Use of SSRI Antidepressants During Pregnancy Linked to Higher Risk of Autism
July 6th, 2011Via: Time:
In a study involving data on more than 1,800 children — fewer than 300 of whom had an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) — and their mothers, the scientists found that women who were prescribed drugs to treat depression in the year before giving birth were twice as likely to have children with an ASD, compared with women who did not take antidepressants. The risk was even greater for women who were prescribed the drugs in the first trimester: their children were nearly four times more likely to develop autism or a related disorder.
The study focused on one type of antidepressant, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), a class of drug that includes fluoxetine (Prozac), paroxetine (Paxil) and sertraline (Zoloft). These antidepressants work by increasing available levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin surrounding nerve cells in the brain, which helps boost mood.
Research Credit: minerva
Arizona: Woman Arrested for Speaking at City Council Meeting
July 6th, 2011Via: YouTube:
Quartzsite, AZ – The Mayor is challenged under a recall election beginning next month. Accusations have been made. The city council is persecuting the Mayor for giving the people a voice. The Chief of Police is also involved in the scandal.
Jennifer Jones is given the floor at a city council meeting open to the public. While she is speaking the council realizes she’s about to air their dirty laundry and quickly beckons their henchman to cart her off.
The Mayor steps in and says Jones has been recognized to speak and has not violated the council’s rules, but the council ignores him and has the woman removed even as the Mayor continues to contest. The police officers ignore the Mayor of the city and remove the woman. It’s obvious who those cops work for, and it’s not the people.
Research Credit: ED
Princess ‘Tried to Flee Three Times’ [???]
July 4th, 2011Via: Sydney Morning Herald:
Princess Charlene of Monaco tried to flee home to South Africa three times before her marriage to Prince Albert II, according to reports in French newspapers.
Fairytale turns sour
The couple’s glittering religious wedding drew crowds of thousands to the Mediterranean principality on Saturday and the guest list included a host of heads of state, European royals and stars of the fashion and sports world.
But sources cited by Le Journal du Dimanche said the former Charlene Wittstock, 33, tried to take refuge in her country’s embassy in Paris when she went to the French capital in May to try on her wedding dress.
Instead palace officials confiscated her passport and persuaded her to take part in the weekend’s nuptials.
Later that month she also tried to escape during the Monaco formula one grand prix, they alleged.
Then, last week, she allegedly had her passport confiscated en route to Nice airport via the helicopter service that runs regularly between Monaco and France.
Huge Rare Earth Deposits Found in Pacific
July 4th, 2011Update: Map on Io9
See: A map of future undersea mining facilities.
—End Update—
Via: Reuters:
Vast deposits of rare earth minerals, crucial in making high-tech electronics products, have been found on the floor of the Pacific Ocean and can be readily extracted, Japanese scientists said on Monday.
“The deposits have a heavy concentration of rare earths. Just one square kilometer (0.4 square mile) of deposits will be able to provide one-fifth of the current global annual consumption,” said Yasuhiro Kato, an associate professor of earth science at the University of Tokyo.
The discovery was made by a team led by Kato and including researchers from the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology.
They found the minerals in sea mud extracted from depths of 3,500 to 6,000 meters (11,500-20,000 ft) below the ocean surface at 78 locations. One-third of the sites yielded rich contents of rare earths and the metal yttrium, Kato said in a telephone interview.
The deposits are in international waters in an area stretching east and west of Hawaii, as well as east of Tahiti in French Polynesia, he said.
He estimated rare earths contained in the deposits amounted to 80 to 100 billion metric tons, compared to global reserves currently confirmed by the U.S. Geological Survey of just 110 million tonnes that have been found mainly in China, Russia and other former Soviet countries, and the United States.
Details of the discovery were published on Monday in the online version of British journal Nature Geoscience.
Journal Article: Nature Geoscience: Deep-Sea Mud in the Pacific Ocean as a Potential Resource for Rare-Earth Elements
Mysterious Deaths of Two Staten Island Marines
July 4th, 2011Via: SI Live:
New Brighton natives Duane Robert Liburd Jr. and Hamson R. Daniels McPherson never knew each other.
But the two young men wound up in the same place a half-world away — as U.S. Marines stationed on the Japanese island of Okinawa.
And in a tragic coincidence, Liburd, 22, and Daniels McPherson, 21, both met their deaths on that Pacific island under mysterious circumstances about two months ago and within weeks of each other.
Liburd’s family was told he drowned on May 14, while swimming off a beach near his barracks.
Daniels McPherson’s father said the Marine Corps told him the former defensive end for the Curtis High School football team doused himself with gasoline on May 1 and set himself ablaze. He died 19 days later in a burn unit in San Antonio, Texas, where he had been transferred.
The Marine Corps’ explanation of how their sons died have left the two men’s kin with far more questions than answers.
Research Credit: cptmarginal
Greek Coastguard Forces Canadian ‘Freedom Flotilla’ Vessel Back to Port; Irish, Swedish Ships Sabotaged
July 4th, 2011Nothing resulted from Israel’s slaughter of civilians and piracy last year, so… So it goes…
Via: Guardian:
An attempt by one of the Gaza-bound “freedom flotilla” ships to defy the Greek government and escape from port was thwarted on Monday when armed coastguard officials caught up with the vessel and forced it back to shore.
On a day that activists had dubbed “make or break” for the international coalition of boats seeking to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza, the Canadian ship Tahrir burst out of Agios Nikolaos port in Crete at 6pm local time after supporters blocked the coastguard with manned kayaks.
“We have left port [and] are full steam ahead – coastguard boat about 5-10 [minutes] behind us,” announced passengers on the ship’s official Twitter feed as they raced towards international waters. But the faster coastguard boat caught up with the Tahrir and prevented it from going any further.
“Our boat has just been illegally boarded by armed members of the Greek coastguard and commandeered against our will,” Dylan Penner, a member of Tahrir steering committee, told the Guardian by phone from the ship’s deck. “This is conclusive evidence that Israel’s unlawful siege on Gaza has now been extended to Greece.”
The captain of a US ship, The Audacity of Hope, was arrested after a similar failed attempt to flee the port in Athens last week.
The Greek government caused controversy on Friday when it banned all flotilla ships from leaving its ports, without explaining its reasons. Critics accused the beleaguered government of bowing to Israeli and US pressure and surrendering Greek sovereignty over its sea borders. The Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, thanked his Greek counterpart for helping to stamp out “anti-Israeli provocation”.
Related:
Irish Activists Say Israel Sabotaged Flotilla Vessel
Swedish Gaza Flotilla Ship Sabotaged
Grocery Shopping in South Korea
July 4th, 2011Tesco: Homeplus Subway Virtual Store.
Via: Youtube:
Research Credit: JH
Rice May Rally Sharply in Wake of Thai Election
July 4th, 2011Via: Bloomberg:
Rice prices in Thailand, the biggest exporter, may rally 56 percent by yearend as the party that won parliamentary elections implements a policy to buy the crop from farmers above current rates, according to a survey.
The export price may climb to $810 per metric ton by Dec. 31, according to a median forecast of six millers, exporters and traders today and yesterday, who commented after Pheu Thai won a majority in yesterday’s contest. “We are ready to implement all policies we have announced,” Yingluck Shinawatra, who will become Thailand’s first female prime minister, said yesterday.
Costlier rice from Thailand, which accounts for about 30 percent of worldwide shipments, may increase global food costs while making supplies from rival Vietnam more competitive. A Bloomberg survey last month, conducted during the campaign, suggested a gain to $750 per ton if Pheu Thai were to win.
“It isn’t only Thai prices that will go up, the rest of the world will have to follow,” Mamadou Ciss, chief executive officer of Hermes Investments Pte, said from Geneva. The price may jump $100 within two months and peak at $700, said Ciss, who correctly predicted in 2006 that prices would double.
Thai export prices are a benchmark for the industry. The price of the 100 percent grade-B variety, which is set weekly, was at $519 per ton on June 29, and has risen as much as 7.3 percent since outgoing Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva called the election. Abhisit’s Democrat Party won 160 seats in the 500- member parliament while Pheu Thai took 264, with 98 percent of the vote counted.
Monitoring Rice Situation in Japan: Toshiso Kosako: Come the Harvest Season in the Fall, There Will Be Chaos
South Korea: Entire Primary Education Curriculum Will Be Delivered Digitally By 2015
July 4th, 2011South Korea, a division of Samsung.
Via: MIT Technology Review:
By 2014, all of South Korea’s elementary-level educational materials will be digitized, and by 2015, the entire school-age curriculum will be delivered on an array of computers, smart phones and tablets. While the country’s education ministry is yet to announce the make or model of the devices it will purchase, it has revealed it will spend $2.4 billion buying the requisite tablets and digitizing material for them.
Some schools on the peninsula are already using textbooks displayed on notebook computers, but when it comes to choice of tablets, how likely is it that the government will choose the iPad or any other tablet other than those manufactured by South Korean electronics giant Samsung, such as the Samsung Galaxy Tab or some larger variant of it?
This move also re-ignites the age-old debate about whether or not students learn better from screens or printed material. Equally important, there’s the issue of whether or not devices with smaller form factors are as effective as current textbooks, which tend to have significantly more area on each page.
Sudanese Army Seizes Southern Libyan Town
July 4th, 2011Via: Telegraph:
The Sudanese army has seized a town in southern Libya that is the gateway to oilfields crucial to rebel hopes of establishing financial independence.
Officials overseeing the no-fly zone enforced by Nato over Libya said the Sudanese move north of border had not encountered resistance from troops loyal to Col Muammar Gaddafi.
Since the February uprising against his regime, the Libyan leader’s forces have been concentrated around Tripoli, the capital; Sirte, the eastern town that is Col Gaddafi’s birthplace and Sebha, the desert outpost where the dictator grew up.
Officials said control of the town of Kufra and nearby military base granted the Sudanese a key strategic foothold between the regime and the opposition Transitional National Council (TNC) which holds the eastern seaboard and a series of rebel enclaves.
