Wednesday, February 15, 2012

A royal affair: Openly gay prince entertains love on reality show...

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Saturday, February 11, 2012

Schizophrenia linked to infection in pregnancy...

Schizophrenia (Sepultura album)
Image via Wikipedia
 

Schizophrenia linked to infection in pregnancy
A new study of the brain mechanisms behind schizophrenia has found the illness could be triggered by an infection during the early stages of pregnancy.
The study, by researchers from University of Otago ’s Department of Psychology, found a one-off infection in a pregnant rat could result in long-range neural problems in her offspring.
PhD candidate and lead author Desiree Dickerson said the study, believed to be the first of its kind, was an exciting step toward understanding the brain mechanisms that underpinned schizophrenia.
“There is a considerable body of evidence suggesting that changes in neural synchronisation may underlie a range of symptoms seen in schizophrenia,” she said.
“At the same time many studies have found that infection during early-to-mid pregnancy slightly increases the overall risk of children developing this illness as adults, with recent research implicating the mother’s immune response.”
Ms Dickerson said the study helped “connect the dots” between maternal infection and the synchrony research.
“We show that a single activation of an immune response during pregnancy can lead to adult offspring showing disrupted communication between two key brain regions implicated in schizophrenia,” she said.
“Moreover, these offspring also displayed hallmark schizophrenia-like changes in their behaviour as they became adults, such as an abnormal startle response.”
Ms Dickerson said effective communication between brain regions required synchronised firing of groups of cells within the brain.
“This can be compared to a crowd performing a Mexican wave. Brain cells in individuals with schizophrenia are like people trying to produce the Mexican wave independently and with poor timing -- the wave doesn’t form cohesively and the message is distorted.”
WinchesterUntil now, there had not been a good model for investigating how and why the desynchronisation occurred, she said.
“Importantly, this study has provided a chance to examine what happens in schizophrenia at a biological level that would otherwise be inaccessible. This will ultimately lead to better understanding and treatment of this severe mental illness.”
Acknowledgements: Elaine Winchester - Atareira/Hutt Valley Mental Health

Kiwipete
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Thursday, February 9, 2012

Kim Dotcom's $4.3 million Coatsville mansion seized by authorities...

Artwork removed from Kim Dotcom's mansion in Coatesville today. Photo / Brett Phibbs

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Artwork removed from Kim Dotcom's mansion in Coatesville today. Photo / Brett Phibbs

The $4.3 million home where Kim Dotcom's pregnant wife and three children live has been seized by New Zealand authorities.
Staff for the Official Assignee are currently scouring the 2.16 hectare property in Coatesville, north of Auckland, which borders the larger "Dotcom Mansion" where Dotcom and his family lived until he was arrested by police last month.
Dotcom was refused permission to buy the $30 million property by the Overseas Investment Office as he did not meet the "good character" test. But he was able to buy the neighbouring lifestyle block in December, as property is less than five hectares of non-urban land and therefore did not need approval. The home is 565sqm and has a valuation of $4.3m.
Read more:

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10784385

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2091428/Megaupload-case-5th-arrest-FBI-continues-hunt-2-men-involved-175m-piracy-ring.html   Megaupload police invasion of Auckland mansion

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Thursday, February 2, 2012

NASA seeks gay astronauts for Mars mission...

uk/dvd


:.300px-Rainbow_flag_and_blue_skiesshowpicinarticle
NASA seeks gay astronauts for Mars mission - no pregnancy problems during 30 year mission. ...

http://kiwiriverman.blogspot.co.nz/2012/02/nasa-seeks-gay-astronauts-for-mars.html

KIWIPETE
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Monday, January 30, 2012

14 year old gay Tennessee teenager killed himself recently...


A gay  Tennessee teenager killed himself recently after facing constant harassment and bullying at Gordonsville School. He was just 14 years old. It was a tragedy.

http://www.gay.net/news/2012/01/23/second-teen-suicide-tenn-dont-say-gay-bill-returns



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Saturday, January 28, 2012

A smart psychiatric pill is on the way...




Pill Police?     
by patricia.deegan
      :
  • "Smart pill"s are a reality - the microchip  technology exists now. Read the article below.
You must be paranoid! Or then again... Imagine being diagnosed with schizophrenia in 2012. Imagine being recently discharged from a mental hospital and, in the privacy of your own home, swallowing an antipsychotic medication as part of your ongoing treatment. Imagine that the powdered medicine was wrapped in a capsule that included a tiny microchip and a microscopic antenna. When the capsule you swallowed mixed with the gastric juices in your digestive system, the microchip and antenna would be activated and transmit information to your doctor's computer or phone about the type of pill you took and the time it entered your stomach. Imagine that the microchip and antenna continued to transmit information to your doctor about your sleep, PH balance and body temperature.
My friends, this is not a delusion or a paranoid conspiracy theory. The technology I am describing exists and is under consideration for use in proposed research studies on health IT treatment interventions for those of us diagnosed with schizophrenia.
Please be clear. Medication has been helpful in my recovery and I believe there is place for the judicious use of meds in mental health. The capsules or pills that are currently available from our pharmacies DO NOT have microchips and antennae, and they are not feeding back information to our doctors. However, we are in brave new world and the future is upon us. Information technologies are emerging all around us and these technologies have unprecedented capacity to track our personal biometrics and feed our personal metrics back to health authorities.
What should informed consent be like in the event that we are offered a "Police Pill" or, phrased more benignly, an "Assisted Treatment Pill"? Who should control access to the personal information that is generated by such pills? What action should be taken based on the information that is collected by such pills? Should your employer be warned that you have not slept in 2 days? Should a psychiatrist or case manager come to our home if we have not swallowed prescribed medicine in a timely fashion? Should family members receive a notice if the microchip says that we have not been sleeping enough? Should our doctor or nurse adjust dosages of medication based on biometric information received from these "smart pills"?
One of the reasons I created CommonGround was to begin to carve out a vision for the just use of technology to support recovery and informed medical decision making. I am proud of the work my team has done to create a web application that supports informed choice, recovery and shared decision making. I am proud to say that over 10,000 people in public sector mental health systems in the U.S. are using CommonGround. Personal Medicine, Power Statements, Decision Support and Shared Decision Making: These are the cornerstones of the CommonGround web application. CommonGround paints a vision about how health information technologies can be emancipatory and used to enhance self-determination for those of us who are devalued by our society. There is no doubt that health IT can be used for good. But so much more work needs to be done.
I urge consumer/survivors and our allies to join with me in the development of health and wellness technologies that reflect the values of recovery, choice and person centered care. If we don't do it, I am convinced that nobody will. I urge medical ethicists to partner with consumer/survivors to develop models for the just use of information technologies. I urge consumer/survivors to spread this post to friends and allies. I invite each one of you to respond with your ideas of what our communities should do to address the promise and the peril of modern health information technologies. Thanks and I look forward to hearing from you

http://patdeegan.com
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Sunday, January 22, 2012

The house that hemp built...

Drew Peterson's House
Image by Michael Kappel via Flickr


Drew and Jaime Rokeby-Thomas had the property, builder, designer and finances lined up for construction of their straw-bale home on B.C.'s Saltspring Island.
They had everything they needed -- except straw.
Construction on the 1,760-square-foot house was to start in 2003, the same year Alberta's drought made headlines across the country. The couple found that Alberta farmers, unable to grow their own bedding for their livestock, had gone shopping in B.C. That meant regular straw-bale sources were sold out.
"We started calling family and friends in the Kootenays looking everywhere and anywhere for straw," says Drew, an inventor. They never found it, but they did find a rancher with 2,000 hemp bales and snapped them up.
Building an alternative-style house can be a large-scale experiment. Each house built of alternative materials, such as earth and straw, needs to be certified by an engineer to pass building inspection. The last-minute switch made by the Rokeby-Thomases threw new variables into their plans.
"Hemp was much harder to build with," says Drew. The difficulty was due to hemp's tougher fibre, making it harder to cut the bales. "I would never do a hemp house again."
But that minus has been compensated for by a big plus. While straw-bale homes can sometimes run into trouble with moisture when not properly designed, the in-wall moisture reader on the Rokeby-Thomas house showed the hemp dropped its moisture content faster than straw-bale homes.
Everest Reynolds of Elevation Design Studio provided the basic house design. Builder Nick Langford, a building technology and design graduate from B.C. Institute of Technology, worked with the couple to fashion the two-level low-energy home. Timber-frame construction bears the load of the house, while the hemp bale walls on the main floor provide an insulating value of R30. Large windows run along the south side of the house, helping it to gain solar heat throughout the day.
The house is well-sealed, not only against the climate, but also against sound. Jaime is a professional musician whose stage name is jaime rt. Her music studio occupies the north side of the house. There, the walls were built with double-offset studs and gasketed doors so that Jaime's creative output wouldn't resonate through the house and neighbourhood.
The exterior stucco is a porous mixture of sand, cement and lime -- porosity is a traditional element of natural homes, which are said to "breathe," but here Drew drew the proverbial line in the sand, or, in this case, in the stucco.
"Vapour barriers are controversial in natural-building circles," explains Drew. "But after some research, I decided I wanted a vapour barrier. We're living in a fairly wet climate."
The interior stucco was mixed with an acrylic filler that seals the interior wall. As added protection, the house features metre-deep eaves and a large covered porch.
Jaime and Drew favour the rustic look, so they eliminated the finishing polish on their acid-etched cement floors to preserve an uneven texture that resembles the circular marks of old milled wood. The cabinetry is simple, with open cupboards in a batten-board style. Open, pull-out shelves accommodate woven baskets.
Local art adorns the home, including some of Drew's wrought-iron work from his blacksmithing days. A botanical weave of iron twists up the staircase, depicting flower petals and seaweed in the same frame.
"I don't pay much attention to the rules when I'm creating something," Drew says of the seabed and garden mix. "I just decide on the form as I go." The artistry extends outside, with garden borders fashioned from bent rebar. A spring-fed pond, rose vines and iris gardens surround the house. A bohemian atmosphere pervades the home in stained-glass frames, felt tapestries and vivid wall colourings in contrasting purple and yellow tones.
"A lot of people are tired by the time they're finished building, and they end up with beige or white walls," says Drew. "I told Jaime to go wild, be daring."
Looking at the brilliant walls in his wife's studio, Drew laughs and says, "Perhaps I shouldn't have said that."

Acknowledgements and thanks: © (c) CanWest MediaWorks Publications Inc.



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