two are just distributional -- about who gets the goodies, not about making more of them.

Yet today's college education system seems to be in the business of selling parts two and three to a much greater degree than part one, along with selling the even-harder-to-quantify "college experience," which as often as not boils down to four (or more) years of partying.

Post-bubble, perhaps students -- and employers, not to mention parents and lenders -- will focus instead on education that fosters economic value. And that is likely to press colleges to focus more on providing useful majors. (That doesn't necessarily rule out traditional liberal-arts majors, so long as they are rigorous and require a real general education, rather than trendy and easy subjects, but the key word here is "rigorous.")

My question is whether traditional academic institutions will be able to keep up with the times, or whether -- as Anya Kamenetz suggests in her new book, "DIY U" -- the real pioneering will be in online education and the work of "edupunks" who are more interested in finding new ways of teaching and learning than in protecting existing interests.

I'm betting on the latter. Industries seldom reform themselves, and real competition usually comes from the outside. Keep your eyes open -- and, if you're planning on applying to college, watch out for those student loans.

Examiner contributor Glenn Harlan Reynolds hosts "InstaVision" on PJTV.com and blogs at Instapundit.com. He is a professor of law at the University of Tennessee.

AIG's problems far greater than Bush officials told public

2010-06-11T10:25:00.001-05:00

AIG's problems far greater than Bush officials told public

By Greg Gordon | McClatchy Newspapers

* Posted on Tuesday, June 8, 2010

WASHINGTON — At the peak of the 2008 financial crisis, then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and top Federal Reserve officials told the nation that there was an urgent need for the government to lend $85 billion to the American International Group so the giant insurer's temporary cash squeeze wouldn't trigger global financial chaos.

Nearly two years later, taxpayers are on the hook for twice that amount, and it now appears that Paulson and senior Federal Reserve officials either plunged ahead without understanding AIG's financial situation and the risks it posed to taxpayers — or were less than candid about one of the largest corporate bailouts in U.S. history.

AIG reported combined total losses of $110 billion in 2008 and 2009, erasing any doubt that the government stepped into a colossal mess.

AIG was at the epicenter of all the government bailouts of financial institutions in 2008, a company through which more than $90 billion in federal money flowed out the back door to some of the same Wall Street banks whose risky behavior fueled the crisis. Among the leading beneficiaries of the AIG bailout was investment banking giant Goldman Sachs, which Paulson headed until June 2006.

Personality predicts political preferences

2010-06-09T12:31:00.001-05:00

Personality predicts political preferences

Values deeply embedded in biology

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

TORONTO, ON - There is a strong relationship between a voter's politics and his personality, according to new research from the University of Toronto.

Researchers at UofT have shown that the psychological concern for compassion and equality is associated with a liberal mindset, while the concern for order and respect of social norms is associated with a conservative mindset.

"Conservatives tend to be higher in a personality trait called orderliness and lower in openness. This means that they're more concerned about a sense of order and tradition, expressing a deep psychological motive to preserve the current social structure," says Jacob Hirsh, a post-doctoral psychology student at UofT and lead author of the study.

The study, which appears in this month's Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, may even lend some legitimacy to the term, 'bleeding-heart-liberal.'

"Our data shows that liberalism is more often associated with the underlying motives for compassion, empathy and equality," says Hirsh.

Researchers asked more than 600 participants from Canada and the US to classify their politics as either small-L liberal or small-C conservative instead of identifying with a particular political party. They then administered a personality test to determine the participants' personality traits and their relationship to political preferences.

Hirsh's work contributes to accumulating evidence suggesting political behaviour is motivated by underlying psychological needs. "We are beginning to understand the deeper motivations that are involved in determining an individual's political leanings", says Hirsh. "While everybody has the same basic motivational architecture, the relative strength of the underlying systems varies from one person to the next. If concerns for order and equality are relatively balanced, the individual is likely to be politically moderate; as either motive grows stronger than the other, political preferences move further to either end of the spectrum."

"People's values are deeply embedded in their biology and genetic heritage," says UofT Professor and co-author Jordan Peterson. "This means you have to take a deeper view of political values and morality in terms of where these motives are coming from; political preferences do not emerge from a simple rational consideration of the issues."

Peterson argues that in order to maintain a functioning society, both types of political motivation are required.

"The fact that variability still exists in these motivational systems, from an evolutionary perspective, means that neither one is sufficient on its own. There are costs and benefits to each political profile and both appear critical to maintaining an effective balance in society."

http://www.news.utoronto.ca/media-releases/social-sciences-humanities/personality-predicts-political-preferences.html

For more information, please contact:

Jacob Hirsh, lead author: jacob.hirsh@utoronto.ca or 416-901-8905

Jordan B. Peterson, co-author: peterson@psych.utoronto.ca or 416-839-4291

Michael Kennedy, media relations assistant: m.kennedy@utoronto.ca or 416-946-5025

Also in News@UofT: Knowledge infrastructure is power | Astrophysicist Scott Tremaine to receive honorary degree

Research on self-healing concrete yields cost-effective system to extend life of structures

2010-05-24T16:01:00.001-05:00

Public release date: 24-May-2010
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-05/uori-ros052410.php
University of Rhode Island

Research on self-healing concrete yields cost-effective system to extend life of structures

Efforts to extend the life of structures and reduce repair costs have led engineers to develop "smart materials" that have self-healing properties, but many of these new materials are difficult to commercialize. A new self-healing concrete developed and tested by a graduate student at the University of Rhode Island, however, may prove to be cost-effective.

Michelle Pelletier, a URI master's degree candidate from Woonsocket, embedded a microencapsulated sodium silicate healing agent directly into a concrete matrix. When tiny stress cracks begin to form in the concrete, the capsules rupture and release the healing agent into the adjacent areas.

The sodium silicate reacts with the calcium hydroxide naturally present in the concrete to form a calcium-silica-hydrate product to heal the cracks and block the pores in the concrete. The chemical reaction creates a gel-like material that hardens in about one week.

"Smart materials usually have an environmental trigger that causes the healing to occur," explained Pelletier, who is collaborating on the project with URI Chemical Engineering Professor Arijit Bose. "What's special about our material is that it can have a localized and targeted release of the healing agent only in the areas that really need it."

In tests comparing a standard concrete mix to concrete containing two percent sodium silicate healing agent, Pelletier's healing mix recovered 26 percent of its original strength (after being stressed to near breaking) versus just 10 percent recovery by the standard mix. The URI student said that an increase in the quantity of healing agent would likely further improve the recovered strength of the concrete.

"Self-healing concrete is a big research field right now," she said. "But many of the approaches being taken by other researchers have not ended up being economically feasible for commercial production."

Pelletier noted that some researchers have laced the concrete with bacteria spores that secrete calcium carbonate to fill the cracks and pores, while others embedded glass capillaries with a healing agent, but the process of filling the capillaries with the agent is long and tedious.

Next up for Pelletier is a study to see if her sodium silicate healing agent could also act as a corrosion inhibitor.

"Building concrete is routinely fixed with steel reinforcement bars to compensate for low tensile strength, but they are extremely susceptible to corrosion," Pelletier said. "We are exploring if the release of the agent will result in corrosion inhibition by two mechanisms. First, the reduced water transport due to the filled pores and reduced interconnectivity within the matrix may result in less moisture reaching the metal and ultimately less corrosion. Also, silicates can deposit on the surface to form a protective film which may also help with reducing the corrosion rate of the steel rebars."

One additional advantage to the use of self-healing concrete is that it could reduce the significant CO2 emissions that result from concrete production. Because the production of concrete is very energy intensive – when mining, transportation and concrete plants are considered – the industry is responsible for about 10 percent of all CO2 emissions in the United States.

"If self-healing concrete can lengthen the life of the concrete and reduce maintenance and repairs, it will ultimately reduce the production of excess amounts of concrete and result in a decrease in CO2 emissions," she said.

###

Handbook suggests that deviations from ‘normality’ are disorders

2010-05-21T12:33:00.001-05:00

Handbook suggests that deviations from 'normality' are disorders
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/26/AR2010022603369.html?hpid=opinionsbox1

By George F. Will
Sunday, February 28, 2010

Peter De Vries, America's wittiest novelist, died 17 years ago, but his discernment of this country's cultural foibles still amazes. In a 1983 novel, he spotted the tendency of America's therapeutic culture to medicalize character flaws:

"Once terms like identity doubts and midlife crisis become current," De Vries wrote, "the reported cases of them increase by leaps and bounds." And: "Rapid-fire means of communication have brought psychic dilapidation within the reach of the most provincial backwaters, so that large metropolitan centers and educated circles need no longer consider it their exclusive property, nor preen themselves on their special malaises."

Life is about to imitate De Vries's literature, again. The fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), psychiatry's encyclopedia of supposed mental "disorders," is being revised. The 16 years since the last revision evidently were prolific in producing new afflictions. The revision may aggravate the confusion of moral categories.

Today's DSM defines "oppositional defiant disorder" as a pattern of "negativistic, defiant, disobedient and hostile behavior toward authority figures." Symptoms include "often loses temper," "often deliberately annoys people" or "is often touchy." DSM omits this symptom: "is a teenager."
ad_icon
Quantcast

This DSM defines as "personality disorders" attributes that once were considered character flaws. "Antisocial personality disorder" is "a pervasive pattern of disregard for . . . the rights of others . . . callous, cynical . . . an inflated and arrogant self-appraisal." "Histrionic personality disorder" is "excessive emotionality and attention-seeking." "Narcissistic personality disorder" involves "grandiosity, need for admiration . . . boastful and pretentious." And so on.

If every character blemish or emotional turbulence is a "disorder" akin to a physical disability, legal accommodations are mandatory. Under federal law, "disabilities" include any "mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities"; "mental impairments" include "emotional or mental illness." So there might be a legal entitlement to be a jerk. (See above, "antisocial personality disorder.")

The revised DSM reportedly may include "binge eating disorder" and "hypersexual disorder" ("a great deal of time" devoted to "sexual fantasies and urges" and "planning for and engaging in sexual behavior"). Concerning children, there might be "temper dysregulation disorder with dysphoria."

This last categorization illustrates the serious stakes in the categorization of behaviors. Extremely irritable or aggressive children are frequently diagnosed as bipolar and treated with powerful antipsychotic drugs. This can be a damaging mistake if behavioral modification treatment can mitigate the problem.

Another danger is that childhood eccentricities, sometimes inextricable from creativity, might be labeled "disorders" to be "cured." If 7-year-old Mozart tried composing his concertos today, he might be diagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and medicated into barren normality.

Furthermore, intellectual chaos can result from medicalizing the assessment of character. Today's therapeutic ethos, which celebrates curing and disparages judging, expresses the liberal disposition to assume that crime and other problematic behaviors reflect social or biological causation. While this absolves the individual of responsibility, it also strips the individual of personhood and moral dignity.

James Q. Wilson, America's preeminent social scientist, has noted how "abuse excuse" threatens the legal system and society's moral equilibrium. Writing in National Affairs quarterly ("The Future of Blame"), Wilson notes that genetics and neuroscience seem to suggest that self-control is more attenuated — perhaps to the vanishing point — than our legal and ethical traditions assume.

The part of the brain that stimulates anger and aggression is larger in men than in women, and the part that restrains anger is smaller in men than in women. "Men," Wilson writes, "by no choice of their own, are far more prone to violence and far less capable of self-restraint than women." That does not, however, absolve violent men of blame. As Wilson says, biology and environment interact. And the social environment includes moral assumptions, sometimes codified in law, concerning expectations about our duty to desire what we ought to desire.

It is scientifically sensible to say that all behavior is in some sense caused. But a society that thinks scientific determinism renders personal responsibility a chimera must consider it absurd not only to condemn depravity but also to praise nobility. Such moral derangement can flow from exaggerated notions of what science teaches, or can teach, about the biological and environmental roots of behavior.

Or — revisers of the DSM, please note — confusion can flow from the notion that normality is always obvious and normative, meaning preferable. And the notion that deviations from it should be considered "disorders" to be "cured" rather than stigmatized as offenses against valid moral norms.

The cost of medicalizing human conditions

2010-05-17T17:28:00.001-05:00

Public release date: 17-May-2010

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-05/bu-tco051710.php
Brandeis University

The cost of medicalizing human conditions

Medicalization of human problems is a growth industry -- but what does it cost?

Menopause. Normal pregnancy. Infertility. ADHD. Erectile dysfunction. Over the last several decades, these conditions have come to be defined and treated as medical problems. They've been "medicalized." In the first study of its kind in the current issue of Social Science and Medicine, Brandeis researchers used national data to estimate the costs of these and a handful of other common conditions on escalating U.S. healthcare spending.

The researchers, led by Brandeis sociologist Peter Conrad, evaluated 12 conditions that had been defined as medicalized by physician organizations, and for which there were current medical spending data. The other conditions considered in the study were anxiety and behavioral disorders; body image; male pattern baldness; normal sadness; obesity; sleep disorders, and substance-related disorders.

The robust trend toward ever-greater medicalization of human conditions is undeniable, with an increasing number of medical diagnoses and treatments for behavioral problems and normal life events. Conrad and his colleagues analyzed medical spending on these disorders—payments to hospitals, pharmacies, physicians and other health care providers—and discovered that they accounted for $77.1 billion in medical spending in 2005—3.9 percent of total domestic health care expenditures.

"We spend more on these medicalized conditions than on cancer, heart disease, or public health," said Conrad. "While medicalization is unlikely to be a key driver of skyrocketing health care costs, $77 billion represents a substantial dollar sum."

Although the study did not evaluate whether medicalization is good or bad for health and society, it demonstrates the need for understanding the societal and economic impact of growing medicalization. Conrad explained that some researchers attributed medicalization to the growth of medicine's professional jurisdiction, increased consumer demands for medical solutions, and the pharmaceutical industry expanding markets for drugs.

"By estimating the amount spent on medicalized human problems, we've raised the obvious question as to whether this spending is 'appropriate,'" said Conrad. "The next question is whether we can more directly evaluate the appropriateness of these medical interventions and consider policies that curb the growth or even shrink the amount of spending on some medicalized conditions."

###

What Is Wisdom? Experts Define It

2010-05-10T14:18:00.001-05:00

What Is Wisdom? Experts Define It

10 May 2010 http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/printerfriendlynews.php?newsid=188170

Compassion. Self-understanding. Morality. Emotional stability. These words would seem to describe at least some of the universal traits attributed to wisdom, each of them broadly recognized and valued. In fact, there is no enduring, consistent definition of what it means exactly to be wise. It is a virtue widely treasured but essentially unexplained, a timeless subject only now attracting rigorous, scientific scrutiny.

In 2009, Dilip V. Jeste, MD, and Thomas W. Meeks, MD, both professors in the department of psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego and researchers at the Sam and Rose Stein Institute for Research on Aging, published a paper proposing that sagacity might have a neurobiological basis.

In other words, that wisdom is wired.

In the June issue of The Gerontologist and currently online, Jeste and Meeks go further, attempting to identify the central, unifying elements that define wisdom. With colleagues from four other universities, Jeste and Meeks asked a group of international experts to characterize the traits of wisdom, intelligence and spirituality - and measure how each trait is either similar to or different from the others.

"There are several major definitions of wisdom, but no single definition that is all-inclusive and embraces every important aspect of wisdom," said Jeste, who is the Estelle and Edgar Levi Chair in Aging, professor of psychiatry and neuroscience and chief of geriatric psychiatry at UC San Diego. "Intelligence and spirituality share features with wisdom, but they are not the same thing. One can be intelligent, yet lack practical knowledge. Spirituality is often associated with age, like wisdom, but most researchers tend to define wisdom in secular terms, not spiritual."

The research consisted of a two-part survey and a questionnaire comprised of 53 statements related to the concepts of wisdom, intelligence and spirituality. Fifty-seven experts were identified and contacted by email; 30 responded.

Phase 1 of the survey revealed significant group differences among the concepts on 49 of 53 statements. Wisdom differed from intelligence on 46 of 49 items, and from spirituality on 31 items.

In Phase 2, the definition of wisdom was further refined by focusing upon 12 items from the Phase 1 results. Most of the experts, Jeste and Meeks said, agreed that wisdom could be characterized thus:

It is uniquely human.
It is a form of advanced cognitive and emotional development that is experience-driven.
It is a personal quality, albeit rare.
It can be learned, increases with age and can be measured.
It is probably not enhanced by taking medication.

The survey was conducted using the Delphi method, developed by the RAND Corporation in the 1950s and based on the principle that forecasts from a structured group of experts are more accurate than those from unstructured groups or individuals. The paper's authors identified 60 recognized experts on wisdom in the world, focusing upon those outside their own institutions. The nominees were required to have at least two peer-reviewed publications on wisdom or spirituality, though the number of total publications was not the sole criterion for selection.

The survey asked participating experts to rate the relevance and importance of six statements (i.e. "The concept can be applied to human beings."), based upon their knowledge of empirical evidence, to the concepts of intelligence, wisdom and spirituality. The rating scale ranged from 1 (definitely not) to 9 (definitely so). The experts were then asked to rate the importance of 47 components, such as altruism, practical life skills, sense of humor, realism, willingness to forgive others and self-esteem, to the concepts of wisdom, intelligence and spirituality.

"One survey, of course, cannot fully and completely define wisdom," said Jeste. "The value here is that there was considerable agreement among experts that wisdom is indeed a distinct entity with a number of characteristic qualities. The data from our research should help in designing future empirical studies on wisdom."

Co-authors of the paper, with Jeste and Meeks, were Monika Ardelt, PhD, of the department of sociology and criminology & law at the University of Florida, Gainesville; Dan Blazer, MD, PhD, MPH, of the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Duke University in Durham, N.C.; Helena C. Kraemer, PhD, of the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University in Palo Alto, Ca.; and George Vaillant, MD, of the department of psychiatry at Harvard University and Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Mass.

Source:
University of California - San Diego

Copyright: Medical News Today
Not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today

Article URL: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/188170.php

Main News Category: Psychology / Psychiatry

Also Appears In: Neurology / Neuroscience, Seniors / Aging,

Can a Mother's Voice Spur Recovery From a Coma?

2010-05-10T11:53:00.001-05:00

May 10, 2010 | Research

Can a Mother's Voice Spur Recovery From a Coma?

Study tests if familiar voices can heal traumatic brain injuries

By Marla Paul

http://www.northwestern.edu/newscenter/stories/2010/05/coma.html

CHICAGO- Karen Schroeder's voice, recorded on a CD, reminded her son, Ryan, of his 4-H project when he was 10 and decided to raise pigs. "You bid on three beautiful squealing black and white piglets at the auction," she said softly. "We took them home in the trunk of our Lincoln Town Car, because we didn't have a truck."

Recordings from Ryan's mother, father or sister were played through headphones for him four times a day. They were part of a new clinical trial investigating whether repeated stimulation with familiar voices can help repair a coma victim's injured brain networks and spur his recovery.

In January 2009, Ryan, a 21-year-old college student from Huntley, Ill., was in a coma after he had been flung from his snowmobile into a tree during an ice storm. He had a traumatic brain injury; the fibers of his brain had been twisted and stretched from the impact.

He regained consciousness after nearly one month in the trial and has made steady progress during the past year. Researchers, however, won't know for certain if the therapy helped his recovery until the study is over.

The trial is being led by Theresa Pape, a research assistant professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and a research health scientist at Hines VA Hospital. Funded by the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs, the research may be useful to young people like Ryan as well as soldiers injured in combat, who have a high rate of traumatic brain injuries from roadside bombs.

"Traumatic brain injury is a huge issue in our society," Pape said. "Every 21 seconds, we have a new head injury and about one-third of those will be severe."

The most common cause of severe head injury in the civilian population is motor vehicle accidents, and the highest-risk group is 16-to-24-year-old males. In the military, the risk of traumatic brain injury is three times that of civilians, even in peacetime. While the actual number is not known, an estimated 8,470 soldiers were diagnosed with traumatic brain injury from January 2003 through September 2008. (Pape thinks that number is low, because many troops have not been evaluated for mild traumatic brain injury.)

Pape hopes the study will provide an answer to the question that families are desperate to know when a loved one is in a coma: 'Can he hear me?' She is especially eager to know if these family voices can facilitate repair of the brain to improve the subject's ability to function and process and understand information.

Pape's hypothesis is that repeated exposure to familiar voices could help repair the brain's neural networks, some of which become sheared in traumatic brain injury. In a previous small pilot study, Pape observed that subjects in a vegetative state responded more to the voices of people who are familiar to them compared with non-familiar voices.

When those subjects heard voices of their family members, an MRI scan showed that parts of their brain were activated, appearing as bright yellow and red blobs of light scattered in an unorganized pattern. With unfamiliar voices, there was little activation.

"The question became are the familiar voices therapeutic in some way?" Pape asked. "Will they spur an improvement in behavior?"

Her background as a speech pathologist inspired the research. "I was weaned on language processing, how the brain responds to different linguistic stimuli as well as familiar or non-familiar voices, different sounds," Pape said. "This is a very speech pathology-based study."

When a subject is enrolled in the trial, Pape does a baseline functional MRI scan of his brain, examining the reaction to familiar versus unfamiliar voices. In a healthy person, she would expect to see a family member's voice activate the temporal lobe, the site of memory, and the frontal lobe, the part of the brain that pays attention when your name is called aloud. She doesn't see that in her subjects with new severe traumatic brain injury.

"As they recover, we want to see if these areas become activated in the way we'd expect in a healthy person," Pape said.

Pape also tracks the state of their axons, the thick white fibers that comprise the brain's networks and allow different parts of the brain to communicate with each other. In a traumatic brain injury, the axons can become ripped and twisted like interstate highways in a Hollywood disaster movie.

"In a healthy brain, the networks function in a very organized manner, from front to back, for example," Pape said. "The injured brain has a disorganized direction we don't understand. The axons are sheared, torqued and twisted. We're trying to figure out how and if they work after a severe brain injury. Maybe they zigzag or connect with an unexpected neuron."

For the trial, subjects are divided into three groups: high dose, who hear 10 minutes of stories daily four times a day for six weeks; low dose, who hear five minutes of stories and 35 minutes of silence four times a day; and the "sham" group who wear the head phones but don't hear any stories. After six weeks, Pape measures how the subject's behavioral condition compares to changes she sees in the brain on new MRI images.

The trial is double blinded, meaning Pape will not know whether subjects were in the high, low or sham dose group until the study, which will enroll about 45 subjects, is completed in 2011. The earlier description of Karen Schroeder's voice being played for Ryan occurred after the initial double-blinded part of the study. After this part, all subjects receive the high dose of stories for six weeks to make sure that if there is a benefit, everyone has the same advantage.

Pape's imaging data of a subject's brain before and after the voice treatment will reveal if networks are better connected as a result of the therapy, and if that is linked to improvement in the subject's functioning.

When Schroeder enrolled her son in the trial in late February 2009, about a month after his accident, he could not follow commands or make purposeful movements. His eyes were open, but he did not seem to be aware of his environment. At the time, a doctor had told Schroeder to make arrangements to place her son in a nursing home.

But after three weeks in the trial, Schroeder began to notice changes in her son. First, she said, Ryan began to notice the lights outside the window of his room in the Northwestern University Clinical Research Unit on the 10th floor of Northwestern Memorial Hospital, the location where he received the voice therapy.

"I could tell he was starting to come around," Schroeder said. "Before, he would lay in the bed and a herd of cattle could walk through and he would not be aware that they were there. Now, little by little he would start to respond.

Then, he began to slowly follow a command to push a ball out of his hand. A little more than a year later, Ryan now texts his friends, brushes his teeth and walks with a walker or a four-prong cane. He is practicing walking without a device. While he struggles with poor balance, he recently started eye therapy, which may or may not help his balance. A palate lift several months ago greatly improved his speech, according to Schroeder. Ryan continues with physical, occupational and speech therapies at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago in Wheeling.

"Given the extent of his injuries, Ryan has recovered well," Pape said. "But I can't draw any conclusions yet. We have to wait until we have all the study data."

In the meantime, Ryan helps at his family's asphalt paving business where he enters data into the computer. He doesn't remember his accident or hearing the tapes of his family. "He continues to make progress. It is truly a remarkable recovery," said Karen Schroeder. "The good Lord keeps throwing us ropes. We got involved in this by the grace of God."

Marla Paul is the health sciences editor. Contact her at marla-paul@northwestern.edu

Out of mind, out of sight: Blinking eyes indicate mind wandering

2010-04-30T09:36:00.001-05:00

Public release date: 29-Apr-2010
Association for Psychological Science

Out of mind, out of sight: Blinking eyes indicate mind wandering
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-04/afps-oom042910.php

When your mind wanders, you're not paying attention to what's going in front of you. A new study suggests that it's not just the mind, it's the body, too; when subjects' minds wandered, they blinked more, setting up a tiny physical barrier between themselves and the outside world.

Cognitive neuroscientist Daniel Smilek, of the University of Waterloo, studies how people pay attention — and don't. For this study, he was inspired by brain research that shows, when the mind wanders, the parts of the brain that process external goings-on are less active. "And we thought, ok, if that's the case, maybe we'd see that the body would start to do things to prevent the brain from receiving external information," Smilek says. "The simplest thing that might happen is you might close your eyes more." So, Smilek and his colleagues, Jonathan S.A. Carriere and J. Allan Cheyne, also of the University of Waterloo, set out to look at how often people blink when their mind wanders.

Fifteen volunteers read a passage from a book on a computer. While they read, a sensor tracked their eye movements, including blinks and what word they were looking at. At random intervals, the computer beeped and the subjects reported whether they'd been paying attention to what they were reading or whether their minds were wandering — which included thinking about earlier parts of the text.

The participants blinked more when their minds were wandering than when they were on task, the team reports in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. "What we suggest is that when you start to mind-wander, you start to gate the information even at the sensory endings — you basically close your eyelid so there's less information coming into the brain," says Smilek.

This is part of a shift in how scientists are thinking about the mind, he says. Psychologists are realizing that "you can't think about these mental processes, like attention, separately from the fact that the individual's brain is in a body, and the body's acting in the world." The mind doesn't ignore the world all by itself; the eyelids help.

###
For more information about this study, please contact: Daniel Smilek at dsmilek@uwaterloo.ca.

Psychological Science is ranked among the top 10 general psychology journals for impact by the Institute for Scientific Information. For a copy of the article "Out of Mind, Out of Sight: Eye Blinking as Indicator and Embodiment of Mind Wandering " and access to other Psychological Science research findings, please contact Catherine Allen-West at 202-293-9300 or cwest@psychologicalscience.org.

2010-04-30T08:45:00.001-05:00

FDA approves breakthrough cancer therapy Provenge

Novel drug for prostate cancer rallies body's immune system against tumors

Matthew Perrone, AP Business Writer, On Thursday April 29, 2010, 5:25 pm EDT

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A first-of-a-kind prostate cancer treatment that uses the body's immune system to fight the disease received federal approval Thursday, offering an important alternative to more taxing treatments like chemotherapy.

Dendreon Corp.'s Provenge vaccine trains the immune system to fight tumors. It's called a "vaccine" even though it treats disease rather than prevents it.

Doctors have been trying to develop such a therapy for decades, and Provenge is the first to win approval from the Food and Drug Administration.

"The big news here is that this is the first immunotherapy to win approval, and I suspect within five to ten years immunotherapies will be a big part of cancer therapy in general," said Dr. Phil Kantoff, an oncologist at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute who helped run the studies of Provenge.

Experimental vaccines to treat other cancers -- including the deadly skin disease melanoma and an often fatal childhood tumor called neuroblastoma -- are already in late-stage development.

Currently doctors treat cancer by surgically removing tumors, attacking them with chemotherapy drugs or blasting them with radiation. Provenge offers an important fourth approach by directing the body's natural defense mechanisms against the disease.

The treatment is intended for prostate cancer that has spread elsewhere in the body and is not responding to hormone therapy.

Medical specialists hailed the approval as an important milestone, but stressed it will serve as an addition to current medical practice, not a replacement.

"This is just one step in a new pathway for treating patients," said Dr. Simon Hall, chairman of urology at Mt. Sinai Hospital. "We have to make them realize this isn't a cure, it's very variable."

Company studies showed that taking Provenge added four months to the lives of men with advanced prostate cancer.

That may not sound like a lot, but it is longer than the three months afforded by Taxotere, the only chemotherapy approved for men in this situation. Doctors hope for even greater benefit if they give the drug earlier in the course of the disease.

Dendreon said Thursday the drug will cost $93,000 per patient.

The approval marks a remarkable turnaround for Seattle-based Dendreon, whose shares plummeted three years ago when the FDA delayed a decision on the therapy, asking for more proof of safety and effectiveness. That delay came despite an expert panel's recommendation for approval.

Dendreon shares jumped 19 percent to new highs ahead of the news, rising to an all-time high of $47.32. The company spent more than 15 years developing and testing Provenge.

Analysts expect the product to reach blockbuster sales status -- over $1 billion -- by 2016, as the company expands production capacity.

Each regimen of Provenge must to tailored to the immune system of the patient using a time-consuming formulation process.

Doctors collect special blood cells from each patient that help the immune system recognize cancer as a threat. The cells are mixed with a protein found on most prostate cancer cells and another substance to rev up the immune system. The resulting "vaccine" is given back to the patient as three infusions two weeks apart.

Initially, Dendreon will identify Provenge patients through the 50 medical centers that helped test the drug. But researchers have been told the company will only be able to provide vaccines for a few patients at each site per month.

"There are going to be a lot of patients that want it and there will be limited resources as they are getting this up and running," said Dr. Deborah Bradley of Duke University School of Medicine

About 192,000 new cases of prostate cancer were diagnosed in 2009, and 27,000 men died of the disease, according to the FDA. Prostate cancer most often affects older men.

Side effects of Provenge are relatively mild, such as chills, fatigue, fever, and headache. By comparison, side effects of chemotherapy typically include hair loss, nausea, anemia and diarrhea.

AP Business Writer Marley Seaman contributed to this story from New York

New study links psychopathy to frontal lobe dysfunction

2010-04-28T02:03:00.000-05:00

The people at Goldman Sachs are clearly psychopathic.

An underlying cause for psychopathic behaviour?
27/04/2010 12:44 GMT - Elsevier -

New study links psychopathy to frontal lobe dysfunction

Psychopaths are known to be characterized by callousness, diminished capacity for remorse, and lack of empathy. However, the exact cause of these personality traits is an area of scientific debate. The results of a new study, reported in the May 2010 issue of Elsevier's Cortex (http://www.elsevier.com/locate/cortex), show striking similarities between the mental impairments observed in psychopaths and those seen in patients with frontal lobe damage.

Read full article, notes for editors, see attachments
http://www.alphagalileo.org/ViewItem.aspx?ItemId=74585&CultureCode=en

Dreams 'can help with learning'

2010-04-23T11:50:00.001-05:00

Dreams 'can help with learning'

Napping after learning something new could help you commit it to memory - as long as you dream, scientists say.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8638551.stm

They found people who dream about a new task perform it better on waking than those who do not sleep or do not dream.

Volunteers were asked to learn the layout of a 3D computer maze so they could find their way within the virtual space several hours later.

Those allowed to take a nap and who also remembered dreaming of the task, found their way to a landmark quicker.

The researchers think the dreams are a sign that unconscious parts of the brain are working hard to process information about the task.

Dr Robert Stickgold of Harvard Medical School, one of the authors of the paper, said dreams may be a marker that the brain is working on the same problem at many levels.

He said: "The dreams might reflect the brain's attempt to find associations for the memories that could make them more useful in the future."

Study tips

Co-author Dr Erin Wamsley said the study suggests our non-conscious brain works on the things that it deems are most important.

"Every day we are gathering and encountering tremendous amounts of information and new experiences," she said.

"It would seem that our dreams are asking the question, 'How do I use this information to inform my life?"

The research, published in the academic journal Cell Biology, could have practical implications.

The scientists say there may be ways to take advantage of this phenomenon for improving learning and memory.

For example, students might be better studying hard before bedtime, or taking a nap after a period of afternoon study.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/health/8638551.stm

Published: 2010/04/23 01:57:22 GMT

© BBC MMX

Ancient Americans took cold snap in their stride

2010-04-12T09:23:00.001-05:00

New York / Heidelberg, 12 April 2010

Ancient Americans took cold snap in their stride
Study suggests that Ice Age climate change did not pose significant challenges to first Americans
http://www.springer.com/about+springer/media/springer+select?SGWID=0-11001-6-900322-0

Paleoindian groups* occupied North America throughout the Younger Dryas interval, which saw a rapid return to glacial conditions approximately 11,000 years ago. Until now, it has been assumed that cooling temperatures and their impact on communities posed significant adaptive challenges to those groups. David Meltzer from the Southern Methodist University in Dallas, USA, and Vance Holliday from the University of Arizona in Tucson, USA, suggest otherwise in their review of climatic and environmental records from this time period in continental North America, published in Springer's Journal of World Prehistory.
From their analysis, they conclude that on the Great Plains and in the Rocky Mountains, conditions were in reality less extreme and therefore may not have measurably added to the challenge routinely faced by Paleoindian groups, who during this interval, successfully dispersed across the diverse habitats of Late Glacial North America.
Meltzer and Holliday question whether the impact of cooling on Pleistocene North Americans was actually that pronounced or widespread and, if it was, whether it was similarly abrupt and severe, and in the same direction, across North America. Their comprehensive review of the climate and environment of North America during that time and its possible impact suggests that the Young Dryas age cooling was not as sudden, extensive, or severe as has previously been suggested and the notion that these conditions may have taken the Paleoindians by surprise is questionable.
The authors conclude: "All things considered, it is likely that across most of North America, south of the retreating ice sheets, Paleoindians were not constantly scrambling to keep up with Younger Dryas age climate changes. After all, adapting to changing climatic and environmental conditions was nothing new to them – it was what they did."
* the first people to enter and subsequently inhabit the American continent during the final glacial episodes of the Pleistocene period
Reference
1. Meltzer DJ & Holliday VT (2010). Would North American Paleoindians Have Noticed Younger Dryas Age Climate Changes? Journal of World Prehistory; DOI 10.1007/s10963-009-9032-4

Empathy and violence have similar circuits in the brain

2010-04-09T14:15:00.001-05:00

*Empathy and violence have similar circuits in the brain*

April 9, 2010

http://www.physorg.com/news190033460.html

Empathy and violence have similar circuits in the brain. Credit: Alan Cleaver.

Researchers from the University of Valencia, Spain, have resumed the brain structures involved with empathy, in other words the ability to put oneself in another person's position, and carried out a scientific review of them. They conclude that the brain circuits responsible for empathy are in part the same as those involved with violence.

Ads by Google

Brain Training Games - Improve memory with scientifically designed brain exercises. - www.lumosity.com/BrainMemory

Occupational Therapy - Your Guide To Health Education And Careers. Find The Right School Now! - www.AllAlliedHealthSchools.com

"Just as our species could be considered the most violent, since we are capable of serial killings, genocide and other atrocities, we are also the most empathetic species, which would seem to be the other side of the coin", Luis Moya Albiol, lead author of the study and a researcher at the UV, tells SINC.

This study, published in the most recent issue of the Revista de Neurología, concludes that the prefrontal and temporal cortex, the amygdala and other features of the limbic system (such as insulin and the cingulated cortex) play "a fundamental role in all situations in which empathy appears".

Moya Albiol says these parts of the brain overlap "in a surprising way" with those that regulate aggression and violence. As a result, the scientific team argues that the cerebral circuits - for both empathy and violence - could be "partially similar".

"We all know that encouraging empathy has an inhibiting effect on violence, but this may not only be a social question but also a biological one - stimulation of these neuronal circuits in one direction reduces their activity in the other", the researcher adds.

This means it is difficult for a "more empathetic" brain to behave in a violent way, at least on a regular basis. "Educating people to be empathetic could be an education for peace, bringing about a reduction in conflict and belligerent acts", the researcher concludes.

Techniques for measuring the human brain "in vivo", such as functional magnetic resonance imaging, are making it possible to find out more about the structures of the brain that regulate behaviour and psychological processes such as empathy.

More information: Moya-Albiol, L., Herrero, N. y Bernal, M.C. "Bases neuronales de la empatía". Revista de Neurología, 50 (2), 89-100, Feb 2010.

Provided by FECYT - Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology

Does Seasonal Influenza Vaccination Increase the Risk of Illness with the 2009 A/H1N1 Pandemic Virus?

2010-04-09T01:13:00.001-05:00

OH MY!!

< http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pmed.1000259 >

Does Seasonal Influenza Vaccination Increase the Risk of Illness with the 2009 A/H1N1 Pandemic Virus?

It appear that is does.

Does Seasonal Influenza Vaccination Increase the Risk of Illness with the 2009 A/H1N1 Pandemic Virus?

To add a note, highlight some text. Hide notes
Make a general comment

Jump to

Cécile Viboud¹^*, Lone Simonsen¹^,²

1 Division of Epidemiology and Population Studies, Fogarty International Center, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, United States of America, 2Department of Global Health, School of Public Health and Health Services, George Washington University, Washington, D. C., United States of America

Citation: Viboud C, Simonsen L (2010) Does Seasonal Influenza Vaccination Increase the Risk of Illness with the 2009 A/H1N1 Pandemic Virus? PLoS Med 7(4): e1000259. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1000259

Published: April 6, 2010

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Public Domain declaration which stipulates that, once placed in the public domain, this work may be freely reproduced, distributed, transmitted, modified, built upon, or otherwise used by anyone for any lawful purpose.

Competing interests: CV declares no competing interests in relation to this Perspective. LS is a paid consultant for SDI health (a health data business), and has received research support since 2008 from Wyeth (now Pfizer) for pneumococcal vaccine modelling.

Abbreviations: pH1N1, pandemic influenza A (H1N1); TIV, trivalent inactivated influenza vaccine

* E-mail: viboudc@mail.nih.gov

Provenance: Commissioned; not externally peer reviewed.

Linked Research Article

This Perspective discusses the following study published in PLoS Medicine:

Skowronski DM, De Serres G, Crocroft N, Janjua NZ, Boulianne N, et al. (2010) Association between the 2008–09 Seasonal Influenza Vaccine and Pandemic H1N1 Illness during Spring–Summer 2009: Four Observational Studies from Canada. PLoS Med 7(4): e1000258. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1000258

In three case-control studies and a household transmission cohort, Danuta Skowronski and colleagues find an association between prior seasonal flu vaccination and increased risk of 2009 pandemic H1N1 flu.

Background Top

As the novel pandemic influenza A (H1N1) (pH1N1) virus spread around the world in late spring 2009 with a well-matched pandemic vaccine not immediately available, the question of partial protection afforded by seasonal influenza vaccine arose. Coverage of the seasonal influenza vaccine had reached 30%–40% in the general population in 2008–09 in the US and Canada, following recent expansion of vaccine recommendations.

Serology studies demonstrated a lack of cross-reactive antibody to the novel virus in vaccinated and unvaccinated people under 60 years of age, suggesting that there would be no protection against pandemic influenza from natural immunity or seasonal vaccination [1]. By contrast, about one third of seniors over 60 y had cross-reactive antibodies [1], perhaps due to childhood exposure to antigenically similar A/H1N1 viruses. As a result, the mean age of pandemic cases and deaths was younger than that of interpandemic seasons [2], a signature age shift also experienced in three historical influenza pandemics [3].

Unexpected Findings in a Sentinel Surveillance System Top

The spring 2009 pandemic wave was the perfect opportunity to address the association between seasonal trivalent inactivated influenza vaccine (TIV) and risk of pandemic illness. In this issue of PLoS Medicine, Danuta Skowronski and colleagues report the unexpected results of a series of Canadian epidemiological studies suggesting a counterproductive effect of the vaccine [4]. The findings are based on Canada's unique near-real-time sentinel system for monitoring influenza vaccine effectiveness. Patients with influenza-like illness who presented to a network of participating physicians were tested for influenza virus by RT-PCR, and information on demographics, clinical outcomes, and vaccine status was collected. In this sentinel system, vaccine effectiveness may be measured by comparing vaccination status among influenza-positive "case" patients with influenza-negative "control" patients. This approach has produced accurate measures of vaccine effectiveness for TIV in the past, with estimates of protection in healthy adults higher when the vaccine is well-matched with circulating influenza strains and lower for mismatched seasons [5]. The sentinel system was expanded to continue during April to July 2009, as the pH1N1 virus defied influenza seasonality and rapidly became dominant over seasonal influenza viruses in Canada.

Additional Analyses and Proposed Biological Mechanisms Top

The Canadian sentinel study showed that receipt of TIV in the previous season (autumn 2008) appeared to increase the risk of pH1N1 illness by 1.03- to 2.74-fold, even after adjustment for comorbidities, age, and geography [4]. The investigators were prudent and conducted multiple sensitivity analyses to attempt to explain their perplexing findings. Importantly, TIV remained protective against seasonal influenza viruses circulating in April through May 2009, with an effectiveness estimated at 56% (41%–67%), suggesting that the system had not suddenly become flawed. TIV appeared as a risk factor in people under 50 y, but not in seniors—although senior estimates were imprecise due to lower rates of pandemic illness in that age group. Interestingly, if vaccine were truly a risk factor in younger adults, seniors may have fared better because their immune response to vaccination is less rigorous [6].

Because of the potential public health seriousness of the findings, complementary observational studies were launched in Ontario and Quebec, based on hospital and community cases and controls. These studies confirmed TIV as a risk factor for 2009 pH1N1 illness, but were somewhat reassuring in that TIV did not increase severity of disease. Finally, a household study in Quebec did not show a convincing difference in secondary attack rates by vaccination status, although the statistical power was rather limited.

The authors proposed several biological mechanisms to explain why seasonal vaccination may increase the risk of pandemic illness [4]. One mechanism involves lack of heterosubtypic immunity in recipients of TIV, as heterobsutypic immunity may be generated through T cell responses during natural infection with seasonal influenza viruses, but not through vaccination. This explanation remains hypothetical, as biological evidence of heterosubtypic immunity in humans is scarce despite circumstantial evidence from past pandemics[7],[8]. Other proposed mechanisms were original antigenic sin and antibody-dependent enhancement, whereby TIV may induce high antibody titers to seasonal influenza viruses, which may cross-react with pH1N1 without neutralizing it, and counteract development of a robust antibody response to pandemic influenza infection. However, the evidence that antibody response in human populations depends on the sequence of past influenza infections remains debated. Overall, full characterization of baseline pre-pandemic immune profiles of recipients of inactivated and live-attenuated seasonal influenza vaccines and of unvaccinated individuals of various ages, would be highly informative to basic science and public health. Hopefully, such key studies can still be conducted in part by analysis of stored blood bank sera.

Potential Biases and Findings from Other Countries Top

The Canadian authors quickly found themselves at odds with expert review committees who were not convinced by the data and largely dismissed the findings as due to confounding bias—a fair criticism of observational studies. To their credit, the authors had thoroughly assessed potential biases in their article[4], in particular relative to the selection of controls and differences in health care–seeking behavior, and repeated the study in different Canadian provinces. They also provided a full description of their study population and carefully compared vaccine coverage and prevalence of comorbidities in controls with national or province-level age-specific estimates—the best one can do short of a randomized study. In parallel, profound bias in observational studies of vaccine effectiveness does exist, as was amply documented in several cohort studies overestimating the mortality benefits of seasonal influenza vaccination in seniors [9].

Given the uncertainty associated with observational studies, we believe it would be premature to conclude that TIV increased the risk of 2009 pandemic illness, especially in light of six other contemporaneous observational studies in civilian populations that have produced highly conflicting results (see Table 1 for details on study design, population sampled, and results) [10]–[15]. We note the large spread of vaccine effectiveness estimates in those studies; indeed, four of the studies set in the US and Australia did not show any association [12]–[15], whereas two Mexican studies suggested a protective effect of 35%–73%[10],[11]. The most recent Canadian study in this issue of PLoS Medicine [4] is clearly at odds with these results, with an estimated average negative effectiveness of −68% based on their Sentinel system. Only one study, set in the US military population, potentially corroborated the findings of the Canadian study[16].

Table 1. Comparison of observational studies evaluating the effectiveness of seasonal influenza vaccination to prevent 2009 pA/H1N1 morbidity in civilian populations.

doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1000259.t001

All studies, including [4], are potentially prone to bias due to lack of randomization. Perhaps the more extreme Canadian, US, and Mexican studies were deeply biased, or perhaps the population experiences were truly different due to their vaccination histories and past influenza exposure. Given the sudden spread of the pandemic virus, it would have been extremely difficult to design a prospective (randomized) trial to evaluate TIV effectiveness—and such a study is now forever complicated by pandemic vaccination efforts.

Policy Implications and a Way Forward Top

The putative association between seasonal vaccination and 2009 pH1N1 illness remains an open question, given the conflicting evidence from available research. Canadian health authorities debated whether to postpone seasonal vaccination in the autumn of 2009 until after a second pandemic wave had occurred, but decided to follow normal vaccine recommendations instead, in part because of uncertainty about a resurgence of seasonal influenza viruses during the 2009–10 season [17]. This illustrates the difficulty of making policy decisions in the midst of a public health crisis, when officials must rely on limited and possibly biased evidence from observational data, even in the best possible scenario of a well-established sentinel monitoring system already in place.

What happens next? Given the timeliness of the Canadian sentinel system, data on the association between seasonal TIV and risk of pH1N1 illness during the autumn 2009 pandemic wave will become available very soon, and will be crucial in confirming or refuting the earlier Canadian results. In addition, evidence may be gained from disease patterns during the autumn 2009 pandemic wave in other countries and from immunological studies characterizing the baseline immunological status of vaccinated and unvaccinated populations. Overall, this perplexing experience should teach us how to best react to disparate and conflicting studies and prepare us for the next public health crisis, so that we can better manage future alerts for unexpected risk factors.

Author Contributions Top

ICMJE criteria for authorship read and met: CV LS. Wrote the first draft of the paper: CV LS.

References Top

Hancock K, Veguilla V, Lu X, Zhong W, Butler EN, et al. (2009) Cross-reactive antibody responses to the 2009 pandemic H1N1 influenza virus. N Engl J Med 361: 1945–1952. FIND THIS ARTICLE ONLINE
Chowell G, Bertozzi SM, Colchero MA, Lopez-Gatell H, Alpuche-Aranda C, et al. (2009) Severe respiratory disease concurrent with the circulation of H1N1 influenza. N Engl J Med 361: 674–679.FIND THIS ARTICLE ONLINE
Miller MA, Viboud C, Balinska M, Simonsen L (2009) The signature features of influenza pandemics–implications for policy. N Engl J Med 360: 2595–2598. FIND THIS ARTICLE ONLINE
Skowronski D, De Serres G, Crowcroft N, al. E (2010) Association between the 2008–09 Seasonal Influenza Vaccine and Pandemic H1N1 Illness during Spring–Summer 2009: Four Observational Studies from Canada. PLoS Med 7: e1000258. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1000258.
Skowronski DM, De Serres G, Dickinson J, Petric M, Mak A, et al. (2009) Component-specific effectiveness of trivalent influenza vaccine as monitored through a sentinel surveillance network in Canada, 2006–2007. J Infect Dis 199: 168–179. FIND THIS ARTICLE ONLINE
Goodwin K, Viboud C, Simonsen L (2006) Antibody response to influenza vaccination in the elderly: a quantitative review. Vaccine 24: 1159–696. FIND THIS ARTICLE ONLINE
Ferguson NM, Galvani AP, Bush RM (2003) Ecological and immunological determinants of influenza evolution. Nature 422: 428–433. FIND THIS ARTICLE ONLINE
Epstein SL (2006) Prior H1N1 influenza infection and susceptibility of Cleveland Family Study participants during the H2N2 pandemic of 1957: An experiment of nature. J Infect Dis 193: 49–53.FIND THIS ARTICLE ONLINE
Simonsen L, Taylor RJ, Viboud C, Miller MA, Jackson LA (2007) Mortality benefits of influenza vaccination in elderly people: an ongoing controversy. Lancet Infect Dis 7: 658–666. FIND THIS ARTICLE ONLINE
Garcia-Garcia L, Valdespino-Gomez JL, Lazcano-Ponce E, Jimenez-Corona A, Higuera-Iglesias A, et al.(2009) Partial protection of seasonal trivalent inactivated vaccine against novel pandemic influenza A/H1N1 2009: Case-control study in Mexico City. BMJ 339: b3928. FIND THIS ARTICLE ONLINE
Echevarria-Zuno S, Mejia-Arangure JM, Mar-Obeso AJ, Grajales-Muniz C, Robles-Perez E, et al. (2009) Infection and death from influenza A H1N1 virus in Mexico: A retrospective analysis. Lancet 374: 2072–2079. FIND THIS ARTICLE ONLINE
Kelly H, Grant K (2009) Interim analysis of pandemic influenza (H1N1) 2009 in Australia: Surveillance trends, age of infection and effectiveness of seasonal vaccination. Euro Surveill 14: FIND THIS ARTICLE ONLINE
(2009) Effectiveness of 2008–09 trivalent influenza vaccine against 2009 pandemic influenza A (H1N1) - United States, May–June 2009. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 58: 1241–1245. FIND THIS ARTICLE ONLINE
Iuliano AD, Reed C, Guh A, Desai M, Dee DL, et al. (2009) Notes from the field: Outbreak of 2009 pandemic influenza A (H1N1) virus at a large public university in Delaware, April–May 2009. Clin Infect Dis 49: 1811–1820. FIND THIS ARTICLE ONLINE
Lessler J, Reich NG, Cummings DA, Nair HP, Jordan HT, et al. (2009) Outbreak of 2009 pandemic influenza A (H1N1) at a New York City school. N Engl J Med 361: 2628–2636. FIND THIS ARTICLE ONLINE
Crum-Cianflone NF, Blair PJ, Faix D, Arnold J, Echols S, Sherman SS, et al. Clinical and epidemiologic characteristics of an outbreak of novel H1N1 (swine origin) influenza A virus among United States military beneficiaries. CID 2009; 49: 1801–10. FIND THIS ARTICLE ONLINE
Public Health Agency of Canada (October 2009) Statement on Seasonal Trivalent Inactivated Influenza Vaccine (TIV) for 2009–2010. Available: http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/publicat/ccdr-rmtc/09vol35/acs-dcc-6/index-eng.php . Accessed 25 February 2010.

International team discovers new species of hominid

2010-04-09T00:56:00.001-05:00

A photo found here:
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8609192.stm>

Public release date: 8-Apr-2010

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-04/dlnl-itd040810.php

DOE/Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

International team discovers new species of hominid

An international team of scientists has described a new fossil find and a new species of hominid, Australopithecus sediba, thought to be at least 2 million years old in an area of South Africa known as the Cradle of Humankind.

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory scientist Dan Farber's work involved describing the geological, geochronological, geomorphological and faunal context of the Malapa site - which holds the fossils of an adult and a juvenile of the new species. The research appears in a pair of papers in the April 9 issue of the journal, Science.

Australopithecus is a genus of extinct hominids, made up of the gracile australopiths, and formerly also, the robust australopiths. The new fossils of Au. sediba reveal its skeletons are exceptionally well preserved, proving unique insight in the period when the earliest members of the genus homo evolved. Based on the morpho-metrics of the various skeletal parts, Sediba appears to be a transitional form between early australopithecines and early members of the genus homo. It may, in fact, replace other candidates such as Homo habilis as our distant ancestor. Because of this, the new species was named Sediba(meaning fountain) reflecting its position at the base of the evolutionary tree.

Using the Laboratory's Center for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry, Farber and a team of researchers, including ex-LLNL post-doc Anne-Sophie Meriaux of the University of Newcastle and Geoff King of the Institut de Physique du Globe, were able to quantify the degree of post fossil landscape change. In other words, they were able to track the evolution of the landscape from where the fossils originally were deposited to where they were found in the present day. Using rare radioisotopes formed by the interaction of cosmic rays with rocks at the Earth's surface, Farber was able to provide a paleo-ruler by which he measured the amount of material lost since the time the fossil was deposited.

Australopithecus sediba is possibly the most important found to date and the site has produced arguably the most notable assemblage of early human ancestors ever found, including the most complete skeletons of early hominids ever discovered and the most complete remains of any hominid dating to around 2 million years ago, Farber said. The species may be a good candidate for being the transitional species between the southern African ape-man Australopithecus africanus (the Taung Child, Mrs. Ples) and either Homo habilis or even a direct ancestor of Homo erectus (Turkana boy, java man, Peking man).

The two hominid specimens lived in the area between 2.3 million to 1.5 million years ago. The fossils are encased in water-laid sediments that were deposited along the lower parts of what is now a deeply eroded cave system. They were buried together in a single debris flow that petrified soon after deposition in a cave inaccessible to scavengers.

Hominid fossils and associated faunal and archaeological remains occur throughout the Cradle of Humankind including the sites, Sterkfontein, Swartkrans, Kromdraai and Coopers.

"While South Africa has long been known for its rich deposits containing early hominid remains, the debris-flow-hosted deposits have proved challenging for scientists to assess the timing and nature of the fossilized remains. My job was to quantify the degree of post fossil landscape change," Farber said. "In fact, I was invited to work in South Africa (just weeks before the first fossils were found at this site) to try for the first time to quantify the post Miocene landscape evolution and work out the type of landscape that our earliest ancestors inhabited. The outcome of lead researcher Lee Berger's initial work is that there was a major new fossil find, and possibly one of the richest ever, which has focused our research efforts for the time being."

###

Collaborators include: James Cook University in Australia; University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa; Duke University; University of Berne in Switzerland; University of Johannesburg; University of Melbourne; University of California Santa Cruz; Newcastle University in the United Kingdom; University of New South Wales in Australia; University of Liverpool; and Laboratoire Tectonique of France.

Founded in 1952, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (www.llnl.gov) is a national security laboratory that develops science and engineering technology and provides innovative solutions to our nation's most important challenges. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is managed by Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration.

Do Eyes Emit Energy?

2010-04-07T11:14:00.001-05:00

Psychiatrist's Research Finds You Really Can Feel a Person's Stare

Paper by Dr. Colin A. Ross Explains How to Measure the Eye's Electromagnetic Energy

Press Release Source: Colin A. Ross Institute for Psychological Trauma On Monday April 5, 2010, 9:23 am EDT

DALLAS, TX--(Marketwire - 04/05/10) - Noted psychiatrist and author Colin A. Ross, M.D., has published experimental data that supports his scientific hypothesis that the eyes emit energy that can be captured and measured. Dr. Ross' paper, "The Electrophysiological Basis of Evil Eye Belief," is published in the current issue of Anthropology of Consciousness, a journal of the American Anthropological Association. The full paper is available at http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/fulltext/123310535/PDFSTART.

Although nearly everyone has experienced the sense of being stared at only to find that a person or animal really was looking, Western science has long rejected that the human eye can emit any form of energy. Dr. Ross says his findings move "human ocular extramission," which he also refers to as an "eyebeam," from the realm of superstition to science.

"We used our patent pending Electromagnetic Beam Detection System, which includes modified EEG neurofeedback equipment, to prove that the human eye emits an electromagnetic signal that can be measured scientifically," said Dr. Ross. "I hope that future experiments will determine why energy emitted from the eye is so strong and whether it can be harnessed through focused attention."

A series of videos in which Dr. Ross discusses the paper can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=78E31282619EEF4D.

Dr. Ross has been researching a new science and medicine focused on the human body's electromagnetic field, which he detailed in his 2009 book, Human Energy Fields (ISBN-13: 978-0-9821851-0-0).

Dr. Ross previously made headlines by applying to the $1 Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge administered by the James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF) (www.randi.org). Although Dr. Ross can prove that his eyebeam can make a tone sound out of a computer, JREF insists that no energy can be emitted from the eyes and mocked Dr. Ross with its Pigasus Award. JREF has not responded to Dr. Ross' test protocol.

Dr. Ross is the author of 140 papers in professional journals and 23 books. He has lectured widely in North America, Europe, China, New Zealand and Australia, has reviewed for many different psychiatry journals, and received a number of research grants. His writing also includes short stories, poems, aphorisms, plays and essays on a wide range of topics. For more information about Dr. Ross and the Colin A. Ross Institute for Psychological Trauma, visit www.rossinst.com.

Early Earth absorbed more sunlight -- no extreme greenhouse needed to keep water wet

2010-04-06T14:42:00.001-05:00

Public release date: 6-Apr-2010
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-04/su-eea040610.php
Stanford University

Early Earth absorbed more sunlight -- no extreme greenhouse needed to keep water wet

Four billion years ago, our then stripling sun radiated only 70 to 75 percent as much energy as it does today. Other things on Earth being equal, with so little energy reaching the planet's surface, all water on the planet should been have frozen. But ancient rocks hold ample evidence that the early Earth was awash in liquid water – a planetary ocean of it. So something must have compensated for the reduced solar output and kept Earth's water wet.

To explain this apparent paradox, a popular theory holds there must have been higher concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, most likely carbon dioxide, which would have helped retain a greater proportion of the solar energy that arrived.

But a team of earth scientists including researchers from Stanford have analyzed the mineral content of 3.8-billion-year-old marine rocks from Greenland and concluded otherwise.

"There is no geologic evidence in these rocks for really high concentrations of a greenhouse gas like carbon dioxide," said Dennis Bird, professor of geological and environmental sciences.

Instead, the team proposes that the vast global ocean of early Earth absorbed a greater percentage of the incoming solar energy than today's oceans, enough to ward off a frozen planet. Because the first landmasses that formed on Earth were small – mere islands in the planetary sea – a far greater proportion of the surface of was covered with water than today.

The study is detailed in a paper published in the April 1 issue of Nature. Bird and Norman Sleep, a professor of geophysics, are among the four authors. The lead author is Minik Rosing, a geology professor at the Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, and a former Allan Cox Visiting Professor at Stanford's School of Earth Sciences.

The crux of the theory is that because oceans are darker than continents, particularly before plants and soils covered landmasses, seas absorb more sunlight.

"It's the same phenomenon you will experience if you drive to Wal-Mart on a hot day and step out of your car onto the asphalt," Bird said. "It's really hot walking across the blacktop until you get onto the white concrete sidewalk."

Another key component of the theory is in the clouds. "Not all clouds are the same," Bird said.

Clouds reflect sunlight back into space to a degree, cooling Earth, but how effective they are depends on the number of tiny particles available to serve as nuclei around which the water droplets can condense. An abundance of nuclei means more droplets of a smaller size, which makes for a denser cloud and a greater reflectivity, or albedo, on the part of the cloud.

Most nuclei today are generated by plants or algae and promote the formation of numerous small droplets. But plants and algae didn't flourish until much later in Earth's history, so their contribution of potential nuclei to the early atmosphere circa 4 billion years ago would have been minimal. The few nuclei that might have been available would likely have come from erosion of rock on the small, rare landmasses of the day and would have caused larger droplets that were essentially transparent to the solar energy that came in to Earth, according to Bird.

"We put together some models that demonstrate, with the slow continental growth and with a limited amount of clouds, you could keep water above freezing throughout geologic history," Bird said.

"What this shows is that there is no faint early sun paradox," said Sleep.

The modeling work was done with climate modeler Christian Bjerrum, a professor in the Department of Geography and Geology, University of Copenhagen, also a co-author of the Nature paper.

The rocks that the team analyzed are a type of marine sedimentary rock called a banded iron formation. It is characterized by thin alternating bands of quartz, magnetite, an iron-rich mineral, and siderite, a mineral with a high carbon content, but also some iron.

"Any rock carries a memory of the environment in which it formed," Rosing said. "These ancient rocks that are about 3.8 billion years old, they actually carry a memory of the composition of the ocean and atmosphere at the time when they were deposited."

The critical part of the rocks' memory was the banding and that iron was found chemically bound to oxygen rather than CO2 in the bands. The alternating bands would only have been deposited if the carbon dioxide content of the atmosphere kept shifting back and forth across a threshold that controlled which mineral was deposited. But that also meant that the amount of carbon dioxide couldn't stray too far from that threshold. If there had been either substantially more or less carbon dioxide, only one of the minerals would have been laid down.

Another constraint on early carbon dioxide levels came from life itself.

In the days before photosynthetic organisms spread across the globe, most life forms were methanogens, single-celled organisms that consumed hydrogen and carbon dioxide and produced methane as a digestive byproduct.

But to thrive, methanogens need a balanced diet. If the concentration of either of their foodstuffs veers too far below their preferred proportions, methanogens won't survive. Their dietary restrictions, specifically the minimum concentration of hydrogen, provided another constraint on the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and it falls well below the level needed for a greenhouse effect sufficient to compensate for a weak early sun.

"The conclusion from all this is that we can't solve a faint sun paradox and also satisfy the geologic and metabolic constraints by having high carbon dioxide values," Bird said.

But the theory of a lower Earthly albedo meets those constraints.

"The lower albedo counterbalanced the fainter sun and provided Earth with clement conditions without the need for dramatically higher concentrations of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere," Rosing said.

###

Geologist discovers pattern in Earth's long-term climate record

2010-04-06T12:48:00.001-05:00

Public release date: 6-Apr-2010
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-04/uoc--ugd040610.php
University of California - Santa Barbara

UCSB geologist discovers pattern in Earth's long-term climate record



		IMAGE: This is Lorraine Lisiecki from University of California, Santa Barbara. Click here for more information.

(Santa Barbara, Calif.) –– In an analysis of the past 1.2 million years, UC Santa Barbara geologist Lorraine Lisiecki discovered a pattern that connects the regular changes of the Earth's orbital cycle to changes in the Earth's climate. The finding is reported in this week's issue of the scientific journal Nature Geoscience.

Lisiecki performed her analysis of climate by examining ocean sediment cores. These cores come from 57 locations around the world. By analyzing sediments, scientists are able to chart the Earth's climate for millions of years in the past. Lisiecki's contribution is the linking of the climate record to the history of the Earth's orbit.

It is known that the Earth's orbit around the sun changes shape every 100,000 years. The orbit becomes either more round or more elliptical at these intervals. The shape of the orbit is known as its "eccentricity." A related aspect is the 41,000-year cycle in the tilt of the Earth's axis.

Glaciation of the Earth also occurs every 100,000 years. Lisiecki found that the timing of changes in climate and eccentricity coincided. "The clear correlation between the timing of the change in orbit and the change in the Earth's climate is strong evidence of a link between the two," said Lisiecki. "It is unlikely that these events would not be related to one another."

Besides finding a link between change in the shape of the orbit and the onset of glaciation, Lisiecki found a surprising correlation. She discovered that the largest glacial cycles occurred during the weakest changes in the eccentricity of Earth's orbit –– and vice versa. She found that the stronger changes in the Earth's orbit correlated to weaker changes in climate. "This may mean that the Earth's climate has internal instability in addition to sensitivity to changes in the orbit," said Lisiecki.

She concludes that the pattern of climate change over the past million years likely involves complicated interactions between different parts of the climate system, as well as three different orbital systems. The first two orbital systems are the orbit's eccentricity, and tilt. The third is "precession," or a change in the orientation of the rotation axis.

###

Will the Washington Crew Ever Notice the Housing Bubble?

2010-04-03T11:58:00.001-05:00

Op-eds & Columns

Will the Washington Crew Ever Notice the Housing Bubble?

Dean Baker
The Guardian Unlimited, March 29, 2010
http://www.cepr.net/index.php/op-eds-&-columns/op-eds-&-columns/will-washington-ever-notice-the-housing-bubble/

See article on original website

Alan Greenspan, Ben Bernanke and the rest of the crew running economic policy somehow could not see the housing bubble as it grew to more than $8 trillion. It really should have been hard to miss. Nationwide house prices had just tracked overall inflation for 100 years from 1895 to 1995. Suddenly in 1995, coinciding with the stock bubble, house prices began to hugely outpace the overall rate of inflation.

There was no explanation for this run-up in house prices on either the supply or demand side of the housing market. Furthermore, there was no unusual increase in rents, providing further confirmation that fundamentals were not behind the increase in house prices. Finally, in contrast to a story of housing shortages driving up house prices, vacancy rates were at record levels.

But the super-sleuths at the Fed, Treasury and other centers of decision-making just could not see the bubble. They couldn't even see the flood of bogus mortgages being spit out by the millions and packaged into mortgage-backed securities and more complex instruments.

As a result of this astounding incompetence, we are now living through the worst downturn since the Great Depression. Because Greenspan and Bernanke and the rest messed up, tens of millions of workers are out of work. Close to one in four mortgages are underwater and the baby boom cohort has seen much of its wealth destroyed as they reach the edge of retirement. In short, as Joe Biden would say, this was a f***ing big mistake.

Remarkably, the folks in charge seem to have learned zip. They still have no clue about the housing bubble. How else can anyone explain the Obama Administration's latest proposal for helping out underwater homeowners?

If the point is to help homeowners then there are two incredibly simple questions that must be asked:

Are homeowners paying less under the plan than they would to rent the same place?
Are homeowners going to end up with equity in their home?

These are the key questions, because if we can't answer "yes" to at least one of them, then we are not helping homeowners. If we can't answer "yes" to at least one of these questions, then taxpayer dollars being put into the program are helping banks, not homeowners.

Unfortunately, it seems no one in the Obama Administration has yet been told about the housing bubble. There is no evidence that they ever considered these questions in designing the latest policy to "help" homeowners.

The program will potentially pay banks and loan servicers up to $12 billion to write off principle on mortgages. In exchange, the government will guarantee new mortgages through the Federal Housing Authority (FHA). Those familiar with the housing market will note that house prices are still falling and must fall by close to 15 percent to get back to their long-term trend. If house prices continue to fall, then the vast majority of the homeowners that take part in this program are likely to never accrue any equity in their home.

Furthermore, the FHA is likely to incur substantial losses on these loan guarantees, as homeowners will again find themselves underwater and many will be unable to pay off their mortgages when they sell their home. Because the FHA hugely expanded its role in the housing market in the last two years, without paying attention to falling prices, it now is below its minimum capital requirement. It will suffer additional losses and fall further below its capital requirements as a result of this program. By the way, the losses to the FHA and the taxpayers are money in the pockets of the banks, but no reason to mention that detail.

For anyone who can see an $8 trillion housing bubble, this is all as clear as day. There is nothing complex about a story in which the government buys banks out of bad mortgages. But the Washington policymakers could not see an $8 trillion housing bubble before it wrecked the economy and apparently still haven't noticed it even after the fact.

It's great to know that there are good-paying jobs for people with no discernible skills. But do those jobs have to involve running the economy?

Dean Baker is the co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR). He is the author of False Profits: Recovering from the Bubble Economy. He also has a blog on the American Prospect, "Beat the Press," where he discusses the media's coverage of economic issues.

Feedback Mechanism for climate Mentioned, and a new way to view Man's influence on Climate.

2010-04-03T10:06:00.001-05:00

While I think we certainly do think that we should care about what we are doing to the environment, I am not one to believe that this climate change is about how man has created it. I believe that there is an evolution to our planet and climate and cosmos that is more profound an influence than what man could ever do.
I believe that the earth has adequate feedback mechanisms which help CO2 levels flex and flow.

Buried shells in Houston are no treasure
April 2, 2010
(PhysOrg.com) -- Fan-Wei Zeng saw seashells, but not by the seashore. In fact, they were quite far away, and they were skewing the Rice University graduate student's study of the environmental impact of Houston's rivers.
http://www.physorg.com/news189438468.html

Zeng noticed the shells in the roadbeds of Texas. Builders put them there as far back as the mid-19th century because the materials were plentiful and cheap.
Her studies of the shells have added a small piece to the global puzzle of how human enterprise has altered the natural cycle of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that plays a major role in global warming. Her results were reported recently in the online journal Biogeochemistry.
Zeng and her mentor and co-author Carrie Masiello, a Rice assistant professor of Earth science, analyzed Spring Creek and Buffalo Bayou to quantify how much carbon dioxide these waterways release in a natural process that, under ideal conditions, keeps the atmosphere in balance.
Spring Creek, which runs primarily through rural areas north and west of metro Houston, produced numbers in line with what Masiello had anticipated from a 2005 study she and others had done on the Amazon River. The Amazon releases roughly as much CO2 to the air and the ocean as the rainforest absorbs through plant growth every year. The same happens in Texas: Carbon moves through the forest to the soil, into waterways and back to the atmosphere (a cycle called ecosystem residence time) in as little as a few years.
Buffalo Bayou, in the heart of Houston, is similar to Spring Creek in the amount of CO2 released. However, in Buffalo Bayou, radiocarbon dating of CO2 in water samples from various locations and times showed some carbon was almost 5,000 years old.
"We knew from the isotope data that there was carbonate input to Buffalo Bayou, but we were thinking, 'There's no limestone in this region,'" Zeng said. (Limestone, a sedimentary rock composed of shells and other organic material compacted over millennia, would have accounted for the bizarre readings.)
Then she and Masiello looked down.
"It took us almost six months to figure out what was going on," Masiello said. "When you cut your grass in Houston, the blades don't stay on the surface of your soil for 5,000 years. We thought there was just no way our radiocarbon numbers were right. We walked around for a long time and finally looked at the ground. That's when we saw the shells and thought, 'Where did those come from?'"
Ads by Google
Lengthen Your Telomeres - Short Telomeres = Diminished Health Learn How To Repair Telomeres - TASciences.com

The simple answer is Galveston Bay, the main source of hundreds of millions of cubic yards of oyster shells from eons-old beds. Contractors dredged the bay, crushing shells and mixing them with concrete or using them as is for roadbeds until Texas outlawed their operations in the '70s.
"The shell roads built in the early 20th century are buried under the surface, and they're slowly decomposing," Masiello said. "Urban acid rain falls on the shells and dissolves them, releasing a pool of CO2 that moves into the groundwater. On a rainy day, that CO2 gets swept out of the soil and pushed into the river. So when we date CO2 in Buffalo Bayou, it's extremely old because it's carrying the age of these fossil shells."
Masiello and Zeng, a native of China who expects to finish her doctorate this year, set out to fill a gap in the data about how much CO2 is released to the atmosphere by rivers planetwide. The current estimate is 1 gigaton (a billion tons) per year, about the same amount those rivers deliver to the ocean (where oysters and others put it to good use).
That balancing act is good for the planet, because plant growth naturally compensates for rivers' release of CO2, Masiello said. On the other hand, there is no natural balance for the CO2 released by fossil fuel combustion, which puts about 10 times the amount released by rivers into the atmosphere.
"With the Amazon study we had data for the tropics, and because of the concentration of research universities in the northeastern United States, other research groups have generated data in temperate regions," where cooler temperatures slow decomposition. "It's why we put things in the refrigerator," Masiello said.
But the global picture remained incomplete without data from the subtropics. Houston was a good place to start gathering it.
"We looked at Buffalo Bayou as an example of a completely urbanized watershed, while Spring Creek is primarily rural. It has some human footprint, but it is far less developed than Buffalo Bayou. We wanted to contrast those two ecosystems," she said.
Spring Creek gave them a subtropical number to plug into the global carbon cycle model. It also doesn't suffer leaching from buried shells. "There's a line in Texas beyond which it was cheaper to haul gravel for building roads from central Texas than to haul shells from the coast," Masiello said. "It turns out that Spring Creek sits on one side of that line and Buffalo Bayou sits on the other. We didn't do that on purpose."
Buffalo Bayou "doesn't tell us anything about ecosystem carbon residence time," she said. "But it was a surprising new find about the way human activities affect the ecosystems around us."
The researchers did their radiocarbon dating at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Massachusetts, one of three accelerators in the United States available for precise environmental measurements. The study received support from the Texas Water Resources Institute through a grant supported by the U.S. Geological Survey and the National Institutes for Water Research.
More information: See the paper at: http://tinyurl.com/F

Feds: Homes with Chinese drywall must be gutted

2010-04-02T14:22:00.001-05:00

On yahoo news

Feds: Homes with Chinese drywall must be gutted
59 mins ago

NEW ORLEANS – New federal guidelines say thousands of U.S. homes tainted by Chinese drywall won't be safe unless they are completely gutted.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission released the guidelines Friday. They say electrical wiring, outlets, circuit breakers, fire alarm systems, carbon monoxide alarms, fire sprinklers, gas pipes and drywall must be removed.

About 3,000 homeowners, mostly in Florida, Virginia, Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana, have reported problems with the Chinese-made drywall.

A large quantity of the drywall was imported during the housing boom and after a string of Gulf Coast hurricanes. It has been linked to corrosion of wiring, air conditioning units, computers, doorknobs and jewelry, along with possible health problems.

Feds: Homes with Chinese drywall must be gutted

2010-04-02T13:37:00.000-05:00

Feds: Homes with Chinese drywall must be gutted
59 mins ago

NEW ORLEANS – New federal guidelines say thousands of U.S. homes tainted by Chinese drywall won't be safe unless they are completely gutted.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission released the guidelines Friday. They say electrical wiring, outlets, circuit breakers, fire alarm systems, carbon monoxide alarms, fire sprinklers, gas pipes and drywall must be removed.

About 3,000 homeowners, mostly in Florida, Virginia, Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana, have reported problems with the Chinese-made drywall.

A large quantity of the drywall was imported during the housing boom and after a string of Gulf Coast hurricanes. It has been linked to corrosion of wiring, air conditioning units, computers, doorknobs and jewelry, along with possible health problems.

Feds: Homes with Chinese drywall must be gutted

2010-04-02T13:32:00.001-05:00

Feds: Homes with Chinese drywall must be gutted
59 mins ago

NEW ORLEANS – New federal guidelines say thousands of U.S. homes tainted by Chinese drywall won't be safe unless they are completely gutted.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission released the guidelines Friday. They say electrical wiring, outlets, circuit breakers, fire alarm systems, carbon monoxide alarms, fire sprinklers, gas pipes and drywall must be removed.

About 3,000 homeowners, mostly in Florida, Virginia, Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana, have reported problems with the Chinese-made drywall.

A large quantity of the drywall was imported during the housing boom and after a string of Gulf Coast hurricanes. It has been linked to corrosion of wiring, air conditioning units, computers, doorknobs and jewelry, along with possible health problems.

To remember the good times, reach for the sky

2010-04-01T14:33:00.000-05:00

Public release date: 31-Mar-2010
Max-Planck-Gesellschaft
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-03/m-trt033110.php

To remember the good times, reach for the sky

When people talk about positive and negative emotions they often use spatial metaphors. A happy person is on top of the world, but a sad person is down in the dumps. Some researchers believe these metaphors are a clue to the way people understand emotions: not only do we use spatial words to talk about emotional states, we also use spatial concepts to think about them.

Motion and emotion

To test this link between vertical space and emotion, in a first experiment Casasanto and Dijkstra asked students to move glass marbles upward or downward into one of two cardboard boxes, with both hands simultaneously, timed by a metronome. Meanwhile, they had to recount autobiographical memories with either positive or negative emotional valence, like 'Tell me about a time when you felt proud of yourself', or 'a time when you felt ashamed of yourself''.

When prompted to tell positive memories, participants began recounting their experiences faster during upward movements, but when prompted to tell negative memories they responded faster during downward movements. Memory retrieval was most efficient when participants' motions matched the spatial directions that metaphors in language associate with positive and negative emotions.

'Meaningless' motions modify memory

The second experiment tested whether these seemingly meaningless motor actions could influence the content of people's memories. Participants were given neutral-valence prompts, like 'Tell me about something that happened during high school', so they could choose to retell something happy or sad. Their choices were determined, in part, by the direction in which they were assigned to move marbles. Moving marbles upward encouraged students to recount positive high school experiences like 'winning an award', but moving them downward to recall negative experiences like 'failing a test'.

'These data suggest that spatial metaphors for emotion aren't just in language', Casasanto says, 'linguistic metaphors correspond to mental metaphors, and activating the mental metaphor 'good is up' can cause us to think happier thoughts.'

Since simple motor actions can trigger this mental metaphor, could there be practical implications? 'Who knows', says Casasanto, 'it would be great if this basic research can help people think more positively in the world beyond the laboratory – marble therapy?'

###

Follow the leader: How those in charge make themselves known

2010-04-01T14:22:00.001-05:00

Public release date: 1-Apr-2010
University of Leeds
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-04/uol-ftl033110.php

Follow the leader: How those in charge make themselves known

Do you find yourself leading groups, or are you naturally more comfortable following others? Research published today shows that if you want to be a leader you're better off at the edges of a crowd, and not in the middle of the action.

In a series of experiments on crowd behaviour, a research team from the Faculty of Biological Sciences at the University of Leeds also found that successful leaders display more decisive behaviour, spending less time following others and acting more quickly than others in the group.

Lead researcher Jolyon Faria, who conducted the study as part of his PhD, said: "It was interesting to find that the most effective leaders remained on the edges of the group and attempted to lead from the front. You'd think leaders in the centre of the group should interact more often with others and therefore be more effective but here this wasn't the case."

Understanding how individuals behave in groups is important in predicting how the whole group behaves en masse, and has implications for the management of our physical environment.

Faria said: "For instance, a better understanding of human crowd behaviour can help us design buildings more effectively for evacuation scenarios. It can also inform strategies for moving large numbers of people, useful for events where large crowds need to be moved as quickly and efficiently as possible by a relatively small number of event staff."

The research team, funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), asked groups of eight students to walk around continuously in a specified area and remain as a group without speaking or gesturing to one another.

One person was asked to move towards a target, whilst remaining a member of the group, without letting the others know that he or she was leading them to a target. In a second set of experiments, the students were told to follow "the leader", but not told who the leader was.

In the second set of experiments, it was found that those leaders who remained on the edge of the group were able to move their group towards a target much more quickly than the leaders that chose to remain in the centre.

"We wanted to find out how people decided who to follow" said Faria. "We found that people were able to identify their leader by what position the leader takes, which goes some way to explain how animals in groups – such as birds and fish - can be led by only a small minority, even when leaders don't signal their identity.

"Our findings have illustrated a general principle behind group behaviour. These can also be applied to animal groups, something which could help in the management of the natural environment, as well as in the management of the urban environment."

###

Stone Age Scandinavians unable to digest milk

2010-04-01T14:18:00.001-05:00

There are lots of people out there that say that cow milk is harmful to health. I tend to agree. But how I love cheese.

Public release date: 1-Apr-2010
Uppsala University
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-04/uu-sas040110.php

Stone Age Scandinavians unable to digest milk

The hunter-gatherers who inhabited the southern coast of Scandinavia 4,000 years ago were lactose intolerant. This has been shown by a new study carried out by researchers at Uppsala University and Stockholm University. The study, which has been published in the journal BMC Evolutionary Biology, supports the researchers' earlier conclusion that today's Scandinavians are not descended from the Stone Age people in question but from a group that arrived later.

"This group of hunter-gatherers differed significantly from modern Swedes in terms of the DNA sequence that we generally associate with a capacity to digest lactose into adulthood," says Anna Linderholm, formerly of the Archaeological Research Laboratory, Stockholm University, presently at University College Cork, Ireland.

According to the researchers, two possible explanations exist for the DNA differences.

"One possibility is that these differences are evidence of a powerful selection process, through which the Stone Age hunter-gatherers' genes were lost due to some significant advantage associated with the capacity to digest milk," says Anna Linderholm. "The other possibility is that we simply are not descended from this group of Stone Age people."

The capacity to consume unprocessed milk into adulthood is regarded as having been of great significance for human prehistory.

"This capacity is closely associated with the transition from hunter-gatherer to agricultural societies," says Anders Götherström of the Department of Evolutionary Biology at Uppsala University.

He serves as coordinator of LeCHE (Lactase persistence and the early Cultural History of Europe), an EU-funded research project focusing on the significance of milk for European prehistory.

"In the present case, we are inclined to believe that the findings are indicative of what we call "gene flow," in other words, migration to the region at some later time of some new group of people, with whom we are genetically similar," he says. "This accords with the results of previous studies."

The researchers' current work involves investigating the genetic makeup of the earliest agriculturalists in Scandinavia, with an eye to potential answers to questions about our ancestors.

###

It looks like we have another "curveball"

2010-03-31T13:53:00.001-05:00

It looks like we have another "curveball"
And we know how the first "Curveball" played thru!!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8596542.stm

Re: Daily Dose - This "forbidden" food could be the biggest health breakthrough of our time

2010-03-31T13:48:00.001-05:00

--- On Wed, 3/31/10, WC Douglass, M.D. <realhealth@healthiernews.com> wrote:

> From: WC Douglass, M.D. <realhealth@healthiernews.com>
> Subject: Daily Dose - This "forbidden" food could be the biggest health breakthrough of our time
> To: THECCCEXPERIMENT@yahoo.com
> Date: Wednesday, March 31, 2010, 10:26 AM
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Daily Dose with William Campbell Douglass II,
> M.D.
>
>
>
>
>
>
> You have received this e-mail because our
> records indicate that you signed up for a free subscription
> to the Daily Dose eLetter.
>
>
>
> Special Product Bulletin for
> readers of the Daily Dose
>
>
>
>
> You've been told
> to avoid it at all costs. But -- This "forbidden" food
>
> could be the biggest health breakthrough
>
> of our time
> Your whole life, you've been warned that
> this substance can wreak havoc on your health.
> But the bad rap could be
> for nothing. Because research proves this shunned food:
>
>
> plummets LDL cholesterol by 25% while
> raising HDL up to 29% -- it's been proven in three
> separate studies to beat the most-prescribed
> prescription drugs
> decreases tooth decay by 80% -- without
> having to drop any of your favorite foods
> reduces blood clots without the
> dangerous side effects of aspirin
> cuts sinus and ear infections by 93% --
> you can actually feel it working in minutes. One pioneering
> Texas doctor says the results are so dramatic, his patients
> forget to keep using it!
> And you should see what else it can do for your
> heart! How can one food -- especially one we're
> told to stay away from -- do so much?
> More
> importantly -- what is it? And how can you get your hands on
> it? Read
> the full story...
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Interested in
> receiving Dr. William C. Douglass' highly acclaimed
> monthly newsletter -- and FREE bonus gifts? Call (915)
> 849-4615 or visit
> http://clicks.douglassreport.com//t/AQ/AAEy3w/AAE5Ew/C+Q/AQ/AtFJ3w/R5Bq
>
>
>
>
> To start
> receiving your own copy of the Daily Dose, visit:
>
>
> http://clicks.douglassreport.com//t/AQ/AAEy3w/AAE5Ew/C+U/AQ/AtFJ3w/AB95
> Or forward this e-mail to a friend so they can
> sign-up to
> receive their own copy of the Daily Dose.
>
>
> Daily Dose
> readers can now tap into the minds of other health-conscious
> readers at http://clicks.douglassreport.com//t/AQ/AAEy3w/AAE5Ew/C4Y/AQ/AtFJ3w/tyEm
>
>
>
>
> Copyright (c)2010 by Healthier News, LLC.
> The Daily Dose may not be posted on commercial
> sites without
> written permission.
>
>
>
>
> Why
> am I getting this?
>
> Please note: We sent this e-mail to:
>
> THECCCEXPERIMENT@yahoo.com
>
>
> because you subscribed to this service.
>
>
>
> Manage your subscription:
>
>
>
> To end your Daily Dose subscription...visit this
> address:
>
> Unsubscribe
> Here
>
>
>
>
> To manage your subscription by mail or for any
> other subscription issues,
>
> write us at:
>
>
>
> Order Processing Center
>
> Attn: Customer Service
>
> P.O. Box 925
>
> Frederick, MD 21705 USA
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>

The dawn of a new epoch? Researchers show how world has changed.

2010-03-28T15:30:00.001-05:00

Public release date: 26-Mar-2010
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-03/uol-tdo032610.php
University of Leicester

The dawn of a new epoch?
Researchers show how world has changed.

IMAGE: Dr. Jan Zalasiewicz is a researcher at the University of Leicester.

Geologists from the University of Leicester are among four scientists- including a Nobel prize-winner – who suggest that the Earth has entered a new age of geological time.

The Age of Aquarius? Not quite - It's the Anthropocene Epoch, say the scientists writing in the journal Environmental Science & Technology. (web issue March 29; print issue April 1)

And they add that the dawning of this new epoch may include the sixth largest mass extinction in the Earth's history.

Jan Zalasiewicz and Mark Williams from the University of Leicester Department of Geology; Will Steffen, Director of the Australian National University's Climate Change Institute and Paul Crutzen the Nobel Prize-winning atmospheric chemist of Mainz University provide evidence for the scale of global change in their commentary in the American Chemical Society's' bi-weekly journal Environmental Science & Technology.

The scientists propose that, in just two centuries, humans have wrought such vast and unprecedented changes to our world that we actually might be ushering in a new geological time interval, and alter the planet for millions of years.

Zalasiewicz, Williams, Steffen and Crutzen contend that recent human activity, including stunning population growth, sprawling megacities and increased use of fossil fuels, have changed the planet to such an extent that we are entering what they call the Anthropocene (New Man) Epoch.

First proposed by Crutzen more than a decade ago, the term Anthropocene has provoked controversy. However, as more potential consequences of human activity — such as global climate change and sharp increases in plant and animal extinctions — have emerged, Crutzen's term has gained support. Currently, the worldwide geological community is formally considering whether the Anthropocene should join the Jurassic, Cambrian and other more familiar units on the Geological Time Scale.

The scientists note that getting that formal designation will likely be contentious. But they conclude, "However these debates will unfold, the Anthropocene represents a new phase in the history of both humankind and of the Earth, when natural forces and human forces became intertwined, so that the fate of one determines the fate of the other. Geologically, this is a remarkable episode in the history of this planet."

###
DOI: Environ. Sci. Technol. DOI 10.1021/es903118j.

Citation: Zalasiewicz, J.; Williams, M.; Steffen, W.; Crutzen, P. The new world of the Anthropocene. Environ. Sci. Technol. 2010, 44 (7).

BlastFromThePast: Homeland official subject of probe

2010-03-27T17:52:00.001-05:00

A noteworthy blast from the past!

What is this??
http://federaltimes.com/index.php?C=770346.php
Homeland official subject of probe
August 13, 2004
Homeland official subject of probe
By EILEEN SULLIVAN
The Homeland Security Departmentís inspector general is investigating possible ties between a political appointee in the department and a terrorist organization, a department official said.
    The official confirmed the probe involving Faisal Gill, director of intelligence policy in the departmentís Information Analysis and Infrastructure Protection division, after two senators Aug. 9 requested such an investigation.
    In an Aug. 9 letter to Inspector General Clark Kent Irvin, Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, and Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., said Gill used to work with, or was once associated, with the American Muslim Council and its top official, Abdurahman Alamoudi. Alamoudi pleaded guilty July 30 to three criminal violations, including terrorism financing and tax evasion, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Homeland Security agency that led the investigation. The agency said Alamoudi has admitted a role in a Libya-sponsored plot to assassinate Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah.
In their letter, the senators said Gill omitted these ties during his background checks.
    Grassley, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee ó which investigates terrorist financing ó and Kyl, also a member of the committee, asked the IGís office how the department handles an employee who omits information during security background checks and what Gillís role has been in setting intelligence goals, responsibilities and priorities for the department.
    As part of his job, Gill has access to classified information about the countryís critical infrastructure. He is still in this position.

US Stands Alone in Human Rights Council Votes on Israel

2010-03-27T17:43:00.001-05:00

US Stands Alone in Human Rights Council Votes on Israel < http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=18327 >
Global Research, March 25, 2010
UN Watch - 2010-03-24
The UN Human Rights Council has roundly condemned the State of Israel in resolutions tabled under the highly controversial agenda item 7, "Human Rights Situation in Palestine and Other Occupied Arab Territories."Five resolutions have been tabled against Israel, amounting to the greatest number of condemnatory resolutions on a single country. The first resolution, Human Rights in the Occupied Syrian Golan," was adopted by a wide majority, with 31 countries in favor, 1 against and 15 abstentions. The United States was the only member to vote against the resolution, the European Union jointly abstaining. The Council voted nearly unanimously in favor of "Right of the Palestinian people to self-determination," with 45 countries voting in favor and only the United States voting against the resolution. No countries chose to abstain. On the resolution, "Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and in the occupied Syrian Golan," 46 countries voted to condemn Israel, while the United States alone voted against the resolution. No countries chose to abstain. On the resolution presented by Pakistan, "The grave human rights violations by Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem," the Council voted 34 in favor, 9 against, 7 abstaining. On the Goldstone resolution, "Follow-up to the report of the United Nations Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict," the Council was not able to complete voting due to time restrictions and will resume tomorrow at 10am. The resolution reiterates the recommendations of the Goldstone report, and includes new recommendations to establish an Ad Hoc Committee to oversee implementation.

Greenspan Finally Admits He Blew It

2010-03-19T12:53:00.001-05:00

Greenspan Finally Admits He Blew It

Posted Mar 18, 2010 04:59pm EDT by Henry Blodget in Investing, Newsmakers,Recession, Banking, Housing

From The Business Insider, March 18, 2020:

Five years later, Alan Greenspan finally admits he screwed up.

Kind of.

Sewell Chan, NYT:

...the former Federal Reserve chairman, acknowledged that the Fed failed to grasp the magnitude of the housing bubble but argued that its policy of low interest rates from 2002 to 2005 did not cause the bubble.

In a 48-page paper that he is to present on Friday at the Brookings Institution, Mr. Greenspan, who stepped down as Fed chairman in January 2006, expressed some remorse but stood by his conviction that little could be done to identify a bubble before it burst, much less to pop it.

http://www.brookings.edu/%7E/media/Files/Programs/ES/BPEA/2010_spring_bpea_papers/spring2010_greenspan.pdf

Keep reading >

Click here to read the Greenspan paper for yourself.

http://www.businessinsider.com/greenspans-paper-on-the-crisis-2010-3

More coverage from The Business Insider:

Why Greenspan's worst nightmare is much of the world's dream

The Amazon Forest More Tolerant To Droughts Than Was Once Thought

2010-03-12T14:06:00.001-06:00

Boston University Medical Center

New study debunks myths about Amazon rain forests

They may be more tolerant of droughts than previously thought

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-03/bumc-nsd031110.php

(Boston) -- A new NASA-funded study has concluded that Amazon rain forests were remarkably unaffected in the face of once-in-a-century drought in 2005, neither dying nor thriving, contrary to a previously published report and claims by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

"We found no big differences in the greenness level of these forests between drought and non-drought years, which suggests that these forests may be more tolerant of droughts than we previously thought," said Arindam Samanta, the study's lead author from Boston University.

The comprehensive study published in the current issue of the scientific journalGeophysical Research Letters used the latest version of the NASA MODIS satellite data to measure the greenness of these vast pristine forests over the past decade.

A study published in the journal Science in 2007 claimed that these forests actually thrive from drought because of more sunshine under cloud-less skies typical of drought conditions. The new study found that those results were flawed and not reproducible.

"This new study brings some clarity to our muddled understanding of how these forests, with their rich source of biodiversity, would fare in the future in the face of twin pressures from logging and changing climate," said Boston University Prof. Ranga Myneni, senior author of the new study.

The IPCC is under scrutiny for various data inaccuracies, including its claim – based on a flawed World Wildlife Fund study -- that up to 40% of the Amazonian forests could react drastically and be replaced by savannas from even a slight reduction in rainfall.

"Our results certainly do not indicate such extreme sensitivity to reductions in rainfall," said Sangram Ganguly, an author on the new study, from the Bay Area Environmental Research Institute affiliated with NASA Ames Research Center in California.

"The way that the WWF report calculated this 40% was totally wrong, while [the new] calculations are by far more reliable and correct," said Dr. Jose Marengo, a Brazilian National Institute for Space Research climate scientist and member of the IPCC.

###

Founded in 1839, Boston University is an internationally recognized private research university with more than 30,000 students participating in undergraduate, graduate, and professional programs. BU consists of 17 colleges and schools along with a number of multi-disciplinary centers and institutes which are central to the school's research and teaching mission.

Geophysical Research Letters article citation: Samanta, A., S. Ganguly, H. Hashimoto, S. Devadiga, E. Vermote, Y. Knyazikhin, R. R. Nemani, and R. B. Myneni (2010), Amazon forests did not green‐up during the 2005 drought, Geophys. Res. Lett., 37, L05401, doi:10.1029/2009GL042154.

Life-Enabling Molecules Spotted in Orion Nebula

2010-03-12T13:53:00.001-06:00

Life-Enabling Molecules Spotted in Orion Nebula SPACE.com Staff http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/herschel-life-molecules-100311.html SPACE.com Fri Mar 12, 6:47 am ET The chemical fingerprints of potentially life-building molecules have been detected in the Orion nebula by Europe's Herschel Space Observatory. The Orion nebula is a nearby stellar nursery, brimming with gas, dust and infant stars. It is known to be one of the most prolific chemical factories in space, although the full extent of its chemistry and the pathways for molecule formation are not well understood. Researchers have used one of Herschel's instruments, which looks at the cosmos in the far infrared wavelengths of light, to provide more insight into how organic molecules form in space. By sifting through the pattern of spikes in Orion nebula's light signature, or spectrum, astronomers have identified a few common molecules that are precursors to life-enabling molecules, including water, carbon monoxide, formaldehyde, methanol, dimethyl ether, hydrogen cyanide, sulfur oxide and sulfur dioxide. Each spike in the spectrum corresponds to a particular molecule. "This HIFI spectrum, and the many more to come, will provide a virtual treasure trove of information regarding the overall chemical inventory and on how organics form in a region of active star formation. It harbors the promise of a deep understanding of the chemistry of space once we have the full spectral surveys available," said Edwin Bergin of the University of Michigan and the principal investigator of the HEXOS Key Program on Herschel. Because of Herschel's unique infrared observing abilities, this new spectrum is already an improvement on previous one's taken of the Orion nebula. "We obtained this spectrum in a few hours and it already beats any other spectrum, at any other wavelength, ever taken of Orion," said Frank Helmich, Herschel HIFI principal investigator of SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research. Built by the European Space Agency, Herschel launched in May 2009 on a mission to scan the universe in the far-infrared range of the spectrum. The observatory is expected to last until 2012 and has the largest single mirror ever built for a space telescope.

Sun's Companion Pelted Earth With Comets

2010-03-12T13:26:00.001-06:00

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/nemesis-comets-earth-am-100311.html

Sun's Nemesis Pelted Earth with Comets, Study Suggests
By Leslie Mullen
Astrobiology Magazine
posted: 11 March 2010
08:16 am ET

A dark object may be lurking near our solar system, occasionally kicking comets in our direction.

Nicknamed "Nemesis" or "The Death Star," this undetected object could be a red or brown dwarf star, or an even darker presence several times the mass of Jupiter.

Why do scientists think something could be hidden beyond the edge of our solar system? Originally, Nemesis was suggested as a way to explain a cycle of mass extinctions on Earth.

Please continue to read on link.

New evidence hints at global glaciation 716.5 million years ago

2010-03-04T15:55:00.000-06:00

Oops, this comes from the hallowed hall of Harvard!!
And I can find no science that you use, or that your kind is willing to provide that would enable me to be fully objective. All the science I see for your side does not rule out earth and cosmological cycles.

What fossil fuels did the people then burn to create such a warming716 million years ago?
This warming issue is cosmologically cyclically caused. It is not man-made. We now know what is at the center of this galaxy, thank you Hubble.

Public release date: 4-Mar-2010
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-03/hu-neh021810.php
Harvard University

New evidence hints at global glaciation 716.5 million years ago

Scientists find signs of 'snowball Earth' amidst early animal evolution



		IMAGE: In this photo from Canada's Yukon Territory, an iron-rich layer of 716.5-million-year-old glacial deposits (maroon in color) is seen atop an older carbonate reef (gray in color) that formed in... Click here for more information.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Geologists have found evidence that sea ice extended to the equator 716.5 million years ago, bringing new precision to a "snowball Earth" event long suspected to have taken place around that time.

Led by scientists at Harvard University, the team reports on its work this week in the journal Science. The new findings -- based on an analysis of ancient tropical rocks that are now found in remote northwestern Canada -- bolster the theory that our planet has, at times in the past, been ice-covered at all latitudes.

"This is the first time that the Sturtian glaciation has been shown to have occurred at tropical latitudes, providing direct evidence that this particular glaciation was a 'snowball Earth' event," says lead author Francis A. Macdonald, an assistant professor in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard. "Our data also suggests that the Sturtian glaciation lasted a minimum of 5 million years."

The survival of eukaryotic life throughout this period indicates sunlight and surface water remained available somewhere on the surface of Earth. The earliest animals arose at roughly the same time, following a major proliferation of eukaryotes.

Even in a snowball Earth, Macdonald says, there would be temperature gradients on Earth and it is likely that ice would be dynamic: flowing, thinning, and forming local patches of open water, providing refuge for life.



		IMAGE: In this photo from Canada's Yukon Territory, an iron-rich layer of 716.5-million-year-old glacial deposits (maroon in color) is seen atop an older carbonate reef (gray in color) that formed in... Click here for more information.

"The fossil record suggests that all of the major eukaryotic groups, with the possible exception of animals, existed before the Sturtian glaciation," Macdonald says. "The questions that arise from this are: If a snowball Earth existed, how did these eukaryotes survive? Moreover, did the Sturtian snowball Earth stimulate evolution and the origin of animals?"

"From an evolutionary perspective," he adds, "it's not always a bad thing for life on Earth to face severe stress."

The rocks Macdonald and his colleagues analyzed in Canada's Yukon Territory showed glacial deposits and other signs of glaciation, such as striated clasts, ice rafted debris, and deformation of soft sediments. The scientists were able to determine, based on the magnetism and composition of these rocks, that 716.5 million years ago they were located at sea level in the tropics, at about 10 degrees latitude.

"Because of the high albedo of ice, climate modeling has long predicted that if sea ice were ever to develop within 30 degrees latitude of the equator, the whole ocean would rapidly freeze over," Macdonald says. "So our result implies quite strongly that ice would have been found at all latitudes during the Sturtian glaciation."

Scientists don't know exactly what caused this glaciation or what ended it, but Macdonald says its age of 716.5 million years closely matches the age of a large igneous province stretching more than 1,500 kilometers (932 miles) from Alaska to Ellesmere Island in far northeastern Canada. This coincidence could mean the glaciation was either precipitated or terminated by volcanic activity.

###

Macdonald's co-authors on the Science paper are Phoebe A. Cohen, David T. Johnston, and Daniel P. Schrag at Harvard; Mark D. Schmitz and James L. Crowley of Boise State University; Charles F. Roots of the Geological Survey of Canada; David S. Jones of Washington University in St. Louis; Adam C. Maloof of Princeton University; and Justin V. Strauss.

This work was supported by the Polar Continental Shelf Project and the National Science Foundation's Geobiology and Environmental Geochemistry Program.

Oldest measurement of Earth's magnetic field reveals battle between sun and Earth for our atmosphere

2010-03-04T15:12:00.000-06:00

Public release date: 4-Mar-2010
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-03/uor-omo030110.php
University of Rochester

Oldest measurement of Earth's magnetic field reveals battle between sun and Earth for our atmosphere



		IMAGE: The larger auroral oval relative to the modern is the result of a weaker dipole magnetic field and stronger solar wind dynamic pressure. The auroral intensity is brighter due to... Click here for more information.

Scientists at the University of Rochester have discovered that the Earth's magnetic field 3.5 billion years ago was only half as strong as it is today, and that this weakness, coupled with a strong wind of energetic particles from the young Sun, likely stripped water from the early Earth's atmosphere.

The findings, presented in today's issue of Science, suggest that the magnetopause—the boundary where the Earth's magnetic field successfully deflects the Sun's incoming solar wind—was only half the distance from Earth it is today.

"With a weak magnetosphere and a rapid-rotating young Sun, the Earth was likely receiving as many solar protons on an average day as we get today during a severe solar storm," says John Tarduno, a geophysicist at the University of Rochester and lead author of the study. "That means the particles streaming out of the Sun were much more likely to reach Earth. It's very likely the solar wind was removing volatile molecules, like hydrogen, from the atmosphere at a much greater rate than we're losing them today." Tarduno says the loss of hydrogen implies a loss of water as well, meaning there may be much less water on Earth today than in its infancy.

To find the strength of the ancient magnetic field, Tarduno and his colleagues from the University of KwaZulu-Natal visited sites in Africa that were known to contain rocks in excess of 3 billion years of age. Not just any rocks of that age would do, however. Certain igneous rocks called dacites contain small millimeter-sized quartz crystals, which in turn have tiny nanometer-sized magnetic inclusions. The magnetization of these inclusions act as minute compasses, locking in a record of the Earth's magnetic field as the dacite cooled from molten magma to hard rock. Simply finding rocks of this age is difficult enough, but such rocks have also witnessed billions of years of geological activity that could have reheated them and possibly changed their initial magnetic record. To reduce the chance of this contamination, Tarduno picked out the best preserved grains of feldspar and quartz out of 3.5 billion-year-old dacite outcroppings in South Africa.

Complicating the search for the right rocks further, the effect of the solar wind interacting with the atmosphere can induce a magnetic field of its own, so even if Tarduno did find a rock that had not been altered in 3.5 billion years, he had to make sure the magnetic record it contained was generated by the Earth's core and not induced by the solar wind.



		IMAGE: The Barberton Mountain Land, South Africa, is the site yielding data on the ancient magnetic field. Click here for more information.

Once he isolated the ideal crystals, Tarduno used a device called a superconducting quantum interface device, or SQUID magnetometer, which is normally used to troubleshoot computer chips because it's extremely sensitive to the smallest magnetic fields. Tarduno pioneered the use of single crystal analyses using SQUID magnetometers. However, for this study, even standard SQUID magnetometers lacked the sensitivity. Tarduno was able to employ a new magnetometer, which has sensors closer to the sample than in previous instruments.

Using the new magnetometer, Tarduno, Research Scientist Rory Cottrell, and University of Rochester students were able to confirm that the 3.5 billion-year-old silicate crystals had recorded a field much too strong to be induced by the solar wind-atmosphere interaction, and so must have been generated by Earth's core.

"We gained a pretty solid idea of how strong Earth's field was at that time, but we knew that was only half the picture," says Tarduno. "We needed to understand how much solar wind that magnetic field was deflecting because that would tell us what was probably happening to Earth's atmosphere."

The solar wind can strip away a planet's atmosphere and bathe its surface in lethal radiation. Tarduno points to Mars as an example of a planet that likely lost its magnetosphere early in its history, letting the bombardment of solar wind slowly erode its atmosphere. To discover what kind of solar wind the Earth had to contend with, Tarduno employed the help of Eric Mamajek, assistant professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Rochester.

"There is a strong correlation between how old a Sun-like star is and the amount of matter it throws off as solar wind," says Mamajek "Judging from the rotation and activity we expect of our Sun at a billion years of age, we think that it was shedding material at a rate about 100 times stronger than the average rate observed in modern times."

While the life cycle of stars like our Sun is well known, says Mamajek, astrophysicists have only a handful of stars for which they know the amount of mass lost as solar wind. Mamajek says the amount of X-rays radiated from a star, regardless of its apparent brightness, can give a good estimate of how much material the star is radiating as solar wind. Through the Sun at this age was likely about 23% dimmer than it would appear to us today, it was giving off much more radiation as X-rays, and driving a much more powerful solar wind.

"We estimate the solar wind at that time was a couple of orders of magnitude stronger," says Mamajek. "With Earth's weaker magnetosphere, the standoff point between the two was probably less than five Earth radii. That's less than half of the distance of 10.7 radii it is today."

Tarduno says that in addition to the smaller magnetopause allowing the solar wind to strip away more water vapor from the early Earth, the skies might have been filled with more polar aurora. The Earth's magnetic field bends toward vertical at the poles and channels the solar wind toward the Earth's surface there. When the solar wind strikes the atmosphere, it releases photons that appear as shifting patterns of light at night.

With the weakened magnetosphere, the area where the solar wind is channeled toward the surface—an area called the magnetic polar cap—would have been three times larger than it is today, says Tarduno.

"On a normal night 3.5 billion years ago you'd probably see the aurora as far south as New York," says Tarduno.

###

The study involved colleagues from the University of KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa), NASA, the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences (Beijing), and University of Oslo (Norway) and was supported by the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation and the National Science Foundation.

About the University of Rochester

The University of Rochester (www.rochester.edu) is one of the nation's leading private universities. Located in Rochester, N.Y., the University gives students exceptional opportunities for interdisciplinary study and close collaboration with faculty through its unique cluster-based curriculum. Its College, School of Arts and Sciences, and Hajim School of Engineering and Applied Sciences are complemented by the Eastman School of Music, Simon School of Business, Warner School of Education, Laboratory for Laser Energetics, Schools of Medicine and Nursing, and the Memorial Art Gallery.

study shows link between vitamin D, skin

2010-03-04T15:08:00.000-06:00

Public release date: 4-Mar-2010
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-03/hfhs-hfh030310.php
Henry Ford Health System

Henry Ford Hospital study shows link between vitamin D, skin cancer

A Henry Ford Hospital study has shown a link between Vitamin D levels and basal cell carcinoma, a finding that could lead researchers to better understand the development of the most common form of skin cancer.

In a small study, researchers at Henry Ford and Wayne State University found elevated levels of Vitamin D enzymes and proteins in cancerous tissue taken from 10 patients compared to normal skin tissue taken from them.

Previous studies have linked Vitamin D deficiency with certain cancers but this is believed to be the first time researchers looked at Vitamin D and basal cell carcinoma.

"This finding may help us in future research to determine whether vitamin D plays a causative or reactive role in the development and progression of skin cancer," says Iltefat Hamzavi, M.D., senior staff physician in Henry Ford's Department of Dermatology and the study's lead author.

The study will be presented at the Photomedicine Society's annual meeting in Miami, one day before the American Academy of Dermatology's annual meeting.

Basal cell carcinoma, which affects about 1 million Americans a year, is the most common form of skin cancer. This cancer forms in the basal cells of the deepest layer of the skin. Mohs micrographic surgery is one of the most effective treatments for removing skin cancer.

The 10 patients enrolled in the study were diagnosed with basal cell carcinoma and ranged in age from 43 to 83. All had biopsies taken of cancerous tissue and surrounding normal skin tissue. Researchers found a 10-fold increase in Vitamin D enzyme levels and a two-fold increase in Vitamin D protein levels. The enzymes and proteins help regulate levels of Vitamin D in the skin. Two genes that play a role in DNA and tumor repair also had elevated levels of Vitamin D in cancerous tissue compared to normal tissue.

###

The study was funded by the American Society of Dermatologic Surgery, Wayne State University and Henry Ford Hospital.

IU study finds no consensus in definitions of 'had sex'

2010-03-04T14:58:00.001-06:00

Public release date: 4-Mar-2010
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-03/iu-isf030310.php
Indiana University

IU study finds no consensus in definitions of 'had sex'

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- When people say they "had sex," what transpired is anyone's guess. A new study from the Kinsey Institute at Indiana University found that no uniform consensus existed when a representative sample of 18- to 96-year-olds was asked what the term meant to them.

Is oral sex considered sex? It wasn't to around 30 percent of the study participants. How about anal sex? For around 20 percent of the participants, no. A surprising number of older men did not consider penile-vaginal intercourse to be sex. More than idle gossip, the answers to questions about sex can inform -- or misinform -- research, medical advice and health education efforts.

"Researchers, doctors, parents, sex educators should all be very careful and not assume that their own definition of sex is shared by the person they're talking to, be it a patient, a student, a child or study participant," said Brandon Hill, research associate at the Kinsey Institute.

The study, conducted in conjunction with the Rural Center for AIDS/STD Prevention in IU's School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation, delves deeper into a question first examined in 1999 -- in the midst of a presidential sex scandal where the definition of sex was an issue. Researchers from The Kinsey Institute asked college students what "had sex" meant to them, taking the approach, which was unique then, of polling the students on specific behaviors.

No consensus was found then, either. The new study, published in the international health journal "Sexual Health" in February, examined whether more information helped clarify matters -- study participants were asked about specific sexual behaviors and such qualifiers as whether orgasm was reached -- and researchers also wanted to involve a more representative audience, not just college students.

"Throwing the net wider, with a more representative sample, only made it more confusing and complicated," Hill said. "People were even less consistent across the board."

The study involved responses from 486 Indiana residents who took part in a telephone survey conducted by the Center for Survey Research at IU. Participants, mostly heterosexual, were asked, "Would you say you 'had sex' with someone if the most intimate behavior you engaged in was ...," followed by 14 behaviorally specific items. Here are some of the results:

Responses did not differ significantly overall for men and women. The study involved 204 men and 282 women.
95 percent of respondents would consider penile-vaginal intercourse (PVI) having had sex, but this rate drops to 89 percent if there is no ejaculation.
81 percent considered penile-anal intercourse having had sex, with the rate dropping to 77 percent for men in the youngest age group (18-29), 50 percent for men in the oldest age group (65 and up) and 67 percent for women in the oldest age group.
71 percent and 73 percent considered oral contact with a partner's genitals (OG), either performing or receiving, as having had sex.
Men in the youngest and oldest age groups were less likely to answer "yes" compared with the middle two age groups for when they performed OG.
Significantly fewer men in the oldest age group answered "yes" for PVI (77 percent).

Hill said it is common for a doctor, when seeing a patient with symptoms of sexually transmitted infections, to ask how many sexual partners the patient has or has had. The number will differ according to the patients' definitions of sex.

William L. Yarber, RCAP's senior director and co-author of the study, said its findings reaffirm the need to be specific about behaviors when talking about sex

"There's a vagueness of what sex is in our culture and media," Yarber said. "If people don't consider certain behaviors sex, they might not think sexual health messages about risk pertain to them. The AIDS epidemic has forced us to be much more specific about behaviors, as far as identifying specific behaviors that put people at risk instead of just sex in general. But there's still room for improvement."

###

Co-authors include lead author Stephanie A. Sanders, Kinsey Institute, Department of Gender Studies and RCAP at IU; Cynthia A. Graham, Kinsey Institute and RCAP at IU, Doctoral Course in Clinical Psychology at the University of Oxford; Richard A. Crosby, Kinsey Institute and RCAP at IU, Department of Health Behavior at the University of Kentucky; and Robin R. Milhausen, Kinsey Institute and RCAP at IU, Department of Family Relations and Applied Nutrition at the University of Guelph.

Yarber is professor in the departments of Applied Health Science and Gender Studies at IU and is a senior research fellow at the Kinsey Institute. Hill also is a researcher in the Department of Gender Studies at IU.

Hill can be reached at 812-855-7686 and brjhill@indiana.edu and 812-855-7686. Yarber can be reached at 812-855-7974 and yarber@indiana.edu. For a copy of the study, contact Jennifer Bass at jbass@indiana.edu.

Sanders, S., Hill, B., Yarber, W., Graham, C., Crosby, R., Milhausen, R., (2010) "Misclassification bias: diversity in conceptualisations about having 'had sex,'" Sexual Health. 7(1), 31-34.

Transcendental Meditation activates default mode network, the brain's natural ground state

2010-03-04T14:53:00.001-06:00

Public release date: 4-Mar-2010
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-03/muom-tma030410.php
Maharishi University of Management

Transcendental Meditation activates default mode network, the brain's natural ground state



		IMAGE: These are eLORETA images of sources of alpha EEG during TM compared to eyes-closed rest in the default mode network (the white areas). Click here for more information.

A new EEG study conducted on college students at American University found they could more highly activate the default mode network, a suggested natural "ground state" of the brain, during their practice of the Transcendental Meditation technique. This three-month randomized control study is published in a special issue of Cognitive Processing dedicated to the Neuroscience of Meditation and Consciousness, Volume 11, Number 1, February, 2010.

Specifically, the study found the TM technique:

Produces a unique state of "restful alertness," as seen in the markedly higher alpha power in the frontal cortex and lower beta and gamma waves in the same frontal areas during TM practice.
Creates greater alpha coherence between the left and right hemispheres of the brain suggesting the brain is working as a whole.
Enhances an individual's sense of "self" by activating what neuroscientists call the "default mode network" in the brain. (This is considered the natural ground state of the brain, glimpsed by neuroscientists during eyes-closed rest but more fully activated during Transcendental Meditation practice.)



		IMAGE: These raw EEG tracings during eyes-closed rest (left) and Transcendental Meditation (right) represent 18 tracings over 6 seconds. The top tracings are from frontal sensors; the middle tracings are from... Click here for more information.

"The finding of significant brain wave differences between students practicing the Transcendental Meditation technique and those simply resting with their eyes closed is especially convincing because subjects were randomly assigned to conditions, and testing was conducted by a researcher unaware of the experimental condition to which the subject had been assigned," said David Haaga, Ph.D., coauthor and professor of psychology at American University.

"Research has already shown that simply closing one's eyes and relaxing increases the default mode. A significant additional finding of this new study is that activity in the default mode increases during TM compared to simple eyes-closed rest," said Fred Travis, Ph.D., lead author and director of the Center for Brain, Consciousness, and Cognition at Maharishi University of Management. "Different meditation techniques entail various degrees of cognitive control. Thus, activation patterns of the default mode network could give insight into the nature of meditation practices."

Previous published research, funded by the NIH, shows TM practice decreases high blood pressure, atherosclerosis, cholesterol, stroke, and heart failure.

Dendreon: Provenge boosts survival 40 pct For Prostate Cancer

2010-03-04T14:49:00.001-06:00

Dendreon: Provenge boosts survival 40 pct

03/03/10 06:45 PM

* Provenge extends 3-yr survival by 40 pct vs placebo

* Shares rise 2.8 percent after hours

LOS ANGELES, March 3 (Reuters) - Updated trial results show that an experimental cancer vaccine developed by Dendreon Corp (DNDN:$33.62,00$0.36,001.08%) improved three-year survival of patients with advanced prostate cancer by 40 percent compared with a placebo.

Dendreon (DNDN:$33.62,00$0.36,001.08%) shares rose 2.8 percent in after-hours trade.

The results, based on 36.5 months of follow-up, confirm earlier 34-month data presented last year, which showed that the drug improved survival by 38 percent.

Patients in the 512-patient study who received Dendreon's (DNDN:$33.62,00$0.36,001.08%) Provenge lived an average of 4.1 months longer than those who were given a placebo, according to the latest tally announced by the company on Wednesday.

Unlike traditional vaccines that prevent disease, Provenge treats it by stimulating the body's own immune system to attack cancer cells. It is produced by taking cells from a patient's tumor, incorporating them into a vaccine, then returning them to a physician to be injected back into the patient.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is slated to decide by May 1 whether to approve Provenge for treating advanced prostate cancer.

Seattle-based Dendreon (DNDN:$33.62,00$0.36,001.08%) said the latest clinical trial data will be presented on Friday at a meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in San Francisco.
Shares of Dendreon (DNDN:$33.62,00$0.36,001.08%) , which closed at $33.62 on Nasdaq, were higher at $34.55 after hours. (Reporting by Deena Beasley; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)

Homeland Security Loses Hundreds Of Weapons

2010-03-01T10:29:00.001-06:00

Again, I blame this on the Neocons.

-------------------------------------------------

Homeland Security Loses Hundreds Of Weapons

http://www.judicialwatch.org/blog/2010/feb/homeland-sec-loses-hundreds-guns

Last Updated: Fri, 02/19/2010 - 4:51pm

In a baffling example of government incompetence, the federal agency created after the 9/11 terrorist attacks to keep America safe has lost hundreds of weapons and some have ended up in the possession of violent gangbangers and felons.

Remiss officers working for the embattled Department of Homeland Security have lost government-issued guns in bowling alleys, public bathrooms, unlocked cars and a variety of unsecure areas, according to a scorching 27-page report published by the agency's inspector general.

Most of the lost weapons—including military rifles, handguns and shotguns—have never been found and at least 15 have been recovered by local law enforcement officials in the possession of criminals, gang members and known drug dealers.

The majority of the losses occurred because Homeland Security officers did not sufficiently secure firearms in their possession, investigators determined. They further point out that the lost firearms created an unnecessary risk to the public, which goes without saying. Americans may be relieved to know however, that the abhorrent negligence has been met with "extra training" and in some cases disciplinary actions.

This may seem laughable considering the Department of Homeland Security is supposed to keep the nation safe from foreign threats. The crucial agency was created after the 2001 terrorist attacks by encompassing Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Protection, Citizenships and Immigration Services and the Transportation Security Administration.

In theory, their combined forces are more effective in preempting terrorist attacks. In reality, various branches of the agency have become best known for their perpetual mishaps, especially the Transportation Security Administration which was created to protect the nation's transportation system.

If you take simvastatin to control cholesterol, watch out for infection says new report

2010-03-01T09:39:00.001-06:00

Simvastatin (INN), marketed under the trade names Zocor, Simlup, Simcard, Simvacor, and others, as well as generically, is a hypolipidemic drug belonging to the class of pharmaceuticals called "statins". It is used to control hypercholesterolemia (elevated cholesterol levels) and to prevent cardiovascular disease.

Public release date: 1-Mar-2010
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-03/foas-iyt030110.php

Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology

If you take simvastatin to control cholesterol, watch out for infection says new report

New research published in the Journal of Leukocyte Biology suggests that simvastatin negatively impacts the immune system's ability to clear infection and control inflammation in the presence of bacteria

Simvastatin might help us control our cholesterol, but when it comes to infection, it's an entirely different story says a new research study published in the Journal of Leukocyte Biology (http://www.jleukbio.org). In the research report, scientists from Italy show that simvastatin delivers a one-two punch to the immune system. First it impairs the ability of specialized immune cells, called macrophages, to kill pathogens. Then, it enhances production of molecules, called cytokines, which trigger and sustain inflammation.

"Statins are key drugs in the primary and secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease," said Cosima T. Baldari, Ph.D., a scientist from the Department of Evolutionary Biology at the University of Siena in Siena, Italy, who was involved in the research. "Our understanding of how these drugs affect the immune system should help maximize the benefits of these excellent drugs."

To make this discovery, the researchers conducted experiments using human cells and then followed up by conducting additional experiments in mice. They used human macrophages derived from blood samples of healthy donors and murine (mouse) macrophages. The macrophages were incubated with Staphlococcus aureus, a pathogen commonly found on the skin and in the upper airways. Once the infection manifested, researchers analyzed the bactericidal response of macrophages treated with simvastatin. Results showed that the treated macrophages were significantly impaired in both the removal of the pathogen and related cell debris and the killing of ingested bacteria compared to untreated cells. Additionally, the treated cells produced higher amounts of cytokines, which are responsible for triggering and sustaining inflammation. The same experiment was conducted in vivo, using mouse models, with similar results.

"Statins are lifesavers, but there might be room for improvement," said John Wherry, Ph.D., Deputy Editor of the Journal of Leukocyte Biology. "Studies like this help pave the way for researchers to develop newer versions of drugs like statins that are more specific for their intended effect increasing the benefits of these pharmaceuticals."

###

The Journal of Leukocyte Biology (http://www.jleukbio.org) publishes peer-reviewed manuscripts on original investigations focusing on the cellular and molecular biology of leukocytes and on the origins, the developmental biology, biochemistry and functions of granulocytes, lymphocytes, mononuclear phagocytes and other cells involved in host defense and inflammation. The Journal of Leukocyte Biology is published by the Society for Leukocyte Biology.

File-sharing software potential threat to health privacy

2010-03-01T09:33:00.001-06:00

Obama is all wrong on this one. I don't want my medical records stored and transferred electronically.

Public release date: 1-Mar-2010
Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute

File-sharing software potential threat to health privacy

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-03/choe-fss030110.php

OTTAWA – The personal health and financial information stored in thousands of North American home computers may be vulnerable to theft through file-sharing software, according to a research study published online today in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association.

Healthcare professionals who take patient information home to personal computers containing peer-to-peer file-sharing software are jeopardizing patient confidentiality, note the authors of the study titled The Inadvertent Disclosure of Personal Health Information through Peer-to-peer File Sharing Programs.

"Computer users may be unaware that sensitive information in their personal files on their personal computers can be exposed to other users, because some vendors use software containing dangerous sharing features," says Prof. Khaled El Emam, Canada Research Chair in Electronic Health Information and lead author of the study.

El Emam's CHEO team used popular file sharing software to gain access to documents they downloaded from a representative sample of IP addresses. They were able to access the personal and identifying health and financial information of individuals in Canada and the United States. The research for the study was approved by the CHEO ethics board.

The study is the first of its kind to empirically estimate the extent to which personal health information is disclosed through file-sharing applications.

North Americans use file-sharing software such as Limewire, BitTorrent and Kazaa primarily to share and access music, videos, and pornography.

During their research on this project, El Emam said he and his colleagues found evidence of outsiders actively searching for files that contain private health and financial data. "There is no obvious innocent reason why anyone would be looking for this kind of information," stated El Emam. "Very simple search terms were quite effective in returning sensitive documents."

Most Canadians would be better off not using file-sharing tools if they want to protect their sensitive information. "Trying to use the programs' own privacy safeguards requires considerable information technology expertise," add Dr. El Emam.

Only a small proportion of the IP addresses the researchers examined contained personal health information, but since tens of millions of people use peer-to-peer file sharing applications in North America, that percentage translates into tens of thousands of computers.

The security of financial information has gained more public attention, and researchers did find that a higher percentage of downloaded files contained personal financial information. But as the United States and Canada move towards more digitization of health records, ensuring the privacy of health information is becoming a hot button issue.

A sample of the private health information the CHEO team was able to find by entering simple search terms in file-sharing software:

an authorization for medical care document that listed an individual's Ontario Health Insurance card number, birth date, phone number and details of other insurance plans;
a teenage girl's medical authorization that included family name, phone numbers, date of birth, social security number and medical history, including current medications;
several documents created by individuals listing all their bank details, including account and PIN numbers, passwords and credit card numbers.

The study, financed by the Canada Research Chairs program, includes recommendations for managing risks when using file-sharing software.

###

About Dr. Khaled El Emam: Dr. El Emam, Associate Professor, Faculty of Medicine and the School of Information Technology and Engineering, University of Ottawa, is a senior scientist and Principal Investigator at the Electronic Health Information Laboratory at the CHEO Research Institute.

About the CHEO Research Institute: Established in 1984, the CHEO Research Institute coordinates the research activities of the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) and is one of the institutes associated with the University of Ottawa Teaching Hospitals. The Research Institute brings together health professionals from within CHEO to share their efforts in solving paediatric health problems. It also promotes collaborative research outside the hospital with partners from the immediate community, industry and the international scientific world.

Newborns' blood in Tx. used to build secret DNA database for the military

2010-02-25T14:40:00.001-06:00

I blame it on Bush, both of them. They are both pretty damned wicked and atrocious, worthless human beings.

Bush Signs Bill To Take All Newborns' DNA

Infowars.net. Friday, May 2, 2008. President Bush last week signed into law a bill which will see the federal government begin to screen the DNA ...
www.infowars.com/bush-signs-bill-to-take-all-newborns-dna - 185k - Cached

Suit possible over baby DNA sent to military lab for national database

State says blood specimens were sent for research that will help identify missing persons.

By Mary Ann Roser

AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

Published: 8:55 p.m. Monday, Feb. 22, 2010

http://www.statesman.com/news/texas-politics/suit-possible-over-baby-dna-sent-to-military-268714.html?printArticle=y

An Austin lawyer threatened to pursue a new federal lawsuit Monday after learning that some newborn blood samples in Texas went to the U.S. military for potential use in a database for law enforcement purposes.

The Department of State Health Services never mentioned the database to Jim Harrington, director of the Texas Civil Rights Project, who settled a lawsuit in December with the state over the indefinite storage of newborn blood without parental consent, or to the American-Statesman, which first reported on the little-known blood storage practice last spring. Harrington said he thought another suit was likely unless the health department destroys the information obtained from the blood samples or obtains consent.

"This is the worst case of bad faith I have dealt with as a lawyer," he said Monday.

Jerry Strickland, a spokesman for the Texas attorney general's office, which represented the health department, fired back. "During this litigation, Harrington was provided accurate answers to the questions he asked," he said.

"Once Harrington negotiated $26,000 in attorneys' fees and costs for himself, accepted a settlement agreement and got his desired headlines, he was satisfied and dropped his

lawsuit against DSHS. It appears recent media reports caused Harrington to backtrack in an effort to obscure how he chose to handle this case," he said

An article Monday by the Texas Tribune, a news Web site, said the state health department sent 800 anonymous samples to the military to help create a national mitochondrial DNA database. The samples were sent in 2003 and 2007, according to the department's Web site.

Carrie Williams, a health department spokeswoman, said the program wasn't mentioned because, "We don't publicize every agency initiative or contract, and obviously this is a sensitive topic."

Texas agreed to take part in the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory database project because blood spots might help identify "ethnic or ancestral origins of unidentified corpses using mitochondrial DNA," Williams said. "We believed it was an important research project that could potentially help in missing persons cases."

The blood samples are taken from the heel during newborn screening tests for genetic disorders.

The blood spots are collected on coded cards, with the names matching those codes kept on file at the health department. Names are not disclosed without parental consent, the department says.

In March, Harrington sued in federal court on behalf of four parents and a pregnant woman who later dropped out, claiming that the state's collection and indefinite storage of the samples since 2002 amounted to "an unlawful search and seizure."

The Legislature approved a law in May that requires medical professionals to inform parents or guardians that the blood spots are being collected, stored and could be used for research. Parents who object could opt out.

In December, Harrington settled his suit when the health department agreed to destroy 5.3 million samples.

"I can't tell you how many times we sat there, and they said no law enforcement," Harrington said of the lawsuit discussions. "They said, 'It's only about medical research, it's only about medical research.'\u2009"

Williams said the project has been listed on the Web site for weeks and "falls under the broader category of public health research."

"Our intentions over the years have been good," she added, "and we are moving forward with the positive changes to the program."

Why BPA leached from 'safe' plastics may damage health of female offspring

2010-02-25T08:48:00.001-06:00

Public release date: 25-Feb-2010
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-02/foas-wbl022510.php

Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology

Why BPA leached from 'safe' plastics may damage health of female offspring

Yale scientists show how bisphenol A induces epigenetic changes in pregnant mice that cause hormonal imbalance in the later life of female progeny

Here's more evidence that "safe" plastics are not as safe as once presumed: New research published online in The FASEB Journal (http://www.fasebj.org) suggests that exposure to Bisphenol A (BPA) during pregnancy leads to epigenetic changes that may cause permanent reproduction problems for female offspring. BPA, a common component of plastics used to contain food, is a type of estrogen that is ubiquitous in the environment.

"Exposure to BPA may be harmful during pregnancy; this exposure may permanently affect the fetus," said Hugh S. Taylor, Ph.D., co-author of the study from Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut. "We need to better identify the effects of environmental contaminants on not just crude measures such as birth defects, but also their effect in causing more subtle developmental errors."

Taylor and colleagues made this discovery by exposing fetal mice to BPA during pregnancy and examining gene expression and DNA in the uteruses of female fetuses. Results showed that BPA exposure permanently affected the uterus by decreasing regulation of gene expression. These epigenetic changes caused the mice to over-respond to estrogen throughout adulthood, long after the BPA exposure. This suggests that early exposure to BPA genetically "programmed" the uterus to be hyper-responsive to estrogen. Extreme estrogen sensitivity can lead to fertility problems, advanced puberty, altered mammary development and reproductive function, as well as a variety of hormone-related cancers. BPA has been widely used in plastics and other materials. Examples include use in water bottles, baby bottles, epoxy resins used to coat food cans, and dental sealants.

"The BPA baby bottle scare may be only the tip of the iceberg." said Gerald Weissmann, M.D., Editor-in-Chief of The FASEB Journal. "Remember how diethylstilbestrol (DES) caused birth defects and cancers in young women whose mothers were given such hormones during pregnancy. We'd better watch out for BPA, which seems to carry similar epigenetic risks across the generations. "

###

Receive monthly highlights from The FASEB Journal by e-mail. Sign up at http://www.faseb.org/fjupdate.aspx. The FASEB Journal (http://www.fasebj.org) is published by the Federation of the American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB). The journal has been recognized by the Special Libraries Association as one of the top 100 most influential biomedical journals of the past century and is the most cited biology journal worldwide according to the Institute for Scientific Information.

FASEB comprises 23 societies with more than 90,000 members, making it the largest coalition of biomedical research associations in the United States. FASEB enhances the ability of scientists and engineers to improve—through their research—the health, well-being and productivity of all people. FASEB's mission is to advance health and welfare by promoting progress and education in biological and biomedical sciences through service to our member societies and collaborative advocacy.

Details: Jason G. Bromer, Yuping Zhou, Melissa B. Taylor, Leo Doherty, and Hugh S. Taylor. Bisphenol-A exposure in utero leads to epigenetic alterations in the developmental programming of uterine estrogen response. FASEB J (http://www.fasebj.org) doi:10.1096/fj.09-140533 http://www.fasebj.org/cgi/content/abstract/fj.09-140533v1

Another Interesting Link

2010-02-25T08:09:00.001-06:00

http://www.kavlifoundation.org/kavli-news

Cell Phone Tracking: The New Constitutional Crisis

2010-02-24T19:59:00.001-06:00

Cell Phone Tracking: The New Constitutional Crisis

Wednesday 24 February 2010

http://www.truthout.org/cell-phone-tracking-the-new-constitutional-crisis57152

by: William Fisher, t r u t h o u t | Report

If you own a cell phone, you should care about the outcome of a court case that "could well decide whether the government can use your cell phone to track you - even if it hasn't shown probable cause to believe it will turn up evidence of a crime."

Also See: A Snitch in Your Pocket

That was the warning issued to the public by several major civil liberties organizations as they appeared in federal court in Philadelphia to argue for more privacy protections in the use of cell phones as tracking devices by law enforcement agents.

The case is at the heart of the constitutional crisis now being played out in the US federal court. Civil liberties groups are asking the court to require that the government show probable cause before it can track your whereabouts.

The groups are the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the ACLU of Pennsylvania, and the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT).

Back in 2007, the US government applied for court permission to obtain information about the location of an individual's cell phone, without showing probable cause that tracking the individual would turn up evidence of a crime. A magistrate judge denied the government's request and a district court upheld that decision in September 2008. The government is appealing the ruling in the US Court of Appeals.

A number of civil liberties groups, on behalf of plaintiffs in the case, filed a friend-of-the-court brief in support of the district court decision, arguing that district courts must require the government to show probable cause before permitting the government to obtain information about the location of a cell phone.

The appeals court will decide whether government agencies in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware must show probable cause before tracking people's cell phone locations.

EFF explains that, although most people don't realize it, cell phones double as tracking devices. "Newer phones contain GPS chips, the same technology that allows car navigation systems to know where you are and give you driving directions. But even older phones that don't have chips can be tracked by knowing the location of the cell towers they use to connect to a network," the group said, adding, "There's no question that cell phones and cell-phone records can be useful for police officers who need to track the movements of those they believe to be breaking the law. And it is important for law enforcement agents to have the tools they need to stop crimes. However, it is just as important to make sure such tools are used responsibly, in a manner that safeguards our personal privacy."

And Professor Francis A. Boyle of the University of Illinois law school told us, "This practice violates the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution: 'no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched....' The Bush administration reduced the Fourth Amendment to nothing more than a Potemkin Village of rights. It exists on paper alone. And a pusillanimous Congress has gone along with shredding the entirety of the US Bill of Rights."

He added, "President Obama, the former constitutional law professor, is actively defending in court every hideous atrocity that the Bush administration inflicted upon the Bill of Rights, civil rights, civil liberties, human rights, international law and the United States Constitution with the acquiescence and/or approval of Congress."

This issue gained national attention during last year's gubernatorial race in New Jersey. Documents turned over in EFF's lawsuit revealed that "the US Attorney's Office - under Chris Christie, now the governor - was tracking cell phones without probable cause, in violation of a Justice Department recommendation," EFF said.

The decision reached by the Philadelphia-based 3rd Circuit US Court of Appeals will not only bind federal courts throughout Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware. It will also be a key source of guidance to courts around the country as they grapple with this issue.

The plaintiffs in the court case hope the court will "send a message that merely carrying a cell phone should not make people more susceptible to government surveillance."

They add, "No one wants to feel as if a government agent is following her wherever she goes - be it a friend's house, a place of worship, or a therapist's office - and innocent Americans shouldn't have to feel that way."

The government has argued that "One who does not wish to disclose his movements to the government need not use a cellular telephone." But the civil liberties groups say this is "a startling and dismaying statement coming from the United States. The government is supposed to care about people's privacy. It should not be forcing the nation's 277 million cell-phone subscribers to choose between risking being tracked and going without an essential communications tool."

The case has drawn considerable national attention. One of the country's foremost investigative journalists, Michael Isikoff of Newsweek, addressed the issue in a recent edition of the magazine.

He wrote, "Law enforcement is tracking Americans' cell phones in real time - without the benefit of a warrant. Amid all the furor over the Bush administration's warrantless wiretapping program a few years ago, a mini-revolt was brewing over another type of federal snooping that was getting no public attention at all.

"Federal prosecutors were seeking what seemed to be unusually sensitive records: internal data from telecommunications companies that showed the locations of their customers' cell phones - sometimes in real time, sometimes after the fact. The prosecutors said they needed the records to trace the movements of suspected drug traffickers, human smugglers, even corrupt public officials. But many federal magistrates - whose job is to sign off on search warrants and handle other routine court duties - were spooked by the requests. Some in New York, Pennsylvania and Texas balked," he wrote.

"Prosecutors 'were using the cell phone as a surreptitious tracking device," said Stephen W. Smith, a federal magistrate in Houston. "And I started asking the US Attorney's Office, 'What is the legal authority for this? What is the legal standard for getting this information?' Those questions are now at the core of a constitutional clash between President Obama's Justice Department and civil libertarians alarmed by what they see as the government's relentless intrusion into the private lives of citizens."

Two years ago, a US magistrate in Pittsburgh ruled that the data they were seeking could easily be misused to collect information about sexual liaisons and other matters of an "extremely personal" nature.

In federal appeals court last week, a Justice Department lawyer urged the judges to overturn the magistrate's ruling. They claimed the government was seeking "routine business records."

But after one of the judges said there were some governments, like Iran's, that would like to use such records to identify political protesters, she asked whether the "government can assure us" that the Justice Department would never collect cell-phone data for this kind of use in the US.

The government lawyer grudgingly acknowledged that such data "could be used constitutionally."

This work by Truthout is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.

Word is spreading about impossibility of WTC 7 building being destroyed solely by fire

2010-02-24T09:00:00.000-06:00

Inside the Beltway

Jennifer Harper INSIDE THE BELTWAY

EXPLOSIVE NEWS

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/feb/22/inside-the-beltway-70128635/?feat=home_columns

A lingering technical question about the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks still haunts some, and it has political implications: How did 200,000 tons of steel disintegrate and drop in 11 seconds? A thousand architects and engineers want to know, and are calling on Congress to order a new investigation into the destruction of the Twin Towers and Building 7 at the World Trade Center.

"In order to bring down this kind of mass in such a short period of time, the material must have been artificially, exploded outwards," says Richard Gage, a San Francisco architect and founder of the nonprofit Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth.

Mr. Gage, who is a member of the American Institute of Architects, managed to persuade more than 1,000 of his peers to sign a new petition requesting a formal inquiry.

"The official Federal Emergency Management [Agency] and National Institute of Standards and Technology reports provide insufficient, contradictory and fraudulent accounts of the circumstances of the towers' destruction. We are therefore calling for a grand jury investigation of NIST officials," Mr. Gage adds.

The technical issues surrounding the collapse of the towers has prompted years of debate, rebuttal and ridicule.

He is particularly disturbed by Building 7, a 47-story skyscraper, which was not hit by an aircraft, yet came down in "pure free-fall acceleration." He also says that more than 100 first-responders reported explosions and flashes as the towers were falling and cited evidence of "multi-ton steel sections ejected laterally 600 ft. at 60 mph" and the "mid-air pulverization of 90,000 tons of concrete & metal decking."

There is also evidence of "advanced explosive nano-thermitic composite material found in the World Trade Center dust," Mr. Gage says. The group's petition at www. ae911truth.org is already on its way to members of Congress.

"Government officials will be notified that 'Misprision of Treason,' U.S. Code 18 (Sec. 2382), is a serious federal offense, which requires those with evidence of treason to act," Mr. Gage says. "The implications are enormous and may have profound impact on the forthcoming Khalid Shaikh Mohammed trial."

Stay tuned for more in this space.

FDA Studying 27 Drugs, Drug Classes for Potential Safety Issues

2010-02-22T12:57:00.000-06:00

From Medscape Medical News

FDA Studying 27 Drugs, Drug Classes for Potential Safety Issues

Robert Lowes

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/717321

February 20, 2010 — Twenty-seven drugs and drug categories have landed on the watch list of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) based on potential signs of serious risks or new safety information identified in the agency's Adverse Event Reporting System (AERS) last year.

The key word here is potential. The FDA states that the appearance of a drug on the AERS list does not mean that the agency has determined that the drug actually poses the listed risk. While the FDA evaluates whether there is a casual relationship between a listed drug and a possible risk, it is not suggesting that physicians stop prescribing these drugs, or that patients stop taking them.

Drugs coming under surveillance include oseltamivir (Tamiflu), used to treat influenza, and cisplatin (Platinol), a staple in cancer chemotherapy. Oseltamivir made the list due to reports of hypothermia, while cisplatin is there based on reports of leukoencephalopathy.

Yet another chemotherapy agent on the watch list is imatinib mesylate (Gleevec). The FDA will evaluate whether hearing disorders and hearing loss are possible adverse effects.

In the case of dexlansoprazole (Kapidex), prescribed for gastroesophageal reflux disease and erosive esophagitis, the possible problem is alphabetical in nature. FDA is wondering if physicians and patients are confusing the brand name Kapidex with Casodex, the brand name for the prostate cancer drug bicalutamide.

Some Safety Issues Have Already Been Addressed

The 27 drugs and drug categories appear on quarterly reports generated by AERS for the second and third quarters of 2009; the reports were made public on Wednesday. AERS is a database for adverse drug events and medication errors reported by clinicians, patients, drug manufacturers, and others.

Because the reports cover the second and third quarters of 2009, the FDA and drug manufacturers have had time since then to address some of the possible safety issues. For example, the antihypertensive agent aliskiren (Tekturna and Tekturna HCT) surfaced in AERS because of reports of angioedema so severe that it required intubation. In November, the warnings and precautions section of aliskiren's labeling was revised to include angioedema as a possible adverse effect.

Potential Signals of Serious Risks/New Safety Information Identified by AERS, Second Quarter 2009

Product Name: Active Ingredient (Brand Name) or Product Class	Potential Signal of a Serious Risk/New Safety Information	Additional Information as of December 31, 2009
Aliskiren (Tekturna, Tekturna HCT)	Angioedema requiring intubation	FDA approved Valturna (an aliskiren-containing product) on September 16, 2009. Risk for angioedema was included in the Warnings and Precautions section of the labeling for Valturna. The Warnings and Precautions section of the labeling for Tekturna was updated in November 2009 to include angioedema requiring intubation.
Antipsychotics	Agranulocytosis	FDA has requested class labeling to add agranulocytosis to the Precautions section of the labeling for all antipsychotics. Refer to the July 2009 Drug Safety Labeling Changes summary page, listing products with "labeling for the entire class of antipsychotic drugs," on the MedWatch Web site.
Bumetanide (Bumex)	Serious skin reactions (Stevens-Johnson Syndrome, toxic epidermal necrosis)	FDA is continuing to evaluate this issue to determine the need for any regulatory action.
Cisplatin (Platinol)	Leukoencephalopathy	Under FDA study
Deferasirox (Exjade)	Deaths	FDA issued an Early Communication about an Ongoing Safety Review on this issue in September 2009. FDA Issues Early Communication Regarding Deferasirox Safety in MDS, Sept. 2009 New Boxed Warning for Deferasirox, Feb. 2010 Under FDA study
Gabapentin (Neurontin)	Drug reaction with eosinophilia and systemic symptoms (DRESS)	Under FDA study
Imatinib mesylate (Gleevec)	Hearing disorders and hearing loss	Under FDA study
Immunosuppressants (transplant)	BK virus nephropathy	An FDA alert was issued in July 2009 about labeling changes for immunosuppressant drugs for this event. FDA Adds Infection Warnings to Immunosuppressant Labels
Natalizumab (Tysabri)	Herpes virus infections	FDA evaluated case reports in AERS and determined that the current labeling, which addresses herpes virus infections in the Warnings and Precautions and Adverse Reactions sections of the labeling, is adequate.
Natalizumab (Tysabri)	Pericarditis	Under FDA study
Oseltamivir phosphate (Tamiflu)	Hypothermia	Under FDA study
Riluzole (Rilutek)	Interstitial lung disease	The Warnings section of the labeling was updated November 2009 to include interstitial lung disease.
Simvastatin (Zocor) and Diltiazem (Cardizem)	Myopathy due to drug interaction	FDA is evaluating this issue to determine if simvastatin labeling, which includes myopathy, is adequate.
Ticlopidine	Disseminated intravascular coagulopathy	Under FDA study

Potential Signals of Serious Risks/New Safety Information Identified by AERS, Third Quarter 2009

Product Name: Active Ingredient (Brand Name) or Product Class	Potential Signal of a Serious Risk/New Safety Information	Additional Information as of December 31, 2009
Alvimopan (Entereg)	Gastrointestinal perforation	FDA is studying this issue to determine the need for regulatory action
Bendamustine (Treanda)	Infusion site extravasation	Under FDA study
Dexlansoprazole (Kapidex)	Name confusion with Casodex	The FDA/CDER medication error division works closely with the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) on some issues. Both FDA and ISMP have been evaluating this issue. The ISMP discussion of the issue is available on the ISMP Web site.
Doripenem (Doribax)	Seizure events, hepatic events, thrombocytopenia, serious skin reactions	Under FDA study
Enoxaparin (Lovenox)	Catheter thrombosis, splenic rupture	Under FDA study
HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors (Statins)	Cognitive effects	Under FDA study
Lamotrigine (Lamictal)	Central nervous system infection, aseptic meningitis	Under FDA study
Neuromuscular blocking agents	Anaphylactic reactions and potential for cross-reactivity	Under FDA study
Ramipril (Altace)	Angioedema (requiring intubation)	Under FDA study
Sirolimus (Rapamune)	Progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML)	Under FDA study
Tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha blockers	Demyelinating neuropathy	Under FDA study
Valsartan-containing products	Angioedema (requiring intubation)	Under FDA study
Zonisamide (Zonegran)	Rhabdomyolysis, pancreatitis	Under FDA study

[CLOSE WINDOW]

Authors and Disclosures

Journalist

Robert Lowes

Freelance writer, St. Louis, Missouri

Disclosure: Robert L. Lowes has disclosed no relevant financial relationships.

Found an intereting site about teas

2010-02-22T12:22:00.001-06:00

I love drinking teas.
Teas have become my latest passion for the inantimates.

http://www.allabouttea.co.uk/tea-news/

Climate scientists withdraw journal claims of rising sea levels

2010-02-22T12:09:00.001-06:00

Climate scientists withdraw journal claims of rising sea levels

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/feb/21/sea-level-geoscience-retract-siddall

Study claimed in 2009 that sea levels would rise by up to 82cm by the end of century – but the report's author now says true estimate is still unknown

• Read the full story of the hacked climate emails
• Jeffrey Sachs: Sceptics recycle anti-tobacco control arguments

David Adam
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 21 February 2010 18.00 GMT
Article history

The Maldives is likely to become submerged if the current pace of climate change continues to raise sea levels. Photograph: Reinhard Krause/Reuters

Scientists have been forced to withdraw a study on projected sea level rise due to global warming after finding mistakes that undermined the findings.

The study, published in 2009 in Nature Geoscience, one of the top journals in its field, confirmed the conclusions of the 2007 report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). It used data over the last 22,000 years to predict that sea level would rise by between 7cm and 82cm by the end of the century.

At the time, Mark Siddall, from the Earth Sciences Department at the University of Bristol, said the study "strengthens the confidence with which one may interpret the IPCC results". The IPCC said that sea level would probably rise by 18cm-59cm by 2100, though stressed this was based on incomplete information about ice sheet melting and that the true rise could be higher.

Many scientists criticised the IPCC approach as too conservative, and several papers since have suggested that sea level could rise more. Martin Vermeer of the Helsinki University of Technology, Finland and Stefan Rahmstorf of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany published a study in December that projected a rise of 0.75m to 1.9m by 2100.

Siddall said that he did not know whether the retracted paper's estimate of sea level rise was an overestimate or an underestimate.

Announcing the formal retraction of the paper from the journal, Siddall said: "It's one of those things that happens. People make mistakes and mistakes happen in science." He said there were two separate technical mistakes in the paper, which were pointed out by other scientists after it was published. A formal retraction was required, rather than a correction, because the errors undermined the study's conclusion.

"Retraction is a regular part of the publication process," he said. "Science is a complicated game and there are set procedures in place that act as checks and balances."

Nature Publishing Group, which publishes Nature Geoscience, said this was the first paper retracted from the journal since it was launched in 2007.

The paper – entitled "Constraints on future sea-level rise from past sea-level change" – used fossil coral data and temperature records derived from ice-core measurements to reconstruct how sea level has fluctuated with temperature since the peak of the last ice age, and to project how it would rise with warming over the next few decades.

In a statement the authors of the paper said: "Since publication of our paper we have become aware of two mistakes which impact the detailed estimation of future sea level rise. This means that we can no longer draw firm conclusions regarding 21st century sea level rise from this study without further work.

"One mistake was a miscalculation; the other was not to allow fully for temperature change over the past 2,000 years. Because of these issues we have retracted the paper and will now invest in the further work needed to correct these mistakes."

In the Nature Geoscience retraction, in which Siddall and his colleagues explain their errors, Vermeer and Rahmstorf are thanked for "bringing these issues to our attention".

Green Tea Prevents Eye Disease.

2010-02-22T12:03:00.001-06:00

Green Tea and Eye Disease

By Phillip Hogan

http://www.allabouttea.co.uk/tea-news/green-tea-and-eye-disease/223819
February 22nd, 2010
Posted in Health

Substances found in green tea could help fight eye disease, according to authors of the latest research from the University of Hong Kong.

Scientists from the department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences at the University of Hong Kong have confirmed that substances found in green tea do penetrate into the tissues of the eye, a fact previously unknown as scientists were unsure if catechins, which are antioxidants thought to protect the body against damage from oxygen, could make their way from the mouth to the gastrointestinal system to the eyes.

The article, which is featured in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, is the first of its kind to document how the lens, retina and other tissues within the eyes absorb beneficial substances such as catechins. The research within the study raises the possibility that among green tea's long list of already documented health benefits that it might also help to protect against common eye diseases such as glaucoma.

Catechins contained within green tea, as well as other antioxidants such as vitamin C and E, lutein and zeaxanthin have long been linked with having the capability of protecting the eye from disease, but lack of research has, until now, left this thought unproven.

The study was conducted using laboratory rats that were fed green tea over a period of time. Subsequent dissection and analysis of the rats' eye tissue showed significant absorption of individual catechins into various structures of the eye. The retina was seen to absorb the highest levels of gallocatechin, with the aqueous humor absorbing epigallocatechin.

The authors of the research stated that their 'results indicate that green tea consumption could benefit the eye against oxidative stress'. The effect of the green tea catechins on the laboratory rats was a reduction in harmful oxidative stress in the eye, which lasted up to twenty hours.

Research:
Pang et al. Green Tea Catechins and Their Oxidative Protection in the Rat Eye. J. Agric. Food Chem., 2010, 58 (3), pp 1523–1534. DOI: 10.1021/jf9032602

Corp Watch: Asia Inhales While the West Bans the Deadly Carcinogen

2010-02-19T11:08:00.001-06:00

WHAT'S NEW ON CORPWATCH: Holding Corporations Accountable
http://www.corpwatch.org/donate

CorpWatch Community Portal: http://community.corpwatch.org
***************************************************

WHAT'S NEW ON CORPWATCH: Holding Corporations Accountable
http://www.corpwatch.org/donate

CorpWatch Community Portal: http://community.corpwatch.org
***************************************************

Asia Inhales While the West Bans the Deadly Carcinogen
by Melody Kemp, Special to CorpWatch, February 16th, 2010

Asbestos, a known carcinogen, causes 100,000 occupational deaths per year,
according to Medical News Today. Although it is banned in much of the
world, asbestos is a common and dangerous building block in much of Asia's
development boom and its export remains both legal and profitable.
Asbestos merchants, disputing World Health Organization (WHO) data and
overwhelming scientific evidence, still claim that it is safe to use.
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=15529

Agility Attempts to Vault Fraud Charges
by Pratap Chatterjee, Special to CorpWatch*, February 1st, 2010

Agility, a Kuwait-based multi-billion dollar logistics company spawned by
the U.S. invasion of Iraq, is facing criminal charges for over-billing the
U.S. taxpayer on more than $8.5 billion worth of food supply contracts in
the Iraq war zone. If the lawsuit, scheduled for February 8, is
successful, the company could owe the U.S. government as much as
$1billion.
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=15513

http://twitter.com/corpwatch
http://twitter.com/crocodyl
http://www.facebook.com/pages/CorpWatch/23166336951

FEATURED CROCODYL.ORG PROFILE:

Toyota Motor
http://www.crocodyl.org/wiki/toyota_motor

IN THE NEWS:

WAR & DISASTER PROFITEERING

INDIA: Top Defense Firms Vie to Feed Indian Arms Appetite
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=15528

US: Blackwater accused of defrauding US government
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=15525

IRAQ: Government orders ex-Blackwater contractors out
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=15522

UK: BAE broke bribery pledge, faked US arms-export applications
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=15518

FINANCE/BANKING

US: Tax Evasion Case Draws in Another Bank
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=15523

FOOD & AGRICULTURE

INDIA: A hungry India balks at genetically modified crops
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=15527

CONSUMER SAFETY

US: Regulators Step Up Toyota Probe
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=15524

TECHNOLOGY AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS

US: Google to enlist NSA to help it ward off cyberattacks
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=15526

ENERGY

AFGHANISTAN: Iraq Lessons Ignored at Kabul Power Plant
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=15519

RECENT BLOGS:

Inspector General reports confirm CorpWatch story on Afghan power plant
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=15521

Global Compact participant wins Survival Greenwashing Award 2010
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=15520

DONATE - Keep the CorpWatch and Crocodyl websites ad-free! (Thank you)
Your ongoing readership and support ensures that we can continue to
investigate many of these situations, providing solidly researched
information to help power our movements and inform our citizenries.
Together our efforts increase the impacts of the many around the world
fighting for corporate accountability, justice and transparency.

Please consider a donation of $5, $10, $35, $100, $250 or more in support
of our work:

http://www.corpwatch.org/donate

Determination, courage, and self-confidence are the key factors in success. In spite of obstacles and difficulties, if we have firm determination, we can work them out. Whatever the circumstances, we should remain humble, modest and without pride. -- Dalai Lama

U.S. government wants farmers to spread toxic powder from coal plant scrubbers on their food crop fields

2010-02-19T10:24:00.001-06:00

U.S. government wants farmers to spread toxic powder from coal plant scrubbers on their food crop fields
by Ethan A. Huff, staff writer
http://www.naturalnews.com/z028200_food_crops_fertilizer.html

(NaturalNews) The federal government is pushing farmers to use a toxic byproduct of the coal burning industry to fertilize and loosen the soil in their crop fields. Initiated under the Bush administration as a beneficial use for the substance, efforts by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) in conjunction with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) continue to advocate for the widespread use of synthetic gypsum in agriculture.

Called flue gas desulfurization gypsum, or FGD gypsum, this synthetic powder is produced by coal plant "scrubbers" that remove sulfur dioxide from plant emissions. Sulfur dioxide is the chemical that causes acid rain to occur. FGD gypsum is a white, powdery substance that some believe will help to enrich crop field soil.

The current administration has been pushing for the agricultural use of FGD gypsum despite the fact that it is known to contain toxic heavy metals such as lead, mercury, and arsenic. According to the EPA, the mercury contained in FGD gypsum does not affect plants and runoff into water supplies at "significant" levels. As far as the other heavy metals are concerned, the EPA is holding to the mantra that the levels are minute, contending that using in in crop fields is perfectly safe.

Last year, a coal ash pond just outside of Knoxville, Tennessee, spilled, flooding about 300 acres of land with ash and killing many fish in the area. The spill damaged many homes as well and cleanup costs are expected to be upwards of $1 billion. This catastrophe has prompted the EPA to draft regulations on how to handle toxic coal waste safely.

The EPA would not comment, however, about its support for FGD gypsum in agricultural use in light of the spill and the damage it caused. If the waste from coal plants is toxic and must be dealt with in a manner that keeps it contained, many are wondering why the EPA would promote the same waste for use on crops.

In 2001, the USDA partnered with the EPA to promote FGD gypsum use. Since that time, the amount of the substance used by farmers on their fields has triple. According to the American Coal Ash Association (ACAA), nearly 280,000 tons of the byproduct was spread on fields last year.

Thomas Adams, executive director of the ACAA indicated that almost nine million tons of the roughly 18 million tons of FGD gypsum produced last year was used to make drywall. He believes that finding new ways to recycle the substance is preferable to dumping it in landfills.

Sources for this story include: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dy...
Determination, courage, and self-confidence are the key factors in success. In spite of obstacles and difficulties, if we have firm determination, we can work them out. Whatever the circumstances, we should remain humble, modest and without pride. -- Dalai Lama

TELL SOMEBODY !!!!

2010-02-19T10:15:00.001-06:00

These two aren't real fond of the GOP and they don't like the Dims either, ... mirroring the majority of this country at the current time.

Tue, 9 February 2010
The Bob & Ray Show

http://tellsomebody.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=582576

The February 9 edition of the show featured the Bob and Ray Show. Former CIA analyst and Presidential daily briefer Ray McGovern returned to the Tell Somebody phone, and this time he brought Robert Parry on the line with him. Robert Parry has covered Washington for more than three decades and led the way in exposing the Iran-Contra scandal in the 1980's. Ray McGovern has been publishing his articles on Parry's http://www.consortiumnews.com/ for several years and now Bob and Ray have teamed up as a powerful speaking duo.

Right click on the .mp3 filename below and choose "save target as" to save the audio file to your computer.

Tom Klammer mail@tellsomebody.us
Direct download: tellsomebody100209.mp3
Category: podcasts -- posted at: 8:36 AM

Rise of sexual predators in energy boomtowns highlights social problems

2010-02-19T09:31:00.001-06:00

Public release date: 19-Feb-2010
Wiley-Blackwell

Rise of sexual predators in energy boomtowns highlights social problems

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-02/w-ros021610.php

Research into the social and environmental effects on communities that are economically dependent on oil and gas industries has revealed "social dysfunction and biological impoverishment." The research, published inConservation Biology, revealed that over a nine year period the number of registered sex offenders in energy 'boomtowns' was two to three times higher than towns dependent on other industries.

The research, carried out by Dr Joel Berger and Dr Jon P. Beckmann, analysed communities in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE) in Wyoming USA, an area often referred to as the largest intact ecosystem in Earth's temperate zone. Many towns across the area are dependent on energy extraction, while others are dependent on agriculture and tourism. The authors assessed whether social and environmental issues are related to the industries that dominate these boomtowns.

"In the past few years it has become clear that the development of wide-scale energy projects takes both social and environmental tolls," said Berger from the University of Montana and Wildlife Conservation Society. "Our research identified societal markers to reveal the negative elements associated with changing human economies and to gauge changes in both community composition and services. One of these markers was the increase in sexual predators."

Through nine local county attorney's offices the authors were able to study the number of registered sexual offenders, defined as convicted felons that are required by law to register with legal authorities, across the Greater Yellowstone area.

The research revealed that over a nine year period the number of sexual offenders grew by two to three times more in areas dependent on oil extraction than in similar areas dependent on agriculture or tourism.

In 2008 there were 300% more sexual offenders in the GYE than in 1997 when the US Sex Offenders Registry became law. The number of sex offenders increased most rapidly in counties dominated by oil and gas extraction.

"The absolute and relative frequency of registered sexual offenders grew faster in areas reliant on energy extraction," Berger confirmed. "This is a severe symptom of the social problems faced by these communities. These problems, coupled with a parallel rise in ecological destruction, fit a pattern which has been reflected consistently around energy boomtowns from Ecuador to northern Canada."

"This is not to say that the arrival of the energy industry into a community directly leads to sexual predation. Rather it is symptomatic of wider social and economic issues which communities face when they become dependent on the rise and fall of these industries," said Beckmann from the Wildlife Conservation Society. "Our findings underscore an increase in sexual predators as a result of the dramatic social upheaval caused when a large influx of people are attracted to energy boomtowns due to high rates of employment and high salaries."

Other symptoms of social change seen in energy boomtowns across the western United States include the use of illicit drugs, domestic violence, wildlife poaching and a general rise in crime. The research suggests that these changes occur because of the differences between the traditional rural residents and the incoming workforce.

The link between these social issues and environmental change has led to the rise of unlikely alliances as social advocates and state agencies have banded together across the area to conserve the potential for traditional rural lifestyles.

"Our findings suggest that the public and industry need stronger regulatory action to instil greater vigilance in areas which face ecological, economic and social problems, due to dependence on the energy industry," concluded Berger.

###

Big Pharma researcher admits to faking dozens of research studies for Pfizer, Merck

2010-02-17T21:29:00.001-06:00

Big Pharma researcher admits to faking dozens of research studies for Pfizer, Merck (opinion)

by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
http://www.naturalnews.com/028194_Scott_Reuben_research_fraud.html

(NaturalNews) It's being called the largest research fraud in medical history. Dr. Scott Reuben, a former member of Pfizer's speakers' bureau, has agreed to plead guilty to faking dozens of research studies that were published in medical journals.

Now being reported across the mainstream media is the fact that Dr. Reuben accepted a $75,000 grant from Pfizer to study Celebrex in 2005. His research, which was published in a medical journal, has since been quoted by hundreds of other doctors and researchers as "proof" that Celebrex helped reduce pain during post-surgical recovery. There's only one problem with all this: No patients were ever enrolled in the study!

Dr. Scott Reuben, it turns out, faked the entire study and got it published anyway.

It wasn't the first study faked by Dr. Reuben: He also faked study data on Bextra and Vioxx drugs, reports the Wall Street Journal.

As a result of Dr. Reuben's faked studies, the peer-reviewed medical journal Anesthesia & Analgesia was forced to retract 10 "scientific" papers authored by Reuben. The Day of London reports that 21 articles written by Dr. Reuben that appear in medical journals have apparently been fabricated, too, and must be retracted.

After being caught fabricating research for Big Pharma, Dr. Reuben has reportedly signed a plea agreement that will require him to return $420,000 that he received from drug companies. He also faces up to a 10-year prison sentence and a $250,000 fine.

He was also fired from his job at the Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, Mass. after an internal audit there found that Dr. Reuben had been faking research data for 13 years. (http://www.theday.com/article/20100...)

Business as usual in Big Pharma

What's notable about this story is not the fact that a medical researcher faked clinical trials for the pharmaceutical industry. It's not the fact that so-called "scientific" medical journals published his fabricated studies. It's not even the fact that the drug companies paid this quack close to half a million dollars while he kept on pumping out fabricated research.

The real story here is that this is business as usual in the pharmaceutical industry.

Dr. Reuben's actions really aren't that extraordinary. Drug companies bribe researchers and doctors as a routine matter. Medical journals routinely publish false, fraudulent studies. FDA panel members regularly rely on falsified research in making their drug approval decisions, and the mainstream media regularly quotes falsified research in reporting the news.

Fraudulent research, in other words, is widespread in modern medicine. The pharmaceutical industry couldn't operate without it, actually. It is falsified research that gives the industry its best marketing claims and strongest FDA approvals. Quacks like Dr Scott Reuben are an important part of the pharmaceutical profit machine because without falsified research, bribery and corruption, the industry would have very little research at all.

Pay special attention to the fact that the Anesthesia & Analgesia medical journal gladly published Dr. Reuben's faked studies even though this journal claims to be a "scientific" medical journal based on peer review. Funny, isn't it, how such a scientific medical journal gladly publishes fraudulent research with data that was simply invented by the study author. Perhaps these medical journals should be moved out of the non-fiction section of university libraries and placed under science fiction.

Remember, too, that all the proponents of pharmaceuticals, vaccines and mammograms ignorantly claim that their conventional medicine is all based on "good science." It's all scientific and trustworthy, they claim, while accusing alternative medicine of being "woo woo" wishful thinking and non-scientific hype. Perhaps they should have a quick look in the mirror and realize it is their own system of quack medicine that's based largely on fraudulent research, bribery and corruption.

You just have to laugh, actually, when you hear pushers of vaccines and pharmaceuticals claim their medicine is "scientific" while natural medicine is "unproven." Sure it's scientific -- about as scientific as the storyline in a Scooby Doo cartoon, or as credible as the medical license of a six-year-old kid who just received a "let's play doctor" gift set for Christmas. Many pharmaceutical researchers would have better careers as writers of fiction novels rather than scientific papers.

For all those people who ignorantly claim that modern pharmaceutical science is based on "scientific evidence," just give them these three words: Doctor Scott Reuben.

Drug companies support fraudulent research

Don't forget that the drug companies openly supported Dr. Scott Reuben's research. They paid him, in fact, to keep on fabricating studies.

The drug companies claim to be innocent in all this, but behind the scenes they had to have known what was going on. Dr. Reuben's research was just too consistently favorable to drug company interests to be scientifically legitimate. If a drug company wanted to "prove" that their drug was good for some new application, all they had to do was ask Dr. Reuben to come up with the research (wink wink). "Here's another fifty thousand dollars to study whether our drug is good for post-surgical pain (wink)."

And before long, Dr. Reuben would magically materialize a brand new study that just happened to "prove" exactly what the sponsoring drug company wanted to prove. Advocates of western medicine claim they don't believe in magic, but when it comes to clinical trials, they actually do: All the results they wish to see just magically appear as long as the right researcher gets paid to materialize the results out of thin air, much like waving a magician's wand and chanting, "Abra cadabra... let there be RESEARCH DATA!"

Shazam! The research data materializes just like that. It all gets written up into a "scientific" paper that also magically gets published in medical journals that fail to ask a single question that might exposed the research fraud.

I guess these people believe in magic after all, huh? Where science is lacking, a little "research magic" conveniently fills the void.

The whole system makes a mockery of real science. It is a system operated by criminals who fabricate whatever "scientific evidence" they need in order to get published in medical journals and win FDA approval for drugs that they fully realize are killing people.

What is "Evidence-Based Medicine?"

The fact that a researcher like Dr. Reuben could so successfully fabricate fraudulent study data, then get it published in peer-reviewed science journals, and get away with it for 13 years sheds all kinds of new light on what's really behind "evidence-based medicine."

The recipe for evidence-based medicine is quite simple: Fabricate the evidence! Get it published in any mainstream medical journal. Then you can quote the fabricated evidence as "fact!"

When pushers of pharmaceuticals and vaccines resort to quoting "evidence-based medicine" as their defense, keep in mind that much of their so-called evidence has been entirely fabricated. When they claim their branch of toxic chemical medicine is based on "real science," what they really mean is that it's based on fraudulent science but they've all secretly agreed to call it "real science." When they claim to have "scientific facts" supporting their position, what they really mean is that those "facts" were fabricated by criminal researchers being paid bribes by the drug companies.

"Evidence-based medicine," it turns out, hardly exists anymore. And even if it does, how do you know which studies are real vs. which ones were fabricated? If a trusted, well-paid researcher can get his falsified papers published for 13 years in top-notch science journals -- without getting caught by his peers -- then what does that say about the credibility of the entire peer-review science paper publishing process?

Here's what is says: "Scientific medicine" is a total fraud.

And this fraud isn't limited to Dr Scott Reuben, either. Remember: he engaged in routine research fraud for 13 years before being caught. There are probably thousands of other scientists engaged in similar research fraud right now who haven't yet been caught in the act. Their fraudulent research papers have no doubt already been published in "scientific" medical journals. They've been quoted in the popular press. They've been relied on by FDA decision makers to approve drugs as "safe and effective" for widespread use.

And yet underneath all this, there's nothing more than fraud and quackery. Sure, there may be some legitimate studies mixed in with all the fraud, but how can we tell the difference?

How are we to trust this system that claims to have a monopoly on scientific truth but in reality is a front for outright scientific fraud?

Keep up the great work, Dr Reuben

Thank you, Dr Scott Reuben, for showing us the truth about the pharmaceutical industry, the research quackery, the laughable "scientific" journals and the bribery and corruption that characterizes the pharmaceutical industry today. You have done more to shed light on the true nature of the drug industry than a thousand articles on NaturalNews.com ever could.

Keep up the good work. After paying your fine and serving a little jail time, I'm sure your services will be in high demand at all the top drug companies that need yet more "scientific" studies to be fabricated and submitted to the medical journals.

You may be a dishonest, disgusting human being to most of the world, but you're a huge asset to the pharmaceutical industry and they need you back! There are more studies that need to be fabricated soon; more false papers that need to be published and more dangerous drugs that need to receive FDA approval. Hurry!

Because if there's one place that extreme dishonesty is richly rewarded, it's in the pharmaceutical industry, where poisons are approved as medicines and fiction is published as the truth.

Sources for this story include:
http://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/...

http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2010/01...

http://www.medpagetoday.com/PublicH...

http://www.theday.com/article/20100...

uniformityville_horror

Who is going to yell and scream about this?

Pentagon declined to investigate hundreds of purchases of child pornography

DEMAND WAR CRIMES BE PROSECUTED!!

WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange: "Transparent Government Tends to Produce Just Government"

Time travel theory avoids grandfather paradox

First Amendment suspended in the Gulf of Mexico as spill cover-up goes Orwellian

First Amendment suspended in the Gulf of Mexico as spill cover-up goes Orwellian

The war is on to control your mind

Higher Education's Bubble Is About To Burst

Glenn Reynolds: Higher education's bubble is about to burst

By: GLENN HARLAN REYNOLDS ContributorJune 6, 2010

AIG's problems far greater than Bush officials told public

AIG's problems far greater than Bush officials told public

By Greg Gordon | McClatchy Newspapers

Personality predicts political preferences

Personality predicts political preferences

Values deeply embedded in biology

Research on self-healing concrete yields cost-effective system to extend life of structures

Research on self-healing concrete yields cost-effective system to extend life of structures

Handbook suggests that deviations from ‘normality’ are disorders

The cost of medicalizing human conditions

The cost of medicalizing human conditions

Medicalization of human problems is a growth industry -- but what does it cost?

What Is Wisdom? Experts Define It

What Is Wisdom? Experts Define It

Can a Mother's Voice Spur Recovery From a Coma?

May 10, 2010 | Research

Can a Mother's Voice Spur Recovery From a Coma?

By Marla Paul

Marla Paul is the health sciences editor. Contact her at marla-paul@northwestern.edu

Out of mind, out of sight: Blinking eyes indicate mind wandering

FDA approves breakthrough cancer therapy Provenge

Novel drug for prostate cancer rallies body's immune system against tumors

New study links psychopathy to frontal lobe dysfunction

Dreams 'can help with learning'

Ancient Americans took cold snap in their stride

*Empathy and violence have similar circuits in the brain*

Does Seasonal Influenza Vaccination Increase the Risk of Illness with the 2009 A/H1N1 Pandemic Virus?

Does Seasonal Influenza Vaccination Increase the Risk of Illness with the 2009 A/H1N1 Pandemic Virus?

Does Seasonal Influenza Vaccination Increase the Risk of Illness with the 2009 A/H1N1 Pandemic Virus?

Linked Research Article

Background Top

Unexpected Findings in a Sentinel Surveillance System Top

Additional Analyses and Proposed Biological Mechanisms Top

Potential Biases and Findings from Other Countries Top

Policy Implications and a Way Forward Top

Author Contributions Top

References Top

International team discovers new species of hominid

International team discovers new species of hominid

Do Eyes Emit Energy?

Psychiatrist's Research Finds You Really Can Feel a Person's Stare

Paper by Dr. Colin A. Ross Explains How to Measure the Eye's Electromagnetic Energy

Early Earth absorbed more sunlight -- no extreme greenhouse needed to keep water wet

Early Earth absorbed more sunlight -- no extreme greenhouse needed to keep water wet

Geologist discovers pattern in Earth's long-term climate record

UCSB geologist discovers pattern in Earth's long-term climate record

Will the Washington Crew Ever Notice the Housing Bubble?

Will the Washington Crew Ever Notice the Housing Bubble?

Feedback Mechanism for climate Mentioned, and a new way to view Man's influence on Climate.

Feds: Homes with Chinese drywall must be gutted

Feds: Homes with Chinese drywall must be gutted

Feds: Homes with Chinese drywall must be gutted

To remember the good times, reach for the sky

Follow the leader: How those in charge make themselves known

Stone Age Scandinavians unable to digest milk

It looks like we have another "curveball"

Re: Daily Dose - This "forbidden" food could be the biggest health breakthrough of our time

The dawn of a new epoch? Researchers show how world has changed.

BlastFromThePast: Homeland official subject of probe

US Stands Alone in Human Rights Council Votes on Israel

Greenspan Finally Admits He Blew It

Greenspan Finally Admits He Blew It

The Amazon Forest More Tolerant To Droughts Than Was Once Thought

New study debunks myths about Amazon rain forests

New study debunks myths about Amazon rain forests

They may be more tolerant of droughts than previously thought

Life-Enabling Molecules Spotted in Orion Nebula

Sun's Companion Pelted Earth With Comets

By: GLENN HARLAN REYNOLDS
Contributor
June 6, 2010

Empathy and violence have similar circuits in the brain