Random News Stories of Note

[Dogen]

To be more specific, since my last post was kind of vague, being able to model the human brain will allow researchers to say, "Okay, so according to the model we should find a gene on chromosome N that has affect X," and then focus human research on that area, cutting out a lot of time and money and risk to human subjects. Which will in turn validate and refine the model, making future uses of it more accurate.

The main problem isn't really how we do research, it's just that the human brain is the most complex thing we've ever studied in medicine, and will require huge amounts of time, effort, and money to really understand in the way we understand things like the heart (which, for the record, we still don't understand in its entirety... if you could answer the question, "why do some people go into atrial fibrillation?" you would have yourself a Nobel prize).
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"Worse comes to worst, my people come first, but my tribe lives on every country on earth. I’ll do anything to protect them from hurt, the human race is what I serve." - Baba Brinkman

[Dogen]

... and understanding the brain will open up whole new types of medicine in other areas... for instance neurogenic syncope.
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"Worse comes to worst, my people come first, but my tribe lives on every country on earth. I’ll do anything to protect them from hurt, the human race is what I serve." - Baba Brinkman

[eureka00]

Last month, the ATF did a raid on several local smoke shop/convenience stores to make sure they weren't selling certain items. What they ended up discovering was that these stores were illegally buying/selling Illinois LINK cards (food stamps). The police have thus far arrested 11 people as a result of this for food stamp fraud. The offending shops were closed down, as well.

The game with the card is that people sell their LINK card at below face value for cash which they can use to buy whatever they want.
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Eureka00: "Reminding you of your addictions" since 1982.

[WheelsOfConfusion]

I'm going to hazard a cynical guess that a lot of "whatever they want" consist of street drugs.

[Felgraf]

[eureka00]

[Dogen]

[Him]

Far-Right Extremists Chased Through London by Women Dressed as Badgers

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A cigarette is the perfect type of a perfect pleasure. It is exquisite, and it leaves one unsatisfied. What more can one want? ~Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

[Heretical Rants]

[Him]

[Him]

[Gawzz]

Hello, everyone. It has been a long time.

Just came back to discuss an important issue that every American should be discussing: Should we allow our military to use depleted uranium to fight terrorism?

Given the obvious health hazards it brings to our own troops, and innocent civilians, my opinion on the matter is simply, 'hell no and what the flying fuck?". Lets take a look at this video provided by a reliable, independent news source.

Considering the number of mutations, birth defects, and the fact that there are new mutations that no one has ever seen before, what should be done? Are we just going to sit around until it gets worse? Why hasn't Fox, MSNBC, CNN, or any other corporate news outlet in America touched on this?

Sure, you can argue on some of the numbers like that 14 times higher mutations compared to the bombings we did in Japan back in WW2...but the fundamental morality on this is just vacant. These kinds of actions are what tyrants do. What a chilling point in human society, huh?
Anyway, good luck to you sexy peoples.

[Dogen]

Throw us a bone here... give us a link to a primary source for this information.
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"Worse comes to worst, my people come first, but my tribe lives on every country on earth. I’ll do anything to protect them from hurt, the human race is what I serve." - Baba Brinkman

[fritterdonut]

Depleted uranium is depleted - the radioactivity given off by it is negligible. It's so depleted in fact, that it is used to create containers to carry radioactive substances, because it's extreme density (60% greater than lead) easily blocks Alpha and Beta radiation, as well as greatly impeding Gamma radiation, or blocking it altogether.

Depleted uranium is poisonous however, although so is lead, so that's pretty much a moot point.

There's this big wonderful "Neutrality" tag over the Gulf War Syndrome section of the Depleted Uranium wiki entry, because there hasn't been research that conclusively links DU to causing genetic mutations. There are studies that show that Gulf War veterans are more likely to have children with genetic mutations, and some people say that's because of increased DU munition usage. However, any Stat student will tell you correlation does not equal causation.

If I were you, I'd be more worried about the after effects of the military's microwave compliance weapon:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Denial_System

Microwave all the p̶o̶t̶a̶t̶o̶e̶s̶ people!
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The Thirties dreamed white marble and slipstream chrome, immortal crystal and burnished bronze, but the rockets on the covers of the Gernsback pulps had fallen on London in the dead of night, screaming. - William Gibson, The Gernsback Continuum

[Gawzz]