XIAM007

Making Unique Observations in a Very Cluttered World

Tuesday 9 July 2013

Mexico Obesity Rate Surpasses The United States', Making It Fattest Country In The Americas -


Mexico Obesity Rate Surpasses The United States', Making It Fattest Country In The Americas - 



Mexico has overtaken the United States as the fattest country on this half of the globe, CBS News reports.

With a 32.8 percent adult obesity rate, Mexico just inches past the 31.8 percent obesity rate in the United States, according to a study released last month by the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization.

That makes Mexico the most obese country in the hemisphere and one of the fattest countries on the planet. According to the FAO’s data, which dates from 2008, several Pacific Island countries and territories have even higher obesity rates. Nauru (71.1 percent), the Cook Islands (64.1 percent) and the Marshall Islands (46.5 percent) all boast obesity rates well above those found in either Mexico or the United States.

The problems caused by obesity are causing a public health crisis in Mexico, with children growing fatter and adults increasingly dying from heart disease and diabetes.

For Mexico, there’s something of a silver lining to the terrible news that its people have surpassed Americans as the most obese in the hemisphere. That feat is made possible by the sedentary lifestyle afforded to an increasingly wealthy, urban population.

But on balance, it’s basically just bad news. Less manual labor and more convenience aren’t the only things that keep Mexico plodding along the path toward obesity -- it's also terrible eating habits, paradoxically fostered in part by low incomes.

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House Democrats have proposed legislation that would establish a national historical park on the surface of the moon -


House Democrats have proposed legislation that would establish a national historical park on the surface of the moon - 



Two House Democrats have proposed legislation that would establish a national historical park on the surface of the moon to mark where the Apollo missions landed between 1969 and 1972.

The bill from Reps. Donna Edwards (D-Md.) and Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Texas) would create the Apollo Lunar Landing Sites National Historical Park. The park would be comprised of all artifacts left on the surface of the moon from the Apollo 11 through 17 missions.
The bill says these sites need to be protected because of the anticipated increase in commercial moon landings in the future.

"As commercial enterprises and foreign nations acquire the ability to land on the Moon, it is necessary to protect the Apollo lunar landing sites for posterity," according to the text of the Apollo Lunar Landing Legacy Act, H.R. 2617.

Under the legislation, the park would be established no later than one year after the bill passes and would be run jointly by the Department of the Interior and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

The measure would allow the government to accept donations from companies and foreign governments to help manage the landing sites and "provide visitor services and administrative facilities within reasonable proximity to the Historical Park."

After one year, Interior and NASA would have to reach an agreement on how to manage the site, including how to monitor it, managing access to the sites and cataloguing the items in the park.

The government would also have to submit the Apollo 11 lunar landing site to the United Nations for designation as a World Heritage site.
Both Edwards and Bernice Johnson are members of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee. Bernice Johnson is the panel's ranking member.
Edwards, the ranking member on the House Space Subcommittee, also proposed legislation on Monday to reauthorize NASA for three years. That bill, H.R. 2616, authorizes spending of $18.1 billion in 2014 for NASA, which rises to $18.9 billion in 2016.

Aside from boosting NASA's budget, the bill also sets as a goal a human mission to Mars and maintains a commitment to funding International Space Station operations through 2020.


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Revolutionary blood test that could predict how long you'll live, what ailments you'll get - and how fast you'll age -


Revolutionary blood test that could predict how long you'll live, what ailments you'll get - and how fast you'll age - 



A revolutionary new blood test could tell you how long you will live, and how quickly you will age.
Scientists have discovered a chemical ‘fingerprint’ in the blood that may provide clues to an infant's health and rate of ageing near the end of life.
The discovery raises the prospect of a simple test at birth that could help doctors stave off the ravages of disease in old age.

It could lead to the development of powerful new treatments for age related conditions such as bone problems and heart disease.
Scientists identified 22 metabolites, small molecules linked to metabolism, that may be useful indicators of how we can expect to grow old.
One in particular, linked to a range of traits including lung function, bone density, blood pressure and cholesterol levels, was singled out by the researchers.

It is also strongly associated with birth weight - itself a known determinant of healthy ageing.
Levels of this metabolite, C-glyTrp, could reflect accelerated ageing in later adulthood, the scientists believe.
Higher levels of the molecule were associated with lower weight at birth in comparisons between pairs of identical twins.

Since identical twins share the same genes, this suggests that levels of the metabolite are altered by nutrition or different conditions in the womb.
Study leader Professor Tim Spector, from King's College London, said: ‘Scientists have known for a long time that a person's weight at the time of birth is an important determinant of health in middle and old age, and that people with low birth weight are more susceptible to age related diseases.
‘So far the molecular mechanisms that link low birth weight to health or disease in old age had remained elusive, but this discovery has revealed one of the molecular pathways involved.’
Professor Spector's team analysed blood samples donated by more than 6,000 twins.

Scientists found 22 metabolites, small molecules linked to metabolism, that may be indicators of how we will age. Some are strongly linked to birth weight suggesting this can be an important factor in health later in life
The researchers identified 22 metabolites directly linked to chronological age, with higher concentrations in older than in younger people.
Further work showed that the gene influencing levels of C-glyTrp could be modified by epigenetics, a process whereby environmental factors switch genes on or off and alter their activity.
The epigenetic changes may influence metabolism during a person's lifetime, thereby affecting susceptibility to age-related diseases.


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Psilocybin Mushrooms Promote Growth of New Brain Cells, Can Even Cure PTSD And Depression -


Psilocybin Mushrooms Promote Growth of New Brain Cells, Can Even Cure PTSD And Depression - 



New studies show that psilocybin removes the trauma and fear from memories in the minds of mice, and even stimulates the growth of a significant amount of new brain cells.

Studies from The University of South Florida indicate that psilocin (or psilocybin, which metabolizes into psilocin), found in “shrooms”, triggers new brain cell growth, and erases frightening memories from mice. Mice trained to fear electric shock when hearing a noise associated with the shock, stopped reacting in fear to the noise when given a small dose of psilocybin, much more quickly, in contrast to mice given no psilocybin. “They simply lost their fear”, exclaimed the co-author of the study, Dr. Juan Sanchez-Ramos, a professor of movement disorders.  

Much more research could be done by ordinary people and professors alike, if the US government and other too powerful governments weren’t at war with their own citizens over drugs. Psilocybin mushrooms, or “shrooms” of course, are illegal in the United States, and illegal in other countries simply because the US and western powers bullied them into compliance or persuaded them by some means we don’t know of. Psilocybin mushrooms are a genus of mushroom, called “psilocybe”. Such mushrooms that fall into this genus are Psilocybe Cubensis, or Psilocybe Bispora.

People are eager to look into the idea of using Psilocybin Mushrooms to cure PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder), chronic depression, and a wide range of other mental and physical ailments, so we will just have to get government off our backs to do so. These mushrooms are harmless, cannot cause overdose, cannot cause death (unless you become frightened and hurt yourself on accident, but that is extremely rare and potentially unheard of, and is the case for almost any psychoactive substance).

Despite its harmlessness, amazing medical potential, and ability to produce phenomenal spiritual/mystical experiences, the gangs of government have nearly all banned Psilocybin Mushrooms. Therefore, for our prosperity, we must peacefully resist unjust laws like this, and use miracle products of the earth such as cannabis and psilocybin mushrooms regardless, until the laws are deemed as ridiculous as they are, and no longer enforced.

To further illustrate these studies, they showed that mice treated with low doses of psilocybin had significant growth of new brain cells, because psilocin binds to a brain receptor that stimulates new brain cell growth, and short term memory formation. When the people regularly participate in civil disobedience and do what they will as long as it hurts nobody, without the tyrannical permission of the federal government, when we disobey those laws that inhibit us, then we can find out if we can use psilocybin to replace Prozac , the mass murder pill used to treat depression that pollutes our water and causes fish to unusually murder other fish.

The science behind psilocybin treating depression is, depressed individuals typically have over active medial prefrontal cortex regions of the brain, and psilocybin eases this, and makes the brain function normally here. Psilocybin, and Psilocybin mushrooms, promote emotional stability and well being, can induce profound spiritual experiences, have been used for thousands of years medicinally, and it is now completely proven that they are beneficial and harmless.

This can more than likely be finally an effective, non dangerous or pharmaceutical treatment for PTSD too, because it curbs the brain’s traumatic association with the images, sounds, and sensory memories from a traumatic experience. “Shrooms” promote health and normal brain function, despite that being the exact opposite of what mainstream news and culture has fed you for years, because of the criminal government we are forced to put up with. Not to mention, Psilocybin is extremely chemically close to the neurotransmitters found in our brains, like serotonin.

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Aussie spends $40,000 to push 'new letter of the Alphabet'... -


Aussie spends $40,000 to push 'new letter of the Alphabet'... - 



WOULDN'T it be easier if the word "the" was just simply a letter?

Well at least one person seems to think so.

Aussie restaurateur, Paul Mathis has invented a new letter of the alphabet to replace the word "the" because he thinks it is more efficient.

The letter looks like the Cyrillic letter 'Ћ'. If an upper case T and a lower case h were to have a typographic baby, this is what it would look like.

Mathis has invested $38,000 into developing the symbol which he would like to see added as a 27th letter of the alphabet.

"The word 'and' is only the fifth-most used word in English and it has its own symbol - the ampersand," Mathis told The Age. "Isn't it time we accorded the same respect to 'the'?"

And if you think that's crazy talk, it wouldn't actually be the first time the English alphabet had more than 26 letters.

The ampisand, short for "and" used to be an actual letter which came after the letter Z in the alphabet.

The symbol is a combination of the letters "et", which is Latin for "and".

People would distinguish the letter from the word and by putting the words "per se" in front of it.

For example, if you were reciting the alphabet you would end with "w, x, y, z and per se and".

Redundant? Yes. Confusing? Definitely. Which is why the term "ampersand" was often used to replace it.

Mathis says his new symbol will help "in the texting space" such as Twitter or texts.

But first he'll have to convince mobile phone developers and keyboard manufacturers to add a new key to their devices.

In the meantime you can download the app and get a keyboard with the new letter.

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British researchers have devised a test that can detect bladder cancer from certain odors in the urine -


British researchers have devised a test that can detect bladder cancer from certain odors in the urine - 



British researchers said Monday they have devised a test that can detect bladder cancer from certain odors in the urine.

The technique was inspired by reports about how dogs may be able to sniff out certain cancers, said researchers from the University of Liverpool and University of the West of England.

If wider studies can confirm the test's effectiveness, the technique could offer a new way to test early for a cancer that is often costly to detect and treat.

"It is thought that dogs can smell cancer, but this is obviously not a practical way for hospitals to diagnose the disease," said Norman Ratcliffe, from the Institute of Biosensor Technology at UWE Bristol.

"Taking this principle, however, we have developed a device that can give us a profile of the odor in urine. It reads the gases that chemicals in the urine can give off when the sample is heated."

About 72,000 new cases of bladder cancer are diagnosed each year in the United States, and about 10,000 new cases are seen annually in Britain. Smoking is considered the leading risk factor.

"It is a disease that, if caught early, can be treated effectively, but unfortunately we do not have any early screening methods other than diagnosis through urine tests at the stage when it starts to become a problem," said Chris Probert, a professor at the University of Liverpool's Institute of Translational Medicine.

The new device, called ODOREADER, contains a sensor that responds to chemicals in gas emitted from urine, said the study in the US scientific journal PLoS ONE.

It analyzes the gas and reports on the chemicals contained in urine, which scientists can then read on a computer screen in order to diagnose cancer of the bladder.

"We looked at 98 samples of urine to develop the device, and tested it on 24 patient samples known to have cancer and 74 samples that have urological symptoms, but no cancer," said Probert.

"The device correctly assigned 100 percent of cancer patients."

The next step is to expand trials to a wider sample of patients to determine whether it is effective or not for hospital use, the study said.

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Dogs Are Target Audience for New TV Channel... -


Dogs Are Target Audience for New TV Channel... - 



Release the hounds: DogTV — touted as the first TV network aimed at man’s best friend — is a real 24-hour channel that will be unleashed on DirecTV starting Aug. 1.

For the first two weeks of August, DogTV will be available for free to any DirecTV subscriber. Pooch owners who register to subscribe before Aug. 10 will receive 30 days free through mid-September, after which the channel will be $4.99 per month. In addition, those signing up for the early-dog special will receive a PetHub dog ID tag and $10 coupon codes for PetBest.com and Dog Is Good.

According to PTV Media, the company behind DogTV, it spent more than four years developing and testing a 24-hour TV channel aimed at pups of all breeds.

Until now DogTV has been available only in San Diego, launched last year with Cox Communications and Time Warner Cable, as well as online and through Roku Internet set-tops for $9.99 per month.

What, exactly, is on the network? Forget human-oriented fare like “Old Yeller” or “Lassie”: DogTV’s programming comprises 3- to 6-minute video clips in three categories: relaxation, stimulation and “exposure,” which centers on segments designed to habituate dogs to domestic stimuli (like riding in a car with a toddler).

“The dog-approved programming content was created to entertain, relax and stimulate stay-at-home dogs, so owners don’t come home to ripped-up couches, shredded magazines or a favorite pair of heels chewed to bits,” the company says.

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