New Hampshire Health News Digest

Techdirt: E-Voting Concerns Going Mainstream? : " E-Voting Concerns Going Mainstream? from the nice,-but-too-late dept Just as the latest reports of e-voting glitches float in (yes, these are brand spanking new reports of problems), it appears that the issue of e-voting machines is hitting the mainstream. In the past, Diebold has been able to brush these concerns off as being from a bunch of conspiracy-theory kooks -- even as example after example after example showed that their voting machines have serious problems. This weekend, however, we saw Time Magazine question if e-voting machines can be trusted while the popular comic strip Foxtrot made fun of e-voting machines by suggesting that dressing up as one was about the scariest costume you could have on Halloween (while then noting that no one really cares). It's great that the issue of e-voting machine problems is clearly reaching the mainstream (despite the fact that evidence of problems has been shown for many, many ye...

Britons 'could be microchipped like dogs in a decade' | News | This is London Human beings may be forced to be 'microchipped' like pet dogs, a shocking official report into the rise of the Big Brother state has warned. The microchips - which are implanted under the skin - allow the wearer's movements to be tracked and store personal information about them. They could be used by companies who want to keep tabs on an employee's movements or by Governments who want a foolproof way of identifying their citizens - and storing information about them. The prospect of 'chip-citizens' - with its terrifying echoes of George Orwell's 'Big Brother' police state in the book 1984 - was raised in an official report for Britain's Information Commissioner Richard Thomas into the spread of surveillance technology. The report, drawn up by a team of respected academics, claims that Britain is a world-leader in the use of surveillance technology and its citiz...

World Tribune.com -- Ongoing 'intifada' in France has injured 2,500 police in 2006 Ongoing 'intifada' in France has injured 2,500 police in 2006 Special to World Tribune.com GEOSTRATEGY-DIRECT.COM Friday, October 27, 2006 This might have dropped below the radar, but Al Qaida and its allies are literally battling the Crusaders every day in Europe. And so far, Europe isn't doing so well. "We are in a state of civil war, orchestrated by radical Islamists," said Michel Thoomis, secretary general of the Action Police trade union. "This is not a question of urban violence any more. It is an intifada, with stones and firebombs." The French Interior Ministry has acknowledged the Muslim uprising. The ministry said more than 2,500 police officers have been injured in 2006. This amounts to at least 14 officers each day. The battles have been under-reported but alarming to French authorities. Muslim street commanders, who run lucrative drug networks, have or...

Muslim leader blames women for sex attacks. THE nation’s most senior Muslim cleric has blamed immodestly dressed women who don’t wear Islamic headdress for being preyed on by men and likened them to abandoned “meat” that attracts voracious animals. In a Ramadan sermon that has outraged Muslim women leaders, Sydney-based Sheik Taj Din al-Hilali also alluded to the infamous Sydney gang rapes, suggesting the attackers were not entirely to blame. While not specifically referring to the rapes, brutal attacks on four women for which a group of young Lebanese men received long jail sentences, Sheik Hilali said there were women who “sway suggestively” and wore make-up and immodest dress ... “and then you get a judge without mercy (rahma) and gives you 65 years”. “But the problem, but the problem all began with who?” he asked. The leader of the 2000 rapes in Sydney’s southwest, Bilal Skaf, a Muslim, was initially sentenced to 55 years’ jail, but later had the sentence reduce...

The flag of Islam should be flown over Leinster House, an Islamic extremist said tonight. Speaking in Dublin before addressing a Trinity College debate, Anjem Choudray also reiterated controversial views that Muslim violence is justified in certain circumstances. The British-born lawyer, 39, angered the Irish Government last year when he said that Ireland risked becoming a target for a 9/11 style attack because it allowed US war planes to refuel at Shannon Airport. Mr Choudray said: “As a Muslim, I believe Islam is superior to every other way of life and that it can resolve all the social and economic problems that Ireland suffers from. “And as a symbol of that, the flag of Islam should be flown over the Dáil. “This is symbolic of the fact that all societies will be run better according to God’s law.” Mr Choudray, who has visited Ireland several times, was invited by the Philosophical Society at Trinity College to debate Islamic violence with other speakers....

Secrets of greatness: Practice and hard work bring success - October 30, 2006 The good news is that your lack of a natural gift is irrelevant - talent has little or nothing to do with greatness. You can make yourself into any number of things, and you can even make yourself great. Scientific experts are producing remarkably consistent findings across a wide array of fields. Understand that talent doesn't mean intelligence, motivation or personality traits. It's an innate ability to do some specific activity especially well. British-based researchers Michael J. Howe, Jane W. Davidson and John A. Sluboda conclude in an extensive study, "The evidence we have surveyed ... does not support the [notion that] excelling is a consequence of possessing innate gifts." To see how the researchers could reach such a conclusion, consider the problem they were trying to solve. In virtually every field of endeavor, most people learn quickly at first, then more slowly and then stop dev...

French police face 'permanent intifada' - Yahoo! News EPINAY-SUR-SEINE, France - On a routine call, three unwitting police officers fell into a trap. A car darted out to block their path, and dozens of hooded youths surged out of the darkness to attack them with stones, bats and tear gas before fleeing. One officer was hospitalized. The recent ambush was emblematic of what some officers say has become a near-perpetual and increasingly violent conflict between police and gangs in tough, largely immigrant French neighborhoods that were the scene of a three-week paroxysm of rioting last year. One small police union claims officers are facing a “permanent intifada.” Police injuries have risen in the year since the wave of violence. National police reported 2,458 cases of violence against officers in the first six months of the year, on pace to top the 4,246 cases recorded for all of 2005 and the 3,842 in 2004. Firefighters and rescue workers have also been targeted ...

Boing Boing: Boy Scouts shill for MPAA with copyright merit badge : "Boy Scouts shill for MPAA with copyright merit badge The Los Angeles Council of the Boy Scouts of America will offer rewards to Scouts who absorb a brainwashing regime written by the MPAA. The merit badge patch in 'respecting copyright' will almost certainly not include any training on fair use, anything about the fact that the film industry is located in Hollywood because that was a safe-enough distance from Tom Edison that the its founders could infringe his patents with impunity; that record players, radios and VCRs were considered pirate technology until the law changed to accommodate them; or that the entertainment industry enriches itself without regard for creators, who are routinely sodomized through non-negotiable contracts and abusive royalty practices. I'm sure it won't mention the anti-competitive censorship masquerading as the Hollywood 'rating' system, or the way that the stu...

Confident students do worse in math; bad news for U.S. - CNN.com : "WASHINGTON (AP) -- Kids who are turned off by math often say they don't enjoy it, they aren't good at it and they see little point in it. Who knew that could be a formula for success? The nations with the best scores have the least happy, least confident math students, says a study by the Brookings Institution's Brown Center on Education Policy. Countries reporting higher levels of enjoyment and confidence among math students don't do as well in the subject, the study suggests. The results for the United States hover around the middle of the pack, both in terms of enjoyment and in test scores. In essence, happiness is overrated, says study author Tom Loveless. 'We might want to focus on the math that kids are learning and just be a little less obsessed with the fact that they have to enjoy every minute of it,' said Loveless, who directs the Brown Center and serves on a presidential advisory...

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Omega-3, junk food and the link between violence and what we eat Research with British and US offenders suggests nutritional deficiencies may play a key role in aggressive bevaviour [...] The Dutch government is currently conducting a large trial to see if nutritional supplements have the same effect on its prison population. And this week, new claims were made that fish oil had improved behaviour and reduced aggression among children with some of the most severe behavioural difficulties in the UK. Deficiency For the clinician in charge of the US study, Joseph Hibbeln, the results of his trial are not a miracle, but simply what you might predict if you understand the biochemistry of the brain and the biophysics of the brain cell membrane. His hypothesis is that modern industrialised diets may be changing the very architecture and functioning of the brain. We are suffering, he believes, from widespread diseases of deficiency. Just as vitamin C defi...

Can You Tell a Sunni From a Shiite? - New York Times : "FOR the past several months, I’ve been wrapping up lengthy interviews with Washington counterterrorism officials with a fundamental question: “Do you know the difference between a Sunni and a Shiite?” A “gotcha” question? Perhaps. But if knowing your enemy is the most basic rule of war, I don’t think it’s out of bounds. And as I quickly explain to my subjects, I’m not looking for theological explanations, just the basics: Who’s on what side today, and what does each want? After all, wouldn’t British counterterrorism officials responsible for Northern Ireland know the difference between Catholics and Protestants? In a remotely similar but far more lethal vein, the 1,400-year Sunni-Shiite rivalry is playing out in the streets of Baghdad, raising the specter of a breakup of Iraq into antagonistic states, one backed by Shiite Iran and the other by Saudi Arabia and other Sunni states. A complete collapse in Iraq could provide a ha...

ABC News: Tripping Your Way to Sobriety : "You are hooked on alcohol and you want help getting off the booze. You go to your doctor, and he or she says, 'Drop some acid.' That's right. LSD, the infamous drug of choice for many hippies in the 1960s and '70s. Lysergic acid diethylamide, the drug that caused hallucinations or 'tripping,' was, of course, outlawed, giving it immeasurable street cred in its time, before fading away as flower-painted bodies grew into gray-flannel suits. So, in the 21st century, why would a respected medical doctor even consider prescribing LSD as a wonder drug to help cure alcoholism? And will it actually happen? The answer, like an LSD trip, is elusive, but some in the scientific and medical community are beginning to discuss the possible merits of acid for this generation. Erika Dyck, an assistant professor at the University of Alberta, Canada, researches and teaches the history of medicine. She raised the issue after studying a...

Business 2.0...Big Innovations: Zopa - Sep. 20, 2006 : "The Innovation: Peer-to-peer lending The Disrupted: Traditional banks Any industry making a huge profit margin off its customers is a good candidate for disruption. Banking is a classic case -- just think of the 19 percent interest you pay on credit cards and the 2 percent you earn on your savings account. Zopa is closing that gap by using the Web to allow personal lending on a massive scale. The startup was the first company to introduce peer-to-peer lending in the United Kingdom 18 months ago and is about to launch in America. 'What Skype did to telecoms, this could do to banks,' says David Cowan of Bessemer Venture Partners, which contributed some of the $31 million in funding the startup has attracted to date. Scott Anthony, a managing director of Clayton Christensen's consulting firm, Innosight, is intrigued by the disruptive potential of peer-to-peer lending. 'Are there ways to loan amounts that banks wo...

LMNOP: America's Most Fonted: The 7 Worst Fonts : "America's Most Fonted: The 7 Worst Fonts" Ha ha. I love stuff like this!

CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Metro & Tri-State :: Daley: By 2016, cameras on 'almost every block' : "Security and terrorism won't be an issue if Chicago wins the right to host the 2016 Summer Olympic Games because, by that time, there'll be a surveillance camera on every corner, Mayor Daley said Wednesday. 'By the time 2016 [rolls around], we'll have more cameras than Washington, D.C. ... Our technology is more advanced than any other city in the world -- even compared to London -- dealing with our cameras and the sophistication of cameras and retro-fitting all the cameras downtown in new buildings, doing the CTA cameras,' Daley said. 'By 2016, I'll make you a bet. We'll have [cameras on] almost every block.' The mayor talked about the steady march toward a Big Brother city during a free-wheeling exchange with the Sun-Times editorial board after unveiling his proposed 2007 budget."

Canada troops battle 10-foot Afghan marijuana plants - CNN.com : "OTTAWA, Canada (Reuters) -- Canadian troops fighting Taliban militants in Afghanistan have stumbled across an unexpected and potent enemy -- almost impenetrable forests of marijuana plants 10 feet tall. General Rick Hillier, chief of the Canadian defense staff, said Thursday that Taliban fighters were using the forests as cover. In response, the crew of at least one armored car had camouflaged their vehicle with marijuana. 'The challenge is that marijuana plants absorb energy, heat very readily. It's very difficult to penetrate with thermal devices. ... And as a result you really have to be careful that the Taliban don't dodge in and out of those marijuana forests,' he said in a speech in Ottawa, Canada. 'We tried burning them with white phosphorous -- it didn't work. We tried burning them with diesel -- it didn't work. The plants are so full of water right now ... that we simply couldn...

Young shoppers want to pay with chip in skin | the Daily Mail : "Some customers are willing to have microchip implants as a means of paying in stores, a report out today says. Teenagers are more open to the idea of having a high-tech shopping experience, the Tomorrow's Shopping World report suggests. Around 8 per cent of 13 to 19-year-olds were open to the idea of microchip implants while 16 per cent wanted trolleys to be fitted with SatNav systems. This compared to just 5 per cent and 12 per cent respectively for adults asked the same questions. Two thirds of teenagers and 62 per cent of adults questioned for grocery think tank IGD's report wanted self-scanning systems at shop check-outs. Some 7 per cent of people in both age groups were willing to use biometric iris or retina recognition payment systems."

Cockroach-eating contest bugs animal group Oddly Enough - Reuters.com : "TORONTO (Reuters) - An animal rights group called Tuesday for a North American theme park operator to cancel a competition in which people will try to break the world cockroach-eating record. Theme park operator Six Flags Inc, based in New York, is staging the contest as part of a promotion leading up to Halloween in which it is also offering customers free entry or line-jumping advantages if they eat a live Madagascar hissing cockroach. The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) said it had been flooded with calls from children, adults and even anonymous employees of Six Flags opposing the record-breaking contest and the overall promotion. 'Insects do not deserve to be eaten alive especially for a gratuitous marketing gimmick,' PETA spokeswoman Jackie Vergerio told Reuters."

Napa Valley Register Online | Stories From ApBusiness : "A radical idea is sweeping the world of American bicycle manufacturing: building bikes that people will use for actual transportation. After decades of pushing models designed for recreation, from full-suspension mountain bikes to ever-faster road bikes, industry heavyweights are now moving into commuters -- rugged specimens made for riding to work. Nearly every major manufacturer has a new or revised commuter model for 2007. They may look like 1940s Schwinns, but materials like aluminum and carbon make the frames lighter, while technological advances mean better brakes, shock-absorbing seats, smoother shifters and even electric power. The models usually come with practical accessories, like racks for carrying briefcases, fenders for splash protection on wet roads, lights that turn on automatically at dusk and big chain guards to keep legs and clothing away from chain grease. Specialized's new Globe commuter line has nin...

WJZ: Healthwatch - ADD and ADHD - Harnessing the Power of ADHD : "With information about this disorder spreading quickly, many adults are suddenly realizing that their previously unexplainable childhood and adult problems may have stemmed from ADHD. Jergen, now in his late 30s, didn’t have a name for his problems until he was 22, and ironically, taking a class on special education. But, as Jergen explains in his book, The Little Monster, the signs started much earlier. 'As soon as my eyes would pop open after a nap, the crib would start to tremble and [my mother] would always know when the little monster was awake.' says Jergen. Growing Up Different The nickname 'little monster' was bestowed upon Robert as he destroyed everything in his path; his parents just didn’t understand that he couldn’t control his actions. Jergen describes numerous situations where he would impulsively throw a knife, dismantle a lamp or toss lit matches at a model ship, each time thinking a...

Potheads send Alzheimer's up in smoke | Health | The Australian : "IT seems illogical, but the same compound that addles the brains of marijuana users may help treat the symptoms and slow the onset of Alzheimer's disease, the leading cause of dementia among elderly people. In laboratory experiments, the compound, delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), preserved levels of a brain chemical that declines in Alzheimer's, permitting the build-up of brain-gumming 'amyloid plaques'. The plaques are the hallmark of Alzheimer's and its dementia-inducing damage. 'Our results provide a mechanism whereby the THC molecule can directly impact Alzheimer's disease pathology,' researchers reported in the US journal Molecular Pharmaceutics."

Aftonbladet: V�g av skadeg�relse i G�teborg Tonight there were power shortages all over Sweden’s second largest city, Gothenburg. “Youth gangs” took the opportunity, spreading the European tradition of “Ramadan Riots.” Within an hour most schools and commercial centers in the north eastern suburbs were vandalized. - It’s complete chaos in north eastern Gothenburg. “We’ve sent all available police units but there’s no way we can stop the vandalisation,” police spokesman Frank Karlsson tells gp.se. - Several youth gangs are wandering about smashing windows and breaking into schools, malls, banks and a retirement center.

Muslim cabbies refusing the blind and drinkers | NEWS.com.au MUSLIM taxi drivers are refusing to carry blind passengers with their guide dogs or anyone carrying alcohol. At least 20 dog-aided blind people have lodged discrimination complaints with the Victorian Taxi Directorate. Dozens more have voiced their anger. And there have been several complaints that drivers refuse to allow passengers to carry sealed bottles of alcohol. Victorian Taxi Association spokesman Neil Sach said the association had appealed to the mufti of Melbourne to give religious approval for Muslim cabbies to carry guide dogs. One Muslim driver, Imran, said yesterday the guide dog issue was difficult for him. “I don’t refuse to take people, but it’s hard for me because my religion tells me I should not go near dogs,” he said. There are about 2000 Muslims among drivers of Melbourne’s 10,000 taxis. Many are from countries with strict Islamic teachings about “unclean” dogs and the evils of alcohol...

Gallery scraps art, fearing Muslim rage -curator�|�UK�|�Reuters.co.uk : "PARIS (Reuters) - A London gallery has decided not to show some works of art because it fears they would upset Muslims, a curator said on Friday, a week after a German opera house canned a Mozart production for the same reason. The director of the Whitechapel Art Gallery decided to remove works by surrealist artist Hans Bellmer from an exhibition the day before it was due to open, one of the museum's curators, Agnes de la Beaumelle, told Reuters. 'The motive was simply to not shock the population of the Whitechapel neighbourhood, which is partly Muslim,' she said. The Whitechapel area in east London is home to many ethnic minorities including a large Bangladeshi community. The gallery issued a statement saying that some works were not included in the exhibition because of space constraints but declined to comment specifically on what Beaumelle said. Last week, Berlin's Deutsche Oper reignited ...

Google boss warns politicians about Internet power :: My Way News : "LONDON (Reuters) - Imagine being able to check instantly whether or not statements made by politicians were correct. That is the sort of service Google Inc. boss Eric Schmidt believes the Internet will offer within five years. Politicians have yet to appreciate the impact of the online world, which will also affect the outcome of elections, Schmidt said in an interview with the Financial Times published on Wednesday. He predicted that 'truth predictor' software would, within five years, 'hold politicians to account.' People would be able to use programs to check seemingly factual statements against historical data to see to see if they were correct. 'One of my messages to them (politicians) is to think about having every one of your voters online all the time, then inputting 'is this true or false.' We (at Google) are not in charge of truth but we might be able to give a probability,...

Did Democrats Page Mark Foley? - Yahoo! News the immediate take by Democrats and much of the mainstream media was that this was a classic example of Republican hypocrisy -- talking "morals" and "values" while all the time shielding a child predator. But it was nothing of the kind. If anything, the episode reveals the Democrats' hypocrisy about their own behavior. The fact that Foley resigned virtually within minutes of being told that ABC News had copies of his salacious e-mails and text messages indicates he at least felt shame for his actions. Can the same be said for Democrats? Sadly, it doesn't seem so. How else can you explain the following? In 1983, then-Democratic Rep. Gerry Studds of Massachusetts was caught in a similar situation. In his case, Studds had sex with a male teenage page -- something Foley hasn't been charged with. Did Studds express contrition? Resign? Quite the contrary. He rejected Congress' censure of him and continued to rep...

Internet thrives in post Saddam Iraq Moving Baghdad into cyberspace has been a feat of free- market ingenuity. Perhaps the hardest part is electricity. Much of Baghdad had electricity for 12-18 hours a day before the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. Most neighborhoods now get electricity from the grid for just four to six hours a day. It means ordinary people have to know their ohms from their amperes and their megabits from their kilohertz. Most middle class households now have cables snaking down the street to a neighborhood "generator man" who gives them diesel-generated power for a monthly fee of about $10 per ampere. Six or seven amperes are usually enough for a computer, a TV and a fridge. An air conditioner costs more. A neighborhood Internet cafe will sell a subscription for wireless Wi-Fi access to its satellite broadband hookup for about $40 a month. Most Iraqis have only experienced the Internet since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003.