Brightside Bincheck

Why Suicide Seems Only Option

2013-03-24T00:53:00.000+00:00

OK , This is an anon email post to me, which i was asked to share ........................................... Editors Note : " Please, NO Insults , Disregards for the person, ETC, ... if nothing helpful , PLEASE SAY NOTHING .......................... Brightside Bincheck , I'm not saying where i am or who i am , my life has changed from one bad thing to another recently , from a good marraige , house , living , to virtually nothing but more taxes , higher food prices and gas/electric/petrol............i worked all my life , earned , paid taxes etc , now in need =nothing , I'm Not eating , because i need electricity , gas , I bought a house when i was told to by my government , im depressed but cant get healthcare , i owe only $700 this month , which i dont have , but will be the same next month, I am only in my 30's , and life is ruined , I can not move abroad to work , but i could when i was an inexperienced 18 year old , Now , Im single , struggling so much to even care and have giving up all hope , All im asking any reader to do , is face your politicians , governments , its prob to late for me , but if you have kids , which i don't , its their future also ............. This taxing and ignoring Health and Welfare NEEDS TO STOP................... I wish i could work like i used to , and some American people will blame the EURO for this , but NO the Banks Lent to much and borrowed to much , And we the people are paying , I never borrowed but im losing all ,AND You are paying ...............Forget wikileaks ,forget ANON, Forget All the Little Protests that happen WorldWide ....... this needs to be a collective Protest ..... this NEEDS To be a World Protest , ........ But sadly I Give Up , Its Prob Too Late for Me , DONT MAKE IT LATE FOR ALL , DO SOMETHING COLLECTIVELY . BEST WISHES . EDITORS NOTE : WEBSITES/NUMBERS : http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/stress-anxiety-depression/Pages/mental-health-helplines.aspx http://www.beyondblue.org.au/index.aspx? https://ecouch.anu.edu.au/new_users/mhl_portal/info/depression/more_info/help_lines http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/depression/index.shtml http://www.depression.org.nz/waythrough/help+services http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/stress-anxiety-depression/Pages/Depression-help-groups.aspx http://www.cmha.ca/mental-health/understanding-mental-illness/depression/

Magdalene Laundries Documentary "Dear Daughter" - TeleGracia TV intervie...

2013-02-06T14:28:00.000+00:00

The world is finding out about the abusive Catholic "Magdalene Laundries" institution where criminal nuns abused and tortured thousands of women in Ireland, exploited them for free labor and even stole their children from some of them, when in fact, the unwed mothers had turned to the nuns for "help", little did they know they would be incarcerated in these concentration camps and their child would be snatched from them and sold into adoption.Magdalene asylums were institutions from the 18th to the late-20th centuries ostensibly to house "fallen women", a term used to imply female sexual promiscuity. Asylums for such girls and women and others believed to be of poor moral character, such as prostitutes operated throughout Europe, Britain, Ireland, Canada and the United States for much of the 19th and well into the 20th century. The first such asylum in Ireland opened on Leeson Street in Dublin in 1765, founded by Lady Arabella Denny.

Does Watching TV Effect Your Sperm Count?

2013-02-06T00:39:00.000+00:00

189 healthy men between the ages of 18 and 22, over a three-month period took part in a medical study published by the British Journal of Sports Medicine, to link environmental factors and semen quality.

Men who watch more than 20 hours of television a week risk halving their sperm count. While regular, vigorous exercise was shown to boost sperm count, excessive television-watching can counteract its positive effects.

Other factors assessed included medical or reproductive health problems, diet, stress levels and smoking.

The study found that men who watch more than 20 hours of TV a week had a sperm count 44% lower than those who watched less. The most physically active of the volunteers, doing more than 15 hours of exercise a week, had a 73% higher sperm count.

Don't get ya hopes guys, cos those men who did both i.e watch a lot of TV and did a lot of exercise also had a lower sperm count.

Between 1989 and 2005, the average sperm count has fallen by a third according to analysis of 26,000 men. There has been a worldwide drop in sperm count levels and this has also been accompanied by a rise in testicular cancer - double in the past 30 years - and in other male sexual disorders such as undescended testes.

A separate investigation last year challenged guidance from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, which suggests smoking and drinking can have an adverse effect on sperm stocks.

The study by researchers at the University of Sheffield and Manchester compared the lifestyles of 939 men with poor sperm quality with 1310 men with normal sperm quality. It found little evidence that a high BMI, excessive alcohol consumption or recreational drugs were contributing factors to sperm quality.

It also found that wearing boxer shorts rather than tighter underwear was linked to higher sperm levels.

Dr George Chavarro, from the Department of Nutrition at Harvard School of Public Health, senior author of the recent study, said in general, very little was known about what influenced sperm count. There was even evidence that high levels of physical activity might have a detrimental effect on quality and quantity.

"I was sceptical of the results of the study on athletes because they are not representative of normal people," Dr Chavarro said.

"One of the few things we do know is that obesity lowers sperm count."

Savile No One Noticed He Was A Paedophile For 40 Years?

2013-02-01T10:33:00.000+00:00

MrSPECTRUM7 Savile one of the most noticeable people ever was not noticed as a paedophile for 40 years???? Sir James Wilson Vincent "Jimmy" Savile OBE KCSG (31 October 1926 – 29 October 2011) was an English DJ, television presenter, media personality and charity fundraiser. He hosted the BBC television show Jim'll Fix It, was the first and last presenter of the long-running BBC music chart show Top of the Pops, and raised an estimated £40 million for charities.After his death, hundreds of allegations of child sex abuse and rape became public, leading the police to believe that Savile may have been one of Britain's most prolific sex offenders.A joint report by the NSPCC and Metropolitan Police, Giving Victims a Voice, stated that 450 people had made complaints against Savile, with the period of alleged abuse stretching from 1955 to 2009, and the ages of the complainants at the time of the assaults ranging from 8 to 47.

Good Bye

2012-11-21T08:23:00.000+00:00

You were this tall dominating figure in my life, someone who would always try to be fair. You weren't perfect as we know but you were always you. You were straight up with people and never dicked them around, you called a spade a spade, you liked who you liked and didn't bother with those you didn't.

You were never sick a day in your life, unless it was self inflicted and then u would still get up and take us out for a drive or picnic.

You were only 65 when you were diagnosed with Metastatic Malignant Melanoma in June of this year. The hospital and surgeons were quick booking you in to get the 2 large brain tumors removed. Unfortunately because they couldn't find the main source of the Melanoma, we new no matter how good things had gone there was always the chance they would come back. I've never seen anything like it, when the surgeons mentioned it was cancer you kinda shut down. Even though I was proud of you for the way you decided to fight it, I was never more proud to be your daughter.

I remember having to tell my kids, and holding them and watching while they all started to cry, I remember promising (because I didn't know what else to say) that you weren't going to die. I remember coming into the hospital and seeing you two days after the surgery, and the way you looked defeated from it all. You couldn't talk properly, or move your right hand, or remember basic things, the frustration you must of felt of being there was clear to everyone around. However the nurse when she explained how you had fallen over the night after your surgery, never realised or told us just how bad that fall had been. It was that fall that lead you to the second brain surgery, and it was that fall that caused four titanium plates to buckle and push against your brain. There was a great improvement after that second surgery which had you being discharged on the 9th of July.

One night we had you home dad, before your breathing started to sped up. I listened to the 111 operator and I did everything she told me to do. I got you sitting on the bed and helped you to slow your breathing down. I wonder who it was you were looking at over my shoulder during that time. I will never forget how blue your eyes went, when you passed away and I swear that I saw your soul leave your body. Me and my 16 yr old boy we spent what seemed like hours doing CPR on you dad. The tears streaming down both our faces as we cursed and asked you not to leave us. But leave us you did. At least you will never have to go through all the pain and suffering you would of had to other wise, all the chemo and radiation. You went your own way, surrounded by people who love you, and for that I will always be thankful.

I'm sorry dad, I tried everything to keep you with us. I will have to live with that guilt for the rest of my life. I will live with the images of that night for the rest of my life.

You will never be forgotten dad, and you will always be loved by those of us you left behind. Whenever I hear Elvis singing 'I did it my way' I automatically will think of you because you did it your way.

Love always Kimmy.

Dream Symbols Could Help In Psychotherapy

2012-11-10T21:16:00.002+00:00

Thursday, 8 November 2012

Dream images could provide insights into people's mental health problems and may help with their treatment, according to a psychology researcher from the University of Adelaide.

Dr Lance Storm, a Visiting Research Fellow with the University of Adelaide's School of Psychology, has been studying dream symbols (or "archetypes") and their meanings, as described by the famous psychologist and psychiatrist Carl Jung.

In the early 1900s, Jung proposed that these archetypes were ancient images stemming from humans' collective unconscious. He believed that dream symbols carried meaning about a patient's emotional state which could improve understanding of the patient and also aid in their treatment.

In a paper about one of Dr Storm's non-clinical studies - to be published next year in the International Journal of Jungian Studies, and currently published online - he supports Jung's theories and recommends that dream analysis be explored further for potential clinical use.

"Jung was extremely interested in recurring imagery across a wide range of human civilisations, in art, religion, myth and dreams," says Dr Storm.

"He described the most common archetypal images as the Hero, in pursuit of goals; the Shadow, often classed as negative aspects of personality; the Anima, representing an element of femininity in the male; the Animus, representing masculinity in the female; the Wise Old Man; and the Great Mother.

"There are many hundreds of other images and symbols that arise in dreams, many of which have meanings associated with them - such as the image of a beating heart (meaning 'charity'), or the ouroboros, which is a snake eating its own tail ('eternity'). There are symbols associated with fear, or virility, a sense of power, the need for salvation, and so on.

"In Jungian theory, these symbols are manifestations of the unconscious mind; they are a glimpse into the brain's 'unconscious code', which we believe can be decrypted," he says.
Dr Storm argues that Jung's theories have practical significance and could broaden the range of options available to patients undergoing treatment for mental health problems. "Our research suggests that instead of randomly interpreting dream symbols with educated guesswork, archetypal symbols and their related meanings can be objectively validated. This could prove useful in clinical practice," he says.

"We believe, for example, that dream analysis could help in the treatment of depression. This is a rapidly growing area of mental health concern, because depressive people are known to experience prolonged periods of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, which is directly linked with emotional processing and dreaming."

http://www.adelaide.edu.au/news/news57641.html

Your Muscles Determine Your Vote

2012-11-04T19:39:00.000+00:00

With the American election coming up, I thought this article might be helpful.

November 2, 2012 - 06:19

Men with big muscles try harder to get their hands on tax money or to hold on to their own income, while physically weak men shy away from such conflicts, new study suggests.

Keywords: Evolution, Politics

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By: Irene Berg Sørensen

We know it from the schoolyard. The strong boy in the class is prepared to put up a fight to wring the ball away from the bullies, while the smaller boys would rather stay out of trouble.
It sounds silly, but we see the same pattern when grown men make political decisions.
A new study shows that large muscles and strong attitudes go hand in hand.
“In modern politics, it makes no rational sense to base your opinions on your own physical strength,” says Michael Bang Petersen, an associate professor at Aarhus University’s Department of Political Science and Government.
“Yet our study has shown that men modulate their attitudes in accordance with their physical strength. So we’re seeing that our evolutionary baggage still affects the way we think today.”

School fights replaced by politics

Humans once lived in small groups on the African Savannah. Here it made sense for a strong man to fight another man to get his tools or his prey, or fight to protect the tools or prey if they were his own.
For the weak men, there was an advantage in staying out of conflicts if they wanted to survive.
These physical fights over resources have now been replaced by politics.
Petersen’s study shows that strong men still choose the conflict, while the weaker men give in. And that this affects men’s decisions in politics.

Political wings a result of evolution

In modern politics, it makes no rational sense to base your opinions on your own physical strength. Yet our study has shown that men modulate their attitudes in accordance with their physical strength. So we’re seeing that our evolutionary baggage still affects the way we think today.

Michael Bang Petersen

Petersen and co- author Dr Daniel Sznycer of the University of California, Santa Barbara, studied an old psychological system that has evolved through natural selection.
It’s about how animals and humans find the best strategy in situations of conflict.
”We took a well-known theory from evolutionary biology on how animals act in conflicts over resources,” says Petersen.
“Simply stated, the model predicts that if you are in conflict with another organism to which you are physically superior, you should intensify the conflict and try to grab the resource in question. If you’re physically inferior, you should withdraw.”
In the study, Petersen and his co-authors transferred the logic of animal conflicts about prey and territory to today’s mass politics, which often revolves around whether or not we should redistribute resources.
And according to the study, the strong man is more likely to go for the conflict in politics rather than staying out of it.

Participants flexed their biceps

The scientists collected data from 1,502 participants from Denmark, the US and Argentina.
They were asked to fill in a questionnaire, from which the researchers could infer the respondents’ socioeconomic status and their political leanings.
The participants also had their flexed biceps measured.

We took a well-known theory from evolutionary biology on how animals act in conflicts over resources. Simply stated, the model predicts that if you are in conflict with another organism to which you are physically superior, you should intensify the conflict and try to grab the resource in question. If you’re physically inferior, you should withdraw.

Michael Bang Petersen

Not surprisingly, the survey showed that rich people were against redistribution, i.e. high taxes, while poor people were in favour of it.

Strong men are more assertive

More startling was the fact that physical strength still has an influence on whether or not a man is willing and able to go for the resources.
“The more physical strength a rich man has, the more he will oppose redistribution of wealth,” says Petersen. “A physically weak rich man is a lot less opposed to such redistribution.”
This is surprising as modern politics are played out in highly developed, large-scale societies without any obvious links between muscle mass and how much one benefits from redistribution.

Poor muscle men are also uncompromising

For poor men, strength has the same effect as for rich men, but the effect goes the other way round. The strong poor man will favour comprehensive redistribution of wealth, while the weak poor man will typically place more moderate demands on redistribution.
The survey thus shows that men’s physical strength generally has an effect on their willingness and ability to pursue their personal interests.

Women focus on their appearance

Women’s strength, on the other hand, has no bearing on whether they pursue their interests or not.
The rich women in the study were against redistribution, while the poor were in favour of it. The size of their biceps had no effect on that.
The explanation could be that from an evolutionary perspective, strength has less of an effect on women’s survival than on men’s.

The more physical strength a rich man has, the more he will oppose redistribution of wealth. A physically weak rich man is a lot less opposed to such redistribution.

Michael Bang Petersen

On the Savannah – just like today – women were more likely to come up against a stronger opponent because men generally have more physical strength than women. Other researchers have shown that women’s tendency to be assertive is influenced by their physical appearance instead, so that beautiful women behave like physically strong men.

Study documents, but does not explain, causal link

So men perform a subconscious calculation of whether it’s worth it for them to engage in a conflict.
But it’s still unclear whether this calculation changes if you train to gain more muscle or if you lose muscle mass.
Petersen’s study is a so-called correlation study, which demonstrates a correlation between two variables – physical strength and the desire to fight to get hold of more tax money or to hold on to one’s money. The study does not establish the direction of the causal link between the two factors.
So the study does not show whether physical strength alone affects the desire to compete, or whether the desire to compete also compels people to go to the gym to build up bigger muscles.
It does, however, show that we are still controlled by ancient evolutionary survival strategies.

http://sciencenordic.com/your-muscles-determine-your-vote

Depression is predictable???

2012-11-01T22:40:00.001+00:00

October 18, 2012 - 06:36

Article from University of Oslo

Why are some people more vulnerable to depression than others? The short variant of a gene combined with stressful events may trigger a depressive episode.

By: Svein Harald Milde

Researchers have for a long time tried to understand how a particular gene affects our brain. It is known that the gene, which codes for the neurotransmitter serotonin, predisposes for depression.

When people with the short “serotonin gene” experience stressful events the chances for development of clinical depression increase.

The emotions take over

PhD candidate Rune Jonassen at the Department of Psychology, University of Oslo has studied the interaction between inheritance and environment.

He has looked into how people with the short variant of this gene reacted to tasks which became progressively more and more difficult. He found that they had difficulties keeping track of their sensory impressions.

“Compare this with stressful episodes in your life; when your life becomes harder and you are exposed to more and more stress. How will your brain react to this?” asks Jonassen.
“People with the short gene had problems with working memory during the tasks we gave them. They were healthy people, but they carry a vulnerability gene”, he says.

As the research subjects solved the tasks their brains where photographed. On the pictures of brain activity Jonassen saw that people with the short gene used greater resources within their brains without doing any better on the tests.

“We saw that they used more energy in the brain structures at the front of the brain linked with task solving. Simultaneously, they made more mistakes on the tasks. The brain stressed and used a lot of energy without the research subjects doing any better. They actually performed poorer on the tasks. “

You come no further

“How the short gene is connected to higher brain functions, such as task solving or brooding has not been explored before” he explains.

In a follow-up study Jonassen looked at the connection between those brain areas which regulate our emotions and areas which perceive feelings. This connection was also weaker among those with the short variant of the gene. This can cause depressive feelings to persist and inhibit certain individuals from coming any further beyond the negative event.
“These findings make us better able to discover genetic vulnerability, before one develops depression” he says.

Individualised treatment

“Awareness of genetic vulnerability can give us a more precise diagnosis and individualised treatment of people who suffer from depression”

By individualised treatment Jonassen means different forms of psychotherapy for people who have varying genetic compositions, but with the same diagnosis.

More than half of the population carry the short “serotonin gene”, while depression is less prevalent. Jonassen explains the interaction between genetic and environmental factors.
“The short gene is associated with depression and therefore implies vulnerability. In association with this gene, environmental factors are found which can be positive and protecting, or negative and dangerous.

Not just born like that

A stressful life event is one of the environmental factors that increases the risk of depression. With two negative factors, the gene and a stressful incident, the risk is even higher.

“But positive environmental factors, such as a good working environment or a protective family counteract the development of depression”, explains Jonassen

“Genes and environment are linked in a complicated interaction between development, learning and ageing”

Movember - Time to Register To Support Men's Health Awareness Campaign

2012-10-18T23:03:00.001+01:00

OVERVIEW OF MOVEMBER

During November each year, Movember is responsible for the sprouting of moustaches on thousands of men’s faces in New Zealand and around the world. The aim of which is to raise vital funds and awareness for men’s health, specifically prostate cancer and depression in men.

On Movember 1st, guys register at Movember.com with a clean-shaven face and then for the rest of the month, these selfless and generous men, known as Mo Bros, groom, trim and wax their way into the annals of fine moustachery. Supported by the women in their lives, Mo Sistas, Movember Mo Bros raise funds by seeking out sponsorship for their Mo growing efforts.

Mo Bros effectively become walking, talking billboards for the 30 days of November and through their actions and words raise awareness by prompting private and public conversation around the often ignored issue of men’s health.

At the end of the month, Mo Bros and Mo Sistas celebrate their gallantry and valor by either throwing their own Movember party or attending one of the infamous Gala Partés held around the world by Movember, for Movember.

The Movember Effect: Awareness & Education, Survivorship, Research

The funds raised in New Zealand support equally the two biggest health issues men face – prostate cancer and depression. The funds raised are directed to programmes run directly by Movember and our men’s health partners, the Cancer Society of New Zealand and the Mental Health Foundation of New Zealand. Together, the three channels work together to ensure that Movember funds are supporting a broad range of innovative, world-class programmes in line with our strategic goals in the areas of awareness and education, survivorship and research.

Movember - a global movement

Since its humble beginnings in Melbourne Australia, Movember has grown to become a truly global movement inspiring more than 1.9 Million Mo Bros and Mo Sistas to participate with formal campaigns in Australia, New Zealand, the US, Canada, the UK, South Africa, Ireland, Finland, the Netherlands, Spain, Denmark, Norway, Belgium and the Czech Republic. In addition, Movember is aware of Mo Bros and Mo Sistas supporting the campaign and men’s health cause across the globe, from Russia to Dubai, Hong Kong to Antarctica, Rio de Janeiro to Mumbai, and everywhere in between.

No matter the country or city, Movember will continue to work to change established habits and attitudes men have about their health, to educate men about the health risks they face, and to act on that knowledge, thereby increasing the chances of early detection, diagnosis and effective treatment.

In 2011, over 854,000 Mo Bros and Mo Sistas around the world got on board, raising NZD 156.1 million.

Big steps have been taken towards changing attitudes and habits relating to men’s health around the world but there is still much to be done to catch up with the women’s health movement. Via the moustache, Movember aims to fulfill its vision of having an everlasting impact on the face of men’s health, by continuing to spark conversation and spread awareness of men’s health each year.

Come on guys get growing and register this is an awesome cause :)

http://nz.movember.com/about/

Tard The Grumpy Cat

2012-09-27T12:49:00.001+01:00

2012 Prepare For The Alien Invasion First Contact

2012-09-14T19:00:00.001+01:00

I made this video to remind all the people in the Disclosure Movement of the potential for a massive hijacking of the movement via a staged alien invasion. Ronald Reagan mentioned something like this in a speech to the United Nations about how it would unify the world. (New World Order?) I felt I needed to post this video as a warning to people.

Dr. Carol Rosin a former NASA scientist turned Disclosure Project witness shares very important information with us. Keep in mind this was back in 2001 before 9/11 back when it was only Oklahoma city and the '93 WTC bombing and they realized they were going to need something bigger...

Dr. Carol Rosin worked directly under Verner Von Braun, the NAZI V2 Rocket Scientist from Operation Paperclip. That's a pretty solid inside connection to a very serious source. I don't think she is making this up at all.

It's ok if you disagree with this view or information, I also think it is a bit kooky. But here we have inside people saying it, and I have been seeing a lot of signs that they are preparing the public for it psychologically. If I didn't see a real need to share this kind of information I wouldn't bother, but I personally feel this is a very important issue for everyone in the UFO / Alien / Disclosure Community out there to be aware of. The core issue is the collapsing financial system. 9/11 is only a symptom of a much deeper illness. It's related to our addiction to Oil, Money, and Power and the structure of our economy and society. All of which is approaching collapse in the next year or two...

They are planning to rebuild this world into a Prison Planet and the steps they've taken to do this are documented at http://www.PrisonPlanet.com
It is up to use to stop them and to rebuild this world as a utopia for new ideas and focused around peaceful scientific and technological exploration. The technologies they have fought for 100 years to suppress in order to maintain their iron fist control over the world and it's people are all now being released. The truth, when it's all said and done... Will set us ALL free!

Michael Collins- An Irish Man - 90 Years After

2012-08-20T01:47:00.003+01:00

Michael Collins (Irish: Míċeál Ó Coileáin;[1] 16 October 1890 – 22 August 1922) was an Irish revolutionary leader, Minister for Finance and Teachta Dála (TD) for Cork South in the First Dáil of 1919, Director of Intelligence for the IRA, and member of the Irish delegation during the Anglo-Irish Treaty negotiations. Subsequently, he was both Chairman of the Provisional Government and Commander-in-chief of the National Army.[2] Throughout this time, at least as of 1919, he was also President of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, and, therefore, under the bylaws of the Brotherhood, President of the Irish Republic. Collins was shot and killed in August 1922, during the Irish Civil War.
Although most Irish political parties recognise his contribution to the foundation of the modern Irish state, supporters of Fine Gael hold his memory in particular esteem, regarding him as their movement's founding father, through his link to their precursor Cumann na nGaedheal. TAOISEACH ENDA Kenny yesterday pledged the Government would not rest until Ireland has reclaimed its economic sovereignty and achieved the future for it envisaged by Michael Collins more than 90 years ago.

Mr Kenny told the 90th annual Béal na mBláth commemoration he was certain Collins would have approved of the restructuring programme embarked upon by the Government to regain economic sovereignty.

“Here at Béal na mBláth, as Taoiseach, I give you my word that I will not rest, our Government will not rest, until Ireland has reclaimed and restored its economic sovereignty,” Mr Kenny said. “We will not cease in our painstaking, quiet but persuasive endeavours until Ireland has re-established the economic independence, so precious, so hard won, which is its right and its due.”

The first serving Taoiseach to deliver the oration at Béal na mBláth, Mr Kenny recalled the dark days of August 1922 when, following the death of Arthur Griffith, Collins was “assassinated here in the dust of west Cork, whence he came”. There is much truth in the assertion made by the British film producer Lord David Puttnam, in his address at Béal na Blá in 2007, that Collins was an example of a life suspended somewhere between history and myth. Puttnam also said he would go to his grave believing that had Collins lived he would have forged his own place alongside the likes of Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Gandhi, “men who, having freed their own people from the shackles of oppression, became icons for peace and reconciliation everywhere”.

That last assertion is fanciful, particularly when the depth of feeling that caused the Irish Civil War is considered, and the fact that neither Collins nor his contemporaries had any idea how to free their fellow nationalists in Northern Ireland from “the shackles of oppression”. Puttnam, however, was hardly going to be measured in his comments. In the late 1980s, he played a role in bringing to fruition what became the 1996 Neil Jordan film Michael Collins, by commissioning Jordan to write the original screenplay. The film did much to promote the myth of Collins at the expense of others, most notably Eamon de Valera, and the film was almost cartoonish in its depiction of heroes and villains.

MAKING THESE observations is not about denigrating Collins. There is little doubt that he was an exceptionally talented and often brilliant organiser and strategist. In 2005, the provocative biography of Collins by the late Canadian historian Peter Hart offered new and measured perspectives on his career. Hart clearly demonstrated that Collins had nerves of steel and was brave, but he was primarily an outstanding administrator and a skilled and opportunistic networker rather than a trigger-happy macho soldier. When not badgering IRA soldiers to pull up their socks and stand on their own feet, he was expressing frustration at the ineptness of his fellow Sinn Féin ministers (with de Valera, with whom he worked very well before the signing of the Treaty, often mediating), and developing his spy network, members of which were forces in their own right and not just puppets of Collins. Collins wanted a short war, and could not master everything; no one person, as Hart acknowledged, directed or controlled the war. Collins was just capable or determined enough to work harder than everybody else, and de Valera had to remind him at one stage that “the almighty did not give everybody the ordered mind he gave you”. Collins was also a difficult and often petulant colleague, and during and after the Treaty negotiations he was very much led by Arthur Griffith. In the subsequent fallout from the signing of the Treaty, he consistently outclassed and outperformed de Valera. Of course, the divisions in the republican movement after the Treaty were painful and difficult, but decisiveness was one of Collins’s principal characteristics. It should be acknowledged, however, that Collins shared many of the limitations, conservative attitudes and prejudices of his contemporaries. According to the esteemed historian of the War of Independence, Michael Hopkinson, while it is undoubtedly the case that Collinss successors on the pro-Treaty side lacked his charisma and popularity, and that the political comeback and dominance of de Valera from the late 1920s to the late 1950s tempered the perpetuation of the Collins myth, “there is little evidence that Collins had any great breadth of economic and social vision”.

Good News: Migraines Hurt Your Head But Not Your Brain

2012-08-11T01:12:00.000+01:00

ScienceDaily (Aug. 10, 2012) — Migraines currently affect about 20 percent of the female population, and while these headaches are common, there are many unanswered questions surrounding this complex disease. Previous studies have linked this disorder to an increased risk of stroke and structural brain lesions, but it has remained unclear whether migraines had other negative consequences such as dementia or cognitive decline. According to new research from Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH), migraines are not associated with cognitive decline.

This study is published online by the British Medical Journal (BMJ) on August 8, 2012. "Previous studies on migraines and cognitive decline were small and unable to identify a link between the two. Our study was large enough to draw the conclusion that migraines, while painful, are not strongly linked to cognitive decline," explained Pamela Rist ScD, a research fellow in the Division of Preventive Medicine at BWH, and lead author on this study.

The research team analyzed data from the Women's Health Study, a cohort of nearly 40,000 women, 45 years and older. In this study, researchers analyzed data from 6,349 women who provided information about migraine status at baseline and then participated in cognitive testing during follow-up. Participants were classified into four groups: no history of migraine, migraine with aura (transient neurology symptoms mostly of the visual field), migraine without aura, and past history of migraine. Cognitive testing was carried out in two year intervals up to three times.

"Compared with women with no history of migraine, those who experienced migraine with or without aura did not have significantly different rates of cognitive decline," explained Rist. "This is an important finding for both physicians and patients. Patients with migraine and their treating doctors should be reassured that migraine may not have long term consequences on cognitive function."

There is still a lot that is unknown about migraines. However this study offers promising evidence for patients and their treating physicians. More research needs to be done to understand the consequences of migraine on the brain and to establish strategies to influence the course of the disease in order to optimize treatment strategies.

This research was supported by The Women's Health Study is supported by grants from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (HL-043851, HL-080467, HL-099355) and the National Cancer Institute (CA-47988). The cognitive substudy of the Women's Health Study was supported by a grant from the National Institute of Aging (AG-15933). PMR was supported by a training grant from the National Institute of Aging (AG-00158). TK is supported in part by a Chair of Excellence grant of the French National Research Agency (Agence Nationale de la Recherche, R09177DD).

Transformed X-48c Flies Successfully

2012-08-07T23:02:00.002+01:00

Edwards AFB, Calif. -- The remotely piloted X-48C aircraft successfully flew for the first time Tuesday at Edwards Air Force Base in California's Mojave Desert.

The aircraft, designed by The Boeing Co. and built by Cranfield Aerospace Limited of the United Kingdom, is flying again in partnership with NASA. The new X-48C model, which was formerly the X-48B Blended Wing Body aircraft, was modified to evaluate the low-speed stability and control of a low-noise version of a notional, future Hybrid Wing Body (HWB) aircraft design. The HWB design stems from concept studies being conducted by NASA's Environmentally Responsible Aviation project of future potential aircraft designs 20 years from now.

"We are thrilled to get back in the air to start collecting data in this low-noise configuration," said Heather Maliska, X-48C project manager at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center. "Our dedicated team has worked hard to get the X-48C off the ground for its first flight and we are excited learning about the stability and control characteristics of this low-noise configuration of the blended wing body."

Primary changes to the C model from the B model, which flew 92 flights at Dryden between 2007 and 2010, were geared to transforming it to an airframe noise-shielding configuration. External modifications included relocating the wingtip winglets inboard next to the engines, effectively turning them into twin tails. The aft deck of the aircraft was extended about 2 feet to the rear. Finally, the project team replaced the X-48B's three 50-pound thrust jet engines with two 89-pound thrust engines.

Because handling qualities of the X-48C will be different from those of the X-48B, the project team developed flight control system software modifications, including flight control limiters to keep the airplane flying within a safe flight envelope. This will enable a stronger and safer prototype flight control system suitable for future full-scale commercial hybrid or blended wing aircraft.

"We are very pleased to begin flight tests of the X-48C," said Mike Kisska, Boeing X-48C project manager. "Working with NASA, we've successfully passed another milestone in our work to explore and validate the aerodynamic characteristics and efficiencies of the blended wing body concept."

Additionally, the upcoming flight experiments with the X-48C will help researchers further develop methods to validate the design's aerodynamics and control laws, including a goal of reducing aerodynamic drag through engine yaw control tests.

During the planned second block of flight testing this fall, NASA will test engine yaw control software incorporated in the X-48C's flight computer. This research will use asymmetric engine thrust to create yaw, or nose left or right movements, for trim and for relatively slow maneuvers.

NASA's Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate and Boeing are funding the X-48 technology demonstration research effort, which supports NASA's goals of reduced fuel burn, emissions and noise.

The X-48C retains most dimensions of the B model, with a wingspan just longer than 20 feet, and a weight of about 500 pounds. The aircraft has an estimated top speed of about 140 mph, and a maximum altitude of 10,000 feet.

The Air Force Research Laboratory, Dayton, Ohio, also is a member of the project team.

For more information about the Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate, visit: http://www.aeronautics.nasa.gov

Giant Moa Had Climate Change Figured Out

2012-08-05T23:35:00.000+01:00

An international team of scientists involving researchers from the University of Adelaide has used ancient DNA from bones of giant extinct New Zealand birds to show that significant climate and environmental changes did not have a large impact on their populations.

The population size of the giant moa remained stable over the past 40,000 years until the arrival of humans in New Zealand around 1280 AD.

The study was undertaken by researchers from the University of Adelaide's Australian Centre for Ancient DNA, the University of Colorado, and the University of Waikato and Landcare Research in New Zealand. The results are published online in the journal Quaternary Science Reviews.

The giant birds -- measuring up to 2.5 metres high and weighing 250 kilograms -- were the largest herbivores in New Zealand's pre-human environment but were quickly exterminated after the arrival of Polynesian settlers.

"Until now it has been difficult to determine how megafauna responded to environmental change over the past 50,000 years, because human arrival and climate change occurred simultaneously in many parts of the world," says Dr Nic Rawlence, lead author of the study and a postdoctoral research fellow from the Australian Centre for Ancient DNA and the University of Waikato.

"Using ancient DNA, radiocarbon dating and stable dietary isotope analysis, we have been able to show that before humans arrived, moa mitigated the effects of climate change by tracking their preferred habitat as it expanded, contracted and shifted during warming and cooling events," Dr Rawlence says.

"Moa were not in serious decline before humans arrived, as has been previously suggested, but had relatively stable population sizes. The overwhelming evidence suggests that the extinction of moa occurred due to overhunting and habitat destruction, at a time of relative climatic stability."

Co-author of the study, Dr Jamie Wood from Landcare Research, says the results "show that range shifts and minor population fluctuations observable in the fossil and genetic record are a natural response to environmental change and do not necessarily lead to extinction."

"Climate change has been blamed for megafaunal extinctions in other parts of the world, but this is not the case for moa," says co-author Dr Jessica Metcalf from the University of Colorado.

ACAD Director and project leader Professor Alan Cooper says: "The very recent extinctions in New Zealand provide a unique opportunity to examine the extinction of Ice Age megafauna and the relative roles of human hunting and climate change."

The study was funded by an Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Grant.

http://www.adelaide.edu.au/news/news55081.html

Vaporizing The Earth

2012-08-03T00:03:00.000+01:00

Simulations of the vaporization of Earth-like planets tell planet-hunting astronomers what to look for in the atmospheres of candidate super-Earths.

August 2, 2012

By Diana Lutz

Scientists at Washington University have simulated the atmospheres of hot Earth-like planets, such as CoRoT-7b, shown here in an artist’s conception. CoRoT-7b orbits so close to its star that its starward side is an ocean of molten rock. By looking for atmospheres like those generated by the simulations, astronomers should be able to identify Earth-like exoplanets.

In science fiction novels, evil overlords and hostile aliens often threaten to vaporize the Earth. At the beginning of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, the officiously bureaucratic aliens called Vogons, authors of the third-worst poetry in the universe, actually follow through on the threat, destroying the Earth to make way for a hyperspatial express route.

“We scientists are not content just to talk about vaporizing the Earth,” says Bruce Fegley, professor of earth and planetary sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, tongue firmly in cheek. “We want to understand exactly what it would be like if it happened.”

And in fact Fegley, PhD, and his colleagues Katharina Lodders, PhD, a research professor of earth and planetary sciences who is currently on assignment at the National Science Foundation, and Laura Schaefer, currently a graduate student at Harvard University, have vaporized the Earth — if only by simulation, that is mathematically and inside a computer.

They weren’t just practicing their evil overlord skills. By baking model Earths, they are trying to figure out what astronomers should see when they look at the atmospheres of super-Earths in a bid to learn the planets’ compositions.

Super-earths are planets outside our solar system (exoplanets) that are more massive than Earth but less massive than Neptune and made of rock instead of gas. Because of the techniques used to find them, most of the detected super-Earths are those which orbit close to their stars —within rock-melting distance.

Their NSF- and NASA-funded research, described in the August 10 issue of The Astrophysical Journal, show that Earth-like planets as hot as these exoplanets would have atmospheres composed mostly of steam and carbon dioxide, with smaller amounts of other gases that could be used to distinguish one planetary composition from another.

The WUSTL team is collaborating with Dr. Mark Marley’s research group at the NASA Ames Research Center to convert the gas abundances they have calculated into synthetic spectra the planet hunters can compare to spectra they measure.

Motivated by degeneracy

Under favorable circumstances planet hunting techniques allow astronomers not just to find exoplanets but also to measure their average density.

The average density together with theoretical models lets the astronomers figure out the bulk chemical composition of gas giants, but in the case of rocky planets the possible variety of rocky ingredients can often add up several different ways to the same average density.

This is an outcome scientists, who would prefer one answer per question, call degeneracy.
If a planet passes in front of its star, so that astronomers can observe the light from the star filtered by the planet’s atmosphere, they can determine the composition of the planet’s atmosphere, which allows them to distinguish about alternative bulk planetary compositions.

“It’s not crazy that astronomers can do this and more people are looking at the atmospheres of these transiting exoplanets,” Fegley says. “Right now, there are eight transiting exoplanets where astronomers have done some atmospheric measurements and more will probably be reported in the near future.”

“We modeled the atmospheres of hot super-Earths because that’s what astronomers are finding and we wanted to predict what they should be looking for when they look at the atmospheres to decipher the nature of the planet,” Fegley says.

Two model Earths

Even though the planets are called super-Earths, Fegley says, the term is a reference to their mass and makes no claim about their composition, much less their habitability. But, he says, you start with what you know.

The team ran calculations on two types of pseudo-Earths, one with a composition like that of the Earth’s continental crust and the other, called the BSE (bulk silicate Earth), with a composition like the Earth’s before the continental crust formed, which is the composition of the silicate portion of the primitive Earth before the crust formed.

The difference between the two models, says Fegley, is water. The Earth’s continental crust is dominated by granite, but you need water to make granite. If you don’t have water, you end up with a basaltic crust like Venus. Both crusts are mostly silicon and oxygen, but a basaltic crust is richer in elements such as iron and magnesium.

Fegley is quick to admit the Earth’s continental crust is not a perfect analog for lifeless planets because it has been modified by the presence of life over the past four billion years, which both oxidized the crust and also led to production of vast reservoirs of reduced carbon, for example in the form of coal, natural gas, and oil.

Raining acid and rock
The super-Earths the team used as references are thought to have surface temperatures ranging from about 270 to 1700 degrees Celsius (C), which is about 520 to 3,090 degrees F. The Earth, in contrast, has a global average surface temperature of about 15 degrees C (59 degrees F) and the oven in your kitchen goes up to about 450 Fahrenheit.

Using thermodynamic equilibrium calculations, the team determined which elements and compounds would be gaseous at these alien temperatures.

“The vapor pressure of the liquid rock increases as you heat it, just as the vapor pressure of water increases as you bring a pot to boil,” Fegley says. “Ultimately this puts all the constituents of the rock into the atmosphere.”

The continental crust melts at about 940 C (1,720 F), Fegley says, and the bulk silicate Earth at roughly 1730 C (3,145 F). There are also gases released from the rock as it heats up and melts.

Their calculations showed that the atmospheres of both model Earths would be dominated over a wide temperature range by steam (from vaporizing water and hydrated minerals) and carbon dioxide (from vaporizing carbonate rocks).

The major difference between the models is that the BSE atmosphere is more reducing, meaning that it contains gases that would oxidize if oxygen were present. At temperatures below about 730 C (1,346 F) the BSE atmosphere, for example, contains methane and ammonia.

That’s interesting, Fegley says, because methane and ammonia, when sparked by lighting, combine to form amino acids, as they did in the classic Miller-Urey experiment on the origin of life.

At temperatures above about 730 C, sulfur dioxide would enter the atmosphere, Fegley says. “Then the exoplanet’s atmosphere would be like Venus’s, but with steam,” Fegley says.

The gas most characteristic of hot rocks, however, is silicon monoxide, which would be found in the atmospheres of both types of planets at temperatures of 1,430 C (2,600 F) or higher.

This leads to amusing possibility that as frontal systems moved through this exotic atmosphere, the silicon monoxide and other rock-forming elements might condense and rain out as pebbles.

Asked whether his team ever cranked the temperature high enough to vaporize the entire Earth, not just the crust and the mantle, Fegley admits that they did.

“You’re left with a big ball of steaming gas that’s knocking you on the head with pebbles and droplets of liquid iron,” he says. “But we didn’t put that into the paper because the exoplanets the astronomers are finding are only partially vaporized,” he says.

https://news.wustl.edu/news/Pages/24087.aspx

What Exactly Is A Blue Moon?

2012-08-01T00:16:00.001+01:00

By Robert T. Gonzalez

Have you heard? At the end of next month, you'll have a chance to witness a so-called "Blue Moon" with your very own eyes. But what does that mean, exactly?

You've probably heard the term "once in a Blue Moon" used to refer to rare events — but just how rare is a Blue Moon, really? And what's so special about them in the first place?

Here's what you need to know when it comes to Blue Moons. One: they aren't blue (or rather, no more or less blue than any other full Moon). And two: there's some disagreement over the definition of what a "Blue Moon" really is. For instance: if you're a purist, next month's Blue Moon isn't technically a Blue Moon at all.

Generally speaking, seasons and calendar months tend to match up pretty well, chronologically, with the phases of the moon. The year is divided up into four seasons, with three full Moons per season; or, alternatively, twelve months, with one full Moon per month.

But nature has a knack for falling out of sync with humanity's timekeeping methods. Consequently, sometimes one of the season will cram in four full Moons instead of three, giving rise to 13 full Moons in a year instead of the usual 12. This happens, on average, about once every 2.7 years.

Traditionally, it is the third full Moon in a season containing four full Moons that is referred to as a "blue" moon. It bears mentioning that, according to this definition, there is actually no Blue Moon in 2012. The summer season — i.e. the time between the summer solstice (June 21) and the vernal equinox (September 22) contains the standard three full Moons, as do the rest of the year's seasons. So why is everyone calling next month's Moon a blue one?

Because in 1946, the definition of Blue Moon was accidentally expanded to include instances where two full Moons occur in the span of a single calendar month. In cases such as these, the second full Moon of the month (not the third full Moon of a four full-Moon season) is referred to as a Blue Moon.

The newer definition makes it possible for a Blue Moon to occur even during a year with a normal seasonal distribution of full Moons. Interestingly, it also makes it possible for two Blue Moons to occur in a single calendar year. The last time this happened was in 1999, when there were two full Moons in January, two full Moons in March, and no full Moon in February. It also gives rise to weird geography- and timezone-dependent technicalities; this year, time zones east of UTC+09 will experience two full Moons in the month of September instead of August (once on September 1, and again on September 30th), which means that their Blue Moon will actually occur at the end of September, rather than the end of August.

So which definition is better? That depends on who you ask. Personally, I like EarthSky's stance on the issue:

In recent years, a controversy has raged — mainly among purists — about which Blue Moon definition is better. The idea of a Blue Moon as the third of four in a season may be older than the idea of a Blue Moon as the second full moon in a month. Is it better? Is one definition right and the other wrong? After all, this is folklore. So the folk get to decide, and, in the 21st century, both sorts of full moons have been called Blue.

Archeologists Unearth Extraordinary Human Sculpture In Turkey

2012-07-30T20:19:00.001+01:00

ScienceDaily (July 30, 2012) — A beautiful and colossal human sculpture is one of the latest cultural treasures unearthed by an international team at the Tayinat Archaeological Project (TAP) excavation site in southeastern Turkey. A large semi-circular column base, ornately decorated on one side, was also discovered. Both pieces are from a monumental gate complex that provided access to the upper citadel of Kunulua, capital of the Neo-Hittite Kingdom of Patina (ca. 1000-738 BC).

"These newly discovered Tayinat sculptures are the product of a vibrant local Neo-Hittite sculptural tradition," said Professor Tim Harrison, the Tayinat Project director and professor of Near Eastern Archaeology in the University of Toronto's Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations. "They provide a vivid glimpse into the innovative character and sophistication of the Iron Age cultures that emerged in the eastern Mediterranean following the collapse of the great imperial powers of the Bronze Age at the end of the second millennium BC."

The head and torso of the human figure, intact to just above its waist, stands approximately 1.5 metres in height, suggesting a total body length of 3.5 to four metres. The figure's face is bearded, with beautifully preserved inlaid eyes made of white and black stone, and its hair has been coiffed in an elaborate series of curls aligned in linear rows. Both arms are extended forward from the elbow, each with two arm bracelets decorated with lion heads. The figure's right hand holds a spear, and in its left is a shaft of wheat. A crescent-shaped pectoral adorns its chest. A lengthy Hieroglyphic Luwian inscription, carved in raised relief across its back, records the campaigns and accomplishments of Suppiluliuma, likely the same Patinean king who faced a Neo-Assyrian onslaught of Shalmaneser III as part of a Syrian-Hittite coalition in 858 BC.
The second sculpture is a large semi-circular column base, approximately one metre in height and 90 centimetres in diameter, lying on its side next to the human figure. A winged bull is carved on the front of the column and it is flanked by a sphinx on its left. The right side of the column is flat and undecorated, an indication that it originally stood against a wall.

"The two pieces appear to have been ritually buried in the paved stone surface of the central passageway through the Tayinat gate complex," said Harrison. The complex would have provided a monumental ceremonial approach to the upper citadel of the royal city. Tayinat, a large low-lying mound, is located 35 kilometres east of Antakya (ancient Antioch) along the Antakya-Aleppo road.

The presence of colossal human statues, often astride lions or sphinxes, in the citadel gateways of the Neo-Hittite royal cities of Iron Age Syro-Anatolia continued a Bronze Age Hittite tradition that accentuated their symbolic role as boundary zones, and the role of the king as the divinely appointed guardian or gate keeper of the community. By the ninth and eighth centuries BC, these elaborately decorated gateways, with their ornately carved reliefs, had come to serve as dynastic parades, legitimizing the power of the ruling elite. The gate reliefs also formed linear narratives, guiding their audiences between the human and divine realms, with the king serving as the link between the two worlds.

The Tayinat gate complex appears to have been destroyed following the Assyrian conquest of the region in 738 BC, when the area was paved over and converted into the central courtyard of an Assyrian sacred precinct. These smashed and deposited monumental sculptures also include a magnificently carved lion that was discovered last year and Hieroglyphic Luwian-inscribed stelae (stone slabs or pillars used for commemoratives purposes). Together these finds hint of an earlier Neo-Hittite complex that might have once faced the gateway approach.

Scholars have long speculated that the reference to Calno, identified as one of the "kingdoms of the idols" in Isaiah's oracle against Assyria (Isaiah 10:9-10), alludes to the Assyrian devastation of Kunulua (i.e., Tayinat). The destruction of the Luwian monuments and conversion of the area into an Assyrian religious complex may represent the physical manifestation of this historic event, subsequently memorialized in Isaiah's oracle, experts say.

Lucid Dreamers Help Scientists Locate The Seat Of Meta-Consciousness In The Brain

2012-07-29T04:45:00.000+01:00

Brain regions activated more strongly during lucid dreaming than in a normal dream. (Credit: MPI of Psychiatry)

ScienceDaily (July 27, 2012) — Studies of lucid dreamers show which centers of the brain become active when we become aware of ourselves in dreams.

Which areas of the brain help us to perceive our world in a self-reflective manner is difficult to measure. During wakefulness, we are always conscious of ourselves. In sleep, however, we are not. But there are people, known as lucid dreamers, who can become aware of dreaming during sleep. Studies employing magnetic resonance tomography (MRT) have now been able to demonstrate that a specific cortical network consisting of the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, the frontopolar regions and the precuneus is activated when this lucid consciousness is attained. All of these regions are associated with self-reflective functions. This research into lucid dreaming gives the authors of the latest study insight into the neural basis of human consciousness.

The human capacity of self-perception, self-reflection and consciousness development are among the unsolved mysteries of neuroscience. Despite modern imaging techniques, it is still impossible to fully visualize what goes on in the brain when people move to consciousness from an unconscious state. The problem lies in the fact that it is difficult to watch our brain during this transitional change. Although this process is the same, every time a person awakens from sleep, the basic activity of our brain is usually greatly reduced during deep sleep. This makes it impossible to clearly delineate the specific brain activity underlying the regained self-perception and consciousness during the transition to wakefulness from the global changes in brain activity that takes place at the same time.

Scientists from the Max Planck Institutes of Psychiatry in Munich and for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig and from Charité in Berlin have now studied people who are aware that they are dreaming while being in a dream state, and are also able to deliberately control their dreams. Those so-called lucid dreamers have access to their memories during lucid dreaming, can perform actions and are aware of themselves – although remaining unmistakably in a dream state and not waking up. As author Martin Dresler explains, “In a normal dream, we have a very basal consciousness, we experience perceptions and emotions but we are not aware that we are only dreaming. It’s only in a lucid dream that the dreamer gets a meta-insight into his or her state.”

By comparing the activity of the brain during one of these lucid periods with the activity measured immediately before in a normal dream, the scientists were able to identify the characteristic brain activities of lucid awareness.

“The general basic activity of the brain is similar in a normal dream and in a lucid dream,” says Michael Czisch, head of a research group at the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry. “In a lucid state, however, the activity in certain areas of the cerebral cortex increases markedly within seconds. The involved areas of the cerebral cortex are the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, to which commonly the function of self-assessment is attributed, and the frontopolar regions, which are responsible for evaluating our own thoughts and feelings. The precuneus is also especially active, a part of the brain that has long been linked with self-perception.” The findings confirm earlier studies and have made the neural networks of a conscious mental state visible for the first time.

Children Can Break Into Gun Safes With Paper Clips, Straws - Experts Warn

2012-07-28T06:41:00.000+01:00

* Security experts say some portable safes pose safety risk

* Show ways to break into safes at hacking conference

* Advise gun owners to buy larger safes from locksmiths

By Jim Finkle

LAS VEGAS, July 27 (Reuters) - Children can easily open some portable safes for hand guns with a light bounce or by inserting paper clips and straws, security experts at a hacking convention in Las Vegas warned on Friday.

"This is really scary. The manufacturer never contemplated this," said Marc Tobias, one of three lock security expert who demonstrated how to open the safes.

"It is not just one type of safe. It's a lot of them," he said during the Friday evening presentation at the 20th annual Def Con hacking conference.

Tobias began studying the security of gun safes after he was called in to help investigate the death of Ryan Owens, a 3-year-old in Vancouver, Washington, who was shot in 2010 with the service weapon of his father, an undercover police officer.

That weapon had been locked up in an inexpensive safe issued to the officer by the country sheriff's office. Tobias believes that Ryan or one of his siblings opened the safe and removed the weapon, due to a serious design flaw.

Following that investigation Tobias decided to look into the safety of a wide range of inexpensive gun safes.

The lock experts showed videos in which they opened gun safes costing between $75 to $200, all of which are made in China and sold through retailers including Wal-Mart Stores Inc and Dick's Sporting Goods Inc.

They were able to open one safe after they gently bounced it on a table by pushing up one corner with a finger. They opened up other safes after sticking paper clips, wires and straws into holes on top of them.

An audience of more than a thousand hackers and security experts applauded the research after viewing videos of the research. In one of them the 3-year-old son of lock expert Tobias Bluzmanis opened four safes. (Those videos are available at)

Hackers and security experts present research on security vulnerabilities at the annual gathering, often in an effort to warn the public about security risks and pressure manufacturers to address the problems.

Tobias and his colleagues, who work for the Security Laboratories of Investigative Law Offices, said they decided to disclose the vulnerabilities in gun safes so that parents would know that their children were at risk.

Altogether, they were able to break into 10 types safes, seven of which were made by privately held Stack-On of Wauconda, Illinois. Officials with Stack-On did not respond to a request for comment.

Wal-Mart spokeswoman Ashley Hardie said that the retailer had discussed the issue with Stack-On.

"According to Stack-On, the product mentioned is tested by a third-party independent lab and those results are submitted to the California Department of Justice for certification as meeting their safety standards for this category of products," she said.

Officials with Dick's Sporting Goods could not be reached for comment.

The lock security experts said that those California standards are not adequate for protecting safes from covert methods of entry such as the ones they had demonstrated at the hacking conference.

They said that consumers could protect against the vulnerabilities by avoiding portable gun safes altogether.

"They are boxes with locks on them. They are not safes," said Tobias.

He advised consumers to buy larger guns safes and to seek out advice from professional locksmiths as to which models are the most secure.

Historians Discover Medieval Banking Records Hidden Under Coats of Arms

2012-07-24T22:09:00.002+01:00

A rare accounting document, half-concealed beneath a coat of arms design, has revealed the activities of Italian bankers working in early 15th century London, decades before the capital became a financial powerhouse. (Credit: © College of Arms)

ScienceDaily (July 24, 2012) — A rare accounting document, half-concealed beneath a coat of arms design, has revealed the activities of Italian bankers working in early 15th century London, decades before the capital became a financial powerhouse. The discovery was made by economic historians at Queen Mary, University of London.

Among the pages of a bound collection of traditional English crests held at the London College of Arms -- the headquarters of British heraldry -- are several papers belonging to a book of debtors and creditors for Florentine merchant-banking company, Domenicio Villani & Partners.

The coats of arms are estimated to have been painted in 1480, during a time when good quality paper was scarce and anything that was available was re-used.

The banking records, only half-covered by the design, date from 1422-24 and hint at the extensive trade in wool and other commodities produced in Britain during the era.

Dr Francesco Guidi-Bruscoli, who is based at the University of Florence and also a Research Fellow at Queen Mary, and Professor Jim Bolton of Queen Mary's School of History have spent more than a decade working on the Borromei Bank Research Project, documenting the activity of Italian merchant bankers operating from London in the late medieval period.

Dr Guidi, who was alerted to the Villani ledger's location by QM historian, Professor Kate Lowe, comments: "What makes the discovery of these pages so surprising is that, usually, the foreign offices of the Florentine companies periodically sent the books back home so they could be checked.

"In this case, the books remained in London, where they gradually lost their documentary value and some 55 years later were considered scraps of good quality paper to be re-used for the drawing of coats of arms."

Cross-checks with documents held in the Florentine States Archives allowed Dr Guidi to identify the otherwise anonymous ledger. He has translated the documents from their original Italian, with the results of the find published earlier this year (but bearing the date of 2010) in the Italian journal Storia economica.

"It is not possible to reconstruct, from such a limited number of transactions, the full activities of the company to which the ledger belongs, but we can get an idea of the goods being traded in the London marketplace," Dr Guidi says. "Raw wool, woollen cloth and tin were popular exports, while we imported spices, dyes and other luxury goods."

By the late Middle Ages, Italian merchants had created far-reaching pan-European networks. Their business involved international trade, exchange by means of written instruments and loans to sovereigns and popes. England's trade in commodities, such as wool and woollen cloth, eventually led to the nation becoming the financial hub of the West, overtaking Italy in status.

Another research project on Italian bankers by Dr Guidi and colleagues at Bristol was recently published as 'EarlyView' in the academic journal Historical Research and attracted international attention after they discovered financial records demonstrating that the voyage made by the Venetian John Cabot under the patent of Henry VII of England was financed by Italian bankers (the London-based Florentine company of the Bardi). The same records refer to a journey towards "the new land," thus implying that the money was given to Cabot so that he could find previously discovered (or at least heard of) land.

Sequencing The Genome Of An Entire Population

2012-07-08T22:08:00.001+01:00

By: Rasmus Kragh Jakobsen

As the first country ever, the Faroe Islands are preparing to sequence the genetic material of its entire population. The FarGen project could become a model for personalised medicine throughout the world.

The ambitious Faroese FarGen project has set out to sequence the Faroese genome.

The project will be the first one in the world to map the genetic material of an entire population and will thereby bring the Faroes into the future of personalised genomics-based health systems.

“This is a joint community project and we will not only be creating a genetic biobank, but a completely new health system,” Bogi Eliasen said at the International Conference Copenhagenomics which recently held in Copenhagen.

Eliasen, the programme director of FarGen, points out that the project will resolve the Faroese's own unique genetic problems, future proof the health system in a small country with limited resources and lead the way globally.
Danish scientists are thrilled

"This is a very exciting project which can easily end up as a role model for the rest of the world," says Professor Torben Ørntoft, of the Molecular Diagnostic Laboratory at Skejby University Hospital in Aarhus.

“The vision is right and we will also be doing that here in Denmark,” he says. “Five years from now I think we’ll be mapping the genetic material of all patients entering the country’s hospitals.”

Professor Donald Børglum of the Institute of Biomedicine at the University of Aarhus agrees:

”This is something that many scientists across the world are working with, and for the Faroe Islands it is relatively straightforward,” he says.

“The great advantage with the Faroes is that it’s possible to find correlations between inheritance and disease – and the underlying disease mechanisms, which in the long term could provide better and more targeted treatment.”

Børglum adds that Denmark has a similar project, called Genome Denmark, in which he and his colleagues will map the Danish genetic material – initially 150 people by 2015.
New technology makes genome mapping cheaper

Genome sequencing is today’s big buzz word in scientific circles, and since the first sequencing of the human genome some ten years ago, the technology has seen a rapid development in which costs have dropped dramatically and the speed has exploded. The result is that it’s now possible to sequence a person’s genetic material for less than €3,000.

This makes it realistic to run such a comprehensive project on the Faroese population, which only counts around 50,000 people.

FarGen is similar to the Decode Genomics project that was launched in Iceland in the late 1990s.

But Decode is a commercial project, which has ‘only’ sequenced a representative sample of Icelanders, and which has so far not led to the development of any new drugs.

FarGen, on the other hand, is a publicly funded project which aims to sequence the genetic material of all citizens now and in the future, and is expected to play a key role in the efforts to improve public health.

In the Faroes, the Decode project sparked a heated debate as the Faroese were intended to be used as a control population.

Nothing came out of it, but the debate sowed some thoughts. One of the results was a new genetic regulatory framework, introduced in 2005 to protect the individual.
The interesting Faroese population

What’s particularly attractive about the Faroese population in this respect is that it is highly homogenous.

Most people know their ancestry back to the 1650s – some can even trace their family roots all the way back to the Vikings, who arrived on the islands some 1,000 years ago.

The islands have a public family tree, which is digitalised 200 years back in time.

All this makes it relatively easy to determine the genetic factors behind diseases.

But according to Eliasen, it’s the general framework that’s most important.

“It’s exciting with the isolated population, but the entire setup is interesting, since it makes it possible to study a host of different factors.”

He says that the Faroes are a small, compact and homogenous society without class or racial problems, that the country has a comprehensive digital health system, lots of health data and not least the genetic regulatory framework from 2005.

In short, this means that the Faroe Islands are uniquely positioned to be a model for the rest of the world.
Inspired by a Nobel Prize winner

“The technology is ready, but it needs to be tried and tested in a place where it can be controlled. And for that purpose, the Faroes are the only suitable place in the world,” he says.

This has been spotted by international scientists, and FarGen can now boast a scientific committee which is close to the top ten in genome research, where Nobel Prize winner James Watson, who at one time headed the international Human Genome Project, has been a major source of inspiration, according to Eliasen.

The funding, which is estimated at around €270,000-400,000, has not yet been finalised.

The programme director says that they are now ready to start sequencing the first 100 locals, after which they will sequence 5,000 genomes – a process expected to be completed by the end of 2013. This experience will be used to routinely sequence the remainder of the population, including newborns.
Distinctive Faroese diseases to be studied

The genome database will be used by doctors, who can look up the patient’s genetic material and for example check whether a certain drug will have side effects, or whether it’s right to provide preventive treatment for a hereditary disease.

But the benefits will probably be clear even before that time. The past few decades have shown that the Faroese have a high incidence of some otherwise rare hereditary diseases, and even the first 100 genomes will probably prove valuable in the efforts to unravel diseases that are more or less endemic in the population on the tiny island community.

“For a small country like the Faroe Islands there are some diseases that no-one else will study,” says Eliasen.
Success depends on the population

In the end, FarGen’s success depends on the goodwill of the population – on how many of them are willing to participate.

Eliasen is cautiously optimistic and says that genetics is already an important part of Faroese culture. For instance, the heart disease CTD (carnitine transport defect) has created awareness among the locals of the need for knowledge of the genomes.

http://sciencenordic.com/sequencing-genome-entire-population

Can We Blame The Brain?

2012-07-07T00:27:00.000+01:00

A Frenchman led a perfectly normal life for years, but a brain scan later revealed that his skull was nearly hollow. Neuroscientists use this as an extreme example of how misleading it can be to link brain images to behavior.

By: Marianne Nordahl
(Photo: from The Lancet article, “Brain of a white-collar worker”)

A 44-year-old man, who led an ordinary life with a job and a family, once sought medical attention for a weak leg.

The doctors decided that he should take a brain scan. That’s when they discovered how little was left of his brain – it was hollowed out with ventricular enlargements.

The man was the inspiration for the article Brain of a white-collar worker, published in the medical journal The Lancet in 2007.

He was found to have a below-average IQ, scoring no higher than 84 on a verbal IQ test and 70 on a performance IQ test. Nevertheless, he functioned a lot better than could be expected with so little brain tissue.

“If a photo like that had landed in my hands without my knowing anything about the person, I’d have guessed the individual was nearly dead, says brain researcher Siri Graff Leknes, of the Department of Psychology at the University of Oslo.

“This is an extreme example illustrating that we can’t necessarily determine the functionality of a person from the appearance of their brain structure,” she says.

The limits of neural examinations

Leknes thinks it’s acceptable to use neural examinations and brain scanning techniques as part of diagnosing a patient or of a defendant in a trial when psychiatric issues are involved.

But at the same time she thinks their limitations should be known with regard to how an individual functions, for instance in the trial of the Norwegian mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik.

The forensic psychiatrists appointed in the Breivik case actually wanted him to undergo a brain scan.

“I just want to emphasise that our assessments wouldn’t provide a wholly significant or satisfactory answer in cases like the current one, and it’s obvious that psychiatry can’t provide a definitive answer either,” says Leknes.

Why use brain scans in trials?

But what could have been attained by means of a scanning of the July 22 terrorist’s brain?

Nils Erik Gilhus, neurology professor at University of Bergen, thinks it would be very risky to link judicial issues to any given imaging of a person’s brain responses.

“Almost whatever their brain looks like, a person has a choice between doing right or wrong. An MR image of the brain cannot indicate the fate of a person or whether he did whatever he did because of the brain’s appearance. This would be to deprive a person of their responsibility for their actions,” he says.

Criminals could say they lacked free will
Siri Leknes, researcher at the University of Oslo. (Photo: Arnfinn Christensen, forskning.no)

Even if deviations were to be found in a person’s brain structure, forensic medicine would be hard pushed to determine any causal relationship between the way the accused person’s brain looked and whatever crime he or she committed, says Leknes.

“It might be tempting to think that irregularities or traces of damage to the brain caused the criminal action, but our measurements wouldn’t be able to prove any connection.”

Introducing such neural research into the judicial system could potentially become problematic if for instance you did detect a tumour in Breivik’s brain, treated it and shrunk it, she says.

“You could get scenarios where such things were exploited. Breivik could perhaps claim 'It was my brain that did it; the tumour caused the killings and the ideology – now all that is gone and I’m healthy and shouldn’t be punished.'"

Too much faith in neurological explanations?

Leknes believes that a legal argument in a courtroom could be granted too much significance and validity if it were supplemented with brain research.

In a research article in the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience from 2008, scientists investigated the phenomenon among people who weren’t versed in neuroscience.

“This research showed that laypersons believe in explanations when you add a completely irrelevant sentence about the brain,” says Leknes

“I suspect that in a court of law there would be the danger of over-interpreting any findings about the brain of the defendant.”

More accuracy in the future

A neuroscientist cannot determine whether a person is psychotic from that person’s brain images.

But in the future researchers hope one of the things that will emerge would be the capability of differentiating between various types of schizophrenia through use of brain research techniques.

“In the long run we can conceive of being able to use this in diagnostics,” says Leknes.

“We might for instance go so far as to say: your brain response looks so much like others with this diagnosis that you should have this specific treatment now.”

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Read the full story in Norwegian at forskning.no
Country Norway
Translated by
Glenn Ostling

Astronomers Discover Houdini-like Vanishing Act In Space

2012-07-06T03:28:00.000+01:00

Published: Thursday, July 5, 2012 - 16:05 in Astronomy & Space

Astronomers report a baffling discovery never seen before: An extraordinary amount of dust around a nearby star has mysteriously disappeared. "It's like the classic magician's trick -- now you see it, now you don't," said Carl Melis, a postdoctoral scholar at UC San Diego and lead author of the research. "Only in this case, we're talking about enough dust to fill an inner solar system, and it really is gone!"

"It's as if the rings around Saturn had disappeared," said co-author Benjamin Zuckerman, a UCLA professor of physics and astronomy. "This is even more shocking because the dusty disc of rocky debris was bigger and much more massive than Saturn's rings. The disc around this star, if it were in our solar system, would have extended from the sun halfway out to Earth, near the orbit of Mercury."

The research on this cosmic vanishing act, which occurred around a star some 450 light years from Earth, in the direction of the constellation Centaurus, appears July 5 in the journal Nature.

"A perplexing thing about this discovery is that we don't have a satisfactory explanation to address what happened around this star," said Melis, a former UCLA astronomy graduate student. "The disappearing act appears to be independent of the star itself, as there is no evidence to suggest that the star zapped the dust with some sort of mega-flare or any other violent event."

Melis describes the star, designated TYC 8241 2652, as a "young analog of our sun" that only a few years ago displayed all of the characteristics of "hosting a solar system in the making," before transforming completely. Now, very little of the warm, dusty material thought to originate from collisions of rocky planets is apparent.

"Nothing like this has ever been seen in the many hundreds of stars that astronomers have studied for dust rings," Zuckerman said. "This disappearance is remarkably fast, even on a human time scale, much less an astronomical scale. The dust disappearance at TYC 8241 2652 was so bizarre and so quick, initially I figured that our observations must simply be wrong in some strange way."

Norm Murray, director of the Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics, who was not part of the research group, said, "The history of astronomy has shown that events that are not predicted and hard to explain can be game-changers."

The dust had been present around the star since at least 1983 (no one had observed the star in the infrared before then), and it continued to glow brightly in the infrared for 25 years. In 2009, it started to dim. By 2010, the dust emission was gone; the astronomers observed the star twice that year from the Gemini Observatory in Chile, six months apart. An infrared image obtained by the Gemini telescope as recently as May 1 of this year confirmed that the warm dust has now been gone for two-and-a-half years.

Like Earth, warm dust absorbs the energy of sunlight and re-radiates that heat energy as infrared radiation.

Because so much dust had been orbiting around the star, planets very likely are forming there, said Zuckerman, whose research is funded by NASA.

The lack of an existing model for what is going on around this star is forcing astronomers to rethink what happens within young solar systems in the making. The dust likely resulted from a violent collision -- but that would not explain where it went. Was it somehow swallowed by the star?

"Although we've identified a couple of mechanisms that are potentially viable, none are really compelling," Melis said. "In one case, gas produced in the impact that released the dust helps to quickly drag the dust particles into the star and thus to their doom. In another possibility, collisions of large rocks left over from an original major impact provide a fresh infusion of dust particles into the disc, which then instigate a runaway process where small grains chip into oblivion both themselves and also larger grains."

Major dusty regions are known to exist in our own solar system and include the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter and another located beyond the orbit of Neptune. Nearly 30 years ago, NASA's Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) first discovered many similar regions orbiting other stars -- but no disappearing act like the one at TYC 8241 2652 has ever been seen during these three decades.

The research is based on multiple sets of observations of TYC 8241 2652 obtained with the Thermal-Region Camera Spectrograph on the Gemini South telescope in Chile, the IRAS, NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) satellite, NASA's Infrared Telescope on Mauna Kea in Hawaii, the Herschel Space Telescope of the European Space Agency (ESA), and AKARI (a Japanese/ESA infrared satellite).

"We were lucky to catch this disappearing act," Zuckerman said. "Such events could be relatively common, without our knowing it."

Co-authors of the Nature paper are Joseph Rhee, a former UCLA postdoctoral scholar in astronomy, who is now an astronomer at California State Polytechnic University in Pomona; Inseok Song, an assistant professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Georgia who also was a postdoctoral researcher at UCLA; and astronomers Simon Murphy and Michael Bessell at the Australian National University.

Source: University of California - Los Angeles

Adolf Hitler Protected His Jewish Former Commanding Officer

2012-07-05T21:02:00.003+01:00

Adolf Hitler made a personal intervention to spare a Jew from the Holocaust that consumed millions of Jewish lives it has been revealed

By Matthew Day

7:08PM BST 05 Jul 2012

Hitler made the dramatic intervention to protect Ernst Hess, his old company commander from the Flanders trenches of the First World War, who had risen to be a judge in post-war Germany.

In a letter from August 27, 1941 to the Dusseldorf Gestapo, Heinrich Himmler, one of the architects of the Final Solution, instructed the secret police to grant Hess "the relief and the protection as per the Fuhrer's wishes".

Himmler also instructed all authorities that Hitler's old comrade in arms was not "to be in-opportuned in any way whatsoever".

The letter was unearthed in a Gestapo file on Hess by Susanne Mauss, editor of the newspaper Jewish Voice from Germany.

Christened a protestant, Hess had a Jewish mother and that under Nazi race laws that made him "a full-blooded Jew", and a prime target for persecution and eventual destruction.

Before the letter Hess, a decorated war hero, had been beaten up by a Nazi gang in 1936 and forced to flee to Italy for a number of years.

Although Hitler would lapse, the letter protected Hess at a time when Germany's Jews were beginning to feel the full wrath of a regime bent on their destruction.

Hess's ties to Hitler were replicated in continuing good relations with other comrades-in-arms. Fritz Wiedemann, a former member of his unit, served as Hitler's personal adjutant from 1934 to 1939.

Through Wiedemann it appears Hess managed to get Hitler to allow him to transfer his pension to Italy and free himself from a Nazi law that forced Jews to carry the name Israel.

His high-level Nazi contacts also helped him a get a new passport in March 1939 that made no note of his Jewish classification.

However historians believe that the Hilter link had lost its utility by 1942.

As Jews across Europe were beginning to be dispatched to death camps in ever greater numbers, Hess only escaped deportation through his marriage to a German protestant.

It appears the Hess family became over-confident that its link to Hilter would keep them alive. Berta, his sister, had told people she "enjoyed the special protection of the Nazi party" but Adolf Eichmann, the logistic mastermind of the Holocaust, personally signed her deportation order.

Berta was deported and died in Auschwitz. Hess's mother, Elizabeth was also deported but survived.

Speaking to the Jewish Voice Hess's daughter Ursula, now 86, said her father had few memories of Hitler other than that he had no friends in the regiment.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/world-war-two/9379575/Adolf-Hitler-protected-his-Jewish-former-commanding-officer.html