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Dr. Tim Ball
What's Up With That 2013-10-02 13:46:00
Climatology is the study of average weather over time or in a region. It is very different than Climate Science, which is the study by specialists of individual components of the complex system that is weather. Each part is usually studied independent of the entire system and even how it interacts or influences the larger system. A supposed link between the parts is the use of statistics. Climatology has suffered from a pronounced form of the average versus the discrete problem from the early 1980s when computer modelers began to dominate the science. Climatology was doomed to failure from then on, only accelerated by its hijacking for a political agenda. I witnessed a good example early at a conference in Edmonton on Prairie Climate predictions and the implications for agriculture. It was dominated by the keynote speaker, a climate modeler, Michael Schlesinger. His presentation compared five major global models and their results. He claimed that because they all showed warming they were valid. Of course they did because they were programmed to that general result. The problem is they varied enormously over vast regions. For example, one showed North America cooling another showed it warming. The audience was looking for information adequate for planning and became agitated, especially in the question period. It peaked when someone asked about the accuracy of his warmer and drier prediction for Alberta. The answer was 50%. The person replied that is useless, my Minister needs 95%. The shouting intensified. | |
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| Puppet Masters |
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Steve Liesman
CNBC.com 2013-10-02 15:36:00
Administration officials now live in fear of a 19th-century law that could get them fired, penalized or even imprisoned if they make the wrong choices while the government is shut down. The law is the Antideficiency Act, passed by Congress in 1870 (and amended several times), which prohibits the government from incurring any monetary obligation for which the Congress has not appropriated funds. In shutting down the government, most memos cite the law as the reason. TheGovernment Accountability Office says employees who violate the Antideficiency Act may be subject to disciplinary action, suspension and even "fines, imprisonment, or both." CNBC has learned that in several executive branch departments, high-level staff members review individual decisions about what government activities to allow for fear of running afoul of the Antideficiency Act. One White House official said he has advised his employees not to check their email or cellphones. Under the act, even volunteering for government service is expressly prohibited. In a memo to his department employees today, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew cited the law as the reason for reduced staffing. "For the duration of this impasse, as required by the Antideficiency Act and directed by OMB, the Department will be required to operate with only the minimal staffing level necessary to execute only certain legally exempted activities," Lew wrote. | |
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| Society's Child |
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RIA Novosti
2013-10-02 16:37:00
A Russian military space official admitted Wednesday that the country will be powerless to act should Earth become the target of an interplanetary incursion. Sergei Berezhnoy, an aide to the head of the Titov Space Control Center, said that Russian aerospace defense authorities have not been tasked with preparing for the contingency of an alien attack. "There are enough problems on Earth and in near-Earth space," Berezhnoy said in response to a reporter's question. | |
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David Barrett
Parole boards may be releasing violent psychopathic criminals from prison too early because tests which try to predict whether they will reoffend are less accurate than flipping a coin, new research has shown. The Telegraph,UK 2013-10-02 16:25:00
Psychiatric "risk assessment" methods were accurate with psychopaths only 46 per cent of the time - possibly because the criminals were able to "lie convincingly, con and manipulate even experienced clinicians". Accuracy with offenders suffering from other types of mental illness ranged from "poor" to "average", the study funded by the Ministry of Justice found. Professor Jeremy Coid, who led the research, said: "If you apply these to somebody who is a psychopath they're utterly useless. You might as well toss a coin. "They will not predict accurately at all." Prof Coid, from London's Queen Mary University, said the authorities may need to introduce tougher rules on releasing criminals in order to protect the public from violent attacks. | |
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Brock Vergakis
Republican American 2013-10-02 15:52:00
Norfolk, Virginia - Members of the Armed Forces will still be paid in the partial government shutdown, but their food bills could soar if Washington's political brinksmanship drags on. Commissaries in the U.S. where military families can buy inexpensive groceries tax-free are shutting doors today due to the shutdown. And that could create a financial hardship for those who depend on the stores' steeply discounted prices to make ends meet - particularly young service members with families to feed or retired veterans on fixed incomes. About 12 million people - including military personnel, retirees and their families - are eligible to shop at the 246 commissaries on military installations worldwide. The commissaries typically carry everything a national supermarket chain would but at much lower prices. The military is required to sell goods at its commissaries at cost. While there is a 5 percent surcharge on all products to help pay for new commissaries and improve existing ones, there is no sales tax on the products sold. | |
Comment: There's no money to feed you and your families, but there's plenty of money to send you to bomb Syria. Get it?
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J.D. Mullane
Phillyburbs 2013-10-02 12:50:00
In a twisted mystery that has spooked a quiet Pemberton Township neighborhood, two black cats were decapitated, their intestines yanked out and wrapped around the animals' hind legs. Then they were carefully placed in the driveway of a North Lakeshore Drive home. The woman who found them in her driveway is uneasy. She and her husband have lived in the house for 10 years without problems. "This is a good neighborhood. We have good kids live here. I don't understand why anyone would do this to us. Really, I don't," said the woman, who asked that her name not be published. "It was on Friday morning," she said. "I was going out to hang my Halloween flag, and I saw these black things in the driveway. I thought they might be raccoons. But I got closer, and I could see they were cat bodies, and they had no heads." She called the police, who turned the case over to Burlington County SPCA Chief Richard Forberg. On Tuesday, Forberg led a team of armed investigators through the woodsy neighborhood along Mirror Lake, searching for the missing cat heads, and "possibly other remains of other animals." | |
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Tamer El-Ghobashy
The wall Street Journal 2013-09-30 14:10:00
Police in New York City are investigating an unusual incident that unfolded in the early morning hours on Monday: Two men, dressed in black outfits and wearing helmets, were captured on surveillance video walking near the Goldman Sachs building in Lower Manhattan after apparently parachuting down to the street. The odd occurrence was announced by New York Police Department Commissioner Raymond Kelly at an unrelated news conference. The Commissioner sounded more bemused than alarmed by the caper, saying it did not appear to pose a threat or have a political bend. Dare devils, perhaps? "If they came out of an aircraft, it's unknown at this time but they were seen walking with parachutes away from the location," he said. "No banners, no notes were left. Obviously it is something that is under investigation." The mystery men apparently landed at 3:07 a.m. near the West Street tower of the financial giant and were captured on camera "landing in some way shape or form," Mr. Kelly said. He said investigators are reviewing cameras from the vicinity in the hopes of finding additional footage. The men apparently walked away from the range of the camera that initially recorded them, and it was not known if they left the scene in a vehicle or on foot. Mr. Kelly said the NYPD was alerted by "security personnel" on Monday. | |
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Ben Rohrbach
Yahoo 2013-09-18 20:40:00
On the same day a New York high school football player succumbed to injuries sustained from an apparent helmet-to-helmet hit, some 1,500 miles to the south, a Texas teen died as the result of an allergic reaction to fire ant bites during a football game on Monday. Corpus Christi (Texas) Haas Middle School student Cameron Espinosa, 13, was bitten while warming up at halftime of a football game, tried to wash away the ants with a water bottle on the sidelines, but lost consciousness, according to an Associated Press report. The eighth-grader spent five days at nearby Driscoll Children's Hospital in a medically induced coma to curb the swelling in his brain before his death, KHOU.com reported. | |
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Rebecca Winters
Natural News 2013-10-01 20:35:00
Many of us have done it. The checker is ringing up your groceries and lets you know that you could save two whole bucks if you sign up for one of the store's rip roaring super saver bonanza cards. All you have to do to get a buy-one-get-one-free package of cream cheese or toilet paper is give their database all of your personal contact information. Surely it's nothing more than a harmless way for the supermarket to send you extra coupons in the mail, right? Wrong. Loyalty cards are about way more than just making you feel special by saving you a few measly cents off your bill. According to a report by The Guardian, stores use these Big Brother-esque card programs to build sophisticated databases on their customers which include everything from your demographics to how much you spend and how often you shop. This data is then analyzed National Security Administration-style and used to target and entice you based on what you might consider buying and when. | |
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Oliver Darcy
The Blaze 2013-10-01 20:26:00
Several Republican members of Congress removed barricades from the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C. on Monday and escorted veterans onto the grounds that were legally closed because of the government shutdown. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) told reporters at the scene she was going for a morning walk when she heard that World War II veterans were being stopped from entering their own memorial. "I ran over as quick as I could ... and I couldn't believe my eyes," Bachmann said. "There were all these veterans standing here behind police tape and they are prevented from going in to see the memorial."
"About maybe eight to 12 of us members, one member had a scissor cut the tape and then we just escorted the veterans in," she continued. "You should have seen these veterans. They had smiles from ear to ear. They were thrilled." National Parks Service spokeswoman Carol Johnson said she was unsure how the government would deal with situation going forward. "We are seeking guidance," Johnson told reporters at the scene. | ||
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Josh Eidelson
Salon 2013-09-27 20:08:00
Organizers say the cookie was just an excuse to target a Subway worker who had helped lead fast food strikes A worker in Seattle at the sandwich chain Subway says his boss told him he was being fired for giving a 66 cent cookie to a three year-old. Labor activists allege the "cookie excuse" was actually a cover for management's real motivation: forcing out an activist employee who helped bring the recent national wave of fast food strikes to Seattle. "I did give the free cookie," the fired worker, Carlos Hernandez, told Salon. "But I know that's not the reason." Hernandez said he'd frequently given free cookies to children in the store before, and a manager had previously congratulated him on doing so because it represented "very good customer service." Hernandez said he usually paid the 66 cents for those cookies out of his own pocket, but that on the day in question he forgot to because there was a long line of customers in the store. "I love kids," said Hernandez. "I believe that kids are the most honest people in the world." "They're definitely trying to set an example," said Jessica Hendricks, a former Subway worker who's now an activist with the labor-community coalition Good Jobs Seattle. "It wouldn't be the first time the company used scare tactics against us in order to make us do exactly what they wanted." | |
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Kami Dimitrova
ABC News 2013-09-27 20:03:00
A Goodwill store in Naples, Fla., reversed course today and decided to drop grand theft charges against a teen employee who had given discounts to poor customers. The decision came four days after the store had fired Andrew Anderson, 19, and had him arrested for granting discounts that totaled $4,000. As recently as today, the store defended its actions saying the money could have been better used on Goodwill's other charitable projects. Goodwill contacted ABC News this afternoon to say that the organization was dropping charges against Anderson. "After completing our internal investigation we have determined that the individual's actions were not for personal gain, but rather for the benefit of others," the statement read. | |
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| Secret History |
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RIA Novosti
2013-10-02 16:30:00
A stash of jewelry predating the 13th-century Mongol invasion has been discovered at an excavation site in the central Russian city of Ryazan, an archeologist said Wednesday. The treasure trove, unearthed in an old artisan district, contained 80 pieces of jewelry - including bracelets, necklaces and tiaras - as well as jewelry-making tools and raw gold and silver ingots. "It is the 17th such treasure trove found in Old Ryazan," said Igor Strikalov of the Russian Institute of Archeology. | |
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| Science & Technology |
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Nick Howes, Ernesto Guido and Martino Nicolini
We obtained further follow-up on C/2012 S1 (ISON) on 2013, Oct. 1.2, through the 2.0-m f/10.0 Ritchey-Chretien + CCD + SDSS r' Filter of Liverpool Telescope(MPC code J13).Remanzacco Observatoery 2013-10-02 13:50:00 Stacking of 20 exposures, 11-seconds each, produced an image where is visible a well developed coma and tail measuring at least 3 arcmin extended toward PA 297 deg. Click on the image for a bigger version.
Below another elaboration of the same stacking. Click on it for a bigger version. | |
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EarthSky.org
At this time of year, if you're in the Northern Hemisphere, try looking northeast this evening for two prominent constellations, Cassiopeia and Perseus.2013-10-02 12:54:00 The easier to see will be Cassiopeia, which has a distinctive M or W shape, depending on what time of night you see it. This constellation represents a queen in ancient mythology. Cassiopeia is easy to identify and so it is one of the most famous constellations in the sky. You'll see it in the northeast this evening, and higher up in the evening sky in late autumn and winter.
Perseus the Hero follows Cassiopeia the Queen across the night sky. As night passes, you'll see them both ascending in the northeast - then arcing high in the north - then descending in the northwest - with Perseus following Cassiopeia all the while. Perseus is fainter than Cassiopeia and its stars are not so easy to identify. But if you have a dark sky - like in the wee hours before dawn tomorrow - you'll spot its graceful shape. The evening sky will be free of the moon, starting the second week of November 2013. | |
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Rory Carroll
The Guardian 2008-01-05 06:29:00
Billionaire and former colleague donate $30m for telescope that can provide early warning of asteroid crash In the daytime the view from Cerro Pachon, a rocky, desolate peak high above Chile, offers a breathtaking vista of the Andes. Mountains of rock topped with snow and glaciers seem to touch the heavens. Come nightfall, the Andes disappear into gloom and then the real show begins. As if someone had flicked a switch, the gleam of millions of planets and stars studs the inky blackness overhead. The sky seems too immense to absorb, even for giant telescopes. They focus on one tiny portion at a time, pinpricks in the cosmos, because traditionally astronomers like to dwell on detail. Not any more. Cerro Pachon is to host the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, a near $400m (£203m) project that will survey the entire sky several times a week - something never done before. Every 15 seconds it will take an image seven times the diameter of the moon, adding up, every three days, to a full panorama of the heavens. Boasting 3,200 megapixels, it will be the world's biggest digital camera. | |
Comment: Gates built his bunker and now he's helping build the world's largest telescope to look for earth impacting asteroids. If it wasn't clear that Bill Gates and the rest of the Majesterium are "in the know" about cometary cycles, then this should settle the matter.
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Nola Taylor Redd
SPACE.com 2013-10-02 09:26:00
A nearby alien planet six times the size of the Earth is covered with a water-rich atmosphere that includes a strange "plasma form" of water, scientists say. Astronomers have determined that the atmosphere of super-Earth Gliese 1214 b is likely water-rich. However, this exoplanet is no Earth twin. The high temperature and density of the planet give it an atmosphere that differs dramatically from Earth. "As the temperature and pressure are so high, water is not in a usual form (vapor, liquid, or solid), but in an ionic or plasma form at the bottom the atmosphere - namely the interior - of Gliese 1214 b," principle investigator Norio Narita of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan told SPACE.com by email. [The Strangest Alien Planets (Gallery)] Using two instruments on the Subaru Telescope in Mauna Kea, Hawaii, scientists studied the scattering of light from the planet. Combining their results with previous observations led the astronomers to conclude that the atmosphere contained significant amounts of water. | |
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Stuart Gary
Australian Broadcasting Corporation 2013-10-01 22:53:00
The timing of some major extinction events on Earth coincides with the solar system's journey through Milky Way's spiral arms, suggests a new study. The research, published on the pre-press website ArXiv.org, supports the idea that mass extinction events were not always random. The Sun spends 50 to 60 per cent of its 220-million-year journey around the galaxy passing through its spiral arms, says study co-author Dr Jonti Horner of theUniversity of New South Wales. "These are regions of higher than average density, where there are more stars and molecular gas and dust clouds," says Horner. "It could be argued that the increase in the number of stars encountered as the Sun moves through a galactic arm, can trigger gravitational perturbations, sending comets from the Oort cloud towards the inner solar system, where the Earth is." The Oort cloud is a hypothetical reservoir of comets and other icy bodies half way to the Sun's nearest stellar neighbour. Together with vast volcanic outpourings of flood basalt magmas, such as the Deccan and Siberian Traps, and snowball Earth periods of global glaciation, asteroid or cometary impacts are considered a likely cause of mass extinction events on Earth. According to Horner, the Earth impact database currently lists 182 large craters caused by asteroid and comet collisions, and these only represent a tiny fraction of Earth's true impact history, the rest being erased by weathering and geological events. He says the far more heavily scarred lunar surface, provides a better indication of the true level of major impact events. | |
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Liz Klimas
The Blaze 2013-09-30 20:14:00
A security company mogul revealed an idea for a device that would help users thwart online surveillance, like that conducted by the National Security Agency, and also make the Internet "hack-proof." John McAfee, founder of McAfee Inc., sat in cargo pants, a black hoodie and Nikes at the C2SV Technology Conference + Music Festival in San Jose over the weekend, talking about a pocket-size device that would cost less than $100. He said it would create a mobile, encrypted network that makes it impossible to tell "who is doing what, when or where." McAfee said he has been thinking about the product called D-Central made through his new company Future Tense Central for years. "I can't get out of security," he said. "For some reason, it's part of my brain, part of my thinking. And we don't have much anymore, certainly not in the online world. "The NSA helped create every single encryption algorithm that we use," McAfee alleged, "therefore, they can get access to whatever they want." The way McAfee explained it, the D-Central hardware device and app would not only protect against spying from government agencies but hackers as well. "We live in a very insecure world with a very insecure communication platform," he continued. | |
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| Earth Changes |
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Some claim it was the coldest Oct 1st ever recorded. Predeal, Azuga and logs show that this was the coldest October 1st in the last 84 years. Plus yellow code for snow in 5 Counties. After snowfalls in recent days, dozens of trees were broken under the weight of snow and blocked the lines. With the Brasov to Bucharest train delayed more than 10 hours, all those who had the misfortune to start the trip by rail have cursed the day. Problems between Brasov and Predeal railway began last night when, under the weight of snow, trees collapsed the power lines. Seven trains remained stuck for hours in stations or on the trail. In total, 13 trains linking the south of Transylvania froze, to the dismay of travelers . Five roads also closed by snow. http://stirileprotv.ro/stiri/ |
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france24.com
2013-10-02 10:47:00
A Swedish nuclear reactor was restarted on Wednesday following a three-day closure caused by a build-up of jellyfish in a cooling system, according to the operators. The incident occurred in reactor 3 at Oskarshamn power station on the Baltic Sea coast, which is run by OKG, a subsidiary of the German electricity company EON. "It was a larger amount than we had ever seen. Every autumn we have to get rid of jellyfish, but not that many," OKG spokeswoman Emmy Davidsson told AFP. The company announced on Sunday that the reactor -- Sweden's largest with a 1400 MW output and the world's largest boiling water reactor -- was "manually shut down due to a large amount of jellyfish present at the cooling water intake". | |
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Sophie Jane Evans
The Daily Mail, UK 2013-10-02 09:36:00
They tried to cut the 5kg rodent up to eat - but broke two knives hacking at its thick bones and skin. The monstrous animal, weighing ten times that of the average rat, was first spotted snatching 3kg fish from a pond in a village in Shaoyang, Hunan.
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Raw Story
2013-10-01 22:35:00
The operator of the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant said Tuesday workers had spilled four tonnes of radioactive water, likely contaminating the soil and possibly groundwater. Workers were pumping rain water that was trapped in a concrete gutter into an empty 12-tonne tank that sat on open soil, said a spokesman for Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO). "Work crew started operating the pump around 10:38 am. At 11:50 am, they found water was spilling from the manhole on top of the tank," the spokesman said. TEPCO has estimated roughly four tonnes of collected rain water might have escaped. The extent of contamination was unclear, the spokesman added, although it was not thought to be highly polluted. "The water itself was rain water. But it was from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant and could contain radioactive materials," he said, adding: "The water seeped into the ground". TEPCO has long struggled to control waste water at the plant. The company poured thousands of tonnes of water onto runaway reactors to keep them cool, and continues to douse them. TEPCO has so far disclosed no clear plan for disposing of the huge amounts of stored polluted water, which is stored at hundreds of tanks at the plant. Some tanks have leaked highly radioactive waste water, which might have washed to sea. Source: Agence France-Presse | |
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| Fire in the Sky |
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| Health & Wellness |
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Alex Evilevitch
Researchers at Lund University in Sweden have for the first time managed to measure the internal pressure that enables the herpes virus to infect cells in the human body. The discovery paves the way for the development of new medicines to combat viral infections. The results indicate good chances to stop herpes infections in the future.Lund University 2013-10-02 16:00:00 A virus comprises a thin shell of protein, within which are its genes. A long-standing theory has been that a virus has high internal pressure because it is so tightly packed with genetic material. The pressure means that they can infect a cell by ejecting the genes at high force and speed. The cell is then duped into becoming a small 'virus factory' that produces new viruses, multiplying the number. However, no one has previously succeeded in measuring the internal pressure of a virus that can infect humans. Biochemist Alex Evilevitch from Lund University and Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, USA, has measured the pressure inside the herpes virus HSV-1 (herpes simplex virus 1) together with a research team in the US. The study has been published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, JACS. "The pressure explains the way all eight known herpes viruses that infect humans inject their genes into our cells", said Alex Evilevitch. This includes both of the two most common forms of herpes, which cause cold sores and genital herpes, as well as Varicella zostervirus, which causes chickenpox and shingles, Epstein-Barr virus, which leads to glandular fever, and viruses linked to various forms of cancer. |
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Sayer Ji
Greenmedinfo.com 2013-10-02 12:07:00
It is a common myth that wheat only causes immune-mediated intestinal damage within those with a rare genetically based aberration called celiac disease. Still relatively unknown research from 2007 clearly demonstrated that everyone's body likely experiences adverse intestinal effects from gluten (gliadin)exposure. As far as celiac disease, the specific mechanisms by which wheat causes damage are well-known, and they go like this... In celiac disease, an alcohol-soluble wheat storage protein known as gliadin is partially degraded (i.e. deamidated) by the enzyme tissue transglutaminase, the effect of which is to activate susceptible host T-cells to mistakenly identify and attack intestinal villi as if they were 'foreign' invaders. This highly destructive autoimmune process can be verified through blood tests, or through the so-called "gold standard" of an intestinal biopsy that clearly reveals destroyed villi and/or flattened intestinal surfaces, the hallmark pathology of celiac disease. The reality, however, is that one does not need to be celiac, or have a particular genetic mutation, in order to experience damage associated with exposure to wheat gliadin. | |
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Don Weitz
CCHR International 2013-10-02 05:25:00
1. Because psychiatrists frequently cause harm, permanent disabilities, death - death of the body-mind-spirit. 2. Because psychiatrists frequently violate the Hippocratic Oath which orders all physicians "First Do No Harm." 3. Because psychiatrists patronize and dis-empower people, especially their patients. 4. Because psychiatry is not a medical science. 5. Because psychiatry is quackery, a pseudo-science which lacks independent diagnostic tests, testable hypotheses, and cures for "schizophrenia" and all other types of alleged "mental illness" or "mental disorder". 6. Because psychiatrists can not accurately and reliably predict dangerousness, violence, or any other type of human behaviour, yet make such claims as "expert witnesses", and with the media promote the "dangerous mental patient" myth/stereotype. 7. Because psychiatrists have caused a worldwide epidemic of brain damage by promoting and prescribing brain-disabling treatments such as the neuroleptics, antidepressants, electroconvulsive brainwashing (electroshock), and psychosurgery (lobotomy). 8. Because psychiatrists manufacture hundreds of "mental disorders" classified in its bible called "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders" (a modern witch-hunting manual); such "mental disorders" and "symptoms" are in fact negative, class-and-culturally-biased moral judgments for dissident ways of coping with personal problems and alternative ways of perceiving, interpreting or being in the world. | |
Comment: Rather than abolition of psychiatry, what needs to be addressed is the corruption of the psychiatric science by pathological individuals who tend to "rise to the top" in fields that allow them power and control over others. Such fields include not only business and politics, but also medicine and academics, including topics such as psychology and psychiatry. Such spheres of influence are ripe for manipulation by those who seek to conceal or confuse the topic so as to better hide their own pathology. From Political Ponerology: The Science of Evil Adjusted for Political Purposes by Andrew M. Lobaczewski:
[...] Within this science [psychology], progress is unfortunately very contingent upon the individual values and nature of its practitioners. It is also dependent upon the social climate. Wherever a society has become enslaved to others or to the rule of an overly-privileged native class, psychology is the first discipline to suffer from censorship and incursions on the part of an administrative body which starts claiming the last word as to what represents scientific truth.[...]For more information see: On the Nature of Psychopathy: A Thought Experiment Political Ponerology: A Science on The Nature of Evil adjusted for Political Purposes | |
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Shelly Fan
Scientific American 2013-10-01 02:33:00
Disclaimer: First things first. Please note that I am in no way endorsing nutritional ketosis as a supplement to, or a replacement for medication. As you'll see below, data exploring the potential neuroprotective effects of ketosis are still scarce, and we don't yet know the side effects of a long-term ketogenic diet. This post talks about the SCIENCE behind ketosis, and is not meant in any way as medical advice. The ketogenic diet is a nutritionist's nightmare. High in saturated fat and VERY low in carbohydrates, "keto" is adopted by a growing population to paradoxically promote weight loss and mental well-being. Drinking coffee with butter? Eating a block of cream cheese? Little to no fruit? To the uninitiated, keto defies all common sense, inviting skeptics to wave it off as an unnatural "bacon-and-steak" fad diet. Yet versions of the ketogenic diet have been used to successfully treat drug-resistant epilepsy in children since the 1920s - potentially even back in the biblical ages. Emerging evidence from animal models and clinical trials suggestketo may be therapeutically used in many other neurological disorders, including head ache, neurodegenerative diseases, sleep disorders, bipolar disorder, autism and brain cancer. With no apparent side effects. Sound too good to be true? I feel ya! Where are these neuroprotective effects coming from? What's going on in the brain on a ketogenic diet? | |
Comment: Remember folks, you heard it first on SOTT.net!
While it's good to see the keto diet receive some of the attention it deserves in a big scientific publication, there is in fact more than enough evidence for any reasonable person to conclude that this is the way towards good health - pharmaceuticals be damned! For more information on the healing effects of a ketogenic diet, see: The Ketogenic Diet - An Overview Ketogenic Diet Reduces Symptoms of Alzheimer's Ketogenic Diet (high-fat, low-carb) Has Neuroprotective and Disease-modifying Effects Beyond weight loss: a review of the therapeutic uses of very-low-carbohydrate (ketogenic) diets Is the Ketogenic Diet the cure for multiple diseases? Solve Your Health Issues with a Ketogenic Diet | |
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| Science of the Spirit |
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Shaunacy Ferro
PopSci 2013-10-02 13:00:00
Here's a lesson straight out of my high school speech class: When making an argument, make eye contact with your audience. Connect with people. Stare deeply into the depths of their soul and convince them you're right. Except new research suggests that that might be exactly the opposite of what you want to do to be persuasive. According to a study from the University of British Columbia, the University of Freiburg in Germany and the Harvard Kennedy school, locking eyes with someone discussing controversial views actually made the listener less likely to be persuaded by the speaker's argument. In one experiment, this study used remote eye-tracking to record where the subjects (20 university students working for course credit) were looking as they watched several videos featuring people talking about controversial issues like assisted suicide, factory farming and nuclear energy. After each video, the participants were asked about their attitudes toward the arguments made in the video and how they felt about the viewpoints expressed by the speaker. The researchers found that subjects spent more time looking into the eyes of the speaker when they already agreed with the arguments the speaker was espousing. | |
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Ellie Zolfagharifard
The Daily Mail, UK 2013-10-02 09:46:00
If you want to persuade someone to do your bidding don't look them in the eye, according to new research. A new study has shown that - contrary to common belief - locking eyes with someone when the aim is to persuade actually harms the chances of winning them over. So demanding 'look at me when I talk to you' of someone may not have the desired effect after all .
Experts say that eye contact with opponents in adversarial situations makes them more resistant to persuasion, although it still works as a sign of connection in 'friendly' situations | |
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| High Strangeness |
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Daniel Miller
The Daily Mail, UK 2013-10-02 11:28:00
The fascinating photographs, taken just two weeks ago near Bradford, Pennsylvania, appear to show a pair of Bigfoots, or perhaps that should be Bigfeet, wandering through the trees. Keen hiker John Stoneman claims he spotted the seven-foot-tall beasts just yards from a main road through trees in Kinzua State Park.
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Tanya Lewis
LiveScience 2013-10-01 14:24:00
In Galway, Ireland, 76-year-old Michael Faherty was found burned to death at his home in December 2010. The coroner concluded Faherty's death was a case of spontaneous human combustion - a human being catching fire with no apparent cause. Can human bodies simply burst into flame without any external source of ignition? Or could there be a more mundane - and scientific - explanation for the phenomenon? The season finale of the Science Channel's The Unexplained Files, airing Wednesday (Oct. 2) at 9 p.m. ET/PT, investigates this and other mysteries. More than 200 cases of spontaneous human combustion have been reported around the world. Most involve a victim burning almost completely - although their extremities may remain intact - while their surroundings remain unburned. In 1986, the charred body of 58-year-old retired firefighter George Mott was found in his apartment outside Crown Point, N.Y. All that was left of him was a leg, a shrunken skull and pieces of his rib cage. In February, 65-year-old Danny Vanzandt was found burned to death in his home in Sequoyah County, Okla., with no signs of burns on nearby furniture. Spontaneous combustion was suspected, but a recent medical examiner's report concluded Vanzandt died from a heart attack before a lit cigarette may have ignited his clothing. | |
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Chisanga Malata
Deep in thought, this little lemur appears to be ruthlessly plotting something.The Daily Express, UK 2013-10-02 10:56:00
The primate looks remarkably lifelike in this series of poses captured at a Russian zoo. Photographer Olga Yermolava, who captured the rare and remarkable moment, said: "I am so happy I managed to capture the lemur's expression before it moved. Its pose is so human that it makes a very funny picture".
Olga who often frequents the small zoo in Nizhny Novgorod on the weekends is a keen watcher of the lemurs and is no stranger to them pulling faces and poses. "Generally lemurs have very rich facial expressions and it is always interesting to watch them." She said this character reminded her of the charismatic King Julian from the film Madagascar.
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