my blogs

Woman bites lover's penis off in car crash

2009-05-22T21:02:00.000-07:00

A boss and his secretary who were having an affair saw their romantic tryst interrupted in a wince-inducing manner - after a car crash led her to accidentally bite his penis off.

According to reports in China Press and Sin Chew Daily, the 30-year-old woman was performing oral sex on her boss in a car in a Singapore park, when the car was struck by a reversing van.

The impact caused her to bite the man's penis off.

Just in case this wasn't already bad enough for those involved, the incident was observed by a private detective who had been sent by the woman's husband to catch them out.

He described how, shortly after parking, the car started to 'shake violently' - but then was hit by the van. He said that the woman screamed loudly, with her mouth covered in blood.

Helpfully, the investigator called an ambulance to take the man to hospital. His lover followed him there, with part of his penis.

The investigator said he's never seen an incident like it before.

From: Perez Hilton

Tree Grows in a man's Lung

2009-05-12T02:12:00.000-07:00

A five-centimeter fir tree has been found in the lung of a man who complained he had a strong pain in his chest and was coughing blood.

The 28-year-old patient, Artyom Sidorkin, came to a hospital in the city of Izhevsk in Central Russia last week, Komsomolskaya Pravda daily reports.

Doctors x-rayed his chest and found a tumor in one of the lungs. Suspecting cancer, they made a decision to perform biopsy, but when they cut the tissue, they were amazed to see green needles in the cut.

“I blinked three times, and thought I was seeing things. Then I called the assistant to have a look,” says Vladimir Kamashev, doctor at the Udmurtian Cancer Center.

The five-centimeter branch was removed from the patient’s body.

“They told me my coughing blood was not caused by any disease,” Sidorkin says.

“It was the needles poking the capillaries. It really hurt a lot. But I never felt like I had an alien object inside of me.”

It is obvious that a five-centimeter branch is too large to be inhaled or swallowed, doctors say. They suggest that the patient might have inhaled a small bud, which then started to grow inside his body.

Meanwhile, the piece of lung with the little fir tree has been preserved for further study.

From: www.mosnews.com

Fatty Foods May Boost Memory

2009-04-29T00:08:00.000-07:00

A hormone released during the digestion of certain fats triggers long-term memory formation in rats, a new study says.
Researchers found that administering a compound produced in the small intestine called oleoylethanolamide (OEA) to rats improved memory retention during two different tasks.

When cell receptors activated by OEA were blocked, the animals' performance decreased.

Though the study involved rats, OEA's effects should be similar in other animals, including humans, said study team member Daniele Piomelli, a neuroscientist at the University of California, Irvine.

Follow the Fat

The team suspects OEA's memory-enhancing activity likely evolved to help animals remember where and when they ate a fatty meal, so they could return to that spot later.

Read More

Texas judge allows collection of dead son's sperm

2009-04-10T18:47:00.000-07:00

A judge has granted a mother's request to have someone harvest sperm from her dead son's body, so she can have the option of carrying out his wish to have children. Nikolas Colton Evans, 21, died Sunday at a Brackenridge hospital after being punched and falling outside an Austin bar March 27.

His mother, Marissa Evans, told the Austin American-Statesman newspaper that he wanted to have three sons someday and had even picked out their names: Hunter, Tod and Van.

"I want him to live on. I want to keep a piece of him," she told the newspaper.

Travis County Probate Judge Guy Herman ruled Monday in an emergency hearing requested by the mother, because of the urgency of collecting the sperm intact.

Court documents said the sperm had to be collected within 24 hours of Nikolas Evans being removed from life support unless the body was cooled to no more than 39.2 degrees.

Herman ordered the county medical examiner's office to continue storing the body at the proper temperature until the sperm could be collected.

Other organs and tissues were already going to be harvested from Evans' body, the judge noted, and there would be no other remedy for the mother if time expired.

Evans and her attorneys were trying on Tuesday to find a urologist or other medical professional willing to collect the sperm for a possible surrogate pregnancy in the future.

University of Texas law professor John Robertson, who specializes in bioethics, said state law gives parents control over a child's body for organ and tissue donations but its use for sperm "is very unclear."

"There are no strong precedents in favor of a parent being able to request post-mortem sperm retrieval," he said.

No arrests have been made in the assault on Nikolas Evans. Investigators said Evans hit his head on the ground after he was punched during an argument with a group of men.

From: Perez Hilton

Fish Can Count

2009-04-04T06:30:00.000-07:00

When it comes to counting, fish do swimmingly, according to a new study that describes the first published evidence of such behavior.

Captive mosquitofish—a North and Central American freshwater fish named for its taste for mosquito larvae—successfully counted geometric shapes in recent laboratory experiments.
Ten of the naturally social fish were first trained inside their tank to associate a door permitting them to move into different compartments and join their larger group with a certain number of shapes.

The same fish were then tested several times in an otherwise empty, unfamiliar tank to see whether they would choose to swim through the door marked with the right number of shapes.

The results showed that the fish chose the correct door more often than by chance alone, said study lead author Christian Agrillo, a psychologist at the University of Padova in Italy.

To make sure the fish weren't using non-numerical cues—for instance, estimating how much space objects take up—the Agrillo and colleagues placed sets of shapes that varied in size, brightness, and distance.

The sets were randomly selected so that only the number of shapes stayed the same.

"Only [these] kinds of studies may permit us to definitively understand whether an animal is counting, or, in contrast, using other quantitative mechanisms," Agrillo said in an email.

Although mosquitofish now join humans, monkeys, and other animals known to count, the ability in fish is probably a "last resort" strategy that has evolutionary underpinnings, Agrillo said.

(Related: "Monkeys Can Subtract, Study Finds.")

That's because non-numerical cues probably come more easily to fish as they make rapid-fire decisions.

Being able to count may require more brainpower than simply judging numbers based on size. But counting might sometimes be necessary as the fish seek safety in numbers to shield themselves from predators, Agrillo said.

by: Christine Dell'Amore
From: http://news.nationalgeographic.com

New Vaginal Gel Stops AIDS Virus

2009-03-12T19:20:00.001-07:00

Cosmetic Ingredient GML Protects Monkeys From AIDS Virus

A new kind of vaginal gel prevents sexual transmission of the AIDS virus in monkey studies.

The anti-HIV ingredient in the gel is glycerol monolaurate or GML. It's already FDA approved as an ingredient in cosmetics and medicines.

"The results are very encouraging. They point to a novel avenue to prevent sexual transmission of HIV," study researcher Ashley T. Haase, MD, head of the microbiology department at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, said at a telephone news conference.

The surprise finding that GML can block HIV comes from basic research showing that the AIDS virus gains a foothold in the vagina by taking advantage of the body's immune system. Immune responses to the virus draw T cells — the white blood cells HIV loves to infect — to the site of infection. Without T-cell recruitment, HIV loses its grip.

That's where GML comes in. The antimicrobial agent affects immune responses and breaks the chain of events that let HIV spread through the body.

"We thought if we could modulate the immune response at the portal of HIV entry, we could block sexual transmission," Haase said. "[Colleague] Patrick Schlievert's work with GML showed that it had many properties that might block HIV expansion and systematic spread."

Haase, Schlievert, and colleagues gave five rhesus macaque monkeys daily GML treatments before putting 200 infectious doses of deadly SIV — the monkey version of HIV — into their vaginas. Another four animals got a gel without GML.

The four animals not given GML got AIDS. Those treated with GML showed no sign of infection during the short-term study, although one of the five animals showed signs of infection several months later. But just as HIV drugs with different modes of action are more effective when mixed into a drug "cocktail," Haase says GML could be mixed with different kinds of anti-HIV agents.

"GML could be part of a combined strategy with another vaginal microbicide, such as PRO 2000, with a different mechanism of action," he suggests.
Ingredients of GML Anti-HIV Gel in Common Use

GML is found in breast milk, Schlievert says, and it is used in many cosmetics and in medicines taken orally or used on the skin. And recent studies show that GML kills many different kinds of germs — including vaginal yeast infections and several different sexually transmitted diseases, said Schlievert, professor of microbiology at the University of Minnesota.

"GML is presently being considered as an additive to tampons because of its ability to interfere with bacterial growth, including the bacteria that cause toxic shock syndrome," Schlievert said at the news conference.

For vaginal use in the monkey studies — and with an eye toward future human use — GML was mixed with KY Warming Liquid, an over-the-counter product widely used as a personal lubricant.

"What was done was to combine two FDA-approved medical devices to create another approved device," Schlievert said.

However, Schlievert said GML has not yet been tested for long-term human use.

And there's a lot more work to do with monkeys before GML gel is ready for human tests. That will have to be done before human studies of GML gel for HIV prevention.

Haase, Schlievert, and colleagues report their findings in the March 4 online edition of the journal Nature.

From: Perez Hilton

Tongue bite girlfriend faces jail

2009-03-10T16:58:00.000-07:00

A woman who bit off her boyfriend's tongue during a drunken birthday kiss has been told she faces jail.

Tracy Davies, 40, bit off a third of Mark Coghill's tongue after telling him "you never give me smoochy kisses any more".

Each had drunk a bottle of vodka before the attack at his flat in Jesmond, Newcastle, in October.

Davies was convicted of grievous bodily harm but cleared of the same charge with intent at Newcastle Crown Court.

The jury heard that the couple were celebrating Mr Coghill's birthday when Davies grew upset because she was not pregnant.

As Mr Coghill, 45, moved to comfort her, she asked him to kiss her, the court heard.
They kissed and she bit down hard on his tongue, causing him to scream, and he tapped her on the head, hoping she would let go.

He said: "Then when she did stop, she opened her mouth and looked at me in such a way that I have never seen anyone do before."

Mr Coghill said he could see part of his tongue inside her mouth.

He said: "She let out a satisfaction sound, like if you have a cup of tea when you haven't had one for a few days.

"A 'mmmm' sound."

She then spat it on the floor, he said.

Taste buds

Davies later called paramedics, who alerted police, and when arrested she told officers: "You're joking."

Mr Coghill was treated at Newcastle General Hospital, but surgeons decided the risk of infection was too high to consider reattaching the torn tongue.

The former customer service adviser was no longer fit to work, struggled to speak and had lost many of his taste buds, the court heard.

Judge John Evans adjourned the case for three weeks to allow for pre-sentence reports.

He granted Davies bail, but warned she would be jailed.

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

Woman freed after days trapped in recycling bin

2009-03-06T06:21:00.000-08:00

All you could see were these feet and hands up in the air," said Michele Ayala.

Unbelievably, 76-year-old Mary Davis was discovered in her Pemberton garage Tuesday morning essentially folded in half stuck inside a 25-gallon plastic recycling bucket. Police say the arthritic widow was knocked off balance by her dog, Dusty, and fell backside first into the can, trapping her.

"She said she had been in there for 2 days and she was really weak."

Neighbor and longtime family friend Michele Ayala had been concerned about not seeing or hearing from Mrs. Davis for several days. So was the woman's old friend Ruth Woodson.

"Today I just got up this morning. I couldn't get her so I said I dug myself out and I said let me go see if I can find her."

The concern deepened when the widow's daughter called from Missouri this morning saying she couldn't contact her mother.

Michele called police and headed to the house on Villanova Avenue, with a key, but all the outside doors were locked.

All you could see were these feet and hands up in the air," said Michele Ayala.

Unbelievably, 76-year-old Mary Davis was discovered in her Pemberton garage Tuesday morning essentially folded in half stuck inside a 25-gallon plastic recycling bucket. Police say the arthritic widow was knocked off balance by her dog, Dusty, and fell backside first into the can, trapping her.

"She said she had been in there for 2 days and she was really weak."

Neighbor and longtime family friend Michele Ayala had been concerned about not seeing or hearing from Mrs. Davis for several days. So was the woman's old friend Ruth Woodson.

"Today I just got up this morning. I couldn't get her so I said I dug myself out and I said let me go see if I can find her."

The concern deepened when the widow's daughter called from Missouri this morning saying she couldn't contact her mother.

Michele called police and headed to the house on Villanova Avenue, with a key, but all the outside doors were locked.

From: Perez Hilton

A Pink Dolphin!

2009-03-03T04:27:00.000-08:00

In Lake Calcasieu, Louisiana, a pink dolphin has been discovered!
The dolphin's "stunningly pink" color is the result of albinism, which is indicated by its red eyes as well as its pink skin. Don't worry, the dolphin is totally healthy. He's just pink!

Charter boat captain Erik Rue spotted and photographed the pink dolphin, saying, "I had never seen anything like it. It's the same color throughout the whole body and it looks like it just came out of a paint booth."

Regina Asmutis-Silvia, senior biologist with the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society reminds folks to "be careful, as with any dolphins, to respect it - observe from a distance, limit their time watching, don't chase or harass it."

That way everyone can enjoy the fabulous dolphin for as long as he lives!

From: Perez Hilton
[Image via CATERS NEWS.]

Nebraska woman, 86, gets $1,000 phone sex bill

2009-02-25T05:39:00.001-08:00

The family of an 86-year-old woman who was billed for over $1,000 in phone sex calls suspects identify theft. Arlene Hald recently received a credit card bill addressed to her husband, Sylvester, who died nearly 20 years ago. Hald said they never had a credit card, yet an account in his name was charged.

Hald's daughter, Peggy Rytych, believes her father was the victim of ID theft. She called the billing company, Preferred Platinum Plan, which agreed to remove the charges.

Rytych says they thought that was the end of it — until another bill arrived for over $70. The California-based company agreed to remove the latest charges and never bill Hald again.

From: Perez Hilton

Goat breaks into home, eats cake

2009-02-23T04:19:00.001-08:00

What do you get when a goat follows a dog into a house?

For Sherry Shirley of Westford, the answer is a big mess.

When she opened the front door of her home on Lake Road to let her dog in Saturday morning, a full-grown goat burst into the house, jumped onto a kitchen counter and helped itself to a freshly baked chocolate cake, according to the Dodge County Sheriff's Department.

Deputies responded to a call from Shirley at 11:43 Saturday morning, but a neighbor had dragged the goat from the home by its horns before officers arrived, patrol captain Molly Soblewski said.

"The goat didn't do a lot of damage. It knocked some dishes to the floor that broke and began eating the chocolate cake she had just made," Soblewski said.

The chocolate cake caper, however, was far from a perfect crime. Deputies followed the goat's tracks to a nearby farm on Mill Road and had it behind bars by 12:35 p.m. Saturday.

Soblewski said the owners of the goat will not be cited.

"It was just an unfortunate circumstance," she said. "I feel sorry for the lady, but it is kind of funny."

From: Perez Hilton

Chinese mistress contest takes tragic turn

2009-02-19T04:15:00.000-08:00

A married Chinese businessman who could no longer afford five mistresses held a competition to decide which one to keep.

But the contest took a fatal turn when one of the women, eliminated for her looks, drove the man and the four other competitors off a cliff, Chinese media reported.

The spurned mistress died and the other passengers were injured, the reports said.

Police initially thought the car had plummeted off a mountain road in eastern China on December 6 by accident. Then they learned of the contest through a letter the dead woman had left behind, the Shanghai Daily newspaper said.

The 29-year-old woman, identified only as Yu, was a waitress when she met the businessman at a restaurant in the coastal city of Qingdao in 2000.

At the time, the businessman, identified only by his last name — Fan — was married and had four other mistresses, according to the Peninsula Metropolis Daily newspaper in Qingdao.

The women knew of one another, but none elected to break up with the man and give up their rent-free apartment and a 5,000 yuan ($730) monthly allowance, the reports said.

When the economy soured, the businessman apparently decided to let go of all but one mistress.

He staged a private talent show in May, without telling the women his intentions. An instructor from a local modeling agency judged the women on the way they looked, how they sang and how much alcohol they could hold, the Shanghai Daily said.

The judge knocked out Yu in the first round of the competition based on her looks. Angry, she decided to exact revenge by telling her lover and the four other women to accompany her on a sightseeing trip before she returned to her home province, the media reports said.

It was during the trip that Yu reportedly drove the car off the cliff.

Fan shut down his company after the crash and paid Yu's parents 580,000 yuan ($84,744) as compensation for her death.

The four other women left him, as did his wife when she learned of the affairs.

From: Perez Hilton

Ohio Transgender Woman Pleads Guilty to Homicide for Exercising Husband, 73, to Death

2009-02-15T18:26:00.000-08:00

An Ohio transgender woman has pleaded guilty to reckless homicide for exercising her 73-year-old husband to death in an apartment complex swimming pool.

Middlefield police say surveillance video shows 41-year-old Christine Newton-John pulling James Mason around the pool by his arms and legs and preventing him from leaving. Mason had a heart attack on June 2 just after the extended swim session.

Police Chief Joseph Stehlik says a deputy investigated the death because of previous complaints that Mason was abused. Newton-John pleaded guilty on Thursday. She faces up to five years in prison.

Mason was a longtime friend of his wife's family. He knew her as John Vallandingham before she had gender reassignment surgery in 1993 and changed her name. They married in Kentucky in 2006.

From: Perez Hilton

World's longest fingernails broke off in a car crash

2009-02-14T05:48:00.000-08:00

An American woman listed in the Guinness Book of World Records for having the world's longest fingernails has had them broken off in a car crash.

Lee Redmond from Salt Lake City, Utah, had not cut her nails since 1979.

Their combined length was more than 28ft (8.5m), with the longest nail - on her right thumb - measuring 2ft 11in (89cm), Guinness said.

Ms Redmond suffered serious injuries in the crash, but is expected to make a full recovery.

A local newspaper, the Deseret News, said she was a passenger in a sports utility vehicle (SUV) at the time of the accident.

Her nails were "damaged beyond repair", according to the Guiness World Records website.

The company said she had been a "fantastic ambassador" for them, and that her nails had been "a fundamental part of her life and unique character".

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

Gene therapy offers hope of cure for HIV

2009-02-14T05:39:00.001-08:00

Doctors rid man of the virus with bone marrow transplant breakthrough

Doctors have succeeded in ridding a man of the HIV virus by giving him a bone marrow transplant in what they claim is the closest treatment yet to a cure for the disease.

The remarkable case gives new impetus to the development of gene therapy for HIV which could ultimately replace the need for expensive and toxic antiretroviral drugs. Instead of taking drugs for life, HIV sufferers might instead have a one-off treatment that would leave them virus-free.

The 42-year-old American had been infected with HIV for a decade. He was treated with antiretroviral drugs in Berlin, where he lives, for four years to hold the disease in check, but then developed leukaemia. Since being given a bone marrow transplant two years ago, he has not taken antiretroviral drugs to control HIV and has had no resurgence of either disease. He is believed to be the longest HIV-free survivor who was previously treated with antiretroviral drugs. Full details of the case are published for the first time today in The New England Journal of Medicine. An editorial in the journal says it "places further emphasis on gene therapies" for HIV, adding: "The case paves the way for innovative approaches that provide long-lasting viral control with limited toxicities for persons with HIV infection."

The man's treatment began with a search by doctors at Berlin's Charité Hospital for a bone marrow donor with a genetic resistance to HIV. One of the strangest features of the disease is the way some people who have been exposed to the virus on many occasions remain uninfected. Twenty years ago, it was noticed that certain prostitutes in Nairobi remained uninfected despite exposure to the virus through thousands of sexual contacts.

It has since emerged that some people carry a mutation of a gene (CCR5) that confers protection against HIV. In Western populations an estimated one to three per cent have the mutation.

Dr Gero Hutter, a haematologist at the Berlin Charité Hospital, and colleagues tested 61 potential donors before they found one with the CCR5 genetic mutation, who agreed to the operation.

The American recipient of the transplant, who runs a holiday rentals business in the German capital, has undergone regular checks in the two years since the treatment. The doctors have tested his bone marrow, blood and tissues and found no sign of HIV. "For as long as the viral load remains undetectable, this patient will not require antiretroviral therapy," they say in the journal.

Speaking to The Independent yesterday, Dr Hutter said there had been several previous reports of patients being virus-free following treatment but none to compare with the latest case. "The difference is that in our patient we had a plan. It was not an accident," he added. "It is the longest time someone who has had antiretroviral therapy and stopped has lasted without the virus rebounding. Normally it rebounds within weeks. It is the closest we have come to a cure."

Dr Hutter said a bone marrow transplant would be too risky as a routine treatment for HIV and too difficult to find donors with the right genetic make-up. But a modification of the approach using gene therapy to render a patient HIV-resistant could work, he said.

Even a costly treatment could be worthwhile. The price of treatment with antiretrovirals in Europe is €70,000 to €80,000 (£63,000 to £72,000) a year compared with a one-off cost of €20,000 to €30,000 for a bone marrow transplant.

Dr Hutter said: "When I started in medicine, HIV was completely untreatable. Now the situation has changed completely. Perhaps our case is a glimpse of hope for the future."

Professor Jay Levy, an Aids specialist at the University of California, and author of the US journal's editorial, said claims that the patient had been cured of HIV would be premature because of the virus's capacity to hide in other parts of the body including the brain, gut, liver and lymphatic system, from which it could always re-emerge.

"Nevertheless, the results… provide further encouragement for those examining approaches to treatment that reduce CCR5 expression in persons with HIV infection," he writes.In 2007, an estimated two million people died from Aids and 2.7 million were newly infected with HIV.

25 years of research: The HIV virus

When the discovery of HIV was announced in 1984, US politicians predicted that a cure for Aids would be found within five years, but it is still a distant prospect.

Over the past 10 years, a cocktail of aggressive antiretroviral drugs has been developed to help keep the effects of the disease at bay. Eliminating it has proved far more difficult because of the virus's unique nature.

HIV integrates itself into an infected person's DNA and attacks the cells the immune system sends to attack it. Once infected, these T-cells take the virus deeper into the body. Gene therapy is a new approach that harnesses the natural resistance to HIV shared by 3 per cent of people.

Experts hope that by tweaking a sufferer's DNA, they can achieve "long-lasting viral control".

From: Perez Hilton

India to launch cow urine as soft drink

2009-02-13T04:46:00.000-08:00

Does your Pepsi lack pep? Is your Coke not the real thing? India's Hindu nationalist movement apparently has the answer: a new soft drink made from cow urine.

The bovine brew is in the final stages of development by the Cow Protection Department of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), India's biggest and oldest Hindu nationalist group, according to the man who makes it.

Om Prakash, the head of the department, said the drink – called "gau jal", or "cow water" – in Sanskrit was undergoing laboratory tests and would be launched "very soon, maybe by the end of this year".

"Don't worry, it won't smell like urine and will be tasty too," he told The Times from his headquarters in Hardwar, one of four holy cities on the River Ganges. "Its USP will be that it's going to be very healthy. It won't be like carbonated drinks and would be devoid of any toxins."

The drink is the latest attempt by the RSS – which was founded in 1925 and now claims eight million members – to cleanse India of foreign influence and promote its ideology of Hindutva, or Hindu-ness.

Hindus revere cows and slaughtering them is illegal in most of India. Cow dung is traditionally used as a fuel and disinfectant in villages, while cow urine and dung are often consumed in rituals to "purify" those on the bottom rungs of the Hindu caste system.

In 2001, the RSS and its offshoots – which include the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party – began promoting cow urine as a cure for ailments ranging from liver disease to obesity and even cancer.

The movement has often been accused of using more violent methods, such as killing 67 Christians in the eastern state of Orissa last year, and assaulting women in a pub in Mangalore last month. It also has a history of targeting foreign business in India, as in 1994, when it organised a nationwide boycott of multinational consumer goods, including Pepsi and Coca Cola.

The cola brands are popular in India, now one of their biggest markets, but have struggled in recent years to shake off allegations, which they deny, that they contain dangerous levels of pesticide.

Mr Prakash said his drink, by contrast, was made mainly of cow urine, mixed with a few medicinal and ayurvedic herbs. He said it would be "cheap", but declined to give further details about its price or ingredients until it was officially launched.

He insisted, however, that it would be able to compete with the American cola brands, even with their enormous advertising budgets. "We're going to give them good competition as our drink is good for mankind," he said. "We may also think of exporting it."

From: Perez Hilton

Man Attacks His Lawyer In Court With Feces

2009-02-08T04:33:00.001-08:00

A mistrial was declared Monday when a home-invasion robbery suspect smeared human feces on his attorney's face then threw more at the jury.

Weusi McGowan, 37, was upset because San Diego Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Fraser refused to remove Deputy Alternate Public Defender Jeffrey Martin from the case, prosecutor Christopher Lawson said.

At the mid-morning break, McGowan produced a plastic baggie filled with fecal matter and spread it on Martin's hair and face, then flung the excrement toward the jury box, hitting the briefcase of juror No. 9 but missing the juror himself.

"That juror didn't even see it coming," Lawson said.

The prosecutor said the defendant was compliant after the outburst and was taken into custody without further incident.

After lunch, Fraser dismissed the jury, telling them McGowan would have to get a new lawyer and that his trial would be delayed.

The judge scheduled a status conference for Feb. 9 and raised the defendant's bail from $250,000 to $1 million, finding he is a danger to the community.

Lawson said McGowan originally became upset last week when he claimed one of the jurors saw him in shackles as he entered the courtroom. Fraser dismissed all jurors who saw the defendant in shackles, the prosecutor said.

"The judge had been very fair," Lawson said. "All jurors who saw it were dismissed."
Fraser had also denied McGowan's attempt to represent himself, saying the request was untimely, Lawson said.

The prosecutor said the defendant had previously wiped human feces on himself and was examined by doctors to ensure he was mentally competent to stand trial.

McGowan is charged with kidnapping for robbery, assault with a deadly weapon and other counts and could face assault charges in connection with the attack on his attorney and jury, Lawson said.

The prosecutor said the defendant hit a man with a rock in a sock as the victim came out of his home to investigate a commotion on Oct. 17, 2007.

McGowan allegedly ransacked the man's apartment then stole some of the victim's belongings and took off in the victim's car.

He was arrested 20 minutes later, Lawson said.

From: Perez Hilton

Women with large chins are more likely to cheat

2009-02-04T16:41:00.001-08:00

Psychologists have found that adult females who have prominent chins are more sexually active than those with softer features, yet are less attractive to men looking for a long-term partner.

Larger chins on women are often caused by a high level of the male growth hormone testosterone, present in all women in various amounts.

The hormone also increases sexual assertiveness in a woman, a tendency more commonly attributed to males.

The researchers, from four universities across the US and Canada, took a group of young women and questioned them on their sexual histories and fantasies.

These women were then rated by a group of men on their desirability as a life partner.

It was concluded that men will shun women with such masculine features when looking for a long-term partner because they fear being cuckolded.

Psychologists believe it is linked to their evolutionary desire to have a partner who will produce children for only one man.

Authors of the study, published in the journal Personality And Individual Differences, said: "The findings are important in demonstrating that perceptions of women as desirable and trustworthy long-term mates can be reliably gleaned by men from viewing only the women's facial features.

"Results suggest that information about women's sexual unrestrictedness, which is related to their risk of infidelity, can potentially be conveyed by the masculinity of women's faces."

The theory has many examples in the celebrity world.

Actress Meg Ryan, 47, who has a strong chin, famously cheated on her husband Dennis Quaid with her co-star Russell Crowe.

However, the actress Joanne Woodward, who has a dainty jawline, was happily married for 50 years to Hollywood icon Paul Newman until his death in September.

Dr Lorne Campbell, a psychologist from Western Ontario University, who took part in the project, wrote: "It is difficult to conceal physical features, such as facial characteristics, that are partly governed by testosterone and reliably correlate with one's sexual history and attitudes.

The research is the first to our knowledge to suggest that a more masculine facial appearance in women might convey their sexual unrestrictedness and perhaps their long-term mate quality."

From: Perez Hilton

Maryland surgeons remove donated kidney through vagina

2009-02-03T17:00:00.001-08:00

Surgeons removed a woman's kidney through her vagina so she could give it to her ailing niece, an unusual operation they hope will encourage others to donate because it reduces pain, scarring and recovery time. Doctors at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine said donor Kimberly Johnson, 48, and her niece, Jennifer Gilbert, 23, were both doing well following operations Thursday.

"It was easier than childbirth," said Johnson, who has three children.

Transvaginal kidney removals have been done before to remove cancerous or nonfunctioning kidneys, and other diseased organs have also been removed through mouths and other orifices. Many donated kidneys are removed laparoscopically, through small keyhole incisions.

But hospital officials think this may be the first time a donor kidney was removed through the vagina.

The operation left three pea-size scars on the Lexington Park woman's abdomen, one hidden in her navel. Surgeons hope the procedure will lead more women to become donors, said Dr. Robert

Montgomery, chief of the transplant division at Johns Hopkins, who led the team that performed the surgery.

Johnson said the operation was less painful than gall bladder surgery and she is recovering more quickly than Gilbert's father, who gave his daughter a kidney 12 years ago.

Gilbert, of Baltimore, needed the first transplant because repeated infections had destroyed the kidneys she was born with. She needed the second after she began suffering chronic rejection.
Johnson, an assistant sales manager for a St. Mary's County newspaper, said she was able to get out of bed Thursday night, the same day the kidney was removed.

Quicker recovery and less pain are the key benefits of the new technique, said Montgomery and Dr. Anthony Kalloo, the director of the Division of Gastroenterology at Johns Hopkins and a pioneer of the method of using natural orifices for organ removal.

Kalloo said more than 300 such surgeries have been performed worldwide, mostly gall bladder and appendix removal through the mouth, anus and vagina. Kalloo said there has been some resistance in the medical community because of concerns, for example, that stomach acid could leak into the abdominal cavity in operations where organs were removed through the mouth.

Dr. Jihad Kaouk, a urologist and director of the Cleveland Clinic's Center for Laparoscopic and Robotic Surgery, is among those concerned about contamination. He was not involved in Johnson's surgery.

"There is the risk of infection having the kidney passing through a contaminated area and then going to another patient who is immunocompromised," Kaouk said. "That is the concern we have and we would like to monitor the outcome in that regard."

In Johnson's case, Montgomery said a plastic bag placed into her abdominal cavity through a tiny incision protected the donated kidney from contamination by bacteria and other organisms in her vagina.

Johnson was chosen because she has had a hysterectomy, which made the operation easier, but the procedure could be used without affecting women's ability to give birth, he said.

More than 78,000 people are on the national waiting list to receive kidneys from deceased donors. The need is increasing as diabetes and obesity rise, threatening to further lengthen a wait that can last years. In 2007, more than a third of the 16,629 kidneys transplanted in the U.S. came from living donors, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing.

Montgomery said the number of living donor transplants has tripled since laparoscopic removal debuted in 1995, providing an alternative to so-called "shark bite" abdominal incisions. He hopes advances such as the vaginal removal will continue the increase.

"We think she'll be probably back to her normal activities within a week or two," the transplant surgeon said. Recovery from laproscopic surgery typically takes several weeks. "So, that greatly reduces the inconvenience of donating and we're hoping that will encourage more people to donate."

From: Perez Hilton

Alzheimer's 'is brain diabetes'

2009-02-03T01:58:00.001-08:00

The most common form of dementia may be closely related to another common disease of old-age - type II diabetes, say scientists.

Treating Alzheimer's with the hormone insulin, or with drugs to boost its effect, may help patients, they claim.

The journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reports insulin could protect against damage to brain cells key to memory.

UK experts said the find could be the basis of new drug treatments.

The relationship between insulin and brain disease has been under scrutiny since doctors found evidence that the hormone was active there.

The latest study, joint research between Northwestern University in the US and the University of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, looked at the effects of insulin on proteins called ADDLs, which build up in the brains of Alzheimer's patients and cause damage.

They took neurons - brain cells - from the hippocampus, a part of the brain with a pivotal role in memory formation.

These were treated with insulin and a drug called rosiglitazone, given to type II diabetics to increase the effect of the hormone on cells.

After this, the cells were far less susceptible to damage when exposed to ADDLs, suggesting that insulin was capable of blocking their effects.

Read More

Police sniffer dog dies of nose cancer after sniffing cocaine

2009-02-02T16:52:00.001-08:00

A police drugs sniffer dog has died of a rare nose cancer after years sniffing cocaine during his work.

Springer spaniel Max, aged nine, may have caught the disease because of the effect of cocaine and other drugs he was taught to detect.

Police Inspector Anne Higgins, the dog's owner, fears the training may have led to the disease which led to him being put down last week.

Max worked as a drugs dog with the Avon and Somerset police but lived with Insp Higgins, who is based at Tiverton police station in Devon.

She said: "It is ironic the wonderful organ that made him successful in his work has been his demise.

"It may or may not have been connected with what he used to do. Up until a couple of weeks ago he seemed fine and was doing well but it was an aggressive tumour.

"It was very hard to have him put down but we had to do it.

"I took him to the police station which he usually loved and was his favourite place but he did not show any reaction to being there and we knew he was not right.

"He was a fighter until the end and always very dignified. He has had a good life and a successful one as a police dog. Just think of all the bad people he managed to put away."

Max retired from police work last year after arthritis in his back legs led to him being fitted with a trolley so he could still run around.

Inspector Higgins said the cancer caused an infection in his front legs which threatened to leave him completely immobile.

Kate Fairclough, the dog's vet, his work may have caused his death from nasal cancer, which is rare in dogs.

She said: "Sniffing drugs may well have been a factor. I certainly cannot rule it out.

"Nose cancer in dogs is not at all common. It represents only one or two per cent of all cancers.

"It is difficult to know what caused it as there are so many different factors involved. Environmental factors can plat a part.

"He had done so well since 2006 when it was thought he would have to be put down so he had an extra three years of life.

"It is always hard to do and he was such a lovely dog."

From: Perez Hilton

Young people abandoning email and TV

2009-02-02T16:37:00.001-08:00

Two new studies conclude that young people are more into online games than social networks, and they also view the computer as more of an entertainment device than their television. Both findings should be welcome news for digital marketers eager to gain even more interest from brands targeting the coveted demographic.

A new report from The Pew Internet & American Life Project found that 78 percent of teens play online games, while 65 percent use social networking sites, MediaWeek reports. The line between gaming and social networking blurs for adults between the ages of 18 and 32, however. Half of that age group plays online games, while 67 percent of them are on social networking sites.

While almost a third of teens aren't using social networks, the popularity of email is in drastic decline. At least 73 percent of teens still use email -- no small number -- but that's down from the 89 percent who used email in 2005. They're flocking to social networks, text messaging, and instant messaging in lieu of email, Pew concluded.

Deloitte's State of the Media Democracy survey found that three-quarters of "Millenials" between the ages of 14 and 25, find their PCs much more entertaining than the typically passive TV watching experience, MediaPost reports.

The firm surveyed Millenials in Brazil, Germany, Japan, the U.K., and the U.S. and found that they're still the most active in gaming, music, and using the web for socializing.

The firm concluded that 80 percent regularly search for and download music online, and 73 percent regularly use social networking sites, chat rooms, and message boards. Moreover, 59 percent use their mobile phone as an entertainment device, and overall they're spending at least one-third less time watching their TV than other generations.

By Matt Kapko
From: www.imediaconnection.com

The online way to pray for others

2009-01-31T16:58:00.001-08:00

You can do lots of things online these days: socialising, networking, shopping. But praying? Yes, that too.

On a rainy morning in New York City, volunteers get together to work on PrayAbout.com.

The website is based on a simple premise: people submit their requests for prayers, and others pray for them - an act known as intercessory prayer.
The postings run the gamut of human suffering. Some are concerned for sick relatives.

"Please pray for Jeff. He is in an intensive care unit with serious problems with his liver, pancreas, kidneys and bowels. Please pray that his body will pull through," reads one.

Others need help with a faltering relationship: "Please pray for the healing and mending of my love relationship. We are meant to be together and right now we need strength, positive energy, and love."

Read More

Human error hits Google search

2009-01-31T16:55:00.000-08:00

Google's search service has been hit by technical problems, with users unable to access search results.

For a period on Saturday, all search results were flagged as potentially harmful, with users warned that the site "may harm your computer".

Users who clicked on their preferred search result were advised to pick another one.

Google attributed the fault to human error and said most users were affected for about 40 minutes.

"What happened? Very simply, human error," wrote Marissa Mayer, vice president, search products and user experience, on the Official Google Blog.

The internet search engine works with stopbadware.org to ascertain which sites install malicious software on people's computers and merit a warning.

Stopbadware.org investigates consumer complaints to decide which sites are dangerous.

The list of malevolent sites is regularly updated and handed to Google.

When Google updated the list on Saturday, it mistakenly flagged all sites as potentially dangerous.

"We will carefully investigate this incident and put more robust file checks in place to prevent it from happening again," Ms Mayer wrote.

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

Cancer protection secret revealed

2009-01-31T16:53:00.001-08:00

Scientists say they have discovered a missing link in the way cells protect themselves against cancer.

They have uncovered how cells switch a gene called p53, which can block the development of tumours, on and off.

The researchers say the finding has important implications for cancer treatment and diagnosis.

The study, published in Genes And Development, was carried out by teams of scientists in Singapore and the University of Dundee.
The p53 gene, first discovered 30 years ago, plays a vital role in keeping the body healthy by ordering damaged cells to commit suicide, or by stopping them dividing while key repair work is carried out.

In half of all cancers the gene is either damaged or inactive, giving damaged cells a free reign to keep dividing and form cancer.

In the latest study, the scientists used a genetic trick to make zebrafish turn green when the p53 gene was switched on to explore the way it was regulated.

They found that the p53 gene makes not only the well-established p53 protein, but also an alternative "control switch" variation of the p53 protein - known as an isoform.

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ADHD drugs can cause hallucinations in some kids

2009-01-31T16:46:00.001-08:00

Drugs for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder can cause children to have hallucinations even when taken as directed, U.S. government researchers said on Monday.

U.S. Food and Drug Administration researchers analyzed data from 49 clinical studies conducted by makers of the drugs and found they can cause psychosis and mania in some patients, including some with no obvious risk factors. In some cases, children hallucinated that worms, bugs or snakes were crawling on them.

"Patients and physicians should be aware of the possibility that psychiatric symptoms consistent with psychosis or mania" might arise in the course of treatment, Dr. Andrew Mosholder and colleagues wrote in the journal Pediatrics.

Their analysis provides fresh detail about known risks of the drugs, which include Novartis AG's Ritalin and Focalin XR, Shire Plc's Adderall XR and Daytrana patch, Johnson & Johnson's Concerta, Eli Lilly and Co's Strattera and Celltech Pharmaceuticals Inc's Metadate CD.

It also includes data on Cephalon Inc's modafinil, sold as Provigil, a narcolepsy drug that was rejected as an ADHD treatment in children.

FDA spokeswoman Sandy Walsh said the data formed the basis for recent warnings about psychiatric side effects that have been added to product labels in recent years.

Millions of children use drugs to treat symptoms of ADHD, which affects about three to seven percent of U.S. children.

ADHD is marked by restlessness, impulsiveness, inattention and distractibility that can interfere with a child's ability to pay attention in school and maintain social relationships.

"The numbers of cases of psychosis or mania in pediatric clinical trials were small," Mosholder and colleagues wrote. "However, we noted a complete absence of such events with placebo treatments."

In one account, they described a 7-year-old girl who took an 18 mg dose of Strattera or atomoxetine who started talking nonstop within hours of taking her first dose.

"Two hours after taking her second dose of atomoxetine, the patient started running very fast, stopped suddenly, and fell to the ground. The patient said she had 'run into a wall' (there was no wall there)," they wrote.

"These adverse side effects are rare," said Dr. Harold Koplewicz of New York University Child Study Center, who was not involved in the study, adding that they are reversible,

"Once you stop the medicine, the side effects go away," he said in a telephone interview.

He said children under age 10 are susceptible to negative drug side effects in the same way that older adults are.

"We know that medications that affect neurochemicals in your brain to increase your attention and make you less impulsive also can have an effect on other neurochemicals in your brain that affect mood," he said.

Both Koplewicz and FDA researchers urged doctors to discuss the potential side effects with parents and children to help ease their anxiety if such symptoms should occur.

From: Perez Hilton

Goat detained over armed robbery

2009-01-30T18:11:00.001-08:00

Police in Nigeria are holding a goat on suspicion of attempted armed robbery.

Vigilantes took the black and white beast to the police saying it was an armed robber who had used black magic to transform himself into a goat to escape arrest after trying to steal a Mazda 323.

"The group of vigilante men came to report that while they were on patrol they saw some hoodlums attempting to rob a car. They pursued them. However one of them escaped while the other turned into a goat," Kwara state police spokesman Tunde Mohammed told Reuters by telephone.

"We cannot confirm the story, but the goat is in our custody. We cannot base our information on something mystical. It is something that has to be proved scientifically, that a human being turned into a goat," he said.

Belief in witchcraft is widespread in parts of Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation. Residents came to the police station to see the goat, photographed in one national newspaper on its knees next to a pile of straw.

From: Perez Hilton

Studies find mercury in much U.S. corn syrup

2009-01-29T20:49:00.001-08:00

Many common foods made using commercial high fructose corn syrup contain mercury as well, researchers reported on Tuesday, while another study suggested the corn syrup itself is contaminated.

Food processors and the corn syrup industry group attacked the findings as flawed and outdated, but the researchers said it was important for people to know about any potential sources of the toxic metal in their food.

In one study, published in the journal Environmental Health, former Food and Drug Administration scientist Renee Dufault and colleagues tested 20 samples of high fructose corn syrup and found detectable mercury in nine of the 20 samples.

Dufault said in a statement that she told the FDA about her findings but the agency did not follow up.

Dr. David Wallinga, a food safety researcher and activist at the nonprofit Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, said he followed up on the report to find mercury in actual food.

"When I learned of that work, I said that is interesting but we don't just go out and eat a spoonful of high fructose corn syrup," Wallinga said in a telephone interview.

"We went and looked at supermarket samples where high fructose corn syrup was the first or second ingredient on the label," he said. These 55 different foods included barbecue sauce, jam, yogurt and chocolate syrup.

"We found about one out of three had mercury above the detection limit," Wallinga said.

The Corn Refiners Association challenged the findings.

"This study appears to be based on outdated information of dubious significance," the group said in a statement.

Wallinga and colleagues said they believed the mercury got into the food during manufacture, at plants that use mercury-grade caustic soda produced in industrial chlorine plants, although his team was unable to show this.

"Our industry has used mercury-free versions of the two reagents mentioned in the study, hydrochloric acid and caustic soda, for several years," Audrae Erickson, president of the Corn Refiners Association, said in a statement.

Wallinga said the studies were based on samples taken in 2005, the most recent available.

Many studies have shown that fish can be high in mercury. Wallinga said consumers should know about other potential sources so they can limit how much they eat. "The best mercury exposure is no exposure at all," he said.

"Even at low levels methylmercury can harm the developing brain. The last thing we should intentionally do is add to it," Wallinga added.

He said his team did not test foods that did not contain corn syrup to see if they were also high in mercury.

From: Perez Hilton

Monster website hacked

2009-01-27T21:49:00.001-08:00

Hackers are believed to have stolen the personal details of millions of people using the online job site Monster.

Users around the world have been affected, including the 4.5 million users of the UK site.

If all are affected it would make it the biggest data theft in the UK since the details of 25 million child benefit claimants went missing last year.

The recruitment giant has advised people to change their passwords and be on the lookout for phishing e-mails.

Recruitment sites have proved rich pickings for criminally-minded hackers in the past and it is not the first time Monster has fallen foul of cyber thieves.

In 2007, 1.3 million details were downloaded to servers based in Ukraine.

Read More

Sex drive link to prostate cancer

2009-01-26T23:04:00.001-08:00

Men who are more sexually active in their 20s and 30s may run a higher risk of prostate cancer, research suggests.

The Nottingham University study quizzed 800 men on how often they had sex or masturbated.

Those who were most active while younger had more chance of developing cancer later in life.

The researchers said higher levels of sex hormones could lead to a bigger sex drive and the cancer, the journal BJU International reported.
Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men in the UK, with well over 30,000 new cases diagnosed each year.

It affects the prostate gland, which is found close to the bladder and makes a component of semen.

The Nottingham team, led by Dr Polyxeni Dimitropoulou, recruited more than 400 men diagnosed with prostate cancer, then compared their answers to 409 men thought to be free of the disease.

As well as questions about how often they had been sexually active from puberty onwards, they were asked how many sexual partners they had had and whether they had been diagnosed with any sexual infections.

Roughly the same proportion of both groups, 59%, said they had engaged in sexual activity 12 times a month or more in their 20s, falling to 48% in their 30s, 28% in their 40s and 13% in their 50s.

Almost two-fifths of the prostate cancer group had had six female partners or more, compared with less than a third of the non-cancer group.

Read More

Man cuts off finger in court over debt

2009-01-25T16:57:00.000-08:00

A Portuguese businessman said he cut off one of his fingers in court with a butcher's knife in an "act of despair" after a judge refused his offer to settle a 170,000 euro debt and said part of his farm must be sold.

"My intention was to tear up all the case papers and splatter them with blood so I could prevent the expropriation order for my land," Orico Silva was quoted as saying in local media after his drastic action in the court house.

Silva, who owns a 20 hectare (50 acre) farm in the central town of Figueira da Foz, was being sued by a company for holding onto a cash deposit on a land deal which had fallen through, the local newspaper said.

"I freaked out when the judge refused my offer to pay the debt and ordered the sale of part of my land. I told her I had a 1.2 million euro bank guarantee which would have allowed me to pay the debt," Silva said.

When he went to take the bank papers from his briefcase, he noticed the butcher's knife he had recently bought at a market and decided to cut off his index finger, using a court desk as a chopping board. He then cut the finger into three.

"I didn't feel anything, I could even have cut off all my fingers. It was an act of despair," he said.

From: Perez Hilton

Vitamin D is mental health aid

2009-01-23T19:41:00.000-08:00

Vitamin D, found in fish and produced by sun exposure, can help stave off the mental decline that can affect people in old age, a study has suggested.

UK and US researchers looked at 2,000 people aged 65 and over.

They found that compared to those with the highest vitamin D levels, those with the lowest were more than twice as likely to have impaired understanding.

Alzheimer's charities said the research was interesting, but more work was needed to understand vitamin D's role.

Vitamin D is important in maintaining bone health, in the absorption of calcium and phosphorus, and in helping the immune system.

The body makes vitamin D when it is exposed to the sun, or it can be obtained from foods such as oily fish, and those fortified with vitamin D, such as milk, cereals, and soya drinks.

Read More

Why rich men are better in bed

2009-01-20T16:56:00.000-08:00

Money can't buy you love - but it can lead to better sex, scientists say.

A controversial study claims that a woman finds lovemaking more fulfilling if her partner is wealthy.

The finding adds to the evidence that for many females, money, status and success remain a key ingredient in sexual attraction.

The link between money and sex, and the apparent sexual attraction of fabulously wealthy men, has been debated since the dawn of civilisation.

It was famously celebrated by the spoof chat show host Mrs Merton, when she asked Debbie McGee 'what first attracted you to the millionaire Paul Daniels?' and is discussed every time a young female model marries a far older, but richer businessman, pop star or actor.

Often it is assumed that women involved in such relationships do it for the lifestyle - and put up with the sex. But the latest study suggests otherwise.

Evolutionary biologists Dr Thomas Pollet and Prof Daniel Nettles, of Newcastle University, used the world's biggest study into lifestyles to look at the link between wealth and enjoyment of sex.

The Chinese Health and Family Life Survey includes information on the sex lives, income, education and other personal details on 5,000 people across China, based on interviews and questionnaires. Among these were 1,534 women with husbands and boyfriends.

Dr Pollet found that 121 of these women reported always having orgasms during sex, 408 said they 'often' had orgasms, 762 'sometimes' had orgasms while 243 had them rarely or never.

The researchers found several factors influenced the women's enjoyment of sex. However, one of the biggest turned out to be the income of their partner.

'We found that increasing partner income had a highly positive effect on women's self-reported frequency of orgasms,' Dr Pollet said in the journal Evolution and Human Behaviour.

The link between enjoyment of sex and partner's wealth was statistically significant even when they took into account other factors such as age, education, happiness, the length of relationship and health.

The scientists say the findings could be explained by bias in the study - that women who have frequent orgasms tend to overestimate their partner's income, or that women with 'high powered' partners exaggerate how much they enjoy sex.

'While we cannot rule out reporting bias, we note that the interviews took place away from the respondents' home, without their partner present and with the respondents able to input their responses directly into the computer if they so wished,' Dr Pollet said.

It is also possible that women who are highly susceptible to orgasms select partners who are wealthy, he said.

He added: 'The third interpretation is that more desirable mates cause women to experience more orgasms,' he said.

If this is true, a woman's 'capacity for orgasm' could have evolved to help her discriminate between males on the basis of their quality, he added.

The link between enjoyment of sex and wealth has also been found in studies in Germany and America.

Evolutionary biologists argue that every aspect of sex - from courtship to the quality of orgasms - is influenced by millions of years of evolution.

Although many people find the idea that women enjoy sex more with rich partners offensive, some biologists argue that the instinct makes evolutionary sense.

Women have to invest so much time and personal risk into each baby, it is crucial that they get the most successful and healthy partner so they can to improve the chances of their own DNA being passed on.

A man, in contrast, can father hundreds, or even thousands, of babies in a lifetime and so invests less in each child.

That means they do not have to be so choosy about whether their partner is socially successful.

The result of this battle of the sexes is that women are more influenced by the social status, intelligence, quick wits and success of a partner than men are, scientists argue. Wealth is usually an obvious indicator of success.

From: Perez Hilton

Dad Ordered To Continue Paying Child Support After Finding Out Kids Aren't His

2009-01-19T05:36:00.000-08:00

Not long after Pasqualino Cornelio got married, he was thrilled to learn his wife was pregnant with twins. The two babies were born healthy and have since grown into 16-year-old teenagers who have suddenly found themselves at the centre of a bizarre court case that's sparked controversy across Ontario.

It started back in 1998 when the marriage of their parents unraveled and the couple separated in a bitter break-up. Cornelio has been making child support payments ever since. But when his estranged wife recently demanded more money for their upkeep and cut back on his visitation time with them, an angry Cornelio decided to take drastic measures.

He got a DNA test and discovered to his surprise that the twins weren't really his. Instead, they were the result of an affair his wife had while they were together, one he never knew about.

Those test results led Cornelio to get a lawyer and try to put an end to the payments and get his money back, arguing that he wasn't the biological father and therefore shouldn't be paying the freight for someone else's children.

But an Ontario Superior Court judge has ruled that, despite his wife's infidelity, he still has a duty to support the kids because he's the only father they've ever known.

In effect, Justice Katherine van Rensburg is siding not with the parents, but the children, who would be victimized by a stoppage in payments from the man they consider to be their dad.

"The right to child support is the right of a child, and is independent of a parent's own conduct." she stated. "(This man) was the only father the twins knew during the course of the marriage."

Why can't the real father step up to the payment table? Cornelio's wife claims she has no memory of having any affair and has no idea who the actual dad might be.

The case has now led to a huge controversy across the province, with many wondering if a man should be forced to support someone else's offspring in the face of such deception.

"I think it's a good ruling," states family law specialist Brahm Siegel. "I think it's a clear recognition (that) the utmost importance in determining cases like this, is the relationship between the child and the non-biological father, not so much whose D.N.A. is lodged in a child's cells."

But the director of a father's rights group thinks the wife's deception should be penalized

"Any time that you have a fraud committed, there should be something to be done to correct it. You don't just say, 'Well that's fine you committed a fraud, congratulations,' there's no consequence," said Brian Jenkins of Fathers Are Capable Too.

From: perezrevenge.com

Conficker, Downadup, or Kido new Windows virus

2009-01-16T18:38:00.000-08:00

A worm that spreads through low security networks, memory sticks, and PCs without the latest security updates is posing a growing threat to users.

The malicious program, known as Conficker, Downadup, or Kido was first discovered in October 2008.

Although Microsoft released a patch, it has gone on to infect 3.5m machines.

Experts warn this figure could be far higher and say users should have up-to-date anti-virus software and install Microsoft's MS08-067 patch.

According to Microsoft, the worm works by searching for a Windows executable file called "services.exe" and then becomes part of that code.

It then copies itself into the Windows system folder as a random file of a type known as a "dll". It gives itself a 5-8 character name, such as piftoc.dll, and then modifies the Registry, which lists key Windows settings, to run the infected dll file as a service.

Once the worm is up and running, it creates an HTTP server, resets a machine's System Restore point (making it far harder to recover the infected system) and then downloads files from the hacker's web site.

Most malware uses one of a handful of sites to download files from, making them fairly easy to locate, target, and shut down.

But Conficker does things differently.

Anti-virus firm F-Secure says that the worm uses a complicated algorithm to generate hundreds of different domain names every day, such as mphtfrxs.net, imctaef.cc, and hcweu.org. Only one of these will actually be the site used to download the hackers' files. On the face of it, tracing this one site is almost impossible.

Speaking to the BBC, Kaspersky Lab's security analyst, Eddy Willems, said that a new strain of the worm was complicating matters.

"There was a new variant released less than two weeks ago and that's the one causing most of the problems," said Mr Willems

"The replication methods are quite good. It's using multiple mechanisms, including USB sticks, so if someone got an infection from one company and then takes his USB stick to another firm, it could infect that network too. It also downloads lots of content and creating new variants though this mechanism."

"Of course, the real problem is that people haven't patched their software. If people do patch their software, they should have little to worry about," he added.

Technicians have reverse engineered the worm so they can predict one of the possible domain names. This does not help them pinpoint those who created Downadup, but it does give them the ability to see how many machines are infected.

"Right now, we're seeing hundreds of thousands of unique IP addresses connecting to the domains we've registered," F-Secure's Toni Kovunen said in a statement.

"We can see them, but we can't disinfect them - that would be seen as unauthorised use."

Microsoft says that the malware has infected computers in many different parts of the world, with machines in China, Brazil, Russia, and India having the highest number of victims.

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

Chesley B. 'Sully' Sullenberger III saved every life on board

2009-01-15T23:58:00.000-08:00

A former fighter pilot was hailed as a hero last night after he guided his crippled airliner to a safe landing in the Hudson River in New York, saving the lives of all 155 people on board.

The pilot of US Airways Flight 1549 who gave passengers the chilling command “brace for impact” was Chesley B. “Sully” Sullenberger III, a 29-year veteran of the airline.

Captain Sullenberger, 58, served as a US Air Force fighter pilot from 1973 to 1980 and has also acted as an instructor and safety chairman for the Air Line Pilots’ Association.

He once wrote a paper with Nasa scientists on “errorinducing contexts in aviation”. Two years ago he started his own consulting business, Safety Reliability Methods Inc.

Michael Bloomberg, the Mayor of New York — himself an experienced pilot — said that the captain had insisted on being the last to “abandon ship” after the emergency landing.

“It would appear that the pilot did a masterful job in landing the plane in the river and then making sure nobody else was left on board,” Mr Bloomberg said.

“I had a long conversation with the pilot. He walked the plane twice after everyone else got off and tried to verify there was nobody else on board.

“I also talked to a passenger who said he was the last one up the aisle and that he made sure there was nobody behind him.”

Fred Berretta, one of the survivors, praised the pilot. “It was an incredible execution. He was very calm and made a great landing,” he told CNN. “I was one of the last ones off the plane. I saw the pilot and some of the flight crew and I looked back and saw nobody else.”

Survivors described with amazement how one moment they were flying to Charlotte, North Carolina, and the next they were floating in the Hudson just off the Theatre District in Manhattan.

The Airbus A320 was six minutes out of LaGuardia airport with 150 passengers, two pilots and three flight attendants on board when it suddenly shook and caught fire.

“I was sitting in 22A. The left engine just blew. Fire, flames, came out of it. I was looking right at it because I was sitting right there,” said Mr Kolodjay, another survivor.

Read more

Man Almost Loses Penis Humping Steel Bench

2009-01-15T16:26:00.000-08:00

Last night in Hong Kong, the police received a disturbing call from a man in trouble.

Xing, a 41 year-old man, was calling from LanTian park in the middle of the night. The lonely and disturbed man had apparently thought it would be fun to have sex with one of the steel sit-up benches around the park.

The bench has numerous small holes in it, which Xing used to attempt to satisfy himself. However, once he became aroused he found that he was stuck and could not get his penis out of the small hole.

He panicked and called the police to help him.

When police arrive they found Xian stuck face down where he had been stuck for some time.

When doctors arrived on the scene they tried to release some of the pressure by removing some of his blood, but the penis was so swollen that they ended up having to cut the entire bench free and take it, with Xian attached, to the hospital.

4 painful hours later, Doctors finally separated Xian from his bench.

Doctors stated that if he had been stuck for even an hour longer, they would have had to remove his penis.

From: Perez Hilton

Arthritis worse in women

2009-01-14T18:50:00.000-08:00

Women may suffer more from rheumatoid arthritis than men, findings suggest.

Female patients say they experience more symptoms like aches, pains and tiredness even when they appear to have the same level of disease as men.

The Finnish researchers believe their findings may be down to physical strength - women are naturally weaker than men and thus feel the strain more.

Details of their study of over 6,000 patients from 25 countries is published in Arthritis Research and Therapy.

It is already known that the disease is more common in women than in men - more than 70% of those with rheumatoid arthritis are female.

In the latest study, the men and women were asked to complete questionnaires about their disease and underwent x-rays and blood tests to gauge how advanced their arthritis was.

'Weaker' sex

Lead researcher Dr Tuulikki Sokka, a consultant in rheumatology at the Jyvaskyla Central Hospital, said: "The level of rheumatoid arthritis appears to be pretty much the same in both sexes but the symptoms of joint tenderness and things like that appear to be worse in women.

"The problem is that the only real measure we have for rheumatoid arthritis is the X-ray, which only measures damage.

"This is not a very valuable tool in the everyday clinic and so we need to rely on what patients tell us. We found that women tell us they have more severe symptoms."

Dr Sokka believes this relates to women being physically weaker than men.

"Our findings were particularly obvious in older women, who are losing their muscle mass little by little every year.

"Given that woman is the 'weaker vessel' concerning musculoskeletal size and strength and her baseline values are lower than men's, the same burden of a musculoskeletal disease may appear to be more harmful to a woman than to a man."

Macho façade

Alternatively, it may be that women feel less inhibited about admitting they are having difficulties, or that men tolerate more pain, she said.

Hormones may also play a role.

Professor Alan Silman, a spokesman for the Arthritis Research Campaign, said: "One of the most fascinating and unexplained aspects of rheumatoid arthritis is the strong female excess in incidence, although this narrows substantially after the menopause.

"This provides powerful evidence that hormonal factors are involved in the disease.

"Furthermore men who develop the disease need to have a stronger genetic background than women.

"Thus it is not surprising that the disease behaves differently between the genders and the differences in severity are not likely to be totally explained by external factors such as body build and physical activities."

Dr Chris Deighton, a consultant rheumatologist at Derbyshire Royal Infirmary, said it was possible that women had more severe joint disease than men.

But the study also showed that the way disease activity is measured in patients could differ between men and women.

Dr Deighton said: "My impression is that there's still a possibility that women have more severe joint disease than men do.

"When they looked at the data, they noted that women tended to have more erosions (of bone) than men did."

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

hallucinations link to coffee intake

2009-01-14T18:48:00.000-08:00

People who drink too much coffee could start seeing ghosts or hearing strange voices, UK research has suggested.

People who drank more than seven cups of instant coffee a day were three times more likely to hallucinate than those who took just one, a study found.

A Durham University team questioned 200 students about their caffeine intake, the journal Personality and Individual Differences reported.

However, academics say the findings do not prove a "causal link".

They also stress that experiencing hallucinations is not a definite sign of mental illness and that about 3% of people regularly hear voices.

"This is the first step toward looking at the wider factors associated with hallucinations," said psychology PhD student Simon Jones, who led the study.

Under stress

He said previous research had suggested factors such as childhood trauma could be linked to hallucinations.

When under stress, the body releases a hormone called cortisol which is produced in greater quantities after consuming caffeine.

The extra cortisol boost could be what causes a person to hallucinate.

Therefore, Mr James added, it made sense to examine the link between caffeine and mood.

Besides coffee, sources such as tea, chocolate, "pep" pills and energy drinks contain caffeine.

After asking the students about their typical intake, the research team assessed their susceptibility to hallucinatory experiences and stress levels.

Pregnancy problems

Among the experiences reported were seeing things that were not there, hearing voices, and sensing the presence of dead people.

However, Mr James stressed more work was needed to pin down the link.

He said: "Stressed people may simply drink more caffeine."

And he added: "Even if caffeine were responsible for hallucinations in some way, the part it plays would be small compared to other factors in life."

The researchers now plan to investigate whether other aspects of diet, such as sugar and fat consumption, might be associated with hallucinations.

Dr Euan Paul, of the British Coffee Association, stressed the study only focused on people with a very high caffeine intake.

He also said no details were recorded of other substances consumed that might have had hallucinogenic effects.

"There are literally thousands of well conducted published studies looking at all aspects of the coffee, caffeine and health debate and the overall conclusion clearly demonstrates that moderate caffeine intake, 400-500mg per day, is safe for the general population and may even confer health benefits."

Recent research has linked high caffeine intake among pregnant women to miscarriage or low birth weight.

Other studies suggested it could help prevent skin cancer, reduce nerve damage associated with multiple sclerosis, or cause problems for diabetes sufferers.

The Durham study was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council and Medical Research Council.

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

Woman allegedly tries to kill hubby with eye drops

2009-01-14T18:36:00.000-08:00

A 40-year-old southwest Missouri woman is accused of trying to kill her husband by spiking his tea with a half bottle of Visine eye drops. Greene County deputies said the woman was jailed

Thursday night on $100,000 bond on a first-degree assault charge.

She was arrested late Wednesday after a co-worker told Greene County deputies that the woman told her about the plot to kill her husband.

A probable cause statement said the husband told investigators he'd been having stomach problems for the past two months.

The statement said poison control experts told a detective that ingesting too much Visine would lead to a coma and other "serious symptoms."

Authorities say the woman researched other means of killing her husband when the first attempt didn't work.

From: Perez Hilton

Bride's advertisement for wedding guests

2009-01-11T22:30:00.000-08:00

A bride from Eastern Europe who is marrying in London is advertising for "decent" guests to fill her side of the church.

The Ukrainian woman's family are all at home, and only her parents can be at the ceremony.

So the woman, whose identity has not been disclosed, has posted a free ad on classifieds website Gumtree looking for 30 people to sit with her.

She also wants volunteers to be bridesmaids, groomsmen and ushers.

The woman says in the advertisement: "I'm having a large mixed wedding of about 150 people.

"My partner has loads of family around to invite to the wedding. Unfortunately for me, my family are all in Ukraine so they all can't make it. Only my mum and dad will be there."

Volunteers have to send a photograph and write about themselves, but in return they get invited to the reception.

Gumtree trends analyst Trisha Routledge said: "For brides and grooms whose family live abroad, it must be tough not to have them there on the most special day of your life.

"It's great to see that they're finding other ways of filling the seats, whilst offering some lucky people the chance to go to a wedding for free - and you never know who you might meet."

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

Inmate rips out eye, then claims he ate it

2009-01-10T21:48:00.000-08:00

A Texas death row inmate with a history of mental problems pulled out his only good eye, authorities said Friday.

Andre Thomas told officers he ate it.

Thomas, 25, was arrested for the fatal stabbings of his estranged wife, their young son and her 13-month-old daughter in March 2004. Their hearts also had been ripped out. He was convicted and condemned for the infant's death.

While in the Grayson County Jail in Sherman, Thomas similarly had plucked out his right eye before his trial later in 2004. A judge subsequently ruled he was competent to stand trial.

A death-row officer at the Polunsky Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice found Thomas in his cell with blood on his face and had him taken to the unit infirmary.

"Thomas said he pulled out his eye and subsequently ingested it," agency spokesman Jason Clark said Friday.

Thomas was treated at East Texas Medical Center in Tyler after the Dec. 9 incident. Then he was transferred and remains at the Jester Unit, a prison psychiatric facility southwest of Houston.

"He will finally be able to receive the mental health care that we had wanted and begged for from day 1," Bobbie Peterson-Cate, Thomas' trial attorney, told the Sherman Herald Democrat. "He is insane and mentally ill. It is exactly the same reason he pulled out the last one."
Thomas does not have an execution date.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in October upheld his conviction and death sentence for the death of 13-month-old Leyha Marie Hughes. Also killed March 27, 2004, were his wife, Laura Christine Boren, 20, and their son, Andre Lee, 4.

Thomas, from Texoma, walked into the Sherman Police Department and told a dispatcher he had just murdered the three and had stabbed himself in the chest.

Thomas told police how he put his victims' hearts in his pocket and left their apartment, took them home, put them in a plastic bag and threw them in the trash.

From: Perez Hilton

Man demands estranged wife pay him for kidney

2009-01-09T04:48:00.000-08:00

New York doctor is demanding that his estranged wife pay him $1.5 million to compensate him for the kidney he gave her while they were still on good terms. Dr. Richard Batista spoke Wednesday to reporters at his lawyer's office in Garden City, Long Island.

He said he gave his kidney to Dawnell Batista in June 2001. She filed for divorce in July 2005.

The 49-year-old Batista works for Nassau University Medical Center. The couple have three children, ages, 8, 11 and 14.

A message left for his wife's attorney, Douglas Rothkopf, was not immediately returned.

From: Perez Hilton

Mother charged with not dressing baby for cold

2009-01-06T20:31:00.000-08:00

A Nova Scotia woman accused of not properly dressing her nine-month-old girl for the cold is due to appear in court next week.

Bridgewater police have charged the 26-year-old woman with criminal negligence causing bodily harm.

Police launched an investigation after someone reported that a woman was carrying a baby outside at around 4:30 a.m. on Dec. 27.

It was –9 C at the time, and the baby wasn't dressed for the weather, police were told.

Bridgewater police said the baby wasn't responsive when officers arrived.

The little girl was treated in hospital for injuries to one hand and released to the care of her father.

The woman is scheduled to appear in Bridgewater provincial court on Jan. 14.

From: perezhilton

Hisayasu Nagata commits suicide

2009-01-06T05:53:00.000-08:00

A former Japanese MP who resigned after making accusations of government corruption that were never proven has jumped to his death from an apartment block, a police source said Sunday.

Hisayasu Nagata, once a rising star in the opposition Democratic Party of Japan, committed suicide Saturday in the southwestern town of Kitakyushu.

Nagata, 39, left behind a suicide note, the police source said. He was reportedly suffering from psychological problems and had attempted suicide in November.

"There is no indication that would point to homicide," the source said.

Police officially declined comment. Japan has one of the world's highest suicide rates.

Nagata created a stir in 2006 when he unveiled e-mails purporting to show that the son of the head of Japan's ruling party received secret campaign cash from Livedoor, a scandal-plagued Internet firm.

But the Democratic Party later said it could not vouch for the authenticity of the e-mails, leading Nagata to resign from parliament.

From: http://news.yahoo.com

Playing golf can damage hearing

2009-01-05T15:23:00.000-08:00

Keen golfers are being warned by doctors that they could be risking their hearing for their sport.

Players who use a new generation of thin-faced titanium drivers to propel the ball further should consider wearing ear plugs, experts advise.

Ear specialists suspect the "sonic boom" the metal club head makes when it strikes the ball damaged the hearing of a 55-year-old golfer they treated.

They outline the details of this case in the British Medical Journal.

The man had been playing with a King Cobra LD titanium club three times a week for 18 months and commented that the noise of the club hitting the ball was "like a gun going off".

It had become so unpleasant that he decided to ditch the club, but by this time he had already suffered some hearing loss.

Doctors at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital carried out tests on the keen golfer after he attended their clinic with unexplained tinnitus and reduced hearing in his right ear.

The tests confirmed that his hearing problems were typical of those seen with exposure to loud noises.

'Sonic boom'

The doctors trawled the web for reviews of the King Cobra LD club and said they found some interesting comments.

One player reported: "Drives my mates crazy with that distinctive loud 'BANG' sound."

Another said: "This is not so much a ting but a sonic boom which resonates across the course!"

The doctors decided to recruit a professional golfer to hit shots with six thin-faced titanium clubs from manufacturers such as King Cobra, Callaway, Nike and Mizuno.

All produced a louder noise than standard thicker stainless steel drivers.

The worst offender was the Ping G10 at over 130 decibels.

Lead researcher Dr Malcom Buchanan, an ENT specialist and a keen golfer, said: "Our results show that thin-faced titanium drivers may produce sufficient sound to induce temporary or even permanent cochlear damage in susceptible individuals."

He said golfers should be careful when playing with these thin-faced clubs as they make a lot more noise, and suggested they could wear earplugs for protection.

Crystal Rolfe, an audiologist for the RNID, said: "Exposure to loud impulse sounds over time can cause damage. It is a short, sharp burst of very loud peak sound with this type of golf club.

"Earplugs would offer some protection and if someone was playing regularly with these types of club they might consider wearing them. But this is only one individual case so we need more research."

Dr Martin Strangwood, an expert in sports equipment engineering at the University of Birmingham, said manufacturers engineered the sound of the club to get a "good" sound for the player.

"There has been a tendency to make booming clubs for drivers. But if this were a problem it would be easy to remedy by filling the head of the club with foam to reduce the sound."

He said wearing earplugs was another solution, but said players use the noise as feedback to assess how they are playing and how well their equipment is performing. "So it might not work for all."

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

World's Oldest Person Maria de Jesus Dies

2009-01-02T15:55:00.000-08:00

A Portuguese woman believed to be the world's oldest living person died on Friday at the age of 115, officials said.

Maria de Jesus, who was born on Sept. 10, 1893, and lived to see five great-great grandchildren born, died in an ambulance near the town of Tomar, officials said.

De Jesus had eaten her breakfast as usual and was being taken to the hospital because of swelling, her daughter, Maria Madalena, told the state news agency Lusa.

De Jesus had never before fallen ill and had lived her 115 years and 114 days without taking medication, her daughter said.

She reportedly only had had to visit a hospital once in her life before being transported by ambulance for treatment on Friday.

De Jesus refused to go to a nursing home despite her health beginning to fail over recent years, and she suffered from sight and hearing problems, family said.

In her last days, she was unable to recognize family, including Madalena, with whom she lived on a farm, the Daily Mail reported.

De Jesus only held the title of the world's oldest person, listed by Guinness World Records and the Gerontology Research Group, for about five weeks.

She received the title on Nov. 26, 2008, when Edna Parker died at the age of 115.

American Gertrude Baines, 114, is now the world's oldest known living person.

From: www.cbc.ca

Sleep gives brain disease warning

2008-12-24T20:46:00.000-08:00

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

Cousin Marriage is OK by Science

2008-12-23T15:26:00.000-08:00

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

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

2008-12-23T15:17:00.000-08:00

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

Women may face greater HIV risk

2008-12-17T18:10:00.000-08:00

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

Man accused of stealing fridge with urine samples

2008-12-17T17:50:00.000-08:00

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

Romantic Comedies spoil your love life

2008-12-16T17:53:00.000-08:00

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

US man uses pizza in self-defense

2008-12-14T16:51:00.000-08:00

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

Woman Jailed for Fake Kidnapping of her children

2008-12-12T16:53:00.000-08:00

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

19 Men charged for global porn links

2008-12-11T02:54:00.000-08:00

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

Virtual world for Muslims debuts

2008-12-09T16:15:00.000-08:00

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

Inside a US sex addiction clinic

2008-12-09T16:13:00.000-08:00

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/

Man Says Wife Was Accidentally Shot During Sex

2008-12-09T15:51:00.000-08:00

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

Presidential video game to hit retail shelves

2008-12-08T18:42:00.000-08:00

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

Test reveals dogs gets jealous

2008-12-08T15:56:00.000-08:00

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/

Facebook Hit by Koobface Virus

2008-12-08T02:07:00.000-08:00

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

Farewell To Lo Hwei Yen

2008-12-06T23:57:00.000-08:00

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

The truth about amnesia

2008-12-06T23:05:00.000-08:00

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

Man uses candy cane to subdue attacker with knife

2008-12-06T21:07:00.000-08:00

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

Bratz loses battle versus Barbie

2008-12-06T04:13:00.000-08:00

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

Intelligent men have better sperm

2008-12-06T04:10:00.000-08:00

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

Brain tests show child wealth gap

2008-12-06T04:06:00.000-08:00

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

Nokia launches 'iPhone killer' - N97

2008-12-04T20:20:00.000-08:00

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

Facebook moves closer to conquering the web

2008-12-04T20:18:00.000-08:00

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

YouTube and Ning cracking down on Sexy

2008-12-04T20:16:00.000-08:00

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

Mumbai Police to Use 'Truth Serum' on Captured Terrorist

2008-12-03T17:09:00.000-08:00

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

1 in 5 young adults has personality disorder

2008-12-03T16:17:00.000-08:00

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

Research on mice links fast food to Alzheimer's

2008-12-02T17:17:00.001-08:00

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.

UCLA medical employee pleads guilty to selling stars medical records

2008-12-02T16:35:00.000-08:00

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

Former Student's Threat To Kill Maria Sharapova

2008-12-02T16:13:00.001-08:00

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

China Executes Yang Jia

2008-11-30T21:53:00.000-08:00

Concerns are raised over the execution of a jobless man who killed six police officers in Shanghai after a failed bid to complain about being beaten in custody.
HONG KONG—Authorities in Shanghai said Wednesday they had carried out the death sentence handed down to Yang Jia, a man convicted of killing six police officers in the city after attempting to sue police for beating him up.

"In line with an order issued by the Supreme People's Court, the Shanghai No. 2 Intermediate People's Court executed criminal Yang Jia by injection on Nov. 26," the Supreme People's Court said in a statement.

"Before the execution, the parties concerned arranged a meeting between Yang Jia and his mother, Wang Jingmei," the statement added.

I am not in deep sorrow right now. I am determined to find answers to many unanswered questions for Yang Jia."

Yang Jia's father, Yang Fusheng

Yang, 28, an unemployed resident of Beijing, launched an attack on a Shanghai police station on July 1 and began stabbing people, killing six police officers. Another three policemen and one security guard were injured, according to the official version of events.

He was sentenced to death on Sept. 1 in the first verdict by the Shanghai No. 2 Intermediate People's Court. He later appealed. On Oct. 20, the Shanghai Higher People's Court upheld the sentence.

The case has raised questions about police harassment, with some regarding Yang as a victim who stood up to abuse commonly suffered by people on the wrong side of the rich-poor divide in China.

Bid to sue

Yang had tried unsuccessfully to sue police for psychological damage caused by being beaten up while in detention over an unlicensed bicycle.

Yang's mother, who raised Yang as a single parent, was detained and placed in a mental hospital following the murders.

Others criticized the various courts' refusal to look further into assertions by Yang's lawyers that he was mentally unstable.

The case has drawn criticism from lawyers for what they say are too many question marks over due process, and from a public which often complains of police abuses of power.

In a case with which comparisons are already being drawn, two police officers in the northeastern city of Harbin have been arrested over the beating death of a college student in a nightclub, authorities said Wednesday.

The move is apparently aimed at quelling increasing public anger at a force which is frequently accused of corruption and abuse of power.

Due process 'lacking'

Liu Xiaoyuan, a Beijing-based lawyer who has advised Yang's mother on her son's case, said there were many holes in the way the authorities handled it.

"This case has raised concerns throughout the country because there were so many problems with due process," Liu said.

"The fact that they didn't return the case for a second [psychiatric] assessment, but just moved directly to approving his execution is going to mean that people lose any trust in the judicial system," he said.

Observers have also expressed concern over the detention of Yang's mother, Wang Jingmei, shortly after her son's arrest.

Wang was held for four months in a police-run mental hospital before being taken Sunday to visit her son in prison and then escorted to her home in Beijing.

Yang's father, Yang Fusheng, showed signs of strain when interviewed before his son's execution.

"Don't ask me all these questions," he said. "Right now we are in the middle of dealing with it. I'm very worried about his mother's health. She is all alone at home," he said.

"I am not in deep sorrow right now. I am determined to find answers to many unanswered questions for Yang Jia," Yang Fusheng said.

"I still remember Yang Jia’s phrase, 'If you don’t give me an explanation, then I will give you an explanation.' I will finish up what Yang Jia has not finished but I will do it in a non-violent way. I will use the law to fight back against those unlawful people, regardless of their rank."

Social realities

Guizhou-based commentator Zeng Ning said the case had attracted such widespread interest because of the social realities it highlighted.

"The reason ordinary people have taken interest in Yang Jia's case has to do with the reason why he killed those policemen, and with all the different social crises which lie behind his case," Zeng said.

He said many people felt that the real issue in the Yang Jia case was the widespread abuse of police power.

On the eve of Yang's execution, Zeng pointed to the beating to death of the Harbin university student.

"People are bound to asking whether the police officers should also be sentenced to death for killing ordinary people," he said.

"In the absence of any major changes in the factors behind the Yang Jia murder case, the story isn't going to end with the trial or the death sentence handed out to Yang."

Another commentator on social affairs, Ai Momo, suggested that this case could have wide-ranging impact.

"Every step of this case, from the first trial through the appeal, was backward," Ai said. "China’s system is determined to go exactly opposite the wishes of the public. It's a dangerous signal and it may have great impact in Chinese society.

From: http://www.rfa.org

Plaxico Burress shot in right thigh

2008-11-29T15:34:00.000-08:00

Super Bowl hero Plaxico Burress was accidentally shot in the right thigh and spent the night in the hospital, another dramatic turn in a tumultuous season in which the star New York Giants receiver has been fined and suspended.

The Giants said the shooting happened Friday night and he was released from the hospital early Saturday. The team did not say where the shooting took place, what hospital Burress went to or how badly he was injured. The Giants called this an “apparent accidental shooting.”

“Our primary concern is for Plaxico’s health and well-being, and given the circumstances, we are relieved to say he was released from a New York City hospital,” the team said in a statement.

Burress was wounded in a nightclub, a team official told The Associated Press. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the team was still trying to sort out all the facts. ESPN.com reported the shooting was at the Latin Quarter in midtown Manhattan.

The club is a sprawling 15,000-square-foot, two-story restaurant and club located in the Radisson Lexington Hotel. Katia Laine, a manager at the hotel, told the AP police officers had been to the club.

Phone messages and an e-mail left at the nightclub were not immediately returned.

The Giants said they have been in contact with the 31-year-old receiver since the shooting and have discussed the matter with NFL security.

“This incident could become a matter for law enforcement officials, and because of that we have no comment on any of the details,” the team said.

New York City police said they have not spoken to Burress or recovered the gun used in the shooting.

Repeated phones calls to Burress’ home and his agent, Drew Rosenhaus, were not immediately returned.

Added NFL spokesman Joe Browne: “We are gathering information, just like everyone else.”

Burress injured a hamstring two weeks ago against the Baltimore Ravens. The Giants said Friday he would not play Sunday in Washington.

Burress was suspended for a game against Seattle on Oct. 5 and fined $117,500 for missing a team meeting and failing to notify the team of his absence. He said he had a family emergency.

He also was fined $45,000 by the NFL for his conduct during an Oct. 19 game against 49ers in which he abused an official and tossed a ball into the stands.

“Like I said, I am human,” Burress said last month in discussing his runs-ins with the team. “I have made some mistakes. I haven’t made the best of decisions, I am aware of that, and I am the first one to look myself in the mirror, be honest with myself, and say that.”

“But as far as me going out and playing hard, I am going to keep going out and competing,” he added. “Like I said, I just keep going out and doing what is asked of me on the football field, and in whatever that role may be I hope I go out and fulfill it.”

While the team can find it tough handling Burress, he is clearly a playmaker who poses a threat to opponents.

Burress caught the winning pass in the Giants’ Super Bowl win over the New England Patriots, capping a season in which he caught a career-high 12 touchdowns. He was belatedly rewarded, signing a five-year, $35 million contract hours before the season opened in September.
In this Feb. 4, 2008 file photo, New York Giants' wide receiver Plaxico Burress gestures number one after getting off a team bus at Giants Stadium Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., as the Giants returned from the Super Bowl in Arizona. Burress was accidentally shot in the leg at a nightclub, it was reported Saturday, Nov. 29, 2008. Sources say the wound was not life threatening and it was not clear at what club the shooting took place.

The signing came after an unsettling offseason during which Burress was fined $25,000 for refusing to practice during a mandatory minicamp in June. He also missed most of training camp at the University at Albany with a sprained ankle. He insisted the injury—not his contract—kept him off the field.

Despite a lack of practice, Burress started in the opener against Washington and caught 10 passes for 133 yards. The following week, he had five catches for 81 yards and a touchdown in a win over St. Louis.

The rest of the season has not been as productive. The most passes he has caught in any game since is four in a loss to Cleveland on Oct. 13, the game following his suspension.

Burress has 35 catches for 454 yards and four touchdowns in a season in which he has constantly drawn double coverage. His streak of receptions in 115 consecutive games ended last week in Arizona. He aggravated his hamstring injury during the first series and did not return.

It was the sixth-longest active streak in the league, dating to Nov. 26, 2000 against Cincinnati, Burress’ rookie season in Pittsburgh.

Signed as a free agent in 2005, Burress had caught a pass in all 56 previous games in which he had played for the Giants.

By:
TOM CANAVAN
Colleen Long
Adam Goldman
Samantha Henry in Trenton

From: yahoo

Black Friday Turns Deadly at a New York Wal-Mart

2008-11-29T15:29:00.000-08:00

Our thoughts go out to the family of Jdimytai Damour, the Wal-Mart employee who was TRAMPLED TO DEATH by early morning shoppers at a New York Wal-Mart.

The New York Times reports that at about 4:55 am on Friday, a crowd of more than 2,000 who had come out for holiday deals forced their way into the Valley Stream, NY store. The six or so workers manning the front could not hold the unruly crowd back. Witnesses said the doors shattered and 'the shrieking mob surged through in a blind rush for holiday bargains. and Jdimytai Damour was 'thrown back onto the black linoleum tiles and trampled in the stampede that streamed over and around him.'

The detective in charge of the investigation said the store lacked adequate security.

He also went on to call the scene “utter chaos” and said the “crowd was out of control" and that those who ran over the victim could face criminal charges.

“I’ve heard other people call this an accident, but it is not. Certainly it was a foreseeable act,” said the detective.

A witness told the media that shoppers behaved badly even as the store was being cleared AFTER the death, “When they were saying they had to leave, that an employee got killed, people were yelling, ‘I’ve been on line since yesterday morning. They kept shopping.”

From: Perez Hilton

Topnotchers of November 2008 Civil Engineering Board Exam

2008-11-28T18:04:00.000-08:00

1. MARICEL DELA CRUZ AQUINO, UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES-LOS BAÑOS 99.10
2. SERG JASON MODEQUILLO BODIONGAN, MINDANAO STATE UNIVERSITY-ILIGAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY 98.95
2. MA DOREEN ESPLANA CANDELARIA, UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES-DILIMAN 98.95
2. RAISA LLEUE MOLINA CURATIVO, BICOL UNIVERSITY-LEGAZPI 98.95
2. RODOLFO JR PAULE MENDOZA, DON HONORIO VENTURA COLLEGE OF ARTS & TRADES 98.95
2. ARNEL MARIE ISLETA MONTEIRO, UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES-LOS BAÑOS 98.95
2. LEMUEL AGIE GARCIA SACAN, EASTERN VISAYAS STATE UNIVERSITY (LIT)TACLOBAN 98.95
2. JESHURUN I DACULES SEVERO, CARLOS C. HILADO MEMORIAL STATE COLLEGE-TALISAY 98.95
3. SANDY MAE AUJERO GASPAY, UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES-DILIMAN 97.90
3. MARK JOSEPH MAGADIA IPA, SOUTHERN LUZON POLYTECHNIC COLLEGE-LUCBAN 97.90
3. ROBERT CHRISTOPHER ABELLON NIEBRES, BICOL UNIVERSITY-LEGAZPI 97.90
3. ART REYNAN TURCO TROGO, BICOL UNIVERSITY-LEGAZPI 97.90
4. KRISTOFFER ARNIE VALENCIA BORREROS, TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES-MANILA 97.55
4. JUN LEDDA COSMIANO, CAGAYAN STATE UNIVERSITY-TUGUEGARAO 97.55
4. JANEAN PEÑAFLORIDA LABAOSAS, CARLOS C. HILADO MEMORIAL STATE COLLEGE-TALISAY 97.55
4. SYDNEY PRIETO MAESTRO, TECHNOLOGICAL INSTITUTE OF THE PHILIPPINES-QUEZON CITY 97.55
4. DOMINIC DELA CRUZ SALVADOR, CAGAYAN STATE UNIVERSITY-TUGUEGARAO 97.55
4. WARREN ANTONIO LADEMORA TAN, UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES-DILIMAN 97.55
4. LESTER BENJAMIN BRITANICO VIRATA, SAINT LOUIS UNIVERSITY 97.55
5. ROBEN MARZAN CASANO, SAINT LOUIS COLLEGE OF SAN FERNANDO 97.00
5. JESSA MARISSE FERNANDO CRUZ, UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES-DILIMAN 97.00
5. JOHN VINCENT PARE MUSNGI, UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES-LOS BAÑOS 97.00
5. RYAN JAY RAMOS POLICARPIO, UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES-LOS BAÑOS 97.00

6. EDILBERT TANGONAN ABUNAGA, UNIVERSITY OF BAGUIO 96.85
6. SUNSEEHRAY ALESSANDRA CASIÑO BANAÑA, UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES-LOS BAÑOS 96.85
6. ANGELICA JOI RIVERA CALEJA, UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES-DILIMAN 96.85
6. CHERRY MAY ROSETE MATEO, UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES-DILIMAN 96.85
6. CHERRY MAGNO MORENO, MAPUA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY 96.85
6. RYAN TUBA NIEDO, UNIVERSITY OF EASTERN PHILIPPINES-CATARMAN 96.85
6. JOHN ROSS LINABAN ROMANILLOS, POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES-MAIN-STA. MESA 96.85
7. MARY ROXANNE INFANTE AGLIPAY, UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES-DILIMAN 96.65
7. JAN JULIUS RAMOS CORDERO, UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS 96.65
7. FERNANDO ANGELES DEL MUNDO, PAMANTASAN NG LUNGSOD NG MAYNILA 96.65
7. JOSE LORENZO MARCELINO LABICCASI UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES-LOS BAÑOS 96.65
7. IAN CHRIS SUBALISID MEDENILLA, UNIVERSITY OF EASTERN PHILIPPINES-CATARMAN 96.65
7. KENNETH JANN BONGOLAN ORBITO, SAINT LOUIS UNIVERSITY 96.65
7. RODANTE CRUZ TORRES, BULACAN STATE UNIVERSITY (BULACAN COLL OF ARTS & TRADES) 96.65
8. MARNIE BECIOS GIDUQUIO, UNIVERSITY OF SAN CARLOS 96.50
8. KRISH EDWARD DENNIS JOSE MADARANG, UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS 96.50
8. RIC CHESTER CASTRO NUQUI, DON HONORIO VENTURA COLLEGE OF ARTS & TRADES 96.50
8. JAMES MICHAEL LACANARIA ONG, UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES-DILIMAN 96.50
8. JOHN PAUL GERUNDIO PASAOL, UNIVERSITY OF SAN CARLOS 96.50
8. JOHN-REY TURALBA SANDAGON, POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES-MAIN-STA. MESA 96.50
9. ERICSON ALDABA CRUZ, BULACAN STATE UNIVERSITY (BULACAN COLL OF ARTS & TRADES) 95.95
10. KATHERINE ANN PALMAIRA PALERACIO, UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS 95.80

Meat intake cut' on cancer fears

2008-11-27T16:41:00.000-08:00

One in 10 people has tried to cut down on processed meats such as bacon in the wake of a report linking them to cancer, a survey suggests.

Older people among the 2,124 questioned were most likely to have done this.

A World Cancer Research Fund report last year said those eating two rashers of bacon and two sausages a day faced a 63% higher risk of bowel cancer.

A bowel cancer charity said other factors, including smoking and alcohol, were also key.

The cancer prevention report highlighted the evidence for the potential dangers of processed meat, but also pointed to other elements of diet and lifestyle which could either reduce or increase cancer risk.

A quarter of those questioned in the online survey said they had tried to eat more fruits and vegetables as a result of media coverage of the report, while 18% of people said they were making more effort to watch their weight, after the report described evidence linking excess weight to six forms of cancer.

Heavy consumption of red meat has already been linked to bowel cancer, and 11% of those asked said they had been trying to cut down.

Gut chemicals

However, scientists believe that chemicals created during the curing or processing of meat pose an additional threat to the cells lining the gut.

Among the over-55s, 37% said they had tried to reduce their intake of processed meat.

Younger people were less motivated, with only 6% of them doing this.

Richard Evans, the head of communications for the World Cancer Research Fund, said: "This survey shows that if people are told how they can reduce their risk of cancer then many of them will make changes.

"However, recent market research has shown that despite the wall-to-wall media coverage of our report, many people are still unaware of how things like diet and physical activity affect cancer risk."

The survey also found nearly two in five people were trying to be more physically active, and 9% were trying to cut down on alcohol in response to health messages.

A spokesman for Bowel Cancer UK said: "There is increasing evidence that lifestyle issues such as poor diet, obesity and lack of exercise are directly linked to an increased risk of the disease.

"We recommend that people who eat a diet high in processed meats cut down and eat more fruit and vegetables, but it is also important to remember to not focus on this alone.

"There are many other factors that might contribute to an increased risk of bowel cancer, such as smoking and an excess of alcohol, which should not be ignored."

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

Huang Guangyu's arrest confirmed

2008-11-27T16:38:00.000-08:00

Police have confirmed that one of China's richest men, Huang Guangyu, is being held in custody while they investigate him for "economic crimes".

Mr Huang went missing last week and shares in his company Gome have been suspended from trading.

Officials gave no further details, but Chinese media point to alleged irregularities in the share price of a company controlled by his brother.

The billionaire electrical appliance tycoon is worth some $6bn (£4bn).

"We can confirm for you the news that Wong is being held for investigation by Beijing police in connection with economic crimes," a police spokesman said, referring to Mr Huang by his other name Wong Kwong-yu.

It was the first official confirmation of widespread reports that the founder and chairman of Gome Electrical Appliances Holdings - which sells one in six of the electronic products bought in China - is being questioned for alleged share trading violations or other crimes.

Correspondents say the 39-year-old entrepreneur is something of a legendary figure, a living example of a rise from rags to riches.

The delay in official confirmation of Mr Huang's detention prompted a rare rebuke in a commentary carried on Xinhua, the official news agency.

The agency complained that in the face of many rumours, media questions had gone unanswered, prompting people to feel "lost".

The BBC's Chris Hogg says some in China see the investigation as an indication the authorities need to remind the country's tycoons who is really in charge, despite the former leader Deng Xiaoping's claim that to get rich is glorious.

The company says its operations are not affected by Mr Huang's situation, but has refused further comment.

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

Drunk driver ends up running over himself

2008-11-27T16:31:00.000-08:00

A 21-year-old man was accused of driving drunk and leading police on a chase that finally ended with him running over himself. The man was treated for minor injuries at a Santa Fe hospital and booked in to the Sandoval County detention center on charges of aggravated driving while intoxicated, fleeing a police officer, careless driving and two other outstanding traffic warrants.

A tip to the state's DrunkBuster hot line Sunday afternoon alerted authorities to a possibly drunken driver.

State Police Officer Grace Romero spotted the man's pickup truck swerving across both lanes of a highway, driving slowly and then fast. He refused to stop.

After narrowly missing other vehicles, police said the suspect drove through a ditch and a barbed-wire fence before stopping. He tried to put the truck into park, but it ended up in reverse.

Police said the man fell from his open door and both of his legs were run over by the front driver's side tire.

From: Perez Hilton

Online Video Not Killing TV, Says Nielsen

2008-11-27T06:18:00.000-08:00

Earlier this month, we heard how online video was cannibalizing TV consumption, thanks to data coming out of an IBM study that polled people across six different countries worldwide. The study showed that 36% of people watched "significantly less" TV as a result of their online video viewing. This week, however, a report from Nielsen contradicts that study. Their "A2/M2 Three Screen Report" released yesterday shows that TV viewership isn't declining at all...in fact, it's at an all time high.

The new report from the media analysts at Nielsen found that video viewing across all three screens - TV, Internet, and mobile - increased from last year. As of the third quarter 2008, the average person in the U.S. watched approximately 142 hours of TV in one month. In addition, people who used the Internet were online 27 hours a month, and people who used a mobile phone spent 3 hours a month watching mobile video.

This year, TV viewing is even breaking records. The average time a U.S. home used a TV set during the 2007-08 television season was up to 8 hours and 18 minutes per day, a record high since Nielsen started measuring television in the 1950's.

Since Nielsen only measures TV viewing in the U.S., that could explain the differences between their findings and those of the IBM study. Or perhaps the IBM study was just a little too subjective. A poll where you ask people to rate their own habits can't compete with the cold, hard data that comes from the Nielsen boxes installed in thousands of homes across the U.S.
TV Execs, Remember: All Three Screens Are Doing Well

We're glad that network TV isn't going away anytime soon, but we're concerned now that this report will give the ever-hesitant TV networks another reason to back away from making their videos available online. If they only hear the part about "TV viewing having a record year," then they're going to miss another very important aspect to this report: viewing has increased on all three screens. That means that even though TV viewing is an all-time high, both mobile viewing and online videos are seeing a surge as well. If anything, that should be a huge encouragement to the industry as it proves that, not only does online and mobile video not detract from TV viewing, there's an opportunity to monetize all three screens for record amounts of income too.

Of course, that's if you believe Nielsen's numbers. IBM said otherwise. (Wait, IBM said? Since when is IBM an expert in TV?) Well, maybe the other counties IBM polled are behaving differently, but here in the U.S. it seems the TV is still king.

Written by Sarah Perez
From: http://www.readwriteweb.com

Jury convicts mom of lesser charges in online hoax

2008-11-27T05:09:00.000-08:00

LOS ANGELES - A Missouri mother on trial in a landmark cyberbullying case was convicted Wednesday of only three minor offenses for her role in a mean-spirited Internet hoax that apparently drove a 13-year-old girl to suicide. The federal jury could not reach a verdict on the main charge against 49-year-old Lori Drew _ conspiracy _ and rejected three other felony counts of accessing computers without authorization to inflict emotional harm.

Instead, the panel found Drew guilty of three misdemeanor offenses of accessing computers without authorization. Each count is punishable by up to a year in prison and a $100,000 fine. Drew could have gotten 20 years if convicted of the four original charges.

U.S. District Judge George Wu declared a mistrial on the conspiracy count. There was no immediate word on whether prosecutors would retry her.

"I don't have any satisfaction in the jury's decision," said Drew's lawyer, Dean Steward. "I don't think these charges should have ever been brought."

Tina Meier, the mother of the dead girl, said Drew deserves the maximum of three years behind bars.

"For me it's never been about vengeance," she said. "This is about justice."

Prosecutors said Drew and two others created a fictitious 16-year-old boy on MySpace and sent flirtatious messages from him to teenage neighbor Megan Meier. The "boy" then dumped Megan in 2006, saying, "The world would be a better place without you." Megan promptly hanged herself with a belt in her bedroom closet.

Prosecutors said Drew wanted to humiliate Megan for saying mean things about Drew's teenage daughter. They said Drew knew Megan suffered from depression and was emotionally fragile.

"Lori Drew decided to humiliate a child," U.S. Attorney Thomas O'Brien, chief federal prosecutor in Los Angeles, told the jury during closing arguments. "The only way she could harm this pretty little girl was with a computer. She chose to use a computer to hurt a little girl, and for four weeks she enjoyed it."

O'Brien, who pronounced the case the nation's first cyberbullying trial, said the jury's decision sent a worthy message: "If you have children who are on the Internet and you are not watching what they are doing, you better be."

Most members of the six-man, six-woman jury left court without speaking to reporters. One juror, who identified himself by his first name only, Marcilo, indicated jurors were not convinced Drew's actions involved the intent alleged by prosecutors.

"Some of the jurors just felt strongly that it wasn't tortious and everybody needed to stay with their feeling. That was really the balancing point," he said.

The case hinged on an unprecedented _ and, some legal experts say, highly questionable _ application of computer-fraud law.

Drew was not directly charged with causing Megan's death. Instead, prosecutors indicted her under the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, which in the past has been used in hacking and trademark theft cases.

Among other things, Drew was charged with conspiring to violate the fine print in MySpace's terms-of-service agreement, which prohibits the use of phony names and harassment of other MySpace members.

"This was a very aggressive, if not misguided, theory," said Matt Levine, a New York-based defense attorney and former federal prosecutor. "Unfortunately, there's not a law that covers every bad thing in the world. It's a bad idea to use laws that have very different purpose."

Drew's lawyer, Steward, contended his client had little to do with the content of the messages and was not at home when the final one was sent. Steward also argued that nobody reads the fine print on service agreements.

Prosecutors said Drew, her then-13-year-old daughter Sarah and Drew's 18-year-old business assistant Ashley Grills set up the phony MySpace profile for a boy named "Josh Evans," posting a photo of a bare-chested boy with tousled brown hair. "Josh" then told Megan she was "sexi" and assured her, "i love you so much."

Grills allegedly sent the final, insulting message to Megan before she killed herself in the St. Louis suburb of Dardenne Prairie, Mo.

Missouri authorities said there was no state law under which Drew could be charged. But federal prosecutors in California claimed jurisdiction because MySpace is based in Beverly Hills.

Sarah Drew testified she never saw her mother use the MySpace account. But Grills, testifying under immunity from prosecution, said she saw Drew type at least one message under the name Josh Evans.

After the suicide, Missouri passed a law against cyber-harassment. Similar federal legislation has been proposed on Capitol Hill.

The trial's outcome was a victory for prosecutors despite the lack of a felony conviction, said Nick Akerman, a New York lawyer who specializes in cases involving the federal computer act.

"What you learned is that the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act is an extremely important tool in the federal arsenal against computer crime," he said.

MySpace said in a statement that it "respects the jury's decision and will continue to work with industry experts to raise awareness of cyberbullying and the harm it can potentially cause."

By GREG RISLING
From: yahoo

Medical searches on Web can trigger anxiety

2008-11-26T00:51:00.000-08:00

WASHINGTON (AFP) - - Playing doctor on the Web often leads people to mistakenly believe that they are suffering from rare illnesses, according to a study by researchers at Microsoft.

"Web search engines have the potential to escalate medical concerns," or "cyberchondria," Ryen White and Eric Horvitz wrote in the study published by the Redmond, Washington-based software company on Monday.

They described cyberchondria as "unfounded increases in health anxiety based on the review of Web content."

White, an expert in text mining, Web search and navigation, and Horvitz, another Microsoft researcher who is president of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, noted that the Internet provides an "abundant source" of medical information.

"However, the Web has the potential to increase the anxieties of people who have little or no medical training, especially when Web search is employed as a diagnostic procedure," they said.

"Common, likely innocuous symptoms can escalate into the review of content on serious, rare conditions that are linked to the common symptoms," they said.

For example, Web surfers with a headache may determine they have a brain tumor or those with chest pain that they are suffering a heart attack.

"A brain tumor is a concerning possibility when a searcher experiences headache," the researchers said. "However, the probability of a brain tumor given a general complaint of headache is typically quite low."

"Such escalations from common symptoms to serious concerns may lead to unnecessary anxiety, investment of time, and expensive engagements with healthcare professionals," White and Horvitz said.

The researchers said the study was aimed at "improving the search and navigation experience for people turning to the Web to interpret common symptoms" and determining "the challenges that cyberchondria presents for search engine designers."

Microsoft's Live Search engine provided the Web search results for the study and MSN Health and Fitness (health.msn.com) provided medical search results.

The researchers also surveyed the health-related search experiences of 515 individuals.

According to other studies cited by the researchers, eight in 10 American adults have searched for healthcare information online.

From: yahoo

Myron Rolle earned Rhodes Sholarship

2008-11-22T21:06:00.000-08:00

COLLEGE PARK, Md. - Myron Rolle on Saturday in Birmingham, Ala., earned the Rhodes Scholarship and then boarded a plane to join his Florida State teammates during their important Atlantic Coast Conference game at Maryland.

Rolle, a junior safety at Florida State who wants to pursue a career in medicine, had interviewed for the Rhodes earlier in the day and became one of 31 college students to receive the scholarship perhaps the most prestigious academic award for international study.

"I feel very fortunate to have been selected as a Rhodes scholar," Rolle said in a statement released by the school. "I've learned so much just by going through the process of application and interviews, and I am a better person for it.

"The interview process requires candidates to evaluate their long-term goals and plans, and it has made me think about how I can make the most impact in terms of service to society."
Rolle graduated in just two and a half years with a 3.75 GPA in exercise science. He wants to study to become a neurosurgeon and practice medicine in impoverished areas, including the Bahamas, which is where his family has roots.

Rolle became the fourth Florida State student to be named a Rhodes Scholar and second FSU athlete. Garrett Johnson, a former standout shot putter at the school, received the scholarship in 2006.

Those who earn the scholarship study for at least two years with the possibility of a renewal for a third at the University of Oxford in England. The Rhodes Trust selects two scholars each from 16 regions in the country.

"Florida State University's most treasured values of strength, skill and character live in Myron Rolle," FSU President T.K. Wetherell said in a statement. "He is a remarkable young man and a tremendous example for all of our students."

Rolle's honor comes at a time when Florida State's athletic department needs positive publicity. More than 60 FSU athletes were implicated last year in an academic fraud scandal that resulted in an NCAA investigation and several university-imposed sanctions.

University officials appeared last month before the NCAA Committee on Infractions, which soon will announce what penalties Florida State will endure because of the scandal.

"In the midst of the troubles that have gone on here at Florida State academically, there are still some student-athletes doing the right thing," Rolle said last week. "And if we can continue that trend, possibly we can move that perception from being a school that just focuses on parties or athletics to a school that really fosters and creates strong students and strong individuals in the class room."

After earning perhaps the highest academic honor that can be bestowed on an American college student, Rolle stepped on the field at Byrd Stadium with a little more than six minutes remaining in the second quarter. The fans near the FSU locker room stood and gave him and ovation.

by: Andrew Carter
From: www.orlandosentinel.com

Facebook Sued For Patent Infringement

2008-11-21T15:45:00.000-08:00

It's pretty much a rite of passage for any tech company these days, as you get larger and more recognized, some company that has an overly broad and probably obvious patent will sue you for patent infringement. For the company in question, the lawsuit is as much a publicity event as it is an attempt to squeeze revenue from an actual innovator. The latest example of this is with an Ohio company no one's heard of called Leader Technologies, who is suing Facebook for patent infringement, and was kind enough to send out a press release announcing this before Facebook even got to see the lawsuit. Clearly, this is a publicity stunt.
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As for the patent itself, it basically describes the rather obvious process of associating a piece of data with multiple categories. It's almost surprising that the company is suing Facebook instead of Google. While I'm not a heavy Facebook user, I'm not sure where Facebook uses such a system. Google, however, has made widespread use of a similar idea with its Gmail "labels." The idea is that rather than sorting data into a specific folder or category, it can be associated with multiple categories. If that seems rather obvious and ridiculously broad, well, that's the patent system for you these days.

by Mike Masnick
From: http://techdirt.com

Attorney General Mukasey vital signs strong after collapse

2008-11-21T03:07:00.000-08:00

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey was "conscious, conversant and alert" at a local Washington hospital after collapsing while delivering a national security speech at a hotel, the U.S. Justice Department said late on Thursday.

"His vital statistics are strong and he is in good spirits," department spokesman Peter Carr said in a statement. "The doctors will keep him overnight for further observations."

Mukasey, the top U.S. law enforcement and legal official, was rushed to George Washington University Medical Center in Washington after he collapsed.

President George W. Bush was told of Mukasey's condition and would be kept apprised of any developments, the White House said.

"The president was informed about the attorney general and he has him in his thoughts and hopes that he will have a speedy recovery and be back at work soon," White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said.

One witness said Mukasey, 67, collapsed suddenly and unexpectedly, near the end of his speech defending the Bush administration's war-on-terrorism policies to a conservative legal group.

"It was very somber," said the person, who asked not to be identified, of the atmosphere in the room after Mukasey collapsed.

The individual said Mukasey's security detail quickly moved to handle the situation after his collapse and called for emergency personnel, who then arrived, attended to him and took him to the hospital.

Mukasey, a former federal judge, has been attorney general for about a year, dealing with such issues as terrorism, crime and corporate wrongdoing stemming from the financial crisis. He is expected to leave office in January as part of the changeover to the incoming Obama administration.

His speech was to the annual dinner in Washington of the Federalist Society, held in the grand ballroom at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel.

By James Vicini
From: yahoo

Inmate gets $300,000 for lost genitals

2008-11-20T18:01:00.000-08:00

Washington state has agreed to pay $300,000 to an ex-prison inmate whose penis was consumed by a flesh-eating bacteria while he was behind bars.
Charlie Manning told The Seattle Times Monday he will have $115,000 left after paying attorney's fees arising from his lawsuit and other bills. He expects to get the money this week.

"It's been a nightmare," Manning said. "I figured I should settle for what I could get because I just want it behind me. It's unreal. It's like something from Mars."

Manning, 61, was serving a 13-month sentence for a drunken fight when he became ill. The prison doctor wrongly diagnosed his symptoms as an allergic reaction to medication. It turned out he had necrotizing fasciitis and the bacteria destroyed his penis and one testicle.

The Department of Corrections said the suit was settled because going to court would have been more expensive.

"While the end result was unfortunate and Mr. Manning's original diagnosis turned out to be inaccurate, this was the result of a misdiagnosis, not the result of poor medical care," officials said in a statement. "Not all medical judgments — whether performed in a prison or at a doctor's office — are infallible."

From: Perez Hilton

8-Year-Old's Shocking Murder Confession

2008-11-20T16:58:00.000-08:00

In the grainy police interrogation video, the 8-year-old boy sits in a big leather chair as he makes a shocking statement: that he shot his father once, then a second time "so he wouldn't suffer."

The boy – whose name has not been released – was arrested Nov. 5 in St. Johns, Ariz., and charged with premeditated murder. But the newly-released video of his confession has stirred up a controversy. Experts question whether the third grader's statement is legal because he was not read his rights and because no parent or guardian was present at the time.
In the interview, the boy initially tells police he found the body of Tim Romans, 39, a boarder who rented a room at his house, and then ran through the building shouting for his father, Vincent Romero, 29, who was lying dead upstairs.

"There was blood all over his face, I think, and I think I touched it," he tells officers in the video. The boy says he prodded his father's body with his foot "to see if he was a little bit alive" and then sat by the body and cried for half an hour.

Later, as the officers continue to question his story, the boy confesses to shooting both men.

But some experts say the boy's words should not be used against him. "The law enforcement conduct in this case is inexplicable: from interrogating a third-grader without the presence of a parent or other adult to releasing an inflammatory videotape before a trial," legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin told CNN.

While he is currently being held in juvenile jail, the boy will be released for 48 hours starting Nov. 26 to spend Thanksgiving with his mother.

By Chris Willard
From: people.com

Teen Survives Cougar Attack At Miami Home

2008-11-17T16:54:00.000-08:00

A 16-year-old girl was mauled by a cougar — but survived — when a neighbor saved her from the animal's cage at a northwest Miami home.

A Miami-Dade Fire Rescue spokesman says the girl sustained some significant wounds Saturday and she was taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

Miami-Dade police said 21-year-old Anthony Zitnick, a friend of the girl, illegally entered the wildlife collector's home with the girl and was later arrested. Inside, the 150-pound male cougar, named Chaos, pounced on the girl and clenched his jaws around her head.

Authorities said neighbor Richard Miralles heard screams and wrestled the animal away. Wildlife officials said the owner of the home has legal permits to keep two cougars and several snakes, tortoises and alligators.

Zittnick, 21, is facing charges of burglary into occupied dwelling.

From: Perez Hilton

Obama appoints YouTube (Google) as secretary of video

2008-11-17T16:40:00.000-08:00

It's great that President-elect Barack Obama is delivering his regularly scheduled Saturday address in both audio and video form. After using the Internet to help him get elected and connect with younger voters, it's clear that his team will continue to exploit the media to deliver its messages and stimulate dialog.

Obama has chosen to upload the video of his Saturday address to Google's YouTube, by far the most dominant video-sharing service, and embed the video on his Change.gov transition site.

The video has already garnered more than 500,000 views, and this is just the beginning of the Obama's administration's use of video. Post-inauguration, there will likely be a White House YouTube channel to push the administration's agenda and to hopefully to provide more transparency.

My question is why favor YouTube? It's obvious that YouTube is the way to reach the most people. According to Nielsen Online's VideoCensus, Google's service served 5.35 billion video streams in September 2008. Yahoo, the closest competitor, had 264 million.

But why should the incoming president, or public official, favor one Internet video service over another? Yahoo, MSN, Blip, Veoh, and other video-sharing sites shouldn't have to lobby the White House for equal time or at least some time. I am sure the choice of YouTube was practical, and has nothing to do with Google CEO Eric Schmidt's very public support of Obama.

Implicit product endorsements are difficult to avoid for any public official. If Obama prefers a BlackBerry, Apple can't do much to fix that problem. But, Obama is rarely seen in pictures with his Blackberry and The New York Times reports that he is going to have to give up his favorite communications device.

In the case of uploading video, the Obama team can create its own branded, video-sharing service neutral video player that allows anyone in the world to embed the content. That might be a more equitable way for Obama to spread his message, and he could still have a YouTube channel.

By: Dan Farber
From: http://news.cnet.com

Eri Yoshida headed to Japan pro league

2008-11-17T04:08:00.000-08:00

TOKYO (AFP) — A 16-year-old schoolgirl with a mean knuckleball has been selected as the first woman ever to play alongside the men in Japanese professional baseball.

Eri Yoshida was drafted for a new independent league that will launch in April, drawing attention for a side-armed knuckler that her future manager Yoshihiro Nakata said was a marvel.

"I never dreamed of getting drafted," Yoshida told reporters Monday, a day after she was selected to play for the Kobe 9 Cruise.

"I have only just been picked by the team and have not achieved anything," she said. "I want to play as a pro eventually in a higher league."

Yoshida, 155 centimetres (five feet) tall and weighing 52 kilograms (114 pounds), says she wants to follow in the footsteps of the great Boston Red Sox knuckleballer Tim Wakefield.

A female professional baseball federation existed for a few years in the 1950s, but Yoshida will become Japan's first-ever woman to play alongside professional male players.

From: google

Bloodshed at Urban Music Awards

2008-11-16T02:27:00.000-08:00

LONDON (AFP) - - Three people were injured in ugly scenes at a British music awards ceremony, with one person seriously hurt, police said Sunday.

Two others sustained minor injuries at the sixth annual Urban Music Awards at the O2 entertainment complex in southeast London on Saturday night. One person has been arrested.

"We were called at 2211 GMT on the 15th to a disturbance at the O2 Arena site," a spokesman for London's Metropolitan Police told AFP.

"We found three men suffering injuries. Two are not serious injuries, the other one is. They appeared to be stab or slash victims. There has been one arrest."

A London Ambulance Service spokesman said the three casualties had been treated at the scene and taken to hospitals.

Police sources indicated that the most serious casualty may have been stabbed and the other two might have been hit by flying glass.

The show was being held in the indigO2, a 2,350-capacity venue inside the O2 former Millennium Dome landmark.

Leona Lewis, Dizzee Rascal, Duffy and Estelle were among the performers nominated for awards.

Soul singer Mica Paris was to be presented with a lifetime achievement award.

Andre Nevling, 24, said a woman sat at the same table as himself was "covered" in blood.

"Obviously the guy who got stabbed must have run straight past her and she's pretty shaken up," he said.

"I saw blood all over the floor and then I was like, 'Jesus you're covered in it'," he said.

Another eyewitness, who wished to remain anonymous, said: "I didn't see what happened but there were champagne bottles flying and I hid under the table."

Natalie Williams, 32, said: "It's a huge shame that a small group of people have ruined everything for everyone."

From: yahoo

Secret Service Officer in Sex Sting

2008-11-15T18:16:00.000-08:00

A Secret Service sergeant was arrested early Saturday after he allegedly tried to solicit sex from a D.C. police officer working undercover as a prostitute, authorities said.

The sergeant, driving his Secret Service vehicle and in uniform, encountered the undercover officer about 12:50 a.m. near 11th and K streets NW, said Inspector Brian Bray, commander of the District's narcotics and special investigations division.

After bantering about prices and services, Bray said, the woman agreed to perform oral sex for $20 and told the sergeant to meet her around the corner. He was arrested there by D.C. police officers, Bray said.

The sergeant, whose name was withheld by police, was cited for soliciting a prostitute, which carries a maximum 180-day jail sentence, Bray said. He was released.

The Secret Service said the man will be placed on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation and will also face an internal investigation.

From: Perez Hilton

The Wizard of Oz Suicide Legend

2008-11-14T20:00:00.000-08:00

The Wizard of Oz is one of the most well known movie classics of all time. Almost everyone has seen it, so of course there are bound to be rumors. One, in particular, is the hanging theory -- the urban legend that either a midget or stagehand hanged themselves on film. The question is, what really happened? While most agree that it is in fact false, some still argue that the hanging was real.

The suicide scene allegedly takes place when Dorothy, the Scarecrow, and the Tin Man head down the yellow brick road, on their way to Emerald City (after the Wicked Witch leaves.) Deep in the background, a dark figure can be seen.

Some say that a distraught munchkin hanged himself. The story says that he was upset because the female munchkin that he loved didn’t feel the same way for him. He then decided to kill himself right on set. Others say that it was a clumsy stagehand who accidentally fell out of a prop tree onto the set, getting caught in a cable of some sort, and was strangled to death.

Legend has it that the figure in the forest clearly takes a wooden block, stands on it, hangs himself, and then kicks the block out from underneath. On the other hand, critics argue that it was an exotic bird which was placed on set to give the movie a natural and realistic atmosphere. The moving figure was simply a bird, most likely a crane, flapping its wings and pecking at the ground.

The rumor started after the movie came out on VHS tape, which enabled people to replay the scene over and over. On the small screen, things appear much differently. With the picture being so small, the image wasn’t clear and this lead people to start the rumors. Supposedly, on the big screen it is undeniably a bird.

If it really was a suicide, why would they keep it on the final movie? Why not just redo the scene? Some conclude that it was “too expensive” and they were short on money. And why wouldn’t someone notice what had happened? After all, the three actors didn’t react to it or even seem to notice what happened.

Whether you believe it or not, it’s up to you. We’ll probably never know what really happened on set. But, there’s no denying it, the moving figure in the trees resembles a man hanging himself.

From: www.halloween-website.com

HPV vaccine prevents genital warts in males"

2008-11-14T17:37:00.001-08:00

For the first time, an expensive vaccine aimed at preventing cervical cancer in women has proven successful at preventing a disease in men, according to a study released Thursday by the vaccine's maker.

The disease is genital warts — sexually transmitted, embarrassing and uncomfortable — but not life-threatening.

Still, the results are expected to bolster a likely bid by the vaccine's manufacturer, Merck & Co. Inc., to begin marketing the vaccine to boys, experts said. Merck plans to ask the government for that approval later this year.

"This opens the door to a wonderful opportunity to prevent illness," said Anna Giuliano, a researcher at the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Fla., who worked on the Merck study. The research results were being presented Thursday at a medical conference in Europe.

The focus was Merck's vaccine, Gardasil, which is given in three doses over six months and is priced at about $375.

The vaccine targets the two types of HPV, or human papillomavirus, believed to be responsible for about 70 percent of cervical cancer cases, and two other types that cause most genital warts. HPV is spread through sex.

In 2006, the U.S. government licensed the vaccine for use in girls and women ages 9 to 26. Males can spread the virus, but the vaccine was not licensed for them because there was no evidence it prevented disease in men.

Though about 40 other countries have approved the vaccine for males, there still is no medical proof Gardasil prevents penile cancer or other HPV-associated cancers in men. There also is no evidence it prevents men from spreading HPV to women.

The new study involved about 4,000 males ages 16 to 26 in nearly 20 countries. Results showed the vaccine was 90 percent effective in preventing genital warts, with only 15 cases of persistent infection in the vaccinated group, compared to 101 cases in a group that was given a fake vaccine.

No serious side effects were reported. The research is continuing, but these results reflect how the men were doing about 30 months after the injections, on average.

The results are "very exciting," but it's not clear they will be enough to persuade many American families to get their teenage boys vaccinated, said Dr. Maura Gillison, an HPV researcher at Johns

Hopkins University who was not involved in the Merck study.
She noted that only 1 in 4 girls have gotten the vaccine so far, despite compelling medical studies that indicate the shots prevent female cancers.

"When parents are sitting in a room discussing with a pediatrician whether to vaccinate their child against anything, they'd like to know what the potential benefit is. A parent might say, 'I'm not inclined to vaccinate my child to prevent a benign genital wart,'" she said.

Government officials have been awaiting this interim analysis from Merck. They are eager to see additional information that may come later on the vaccine's effect on precancerous lesions, said Dr. Lauri Markowitz, an HPV expert at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"It's obviously encouraging data, but the policy makers will be looking at a variety of different issues," including how cost-effective the shot would be if used in males, said Markowitz, a medical epidemiologist.

HPV causes at least 20,000 cases of cancer in the U.S. each year. Cervical cancer is the most common type, but about a quarter of cancers occur in men, including penile, anal and even head and neck cancers.

From: Perez Hilton

Charged! Former Soul Train Host Could Face 5 Years In Prison If Convicted

2008-11-14T17:32:00.001-08:00

Soul Train host Don Cornelius has been charged with 3 counts of spousal battery, 1 count of dissuading a witness from making a police report, and 1 count of assault with a deadly weapon following a dramatic October arrest.

The victim was a 72-year-old married woman, although her identity and to whom she is married remains unknown.

The misdemeanor charges are the result of two separate incidents, and if convicted of all the charges, Don could himself on the chain gang train for up to 5 years.

From: Perez Hilton

South Carolina Catholic Priest Says No Communion Wafers For Unrepentant Obama Voters

2008-11-14T17:28:00.000-08:00

South Carolina Catholic priest Jay Scott Newman has told his parishioners in a letter that if they voted 'Barack Hussein Obama' and don't ask for forgiveness for doing so before taking the Body and Blood of Christ, their souls will be at risk!

His reason?

Says the priest, "Our nation has chosen for its chief executive the most radical pro-abortion politician ever to serve in the United States Senate or to run for president. Voting for a pro-abortion politician when a plausible pro-life alternative exists constitutes material cooperation with intrinsic evil, and those Catholics who do so place themselves outside of the full communion of Christ's Church and under the judgment of divine law. Persons in this condition should not receive Holy Communion until and unless they are reconciled to God in the Sacrament of Penance, lest they eat and drink their own condemnation."

From: Perez Hilton