Facebook App Lets You Add Enemies Online

<p> </p><p>Forget friending. A new Facebook app allows users of the social network to identify and share people, places and things as “enemies” for all to see. The app, called EnemyGraph, lets you list anything with a Facebook presence — ranging from “friends,” to foods, to products, movies or books — as an enemy. Since the app launched March 15, it’s seemed to appeal especially to users with a liberal bent. Some of its most-selected nemeses so far include Rick Santorum, Westboro Baptist Church and Fox News. The app was developed by a professor and two students at the University of Texas at Dallas. Dean Terry, who directs the school’s emerging media program, helped conceptualize the project, while graduate student Bradley Griffith and undergraduate Harrison Massey built the app. Griffith said EnemyGraph has so far accumulated some 400 users. But more importantly, its creators say, press coverage has helped meet the team’s goal of sparking a larger conversation about the nature of social media and Facebook in particular. “One thing that has always struck me is the enforced niceness culture,” Terry told Mashable. “We wanted to give people a chance to express dissonance as well. We’re using the word enemy about as accurately as Facebook uses the word friend.” But the app has utility beyond simply sparking a philosophical debate, Terry adds. Researchers and marketers have long gathered information on social media users based on what they support, but at the expense of possibly overlooking another valuable data source. “You can actually learn a lot about people by what they’re upset about and what they don’t like,” Terry says. “And the second thing is that if you and I both don’t like something, that actually creates a social bond that hasn’t been explored in social media at all, except with Kony and some big examples like that.” Terry and Griffith teamed up last year to create Undetweetable, a service allowing Twitter users’ deleted tweets to be uncovered posthumously. That project gained some attention as well but Twitter quickly forced it to shut down. Terry wouldn’t be surprised if EnemyGraph meets a similar fate from Facebook. “My guess is it goes against their social philosophy and purpose,” he says. “It is a critique of their social philosophy for sure.” Do you like the EnemyGraph idea? Let us know in the comments.</p>

Facebook App Lets You Add Enemies Online

  Forget friending. A new Facebook app allows users of the social network to identify and share people, places and things as “enemies” for a...

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socially disruptive narcissists More Facebook Friends You Have, the More Unhappy You Are

<p> </p><p>A  study has discovered a direct link between the number of friends you have on Facebook and how much of a “socially disruptive narcissist” you are—giving us one more reason to tone down our Facebook addictions. Researchers at Western Illinois studied 294 college students and found that those with more friends on Facebook tended to score higher on the Narcissistic Personality Inventory questionnaire. They tended to respond more aggressively to comments, change their profile pictures more often, and updated their news feeds more regularly than others. This may not be all that surprising, but it does provide a bit of motivation to re-evaluate what Facebook does for you, if you fit into one of these categories (and if not, at least you can stop feeling bad about not having very many Facebook friends—it’s probably a good thing). None of this is to say Facebook is inherently bad, of course. It’s still a great way to keep in touch with family and friends, especially after you’ve fixed all of its annoyances—you might just want to dial back on all the photo tagging. While you’re at it, you can also move some of those friends to your Acquaintances list using Facebook’s new tool, which will hide them from your news feed more often.</p>

socially disruptive narcissists More Facebook Friends You Have, the More Unhappy You Are

  A  study has discovered a direct link between the number of friends you have on Facebook and how much of a “socially disruptive narcissist...

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Brain "rewrites" monotonous speech of boring people

<p> </p><p>Research has shown that people listening to dreary discussions cope by creating an “inner voice” to drown out the offending speech. The study revealed the response is triggered the moment the brain hears “monotonously-spoken” words it feels should be more expressive. The resulting increased brain activity points to the existence of an inner voice which creates “more vivid speech” as a replacement. Dr Bo Yao, the principal author of the research, said: “You may think the brain need not produce its own speech while listening to one that is already available. But, apparently, the brain is very picky on the speech it hears. “When the brain hears monotonously-spoken direct speech quotations which it expects to be more vivid, the brain simply 'talks over' the speech it hears with more vivid speech utterances of its own.</p>

Brain "rewrites" monotonous speech of boring people

  Research has shown that people listening to dreary discussions cope by creating an “inner voice” to drown out the offending speech. The st...

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Painkiller warning as pack contains higher dose than label says

<p><br />39,000 packs of co-codamol, which contains both paracetamol and codeine, contain higher dose tablets than is stated on the label, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency said. Some of the 8mg/500mg packs actually contain 30mg/500mg tablets in the blister strips inside. The two can be told apart by markings on the side of the tablets. The 8mg/500mg tablet has the marking</p><p>on one side only. The 30mg/500mg tablet has CCD30 on one side and CP on the other. An overdose of co-codamol is serious and patients should not take more than one or two tablets every four to six hours and no more than four doses in 24-hours.</p>

Painkiller warning as pack contains higher dose than label says

39,000 packs of co-codamol, which contains both paracetamol and codeine, contain higher dose tablets than is stated on the label, the Medici...

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Brian Regan: Brookside star to cocaine addict

<p> </p><p>Brian Regan found fame playing loveable rogue Terry Sullivan in the Liverpool soap opera Brookside. In the show's 1980s heyday, his character's antics were regularly watched by up to seven million viewers a week. But when Regan left the soap in 1997, his acting career petered out and he plunged into a life of drug dealing and addiction. Now he is behind bars, serving a five-year jail sentence for lying to police over his role in the murder of Iranian doorman Bahman Faraji and selling drugs. Regan's jail sentence can now be reported following the conviction of Jason Gabbana, 29, for ordering Faraji's murder. Details emerged in court of the actor's descent into drugs and supplying members of Liverpool's criminal underworld. During the trial, Regan told Liverpool Crown Court how he started taking cocaine at weekends at the end of his Brookside career. It was through his use of cocaine he became involved with Edward Heffey, convicted of murdering Mr Faraji with a sawn-off shotgun in a quiet Liverpool street. Simon O'Brien, who played Damon Grant in Brookside, said Regan's involvement with drugs was a "slow burn". Snorting cocaine "It is a very difficult place when you're acting, particularly on something as high-profile as a soap, because fame and infamy attract each other," he said. "Actors and gangsters, for some reason, almost get off on each other. It's a really strange mutual attraction because I think the hard man gives the actor a kind of security out in public and the actor gives the gangster kudos. "The two worlds often get intertwined and when that happens, inevitably drugs become involved. So it was kind of a slow thing from what I remember, it was a slow burn." Regan was charged with Mr Faraji's murder and was cleared - but he was convicted of giving a false alibi to police about where he was on the night in February 2011. Actor and presenter Simon O'Brien said actors and gangsters get off on each other" During the trial, he told Liverpool Crown Court he supplied Heffey with cocaine "about three or four times a day". When Heffey asked him for a lift on the night of the killing, he said he thought he was taking him to collect a debt so he could pay for the drugs. In fact, once they arrived in Aigburth in Regan's Ford Escort, Heffey got out, walked round the corner and shot Mr Faraji in the face with a sawn-off shotgun. Regan told the court he knew nothing about the incident - because he was waiting in the car, snorting a line of cocaine. He said he then "drove away normally" from the scene and took Heffey home. Regan was cleared of murder at his trial which ended in January. 'Lose control' However, when he was first interviewed by police he lied about driving Heffey to the pub, but CCTV evidence put him at the scene and he was found guilty of perverting the course of justice. Mr O'Brien, 46, who was friends with Regan in their Brookside days, said getting involved in drugs was a tragedy that is "not uncommon" in the entertainment industry. "Brian is just one example of what happens when you're in the limelight and everything is flying and you lose control," he said. "You feel you're invincible when you're at the top of the game and you're not. "Sadly, if anyone wants to know what happens if you get involved in taking cocaine, this is an example of someone who was at the top of the tree and because of cocaine, he ends up behind bars."</p>

Brian Regan: Brookside star to cocaine addict

  Brian Regan found fame playing loveable rogue Terry Sullivan in the Liverpool soap opera Brookside. In the show's 1980s heyday, his c...

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Study Suggests Link Between Narcissism And Facebook

<p><br />There may be a direct link between the number of friends you have on Facebook and just how much of a “socially disruptive” narcissist you are, according to a recent study published in the journal of Personality and Individual Differences. Facebook habits of 294 students between the age of 18 and 65 were studied by researchers at Western Illinois University. They also measured two of what they describe as  ”socially disruptive” elements of narcissism- grandiose exhibitionism (GE- having to be at the center of attention), and entitlement/exploitativeness (EE-  having a sense of self entitlement/deserving of respect) of the students. The study found that those who scored highly on the Narcissistic Personality Inventory questionnaire changed their profile pictures more often, responded more aggressively to negative comment about them on their Facebook walls, tagged themselves more often, and updated their news feeds more regularly. Carol Craig, a social scientist and chief executive of the Centre for Confidence and Well-being stated: “Facebook provides a platform for people to self-promote by changing profile pictures and showing how many hundreds of friends you have. I know of some who have more than 1,000.” According to the Guardian, Christopher Carpenter, who ran the study, said: “If Facebook is to be a place where people go to repair their damaged ego and seek social support, it is vitally important to discover the potentially negative communication one might find on Facebook and the kinds of people likely to engage in them. Ideally, people will engage in pro-social Facebooking rather than anti-social me-booking.” Are we really narcissistic? Or could it simply be we are just bored? Or maybe just really friendly and outgoing, looking to meet new people? Do you think these researchers are reading just a little too much into it?</p>

Study Suggests Link Between Narcissism And Facebook

There may be a direct link between the number of friends you have on Facebook and just how much of a “socially disruptive” narcissist you ar...

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A Nation 'Addicted' To Statins...

<p><p style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969);"><span style="font-size: medium;"><strong><br /></strong></span>Dear Reader,</p><p style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969);">In the UK alone, more than 7 million people are taking cholesterol-lowering statins. This is extremely worrying when you consider the damage these over-prescribed drugs can inflict, with side effects ranging from liver dysfunction and acute renal failure to fatigue and extreme muscle weakness (myopathy).</p><p style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969);">Slowly tearing us apart</p><p style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969);">Even more concerning are the side effects that crop up after long-term use, which are often not linked to statins. For example, one study monitored the symptoms of 40 asthma patients for a year. 20 of these patients started statins at the outset of the study, while the remaining 20 did not.</p><p style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969);">The results showed that those patients on statins used their rescue inhaler medications 72 per cent more often than they had at the start of the study, compared to a 9 per cent increase in those who were not taking statins. The researchers also reported that patients taking statins had to get up more frequently at night because of their asthma and also had worse symptoms during the day...</p><p style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969);">Worsening asthma symptoms is just the beginning. More recent research has linked statins with an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes, depression, Alzheimer's disease and dementia.</p><p style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969);">Still, doctors are very quick to reach for their prescription pads and push these drugs. There appears to be an unofficial (but widely practiced) 'statins for all' approach... especially if you are aged 50 and over.</p><p style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969);">Luckily, some mainstreamers are slowly catching on to what we've been saying for nearly a decade. In 2011, research published in the Archives of Internal Medicine drew attention to the fact that there is inadequate medical data available that proves the benefits of statins, and that many studies fail to acknowledge the most commonly reported adverse effects of statins.</p><p style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969);">The fact remains (and your doctor may still deny this) that in total, statins cause serious damage in about 4.4 per cent of those taking them, in comparison to the 2.7 per cent statin users benefiting from them... and it looks as if this message is finally getting through to medical authorities.</p><p style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969);">A case in point is simvastatin or Zocor. After being on the market for almost 3 decades and causing havoc and distress with its horrendous side effects, the American Food and Drug Administration (FDA) finally issued a warning about the use of this drug... saying that even the approved dosage can harm or even kill you!</p><p style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969);">Yep! Kill you!</p><p style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969);">All well and good</p><p style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969);">It's all fair and well and good that the FDA flagged this warning, but what's the point if doctors continue to prescribe these drugs left, right and centre?</p><p style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969);">Professor Sarah Harper, director of Oxford University's institute of population ageing, recently said that the UK's "love affair" with prescription medicine, shows how people choose to pop pills rather than follow a healthy lifestyle.</p><p style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969);">She cited the widespread use of statin drugs to 'help' protect against heart disease and lower cholesterol, instead of eating healthily, quitting smoking, reducing alcohol intake and taking regular exercise.</p><p style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969);">By all means, I applaud Prof Harper for pushing the message that living a healthy life plays a big part in preventing disease, but why blame patients for being a bunch of pill poppers when doctors hand out drugs with reckless abandon... and recommend taking preventative drugs to ever younger age groups. So in fact, the white coats should be labelled as Big Pharma's drug pushers, because they're part of the problem... especially considering that so many people put their entire trust in their doctor and would never dream of questioning their advice. Most people take what they say as gospel.</p><p style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969);">Then there's the media, inundating Joe Public with inflammatory headlines like: 'Statins could help fight breast cancer' or 'Statins can prevent infections like pneumonia'... Not to mention their reporting on botch studies showing the 'unintended benefits' of statins, like their potential to prevent pneumonia, combat diabetes, reduce the risk of oesophageal cancer, breast cancer and prostate cancer — all of these so-called benefits are of course not yet proven, and highly unlikely. Still, they reach the front pages!</p><p style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969);">So, yes we might have turned into a pill popping public, but it's the mainstream and the media that have created this monster all with the help and backing of the puppet master: Big Pharma. Because as you and I know all too well, it's all about the money. </p></p>

A Nation 'Addicted' To Statins...

Dear Reader, In the UK alone, more than 7 million people are taking cholesterol-lowering statins. This is extremely worrying when you consid...

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Children whose minds wander 'have sharper brains'

<p> </p><p>A study has found that people who appear to be constantly distracted have more “working memory”, giving them the ability to hold a lot of information in their heads and manipulate it mentally. Children at school need this type of memory on a daily basis for a variety of tasks, such as following teachers’ instructions or remembering dictated sentences. During the study, volunteers were asked to perform one of two simple tasks during which researchers checked to ask if the participants’ minds were wandering. At the end, participants measured their working memory capacity by their ability to remember a series of letters interspersed with simple maths questions. Daniel Levinson, a psychologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the United States, said that those with higher working memory capacity reported “more mind wandering during these simple tasks”, but their performance did not suffer. The results, published online in the journal Psychological Science, appear to confirm previous research that found working memory allows humans to juggle multiple thoughts simultaneously. Dr Jonathan Smallwood, of the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Science in Leipzig, Germany, said: “What this study seems to suggest is that, when circumstances for the task aren’t very difficult, people who have additional working memory resources deploy them to think about things other than what they’re doing.” Working memory capacity is also associated with general measures of intelligence, such as reading comprehension and IQ scores, and also offers a window into the widespread, but not well understood, realm of internally driven thoughts. Dr Smallwood added: “Our results suggest the sorts of planning that people do quite often in daily life — when they are on the bus, when they are cycling to work, when they are in the shower — are probably supported by working memory. “Their brains are trying to allocate resources to the most pressing problems.”</p>

Children whose minds wander 'have sharper brains'

  A study has found that people who appear to be constantly distracted have more “working memory”, giving them the ability to hold a lot of ...

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Facebook's 'dark side': study finds link to socially aggressive narcissism

<p> </p><p>Researchers have established a direct link between the number of friends you have on Facebook and the degree to which you are a "socially disruptive" narcissist, confirming the conclusions of many social media sceptics. People who score highly on the Narcissistic Personality Inventory questionnaire had more friends on Facebook, tagged themselves more often and updated their newsfeeds more regularly. The research comes amid increasing evidence that young people are becoming increasingly narcissistic, and obsessed with self-image and shallow friendships. The latest study, published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences, also found that narcissists responded more aggressively to derogatory comments made about them on the social networking site's public walls and changed their profile pictures more often. A number of previous studies have linked narcissism with Facebook use, but this is some of the first evidence of a direct relationship between Facebook friends and the most "toxic" elements of narcissistic personality disorder. Researchers at Western Illinois University studied the Facebook habits of 294 students, aged between 18 and 65, and measured two "socially disruptive" elements of narcissism – grandiose exhibitionism (GE) and entitlement/exploitativeness (EE). GE includes ''self-absorption, vanity, superiority, and exhibitionistic tendencies" and people who score high on this aspect of narcissism need to be constantly at the centre of attention. They often say shocking things and inappropriately self-disclose because they cannot stand to be ignored or waste a chance of self-promotion. The EE aspect includes "a sense of deserving respect and a willingness to manipulate and take advantage of others". The research revealed that the higher someone scored on aspects of GE, the greater the number of friends they had on Facebook, with some amassing more than 800. Those scoring highly on EE and GG were also more likely to accept friend requests from strangers and seek social support, but less likely to provide it, according to the research. Carol Craig, a social scientist and chief executive of the Centre for Confidence and Well-being, said young people in Britain were becoming increasingly narcissistic and Facebook provided a platform for the disorder. "The way that children are being educated is focussing more and more on the importance of self esteem – on how you are seen in the eyes of others. This method of teaching has been imported from the US and is 'all about me'. "Facebook provides a platform for people to self-promote by changing profile pictures and showing how many hundreds of friends you have. I know of some who have more than 1,000." Dr Viv Vignoles, senior lecturer in social psychology at Sussex University, said there was "clear evidence" from studies in America that college students were becoming increasingly narcissistic. But he added: "Whether the same is true of non-college students or of young people in other countries, such as the UK, remains an open question, as far as I know. "Without understanding the causes underlying the historical change in US college students, we do not know whether these causes are factors that are relatively specific to American culture, such as the political focus on increasing self-esteem in the late 80s and early 90s or whether they are factors that are more general, for example new technologies such as mobile phones and Facebook." Vignoles said the correlational nature of the latest study meant it was difficult to be certain whether individual differences in narcissism led to certain patterns of Facebook behaviour, whether patterns of Facebook behaviour led to individual differences in narcissism, or a bit of both. Christopher Carpenter, who ran the study, said: "In general, the 'dark side' of Facebook requires more research in order to better understand Facebook's socially beneficial and harmful aspects in order to enhance the former and curtail the latter. "If Facebook is to be a place where people go to repair their damaged ego and seek social support, it is vitally important to discover the potentially negative communication one might find on Facebook and the kinds of people likely to engage in them. Ideally, people will engage in pro-social Facebooking rather than anti-social me-booking."</p>

Facebook's 'dark side': study finds link to socially aggressive narcissism

  Researchers have established a direct link between the number of friends you have on Facebook and the degree to which you are a "soci...

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It's Not Dementia, It's Your Heart Medication: Cholesterol Drugs and Memory

<p> </p><p>One day in 1999 Duane Graveline, then a 68-year-old former NASA astronaut, returned home from his morning walk in Merritt Island, Fla., and could not remember where he was. His wife stepped outside, and he greeted her as a stranger. When Graveline’s memory returned some six hours later in the hospital, he racked his brain to figure out what might have caused this terrifying bout of amnesia. Only one thing came to mind: he had recently started taking the statin drug Lipitor. Cholesterol-lowering statins such as Lipitor, Crestor and Zocor are the most widely prescribed medications in the world, and they are credited with saving the lives of many heart disease patients. But recently a small number of users have voiced concerns that the drugs elicit unexpected cognitive side effects, such as memory loss, fuzzy thinking and learning difficulties. Hundreds of people have registered complaints with MedWatch, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s adverse drug reaction database, but few studies have been done and the results are inconclusive. Nevertheless, many experts are starting to believe that a small percentage of the population is at risk, and they are calling for increased public awareness of the possible cognitive side effects of statins—symptoms that may be misdiagnosed as dementia in the aging patients who take them. Fat and the Brain It is not crazy to connect cholesterol-modifying drugs with cognition; after all, one quarter of the body’s cholesterol is found in the brain. Cholesterol is a waxy substance that, among other things, provides structure to the body’s cell membranes. High levels of cholesterol in the blood create a risk for heart disease, because the molecules that transport cholesterol can damage arteries and cause blockages. In the brain, however, cholesterol plays a crucial role in the formation of neuronal connections—the vital links that underlie memory and learning. Quick thinking and rapid reaction times depend on cholesterol, too, because the waxy molecules are the building blocks of the sheaths that insulate neurons and speed up electrical transmissions. “We can’t understand how a drug that affects such an important pathway would not have adverse reactions,” says Ralph Edwards, former director of the World Health Organization’s drug-monitoring center in Uppsala, Sweden. Two small trials published in 2000 and 2004 by Matthew Muldoon, a clinical pharmacologist at the University of Pittsburgh, seem to suggest a link between statins and cognitive problems. The first, which enrolled 209 high-cholesterol subjects, reported that participants taking placebo pills improved more on repeated tests of attention and reaction time taken over the course of six months—presumably getting better because of practice, as people typically do. Subjects who were on statins, however, did not show the normal improvement—suggesting their learning was impaired. The second trial reported similar findings. And a study published in 2003 in Reviews of Therapeutics noted that among 60 statin users who had reported memory problems to MedWatch, more than half said their symptoms improved when they stopped taking the drugs. But other studies have found no significant link between statins and memory problems. Larry Sparks, director of the Laboratory for Neurodegenerative Research at the Sun Health Research Institute in Sun City, Ariz., goes so far as to say that “you’ve got a better chance of buying a winning lottery ticket, walking outside and getting hit by lightning and dying” than you do of suffering a cognitive side effect from statins. Vulnerable Genes? Many experts agree that for most people the risk is quite low, but they are beginning to believe the effects are real. “A subset of the population is vulnerable,” argues Joe Graedon, co-founder of the consumer advocacy Web site the People’s Pharmacy, which has collected hundreds of reports of cognitive-related statin side effects in the past decade. Some researchers believe these people have a genetic profile that puts them at risk.</p>

It's Not Dementia, It's Your Heart Medication: Cholesterol Drugs and Memory

  One day in 1999 Duane Graveline, then a 68-year-old former NASA astronaut, returned home from his morning walk in Merritt Island, Fla., an...

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Statin side effects: How common are memory loss, diabetes, and muscle aches?

<p> </p><p>When the US Food and Drug Administration told the makers of cholesterol-lowering statins to add new side effect warnings to their labels last week, many of the 40 million statin users may have been unaware of the extent of the risks associated with these drugs that have been touted by some cardiologists to be safer than aspirin. No question, statins -- which include Lipitor (atorvastatin), Zocor (simvastatin), and Crestor (rosuvastatin) -- are relatively safe drugs, and they’ve saved thousands of lives over the past 20 years, particularly in men with established heart disease. But like any drug they can cause problems in some, including muscle aches, an increased risk of diabetes, and, gaining recent attention, memory loss. University of California-San Diego researcher Beatrice Golomb published a paper two years ago describing 171 statin users who reported that they had developed memory problems and dementia-like symptoms that the statin users attributed to their use of the medications. The vast majority experienced an improvement in their symptoms after stopping the drugs and many saw their symptoms return after going back on statins. Robert Grindell, a state employee from Makinen, Minn., told me his short-term memory began to deteriorate after he started taking Zocor in his early 50s. (He contacted Golomb after hearing about her research.) “My co-workers told me I was coming in to ask them the same question three times in one day,” he said. “I had a CT scan to determine if I had a stroke, but it came back fine; the next day, I couldn’t even remember where I had the test performed.” After learning that Zocor caused memory problems, Grindell decided to go off it and said within a few days he noticed an improvement in his memory, not having to glance down several times at a printed phone number as he dialed it to remember the digits. Unfortunately, the exact incidence of these memory problems isn’t known. Manufacturer-sponsored clinical trials show that they occur in fewer than 1 percent of users, but statin researcher Dr. Paul Thompson, chief of cardiololgy at Hartford Hospital, said the real incidence is probably much higher. He has a study expected to be published sometime this year that measured cognitive effects in statin users compared with those on placebos that he said will provide a better estimate; the findings can’t be disclosed until the study is published. The diabetes risks of statins are more well-established. One review study published last year calculated an extra two cases of type 2 diabetes in every 1,000 patients who took a high-dose statin (80 milligrams per day) compared with those who took a lower dose (20 to 40 milligrams). And one clinical trial found that statin users had about a 25 percent increased risk of developing diabetes over a two-year period compared with those who took placebos. Experts, though, agree that in people at high risk for heart disease, the increased diabetes risk is outweighed by the statin’s protection against heart attacks and deaths from any cause. The danger of muscle destruction from statins -- which can damage the liver and kidneys -- is also clear but slight. According to Thompson, about 1 in every 1,000 statin users will develop severely elevated levels of the enzyme creatine kinase, which indicates muscle death, and only 1 in 10 million die from developing an extremely severe case of the condition called rhabdomyolysis. Muscle aches are far more common: occuring in about 1 in 10 users, according to Thompson. “It seems to be more common in people who do a lot of exercise.” In fact, a study he conducted found that marathon runners taking statins developed a greater increase in creatine kinase right after their race compared with runners who weren’t on statins. “We also see more muscle aches in older people and women since they have less muscle mass,” he said. Lowering the statin dose or switching to a different statin doesn’t always help, Thompson said. “In our studies, those who develop statin myalgia tend to get it again and again; they’re body may get sensitized to statins.” There may also be a genetic component, with statin muscle aches occuring more often in those whose parents also had them. And there may be a link between memory loss and muscle aches. “In our database, the majority of patients who had cognitive problems also had muscle problems,” Golomb said. She recommends that those who are having memory loss or muscle aches speak to their doctor about going off statins -- especially if they’re not in a high-risk group for heart attacks. Those who get the most benefits are men under 65 who’ve already had a heart attack, she said. Women, elderly people, and those without heart disease get much smaller benefits from statins, and it’s unclear whether the drugs extend their lives. “Many patients have told me that their doctor said going off statins would kill them,” Golomb said, “but that’s not an accurate representation of the evidence.”</p>

Statin side effects: How common are memory loss, diabetes, and muscle aches?

  When the US Food and Drug Administration told the makers of cholesterol-lowering statins to add new side effect warnings to their labels l...

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Evidence builds that meditation strengthens the brain

<p><br />Earlier evidence out of UCLA suggested that meditating for years thickens the brain (in a good way) and strengthens the connections between brain cells. Now a further report by UCLA researchers suggests yet another benefit. See Also: Health & Medicine Nervous System Psychology Research Brain Tumor Mind & Brain Neuroscience Intelligence Brain Injury Living Well Reference Thalamus Alpha wave Cerebral contusion Functional neuroimaging Eileen Luders, an assistant professor at the UCLA Laboratory of Neuro Imaging, and colleagues, have found that long-term meditators have larger amounts of gyrification ("folding" of the cortex, which may allow the brain to process information faster) than people who do not meditate. Further, a direct correlation was found between the amount of gyrification and the number of meditation years, possibly providing further proof of the brain's neuroplasticity, or ability to adapt to environmental changes. The article appears in the online edition of the journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. The cerebral cortex is the outermost layer of neural tissue. Among other functions, it plays a key role in memory, attention, thought and consciousness. Gyrification or cortical folding is the process by which the surface of the brain undergoes changes to create narrow furrows and folds called sulci and gyri. Their formation may promote and enhance neural processing. Presumably then, the more folding that occurs, the better the brain is at processing information, making decisions, forming memories and so forth. "Rather than just comparing meditators and non-meditators, we wanted to see if there is a link between the amount of meditation practice and the extent of brain alteration," said Luders. "That is, correlating the number of years of meditation with the degree of folding." Of the 49 recruited subjects, the researchers took MRI scans of 23 meditators and compared them to 16 control subjects matched for age, handedness and sex. (Ten participants dropped out.) The scans for the controls were obtained from an existing MRI database, while the meditators were recruited from various meditation venues. The meditators had practiced their craft on average for 20 years using a variety of meditation types -- Samatha, Vipassana, Zen and more. The researchers applied a well-established and automated whole-brain approach to measure cortical gyrification at thousands of points across the surface of the brain. They found pronounced group differences (heightened levels of gyrification in active meditation practitioners) across a wide swatch of the cortex, including the left precentral gyrus, the left and right anterior dorsal insula, the right fusiform gyrus and the right cuneus. Perhaps most interesting, though, was the positive correlation between the number of meditation years and the amount of insular gyrification. "The insula has been suggested to function as a hub for autonomic, affective and cognitive integration," said Luders. "Meditators are known to be masters in introspection and awareness as well as emotional control and self-regulation, so the findings make sense that the longer someone has meditated, the higher the degree of folding in the insula." While Luders cautions that genetic and other environmental factors could have contributed to the effects the researchers observed, still, "The positive correlation between gyrification and the number of practice years supports the idea that meditation enhances regional gyrification."</p>

Evidence builds that meditation strengthens the brain

Earlier evidence out of UCLA suggested that meditating for years thickens the brain (in a good way) and strengthens the connections between ...

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Shisha cafes should have prominent notices saying, “Smoking shisha can kill” - just like you would on a cigarette packet

<p> puffing on a Turkish waterpipe is the latest trend to hit British bars and cafes.</p><p>The flavoured tobacco, which is smoked via a long pipe connected to a vessel filled with water, is particularly fashionable among young people, with the number of specialist bars rising 210 per cent since 2007.</p><p>But the World Health Organisation has warned that a one-hour shisha session can be as harmful as smoking 100 cigarettes.</p><div><img alt="Trend: Zaky Ali ,40, owner of Marhaba Cafe in Birmingham" height="353" src="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/03/14/article-2114987-1229BDEC000005DC-252_468x353.jpg" width="468" /><p>Trend: Zaky Ali ,40, owner of Marhaba Cafe in Birmingham, with a hookah pipe for smoking shisha, which is becoming more popular among the young. But experts warn it can do more damage than cigarettes because users take more puffs of smoke</p></div><p>This is because a cigarette smoker typically takes between eight and 12 puffs, inhaling 0.5 to 0.6 litres of smoke.</p><p>But during hour-long shisha sessions smokers may take up to 200 drags, ranging from 0.15 to 1 litre of smoke each. </p><p> </p><div> </div><div><h4>More...</h4><ul><li><a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2114944/Britains-drink-death-capital-How-people-die-alcohol-Sunderland-else.html">Britain's drink death capital: How more people die from alcohol in Sunderland than anywhere else</a></li></ul></div><p> </p><p>‘Shisha smoking is a growing concern because people aren’t aware of the risks like they are with cigarette smoking,’ says Professor Robert West, director of tobacco studies at University College London.</p><p>‘The greater the exposure in terms of duration and amount smoked, the greater the risk to your health’</p><p>That’s because although shisha tobacco tastes nicer than cigarettes, it contains all the same toxicants known to cause lung cancer and heart disease.</p><div><img alt="Cigarette" height="364" src="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/03/14/article-2114987-0053AA3000000578-481_233x364.jpg" width="233" /><p>Risk: Smokers typically take in 12 puffs on a cigarette compared to up to 200 for hookah pipes</p></div><p>Among the risks are heart disease, respiratory problems, lung and mouth cancer and problems during pregnancy.</p><p>‘Smoke from tobacco contains a number of carcinogens which damage the DNA in cells,’ explains Professor West. ‘Just one damaged cell can divide and multiply uncontrollably and quite quickly develop into a large tumour. This is what causes lung cancer,’ explains Professor West</p><p>Enthusiasts claim that as the smoke passes through water most of the harmful chemicals are absorbed, however there is no evidence to support this.</p><p>‘If people think it’s safer than cigarettes, when it’s not, they need to be informed otherwise,’ said Professor West.</p><p>There are other risks. As the mouthpiece is passed around from person to person, this raises the risk of transmitting diseases such as tuberculosis and hepatitis.</p><p>The waterpipe has been used to smoke tobacco for centuries, primarily in Africa, Asia and the Middle East.</p><p>A rise in travel to countries such as Egypt and Turkey has seen the pipe transported to the UK.</p><p>The waterpipe is heavily sold as a souvenir, and is popular with tourists who like to take it back home as a gift or decorative object.</p><p>The waterpipe can also be purchased in various shops in London for as little as £20, with shisha tobacco costing £5-£10.</p><p>The tobacco is burned with charcoal in a bowl that sits above the vessel.</p><p>The smoke it produces passes through the water in the container and goes down the pipe so the user can sit by the vessel and an inhale it with their mouth. </p><div><img alt="Middle Eastern inspired: A shisha user in Iraq, the pipe's traditional home" height="313" src="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/03/14/article-2114987-12203A12000005DC-615_468x313.jpg" width="468" /><p>Middle Eastern inspired: A shisha user in Iraq, the pipe's traditional home</p></div><p>The smoke is cooled by the water and makes it feel less ‘harsh’ - and experts warn that as a result people inhale it more deeply into their lungs, which increases the risks even further.</p><p>Shisha tobacco is flavoured with fruit molasses such as apple and strawberry, so the residual redolent smoke is sweet.</p><p>Because it doesn’t taste like a cigarette, people often think of it as being safer or better. Many young people who don’t usually smoke are attracted to this seemingly harmless activity.</p><p>It’s also a cheaper option than buying a round at the pub. One shisha usually costs between £7-£20, and is often shared by two or three people throughout an evening.</p><p>In the borough of Westminster, London, the number of shisha cafes have gone up approximately by 68 per cent since 2007.</p><p>The smoking ban hasn’t stopped this trend from growing. Restaurant and café owners offering shisha have been able to flout the ban by creating garden terraces or patio seating outdoors.</p><p>But as the weather gets warmer, and shisha becomes more and more fashionable, experts are calling for better health warnings.</p><p>Professor West suggests: ‘Shisha cafes should have prominent notices saying, “Smoking shisha can kill” - just like you would on a cigarette packet.’</p><p><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff;"><br /><br /></span></p>

Shisha cafes should have prominent notices saying, “Smoking shisha can kill” - just like you would on a cigarette packet

 puffing on a Turkish waterpipe is the latest trend to hit British bars and cafes. The flavoured tobacco, which is smoked via a long pipe co...

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Having a cocaine binge at the weekend followed by three or four diazepam to get to sleep on Sunday messes up the brain's chemistry

<p> </p><p>Having a cocaine binge at the weekend followed by three or four diazepam to get to sleep on Sunday messes up the brain's chemistry, a consultant psychiatrist says.Many people who use drugs recreationally also take prescription medicines such as tranquillisers, sleeping pills and painkillers to deal with the effects of a weekend high and get back to work on Monday, new research reveals. An international survey carried out by the Guardian and Mixmag magazine found that about a third of the 7,700 people from the UK who revealed their illegal drug use also took prescription sleeping pills – 22.4% had taken benzodiazepines such as temazepam in the last year and 7.2% had taken the newer "z-drugs" – zopiclone and zolpidem. Those taking part in the survey were predominantly well-educated working people who felt they were in control of their lives. But Dr Richard Bowskill, consultant psychiatrist and medical director of the Priory rehabilitation centre in Brighton, said he saw the fallout years later from this pattern of illegal and prescription drug-taking among "highly functioning" clients. "People think they are being their own pharmacist. They have a major binge of cocaine over the weekend and three or four diazepam to get to sleep on Sunday night. They think they understand what it is doing to their body and they think they are in control, but their brain chemistry is getting messed up," he said. "They know the effects of the drug. It's often being used following cocaine to self-medicate for the downswing and it causes chaos. It's a really common scenario. Then they can't get to sleep on Monday and they take some more sleeping tablets." While recreational drug users think prescription medicines are safe, because GPs hand them out and the tablets are what they purport to be, benzodiazepines and opioid painkillers are highly addictive if taken regularly for any length of time. Anna, who had a high-pressured job requiring her to make frequent long-haul flights, was not a recreational drug taker but started taking zopiclone to help her sleep on the plane or when she arrived in a different time zone and needed to be fresh for work in the morning. "Your body gets accustomed to the drugs. I didn't really understand their addictive nature," she said. "They weren't having an effect so I was having to up the dosage." She ended up taking five tablets at a time, but they just made her more anxious, irritable and sleepless. "I lost a lot of friends." She talked of the societal "pressure to perform" and her regret that there was so little help. GPs did not want to know, she said. With the help of the Council for Information on Tranquillisers, Antidepressants and Painkillers (CITA), a support group, she had been switched to a different drug and was slowly cutting down. Against expectations, most people in the Guardian/Mixmag survey did not get their prescription drugs from the internet, but from their own GP or a friend who had been prescribed them. GPs were in a bind, said Dr Peter Swinyard, national chairman of the Family Doctor Association. When people arrived in the surgery complaining of pain or insomnia "we are predisposed to believe what people tell us", he said. "We always work from the premise that they are being honest with us." Nonetheless, a survey the association did last summer showed that 52% of GPs were worried about prescription drug abuse in their area. Eight out of 10 of the 197 GPs who responded to the survey said they were aware of prescribing to people who they thought were addicted. Half were aware of occasions when prescriptions had been sold on. "People tell us they lose their prescription or it got eaten by the dog. A lot of general practices have systems like a book at reception recording those who say they have lost their prescription," Swinyard said. But there are people who GPs would not characterise as liars or cheats. "There is the traditional little old lady who is taking her sleeping pill prescription and selling it down the pub. I'm sure there is a cohort of elderly people supplementing their pension by selling their prescription drugs," he said. Although the Guardian/Mixmag survey responders mostly said they used sleeping tablets for sleep and painkillers for pain, they had often tried them to get high – 57.8% in the case of the anti-hyperactivity drug Ritalin, nearly 40% in the case of the benzos and 28% who had taken opioid painkillers. In the US, prescription opioids have caused a huge problem since oxycodone – better known by its brand name OxyContin – was licensed for use outside cancer treatment in the mid-1990s. In 2008, 15,000 Americans died from overdosing on prescription opiates, according to the Centres for Disease Control (CDC), which is more than on heroin and cocaine combined. The opioid epidemic appears not to have hit the UK. "There has been a rise in oxycodone deaths, but it is pretty small," said James Bell, addiction consultant at the South London and Maudsley NHS trust. "I have been trying to look for evidence here and it is not a big problem." Demand was fuelled in the US by direct advertising to the public. In the UK this is not allowed and most people are registered with a single NHS GP so cannot shop around. The Guardian/Mixmag study, which was conducted by Global Drug Survey, shows that a quarter of responders had taken prescription opioid painkillers and 9% had taken other painkillers. More than three-quarters said they took them for pain relief, 24% said they took them to get to sleep and 18% said they took them for mood-changing purposes.</p>

Having a cocaine binge at the weekend followed by three or four diazepam to get to sleep on Sunday messes up the brain's chemistry

  Having a cocaine binge at the weekend followed by three or four diazepam to get to sleep on Sunday messes up the brain's chemistry, a ...

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Madness is not the reason for this massacre - Robert Fisk

<p><br />I'm getting a bit tired of the "deranged" soldier story. It was predictable, of course. The 38-year-old staff sergeant who massacred 16 Afghan civilians, including nine children, near Kandahar this week had no sooner returned to base than the defence experts and the think-tank boys and girls announced that he was "deranged". Not an evil, wicked, mindless terrorist – which he would be, of course, if he had been an Afghan, especially a Taliban – but merely a guy who went crazy. This was the same nonsense used to describe the murderous US soldiers who ran amok in the Iraqi town of Haditha. It was the same word used about Israeli soldier Baruch Goldstein who massacred 25 Palestinians in Hebron – something I pointed out in this paper only hours before the staff sergeant became suddenly "deranged" in Kandahar province. "Apparently deranged", "probably deranged", journalists announced, a soldier who "might have suffered some kind of breakdown" (The Guardian), a "rogue US soldier" (Financial Times) whose "rampage" (The New York Times) was "doubtless [sic] perpetrated in an act of madness" (Le Figaro). Really? Are we supposed to believe this stuff? Surely, if he was entirely deranged, our staff sergeant would have killed 16 of his fellow Americans. He would have slaughtered his mates and then set fire to their bodies. But, no, he didn't kill Americans. He chose to kill Afghans. There was a choice involved. So why did he kill Afghans? We learned yesterday that the soldier had recently seen one of his mates with his legs blown off. But so what? The Afghan narrative has been curiously lobotomised – censored, even – by those who have been trying to explain this appalling massacre in Kandahar. They remembered the Koran burnings – when American troops in Bagram chucked Korans on a bonfire – and the deaths of six Nato soldiers, two of them Americans, which followed. But blow me down if they didn't forget – and this applies to every single report on the latest killings – a remarkable and highly significant statement from the US army's top commander in Afghanistan, General John Allen, exactly 22 days ago. Indeed, it was so unusual a statement that I clipped the report of Allen's words from my morning paper and placed it inside my briefcase for future reference. Allen told his men that "now is not the time for revenge for the deaths of two US soldiers killed in Thursday's riots". They should, he said, "resist whatever urge they might have to strike back" after an Afghan soldier killed the two Americans. "There will be moments like this when you're searching for the meaning of this loss," Allen continued. "There will be moments like this, when your emotions are governed by anger and a desire to strike back. Now is not the time for revenge, now is the time to look deep inside your souls, remember your mission, remember your discipline, remember who you are." Now this was an extraordinary plea to come from the US commander in Afghanistan. The top general had to tell his supposedly well-disciplined, elite, professional army not to "take vengeance" on the Afghans they are supposed to be helping/protecting/nurturing/training, etc. He had to tell his soldiers not to commit murder. I know that generals would say this kind of thing in Vietnam. But Afghanistan? Has it come to this? I rather fear it has. Because – however much I dislike generals – I've met quite a number of them and, by and large, they have a pretty good idea of what's going on in the ranks. And I suspect that Allen had already been warned by his junior officers that his soldiers had been enraged by the killings that followed the Koran burnings – and might decide to go on a revenge spree. Hence he tried desperately – in a statement that was as shocking as it was revealing – to pre-empt exactly the massacre which took place last Sunday. Yet it was totally wiped from the memory box by the "experts" when they had to tell us about these killings. No suggestion that General Allen had said these words was allowed into their stories, not a single reference – because, of course, this would have taken our staff sergeant out of the "deranged" bracket and given him a possible motive for his killings. As usual, the journos had got into bed with the military to create a madman rather than a murderous soldier. Poor chap. Off his head. Didn't know what he was doing. No wonder he was whisked out of Afghanistan at such speed. We've all had our little massacres. There was My Lai, and our very own little My Lai, at a Malayan village called Batang Kali where the Scots Guards – involved in a conflict against ruthless communist insurgents – murdered 24 unarmed rubber workers in 1948. Of course, one can say that the French in Algeria were worse than the Americans in Afghanistan – one French artillery unit is said to have "disappeared" 2,000 Algerians in six months – but that is like saying that we are better than Saddam Hussein. True, but what a baseline for morality. And that's what it's about. Discipline. Morality. Courage. The courage not to kill in revenge. But when you are losing a war that you are pretending to win – I am, of course, talking about Afghanistan – I guess that's too much to hope. General Allen seems to have been wasting his time.</p>

Madness is not the reason for this massacre - Robert Fisk

I'm getting a bit tired of the "deranged" soldier story. It was predictable, of course. The 38-year-old staff sergeant who mas...

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Children whose minds wander 'have sharper brains'

<p><br />A study has found that people who appear to be constantly distracted have more “working memory”, giving them the ability to hold a lot of information in their heads and manipulate it mentally. Children at school need this type of memory on a daily basis for a variety of tasks, such as following teachers’ instructions or remembering dictated sentences. During the study, volunteers were asked to perform one of two simple tasks during which researchers checked to ask if the participants’ minds were wandering. At the end, participants measured their working memory capacity by their ability to remember a series of letters interspersed with simple maths questions. Daniel Levinson, a psychologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the United States, said that those with higher working memory capacity reported “more mind wandering during these simple tasks”, but their performance did not suffer. The results, published online in the journal Psychological Science, appear to confirm previous research that found working memory allows humans to juggle multiple thoughts simultaneously. Dr Jonathan Smallwood, of the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Science in Leipzig, Germany, said: “What this study seems to suggest is that, when circumstances for the task aren’t very difficult, people who have additional working memory resources deploy them to think about things other than what they’re doing.” Working memory capacity is also associated with general measures of intelligence, such as reading comprehension and IQ scores, and also offers a window into the widespread, but not well understood, realm of internally driven thoughts. Dr Smallwood added: “Our results suggest the sorts of planning that people do quite often in daily life — when they are on the bus, when they are cycling to work, when they are in the shower — are probably supported by working memory. “Their brains are trying to allocate resources to the most pressing problems.”</p>

Children whose minds wander 'have sharper brains'

A study has found that people who appear to be constantly distracted have more “working memory”, giving them the ability to hold a lot of in...

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Escaped prisoner Anthony Downes arrested and held in Amsterdam

<p> </p><p>Anthony Downes, who was arrested in Amsterdam, escaped from a prison van while being transported from HMP Manchester to Liverpool Crown Court in July last year. He had been facing trial for conspiracy to possess firearms with intent to endanger life and conspiracy to cause damage with intent to endanger life. He was convicted in his absence at Woolwich Crown Court and is due to be sentenced at the end of this week. Downes, 26, featured as part of Crimestoppers’ latest Operation Captura Campaign in October 2011, which seeks to locate wanted fugitives believed to have fled to Spain, who are wanted by UK law enforcement agencies. Lord Ashcroft, KCMG, Founder and Chair of Crimestoppers, said: “This is yet another example of how criminals on the run will eventually be caught and I am delighted to hear that this individual has been arrested. “Crimestoppers is seeing huge success with its fugitive campaigns and the fact that we now have 48 arrests out of 65 appeals from our Captura campaign proves that wanted criminals will eventually be brought to justice.” Deputy Chief Executive, Dave Cording, added: “This arrest comes less than six months after the fifth anniversary of Operation Captura. “Through close collaboration with the Spanish police, SOCA and the public, these individuals have nowhere to hide and those still on the run should think about handing themselves in before they are caught next.” This latest arrest brings the total number of those located to 48 out of 65 appeals since the campaign launched in October 2006. Operation Captura is the successful multi-agency campaign which identifies serious criminals believed to be on the run in Spain.</p>

Escaped prisoner Anthony Downes arrested and held in Amsterdam

  Anthony Downes, who was arrested in Amsterdam, escaped from a prison van while being transported from HMP Manchester to Liverpool Crown Co...

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Expats in Spain warned of faulty hip replacements

<p><br />Therapist Carol Duquemin, 59, decided to act after being forced to have her hip replacement removed after just four months. Duquemin – whose ordeal came after the manufacturer recalled the faulty product in 2010 – has teamed up with free health care service Medilink to provide advice and support to expats. “Up to 9,000 people in Spain could have been affected by the implants,” Duquemin said. “People are still not aware of the problem and the danger it poses to their health. “The law says you have to have it removed in the country where you had the operation but some hospitals here are not giving the help and information that they should, and it is a big operation that causes a huge trauma to the body.</p>

Expats in Spain warned of faulty hip replacements

Therapist Carol Duquemin, 59, decided to act after being forced to have her hip replacement removed after just four months. Duquemin – whose...

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US soldier has killed 16 Afghan civilians, including nine children,

<p><br />A US soldier has killed 16 Afghan civilians, including nine children, after entering their homes in Kandahar. Sky sources said the Afghan victims also included women and elderly men. Minister of Border and Tribal Affairs Asadullah Khalid, who is investigating the incident, said the soldier entered three homes, killing 11 people in the first one. The Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) coalition confirmed the incident but did not release the number of killed or injured. Sky defence reporter Mark Stone said: "Details are still sketchy and various death tolls have emerged. "It appears to be an isolated incident and the soldier is believed to have been a staff sergeant." Isaf Deputy Commander Lt Gen Adrian Bradshaw said: "I wish to convey my profound regrets and dismay at the actions apparently taken by one coalition member in Kandahar province. "I cannot explain the motivation behind such callous acts, but they were in no way part of authorised ISAF military activity." According to the Panjwai district governor office, seven people died and up to 17 injured were injured in the rampage. The injured have been treated for their wounds at Nato medical facilities. Protests were held over the Koran-burning incident The US embassy in Kabul attempted to quell expected Afghan unrest by also issuing an apology. It said: "We deplore any attack by a member of the US armed forces against innocent civilians, and denounce all violence against civilians. "We assure the people of Afghanistan that the individual or individuals responsible for this act will be identified and brought to justice." The diplomatic response comes after weeks of tense relations between US forces and their Afghan hosts following the burning of Korans and other religious materials at an American base. Although US officials apologised and said the burning was an accident, the incident sparked violent protests and attacks. Britain also pulled out civilian advisers from buildings in Kabul as protests spread. Six American soldiers have been killed in attacks by their Afghan colleagues since the Koran burnings came to light.</p>

US soldier has killed 16 Afghan civilians, including nine children,

A US soldier has killed 16 Afghan civilians, including nine children, after entering their homes in Kandahar. Sky sources said the Afghan v...

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United States service member walked out of a military base in a rural district of southern Afghanistan on Sunday and opened fire on three nearby houses, killing at least 15 civilians

<p> </p><p>United States service member walked out of a military base in a rural district of southern Afghanistan on Sunday and opened fire on three nearby houses, killing at least 15 civilians, local villagers and provincial officials said. Related Security Fears Lead Groups to Rethink Work in Afghanistan (March 11, 2012) U.S. and Afghanistan Agree on Prisoner Transfer as Part of Long-Term Agreement (March 10, 2012) Afghan Officer Sought in Killing of 9 Colleagues (March 9, 2012) Connect With Us on Twitter Follow @nytimesworld for international breaking news and headlines. Twitter List: Reporters and Editors Readers’ Comments Share your thoughts. Post a Comment » Read All Comments (1) » The shooting risks further inciting anti-American sentiment in Afghanistan and troubling a relationship that had already been brought to a new low by the burning of Korans at an American military base last month. The American embassy in Afghanistan quickly issued a statement on Sunday urging calm. The NATO-led coalition said in a statement on Sunday that a United States service member had been detained after an incident in Kandahar Province, in the south of the country, and that a number of civilians had been killed. Villagers in Belandi in the Panjway district of Kandahar, where the shooting took place, said the service member had attacked three houses, killing 11 people in one house and four in a second home. Five other villagers were wounded, they said. Panjway, a rural suburb of Kandahar, was traditionally a Taliban stronghold. It was a focus of the United States surge in 2010 and was the scene of heavy fighting. The governor of Kandahar Province, Tooryalai Wesa, condemned the shooting, although he could not immediately confirm the number of people killed. A coalition spokesman in Kabul, Capt. Justin Brockhoff, said that it was not clear what had led to the incident. He said the civilians wounded in the shooting were taken to a coalition hospital where they were being treated. One of the houses attacked in the village belonged to a tribal elder, according to a person from the village. “We don’t know why he killed people,” said the villager, Aminullah, who like many Afghans goes by a single name. Aminullah said the soldier was alone. “There was no fighting or attacks.” In the statement, the United States military raced to head off Afghan outrage. “This is a deeply regrettable incident and we extend our thoughts and concerns to the families involved,” the statement said. It went on to say that American forces, in cooperation with the Afghan authorities, would investigate the incident. In its comments, the American Embassy also sought to ease tensions, offering “its deepest condolences to the families of the victims of today’s tragic shooting.” “We are saddened by this violent act against our Afghan friends,” the statement said. In a separate incident, four Afghans were killed and three wounded on Friday when coalition helicopters apparently hunting Taliban insurgents fired instead on villagers in Kapisa province in eastern Afghanistan, according to Abdul Hakim Akhondzada, governor of Tagab district in Kapisa. Last month, the burning of the Korans touched off nationwide rioting and increased the targeting of American troops, resulting in at least 29 Afghans dead and 6 American soldiers killed. The results of the official military inquiry into the Koran burnings are still awaited, including any decision on what kind of disciplinary action may be faced by the American service members identified as being directly linked to the incident. The upheaval provoked by the Koran burnings put a temporary halt to cooperation between the Afghans and Americans, and disrupted planning for the military withdrawal. But relations seemed somewhat back on track after the two governments on Friday broke an impasse on a long-term strategic partnership deal by agreeing for the Afghans to assume control of the main coalition prison in six months. In another incident in January, American officials had to contend with the fallout from a video that showed four United States Marines urinating on the corpses of what appeared to be the corpses of three Taliban members. In 2010, a rogue group of American soldiers, whose members patrolled roads and small villages, also near Kandahar, killed three Afghan civilians for sport in a series of crimes. The soldier accused of being the ringleader of the group was convicted of three counts of murder by an American military panel in November.</p>

United States service member walked out of a military base in a rural district of southern Afghanistan on Sunday and opened fire on three nearby houses, killing at least 15 civilians

  United States service member walked out of a military base in a rural district of southern Afghanistan on Sunday and opened fire on three ...

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Regular drinking habit comes with age

<p> </p><p>PEOPLE over 45 are three times more likely to drink almost every day as those who are younger, according to new figures. Some 13 per cent of adults over 45 drink almost every day compared with 4 per cent of those under 45, Office for National Statistics’ data shows. And as people get older they tend to drink more – with over a fifth of men aged 65 and over drinking almost every day compared with just 3 per cent of men aged 16 to 24. Among women, 12 per cent of over-65s consume alcohol almost every day compared with just 1 per cent of 16 to 24-year-olds. However, the survey, of more than 13,000 adults in 2010, found younger people were more likely to binge drink.</p>

Regular drinking habit comes with age

  PEOPLE over 45 are three times more likely to drink almost every day as those who are younger, according to new figures. Some 13 per cent...

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LSD could treat alcoholism

<p> </p><p>The new study published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology found that LSD had a positive effect on alcohol misuse in each of the trials, with 59 per cent of patients who took the drug having improved at follow-up, compared with 38 per cent who took a placebo.  A single dose of LSD produces benefits which last between six and 12 months, and repeated doses along with modern treatments could ensure longer term results, the researchers said. The drug, which causes hallucinations that make users experience the world in a distorted way, is not physically addictive but some experte believe users can become dependant on its effects, for example from a need to distance themselves from reality. Pål-Ørjan Johansen, a Norwegian researcher and fellow of Harvard Medical School, who led the research, said: "Given the evidence for a beneficial effect of LSD on alcoholism, it is puzzling why this treatment approach has been largely overlooked." Dr David Nutt, former advisor on drugs to the government, said: "I think this study is very interesting and it is a shame the last of these studies were done in the 1960s. "I think these drugs might help people switch out of a mindset which is locked into addiction or depression and be a way of helping the brain switch back to where it should be, in a similar way that Alcoholics Anonymous programmes do."</p>

LSD could treat alcoholism

  The new study published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology found that LSD had a positive effect on alcohol misuse in each of the trials,...

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The Next Frontier: Emotional Sobriety

<p> </p><p>"The Next Frontier: Emotional Sobriety" by Bill W I think that many oldsters who have put our AA "booze cure" to severe but successful tests still find they often lack emotional sobriety. Perhaps they will be the spearhead for the next major development in AA -- the development of much more real maturity and balance (which is to say, humility) in our relations with ourselves, with our fellows, and with God. Those adolescent urges that so many of us have for top approval, perfect security, and perfect romance -- urges quite appropriate to age seventeen -- prove to be an impossible way of life when we are at age forty-seven or fifty-seven. Since AA began, I've taken immense wallops in all these areas because of my failure to grow up, emotionally and spiritually. My God, how painful it is to keep demanding the impossible, and how very painful to discover finally, that all along we have had the cart before the horse! Then comes the final agony of seeing how awfully wrong we have been, but still finding ourselves unable to get off the emotional merry-go-round. How to translate a right mental conviction into a right emotional result, and so into easy, happy, and good living -- well, that's not only the neurotic's problem, it's the problem of life itself for all of us who have got to the point of real willingness to hew to right principles in all our affairs. Even then, as we hew away, peace and joy may still elude us. That's the place so many of us AA oldsters have come to. And it's a hell of a spot, literally. How shall our unconscious -- from which so many of our fears, compulsions and phony aspirations still stream -- be brought into line with what we actually believe, know and want! How to convince our dumb, raging and hidden "Mr. Hyde" becomes our main task. I've recently come to believe that this can be achieved. I believe so because I begin to see many benighted ones -- folks like you and me -- commencing to get results. Last autumn [several years back -- ed.] depression, having no really rational cause at all, almost took me to the cleaners. I began to be scared that I was in for another long chronic spell. Considering the grief I've had with depressions, it wasn't a bright prospect. I kept asking myself, "Why can't the Twelve Steps work to release depression?" By the hour, I stared at the St. Francis Prayer..."It's better to comfort than to be the comforted." Here was the formula, all right. But why didn't it work? Suddenly I realized what the matter was. My basic flaw had always been dependence -- almost absolute dependence - on people or circumstances to supply me with prestige, security, and the like. Failing to get these things according to my perfectionist dreams and specifications, I had fought for them. And when defeat came, so did my depression. There wasn't a chance of making the outgoing love of St. Francis a workable and joyous way of life until these fatal and almost absolute dependencies were cut away. Because I had over the years undergone a little spiritual development, the absolute quality of these frightful dependencies had never before been so starkly revealed. Reinforced by what Grace I could secure in prayer, I found I had to exert every ounce of will and action to cut off these faulty emotional dependencies upon people, upon AA, indeed, upon any set of circumstances whatsoever. Then only could I be free to love as Francis had. Emotional and instinctual satisfactions, I saw, were really the extra dividends of having love, offering love, and expressing a love appropriate to each relation of life. Plainly, I could not avail myself of God's love until I was able to offer it back to Him by loving others as He would have me. And I couldn't possibly do that so long as I was victimized by false dependencies. For my dependency meant demand -- a demand for the possession and control of the people and the conditions surrounding me. While those words "absolute demand" may look like a gimmick, they were the ones that helped to trigger my release into my present degree of stability and quietness of mind, qualities which I am now trying to consolidate by offering love to others regardless of the return to me. This seems to be the primary healing circuit: an outgoing love of God's creation and His people, by means of which we avail ourselves of His love for us. It is most clear that the current can't flow until our paralyzing dependencies are broken, and broken at depth. Only then can we possibly have a glimmer of what adult love really is. Spiritual calculus, you say? Not a bit of it. Watch any AA of six months working with a new Twelfth Step case. If the case says "To the devil with you," the Twelfth Stepper only smiles and turns to another case. He doesn't feel frustrated or rejected. If his next case responds, and in turn starts to give love and attention to other alcoholics, yet gives none back to him, the sponsor is happy about it anyway. He still doesn't feel rejected; instead he rejoices that his one-time prospect is sober and happy. And if his next following case turns out in later time to be his best friend (or romance) then the sponsor is most joyful. But he well knows that his happiness is a by-product -- the extra dividend of giving without any demand for a return. The really stabilizing thing for him was having and offering love to that strange drunk on his doorstep. That was Francis at work, powerful and practical, minus dependency and minus demand. In the first six months of my own sobriety, I worked hard with many alcoholics. Not a one responded. Yet this work kept me sober. It wasn't a question of those alcoholics giving me anything. My stability came out of trying to give, not out of demanding that I receive. Thus I think it can work out with emotional sobriety. If we examine every disturbance we have, great or small, we will find at the root of it some unhealthy dependency and its consequent unhealthy demand. Let us, with God's help, continually surrender these hobbling demands. Then we can be set free to live and love; we may then be able to Twelfth Step ourselves and others into emotional sobriety. Of course I haven't offered you a really new idea -- only a gimmick that has started to unhook several of my own "hexes" at depth. Nowadays my brain no longer races compulsively in either elation, grandiosity or depression. I have been given a quiet place in bright sunshine.</p>

The Next Frontier: Emotional Sobriety

  "The Next Frontier: Emotional Sobriety" by Bill W I think that many oldsters who have put our AA "booze cure" to sever...

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There is something beautiful about the essence of Step 12 in recovery

<p style="margin-top: 0px; font-family: Arial, helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20px; background-color: #ffffff;"> There is something beautiful about the essence of Step 12 in recovery. It is about the "joy of living" and talks about how working the previous 11 steps now gives the person in recovery a new compass in which to live by: their <a class="pt-basics-link" href="http://www.psychologytoday.com/basics/spirituality" style="color: #333333; text-decoration: none; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-color: #999999;" title="Psychology Today looks at Spirituality">spiritual</a> beliefs and principles. One moves from the experience of being driven, to more consciousness about who they are, what they are doing, and why they are doing it. If taken directly from the program, the spiritual principles that correspond to each step, and that serve as a guide are as follows:</p><p style="font-family: Arial, helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20px; background-color: #ffffff;">1. Honesty</p><p style="font-family: Arial, helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20px; background-color: #ffffff;">2. Hope</p><p style="font-family: Arial, helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20px; background-color: #ffffff;">3. Faith</p><p style="font-family: Arial, helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20px; background-color: #ffffff;">4. Courage</p><p style="font-family: Arial, helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20px; background-color: #ffffff;">5. Integrity</p><p style="font-family: Arial, helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20px; background-color: #ffffff;">6. Willingness</p><p style="font-family: Arial, helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20px; background-color: #ffffff;">7. Humility</p><p style="font-family: Arial, helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20px; background-color: #ffffff;">8. Brotherly Love</p><p style="font-family: Arial, helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20px; background-color: #ffffff;">9. Justice</p><p style="font-family: Arial, helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20px; background-color: #ffffff;">10. Perseverance</p><p style="font-family: Arial, helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20px; background-color: #ffffff;">11. Unity and Spirituality</p><p style="font-family: Arial, helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20px; background-color: #ffffff;">12. Service and <a class="pt-basics-link" href="http://www.psychologytoday.com/basics/gratitude" style="color: #333333; text-decoration: none; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-color: #999999;" title="Psychology Today looks at Gratitude">Gratitude</a></p><p style="font-family: Arial, helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20px; background-color: #ffffff;">One of the gifts of living according to principles is that they can support us no matter what our history, our patterning, or our circumstances. They can orient us when objective realities have lost their command. Spiritual principles become the ultimate navigation system. You may have lost a job or a promotion, you might be in an argument with a friend or partner, but you can always turn to the principles for a soft place to land, to serve as a guide, and to put your current position in context.</p><p style="font-family: Arial, helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20px; background-color: #ffffff;">Step 1 for example, "Admitted we were powerless over alcohol and that our lives had become unmanageable," starts with the poignant word, "admit." I've always appreciated the double meaning—it implies that we have to be honest but it additionally signals admittance, as in "admit one." So, right off the bat, the navigation system orients the person in recovery over a threshold that had been previously impassable. Denial begins to be shed and honesty becomes something to strive for.</p><p style="font-family: Arial, helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20px; background-color: #ffffff;">Each of the principles are not only guides, but anchors, allowing for an experience of grounding in what can often be a challenging and chaotic ride. The spiritual path becomes the perfect container for the ups and downs we all experience. This means that sometimes, the direction we are given is to stay put. In times of loss, doubt, and uncertainty—courage allows us to lean in to such experiences, to face our fears and our demons when all we want to do is flee. Hope and faith provide additional support by reminding us that the dark places aren't static states and that we will survive the ride.</p><p style="font-family: Arial, helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20px; background-color: #ffffff;">Integrity is something I talk about a great deal in <em>Recovering Spirituality</em>. To me, it is about embracing the fullness of the human condition, being intimately and integrally connected to the whole. It allows for greater compassion for ourselves and others because we understand that we will never overcome our humanness, which means that we are all perfectly flawed.</p><p style="font-family: Arial, helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20px; background-color: #ffffff;">So, when life steers you in a direction that you never imagined going, or when you feel like you can't find the purpose or meaning in your life, see if you can find some grounding and direction in the principles. They are perfect when our lives are not—the ideal GPS (Global Positioning System). Maybe the task at hand is to orient yourself towards service to others, or perhaps the unity of the fellowship can provide some <a class="pt-basics-link" href="http://www.psychologytoday.com/basics/laughter" style="color: #333333; text-decoration: none; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-color: #999999;" title="Psychology Today looks at Laughter">laughter</a>right when you thought it was impossible to smile. No matter the challenge, there is a guiding principle that can shine some light on the darkened path. </p><p style="font-family: Arial, helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20px; background-color: #ffffff;">And if all is going well, don't let this discourage you from leaning in even further to the principle driven life. Pain may be the touchstone to spiritual growth, but the path is always available to us.</p>

There is something beautiful about the essence of Step 12 in recovery

 There is something beautiful about the essence of Step 12 in recovery. It is about the "joy of living" and talks about how workin...

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Ice cream as 'addictive as drugs' says new study

<p> </p><p>Researchers concluded that cravings for the dessert were similar to those experienced by drug addicts. They found that the brain was left wanting more while eating ice cream in the same way as a person who regularly uses cocaine. Their study, published online in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, appears to add weight to previous studies that people can be left feeling "addicted" to some foods. Dr Kyle Burger, from the Oregon Research Institute, in Eugene, about 110 miles south of Portland, said overeating "high-fat" or "high-sugar" foods appeared to change how the brain responded and in turn downgraded the mental "reward". "This down-regulation pattern is seen with frequent drug use, where the more an individual uses the drug, the less reward they receive from using it," said Dr Burger, the study's co-author.</p>

Ice cream as 'addictive as drugs' says new study

  Researchers concluded that cravings for the dessert were similar to those experienced by drug addicts. They found that the brain was left ...

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Two UK Murdoch journalists in apparent suicide bids

<p>Two senior journalists working for Ruper t Murdoch's News International have apparently attempted suicide as pressure mounts at the scandal-hit publisher of the now-defunct News of the World. Three sources close to the company told Reuters on Tuesday the two journalists at the Sun daily appeared to have tried to take their own lives. Investigations sparked by a phone-hacking scandal continue to expose dubious practices by present and past employees. Eleven current and former staff of the Sun, Britain's best-selling daily tabloid, have been arrested this year on suspicion of bribing police or civil servants for tip-offs. Their arrests have come as a result of information provided to the police by the Management and Standards Committee (MSC), a body set up by parent company News Corp to facilitate police investigations and liaise with the courts. The work of the MSC, which was set up to be independent of the conglomerate's British newspaper arm News International, has caused bitterness among staff, many of whom feel betrayed by an employer they have loyally served. 'People think that they've been thrown under a bus,' one News International employee told Reuters. 'They're beyond angry - there's an utter sense of betrayal, not just with the organisation but with a general lynch-mob hysteria.' News International is facing multiple criminal investigations and civil court cases as well as a public inquiry into press standards after long-simmering criticism of its practices came to a head last July. Politicians once close to Murdoch, including Prime Minister David Cameron, turned their backs on him and demanded answers after the Guardian newspaper revealed the News of the World had hacked the phone of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler. Police officer Sue Akers, who is heading three criminal inquiries into News International, said last week there appeared to have been 'a culture of illegal payments' at the Sun. Staff at the tabloid have been under additional pressure for the past two weeks because they have also had to produce a Sunday paper, hastily announced by Murdoch to replace the News of the World. News International has increased the level of psychiatric help available to employees to help them cope.</p>

Two UK Murdoch journalists in apparent suicide bids

Two senior journalists working for Ruper t Murdoch's News International have apparently attempted suicide as pressure mounts at the s...

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Depression: An evolutionary byproduct of immune system?

<p> </p><p>Depression is common enough -- afflicting one in ten adults in the United States -- that it seems the possibility of depression must be "hard-wired" into our brains. This has led biologists to propose several theories to account for how depression, or behaviors linked to it, can somehow offer an evolutionary advantage. See Also: Health & Medicine Mental Health Research Immune System Mind & Brain Depression Mental Health Plants & Animals Evolutionary Biology Behavioral Science Reference Postpartum depression Adult attention-deficit disorder Seasonal affective disorder Procrastination Some previous proposals for the role of depression in evolution have focused on how it affects behavior in a social context. A pair of psychiatrists addresses this puzzle in a different way, tying together depression and resistance to infection. They propose that genetic variations that promote depression arose during evolution because they helped our ancestors fight infection. An outline of their proposal appears online in the journal Molecular Psychiatry. The co-authors are Andrew Miller, MD, William P. Timmie professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Emory and director of psychiatric oncology at Winship Cancer Institute, and Charles Raison, MD, previously at Emory and now at the University of Arizona. For several years, researchers have seen links between depression and inflammation, or over-activation of the immune system. People with depression tend to have higher levels of inflammation, even if they're not fighting an infection. "Most of the genetic variations that have been linked to depression turn out to affect the function of the immune system," Miller says. "This led us to rethink why depression seems to stay embedded in the genome." "The basic idea is that depression and the genes that promote it were very adaptive for helping people -- especially young children -- not die of infection in the ancestral environment, even if those same behaviors are not helpful in our relationships with other people," Raison says. Infection was the major cause of death in humans' early history, so surviving infection was a key determinant in whether someone was able to pass on his or her genes. The authors propose that evolution and genetics have bound together depressive symptoms and physiological responses that were selected on the basis of reducing mortality from infection. Fever, fatigue/inactivity, social avoidance and anorexia can all be seen as adaptive behaviors in light of the need to contain infection, they write. The theory provides a new explanation for why stress is a risk factor for depression. The link between stress and depression can be seen as the byproduct of a process that preactivates the immune system in anticipation of a wound, they write. Similarly, a disruption of sleep patterns can be seen in both mood disorders and when the immune system is activated. This may come from our ancestors' need to stay on alert to fend off predators after injury, Miller says. Miller and Raison's theory could also guide future research on depression. In particular, the presence of biomarkers for inflammation may be able to predict whether someone will respond to various treatments for depression. Miller and Raison are involved in ongoing research on whether certain medications, which are normally used to treat auto-immune diseases, can be effective with treatment-resistant depression.</p>

Depression: An evolutionary byproduct of immune system?

  Depression is common enough -- afflicting one in ten adults in the United States -- that it seems the possibility of depression must be ...

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Sleepy pilots, train operators and drivers

<p><br />The people we trust to take us or our loved ones from place to place struggle with sleep, according to the National Sleep Foundation's (NSF) 2012 Sleep in America® poll. It is the first poll to ask transportation professionals, including pilots, train operators,* truck, bus, taxi and limo drivers about their sleep habits and work performance. See Also: Health & Medicine Sleep Disorder Research Workplace Health Mind & Brain Sleep Disorders Insomnia Science & Society Industrial Relations Transportation Issues Living Well Reference Circadian rhythm sleep disorder Narcolepsy Separation anxiety disorder Narcolepsy (sleep disorder) Pilots and train operators are most likely to report sleep-related job performance and safety problems The results of the poll are striking. About one-fourth of train operators (26%) and pilots (23%) admit that sleepiness has affected their job performance at least once a week, compared to about one in six non-transportation workers (17%). Perhaps more disturbingly, a significant number say that sleepiness has caused safety problems on the job. One in five pilots (20%) admit that they have made a serious error and one in six train operators (18%) and truck drivers (14%) say that they have had a "near miss" due to sleepiness. Sleepiness has also played a role in car accidents commuting to and from work. Pilots and train operators are significantly more likely than non-transportation workers (6% each, compared to 1%) to say that they have been involved in a car accident due to sleepiness while commuting. "Driving home from work after a long shift is associated with crashes due to sleepiness," says Dr. Sanjay Patel, a sleep researcher at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School. "We should all be concerned that pilots and train operators report car crashes due to sleepiness at a rate that is six times greater than that of other workers." Train operators and pilots report most sleep dissatisfaction Among all workers surveyed, train operators and pilots report the most work day sleep dissatisfaction. Almost two-thirds of train operators (57%) and one-half of pilots (50%) say they rarely or never get a good night's sleep on work nights, compared to 44% of truck drivers and 42% of non-transportation workers. Bus, taxi, and limo drivers report the best work day sleep satisfaction, with about one-third (29%) saying they rarely or never get a good night's sleep on work nights. "The margin of error in these professions is extremely small. Transportation professionals need to manage sleep to perform at their best," says David Cloud, CEO of the National Sleep Foundation. "As individuals and employers, we need to know more about how sleep improves performance." Sleepiness is common for all workers Roughly one in ten Americans say they are likely to fall asleep at an inappropriate time and place, such as during a meeting or while driving. The poll included a validated assessment tool used by doctors to determine whether a person is "sleepy." Anyone who suffers from excessive sleepiness should seek professional help to identify underlying conditions. This study finds that 11% of pilots, train operators, bus, taxi, and limo drivers and 8% of truck drivers as well as 7% of non-transportation workers are "sleepy." "We found that although pilots are especially focused on obtaining adequate sleep, one in ten can still be classified as 'sleepy.' This is not acceptable. Who among us wants to take a one in ten chance of flying on a plane with a sleepy pilot?" says CPT Edward Edens, PhD of the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research. A sleepy transportation worker is far more prone to mistakes: sleepy transportation workers report job performance problems about three times more often and report averaging about 45 minutes less sleep per night than their non-sleepy peers. Significant number of transportation workers say their schedules do not allow enough time for sleep Many transportation workers cite their schedule as a major contributor to sleep problems. Almost one-half of train operators (44%) and more than one-third of pilots (37%) report that their current work schedule does not allow adequate time for sleep, compared to about one-fourth of non-transportation workers and truck drivers (27% each) and one-fifth of bus, taxi and limo drivers (20%). In general, transportation professionals work more varied shifts than other workers, which may play a role in their sleep problems. Only 6% of pilots and 47% of train operators say they work the same work schedule each day, compared to 76% of non-transportation workers. Time off between shifts may play a role in transportation workers' sleepiness. Non-transportation workers report having an average of 14.2 hours off between shifts, compared to 12.9 hours for pilots; 12.5 for train operators; 12.1 for truck drivers; and 11.2 hours for bus, taxi, and limo drivers. If given one more hour off between work shifts, over one-half of pilots (56%) and train operators (54%) report that they would use that hour for sleep. Long commutes cut into transportation workers' already shortened time between shifts. Pilots report the longest commutes with 37% saying it takes more than an hour to get to work from home. Pilots and train operators have the highest average commute time of 45.5 minutes and 31 minutes, respectively, compared to a 23.8 minute average for non-transportation workers. Other research has consistently found that longer commute times have been associated with shorter individual sleep times. "Transportation workers experience considerable variability in the days they work, the times they work, and the amount of time off between shifts. This makes it difficult for such workers to maintain regular sleep/wake schedules, which can, in turn, make it difficult for these workers to maintain alertness on the job. Employers should put more effort into designing work/rest schedules that facilitate sleep and minimize workers exposure to irregular, variable schedule changes," says Patrick Sherry, PhD, a sleep researcher and professor from theUniversity of Denver Intermodal Transportation Institute. Pilots and train operators nap twice as frequently The poll shows that transportation professionals are taking more naps than other workers. More than one-half of pilots (58%) and train operators (56%) take at least one nap on work days, compared to about one-fourth of non-transportation workers (27%). About one in five pilots (20%), bus, taxi and limo drivers (20%), truck drivers (16%) and train operators (16%) say they take 3-5 naps during the work week. Among those who report napping on work days, one-half of pilots (50%), almost one-half of truck drivers (42%), one-third of train operators (33%) and nearly one-fourth of bus, taxi and limo drivers (24%) say they actually napped during work hours in the past two weeks, compared to about one in five non-transportation workers (19%). "Transportation workers have challenging schedules that compete with the natural need for sleep. While I'm impressed that transportation professionals nap when they are off duty, we need to better understand how to use naps to reduce sleep deprivation and overcome scheduling issues," says Thomas Balkin, PhD, a sleep researcher from the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research.</p>

Sleepy pilots, train operators and drivers

The people we trust to take us or our loved ones from place to place struggle with sleep, according to the National Sleep Foundation's (...

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The happiness conspiracy

<p> </p><p>A recent survey by the Office for National Statistics revealed that three-quarters of us are reasonably happy. I say "us" – though I find it hard to believe that three-quarters of the people I know are happy. That may be because mid 40s males living in London come out as some of the most unhappy. But so what. I can't be all that bothered with happiness. In fact, I find the aggressive pressure to be happy all rather tiresome. "Have a great day," insists the friendly woman on the checkout. But is she having a great day? Really? Indeed, I wonder whether all the upbeat rhetoric of happiness is often just one big conspiracy to avoid what can feel like an admission of failure – that, for many of us, life is bloody hard. I'm sure there are genuinely happy people. And good luck to them. But evangelism for various brands of feelgood quackery does little to convert the miserable. In fact, it can easily leave us feeling even more isolated. But we are not alone. One of the great privileges of being a priest is that one is frequently allowed access into other people's inner world. And that world is commonly a million miles away from how they present themselves – even, I suspect, to a polling organisation. I guess pretending is how many of us get through the day. But sometimes its just worth pushing back against the claustrophobic conformity to sunny up-speak. So no. Thank you for asking. But I'm not having a great day. And no, I'm not interested in doing the Brigadoon either.</p>

The happiness conspiracy

  A recent survey by the Office for National Statistics revealed that three-quarters of us are reasonably happy. I say "us" – thou...

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Goleman’s definition of emotional intelligence proposes four broad domains of EQ which consist of 19 competencies:

<div style="background-color: white; color: #4f4f4f; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: -webkit-left;"><br /> </div><div style="background-color: white; color: #4f4f4f; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: -webkit-left;"><b>Self-Awareness</b></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #4f4f4f; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: -webkit-left;"><br /> </div><ul style="background-color: white; color: #4f4f4f; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: -webkit-left;"><li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-left: 25px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Emotional self-awareness: Reading one's own emotions and recognizing their impact</div></li> <li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-left: 25px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Accurate self-assessment; knowing one's strengths and limits</div></li> <li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-left: 25px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Self-confidence; a sound sense of one's self-worth and capabilities</div></li> </ul><div style="background-color: white; color: #4f4f4f; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; margin-left: 25px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: -webkit-left;"><br /> </div><div style="background-color: white; color: #4f4f4f; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: -webkit-left;"><b> Self-Management</b></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #4f4f4f; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: -webkit-left;"><br /> </div><ul style="background-color: white; color: #4f4f4f; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: -webkit-left;"><li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-left: 25px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Emotional self-control: Keeping disruptive emotions and impulses under control</div></li> <li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-left: 25px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Transparency: Displaying honesty and integrity; trustworthiness</div></li> <li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-left: 25px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Adaptability: Flexibility in adapting to changing situations or overcoming obstacles</div></li> <li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-left: 25px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Achievement: The drive to improve performance to meet inner standards of excellence</div></li> <li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-left: 25px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Initiative: Readiness to act and seize opportunities</div></li> <li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-left: 25px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Optimism: Seeing the upside in events</div></li> </ul><div style="background-color: white; color: #4f4f4f; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: -webkit-left;"><br /> </div><div style="background-color: white; color: #4f4f4f; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: -webkit-left;"><b>Social Awareness</b></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #4f4f4f; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: -webkit-left;"><br /> </div><ul style="background-color: white; color: #4f4f4f; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: -webkit-left;"><li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-left: 25px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Empathy: Sensing others' emotions, understanding their perspective, and taking active interest in their concerns</div></li> <li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-left: 25px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Organizational awareness: Reading the currents, decision networks, and politics at the organizational level</div></li> <li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-left: 25px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Service: Recognizing and meeting follower, client, or customer needs</div></li> </ul><div style="background-color: white; color: #4f4f4f; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: -webkit-left;"><br /> </div><div style="background-color: white; color: #4f4f4f; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: -webkit-left;"><b>Relationship Management</b></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #4f4f4f; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: -webkit-left;"><br /> </div><ul style="background-color: white; color: #4f4f4f; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: -webkit-left;"><li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-left: 25px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Inspirational leadership: Guiding and motivating with a compelling vision</div></li> <li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-left: 25px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Influence: Wielding a range of tactics for persuasion</div></li> <li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-left: 25px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Developing others: Bolstering others' abilities through feedback and guidance</div></li> <li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-left: 25px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Change catalyst: Initiating, managing, and leading in a new direction</div></li> <li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-left: 25px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Conflict management: Resolving disagreements</div></li> <li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-left: 25px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Building bonds: Cultivating and maintaining a web of relationships</div></li> <li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-left: 25px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Teamwork and collaboration: Cooperation and team building</div></li> </ul><div style="background-color: white; color: #4f4f4f; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: -webkit-left;"><br /> </div><div style="background-color: white; color: #4f4f4f; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: -webkit-left;">There is general agreement that the factors that Goleman and his colleagues have identified are indeed emerging as a key element of workplace success. This is because the way that most organizations work has changed in the last 20 years. There are now fewer levels of management than there were and management styles tend to be less autocratic. In addition, the move towards more knowledge based, team working and customer focused jobs means that individuals generally have more autonomy, even at fairly low levels within organizations.<br style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" /><br style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" />If we accept that IQ plays a limited role in accounting for why some people are more successful than others, what is the evidence that emotional and social factors are important? In other words, is there a <a class="glink" href="http://www.psychometric-success.com/emotional-intelligence/business-case-emotional-intelligence.htm" style="color: #1e4c93; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.3em; text-decoration: none;">business case  emotional intelligence</a>?</div>

Goleman’s definition of emotional intelligence proposes four broad domains of EQ which consist of 19 competencies:

Self-Awareness Emotional self-awareness: Reading one's own emotions and recognizing their impact Accurate self-assessment; knowing on...

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