41488487
submission
PolygamousRanchKid writes:
From the It-hurts-but-I-don't-give-a-damn department
Using cannabis for pain relief does help, however, it makes pain more bearable rather than getting rid of it, researchers from Oxford University's Centre for Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Brain (FMRIB) reported in the journal Pain.
According to MRI brain imaging scans in this latest study, areas of the brain that interpret pain were not affected significantly when people took THC. It appears that cannabis affects people's emotional state in a way that makes pain less awful.
The participants' reports regarding how unpleasant their pain was were backed up by MRI scan results. An area in the bran called the anterior mid-cingulate cortex, which has many functions, including the emotional aspects of pain, became less active after participants took THC.
The scans also showed that activity changed in the right amygdala, which correlated with the reduction in the unpleasantness of the pain after people had taken THC. Experts already know that pain can "prime" the right side of the amygdala.
41436657
submission
PolygamousRanchKid writes:
Can a boss fire an employee he finds attractive because he and his wife, fairly or not, see her as a threat to their marriage?
Yes, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled Friday.
"The question we must answer is ... whether an employee who has not engaged in flirtatious conduct may be lawfully terminated simply because the boss views the employee as an irresistible attraction," Justice Edward M. Mansfield wrote for the all-male high court.
An attorney for Melissa Nelson, the fired employee, said the decision was wrong.The case concerns the employment Nelson's employment as a dental assistant. She worked for James Knight in 1999 and stayed for more than 10 years at the Fort Dodge business.
Toward the end of her employment, Knight complained to Nelson her clothing was tight and "distracting," the decision read. She denied her clothes were inappropriate.
41218797
submission
PolygamousRanchKid writes:
“It would be unfair to say every child with Asperger’s will become a mass murderer,” said Nancy Alspaugh-Jackson, director of ACT Today, a major autism treatment program in Los Angeles. “But combining Asperger’s with his troubled family situation, a sense of isolation — no job, no school — and no care and treatment, is a recipe for a disaster.”
“Every parent of an autistic child — unless they are not being honest with themselves — worries that their child could do something to harm themselves or others. Especially as they get older because we live in such a violent culture, and these children can find it difficult to distinguish fantasy from reality.”
Harold Kopelwicz, a renown New York child psychiatrist, said there are 15 million children and young adults who have a psychiatric disorder, including autism and Asperger’s. But it is a rare event when one of these individuals hurts other people. “The one thing we do know is that when people feel hopeless, that is the most important symptom that makes someone strike out against others and against themselves,” he noted. “Having Asperger’s disorder by itself doesn’t put one at higher risk for killing someone or killing themselves, but feeling socially isolated, feeling trapped, feeling educationally overwhelmed, feeling tremendous despair without any tools to get your way out of the box, can lead to any human being to desperate measures.
40736633
submission
PolygamousRanchKid writes:
Nokia Corp. gained financial wiggle room and a potential defense against a takeover by becoming a tenant in the headquarters overlooking the Gulf of Finland that the company has owned and called home for 16 years. The Finnish handset maker, scrambling to raise cash and cut costs amid deepening losses, raised €170 million ($222 million) by selling the suburban-Helsinki building to Finnish property investor Exilion Capital Oy and agreeing to lease it back on a long-term basis. This deal, which Nokia first said it was pursuing in October, follows a move earlier in the fourth quarter to raise €750 million in a bond offering.
Sale-leasebacks have become a common practice for companies looking to raise cash, but they are also used as a defensive measure against potential acquirers buying the business and then selling off pieces, like real estate, as a means to raise money. The company has also been selling patents and divesting itself of parts of its business, including an optical network sold this week by its Nokia Siemens Networks arm.
Nokia has been under significant scrutiny over its cash position in recent quarters, and has been subject to a series of credit downgrades from the three major credit-rating firms, all of whom have cut Nokia's debt rating to junk. Its net cash position stood at €3.6 billion at the end of September, down from €4.2 billion at the end of June.
40250391
submission
PolygamousRanchKid writes:
You didn’t need to be a Middle East specialist to understand that something was seriously off-kilter early Wednesday when Israel’s vice Prime Minister Silvan Shalom displayed a “Free Palestine” photo on his Facebook page, and wrote on his Twitter feed, “FREE PALESTINE! END THE OCCUPATION!” Shortly after the postings on Shalom’s sites, the online tech magazine Gizmodo announced that Anonymous, the hackers’ activist group, had finally “swallowed a big fish,” having threatened days earlier to turn the Gaza conflict “into a cyberwar.”
And yet, while the hacking of Shalom was perhaps “embarrassing”—the Israeli officials’ Twitter feed was still spitting out pro-Palestinian messages early Wednesday afternoon—it has hardly been the “cyberwar” that Anonymous promised. Instead, tech analysts, including in Israel, say the hacking campaign has exposed the activists’ technological weaknesses, while at the same alerting them to more sophisticated cyberattacks against Israel. It is those attacks—some originating as far away as Iran—that Israelis, by their own admission, could find far tougher to stop.
Earlier this year Seculet tracked a stealth virus called Mahdi, which seemed to have been created by technicians at the Islamic Azad University, a chain of private institution headquartered in Tehran. The so-called “spear-phishing” attacks were dropped into normal-looking documents (the one Seculet tracked was mentioned in a Daily Beast story concerning Israel’s own cyberwarfare), allowing hackers to target specific computer accounts, including of “infrastructure companies, financial services and government embassies.” Israel, of course, is all too familiar with the strategy. The Stuxnet computer worm, uncovered in 2010, seemed to have been designed specifically to try to disable Iran’s nuclear operation, and—still not officially confirmed—is thought to have been built by Israeli and American engineers.
By contrast, the more visible hacking blitz by Anonymous this week is brushed off by some analysts as a nuisance, rather than as a serious threat to the IDF. Biddle says Anonymous’s ineffectiveness has a clear reason: Many truly dangerous hackers are laying low or have been arrested. “Anyone with the brains and bravery to do something like hack a major government military contractoris either in the hands of the cops, or afraid of winding up there,” he says.
40219927
submission
PolygamousRanchKid writes:
Researchers at the Université Laval contend that no link exists between full moons and mental illness. This is, of course, is contrary to the popular belief that a link exists between the phases of the moon and the frequency of psychological disorders.
Researchers at the Université Laval’s School of Psychology came to this conclusion after looking at the relationship between lunar cycles and the number of people arriving at hospitals suffering from psychological problems. Researchers used lunar calendars to see what phase the moon was in during each visit to the hospital. After a careful analysis, the researchers concluded that no link exists between the frequency of mental illnesses and the four lunar phases. However, researchers found that anxiety disorders were 32 percent less frequent during the last quarter moon.
Researchers note that their conclusion contradicts what many people believe. In fact, 80 percent of nurses and 64 percent of doctors are convinced that lunar cycle impacts the mental health of patients.
40044415
submission
PolygamousRanchKid writes:
Forget texting while driving. German police say they nabbed a driver who had wired his Ford station wagon with an entire mobile office.Saarland state police said Friday the 35-year-old man was pulled over for doing 130 kph (80 mph) in a 100 kph zone while passing a truck Monday.
Built on a wooden frame on his passenger seat they found a laptop on a docking station tilted for easy driver access, a printer, router, wireless internet stick, WLAN antenna, and an inverter to power it all.
Since there was no evidence he used the office while moving, he got away with a €120 ($153) speeding ticket and a possible fine for having unsecured items in his car.
39970035
submission
PolygamousRanchKid writes:
Hostess Brands said Wednesday that it will go into liquidation unless bakers striking in protest against a new contract imposed in bankruptcy court return to work by the end of the day Thursday.
Even if Hostess does end up in liquidation, analysts say that some of its most iconic brand names — Twinkies, Ding Dongs and Wonder Bread, to name a few — will likely live on, getting scooped up at auction and attached to products from other companies
39581409
submission
PolygamousRanchKid writes:
Although 69 percent of the nearly 1,200 adults surveyed in a recent Associated Press poll say they have no interest in buying Microsoft's Surface RT tablet, that might not matter as much as the one person who is now decidedly interested in purchasing the Microsoft device: Oprah.
And while it's unlikely that Oprah wrote the copy herself, here's what she allegedly has to say about Microsoft's brand-new device:
"The Surface, Microsoft's first tablet, feels like a Mercedes-Benz to me, people! The full-size keyboard built right into the cover makes work easy, the very smart kickstand makes watching a movie or Skyping a friend a delight, the less than a pound-and-a-half weight makes a great alternative to a laptop, and the many other features make it fun for work and play. Now, that's a wowser!"
Will the big endorsement help Microsoft push more of its initial tablets into consumers' hands? It's unclear. To the company's credit, however, there are very few other tech-themed items on Oprah's must-have list. In fact, Microsoft's tablet is the only true computer-themed object on the list – unless a Dyson bladeless Pedestal fan can run Linux.
39510279
submission
PolygamousRanchKid writes:
Health Canada is urging Canadians to test their homes for radon, a leading cause of lung cancer. After smoking, exposure to radon is the second leading cause of the often deadly disease. Radon is a radioactive gas that occurs naturally in the ground and can leak into homes through foundation cracks or gaps around pipes.
"Canadians are at higher risk of getting lung cancer if radon gas is present in their homes and if they smoke or are exposed to second-hand smoke," Mary-Pat Shaw, acting CEO and president of the Canadian Lung Association, said in a statement issued by Health Canada.
39388547
submission
PolygamousRanchKid writes:
Finally, a reason to vote . . .
Hollywood filmmaker and President Obama supporter Joss Whedon came out with an unusual endorsement of GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney Sunday. If voters are looking to forward to a zombie apocalypse, then Whedon says Romeny is the man to lead the nation to sub-human domination.
"Like a lot of liberal Americans," Whedon tells the camera, "I was excited when Barack Obama took office four years ago. But it's a very different world now, and Mitt Romney is a very different candidate, one with the vision and determination to cut through business-as-usual politics and finally put this country back on the path to the zombie apocalypse."
Which debate was about Zombies, again . . . ?
39062515
submission
PolygamousRanchKid writes:
Teen suicides tied to cyberbullying usually stem from real-world harassment as well, an analysis of news stories showed.
Of 41 cyberbullying-related suicides covered in the news since 2003, the victims were subjected to both online and in-person abuse in 78%, according to John LeBlanc, MD, of Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
LeBlanc noted that no interventions have been proven to reduce cyberbullying, but O'Keeffe said that the problem might be mitigated by "getting people to be more polite and to have better digital etiquette," something she wrote about in her book, CyberSafe: Protecting and Empowering Kids in the Digital World of Texting, Gaming, and Social Media.
Importantly, O'Keeffe said, parents must take action when they realize their child is being cyberbullied.
"If the parents are brave enough to intervene, we can usually stop the cycle," she said. "Sometimes there's a fine line between something that's just not cool and something that's true bullying, and I think if we stepped in more with those uncool situations, then the true bullying situations wouldn't happen as much."
39027677
submission
PolygamousRanchKid writes:
"Hey folks, it's just TV . . ." More films, causing more international trouble . . .
Lebanon is considering taking legal action against Showtime's Homeland for its unflattering portrayal of Lebanese capital Beirut in the Emmy Award-winning series' second season.
In the first two episodes of Season 2, Homeland featured Beirut as a breeding ground for terrorists where the series' main antagonist, a high-ranking Al-Qaeda member named Abu Nazir (Navid Negahban), was holding court. Although the episodes were actually filmed in Israel, critics claim that setting the fictional action in Beirut reflects negatively on the city.
"This kind of film damages the image of Lebanon," Lebanese Tourism Minister Daby Abboud told Executive magazine. "It is not fair to us and it's not true. It is not portraying reality. We want to take action. We want to write to the filmmakers and producers and demand an apology. And we are planning to raise a lawsuit against the director and the producer."
Meanwhile, from the folks who are more difficult to sue department . . . "
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2012/10/20121019154940460986.html
Blast in Lebanon kills top security official
A prominent Lebanese security official is among the dead in a car bombing in the capital Beirut that has killed eight people and wounded at least 96 others. Following the attack, clashes occurred in the northern city of Tripoli between the rival districts of Jabal Mohsen and Bab al-Tabbaneh, leaving one person dead. Jabal Mohsen is mainly populated by mostly Alawites supportive of Assad, while Bab al-Tabbaneh is a Sunni area.
Friday's rush-hour car bombing has raised fears of renewed sectarian violence in a country still scarred from a long civil war. Hassan was seen as close to Saad al-Hariri, leader of the opposition March 14 alliance and a son of the slain former prime minister.
39027105
submission
PolygamousRanchKid writes:
Go back to your Holy Roman Empire sized sweet sugary drinks, New Yorker . . .
Losing a small amount of weight doesn’t appear to lower the risk of heart attacks and strokes in people with diabetes who are already getting good medical care, according to a long and expensive clinical experiment whose results were announced Friday. “We were hoping that a weight-loss program would help reduce cardiovascular disease, but now we have the answer that it doesn’t,” said Mary E. Evans, a physician at the National Institute of Health’s National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, which paid for the study.
The study, which began in 2001, was scheduled to last two more years. In mid-September, however, an independent monitoring board advised NIH that it be stopped in its current form because the weight-loss “intervention” wasn’t having its hoped-for effect.
It may turn out that because of changing norms of medical practice, along with the attention of being in the study, the people in Look AHEAD reduced their risk so much that the benefit of modest weight loss — if it exists — was too small to see.
38956455
submission
PolygamousRanchKid writes:
The man accused of trying to blow up the Fed yesterday struggled with the moral implications of the crime before allegedly deciding to go through with the attack. But, Nafis almost didn't carry out his attack, worrying that entering the U.S. on a student visa meant he couldn't carry out jihad here, according to a criminal complaint filed in the case.
Nafis used Facebook to ask an FBI informant as well as another person whether Islamic law would prohibit his plot, The Wall Street Journal's Law Blog reported Wednesday.
“The three discussed certain Islamic legal rulings that advise that it is unlawful for a person who enters a country with a visa to wage jihad there,” according to the complaint.
University of Washington law professor Clark Lombardi, an Islamic law expert, told Law Blog he didn't know of any laws prohibiting jihad if the person had a visa.
