Non Fluffy Wicca

Taking medicine back to nature (ScienceAlert):


Ancient cultures never doubted the healing powers of plants and animals. A sick person turned to their local medicine man, wise woman or witch doctor, who would mix a treatment made from local plants, bark, herbs and perhaps even parts of insects, amphibians, reptiles and birds.

For thousands of years before willow bark was used to create aspirin and the opium poppy to make morphine people knew about their pain-relieving properties.

Now phytochemicals are again high on medical science’s priority list.

You would have to live at the bottom of the ocean to have missed the glowing reports about the omega-3 fatty acids in fish oil. And don’t be too quick to recoil at early man’s reptile fascination: US scientists are studying the proteins in crocodile and alligator blood for their powerful infection-fighting properties.

Curcumin from tumeric, capsaicin from chillies, resveratrol from grapes, quercetin from strawberries and epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) from green tea are among the thousands of compounds being investigated for their powerful therapeutic benefits – and Western Australian scientists are at the forefront of some of this research.

Dr Jonathan Hodgson from the Centre for Food and Genomic Medicine, based at the WA Institute for Medical Research, is internationally recognised for his population-based findings on the benefits of green tea.

“Drinking green tea to promote good health goes back 2,000 years,” he says.

“Ancient people recognised the efficacy of phytochemicals – those nutrients in plants that may not be essential for survival but certainly may be helpful in certain situations. But recently scientists have said, ‘Where is the evidence of these health benefits?’

“Our studies have certainly found evidence of the short-term cardiovascular benefits (of drinking green tea) and our latest study is looking for benefits in the longer-term.”

Renowned Alzheimer’s researcher Ralph Martins does not need to be convinced of the potential of certain natural compounds. He is about to launch a three-year study into the synergistic effects of a cocktail containing curcumin, fish oil, green tea and lipoic acid, which is found in liver, spinach and broccoli.

Importantly, he says, funding bodies are also becoming more open-minded about so-called “alternatives”.

“The benefits of certain plants and animals have been known for centuries, but this is now being acknowledged by the mainstream,” he says. “The fact that the NHMRC (National Health and Medical Research Council) has recognised this with a grant of nearly half a million dollars for our study is a sign that they are being accepted.”

Professor Martins, of Edith Cowan University, and collaborator Dr Matthew Sharman believe that, in combination, the powerful antioxidants in their study could help to suppress the toxic form of a protein called beta amyloid which causes Alzheimer’s disease.

“In my very first published paper in 1986 we were the first in the world to show that in the case of Alzheimer’s the brain was being oxidised,” he says.

“Over the years we have identified the best antioxidants, and these are it. Lipoic acid is metal-chelating and beta amyloid binds with copper and zinc. Fish oil we probably have the most excitement about. A high cholesterol diet has shown to be associated with a high level of beta amyloid and a high-fish diet is shown to suppress this build up.”

He says Dr Sharman had concluded a major study to find the “magic dose” that will ensure these phytochemicals cross the blood-brain barrier without toxic side-effects.

“We want to optimise beneficial effects. We want the results to be something that is really profound.”

At the University of Western Australia, too, researchers have been focusing on dosage of these natural compounds which, in their pure form, are often poorly absorbed by the body.

Nigel Clifford of the Centre for Strategic Nano-Fabrication, has come up with a novel method to deliver curcumin, the curry spice credited with lowered rates of certain cancers in Asia compared with the West.

Mr Clifford’s mesoporous silica capsules are impregnated with tiny pores through which the curcumin is released slowly, enabling it to remain in the body at a consistent level.

In the past month his paper on the nano-invention has become the most downloaded publication on the online version of the Materials Chemistry journal.

Professor Colin Raston, director of the centre, says the work could give doctors the ability to deliver curcumin and other drugs in a less toxic way with fewer side effects.

Growing bacterial resistance to antibiotics – resulting in the ‘superbugs’ affecting many hospitals – has also renewed medicine’s interest in natural antiseptics such as tea tree oil.

Numerous studies by Professor Tom Riley of UWA Microbiology have shown the traditional Aboriginal bush medicine has powerful anti-microbial qualities.

It is important, says Professor Riley, for the oil to be seen as “bona fide”, far removed from the “realms of quackery”.  

Ready acceptance of tea tree oil by medical science may not be far off.

But, Dr Hodgson says, it will take researchers many years to screen the hundreds of thousands of combinations of natural compounds – whether from spinach, sea sponges or snakes – that could benefit humankind.

“What is clear is that we are still only scratching the surface of the potential of plants and I’m sure there are many valuable bioactive compounds still to be discovered,” he says.

Posted by mikki at 11:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Law.com - Allergic Mother Loses Attempt to Prohibit Kids' Contact With Cat:


A woman who claimed that she is allergic to her ex-husband's cat cannot prevent their two children from visiting their father's home, a Long Island, N.Y., judge has ruled.

Following a hearing earlier this month in Mandel v. Mandel, 203448/06, Acting Supreme Court Justice Hope S. Zimmerman of Nassau County ruled that there was no "legal or factual basis to exclude the children" from their father's apartment.

The feline in question, an 18-month-old orange and white male tabby named Indie, was acquired by Stanley Mandel in 2006, after he moved out of the home he shared with Susan Mandel. The couple is in the process of getting a divorce.

The parties' 13- and 16-year-old sons live with Ms. Mandel but visit their father once during the week and during every other weekend.

According to the decision, Ms. Mandel is allergic to dogs, cats and certain foods and takes medications for her condition.

In November 2006, Ms. Mandel e-mailed her husband, asking him to "take certain precautions with the children" so that her health would not be jeopardized after the children returned from visiting their father.

In June or July 2007, Ms. Mandel testified that she was hospitalized with a "severe attack brought on by exposure to the cat through the children." Since then, the children had not visited their father at his apartment.

Ms. Mandel claimed that prolonged exposure to Indie had prompted the attack and she is now required to take stronger medication. None of her friends have cats, she testified, and none of her co-workers own cats.

In contrast, Mr. Mandel testified that Ms. Mandel did not object to the children visiting him at the home until he stopped paying the mortgage on the marital residence.

From November 2006 until July 2007, he said, the children would change their clothes at his apartment before returning home or in the garage of the wife's residence before entering the dwelling.

Further, Mr. Mandel claimed, the children "regularly socialize" at the marital residence with friends who have cats and dogs as pets. Neither side asserted that the children are allergic to Indie.

As the parties "have not cited nor has the court found any reported case on the issue presented," Justice Zimmerman analyzed the issue in terms of harmful activities in the presence of children restricted by courts, such as smoking.

In Lizzio v. Jackson, 226 AD2d 760, the court restricted the parent smoking from anywhere in the household; smoking was limited to one room in the house outside of the child's presence in Roofeh v. Roofeh, 138 Misc 2d. 889. In a third case cited by the judge, DeMatteo v. DeMatteo, 194 Misc. 2d 640, the court prohibited parents from smoking in the home even if the children were not present, on the theory that secondhand smoke "could very well cause cancer in children exposed to it."

However, she found that Indie's presence here offered no legal or factual basis for similar restrictions.

Instead, Zimmerman instructed that Ms. Mandel should "make a change of clothes available in the garage for the children." In turn, the children will take "the reasonable precaution" of changing their clothes before re-entering their home after visits with their father.

Posted by mikki at 10:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Crawford and ID Creep:

Thanks to the Concurring Opinions gang for inviting me back for another visit!

I will leave it to the likes of the incredible Rick Hasen and SCOTUSBlog’s Lyle Deniston — among many, many others — to talk about the important election law elements of Monday’s Supreme Court decision on voter identification in Crawford v. Marion County Election Board. But if you are a hammer everything is a nail, and if you are a privacy scholar every newspaper story is about privacy. And the privacy implications here are rather clear.

Quite appropriately, the case was briefed, argued, and decided on the basis of the burden that Indiana’s identification requirements placed (or didn’t place) on the right to vote. The seminal cases were Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections, which held the poll tax unconstitutional, and its progeny. Other key sources cited in the opinions included the Carter-Baker Commission report and two recent federal electoral reform statutes, the motor voter law and the Help America Vote Act. The burdens considered by both the lead opinion and the dissents were pragmatic ones, largely monetary cost and inconvenience.

What about privacy burdens?

Election law doctrine does not leave much room for their consideration. In other contexts, identification requirements are viewed as potential privacy intrusions. The continuing controversy and the backlash in state legislatures against the federal Real ID Act (see, e.g., here and here) is one such area. Likewise, the 2004 decision in Hiibel, though it upheld state “stop-and-identify” laws allowing police officers to demand that a suspect disclose his or her name, was also analyzed primarily as a privacy issue.

But in Crawford, there is no mention of the privacy impact of turning voting into yet another important activity that you cannot accomplish without “showing your papers.” And since it is now basically impossible to board an aircraft, enter a federal building, or cash a check without showing ID, voter ID requirements become just another event in an accelerating trend toward an ID society.

I’m not necessarily saying that Crawford was wrongly decided. But it is remarkable that “ID creep” has played such a small role in both the legal argument and the news coverage related to this controversial case. Indeed, I suspect that crabwise movement toward a de facto ID requirement, through individual rules that necessitate ID in more and more settings, is worse than a straightforward debate on a national ID card. Great Britain is going through that debate now (see, e.g., here and here); if the end result is a true national ID then at least all the arguments for and against will be fully aired. Just a thought.

[Cross-posted at Concurring Opinions.]

Posted by mikki at 10:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

While sex education should be done at home IN CONJUNCTION with health education about one's own body in schools, I believe that if we are indeed a religion that celebrates responsible fertility in all forms, we must have the knowledge to be responsible WITH. This article brings up some very disturbing issues, from a 14 year old not knowing you can get STDs from non-vaginal sex, to the ridiculous claim that sweat and tears are a conduit for HIV.

It worries me how widespread this crap could be. It worries me that we are raising a society of uneducated people who will pass the same garbage along to their children.

Posted by mikki at 09:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Full story

The COFEE, which stands for Computer Online Forensic Evidence Extractor, is a USB "thumb drive" that was quietly distributed to a handful of law-enforcement agencies last June. Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith described its use to the 350 law-enforcement experts attending a company conference Monday.

The device contains 150 commands that can dramatically cut the time it takes to gather digital evidence, which is becoming more important in real-world crime, as well as cybercrime. It can decrypt passwords and analyze a computer's Internet activity, as well as data stored in the computer.

It also eliminates the need to seize a computer itself, which typically involves disconnecting from a network, turning off the power and potentially losing data. Instead, the investigator can scan for evidence on site.

More than 2,000 officers in 15 countries, including Poland, the Philippines, Germany, New Zealand and the United States, are using the device, which Microsoft provides free.

Posted by mikki at 09:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Atheist soldier claims harassment - CNN.com:


JUNCTION CITY, Kansas (AP) -- Like hundreds of young men joining the Army in recent years, Jeremy Hall professes a desire to serve his country while it fights terrorism.


Spc. Jeremy Hall says the pressure to believe in God is so strong, "I was ashamed to say that I was an atheist."

But the short and soft-spoken specialist is at the center of a legal controversy. He has filed a lawsuit alleging that he's been harassed and his constitutional rights have been violated because he doesn't believe in God. The suit names Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

"I'm not in it for cash," Hall said. "I want no one else to go what I went through."

Known as "the atheist guy," Hall has been called immoral, a devil worshipper and -- just as severe to some soldiers -- gay, none of which, he says, is true. Hall even drove fellow soldiers to church in Iraq and paused while they prayed before meals.

"I see a name and rank and United States flag on their shoulder. That's what I believe everyone else should see," he said.

Hall, 23, was raised in a Protestant family in North Carolina and dropped out of school. It wasn't until he joined the Army that he began questioning religion, eventually deciding that he couldn't follow any faith.

But he feared how that would look to other soldiers.

"I was ashamed to say that I was an atheist," Hall said.

It eventually came out in Iraq in 2007, when he was in a firefight. Hall was a gunner on a Humvee, which took several bullets in its protective shield. Afterward, his commander asked whether he believed in God, Hall said.

"I said, 'No, but I believe in Plexiglas,' " Hall said. "I've never believed I was going to a happy place. You get one life. When I die, I'm worm food."

The issue came to a head when, according to Hall, a superior officer, Maj. Freddy J. Welborn, threatened to bring charges against him for trying to hold a meeting of atheists in Iraq. Welborn has denied Hall's allegations.

Hall said he had had enough but feared that he wouldn't get support from Welborn's superiors. He turned to Mikey Weinstein and the Military Religious Freedom Foundation.

Weinstein is the foundation's president and a U.S. Air Force Academy graduate. He had sued the Air Force for acts he said illegally imposed Christianity on students at the academy, though that case was dismissed. He calls Hall a hero.

"The average American doesn't have enough intestinal fortitude to tell someone to shut up if they are talking in a movie theater," Weinstein said. "You know how hard it is to take on your chain of command? This isn't the shift manager at KFC."

Hall was in Qatar when the lawsuit was filed September 18 in federal court in Kansas City, Kansas. Other soldiers learned of it, and he feared for his own safety. Once, Hall said, a group of soldiers followed him, harassing him, but no one did anything to make it stop.

The Army told him it couldn't protect him and sent him back to Fort Riley. He resumed duties with a military police battalion. He believes that his promotion to sergeant has been blocked because of his lawsuit, but he is a team leader responsible for two junior enlisted soldiers.

No one with Fort Riley, the Army or that Defense Department would comment about Hall or the lawsuit. Each issued statements saying that discrimination will not be tolerated regardless of race, religion or gender.

"The department respects [and supports by its policy] the rights of others to their own religious beliefs, including the right to hold no beliefs," said Eileen Lainez, a spokeswoman for the Department of Defense.

All three organizations said existing systems help soldiers "address and resolve any perceived unfair treatment."

Lt. Col. David Shurtleff, a Fort Riley chaplain, declined to discuss Hall's case but said chaplains accommodate all faiths as best they can. In most cases, religious issues can be worked out without jeopardizing military operations.

"When you're in Afghanistan and an IED blows up a Humvee, they aren't asking about a wounded soldier's faith," Shurtleff said.

Hall said he enjoys being a team leader but has been told that having faith would make him a better leader.

"I will take care of my soldiers. Nowhere does it say I have to pray with my soldiers, but I do have to make sure my soldiers' religious needs are met," he said.

"Religion brings comfort to a lot of people," he said. "Personally, I don't want it or need it. But I'm not going to get down on anybody else for it."

Hall leaves the Army in April 2009. He would like to find work with the National Park Service or Environmental Protection Agency, anything outdoors.

"I hope this doesn't define me," Hall said of his lawsuit. "It's just about time somebody said something."

Posted by mikki at 12:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A homeless man has found confidential blueprints for New York's new Freedom Tower dumped in a city rubbish bin. Mike Fleming handed the documents - marked "Secure Document - Confidential" in to the New York Post newspaper. The Freedom Tower is being built at Ground Zero, to replace the World Trade Centre towers destroyed on 9/11. A spokeswoman apologised for the security breach and said that anyone found responsible would be liable for "serious disciplinary action".

More at the BBC News

Posted by mikki at 01:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)