Archive for February, 2010
Web Surfers Have More Depression
Thursday, February 4th, 2010Hmmmmm……
A “dark side” to the internet suggests a strong link between time spent surfing the web and depression, say psychologists.
British scientists found that the longer people spent online, the less likely they were to be happy.A small group of the worst affected individuals were both depressed and addicted.
But it was not clear whether using the internet causes mental health problems, or whether people with mental health problems are drawn to the internet.
More work is needed to answer this “chicken and egg” question, say the researchers.
Well, if a person tends to be a solitary person, he might enjoy hanging on the internet. But then, he does self-reinforcing things, like look at porn, and gets stuck behind his desk even more. Then, he is kinda addicted..he exercises less, gets less natural sunlight, interacts with real people less and it becomes a vicious cycle.
Or, the person starts depressed and the internet doesn’t force human interaction or exertion.
I don’t think there is one cause here, but it does seem to be a risk for introverted people.
Joblessness: Bad News Is Unexpected News
Thursday, February 4th, 2010When bad things happen during the Obama administration it’s always so “unexpected”. The latest round of unexpectedly unexpected news was in the jobs arena. The AP reports:
WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of newly laid-off workers filing initial claims for jobless benefits rose unexpectedly last week, evidence that layoffs are continuing and jobs remain scarce.
The rise is the fourth in the past five weeks. Most economists hoped that claims would resume a downward trend that was evident in the fall and early winter.
The Labor Department said Thursday that new claims for unemployment insurance rose by 8,000 to a seasonally adjusted 480,000. Wall Street economists had expected a drop to 460,000, according to Thomson Reuters.
The four-week average, which smooths fluctuations, rose for the third straight week to 468,750.
The figure is the highest in the past two months. Initial claims dropped sharply in late December, raising hopes among economists that layoffs were nearing an end and the economy would soon start generating net gains in jobs.
Why one might think that the easing of joblessness in December (people STILL lost jobs) was due to seasonal hirings and that now, those people and many, many more don’t have jobs.
One would think that, if they weren’t a press person who had their heads so far up the administration’s financial guru’s rear that he too was blinded by Obama’s light.
The American people find this “unexpected” news laughable. It’s what they see all around them. And they don’t expect things to get better any time soon.
If this was the Bush administration, the recession would be called The 2nd Great Depression.
The jobless numbers are disheartening. There are reasons they’ll continue to get worse. And it will continue to be unexpected because any bad news surrounding the Obama administration is unexpected.
It’s going to get worse, morons. There are so many reasons in the underlying economy (commercial mortgage loan resets, increasing home defaults, scaling back work force–many companies cut salaries, not employees, etc.) for bad, not good, things to happen.
Layer on to the actual economy the administration’s mixed messages and outright hostility toward business, and you have an EXPECTEDLY unstable economic environment.
The jobless woes should surprise no one.
If You Had Hours Or A Few Days To Live, Would You Want To Know?
Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010I’m reading this article on a cat who leaps into your bed at the old folks home and he has got solid death instincts. He only becomes your companion when you’re on your way to permanent sleep:
Dr Dosa first publicised Oscar’s gift in an article in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2007. Since then, the cat has gone on to double the number of imminent deaths it has sensed and convinced the geriatrician that it is no fluke.
The tortoiseshell and white cat spends its days pacing from room to room, rarely spending any time with patients except those with just hours to live.
If kept outside the room of a dying patient, Oscar will scratch on the door trying to get in.
When nurses once placed the cat on the bed of a patient they thought close to death, Oscar “charged out” and went to sit beside someone in another room. The cat’s judgement was better than that of the nurses: the second patient died that evening, while the first lived for two more days.
Dr Dosa and other staff are so confident in Oscar’s accuracy that they will alert family members when the cat jumps on to a bed and stretches out beside its occupant.
“It’s not like he dawdles. He’ll slip out for two minutes, grab some kibble and then he’s back at the patient’s side. It’s like he’s literally on a vigil,” Dr Dosa wrote.
Hmm… maybe if I was already in hospice, this could be helpful…making sure to have that phone call, talk, whatever.
On the other hand, if the cat is wrong only 10% of the time….
Obama: No More Mr. Nice Guy?
Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010Well, he was nice to the world tyrants (still is–note the silence on the hangings in Iran). He’s not so hip on America.
But meeting with the Dalai Lama is symbolic, I guess, of some new toughness. Meh.
On Friday the Obama administration signed off on a $6.4 billion (£4 billion) arms package for Taiwan. China, which claims the island, had repeatedly warned against the sale and retaliated by vowing to punish US companies.
Obama may butt heads with Beijing again in the coming weeks if he meets the Dalai Lama. The two nations also have a number of trade rows including Google’s threat to leave China over the hacking of political activists’ email accounts.
Officials and experts doubted that Obama was seeking to antagonise China. Rather, they said he had long planned to sell arms to Taiwan and meet the Dalai Lama but wanted first to develop a good rapport with Beijing.
Douglas H. Paal, a former top US policymaker on China and envoy to Taiwan, said that Obama had waited for the right time and saw an opportunity after Beijing balked in mid-January at backing tougher sanctions against Iran.
“It became clear that Beijing was not going to play on Iran and therefore there was nothing to hold up the arms sales anymore,” said Paal, vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
I’m thinking that Obama has figured out that we have enemies all over. And they aren’t cooperating just because of his magnificence. This is shocking. To him.
Scott Brown Knows How To Message
Monday, February 1st, 2010I know you guys hate videos (well, RWN people do), but I’m including it here because it’s so illustrative of good political speak.
The CNN interviewer asks Brown, “Can you accept a more scaled down version of the health care bill?”
Now, keep in mind that Brown was elected at “the 41st vote” against health care reform. So, if he says yes, he undoes his campaign, right? But his message was more nuanced during his campaigning, but that’s not how a change would be spun.
Brown responds,”We’ll have to see what’s there. I think they’re going to go back to the drawing board. I think it was on its last legs before I got there because of the backroom deals and the lack of transparency.”
Do you see what he did in three short sentences?
1. He didn’t commit to a cornering question.
2. He put forth his desire–to go back to the drawing board because he knows Americans want some reform, just not this reform (aka takeover).
3. He impugns the Democrats without calling out the Democrats. This part is beautiful. Without actually saying anything negative, he gives voice to the people’s concern about the government being corrupt. And who is in charge? Democrats.
So far, Brown has been remarkably quick on his feet, affable, and unflappable. He is still a Northeast Republican so standards for policy are rather lower than a Texas Republican, say, but still, he could teach establishment Republicans a thing or two about communication.
Content around 1:20 in:
Abnormal Psychology Exists: You Are A Woman If You Give Birth. Period.
Monday, February 1st, 2010Woman who wants to be an ugly man will be giving birth. This time in Britain:
Congratulations, it’s a boy – who will give birth next month.
Two proud papas are expecting a baby boy in February, London’s Daily Mail reports, in what will be the world’s second known case of birth by a “pregnant man.”
“We know some people will criticize us, but we are blissfully happy and not ashamed,” Scott Moore told the newspaper.
Moore and his husband, Thomas, were both born female and have undergone surgery to change their sex. The transgender California couple is legally married, as Moore still has his female birth certificate.
Baby “Miles” has two brothers waiting for him, 10-year-old Logan and 12-year-old Greg, Thomas’ children from a previous relationship with a woman who has since passed away.
Moore, born Jessica, told the paper he first realized he wanted to be a man when he was 11.
“When I told my family, they thought I was crazy, but they gradually realized I was serious and allowed me to start taking male hormones when I was 16 years old,” he said.
His parents eventually paid for him to have his 36DDD breasts removed, the paper reports, but he could not afford the high cost of full sex reassignment surgery.
Moore still has female reproductive organs, and got pregnant using the sperm of a friend in June 2009, the Daily Mail reports.
You know, there is such thing as abnormal psychology. This is NOT NORMAL. It is one thing to move to Funky Town. It’s another thing to start a family there and bring children into this disordered environment.
Pretending that this is not so is akin to the government pretending that a dude with the name Mohammed who acts weird, says he wants to blow things up and then does it, isn’t a terrorist.
Society cannot function if we don’t have some agreement on what is acceptable social norms. Freaks do not tend to build society, they tend to be around the edges eating away at its success.
Now, I’m libertarian enough not to want to get in this lady’s business, but I also don’t equate tolerance with approval. I don’t approve. No one should. It’s not good for her body (it’s self-mutilation on a massive scale). It’s not good for her children. It’s not good for society.
Stories You Should Know: What You Missed Over The Weekend
Monday, February 1st, 2010Supposedly the news cycle ebbs over the weekend. Not this weekend. And there wasn’t even football.
Here are some stories I wanted to share:
U.N. Global Warming science was based on a college dissertation. No, I am not making this up.
SNL had a hilarious skit, for once, about Scott Brown’s effect on the Dems.
This is a must-read story from the WaPo of all places, about the way the Obama Administration is going wrong over terrorism. Speaking of those sweet, innocent terrorists: read this first-hand account of their actions.
And for just sheer viewing pleasure, watch Roger Ailes take down Arianna Huffington and watch for Paul Krugman flinching and rolling his eyes at Arianna. Hilarious. Personally, I flinch any time any of these no-minds speak.
