Sleep gives brain disease warning

Physically "acting out" dreams when asleep could be an early warning sign of dementia or Parkinson's disease.

Canadian researchers studied 93 people with "REM sleep behaviour disorder", which can involve punching or kicking out while dreaming.

The Neurology study found more than a quarter were diagnosed with a degenerative brain condition over the next five years.

UK experts said the research could help doctors predict the condition.

Normally, during "Rapid Eye Movement", or "REM" sleep, our muscles relax and do not move, but people with certain sleep disorders are able to lash out, or cry out.

It is a known symptom of some kinds of brain disease, including Parkinson's disease, and a rare form of dementia called Lewy body dementia.

The exact reason for the link is unclear, although some have suggested that subtle damage to a part of the brain which regulates sleep may be responsible.

However, in some cases, the problem happens long before the onset of the main symptoms of these diseases, and doctors at Montreal General Hospital wanted to see whether apparently otherwise healthy people with the problem were at higher risk.

Their study volunteers were all elderly - on average 65 years old - which already put them at higher risk of developing dementia or Parkinson's compared with a younger person.

However, each was followed on average for five years, and in that period, 26 of the 93 developed a degenerative brain disease.

In total, 14 were diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, seven with Lewy body dementia, four with Alzheimer's Disease, and another diagnosed with a disorder called multiple system atrophy, which involves both Parkinson's and dementia symptoms.

High chance

Their predictions suggested that patients of this age with the same sleep disorder would have a greater than 50/50 chance of falling prey to a similar condition over the following 12 years.

The researchers said that knowing more about the risks faced by people with the sleep disorder could not only help doctors to advise their patients, but also to work in the years to come to come up with ways to protect them.

Dr Susanne Sorensen, head of research at the Alzheimer's Society, said that the findings were particularly interesting in relation to Lewy body dementia, which accounts for only 4% of dementia cases.

The researchers had said that even the four Alzheimer's cases might turn out to be Lewy body dementia as the disease progressed.

Dr Sorensen said: "People with Lewy body dementia often have vivid nightmares, restless sleep and hallucinations - this study suggests that people with the disease may experience sleep disorders years before their other symptoms develop.

"This important finding could boost our understanding of how Lewy body dementia develops and help us detect it early. With further research we may be able to stop this devastating disease in its tracks."

From: http://news.bbc.co.uk

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Cousin Marriage is OK by Science

In an age of sexual liberation, marriage between cousins remains taboo, at least in the United States — and from a scientific perspective, laws against the unions are a socially legitimized form of genetic and sexual discrimination.

That argument, raised Monday in an editorial in Public Library of Science Biology, may turn the stomachs of people raised to disapprove of any form of incest. But dispassioned analysis suggests that cousin marriage is no more troubling than childbearing by middle-aged women.

"Women over the age of 40 are not prevented from childbearing, nor is anyone suggesting they should be, despite an equivalent risk of birth defects," write zoologists Hamish Spencer and Diane Paul. Bans against cousin marriage, they say, should be repealed, "because neither the scientific nor social assumptions that informed them are any longer defensible."

Thirty-one states outlaw marriage between first cousins, making the United States the only developed country in which the practice is regularly banned. Most were passed in the Civil War's aftermath — not, say Spencer and Paul, to reduce the chance of defects caused by combinations of deleterious genes, but as part of a radical expansion of government authority over private lives.

"Unlike the situation in Britain and much of Europe, cousin marriage in the U.S. was associated not with the aristocracy and upper middle class but with much easier targets: immigrants and the rural poor," they write.

But their argument is far from consensus: in Forbidden Relatives: The American Myth of Cousin Marriage, Kansas State University anthropologist Martin Ottenheimer argues that the bans were driven by now-discredited 19th century research on birth defects among children born to first cousins.

Whatever their motivations, the laws are not supported by science. According to the National Society of Genetic Counselors, birth defects are 2 to 3 percent more common in children born to first cousins than among the general population — a real risk, but not enough to justify the bans.

"It's a form of discrimination that nobody talks about. People worry about not getting health insurance — but saying that someone shouldn't marry based on how they're related, when there's no known harm, to me is a form of discrimination," said Robin Bennett, a University of Washington genetic counselor who led the NSGC study.

Precise statistics on cousin-union frequency in the United States are hard to come by, she said, but discrimination and ignorance have serious consequences.

"I'm aware of people who have been afraid to tell people that they're in love with their cousins, who've become pregnant and potentially terminated a pregnancy based on false information," said Bennett. "Or they didn't marry the person they loved because of their concerns."

"The laws against cousin marriage are archaic, outdated and counterproductive," said Ottenheimer.

Repealing these laws doesn't seem likely in the near future: Gay marriage remains a more pressing issue. But anyone who wants to fight for cousin marriage won't have to fight against science.

"Ultimately it's a political question about what you allow individuals to do, and what that says about the structure of society," said Spencer.

By Brandon Keim
From: http://blog.wired.com

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4-year-old boy breaks into store to play with toys

Texas police responding to a store's burglar alarm found a less-than-hardened criminal inside: He was 4, and playing with the toys.

Detective Randy Stevens says the child apparently unlocked a door at his nearby home, got out, then crossed a street to reach the discount store.

Store surveillance video shows the unidentified boy trying one of the front doors to a Family Dollar store about 3 a.m. Monday, only to find it locked. But the second door was unlocked and the child went inside.

That triggered the silent alarm.

"When the officers got there, he was showing them his toys," said Officer Crystal Holmes.

Child Protective Services says the boy will be allowed to stay with extended relatives while they review the incident.

From: Perez Hilton

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Women may face greater HIV risk

Women having unsafe sex may be at more risk of HIV than thought after tests revealed the virus could breach even healthy vaginal tissue.

It had been believed that only damaged skin inside the vagina could provide a route to infection.

However, US-based researchers say HIV can get past this intact barrier within hours.

UK HIV charities said it reinforced the need for women to avoid unprotected sex unless their partner's health is known.

The lining of the vagina - the squamous epithelium - had been believed by many to be capable of keeping HIV at bay.

While transmission of the virus from men to women through unprotected sex is commonplace in many parts of the world, it was thought that HIV was most likely travelling through cuts or sores in the vaginal tract, or penetrating a much thinner layer of skin further up the reproductive tract.

The scientists from Northwestern University in Chicago found that, far from this being the truth, HIV could move quickly between the skin cells themselves.

The weak point, they said, occurs when skin cells are about to be shed, as the cells are no longer as tightly bound together.

Using HIV "tagged" with a marker which gives off light, they observed that, within four hours, the virus had reached a fraction of a millimetre below the surface.

At this depth, according to the researchers, it could encounter the immune cells it needed to invade to establish itself in the body.

Professor Thomas Hope, leading the research, said: "This is an important and unexpected result - we have a new understanding of how HIV can invade the female vaginal tract."

"We urgently need new prevention strategies or therapeutics to block the entry of HIV through a woman's genital skin."

Condom call

He said that while condoms were highly effective in blocking the virus, people often rejected them for cultural and other reasons.

Lisa Power, from the Terrence Higgins Trust said: "This is sadly not surprising, though it is an important finding.

"We have long known that it is easier for a man to transmit HIV sexually to a woman than for a woman to transmit it to a man and this helps us understand why.

"This will help in developing better prevention mechanisms - but until then, it's more clear than ever that a condom is a vital part of safer sex."

The charity AVERT echoed this advice, adding: "While there is evidence given by scientists that unprotected heterosexual sex is not as risky as other routes of HIV transmission, AVERT would still advocate the need for the use of condoms in all sexual encounters unless the HIV status of those involved was known.

"This study serves to strengthen that argument and will hopefully give weight to the need for safer heterosexual sex to be advocated further by governments and practitioners worldwide."

From: http://news.bbc.co.uk

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Man accused of stealing fridge with urine samples

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Authorities say a man was arrested for stealing a small refrigerator from a probation office used to store urine samples, including his own. The Alachua County Sheriff's Office said a 26-year-old man stole the fridge after testing positive for drug use. Police said he went to the office Sunday, shot out a window to get inside and removed the locked refrigerator.

Probation officers gave investigators a list of names of those whose drug samples were stored in the stolen fridge. Investigators tracked down the suspect at his home where they found shards of glass with blood on them.

The fridge is still missing, but the man was being held at the Alachua County jail. He's charged with arson, destroying evidence, burglary and larceny.

From: Perez Hilton

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Romantic Comedies spoil your love life

Watching romantic comedies can spoil your love life, a study by a university in Edinburgh has claimed.

Rom-coms have been blamed by relationship experts at Heriot Watt University for promoting unrealistic expectations when it comes to love.

They found fans of films such as Runaway Bride and Notting Hill often fail to communicate with their partner.

Many held the view if someone is meant to be with you, then they should know what you want without you telling them.

Psychologists at the family and personal relationships laboratory at the university studied 40 top box office hits between 1995 and 2005, and identified common themes which they believed were unrealistic.

The movies included You've Got Mail, Maid In Manhattan, The Wedding Planner and While You Were Sleeping.

The university's Dr Bjarne Holmes said: "Marriage counsellors often see couples who believe that sex should always be perfect, and if someone is meant to be with you then they will know what you want without you needing to communicate it.

"We now have some emerging evidence that suggests popular media play a role in perpetuating these ideas in people's minds.

"The problem is that while most of us know that the idea of a perfect relationship is unrealistic, some of us are still more influenced by media portrayals than we realise."
As part of the project, 100 student volunteers were asked to watch the 2001 romantic comedy Serendipity, while a further 100 watched a David Lynch drama.

Students watching the romantic film were later found to be more likely to believe in fate and destiny. A further study found that fans of romantic comedies had a stronger belief in predestined love.

Kimberly Johnson, who also worked on the study, said: "Films do capture the excitement of new relationships but they also wrongly suggest that trust and committed love exist from the moment people meet, whereas these are qualities that normally take years to develop."

The researchers have now launched an online study on media and relationships.

From: http://news.bbc.co.uk

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US man uses pizza in self-defense

A Florida pizza delivery man who was challenged by armed robbers in the city of Miramar got in first with his own weapon - a large pepperoni pizza.

Eric Lopez Devictoria, 40, flung the piping hot pizza at the gunman, then turned on his heels and ran.

He made a safe getaway, according to the Florida Sun-Sentinel, despite one shot being fired as he fled.

Police later arrested three teenage suspects, who have been charged with armed robbery.

From: http://news.bbc.co.uk

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Woman Jailed for Fake Kidnapping of her children

A Spanish woman has been found guilty of staging the fake kidnapping of her two children seven times in order to obtain ransom money from her husband.

Over five years, Josefa Sanchez Vargas conned her estranged husband out of more than 600,000 euros (£535,000), saying she had to pay the kidnappers.

But he eventually became suspicious, and hired a detective to investigate.

Sanchez Vargas has been jailed for three-and-a-half years. Two accomplices have also been given jail terms.

The provincial court in Madrid heard how she invented increasingly bizarre stories behind the kidnappings.

The first time, in 2001, she told her husband, identified only as Pedro GM, that strangers had broken into the family home to take her daughter and had demanded a ransom of 30,000 euros.

He then handed over another 48,000 euros the following year, believing the girl had been kidnapped again.

In 2003, Sanchez Vargas said her son had been kidnapped by clothing dealers to whom she owed money. Mr GM agreed to pay the "debt" of 36,000 euros.

Then in 2004, Mr GM paid out 54,000 euros, believing his son was being held by drug dealers.
In December and January, Sanchez Vargas obtained 180,000 euros from Mr GM, claiming that the boy had been seized by gypsies who were demanding blood money in exchange for the boy having sex with a 13-year-old in their family.

Finally, in September 2006, she claimed that her son had been grabbed in the street and asked Mr GM for 252,000 euros in ransom money. On that occasion, the boy himself called Mr GM to say he had been kidnapped.

However, by that time Mr GM had hired a private detective, Jose Antonio Novo, who saw the teenaged son chatting with friends shortly after he made the phone call.

"Pedro's family finally convinced him to hire someone because they didn't believe a word of the claims," the Telegraph newspaper quoted Mr Novo as saying.

Mr Novo said Mr GM was in love with Sanchez Vargas and did not want any harm to come to his family, reported Europa Press.

He said Mr GM still had very strong feelings for Sanchez Vargas, and as such had renounced any rights to reclaim the money.

From: http://news.bbc.co.uk

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19 Men charged for global porn links

Australian police have charged at least 19 men with being part of a global child pornography network involving people in 70 countries.

The investigation was prompted by a tip-off from Brazilian police.

The men who have been charged include a police officer, a senior lawyer and a childcare worker.

Some 500,000 images of child abuse and 15,000 videos were seized, and the Australian Federal Police said more arrests were expected later this week.

Some of the seized videos showed victims as young as 12 months old, while others showed children being abused for more than two hours.

"These are some of the worst images, I must say, that the Federal Police have ever seen," Australian Federal Police Deputy Commissioner Andrew Colvin told reporters.

Children saved

The Australians said that information supplied by Brazil to the international policing network, Interpol, had helped identify more than 200 suspects in 70 countries.

At least two children had been removed from harm as a result of the investigation, police said.

Although it is difficult to identify the victims of abuse, they appear to be based primarily in Eastern Europe, and North and South America, according to the BBC correspondent in Sydney, Nick Bryant.

All the charges relate to accessing the images over the internet, using what is called a peer-to-peer network.

The method allows members to share files without going through a central network server, avoiding filters operated by internet service providers, making the crime harder to detect.

But Australian Federal Police Assistant Neil Gaughan said law enforcement officers did have ways "we can get in and infiltrate these type of applications".

The charged men each face a potential 10-year sentence for possessing child abuse material.

From: http://news.bbc.co.uk

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Virtual world for Muslims debuts

A trial version of the first virtual world aimed at the Muslim community has been launched.

Called Muxlim Pal, it allows Muslims to look after a cartoon avatar that inhabits the virtual world.

Based loosely on other virtual worlds such as The Sims, Muxlim Pal lets members customise the look of their avatar and its private room.

Aimed at Muslims in Western nations, Muxlim Pal's creators hope it will also foster understanding among non-Muslims.

"We are not a religious site, we are a site that is focused on the lifestyle," said Mohamed El-Fatatry, founder of Muxlim.com - the parent site of Muxlim Pal.

"This is for anyone who is remotely interested in the Muslim culture and the Muslim lifestyle," he said.

"From what we have seen from our market research is that most Muslims have a lifestyle that is not so different from everybody else," he said. "They all share the core values which are from Islam then beyond that they actually have made identities, they have many interests."

Mr El-Fatatry said Muxlim.com had 26 different categories of content, only one of which was religion. He said he hoped it would help Muslims meet and talk to others that shared their interests.

This is nowhere near the vision of where it will be someday
Mohamed El-Fatatry, Muxlim.com

Those joining the site will get to control the life of a cartoonish avatar or pal that they can then use as a proxy to explore the Muxlim Pal virtual world - which has a beach bar, arena and shopping areas.

Character development

The pal or avatar that members control has several "meters" governing its happiness, fitness, knowledge and spirituality that change when the character carries out tasks in the social world.

"How it differs from The Sims is that it is social," said Mr El-Fatatry. "So you can actually be with other people at the same time, interact, and see what their characters are doing."

The browser-based virtual world can be used for free but alongside will go some premium services that will help users do more with their avatar and personal room.

Those joining Muxlim Pal get a few virtual coins to spend in the online world's shops - to clothe their avatar or decorate their room. Real cash can be used to buy more virtual coins. So far no exchange rates have been given for swapping real for virtual coins.
Mr El-Fatatry said the impetus to create Muxlim Pal grew out of observing what Muxlim.com's 1.5m monthly users spent most time on.

He said: "We were seeing that our users were enjoying certain character developing elements of Muxlim.com, and as no other virtual world offers a family-friendly environment for our community, we felt there was a need to cater for the people who were being left out."

Mr El-Fatatry said because the trial version was only six months old it was likely to change significantly before the public launch in 2009. Muxlim was investigating whether members want to be able to create their own content, such as chairs or clothes, and be able to share those with other users.

"This is nowhere near the vision of where it will be someday," he said. "It is very important to put things out and listen to how people interact with it. What feedback they give us and then that will play a big role in which direction we take the product in."

From: http://news.bbc.co.uk

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Inside a US sex addiction clinic

Like alcohol, drugs, and gambling, sex can become addictive too.

Celebrities Russell Brand and David Duchovny threw a spotlight on sex addiction by checking into rehabilitation centres in the States to get treatment for it.

Last year, Newsbeat discovered that sex addiction was a growing problem among men in the UK.

80% of the sex therapists we contacted said an increasing number of males were asking for help with sex addiction.

Today there are more than eight clinics in America offering specialist treatment to those who suffer from the disorder.

Newsbeat was given exclusive access to one of them.

The Life Healing Centre (LHC) is in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and it offers two sex addiction programmes: one for men and the other for women.

The centre is based at the top of a mountain range.

It's 7,500ft (2,286m) above sea level. The high altitude can make people feel light headed for a while.

From the balcony on campus, you can see nothing but mountains and desert.

Lose control

Rob Weiss is an addiction specialist. He created the sex addiction programme at LHC.

He said: "Sex addicts are people who lose control over healthy sexual choices.
"They say things to themselves like, 'I'm not going to go to that place for sex' or 'I'm not going to see that person for sex' but they continue to do it anyway.

"They show behaviours that are common to all addicts and they show consequences and thinking that is common to all addicts."

According to Mr. Weiss, 80% of sex addicts in the US are men.

It is impossible to say how many sex addicts there are though, as many don't admit to having the problem.

Psychologist and author Doctor Patrick Carnes, who has done substantial research in the area, estimates three to 5% of Americans suffer from the disorder.

Their behaviour can vary from compulsively watching porn online to visiting prostitutes at every opportunity.

Andy is 31 and is enrolled in the programme. He claims to have been a sex addict for years.
He said: "I was compulsive self-pleasuring, using pornography, going to prostitutes and having people sexually abuse and torture me for my pleasure."

His addiction got so out of control that he was unable to walk for a month after a dominatrix severely sexually abused him at his request.

"I was the masochist. Once I was so physically harmed because I'd taken it to an extreme level," he added.

Talking

So what goes on at this clinic which claims to cure sex addicts like Andy?

At LHC they focus on communication. Through hours of self-evaluation, the therapists and councillors attempt to get to the bottom of the cause of the addiction.

They believe in trauma exploration because many of the addicts have difficult pasts ranging from child abuse to problematic up-bringings.

The group sessions focus on reducing the shame in patients which goes along with the disorder.

The male addicts at LHC explained their addiction as being a force that was too great to control.
But Phillip Hodson, fellow of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, disagrees and says sex is about choices.

He said: "We think that sex addiction is not a proper definition.

"I mean it's up to you whether you go out and have sex with somebody.

"You have a choice or you stay in and watch EastEnders."

He thinks the condition would be better described as compulsive, obsessive or greedy.

Rob Weiss understands the scrutiny that comes with the term "sex addiction" but argues that it is a genuine problem and not just a glamorous term for someone who has a high sex drive.

He said: "I never think of sex addiction as being glamorous.

"The people I work with are often engaging in acts that they themselves aren't comfortable with.

"They hate themselves often for the types of places they go to and the behaviours they engage in.

"No sex addict would describe their behaviour as glamorous."

A 35-day programme at the centre doesn't come cheap.

It costs around £20,000. Doug is a sex addict and has been in rehab for several weeks.

He said: "As far as the number of women I've been with, it runs in the hundreds. I don't count.

"But now I hope to live a normal life, and have a normally functioning sex life."

By Sima Kotecha
From: http://news.bbc.co.uk/

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Man Says Wife Was Accidentally Shot During Sex

SPRINGFIELD, Ohio — A Tri-State woman is in critical condition Wednesday after police say her husband shot her while they were having sex.

Timothy Havens, 38, told Springfield police he was reaching for something on the nightstand when the pistol went off, hitting his estranged wife Carolyn in the upper chest. (Hear part of the 911 call)

Carolyn Havens, 42, is being treated at Miami Valley Hospital in Dayton.

This is isn't the first time there's been trouble for the Havens. Court documents showed Timothy served 60 days in jail for assaulting his wife and was ordered to go to anger management classes.

His arrest Tuesday for the weekend shooting was for violating a civil protection order that Carolyn had taken out against him earlier this year.

Bond was set at $75,000 after prosecutors asked for a high bond, "due to alleged prohibited contact between the parties (and) the suspicious nature of the circumstances surrounding (her injury)."

From: Perez Hilton

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Presidential video game to hit retail shelves

LOS ANGELES – President-elect Barack Obama faces many difficult tasks when he enters the White House, and now people who want to face similar challenges can give the U.S. presidency a try, too, in a video game.

Game maker Eversim will start selling "Commander in Chief" on January 20, when Obama is sworn in as president, the company said on Monday.

"Commander in Chief" is played on a three-dimensional world map, and contestants must pick a cabinet then tackle problems ranging from terrorism to economic woes.

The game is also available in several countries around the world, including Spain where it is called "Yo Presidente."

From: www.abs-cbnnews.com

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Test reveals dogs gets jealous

Scientists in Austria say they have found a basic form of jealousy in dogs.

The Vienna-based researchers showed that dogs will stop doing a simple task when not rewarded if another dog, which continues to be rewarded, is present.

Writing in the journal PNAS, the scientists say this shows a sensitivity in dogs that was only previously found in primates.

The researchers now plan to extend their experiments to look at co-operative behaviour in wolves.

The experiment consisted of taking pairs of dogs and getting them to present a paw for a reward. On giving this "handshake" the dogs received a piece of food.

One of the dogs was then asked to shake hands, but received no food. The other dog continued to get the food when it was asked to perform the task.

Reward value

The dog without the reward quickly stopped doing the task, and showed signs of annoyance or stress when its partner was rewarded.

To make sure that the experiment was really showing the interaction between the dogs rather than just the frustration of not being rewarded, a similar experiment was conducted where the dogs performed the task without the partner. Here they continued to present the paw for much longer.
Dr Frederike Range from the department of neurobiology and cognition research at the University of Vienna, says this shows that it was the presence of the rewarded partner which was the greater influence on their behaviour.

"The only difference is one gets food and the other doesn't, they are responding to being unequally rewarded." she said.

The researchers say this kind of behaviour, where one animal gets frustrated with what is happening with another, has only been observed in primates before.

Studies with various types of monkeys and chimpanzees show they react not only to seeing their partners receiving rewards when they are not, but also to the type of reward.

The dog study also looked at whether the type of reward made a difference. Dogs were given either bread or sausage, but seemed to react equally to either. Dr Range says this may be because they have been trained.

"It's through the fact they have to work for the reward, this confers it with a higher value," she said.

Evolution

The researchers say this behaviour, reacting to others receiving rewards, may represent an earlier stage in the evolution of co-operative behaviours seen in human and primates.

"I think it's a precursor, simpler than in humans, it's a selfish behaviour, they don't react to seeing others treated unfairly. With humans they react, say it's unfair, we can't see anything like that in the dogs," said Dr Range.
The researchers say the type of behaviour exhibited in the experiment is probably due to the dog's close association with humans. Dr Range says other animals need to be studied to really show how animals naturally exhibit jealousies or cooperate.

"I'm sure that it's not something that evolved with the dogs, we will have to test it in wolves and other cooperating species," she said.

Dr Range is currently rearing wolf cubs in order to perform similar experiments. She says the wolves will be able to do the paw test, but that it is really the wrong experiment. She regards this as something unnatural, that dogs are taught by their owners.

"They can give the paw, but it's not the right test. We must take the human out of the equation, then we can compare directly wolves with dogs."

From: http://news.bbc.co.uk/

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Facebook Hit by Koobface Virus

Rumors swirled around the Twitterverse yesterday that Facebook had been hacked. McAfee Avert Labs Blog says that while Facebook has not been hacked, it does have a virus spreading across its millions of users.
The virus is a variant of the social networking virus Koobface. The virus is spread by sending fake messages around Facebook accounts. The message looks like this (photo credits to McAfee):



If a user ends up following that link, they are taken to a site with a flash video player. The virus then alerts the user that their Flash software is out of date. The virus than prompts the user to download the latest version, and if the user accepts, it downloads the virus onto their computer. Finally, the user receives an error message once the virus is installed saying there was a problem installing their Flash update.

Facebook is aware of the problem, and asks users who have received the virus message to reset their password and scan their computers for the virus.

by Taylor Pratt
From: www.marketingpilgrim.com

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Farewell To Lo Hwei Yen

SINGAPORE: Family, friends and Singaporeans from all walks of life gathered at the Church of Saint Teresa on Thursday to bid a final farewell to Lo Hwei Yen who was killed by terrorists in Mumbai last week.

Gloomy skies greeted the cortege as it made its way into the church.

Ms Lo's husband, Michael Puhaindran, delivered a moving eulogy where he shared his fondest memories of her and how they had intended to start a family next year.

He also recalled how the pleasure of family and friends gave her great joy, adding that Ms Lo would not want them to grieve her passing but to celebrate her life.

By: Cheryl Lim
From: www.channelnewsasia.com

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The truth about amnesia

World-famous amnesiac Henry Gustav Molaison died Tuesday of respiratory failure. Better known as "H.M.," he had been unable to form new memories since undergoing brain surgery in 1953 at age 27. Do amnesiacs realize that they're amnesiacs?

Yes, usually. Whether they lose their memory through physical brain damage or psychological trauma, most amnesiacs—or "amnesics," in professional terminology—have some awareness of their condition. But it depends on how intact their brains are overall. Amnesia usually results from damage to the hippocampus, part of the brain's medial temporal lobe, which is responsible for short-term memory. When only the hippocampus is affected, patients tend to be aware of their state. In H.M.'s case, for example, his entire hippocampus was surgically removed, but most of the rest of his brain remained functional. So when asked who the president was, he might say, "I'm sorry, but my memory isn't very good." (One of his amygdalae, which govern emotions, was also removed, which some experts said explained his unemotional, matter-of-fact manner.) If, however, the entire brain is damaged, a patient may be unaware of his memory loss. That's why people who suffer from advanced Alzheimer's, which affects the whole brain, often don't recognize their condition.

There are two main types of amnesia: retrograde and anterograde. Retrograde means you lose your memories from before the surgery, injury, or whatever incident caused the memory loss. One famous retrograde case is Doug Bruce, the subject of the film Unknown White Male who said he "awakened" one day on the subway in New York and didn't know who he was. Anterograde means you lose the ability to form new memories but can still recall things from before the inciting event. That was the case with H.M., who could remember scattered childhood memories.
It's generally easier for retrograde amnesics to become aware of their condition since they can create and retain new memories, including the realization that they have a bad memory. For anterograde amnesics, awareness varies depending on the severity of their condition. In extreme cases, a patient will become aware of his amnesia only if someone brings it to his attention—but he'll promptly forget. For example, Clive Wearing, a British musician who suffers from herpes encephalitis (an infection that attacks the brain) is in a constant state of thinking he just woke up. Nearly every entry of his journal says, in one way or another, "I am awake." When shown past entries, he denies he wrote them. He gets upset when confronted with his condition. The professionals who tend to him are therefore trained to speak only in the immediate present, without any indication that they already know him. In less severe cases, patients will become aware of their condition on their own although it's unclear exactly how. It may be through the brute repetition of fact. Or it may be the contrast between their current fuzziness and the richness of their pre-incident memories that helps them recognize their condition.

By Christopher Beam
From: www.slate.com

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Man uses candy cane to subdue attacker with knife

A man using a candy cane lawn ornament fended off a knife-wielding neighbor who had been attacking holiday guests at a Sacramento home. Police spokesman Sgt. Norm Leong said the man used the two-foot-tall plastic ornament to subdue the attacker until officers arrived.

He said the 49-year-old suspect became intoxicated, went over to a neighbor's home on Thanksgiving and began waving a kitchen knife at people gathered on the lawn.

He cut several peoples' clothing before one of them decided to fight back.

Police said the man with the knife was arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon. The guest who took up the candy cane was not arrested because police determined he acted in self-defense.

From: Perez Hilton

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Bratz loses battle versus Barbie

Bratz dolls are facing removal from all shops after a US federal court banned parent company MGA Entertainment from making the Barbie-rival.

The court issued the order after Barbie-maker Mattel, won a landmark copyright-infringement case against MGA in August.

Bratz designer Carter Bryant had been found guilty of developing the Bratz brand while still working for Mattel.

MGA has appealed the ruling, which severely undermines its business model.

A federal judge in California banned MGA from selling and making all 40 multi-ethnic dolls in the Bratz line.

But it allowed the company to wait until after Christmas to begin removing dolls from the shelves.

The ruling "underscores that MGA should not be allowed to profit from its wrongdoing", said Mattel, the world's biggest toymaker.

Mattel was awarded up to $100m (£68m) in August, in the ruling of the initial copyright infringement case.

Mr Bryant himself reached a confidential settlement with Mattel on the eve of the trial.

"In the most dire scenario, MGA can't sell Bratz at all and a humongous chunk of their business disappears," said Sean McGowan, analyst at Needham & Co.

"But it's likely they will work out a way for MGA to stay in business and Mattel to profit," he added.

The Bratz brand has been blamed for falls in Barbie sales since being first sold in 2001. The large-headed, multi-ethnic, urban fashion dolls were estimated to be making profits of about $500m a year for MGA.

Head-to-head

Mattel, the world's biggest toymaker, won the case after claiming that Mr Bryant had designed the Bratz dolls while he was still in the employment of Mattel. The toymaker claimed that under the terms of his contract it had ownership of his designs.

Mr Bryant worked for Mattel between 1995 and April 1998 and then again from January 1999 to September 2000, and MGA argued that it was between these time frames that Mr Bryant had come up with the designs.

MGA has striven to highlight the originality of its bestselling Bratz dolls, pointing out the originality of its additions, branding and packaging.

Once the most famous doll, Barbie has ceded ever more popularity to her rival upstarts.

Barbie's worldwide gross sales fell 6% between April and June 2008 as the company's net profit fell 48% to $11.8m. Barbie sales in the US were down 21%.

From: http://news.bbc.co.uk

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Intelligent men have better sperm

Men of higher intelligence tend to produce better quality sperm, UK research suggests.

A team from the Institute of Psychiatry analysed data from former US soldiers who served during the Vietnam war era.

They found that those who performed better on intelligence tests tended to have more - and more mobile - sperm.

The study, which appears in the journal Intelligence, appears to support the idea that genes underlying intelligence may have other biological effects too.


"This does not mean that men who prefer Play-Doh to Plato always have poor sperm"
Dr Rosalind Arden
Institute of Psychiatry

Therefore, if tiny mutations impair intelligence, they might also harm other characteristics, such as sperm quality.

Conversely, people with robust genes might be blessed with a biological "fitness factor" making them fit, healthy and smart.

Previously, scientists tended to assume that lifestyle factors were more likely to underlie any relationship between intelligence and health.

For instance, brighter people may be less likely to smoke, and more likely to take exercise, both of which are known to impact on mental performance.

Different characteristics

The latest study tested the gene theory by taking two characteristics that seemed unlikely to be associated with each other - intelligence and sperm quality.

They found a small, but statistically significant link, and were able to show that this could not be explained by unhealthy habits, such as smoking or drinking alcohol.

The study was based on 425 men who undertook several intelligence tests and provided semen samples.

The researchers found that independently of age and lifestyle, intelligence was correlated with all three measures of sperm quality - numbers, concentration, and ability to move.

Lead researcher Dr Rosalind Arden said: "This does not mean that men who prefer Play-Doh to Plato always have poor sperm: the relationship we found was marginal.

"But our results do support the theoretically important 'fitness factor' idea.

"We look forward to seeing if the results can be replicated in other data sets, with other measures of intelligence and other measures of physical health that are also strongly related to evolutionary fitness."

Dr Allan Pacey is an expert in fertility at the University of Sheffield.

He said: "The fact that it's possible to detect a statistical relationship between intelligence and semen quality in adult men probably says more about the co-development of brain and testicles when the man was in his mother's womb, and therefore how well they both function in adult life, rather than suggesting that playing Sudoku can somehow stimulate more sperm to be produced.

"The improvement in semen quality with intelligence observed in this paper is small and therefore it is unlikely to have a big impact on the ability of men of different intelligences to conceive."

The semen samples were collected in 1985 by the US Centers for Disease Control as part of a large-scale study into the health of US soldiers who served during the Vietnam Era. Some of the men in the sample had served in Vietnam, some had served in Germany, Korea and the USA.

From: http://news.bbc.co.uk

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Brain tests show child wealth gap

The brains of children from low-income families process information differently to those of their wealthier counterparts, US research suggests.

Normal nine and 10-year-olds from rich and poor backgrounds had differing electrical activity in a part of the brain linked to problem solving.

The Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience study was described as a "wake-up call" about the impact of deprivation.

A UK researcher said it could shed light on early brain development.

The 26 children in the study, conducted at the University of California, Berkeley, were measured using an electroencephalograph (EEG), which measured activity in the "prefrontal cortex" of the brain.

Half were from low income homes, and half from high income families.

During the test, an image the children had not been briefed to expect was flashed onto a screen, and their brain responses were measured.

Those from lower income families showed a lower prefrontal cortex response to it than those from wealthier households.

We are certainly not blaming lower socioeconomic families for not talking to their kids - there are probably a zillion reasons why that happens
Prof Thomas Boyce
University of California Berkeley

Dr Mark Kishiyama, one of the researchers, said: "The low socioeconomic kids were not detecting or processing the visual stimuli as well - they were not getting that extra boost from the prefrontal cortex."

Since the children were, in health terms, normal in every way, the researchers suspected that "stressful environments" created by low socioeconomic status might be to blame.

Previous studies have suggested that children in low-income families are spoken to far less - on average hearing 30 million fewer words by the age of four.

Talking boost

Professor Thomas Boyce, another of the researchers, said that talking more to children could boost prefrontal cortex development.

"We are certainly not blaming lower socioeconomic families for not talking to their kids - there are probably a zillion reasons why that happens."

His colleague, Professor Robert Knight, added: "This is a wake-up call - it's not just that these kids are poor and more likely to have health problems, but they might actually not be getting full brain development from the stressful and relatively impoverished environment associated with low socioeconomic status."

He said that with "proper intervention and training", improvements could be made, even in older children.

Dr Emese Nagy, from the University of Dundee, said that it was a "pioneering" study which could aid understanding of how environment could affect brain development.

She said: "Children who grow up in a different environment may have very different early experiences, and may process information differently than children from a different environment.

"The study showed that low socioeconomic status children behaved exactly the same way as high socioeconomic status children, but their brain processed the information differently."

From: http://news.bbc.co.uk

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Nokia launches 'iPhone killer' - N97

Nokia today unveiled its new flagship phone, the N97, which is clearly meant to compete with the iPhone and Google's Android platform. Unlike the iPhone, however, the N97 has a full slide-out QWERTY keyboard. In terms of its other hardware features, the N97 also clearly outperforms the iPhone. The N97 supports up to 48 GB of storage, including the 32 GB that are already built-in. The phone has a 5 megapixel camera and its GPS is capable of giving turn-by-turn directions. The resolution of the phone's 16:9 touchscreen is 640x360.
Location

The phone will also be able to make use of Nokia's updated mapping product, which will feature 3D landmarks and, according to Nokia, is more versatile than Google Maps. These new maps themselves pose a major challenge to Google, as Nokia will, at some point in the near future, allow users to point their phones at a building and get relevant information (and presumably advertising) about that building on their phone.
Interface

Of course, the iPhone's real advantage (as well as that of any Android phone) was never its hardware, but its operating system and the overall elegance of its user interface. It is hard to say where the N97 falls here based on the videos we have seen so far. Earlier Nokia N-series phones also featured extremely capable hardware, but the operating system made it extremely hard to make good use of these features. In terms of software, Nokia does have one ace up its sleeve, and that is the N97's ability to play Flash videos and games. The OS also supports copy and paste, which is still sorely missing on the iPhone.
Widgets

The main feature of the phone's touch-enhanced Symbian OS is its support for widgets, which will be open for third-party developers and are available for download through an application on the phone itself. Nokia calls the N97 a 'mobile computer,' and a lot of its success will surely depend on the applications that third-party developers will develop for the phone. Apple's App store already features over 10,000 native applications, so Nokia definitely has to play catch-up here.

We have to say that the phone's hardware and user interface look extremely slick. Of course, we haven't been able to get our hands on one yet, and the demo video is nice, but as we know from Apple's ads, these videos can be quite deceptive as well.

Overall, the N97 looks like a formidable challenger (especially with regards to its hardware specs), but much of its success will depend on the quality and ease of use of its user interface.

Written by Frederic Lardinois
From: www.readwriteweb.com

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Facebook moves closer to conquering the web

The data portability wars may now be in full swing, and Facebook has taken an early lead with the launch of Facebook Connect, a service that lets users log onto other websites through Facebook and view their friends' activities on those sites.

Some of the third-party websites partnering with the social network include Digg, Twitter, Citisearch and CBS, with the Discovery Channel, San Francisco Chronicle, Hulu and the genealogy network Geni expected to join soon, according to The New York Times.

There is no financial agreement between Facebook and the websites using Facebook Connect, with the only benefit being increased traffic. There are currently no plans to explore advertising potential with Connect, but of course Facebook will now have even more information about which websites its users visit, creating the possibility for better-targeted ads.

The launch of Facebook Connect is the latest chapter in the growing war between Facebook, Google and MySpace as all three companies vie to become a digital hub of sorts, where users update and manage their profiles and information across the web.

All three web giants announced their initiatives in May, and Facebook fired the first shot in the war shortly after when it said it would not participate in Google's Friend Connect because of privacy concerns. MySpace, meanwhile, is working closely with Google to make sure its services are compatible.

The battle for third-party partners is intense as well. When MySpace announced its own data portability project, it named Twitter as a partner. But according to TechCrunch, the micro-blogging service will actually integrate with Facebook first.

Facebook has also taken the utmost caution in launching Connect, largely because of the criticism it received for its Beacon program a year ago. This time around, the social network put its users' privacy at the forefront.

"We want to make the experience as lightweight and easy to use as possible," said Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg. "But we also have to make sure that people understand what’s going on and have control over it."

By Rich Cherecwich
From: www.imediaconnection.com

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YouTube and Ning cracking down on Sexy

YouTube is trying to clean up its act by cracking down on sexually explicit videos that are just short of porn and spam videos with misleading titles and descriptions. (Porn has always been grounds for removal). On its most visited pages, YouTube will now apply a “stricter standard for mature content” and demote sexually explicit or graphic videos from its “most viewed,” “top favorited,” and other popular pages. Also, thumbnails will now be algorithmically selected.

These new standards are not just about YouTube trying to class itself up. The more it polices itself, the less likely that Congress or the FCC will try to police it in the future. (For the FCC, its jurisdiction would probably be limited to mobile devices that access the Web over cellular networks).

But the bigger consideration may simply be to get rid of what amount to spam videos taking over YouTube. If you are looking for puppy videos, you are probably not looking for a video with a lady in lingerie and bunny ears that is actually an ad for a porn site. (Or maybe you are, but in that case you should be searching for “lady bunny”). This is a real example, but I’m not going to link to it.

YouTube isn’t the only social media site cracking down on the sexy stuff. Build-your-own social network Ning will no longer allow “adult social networks” starting in January, even if they are legal. The advertisers Ning (and YouTube) are trying to lure, just don’t like being associated with that type of content. Ning CEO Gina Bianchini explains in a blog post:

Adult social networks don’t pull their own weight. Specifically, they require other social networks to work harder because they don’t generate enough advertising or premium service revenue to cover their costs. Plus, our ad partners aren’t big fans of the adult networks and therefore require us to identify adult networks or risk our healthy advertising revenue. We don’t want to be in the policing business and, unchecked, that’s where this is heading.

She also notes that legal adult social networks create more work for Ning by receiving “a disproportionate number of DMCA take down notices” and they also attract more illegal adult social networks. I guess, it’s like the broken car windows theory—small infractions lay the groundwork for bigger problems. Perhaps YouTube is thinking along the same lines.

by Erick Schonfeld
From: www.techcrunch.com

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Mumbai Police to Use 'Truth Serum' on Captured Terrorist

Indian police interrogators are preparing to administer a "truth serum" on the sole Islamic militant captured during last week's terror attacks in Mumbai to settle once and for all the question of where he is from.

The mystery of the man dubbed "the baby-faced gunman" has weighed heavily on India's relations with Pakistan as the nuclear-armed neighbors dispute each other's accounts of his origin.

Police interrogators in Mumbai told The Times that they have "verified" that Azam Amir Kasab, who was captured after a shoot-out in a Mumbai railway station on Wednesday night, is from Faridkot, a small village in Pakistan's impoverished south Punjab region. They say that the nine dead gunmen are also Pakistani.

Disputing that account, President Asif Ali Zardari of Pakistan was quoted by cable news as saying, "We have not been given any tangible proof to say that he is definitely a Pakistani. I very much doubt it -- that he is a Pakistani."

He added: "The gunmen plus the planners, whoever they are, [are] stateless actors who have been holding hostage the whole world."

Proof that the militants were Pakistani would rapidly escalate the pressure on Mr Zardari's government to take action or risk a backlash from allies including the United States.
Police interrogators in Mumbai told The Times that they are poised to settle the matter of Kasab's nationality through the use of "narcoanalysis" -- a controversial technique, banned in most democracies, where the subject is injected with a truth serum.

From: www.foxnews.com

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1 in 5 young adults has personality disorder

Almost one in five young American adults has a personality disorder that interferes with everyday life, and even more abuse alcohol or drugs, researchers reported Monday in the most extensive study of its kind.

The disorders include problems such as obsessive or compulsive tendencies and anti-social behavior that can sometimes lead to violence. The study also found that fewer than 25 percent of college-aged Americans with mental problems get treatment.

One expert said personality disorders may be overdiagnosed. But others said the results were not surprising since previous, less rigorous evidence has suggested mental problems are common on college campuses and elsewhere.

Experts praised the study's scope — face-to-face interviews about numerous disorders with more than 5,000 young people ages 19 to 25 — and said it spotlights a problem college administrators need to address.

Study co-author Dr. Mark Olfson of Columbia University and New York State Psychiatric Institute called the widespread lack of treatment particularly worrisome. He said it should alert not only "students and parents, but also deans and people who run college mental health services about the need to extend access to treatment."

Counting substance abuse, the study found that nearly half of young people surveyed have some sort of psychiatric condition, including students and non-students.

Personality disorders were the second most common problem behind drug or alcohol abuse as a single category. The disorders include obsessive, anti-social and paranoid behaviors that are not mere quirks but actually interfere with ordinary functioning.

The study authors noted that recent tragedies such as fatal shootings at Northern Illinois University and Virginia Tech have raised awareness about the prevalence of mental illness on college campuses.

They also suggest that this age group might be particularly vulnerable.

"For many, young adulthood is characterized by the pursuit of greater educational opportunities and employment prospects, development of personal relationships, and for some, parenthood," the authors said. These circumstances, they said, can result in stress that triggers the start or recurrence of psychiatric problems.

The study was released Monday in Archives of General Psychiatry. It was based on interviews with 5,092 young adults in 2001 and 2002.

Olfson said it took time to analzye the data, including weighting the results to extrapolate national numbers. But the authors said the results would probably hold true today.

The study was funded with grants from the National Institutes of Health, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and the New York Psychiatric Institute.

Dr. Sharon Hirsch, a University of Chicago psychiatrist not involved in the study, praised it for raising awareness about the problem and the high numbers of affected people who don't get help.

Imagine if more than 75 percent of diabetic college students didn't get treatment, Hirsch said. "Just think about what would be happening on our college campuses."

The results highlight the need for mental health services to be housed with other medical services on college campuses, to erase the stigma and make it more likely that people will seek help, she said.

In the study, trained interviewers, but not psychiatrists, questioned participants about symptoms. They used an assessment tool similar to criteria doctors use to diagnose mental illness.

Dr. Jerald Kay, a psychiatry professor at Wright State University and chairman of the American Psychiatric Association's college mental health committee, said the assessment tool is considered valid and more rigorous than self-reports of mental illness. He was not involved in the study.

Personality disorders showed up in similar numbers among both students and non-students, including the most common one, obsessive compulsive personality disorder. About 8 percent of young adults in both groups had this illness, which can include an extreme preoccupation with details, rules, orderliness and perfectionism.

Kay said the prevalence of personality disorders was higher than he would expect and questioned whether the condition might be overdiagnosed.

All good students have a touch of "obsessional" personality that helps them work hard to achieve. But that's different from an obsessional disorder that makes people inflexible and controlling and interferes with their lives, he explained.

Obsessive compulsive personality disorder differs from the better known OCD, or obsessive-compulsive disorder, which features repetitive actions such as hand-washing to avoid germs.

OCD is thought to affect about 2 percent of the general population. The study didn't examine OCD separately but grouped it with all anxiety disorders, seen in about 12 percent of college-aged people in the survey.

The overall rate of other disorders was also pretty similar among college students and non-students.

Substance abuse, including drug addiction, alcoholism and other drinking that interferes with school or work, affected nearly one-third of those in both groups.

Slightly more college students than non-students were problem drinkers — 20 percent versus 17 percent. And slightly more non-students had drug problems — nearly 7 percent versus 5 percent.

In both groups, about 8 percent had phobias and 7 percent had depression.

Bipolar disorder was slightly more common in non-students, affecting almost 5 percent versus about 3 percent of students.

From: Perez Hilton

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Research on mice links fast food to Alzheimer's

Mice fed junk food for nine months showed signs of developing the abnormal brain tangles strongly associated with Alzheimer's disease, a Swedish researcher said on Friday.

The findings, which come from a series of published papers by a researcher at Sweden's Karolinska Institutet, show how a diet rich in fat, sugar and cholesterol could increase the risk of the most common type of dementia.

"On examining the brains of these mice, we found a chemical change not unlike that found in the Alzheimer brain," Susanne Akterin, a researcher at the Karolinska Institutet's Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, who led the study, said in a statement.

"We now suspect that a high intake of fat and cholesterol in combination with genetic factors … can adversely affect several brain substances, which can be a contributory factor in the development of Alzheimer's."

Alzheimer's disease is incurable and is the most common form of dementia among older people. It affects the regions of the brain involving thought, memory and language.

While the most advanced drugs have focused on removing clumps of beta amyloid protein that forms plaques in the brain, researchers are also now looking at therapies to address the toxic tangles caused by an abnormal build-up of the protein tau.

In her research, Akterin focused on a gene variant called apoE4, found in 15 to 20 percent of people and which is a known risk factor for Alzheimer's. The gene is involved in the transport of cholesterol.

She studied mice genetically engineered to mimic the effect of the variant gene in humans, and which were fed a diet rich in fat, sugar and cholesterol for nine months — meals representing the nutritional content of fast food.

These mice showed chemical changes in their brains, indicating an abnormal build-up of the protein tau as well as signs that cholesterol in food reduced levels of another protein called Arc involved in memory storage, Akterin said.

"All in all, the results give some indication of how Alzheimer's can be prevented, but more research in this field needs to be done before proper advice can be passed on to the general public," she said.

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UCLA medical employee pleads guilty to selling stars medical records

A former employee of UCLA Medical Center pleaded guilty yesterday to selling information from the medical records of celebrities, including Britney Spears and Farrah Fawcett, to the National Enquirer.

Lawanda Jackson, 49, entered her plea to the felony charge of violating federal medical privacy law for commercial purposes in U.S. District Court.

She faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, and a $250,000 fine. The sentencing is set for May.

Lawanda Jackson worked as an administrative specialist at the UCLA hospitals for 32 years and in recent years began using her supervisor’s password to access medical records inappropriately, authorities said. The National Enquirer deposited checks totaling at least $4,600 into her husband’s checking account beginning in 2006. She resigned in July 2007 before she could be fired.

State officials have disclosed that records for Spears, Fawcett and California first lady Maria Shriver were among those breached.

From: perezrevenge

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Former Student's Threat To Kill Maria Sharapova

A former U.S. college athlete has been arrested after allegedly threatening to murder tennis ace Maria Sharapova.

Leonard Taylor, 32, is accused of making a series of abusive phone calls to his former mentor Barry Alvarez in which he claimed the Russian beauty had "done him injustices".

He allegedly told Alvarez that he planned to marry the sports star - and then kill her and her family.

Taylor played as a defensive back for the University of Wisconsin football team for three years until 1998.

Alvarez - who was Taylor's head coach and now works as the university's athletic director - is believed to have been a confidante of Taylor's.

It is claimed the former footballer left 29 messages on Alvarez's voicemail last month in which he hurled abuse and made threats against Sharapova and Alvarez.

According to police documents, the messages contained "excessive profanity, threats against Alvarez, and references to how professional tennis player Maria Sharapova (had) done (him) injustices in various ways."

Taylor, of Indianapolis, was arrested on Friday and faces charges of stalking and telephone harassment.

From: imdb

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