Tag Archives: International

Get that tune out of your head – scientists find how to get rid of earworms

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They are the songs you cannot get out of your head. Now scientists may have found a way to help anyone plagued by those annoying tunes that lodge themselves inside our heads and repeat on an endless loop.

Researchers claim the best way to stopping the phenomenon, sometimes known as earworms – where snippets of a catchy song inexplicably play like a broken record in your brain – is to solve some tricky anagrams.

This can force the intrusive music out of your working memory, they say, allowing it to be replaced with other more amenable thoughts.

But they also warn not to try anything too difficult as those irritating melodies may wiggle their way back into your consciousness.

For those unwilling to carry around a book of anagrams, a good novel may also do the trick.

Read more at The Telegraph

Korean propaganda video depicts attacks on U.S. with nucs

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Recently a comical version of North Korean propaganda was posted on the Internet going viral. The propaganda film was real, depicting the life of the citizens of the United States, but the Internet video contained a British voice-over.

Less comical is the recent video published on a “semi-official” site in Korea. The video shows weapons on parade, being fired and Washington in the crosshairs with a slick Hollywood-style soundtrack.

Western analysts suspect that nations like North Korea and Iran do not have the capability to strike the United States, yet. It is unclear if and when either nation will ever acquire the capability.

Propaganda films such as this, however, may spark debate over the wisdom of drawing down our own nuclear arsenal while other nations are not.

Lovelorn ‘killer’ dolphins escape military duty

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What’s more important to a dolphin than honor or country?

Sex, of course.

According to Ukrainian media reports, three highly trained dolphins belonging to the Ukrainian Navy escaped their handlers earlier this month and haven’t been seen since. Are they deserters? Not exactly. Yury Plyachenko, a former Soviet naval anti-sabotage officer, posits that the dolphins are simply twitterpated and have gone off to observe the finer customs of the dolphin mating season.

The Ukrainian government is denying the whole thing, saying they don’t even use dolphins for combat or defensive purposes, but pictures of dolphins equipped with military devices surface every once in a while in Ukrainian media. Furthermore, a military source told RIA Novosti that as recently as last year, the military started training dolphins to detect mines and attack enemy swimmers. The “killer” dolphins are even said to be equipped with pistols or knives on their heads.

Read more at HLNtv

Philippines law gives compensation to Marcos victims

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The Philippine president has signed a law to give compensation to victims of the country’s former leader, Ferdinand Marcos.

The government has set aside at least 10bn pesos ($224m: £148m) to compensate thousands of people who suffered rights abuses in the Marcos era.

The money was recovered from Swiss bank accounts secretly maintained by Marcos during his 20 years in power.

President Benigno Aquino said the move would “right the wrongs of the past”.

“We may not bring back the time stolen from martial law victims, but we can assure them of the state’s recognition of their sufferings that will help bring them closer to the healing of their wounds,” he said at a ceremony in Manila.

Read more at BBC News

Horsemeat found in Ikea meatballs in Czech Republic

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Ikea has withdrawn meatballs from sale in 14 European countries after tests in the Czech Republic found traces of horsemeat in a batch made in Sweden.

Meatballs from the same batch had been sold in many states, including the UK, France and Portugal, the retailer said.

Swiss food giant Nestle meanwhile said it had found horse DNA in meat from the Spanish supplier, Servocar.

The discoveries come as EU agriculture ministers meet for talks expected to focus on the growing horsemeat scandal.

Since the first horsemeat was discovered in frozen meals and burgers in the UK and Ireland last month, traces have been found in meat products across Europe.

Read more at BBC News

Could Israeli company hold the key to the medicinal marijuana controversy?

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marijuana3n-2-webThe controversy over legalizing marijuana continues with even the medicinal benefits being questioned. Lame stream media likes to promote doctors who say the medicinal benefits are negligible while ignoring anyone else.

Some contend that it might actually increase problems, such as some who get a prescription and turn pusher. Some claim it is a Soros conspiracy because the THC causes mental health conditions such as schizophrenia.

Tikkun Olam, a company in Israel, may hold the a key to the medicinal marijuana controversy. The company announced in July of 2012 that they had developed a strain of marijuana with high levels of the beneficial cannabidiol and less of the THC that causes people to get high. Normal marijuana is illegal in Israel, as in the U.S., but medicinal marijuana has been legal since the mid-1990s.

The New York Daily News reported:

A team at Tikkun Olam, a company in Israel, worked to boost the levels of cannabidiol — the part of the plant used to ease the symptoms of cancer and other diseases — and neutralize the side effects of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC. That’s the part that induces a calm, light-headed feeling.

“Sometimes getting high is an ‘unwanted side effect’,” says Zack Klein, head of development at Tikun Olam in an interview on The Week.

“The new strain looks, smells and tastes the same, but many patients given the marijuana thought they were using a placebo,” Klein said in the Daily News article.

Medicinal marijuana has been legalized in Arizona and has split communities throughout the State. Arizona has a law—passed by initiative—that prevents the State Legislature from overturning any law passed by initiative. That initiative was passed after lawmakers in the State overturned a medicinal marijuana law in the mid 90’s.

While State legislators cannot stop medicinal marijuana, they could look into making only this new version of marijuana legal for medicinal use. Since it does not have the content of THC required to get you high, it might even be legal to sell it over the counter. Many who require medicinal marijuana might even appreciate the change since they claim that they only want it for the medicinal benefits. They probably could continue to drive and function normally.

In November, USA Today reported that the Israeli government is pushing further development of the medicinal marijuana for cancer patients and those with pain-related illnesses such as Parkinson’s, multiple sclerosis, and even post-traumatic stress disorder. The drug can be smoked, ingested as a liquid or spread on the skin as a balm.

“When push comes to shove, and people see how suffering people are benefitting, I’m sure everyone will get behind it,” said Yuli Edelstein, Israeli Minister of Public Diplomacy.

This does not, of course, solve the controversy over whether or not an intoxicating form of the drug should be legal.

New Zealand environmental advocate launches campaign to ban cats as pets

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WELLINGTON, New Zealand – Gareth Morgan has a simple dream: a New Zealand free of pet cats that threaten native birds. But the environmental advocate has triggered a claws-out backlash with his new anti-feline campaign.

Morgan called on his countrymen Tuesday to make their current cat their last in order to save the nation’s unique bird species. He set up a website, called Cats To Go, depicting a tiny kitten with red devil’s horns. The opening line: “That little ball of fluff you own is a natural born killer.”

He doesn’t recommended people euthanize their current cats — “Not necessarily but that is an option” are the site’s exact words — but rather neuter them and not replace them when they die. Morgan, an economist and well-known businessman, also suggests people keep cats indoors and that local governments make registration mandatory.

Morgan’s campaign is not sitting well in a country that boasts one of the highest cat ownership rates in the world.

SEE VIDEO

Read more at Fox News

Georgia soldier in Afghanistan marries on Skype

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WLTZ 38 | Columbus Georgia Regional News
(CNN)-A couple from Georgia did not let the thousands of miles separating them keep them from getting married. They used Skype to bridge the gap and tie the knot.

Jacqueline Durham spent her wedding day like most brides. From her bedazzled bride outfit, she got ready with her bridesmaids and took plenty of pictures.

“Say cheeeesee.”

And something not on a typical bride to be list, check her Internet connection.

Jacqueline would marry her Fort Gordon Soldier while he is still stationed overseas in Afghanistan- through skype! “He told me about it. And he’s like what do you think about that? Do you want to do that? And I was like, of course. Since we can’t be together, it’d make it special”

After two years of dating Trey, Jacqueline told me she couldn’t wait any longer.

Read more at WLTZ Channel 38

Iran’s nuclear bomb program complete

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Source reveals secret site; last obstacle is to arm missiles

Iran successfully has built a nuclear bomb with the help of Russia and North Korea and has enough weapons-grade uranium and plutonium for more, according to a source in the Revolutionary Guards intelligence unit.

The source, who has access to Iran’s nuclear program, said the Islamic regime is working out of seven nuclear sites, most unknown to the IAEA, and that its nuclear bomb program is complete.

North Korea has provided the regime with plutonium for nuclear warheads, the source verified, and the last obstacle to overcome is arming missiles with those warheads.

The source, who revealed the existence of the regime’s microbial plant and its effort on biological weapons as published on Jan. 1 by WND exclusively, now has provided information on two of the seven secret sites.

KhondabOverview-DigitalGlobe2012

The first is in the town of Khondab near the city of Arak in central Iran where Iran’s heavy-water plant reactor is located, which, once operational, will provide enough plutonium for several bombs just in its first year. WND will soon publish information on the second secret nuclear site, which has direct Russian participation involving laser technology for uranium enrichment.

Read more at at WND

Paedophilia: bringing dark desires to light

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[This article was amended on 3 January 2012. The original incorrectly suggested that the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders was published by the American Psychological Association, and misspelled Dunkelfeld as Dunkenfeld.]

We can help keep children safe, [Sarah] Goode argues, “by allowing paedophiles to be ordinary members of society, with moral standards like everyone else”, and by “respecting and valuing those paedophiles who choose self-restraint”. Only then will men tempted to abuse children “be able to be honest about their feelings, and perhaps find people around them who could support them and challenge their behaviour before children get harmed”.

In 1976 the National Council for Civil Liberties, the respectable (and responsible) pressure group now known as Liberty, made a submission to parliament’s criminal law revision committee. It caused barely a ripple. “Childhood sexual experiences, willingly engaged in with an adult,” it read, “result in no identifiable damage … The real need is a change in the attitude which assumes that all cases of paedophilia result in lasting damage.”

It is difficult today, after the public firestorm unleashed by revelations about Jimmy Savile and the host of child abuse allegations they have triggered, to imagine any mainstream group making anything like such a claim. But if it is shocking to realise how dramatically attitudes to paedophilia have changed in just three decades, it is even more surprising to discover how little agreement there is even now among those who are considered experts on the subject.

A liberal professor of psychology who studied in the late 1970s will see things very differently from someone working in child protection, or with convicted sex offenders. There is, astonishingly, not even a full academic consensus on whether consensual paedophilic relations necessarily cause harm.

So what, then, do we know? A paedophile is someone who has a primary or exclusive sexual interest in prepubescent children. Savile appears to have been primarily an ephebophile, defined as someone who has a similar preferential attraction to adolescents, though there have been claims one of his victims was aged eight.

But not all paedophiles are child molesters, and vice versa: by no means every paedophile acts on his impulses, and many people who sexually abuse children are not exclusively or primarily sexually attracted to them. In fact, “true” paedophiles are estimated by some experts to account for only 20% of sexual abusers. Nor are paedophiles necessarily violent: no firm links have so far been established between paedophilia and aggressive or psychotic symptoms. Psychologist Glenn Wilson, co-author of The Child-Lovers: a Study of Paedophiles in Society, argues that “The majority of paedophiles, however socially inappropriate, seem to be gentle and rational.”

Read more at The Guardian UK