New Hampshire Health News Digest

Telegraph | News | Iran's war on weblogs - the new voice of dissidents : " Iran's war on weblogs - the new voice of dissidents By Lillian Swift Iran is fighting a constant battle against dissenters who are using the internet to voice criticism of the Islamic Republic and to push for freedom and democracy. With the closure of most independent newspapers and magazines in Iran, blogging - publishing an online diary - has become a powerful tool in the dissidents' arsenal by providing individuals with a public voice. An Iranian blogger known as Saena, wrote recently: 'Weblogs are one weapon that even the Islamic Republic cannot beat.' There are an estimated 100,000 active blogs written by Iranians both within the country and across the diaspora. Persian ties with French as the second most common blogging language after English. Over the last year, however, Iranian authorities have arrested and beaten dozens of bloggers, charged with crimes such a...

Heavy marijuana use damages adolescent brains-study CHICAGO (Reuters) - Adolescents who regularly smoke marijuana risk damaging a key brain pathway associated with language development and some predisposed to schizophrenia may contract the illness early, researchers said on Wednesday. Brain scans revealed microscopic abnormalities in a region of the brain that governs higher aspects of language and listening functions in adolescents who are heavy marijuana smokers. Similar damage to the bundle of fibers, called the arcuate fasciculus, that connect the Broca's area in the left frontal lobe and the Wernicke's area in the left temporal lobe was found in the brains of marijuana smokers and schizophrenics studied. "These findings suggest that in addition to interfering with normal brain development, heavy marijuana use in adolescents may also lead to an earlier onset of schizophrenia in individuals who are genetically predisposed to the disorder," said psychiatry professor...

Iran: President Says Light Surrounded Him During UN Speech By Golnaz Esfandiari Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad says that when he delivered his speech at the UN General Assembly in September, he felt there was a light around him and that the attention of the world leaders in the audience was unblinkingly focused upon him. The claim has caused a stir in Iran, as a transcript and video recording of Ahmadinejad's comments have been published on an Iranian website, baztab.com. There are also reports that a CD showing Ahmadinejad making the comments also has been widely distributed in Iran. Is the Iranian president claiming to be divinely inspired? Prague, 29 November 2005 (RFE/RL) -- According the report by baztab.com, President Ahmadinejad made the comments in a meeting with one of Iran's leading clerics, Ayatollah Javadi Amoli. Ahmadinejad said that someone present at the UN told him that a light surrounded him while he was delivering his speech to the General A...

courant.com | `We Do Have A Plan' `We Do Have A Plan' Returning From Iraq, Lieberman Praises U.S. Strategy, Urges Bush To Tout Successes November 29, 2005 By DAVID LIGHTMAN, Washington Bureau Chief WASHINGTON -- Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, just back from Iraq, wants President Bush to give the American people details about the progress being made in that country - from military triumphs to the proliferation of cellphones and satellite dishes. Bush is scheduled to give the nation a progress report on Iraq Wednesday, his first such address since Congress erupted two weeks ago in bitter debate over the war. ADVERTISEMENT Supporters and critics alike have been urging the president to outline his strategy for some time. Critics sense a mission adrift. Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, D-Conn., visited Iraq last month, and came away saying "we need a major course correction" in American policy - notably "we need to let Iraqis know we're not there forever....

The American Spectator :: As Thanksgiving Approaches As Thanksgiving Approaches By Ben Stein Published 11/21/2005 12:10:11 AM Herewith, admittedly from the safety of the glorious nation called The United States of America, far from Ar-Ramadi, a few respectful thoughts about the war in Iraq: 1.) Conducting the war against al-Qaeda and the terrorists is a major drain on the energies of this administration. It would be a major drain on the energies of any administration. For Special Prosecutor Fitzgerald to be further draining the energies of the administration with his perjury indictment of Scooter Libby would be a matter for the most urgent concern if the charges against Libby were serious. But since by common consent of every serious criminal lawyer I have talked to, they are simply matters of routine politics being made criminal so that Fitzgerald can get on the cover of magazines -- this is scandalous. That is, to bring perjury charges over a matter where there is no unde...

matthewgood/mblog Out Into The Light The Civilian Casualty Fable in Iraq Commentary by Aslan, 11/26/05, 10:46am. Comments (6) One of the foundation blocks of anti-war protest against the United States in Iraq is civilian casualties, which viscerally represents a country in ruin, a tragic human face on Bush’s warmongering. This perspective, of course, ignores the civilian carnage during the reign of Saddam Hussein (see Fuzzy Moral Math) and instead focuses on the perceived chaos in Iraq today. And this newfound concern for Iraqi civilian life is not only a staple of the anti-war Left, it is a convenient club wielded by mainstream Democrats in Washington, who argue that chaos in Iraq represents failed policy. With so much emphasis on Iraqi civilian death, one would expect the casualty statistics to be very well understood. An uncritical audience, for example, might be inclined to accept at face value the Lancet (a British medical journal) analysis estimating 100,000 civilian ...

Sympathetic Vibrations Democrats fumed last week at Vice President Cheney’s suggestion that criticism of the administration’s war policies was itself becoming a hindrance to the war effort. But a new poll indicates most Americans are sympathetic to Cheney’s point. Seventy percent of people surveyed said that criticism of the war by Democratic senators hurts troop morale — with 44 percent saying morale is hurt “a lot,” according to a poll taken by RT Strategies. Even self-identified Democrats agree: 55 percent believe criticism hurts morale, while 21 percent say it helps morale. The results surely will rankle many Democrats, who argue that it is patriotic and supportive of the troops to call attention to what they believe are deep flaws in President Bush’s Iraq strategy. But the survey itself cannot be dismissed as a partisan attack. The RTs in RT Strategies are Thomas Riehle, a Democrat, and Lance Tarrance, a veteran GOP pollster. Their poll also indicates ...

Independent Online Edition > Charity cash for Palestinian poor was siphoned to suicide bombers Millions of pounds donated by British and other European charities to help the Palestinian poor were unwittingly diverted to fund terror and support the families of suicide bombers, Israeli prosecutors claimed yesterday. Ahmed Salatna, 43, a Hamas activist from the West Bank town of Jenin, was remanded in custody by a military court charged with distributing €9m (£6.2m) for such purposes over the past nine years. The recipients are alleged to have included the family of a young man who blew himself up at the Sbarro pizza restaurant in Jerusalem in August 2001, killing 15 people and wounding 107. Hamas and Islamic Jihad acknowledged responsibility. The charge sheet names two British charities, Human Appeal International and Interpal. Human Appeal is a broadly based fundraising organisation, currently helping victims of the Pakistani earthquake. Interpal describes itse...

Bruce Willis comes out fighting for Iraq’s forgotten GI heroes Sarah Baxter, Washington ANGERED by negative portrayals of the conflict in Iraq, Bruce Willis, the Hollywood star, is to make a pro-war film in which American soldiers will be depicted as brave fighters for freedom and democracy. It will be based on the exploits of the heavily decorated members of Deuce Four, the 1st Battalion, 24th Infantry, which has spent the past year battling insurgents in the northern Iraqi town of Mosul. Willis attended Deuce Four’s homecoming ball this month in Seattle, Washington, where the soldiers are on leave, along with Stephen Eads, the producer of Armageddon and The Sixth Sense. The 50-year-old actor said that he was in talks about a film of “these guys who do what they are asked to for very little money to defend and fight for what they consider to be freedom”. Unlike many Hollywood stars Willis supports the war and recently offered a $1m (about £583,000) bounty for the capt...

Silenced gene in worm shows role in regeneration : "Silenced gene in worm shows role in regeneration When smedwi-2 gene is silenced, regeneration stopped in planarians SALT LAKE CITY -- Researchers at the University of Utah have discovered that when a gene called smedwi-2 is silenced in the adult stem cells of planarians, the quarter-inch long worm is unable to carry out a biological process that has mystified scientists for centuries: regeneration. [...] The study follows a landmark work that he and Reddien published last spring in Developmental Cell, in which, using a method of gene silencing called RNA interference (RNAi), the researchers silenced more than 1,000 planarian genes, some of which they identified as essential for regeneration. The Science study focus on one such gene, smedwi-2, and brings a new level of genetic detail to understanding planarian regeneration. Planarians long have fascinated biologists with their ability to regenerate. A worm sliced in two...

Fundamentalism in French Workplace - Los Angeles Times PARIS — Employees set up clandestine prayer areas on the grounds of the Euro Disney resort. Workers for a cargo firm at Charles de Gaulle airport praise the Sept. 11 attacks. A Brinks technician is charged with pulling off a million-dollar heist for a Moroccan terrorist group allegedly led by his brother. Female converts to Islam operate a day-care center that authorities eventually shut down because of its religious radicalism. As France grapples with the rise of Islamic extremism abroad and at home, the line between legitimate religious expression and extremist subversion can be blurry. But a recent study by a think tank here paints a picture of rising fundamentalism in the workplace, ranging from proselytizing to pressure tactics to criminal activities. In companies such as supermarket chains in immigrant-heavy areas, for instance, militant recruiters cause workplace tensions by imposing fund...

Britain, UK news from The Times and The Sunday Times - Marlowe's Koran-burning hero is censored to avoid Muslim anger : "Marlowe's Koran-burning hero is censored to avoid Muslim anger By Dalya Alberge, Arts Correspondent IT WAS the surprise hit of the autumn season, selling out for its entire run and inspiring rave reviews. But now the producers of Tamburlaine the Great have come under fire for censoring Christopher Marlowe’s 1580s masterpiece to avoid upsetting Muslims. Audiences at the Barbican in London did not see the Koran being burnt, as Marlowe intended, because David Farr, who directed and adapted the classic play, feared that it would inflame passions in the light of the London bombings. Simon Reade, artistic director of the Bristol Old Vic, said that if they had not altered the original it “would have unnecessarily raised the hackles of a significant proportion of one of the world’s great religions”. The burning of the Koran was “smoothed over”, ...

Former Canadian Minister Of Defence Asks Canadian Parliament Asked To Hold Hearings On Relations With Alien "Et" Civilizations - Yahoo! News : (PRWEB) - OTTAWA, CANADA (PRWEB) November 24, 2005 -- A former Canadian Minister of Defence and Deputy Prime Minister under Pierre Trudeau has joined forces with three Non-governmental organizations to ask the Parliament of Canada to hold public hearings on Exopolitics -- relations with “ETs.” By “ETs,” Mr. Hellyer and these organizations mean ethical, advanced extraterrestrial civilizations that may now be visiting Earth. On September 25, 2005, in a startling speech at the University of Toronto that caught the attention of mainstream newspapers and magazines, Paul Hellyer, Canada’s Defence Minister from 1963-67 under Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Prime Minister Lester Pearson, publicly stated: 'UFOs, are as real as the airplanes that fly over your head.' Mr. Hellyer went on to say, 'I'm so concerned about what...

Why the middle classes go scavenging in dustbins From James Bone in New York THE Thanksgiving holiday is over and the frenzied Christmas shopping season has begun. This is bonanza time for the tribe of rummaging Americans known as “freegans”. The anti-capitalist freegans — the name combines “free” and “vegan” — are so appalled by the waste of the consumer society that they try to live on the leftovers, scavenging for food in supermarket dustbins. “It’s fun. It’s a thrill. It’s more fun and more satisfying than just going to the store and saying, ‘I wanted some bread and I got it’. It’s the surprise — and the prize,” said Janet Kalish, a New York high school teacher who describes herself as “60 per cent freegan”. A 1997 study by the US Department of Agriculture estimated that the US wastes about 43 billion kilograms of food a year. That is about 27 per cent of US production, but the true figure is as much as 50 per cent, according to ten years of research by Timothy Jone...

Arab leaders in Hevron have contacted the city’s Jewish leaders for help in getting rid of self-proclaimed anarchist volunteers who, they complain, are destroying their traditional way of life. Arab leaders in Hevron have contacted the city’s Jewish leaders for help in getting rid of self-proclaimed anarchist volunteers who, they complain, are destroying their traditional way of life. The anarchists, many of whom are members of the International Solidarity Movement, flock to flashpoints throughout Judea and Samaria, ostensibly to help PA Arabs contend with IDF closures and protect them from harassment. In actuality, many of the volunteers seek confrontations with IDF soldiers and local Jewish residents, taking advantage of their Western passports to cause havoc – knowing that, at worst, they will be deported, not jailed. The local Arabs in the Hevron region whom the activists claim to be helping are now complaining that the American and European students behave in...

New America Foundation : article -2252- "A New Day in Iran" "A New Day in Iran" -2252- A New Day in Iran The regime may inflame Washington, but young Iranians say they admire, of all places, America By Afshin Molavi Fellow Smithsonian Magazine March 1, 2005 The police officer stepped into the traffic, blocking our car. Tapping the hood twice, he waved us to the side of the road. My driver, Amir, who had been grinning broadly to the Persian pop his new speaker system thumped out, turned grim. “I don’t have a downtown permit,” he said, referring to the official sticker allowing cars in central Tehran at rush hour. “It could be a heavy fine.” We stepped out of the car and approached the officer. He was young, not more than 25, with a peach fuzz mustache. “I’m a journalist from America,” I said in Persian. “Please write the ticket in my name. It’s my fault.” “You have come from America?” the officer asked. “Do you know Car . . . uh . . . Carson C...

Researchers Have 'Connected The Dots': Low-Carb Improves Metabolic Syndrome Livin' La Vida Low-Carb Dr. Richard Feinman and Dr. Jeff Volek are heroes of the low-carb lifestyle Despite the fact that the low-carb lifestyle has been openly ridiculed, condemned, and described in every negative light possible this year by the media and health experts, a new study released on Wednesday found that the benefits of following such a plan may be better than previously thought. Published in this week's issue of the journal Nutrition & Metabolism, the study is being heralded as a "classic light bulb moment" and a scientific breakthrough for people who believe in livin' la vida low-carb. Dr. Richard Feinman of SUNY Downstate and Dr. Jeff Volek from the University of Connecticut were looking at the features of metabolic syndrome and discovered carbohydrate-restricted diets improve each of those factors. Metabolic syndrome includes anything that in...

Arutz Sheva - Israel National News White Supremacist David Duke in Syria 02:29 Nov 24, '05 / 22 Cheshvan 5766 (IsraelNN.com) Former Ku Klux Klan leader and Louisiana State Representative David Duke was in Syria on Monday to express solidarity with Damascus. At a press conference in the Damascus' Rawda Square, Duke said, "I have come to Syria to express my support for the Syrian people.... It's the duty of every free man to reject the conspiracies and threats Syria is exposed to." Duke charged that pro-Israel neo-conservatives in the US are controlling American foreign policy and that "Zionist-controlled mass media" are hiding "the reality of Israeli terrorism against the Arabs." Attending the press conference were several members of the Syrian parliament, and Arab and foreign correspondents, as well as representatives from Russian academia. How ironic that the liberals who crow about how they are so un-racist, despite their ra...

Wi-Fi mosquito killer coming to a porch near you | CNET News.com Wi-Fi mosquito killer coming to a porch near you By Stefanie Olsen Staff Writer, CNET News.com Published: November 21, 2005, 4:00 AM PST Tell us what you think about this storyTalkBack E-mail this story to a friendE-mail View this story formatted for printingPrint See links from elsewhere to this story (TrackBacks/Pingbacks)TrackBack A biotechnology company with a specialty in killing mosquitoes is turning to wireless technology and computers to make a killing for itself. American Biophysics, a small private company based in North Kingstown, R.I., runs a healthy business selling the "Mosquito Magnet," a system to rid American backyards of biting insects, according to its new CEO Devin Hosea. Simply described, the magnet emits a humanlike scent that includes carbon dioxide and moisture to attract bloodsucking insects. When the bugs flutter past, they're sucked into and suffocated by a vacuuml...

Ayaan Hirsi Ali nurtures a dream of making a muslim "Life of Brian" with all the juicy details of the prophet Muhammed's life as a conqueror and womanizer - and if possible in Denmark. All they have to do is call Interview with Ayaan Hirsi Ali It's Your Life or Your Thoughts By Helle Merete Brix and Lars Hedegaard Disturbing questions about the massive muslim presence in Europe are becoming more urgent by the day: It it possible to integrate muslims to become part of Europe? Will we have a liberal version of islam? And if not, what is there to look forward to? Civil war? Dissolution? An islamic take-over? If your head is full of such nagging thoughts, it is a solace to meet Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the liberal Dutch politician and originally muslim immigrant from Somalia. Since the murder of Dutch film maker Theo van Gogh, for whose strongly islam-critical film "Submission I" Ms. Ali wrote the script, Hirsi Ali between the two journalists Lars He...

Has Al-Zarqawi Run Out of Room? By Fred Burton The U.S. military claimed it nearly captured al Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi during a raid in Mosul earlier this week. In fact, some early press reports said al-Zarqawi might have been among several insurgents who died during the raid -- some killed by U.S. troops, others by their own hand -- but those later were denied by the White House and the Pentagon. Now, al-Zarqawi has had some narrow scrapes before, and his death has been rumored in the past, but in this case there are several reasons to believe that U.S. troops might indeed have been acting on a hot lead that brought them in close. Among these, perhaps the most significant is the intense shakedown that has been under way in Jordan since the Nov. 9 hotel bombings in Amman. We wouldn't put too much faith in any direct intelligence about al-Zarqawi's whereabouts having come from the failed female suicide bomber who was arrested. But given the long histo...

Salon.com Technology | Riding along with the Internet Bookmobile Angered by a law that extends copyright terms for 20 years, a crusader named Brewster Kahle wants to use the Internet to make books available to everyone. - - - - - - - - - - - - By Richard Koman Sept. 30, Belle Haven School, East Palo Alto, Calif. "Woohoo! We're making books!" The Internet Bookmobile has arrived at its first stop: the playground of Belle Haven School, a public K-8 school in this working-class community of Latino, black and Pacific Islander families. Brewster Kahle, director of the Internet Archive and mastermind of the Bookmobile, is printing, binding and cutting books for a crowd of fourth-graders. After a girl works an oversized paper cutter to make the final cut that turns some computer printouts into a finished copy of "Alice in Wonderland," Kahle holds the finished product up. "That's it, we made a book," he says triumphantly. The Internet Book...

The Google Story: An Excerpt Chapter 26: Googling Your Genes Not since Gutenberg invented the modern printing press more than 500 years ago, making books and scientific tomes affordable and widely available to the masses, has any new invention empowered individuals or transformed access to information as profoundly as Google. I first became aware of this while covering Google as a beat reporter for The Washington Post. What galvanized my deep interest in the company was its unconventional initial public offering in August 2004 when the firm thumbed its nose at Wall Street by doing the first and only multi-billion dollar IPO using computers, rather than Wall Street bankers, to allocate its hot shares of stock. A few months later, in the fall of 2004, I decided to write the first biography of Google, tracing its short history from the time founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page met at Stanford in 1995 until the present. In my view, this is the hottest business, media and technology ...

VillageSoup Community Letters - VillageSoup Rep. John Murtha Urged Somalia Pullout in '93 : "Rep. John Murtha Urged Somalia Pullout in '93 Monday, Nov. 21, 2005 9:57 a.m. EST Excerpts: http://newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/11/21/100353.shtml After terrorists attacked U.S. troops in Mogadishu, Somalia 12 years ago, anti-Iraq war Democrat, Rep. John Murtha urged then-President Clinton to begin a complete pullout of U.S. troops from the region. Clinton took the advice and ordered the withdrawal - a decision that Osama bin Laden would later credit with emboldening his terrorist fighters and encouraging him to mount further attacks against the U.S. 'Our welcome has been worn out,' Rep Murtha told NBC's 'Today' show in Sept. 1993, a month after 4 U.S. Military Police had been killed in Somalia by a remote-detonated land mine. The Pennsylvania Democrat announced that President Clinton had been 'listening to our suggestions. And I thi...

OpinionJournal - Featured Article : "Atta in Prague? An Iraqi prisoner holds the answer to this 9/11 mystery. BY EDWARD JAY EPSTEIN Tuesday, November 22, 2005 12:01 a.m. EST PRAGUE--On Oct. 27, 2001, the New York Times reported (erroneously) that 9/11 hijacker Mohamed Atta 'flew to the Czech Republic on April 8 and met with [an] Iraqi intelligence officer,' helping to give credence to the so-called Prague connection. It subsequently cast doubt on it, editorializing in November 2005 that the alleged meeting between the hijacker and the Iraqi was part of President Bush and his team's 'rewriting of history' based on nothing more than a false tale 'from an unreliable drunk.' But was the putative Prague connection solely an invention of the Bush administration--or was it the product of an incomplete intelligence operation? To sort out the confusion, I met earlier this month in Prague with Jiri Ruzek, chief at the time of the Czech counterintellige...

Telegraph | Opinion | Listen to the word on the 'Arab street' : "On Friday, the allegedly explosive 'Arab street' finally exploded, in the largest demonstration against al-Qa'eda or its affiliates seen in the Middle East. 'Zarqawi,' shouted 200,000 Jordanians, 'from Amman we say to you, you are a coward!' Also 'the enemy of Allah' - which, for a jihadist, isn't what they call on Broadway a money review. The old head-hacker was sufficiently rattled by the critical pans of his Jordanian hotel bombings that he issued the first IRA-style apology in al-Qa'eda's history. 'People of Jordan, we did not undertake to blow up any wedding parties,' he said. 'For those Muslims who were killed, we ask God to show them mercy, for they were not targets.' Yeah, right. Tell it to the non-Marines. It was perfectly obvious to Ali Hussein Ali al-Shamari and his missus what was going on when they strolled into the ballroom o...

Why $5 Gas Is Good for America The skyrocketing cost of oil is sending pump prices soaring. But it's also subsidizing research into new technologies that can change the energy game. So rising oil prices are more than just an irritant or even an ominous nick out of the GDP. They're an invitation to corn and coal and hydrogen. For anyone with a fresh idea, expensive oil is as good as a subsidy - with no political strings attached. Indeed, every extra penny you pay at the pump is an incentive for some aspiring energy mogul to find another fuel. For the better part of a century, cheap oil has fatally undercut all comers, not to mention smothered high-minded campaigns for conservation, increased efficiency, and energy independence. But growing demand is outrunning the oil industry's carefully computed supply curves, bidding up long-term expectations for the price of energy. The long term may not mean a lot when you're standing at the pump, but the oil industry lives...

Exiled Iranian Says Nation Hides Materials By BARRY SCHWEID WASHINGTON (AP) - An Iranian exile who opposes his country's Islamic government said Monday that Iran's military is building a series of secret tunnels to hide equipment for missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads. Alireza Jafarzadeh, who helped expose nuclear facilities in Iran in the past, told a news conference in September that tunnels were under construction mainly in an area called Parchin. But on Monday he said the secret construction of missiles extends well beyond that location. He said that on orders of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei the Iranian defense ministry has taken over an area in eastern and southern regions of Tehran. North Korean experts have cooperated with Iran in the design and building of the complex, producing blueprints, for instance, the dissident said. A leading Iranian aerospace group, Hemmat Industries, is located in the area and is building three versions of Shahab and ...