Electrical stimulation of areas deep within the brain could improve memory, early research suggests.
A team of doctors in Canada stumbled upon the finding while attempting to treat a morbidly obese man through deep brain stimulation (DBS).
The electrical stimulation caused the patient to experience vivid memories.
The findings, reported in the Annals of Neurology, potentially pave the way for electrical stimulation to treat disorders such as Alzheimer's disease.
"We hope it might provide benefit to patients with memory disorders" -- Andres Lozano, Toronto Western Hospital
Lead researcher Professor Andres Lozano, of the Toronto Western Hospital, said: "This is a single case that was totally unexpected.
"We knew immediately this was important. We are sufficiently intrigued to see if this could help people with memory disorders."
The team had been trying to help a 50-year-old obese man with type 2 diabetes and sleeping disorders who had failed to respond to diet, medications and psychological help.
He had refused gastric surgery, and doctors decided deep brain stimulation, although experimental, was his best option.
DEEP BRAIN STIMULATION
* Electrodes are implanted in the brain under local anaesthesia, with the patient awake so their responses can be monitored
* The electrodes are stimulated by a "pacemaker" stitched into the chest
It has been used for more than a decade to treat tremor, and more recently to treat Parkinson's disease, chronic pain and depression
* Side effects can include apathy, hallucinations, depression, and even compulsive gambling - but often they are temporary
It has been found to have an impact on appetite in animal tests, but has not been widely tested as a treatment for obesity in humans.
However, it has been used to treat Parkinson's disease, chronic pain, severe cluster headaches and even depression with some success.
The technique involves implanting electrodes into the brain: in this case into an area in the limbic system called the hypothalamus, which is thought to control the appetite.
When the electrodes were stimulated by electrical impulses the patient began to experience feelings of deja vu.
He then had a sudden perception of being in a park with friends.
He felt younger, thought he was around 20-years-old, and his girlfriend of the time was there. He was an observer, and saw the scene in colour.
As the intensity of the stimulation increased, details in the scene became more vivid.
Memory tests
Following surgery, the patient recovered for two months. But later when the electrodes were stimulated for a second time, he experienced a similar effect.
After three weeks of constant electrical stimulation the patient performed better in memory tests than he had previously done.
A year later he again performed well in memory tests when the electrodes were stimulated, but less well when they were switched off.
The results suggest it might be possible to use deep brain stimulation directly to boost memory.
"We hopefully have found a circuit in the brain which can be modulated by stimulation, and which might provide benefit to patients with memory disorders," said Professor Lozano.
Professor Lozano is now leading a pilot study into whether deep brain stimulation can help people with early Alzheimer's disease. They are initially testing six patients.
Susanne Sorensen, of the Alzheimer's Society, said: "As it is difficult to experiment on the living human brain, big leaps in understanding have occasionally been made from unexpected results when treating something unrelated or observations from rare genetic diseases and unusual lesions.
"The observations of memories recovery made during this attempt to treat extreme obesity, could be just such a 'stroke of luck'."
Rebecca Wood, Chief Executive of the Alzheimer's Research Trust, welcomed the move but said further work was clearly needed.
She said: "It will be interesting to see whether this method offers any benefit to people with Alzheimer's.
"With the number of people with Alzheimer's forecast to double within a generation, we urgently need to find ways to tackle this awful disease, but research is hugely under-funded."
Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7213972.stm
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Monday, January 28, 2008
Good grades pay off — literally
By Greg Toppo, USA TODAY
Teachers have long said that success is its own reward. But these days, some students are finding that good grades can bring them cash and luxury gifts.
In at least a dozen states this school year, students who bring home top marks can expect more than just gratitude. Examples:
•Baltimore schools chief Andres Alonso last week promised to spend more than $935,000 to give high school students as much as $110 each to improve their scores on state graduation exams.
•In New York City, about 9,000 fourth- and seventh-graders in 60 schools are eligible to win as much as $500 for improving their scores on the city's English and math tests, given throughout the school year.
•In suburban Atlanta, a pair of schools last week kicked off a program that will pay 8th- and 11th-grade students $8 an hour for a 15-week "Learn & Earn" after-school study program (the federal minimum wage is currently $5.85).
In most cases, the efforts are funded privately through corporate or philanthropic donors.
The most ambitious experiment began in September, when seven states — Arkansas, Alabama, Connecticut, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Virginia and Washington — won spots in an Exxon/Mobil-funded program that, in most cases, pays students $100 for each passing grade on advanced placement (AP) college-prep exams.
It's an effort to get low-income and minority students interested in the courses, says Tommie Sue Anthony, president of the Arkansas Advanced Initiative for Math and Science. "We still have students who are not sure of the value, who are not willing to take the courses," she says. "Probably the incentives will make a difference with those students."
Gregg Fleisher of the National Math and Science Initiative, which runs the seven-state program, says the effort is modeled on a program adopted by Dallas in the 1995-96 school year that saw AP course-taking jump substantially. That program is now statewide.
While many educators would blanch at offering kids cash for good grades, Fleisher and others say the idea is simple: "It's an incentive to get them to basically make the right decision and choose a more rigorous class," he says. "This teaches them that if they work at something very hard and have a lot of support, they can do something they didn't think they could do."
An analysis of the Texas program last month by Cornell economist C. Kirabo Jackson found that it linked to a 30% rise in the number of students with high SAT and ACT scores and an 8% rise in college-going students.
But a few critics say the payouts amount to little more than bribes, undermining kids' motivation to do high-quality work when they're not being paid.
"It's a strategy that helps only around the edges," says Thomas Toch of the Education Sector, a Washington think tank. Most students in AP classes "are already internally motivated, and the opportunity to earn college credits for passing AP tests is a bigger motivator than small cash awards."
Bob Schaeffer of the National Center for Fair & Open Testing, a watchdog group, is more blunt: "Bribing kids for higher test scores — or paying teachers bounties for their students' work — is similar to giving them steroids," he says. "Short-term performance might improve but the long-term effects can be very damaging."
At Northeast Health Science Magnet High School in Macon, Ga., principal Sam Scavella says he's trying lots of different incentives for doing the right thing. If students attend Saturday study sessions, they qualify for an iPod, movie tickets or a dinner for two, among other prizes.
Jessie Humphrey, a sophomore at Northeast, is one of 25 students who made the school's All-A Honor Roll. That entitled her to a slot in a special drawing Thursday. When it was over, she walked away with a 26-inch, flat-screen television set, which now sits in her room.
An honor roll student most years, Jessie, 15, says she usually pulls As and Bs, but this semester, "I got lucky and got all As."
Scavella says the incentives seem to be making a difference — only 10 students made the All-A Honor Roll this time last year.
"We have to reward the behavior we expect," he says. "I don't see it as a way of paying students to do well — it's a reward. If you do well in school, then life will pay you well. If you do well in school , you can afford a lifestyle that will pay you well."
The two-year New York City experiment, begun last September, essentially pays students monthly to do their best on skills tests. If it seems like an economist's dream, that's because it's the brainchild of wunderkind Harvard economist Roland Fryer, who also serves as the schools' chief equality officer. He came up with the idea while trying to figure out how to make school "tangible" for disadvantaged kids with few successful role models. "I just thought that giving them some short-term incentives to do what's in their long-term best interests would be a good way to go."
While teachers talk about success, he says, it's not enough to tell a kid that, in the long term, hard work will pay off. "We're asking them to look down a path that they have probably never seen anyone go down … and then to have the wisdom and the fortitude to wait for their reward."
Source: http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2008-01-27-grades_N.htm
Teachers have long said that success is its own reward. But these days, some students are finding that good grades can bring them cash and luxury gifts.
In at least a dozen states this school year, students who bring home top marks can expect more than just gratitude. Examples:
•Baltimore schools chief Andres Alonso last week promised to spend more than $935,000 to give high school students as much as $110 each to improve their scores on state graduation exams.
•In New York City, about 9,000 fourth- and seventh-graders in 60 schools are eligible to win as much as $500 for improving their scores on the city's English and math tests, given throughout the school year.
•In suburban Atlanta, a pair of schools last week kicked off a program that will pay 8th- and 11th-grade students $8 an hour for a 15-week "Learn & Earn" after-school study program (the federal minimum wage is currently $5.85).
In most cases, the efforts are funded privately through corporate or philanthropic donors.
The most ambitious experiment began in September, when seven states — Arkansas, Alabama, Connecticut, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Virginia and Washington — won spots in an Exxon/Mobil-funded program that, in most cases, pays students $100 for each passing grade on advanced placement (AP) college-prep exams.
It's an effort to get low-income and minority students interested in the courses, says Tommie Sue Anthony, president of the Arkansas Advanced Initiative for Math and Science. "We still have students who are not sure of the value, who are not willing to take the courses," she says. "Probably the incentives will make a difference with those students."
Gregg Fleisher of the National Math and Science Initiative, which runs the seven-state program, says the effort is modeled on a program adopted by Dallas in the 1995-96 school year that saw AP course-taking jump substantially. That program is now statewide.
While many educators would blanch at offering kids cash for good grades, Fleisher and others say the idea is simple: "It's an incentive to get them to basically make the right decision and choose a more rigorous class," he says. "This teaches them that if they work at something very hard and have a lot of support, they can do something they didn't think they could do."
An analysis of the Texas program last month by Cornell economist C. Kirabo Jackson found that it linked to a 30% rise in the number of students with high SAT and ACT scores and an 8% rise in college-going students.
But a few critics say the payouts amount to little more than bribes, undermining kids' motivation to do high-quality work when they're not being paid.
"It's a strategy that helps only around the edges," says Thomas Toch of the Education Sector, a Washington think tank. Most students in AP classes "are already internally motivated, and the opportunity to earn college credits for passing AP tests is a bigger motivator than small cash awards."
Bob Schaeffer of the National Center for Fair & Open Testing, a watchdog group, is more blunt: "Bribing kids for higher test scores — or paying teachers bounties for their students' work — is similar to giving them steroids," he says. "Short-term performance might improve but the long-term effects can be very damaging."
At Northeast Health Science Magnet High School in Macon, Ga., principal Sam Scavella says he's trying lots of different incentives for doing the right thing. If students attend Saturday study sessions, they qualify for an iPod, movie tickets or a dinner for two, among other prizes.
Jessie Humphrey, a sophomore at Northeast, is one of 25 students who made the school's All-A Honor Roll. That entitled her to a slot in a special drawing Thursday. When it was over, she walked away with a 26-inch, flat-screen television set, which now sits in her room.
An honor roll student most years, Jessie, 15, says she usually pulls As and Bs, but this semester, "I got lucky and got all As."
Scavella says the incentives seem to be making a difference — only 10 students made the All-A Honor Roll this time last year.
"We have to reward the behavior we expect," he says. "I don't see it as a way of paying students to do well — it's a reward. If you do well in school, then life will pay you well. If you do well in school , you can afford a lifestyle that will pay you well."
The two-year New York City experiment, begun last September, essentially pays students monthly to do their best on skills tests. If it seems like an economist's dream, that's because it's the brainchild of wunderkind Harvard economist Roland Fryer, who also serves as the schools' chief equality officer. He came up with the idea while trying to figure out how to make school "tangible" for disadvantaged kids with few successful role models. "I just thought that giving them some short-term incentives to do what's in their long-term best interests would be a good way to go."
While teachers talk about success, he says, it's not enough to tell a kid that, in the long term, hard work will pay off. "We're asking them to look down a path that they have probably never seen anyone go down … and then to have the wisdom and the fortitude to wait for their reward."
Source: http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2008-01-27-grades_N.htm
Sunday, January 27, 2008
"Technology overload" can ruin relationships
Wed Jan 23, 4:28 PM ET
NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) - Technology might be just as addictive as alcohol and drugs and could also wreak havoc with personal and work relationships, a leading expert said.
John O'Neill, the director of addictions services at the Menninger Clinic in Houston, Texas refers to it as "technology overload" when he sees addiction-like behavior in his patients using cell phones or emails.
"I think they share some of the same components as people who become addicted to alcohol and drugs in that we start to see that someone cannot really put it down and cannot stop the use of it even when there are some consequences," he said in a telephone interview.
"We can become overloaded by technology and suffer consequences in our relationships," he added.
O'Neill's observations are backed up by psychologists who have classified technology addiction as an impulse disorder that can be as socially damaging as alcoholism, gambling and drug addiction.
The Internet/Computer Addiction Services in Redmond, Washington, which runs treatment programs and provides therapy, estimate that 6 to 10 percent of the approximately 189 million Internet users in the United States have a dependency on technology.
O'Neill said it's all about teaching people how to manage their behavior in a healthy way.
"How do you learn to set limits, develop boundaries, how do you make some sense out of what does it mean to healthily use the technology, or to healthily enter into a relationship with someone," O'Neill said.
He added that warning signs that someone may be sliding into an unhealthy relationship with technology include using text messages, email and voice mail when face-to-face interaction would be more appropriate, or limiting time with friends and family to tend to your email, return phone calls or to surf the Internet.
An inability to leave home without a cell phone, to relax without constantly checking email or to stop using the Internet are also worrying signs.
When the Internet becomes a more powerful draw than spending time with family or friends, or when someone pays more attention to gadgets than what is happening in real life are more danger signs.
But O'Neill said there is no reason to become alarmed about daily use of texting or emails.
"We've spent a lot of time and a lot of years talking about what does it mean to healthily use something, what does it mean to healthily drink a glass or two of wine as opposed to drinking a bottle.
"I think some people are drinking a bottle of technology and some people are able to drink a glass."
The Menninger Clinic is an international specialty psychiatric center that provides treatment, research and education.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080123/lf_nm_life/gadgets_dc_3;_ylt=AtQKrNeTCMIm8NQ9fWN8dNLSMZA5
NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) - Technology might be just as addictive as alcohol and drugs and could also wreak havoc with personal and work relationships, a leading expert said.
John O'Neill, the director of addictions services at the Menninger Clinic in Houston, Texas refers to it as "technology overload" when he sees addiction-like behavior in his patients using cell phones or emails.
"I think they share some of the same components as people who become addicted to alcohol and drugs in that we start to see that someone cannot really put it down and cannot stop the use of it even when there are some consequences," he said in a telephone interview.
"We can become overloaded by technology and suffer consequences in our relationships," he added.
O'Neill's observations are backed up by psychologists who have classified technology addiction as an impulse disorder that can be as socially damaging as alcoholism, gambling and drug addiction.
The Internet/Computer Addiction Services in Redmond, Washington, which runs treatment programs and provides therapy, estimate that 6 to 10 percent of the approximately 189 million Internet users in the United States have a dependency on technology.
O'Neill said it's all about teaching people how to manage their behavior in a healthy way.
"How do you learn to set limits, develop boundaries, how do you make some sense out of what does it mean to healthily use the technology, or to healthily enter into a relationship with someone," O'Neill said.
He added that warning signs that someone may be sliding into an unhealthy relationship with technology include using text messages, email and voice mail when face-to-face interaction would be more appropriate, or limiting time with friends and family to tend to your email, return phone calls or to surf the Internet.
An inability to leave home without a cell phone, to relax without constantly checking email or to stop using the Internet are also worrying signs.
When the Internet becomes a more powerful draw than spending time with family or friends, or when someone pays more attention to gadgets than what is happening in real life are more danger signs.
But O'Neill said there is no reason to become alarmed about daily use of texting or emails.
"We've spent a lot of time and a lot of years talking about what does it mean to healthily use something, what does it mean to healthily drink a glass or two of wine as opposed to drinking a bottle.
"I think some people are drinking a bottle of technology and some people are able to drink a glass."
The Menninger Clinic is an international specialty psychiatric center that provides treatment, research and education.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080123/lf_nm_life/gadgets_dc_3;_ylt=AtQKrNeTCMIm8NQ9fWN8dNLSMZA5
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Best Buy Sold Infected Digital Picture Frames
By GREGG KEIZER, Computerworld, IDG
Published: January 23, 2008
Best Buy Co. Inc. sold digital picture frames during the holidays that harbored malicious code able to spread to any connected Windows PC, the big box retailer has confirmed. It is not recalling the frames, however.
What Best Buy called "a limited number" of the 10.4-in. digital frames sold under its in-house Insignia brand were "contaminated with a computer virus during the manufacturing process," according to a notice posted on the Insignia site last weekend. The frame which went by the part number NS-DPF10A has been discontinued, and all remaining inventory pulled, Best Buy added.
But that didn't happen until after some of pre-infected frames were sold to customers.
Best Buy did not specify the number of virus-loaded frames that had ended up in customers' hands, but said in a second notice posted today that it is continuing to investigate and is "connecting with our customers who may have been impacted."
The malware packed with the frame is an older virus that Best Buy claimed would be easily detected by any up-to-date anti-virus software. It did not, however, specify the malware or narrow the scope of the danger by confirming that it was say, a non-replicating Trojan rather than a self-propagating worm.
Only Windows PCs are vulnerable, said Best Buy's notices, and then only if the picture frame were to be connected to the computer via the included USB cable. Frames like digital cameras are designed to connect to PCs so that images can be downloaded from the machine to the frame.
Best Buy recommended users running a current anti-virus program plug the frame into the PC so that the security software can scan the frame and delete the malware. Other customers should call a special toll-free number for help.
"We apologize for the inconvenience that has been caused as a result of this incident," said Best Buy.
Best Buy's public relations team did not respond to a call for comment.
The frame snafu is only the latest in a tradition of factory-infected hardware. Last November, Seagate Technology LLC admitted that an unknown number of its 500GB Maxtor Basics 3200 hard drives left an Asian manufacturing plant with Trojan horses designed to steal online gaming passwords. The year before that, Apple Inc. had to warn Windows users that some of its iPod music players had been infected with a factory virus.
At the time, an Apple vice president made light of the iPod incident, telling Macworld UK: "We are upset at Windows for not being more hardy against such viruses, and even more upset with ourselves for not catching it."
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/idg/IDG_002570DE00740E18002573D9007CF01E.html?em&ex=1201323600&en=0f4358ac4c5481a2&ei=5087%0A
Published: January 23, 2008
Best Buy Co. Inc. sold digital picture frames during the holidays that harbored malicious code able to spread to any connected Windows PC, the big box retailer has confirmed. It is not recalling the frames, however.
What Best Buy called "a limited number" of the 10.4-in. digital frames sold under its in-house Insignia brand were "contaminated with a computer virus during the manufacturing process," according to a notice posted on the Insignia site last weekend. The frame which went by the part number NS-DPF10A has been discontinued, and all remaining inventory pulled, Best Buy added.
But that didn't happen until after some of pre-infected frames were sold to customers.
Best Buy did not specify the number of virus-loaded frames that had ended up in customers' hands, but said in a second notice posted today that it is continuing to investigate and is "connecting with our customers who may have been impacted."
The malware packed with the frame is an older virus that Best Buy claimed would be easily detected by any up-to-date anti-virus software. It did not, however, specify the malware or narrow the scope of the danger by confirming that it was say, a non-replicating Trojan rather than a self-propagating worm.
Only Windows PCs are vulnerable, said Best Buy's notices, and then only if the picture frame were to be connected to the computer via the included USB cable. Frames like digital cameras are designed to connect to PCs so that images can be downloaded from the machine to the frame.
Best Buy recommended users running a current anti-virus program plug the frame into the PC so that the security software can scan the frame and delete the malware. Other customers should call a special toll-free number for help.
"We apologize for the inconvenience that has been caused as a result of this incident," said Best Buy.
Best Buy's public relations team did not respond to a call for comment.
The frame snafu is only the latest in a tradition of factory-infected hardware. Last November, Seagate Technology LLC admitted that an unknown number of its 500GB Maxtor Basics 3200 hard drives left an Asian manufacturing plant with Trojan horses designed to steal online gaming passwords. The year before that, Apple Inc. had to warn Windows users that some of its iPod music players had been infected with a factory virus.
At the time, an Apple vice president made light of the iPod incident, telling Macworld UK: "We are upset at Windows for not being more hardy against such viruses, and even more upset with ourselves for not catching it."
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/idg/IDG_002570DE00740E18002573D9007CF01E.html?em&ex=1201323600&en=0f4358ac4c5481a2&ei=5087%0A
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Mass. clinic launches fertility test that measures egg supply
Mass. clinic launches fertility test that measures egg supply
Boston Business Journal
Tuesday, January 22, 2008 - 9:32 AM EST
A Massachusetts clinic claims it will be the first in the northeast to offer a fertility test that measures how many eggs a woman has.
Fertility center Boston IVF of Waltham, Mass., said on Tuesday that it will begin to sell Repromedix's Plan Ahead test, a blood test that uses a variety of elements to measure a woman's egg supply. The test is intended to help women who are planning to have children after their late twenties, by measuring three ovary-related hormones.
A woman's ability to have children by natural conception depends on having enough eggs, a supply of which declines as a woman ages.
Repromedix is also Massachusetts-based; Its headquarters are in Woburn.
Boston IVF is one of a select number of fertility centers who will offer the $350 test. It's expected to launch in major markets through 2008.
Source: http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/stories/2008/01/21/daily17.html
Boston Business Journal
Tuesday, January 22, 2008 - 9:32 AM EST
A Massachusetts clinic claims it will be the first in the northeast to offer a fertility test that measures how many eggs a woman has.
Fertility center Boston IVF of Waltham, Mass., said on Tuesday that it will begin to sell Repromedix's Plan Ahead test, a blood test that uses a variety of elements to measure a woman's egg supply. The test is intended to help women who are planning to have children after their late twenties, by measuring three ovary-related hormones.
A woman's ability to have children by natural conception depends on having enough eggs, a supply of which declines as a woman ages.
Repromedix is also Massachusetts-based; Its headquarters are in Woburn.
Boston IVF is one of a select number of fertility centers who will offer the $350 test. It's expected to launch in major markets through 2008.
Source: http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/stories/2008/01/21/daily17.html
Monday, January 21, 2008
Sunday, July 22, 2007
Friday, June 8, 2007
Pop-up porn case to get new trial
A new trial has been ordered in a case that became an internet cause celebre.
It involves substitute teacher Julie Amero who faced a 40-year jail sentence for allegedly letting school children view pornography on a class computer.
The case generated huge interest online as bloggers and security experts challenged the way the trial of Ms Amero was being handled.
The new trial follows fresh analysis of why the PC at the centre of the allegations showed the explicit images.
Close examination
Connecticut supply teacher Julie Amero was convicted in January 2007 of impairing the morals of children but she has always strenuously denied visiting sites that would have led to the PC showing the images.
Ms Amero was due to be sentenced on 6 June but Superior Court Judge Hillary Strackbein instead called for a new trial. No date has been set for this second trial.
The case was subject to strong criticism by many bloggers, legal experts and security professionals.
The computer security researchers carried out an unpaid forensic examination of the PC at the centre of the case and what they found led them to doubt the version of events put forward by the prosecution.
This disparity led to Connecticut ordering new tests at a state forensics lab which backed the volunteers' findings and raised more questions about the reliability of the initial evidence.
Local newspapers in Norwich, Connecticut, reported Judge Strackbein saying: "The jury may have relied, at least in part, on that faulty information."
Ms Amero's supporters said the old PC lacked a firewall and security software which led many to suggest it had been taken over by spyware programs that were showing the unwanted pop-ups.
The defence lawyer for Ms Amero said that if the evidence found by its cadre of security researchers had been available at the initial trial, she would never have been accused of visiting pornographic sites.
"I had a great team behind me and I feel comfortable with the decision today," said Ms Amero after the hearing.
Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6729905.stm
It involves substitute teacher Julie Amero who faced a 40-year jail sentence for allegedly letting school children view pornography on a class computer.
The case generated huge interest online as bloggers and security experts challenged the way the trial of Ms Amero was being handled.
The new trial follows fresh analysis of why the PC at the centre of the allegations showed the explicit images.
Close examination
Connecticut supply teacher Julie Amero was convicted in January 2007 of impairing the morals of children but she has always strenuously denied visiting sites that would have led to the PC showing the images.
Ms Amero was due to be sentenced on 6 June but Superior Court Judge Hillary Strackbein instead called for a new trial. No date has been set for this second trial.
The case was subject to strong criticism by many bloggers, legal experts and security professionals.
The computer security researchers carried out an unpaid forensic examination of the PC at the centre of the case and what they found led them to doubt the version of events put forward by the prosecution.
This disparity led to Connecticut ordering new tests at a state forensics lab which backed the volunteers' findings and raised more questions about the reliability of the initial evidence.
Local newspapers in Norwich, Connecticut, reported Judge Strackbein saying: "The jury may have relied, at least in part, on that faulty information."
Ms Amero's supporters said the old PC lacked a firewall and security software which led many to suggest it had been taken over by spyware programs that were showing the unwanted pop-ups.
The defence lawyer for Ms Amero said that if the evidence found by its cadre of security researchers had been available at the initial trial, she would never have been accused of visiting pornographic sites.
"I had a great team behind me and I feel comfortable with the decision today," said Ms Amero after the hearing.
Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6729905.stm
Friday, May 18, 2007
Airlines urged to copy Costa Rican firm on warming
By Alister Doyle, Reuters
OSLO — Big airlines should imitate a tiny, profitable Costa Rican company that invests in forest protection to help soak up greenhouse gases spewed out by its planes, Costa Rica's tourism minister said on Wednesday.
Carlos Ricardo Benavides said that airlines had to do more to fight global warming, partly to encourage tourists worried about climate change to keep visiting remote jungles, mountains and beaches in poor countries that rely on the income.
"Nature Air represents a way to do it," he told Reuters during an international ecotourism conference in Oslo. Costa Rican domestic airline Nature Air calls itself "the world's first and only zero emissions airline".
The firm, with 17 Twin Otter propellor-driven planes, 160 employees and 80 flights a day, pays farmers to grow and protect forests to soak up carbon dioxide emitted by burning a total 480,000 U.S. gallons of fuel a year.
Benavides urged other airlines to follow the example.
"Each flight to our country should have the offset in forests and production of oxygen, so we can finance more and more purchases of forests," he said.
U.N. scientists say aviation, a fast-growing sector, emits about 2% of world greenhouse gases blamed for global warming that could bring more droughts, floods and rising seas.
Some major airlines, such as British Airways and Scandinavian airline SAS, offer clients an option of paying a supplement to invest in planting trees or in renewable energies to offset the greenhouse gas emissions.
Nature Air instead takes an annual one-off cost of about $60,000 to pay farmers to protect forests and stop clearing them for cattle grazing. Trees absorb heat-trapping carbon dioxide as they grow but release it when they burn or rot.
Profits
"I'd say we've sold at least that much in tickets and more because we're doing it," sadi Alexi Huntley Khatjavi, Nature Air sales and marketing director.
"There are some tour operators who will only do business with us," he said. The Central American nation, with both Pacific and Caribbean coasts, is home to many rare plants and animals that draw many tourists.
Nature Air says it has expanded about 45% a year and stayed profitable since 2004 when it began paying for annual offsets totalling about 5,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year, helping protect forests on the Pacific Coast.
He said that Nature Air makes annual profits equivalent to between 4 and 7% of its sales, after accounting for the environmental charge. He declined to give exact figures.
Many countries such as Costa Rica, Papua New Guinea and Brazil want any extension of the U.N.'s Kyoto Protocol on fighting global warming beyond 2012 to include some mechanism to reward them for preserving or growing forests.
Source: http://www.usatoday.com/travel/flights/2007-05-17-costa-rica-copy-airlines_N.htm
OSLO — Big airlines should imitate a tiny, profitable Costa Rican company that invests in forest protection to help soak up greenhouse gases spewed out by its planes, Costa Rica's tourism minister said on Wednesday.
Carlos Ricardo Benavides said that airlines had to do more to fight global warming, partly to encourage tourists worried about climate change to keep visiting remote jungles, mountains and beaches in poor countries that rely on the income.
"Nature Air represents a way to do it," he told Reuters during an international ecotourism conference in Oslo. Costa Rican domestic airline Nature Air calls itself "the world's first and only zero emissions airline".
The firm, with 17 Twin Otter propellor-driven planes, 160 employees and 80 flights a day, pays farmers to grow and protect forests to soak up carbon dioxide emitted by burning a total 480,000 U.S. gallons of fuel a year.
Benavides urged other airlines to follow the example.
"Each flight to our country should have the offset in forests and production of oxygen, so we can finance more and more purchases of forests," he said.
U.N. scientists say aviation, a fast-growing sector, emits about 2% of world greenhouse gases blamed for global warming that could bring more droughts, floods and rising seas.
Some major airlines, such as British Airways and Scandinavian airline SAS, offer clients an option of paying a supplement to invest in planting trees or in renewable energies to offset the greenhouse gas emissions.
Nature Air instead takes an annual one-off cost of about $60,000 to pay farmers to protect forests and stop clearing them for cattle grazing. Trees absorb heat-trapping carbon dioxide as they grow but release it when they burn or rot.
Profits
"I'd say we've sold at least that much in tickets and more because we're doing it," sadi Alexi Huntley Khatjavi, Nature Air sales and marketing director.
"There are some tour operators who will only do business with us," he said. The Central American nation, with both Pacific and Caribbean coasts, is home to many rare plants and animals that draw many tourists.
Nature Air says it has expanded about 45% a year and stayed profitable since 2004 when it began paying for annual offsets totalling about 5,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year, helping protect forests on the Pacific Coast.
He said that Nature Air makes annual profits equivalent to between 4 and 7% of its sales, after accounting for the environmental charge. He declined to give exact figures.
Many countries such as Costa Rica, Papua New Guinea and Brazil want any extension of the U.N.'s Kyoto Protocol on fighting global warming beyond 2012 to include some mechanism to reward them for preserving or growing forests.
Source: http://www.usatoday.com/travel/flights/2007-05-17-costa-rica-copy-airlines_N.htm
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Bush Paves the Way for Martial Law: 2007 National Defense Authorization Act overturns Posse Comitatus Act
"Paradoxically, preserving liberty may require the rule of a single leader--a dictator--willing to use those dreaded 'extraordinary measures,' which few know how, or are willing, to employ." -- Michael Ledeen, White House advisor and fellow of the American Enterprise Institute, "Machiavelli on Modern Leadership: Why Machiavelli's Iron Rules Are As Timely and Important Today As Five Centuries Ago"
"Gen. Tommy Franks says that if the United States is hit with a weapon of mass destruction that inflicts large casualties, the Constitution will likely be discarded in favor of a military form of government." -- NewsMax, November 21, 2003
In October 2006, Bush signed into law the John Warner National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2007. Quietly slipped into the law at the last minute, at the request of the Bush administration, were sections changing important legal principles, dating back 200 years, which limit the U.S. government's ability to use the military to intervene in domestic affairs. These changes would allow Bush, whenever he thinks it necessary, to institute martial law--under which the military takes direct control over civilian administration.
Sec. 1042 of the Act, "Use of the Armed Forces in Major Public Emergencies," effectively overturns what is known as posse comitatus. The Posse Comitatus Act is a law, passed in 1878, that prohibits the use of the regular military within the U.S. borders. The original passage of the Posse Comitatus Act was a very reactionary move that sealed the betrayal of Black people after the Civil War and brought the period of Reconstruction to an end. It decreed that federal troops could no longer be used inside the former Confederate states to enforce the new legal rights of Black people. Black people were turned over to the armed police and Klansmen serving the southern plantation owners, and the long period of Jim Crow began.
During the 20th century, posse comitatus objectively started to play a new role within the bourgeois democratic framework: as a legal barrier to the direct influence of the powerful military establishment and the armed forces over domestic U.S. society. It served to some degree as an obstacle against military coups and presidents seizing military control over the country. (However, National Guard troops have been legally available to the ruling class for use inside the U.S., and there have been other loopholes to the prohibition of the use of armed forces domestically, as in the mobilization of Marine troops during the 1992 L.A. Rebellion.)
So the changes to posse comitatus signed into law by Bush are extremely significant and ominous. Bush has modified the main exemptions to posse comitatus that up to now have been primarily defined by the Insurrection Act of 1807. Previously the president could call out the army in the United States only in cases of insurrection or conditions where "rebellion against the authority of the United States, make it impracticable to enforce the laws of the United States in any State or Territory by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings." Under the new law the president can use the military in response to a natural disaster, a disease outbreak, a terrorist attack or "other condition in which the President determines that domestic violence has occurred to the extent that state officials cannot maintain public order."
The new law requires the President to notify Congress "as soon as practicable after the determination and every 14 days thereafter during the duration of the exercise of the authority." However Bush, as he has often done during his presidency, modified this requirement in his signing statement, which declared, "The executive branch shall construe such provisions in a manner consistent with the President's constitutional authority to withhold information the disclosure of which could impair foreign relations, the national security, the deliberative processes of the Executive." In other words, Bush claims that he does not even need to inform Congress that martial law has been declared!
Changing Role of Military Within the U.S.
This major change in the criteria under which martial law can be declared is a continuation of a process, begun after 9/11, to dismantle legal barriers to unrestrained executive, presidential powers.
In 2002, the government created the new Northern Command. This is the first time since the Civil War that the U.S. military has been given an operational command inside the continental United States.
In 2005, the Washington Post reported that Northcom had developed battle plans for martial law in the U.S. One secret document, CONPLAN 2005, envisions 15 different scenarios where these plans could go into effect.
The U.S. has also used natural disasters like Katrina to push for an increased role for the military. According to the Washington Post, Bush advisor Karl Rove told the governor of Louisiana that she should explore legal options to impose martial law "or as close as we can get."
Spying by the military against U.S. persons, also supposedly prohibited, has greatly expanded in recent years. Counterintelligence Field Activity (CIFA) was created in 2002 supposedly to evaluate threats against Department of Defense installations. However, a secret 400-page document obtained by MSNBC revealed that CIFA had spied on more than 1500 "suspicious incidents" during a ten-month period, including a meeting of Quakers to plan a protest of military recruiting at local high schools and an anti-war protest in Los Angeles.
James Risen has exposed in the New York Times and in his book State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration that the National Security Agency, which is under the Department of Defense, has been used in a massive campaign of illegal spying of U.S. citizens, including tapping phone calls and monitoring bank and financial records and the internet. (See Revolution #35, "Spies, Lies, Thugs and Torture.")
In 2006, the Military Commissions Act was passed which, in addition to legalizing torture, allows the president and military courts to declare anyone an enemy combatant without basic civil rights like habeas corpus.
Plans for massive detention centers are already being prepared. Pacific News Service reported that in early 2006, Kellogg Brown and Root (KBR) received a $385 million contract from the Department of Homeland Security to build detention and processing facilities to be used "in the event of an emergency influx of immigrants into the U.S. or to support the rapid development of new programs."
Would They Really Go That Far?
The Bush Regime's preparations for martial law are part of an extreme agenda. This is a regime that is setting out to create a world empire that is unchallenged and unchallengeable and has embarked on an endless war to bring this about. Along with this, they aim to restructure social relations in the U.S., doing away with many of the social and economic institutions that have characterized U.S. society since World War 2. Because of this extreme agenda, the Bush regime takes very seriously the possibility of jolts and ruptures and resistance and are preparing very extreme measures to deal with this.
On February 27, 1933, a fire broke out in the Reichstag (government) building in Germany. The next day Hitler and his Minister of the Interior Hermann Goering drafted the Reichstag Fire Decree, which suspended civil liberties and gave the central government total power. The decree was signed into law within days. After that point, opposition to Hitler became MUCH more difficult.
In the U.S. today, extreme measures much like the Reichstag Fire Decree are already being put into place--making it even more urgent that a determined struggle be waged to drive out the Bush regime and reverse this dangerous trajectory.
Source: http://www.inteldaily.com/?c=117&a=1431
Thursday, August 24, 2006
Study shows writing about a romantic relationship may help it last longer
Published: 16:58 EST, August 22, 2006
Writing about one’s romantic relationship may help it last longer, researchers at The University of Texas at Austin report in this month’s issue of Psychological Science.
In a study titled “How Do I Love Thee? Let Me Count the Words,” Psychology Professor James Pennebaker and graduate student Richard Slatcher analyzed writing samples from 86 couples. One person from each couple was instructed to write for 20 minutes a day for three consecutive days. Volunteers in one group wrote about their daily activities while those in the second group wrote about their deepest thoughts and feelings about the relationship. The participants’ dating partners did not complete any writing task.
The researchers found that 77 percent of volunteers who wrote about their relationship were still dating their partner three months later. In contrast, only 52 percent of people who wrote just about everyday activities stayed with their partner.
The study also showed that those who wrote about their relationship used more words expressing positive emotions such as “happy" and "love" in Instant Message (IM) exchanges with their dating partner during the days following the writing.
“These results demonstrate that people who express more emotion, both in their writing and to their partner, may have the power to improve their relationship’s longevity,” Pennebaker says.
Monitoring IM conversations allowed the researchers to examine the ebb and flow of the participants’ daily conversations in their natural setting, and provided insight into the progression of the relationships after the writing. For example, couples who used more words expressing positive emotions in their IMs after the writing period were more likely to stay together down the road.
Pennebaker and Slatcher believe the connection between writing and improving one’s relationship may extend beyond the realm of dating couples.
“That people may enhance their romantic relationships by simply writing down their thoughts and feelings about those relationships has clear implications,” Pennebaker says. “The use of expressive writing as a tool for relationship enhancement could be applied to those in families, circles of friends and even work groups.”
Source: University of Texas at Austin, http://www.physorg.com/news75484695.html
Writing about one’s romantic relationship may help it last longer, researchers at The University of Texas at Austin report in this month’s issue of Psychological Science.
In a study titled “How Do I Love Thee? Let Me Count the Words,” Psychology Professor James Pennebaker and graduate student Richard Slatcher analyzed writing samples from 86 couples. One person from each couple was instructed to write for 20 minutes a day for three consecutive days. Volunteers in one group wrote about their daily activities while those in the second group wrote about their deepest thoughts and feelings about the relationship. The participants’ dating partners did not complete any writing task.
The researchers found that 77 percent of volunteers who wrote about their relationship were still dating their partner three months later. In contrast, only 52 percent of people who wrote just about everyday activities stayed with their partner.
The study also showed that those who wrote about their relationship used more words expressing positive emotions such as “happy" and "love" in Instant Message (IM) exchanges with their dating partner during the days following the writing.
“These results demonstrate that people who express more emotion, both in their writing and to their partner, may have the power to improve their relationship’s longevity,” Pennebaker says.
Monitoring IM conversations allowed the researchers to examine the ebb and flow of the participants’ daily conversations in their natural setting, and provided insight into the progression of the relationships after the writing. For example, couples who used more words expressing positive emotions in their IMs after the writing period were more likely to stay together down the road.
Pennebaker and Slatcher believe the connection between writing and improving one’s relationship may extend beyond the realm of dating couples.
“That people may enhance their romantic relationships by simply writing down their thoughts and feelings about those relationships has clear implications,” Pennebaker says. “The use of expressive writing as a tool for relationship enhancement could be applied to those in families, circles of friends and even work groups.”
Source: University of Texas at Austin, http://www.physorg.com/news75484695.html
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
