Obsessive Compulsive Mice

 It's hard to picture a mouse with mental health issues, but in their own tiny way, mice can suffer from at least one psychiatric condition: obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Thanks to a new discovery from Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City, scientists may now be able to use that fact to help humans struggling with the same debilitating condition. The Weill Cornell team, headed by molecular biologists Dr. Shahin Rafii, Dr. Francis Lee and Dr. Sergey Shmelkov, had not initially set out to study OCD. Instead, they were conducting research on the role of a gene known as Slitrk5 in the development of stem cells that eventually specialize into blood cells. To understand the function of the gene better, they engineered mice in which Slitrk5 was disabled (or "knocked out"). They then looked for how it affected the animals' bloodstream. The verdict: it didn't. But that didn't mean the mice were unchanged. Before long, the knockout mice began developing curious lesions around their mouths. In addition, they became unusually anxious and jumpy — even by mouse standards. On closer examination, the mice appeared to be engaging in hyperactive grooming behavior, far more than normal mice do and more than enough to cause the facial injury they were suffering. Other species of animals have been known to display similarly excessive grooming behaviors. Parrots compulsively pluck their own feathers; dogs repetitively lick a paw or other fixed spot; humans develop a condition known as trichotillomania, in which they pull out strands of their hair. All of these behaviors are thought to fall along the OCD spectrum, though of course the disorder is much more complex in humans. It's characterized by intrusive, obsessive thoughts (fear of being contaminated by germs, for instance, or anxiety about whether the door is locked) and compulsive behaviors intended to relieve the anxiety caused by those obsessions (hand-washing, counting and other repetitive behaviors). The Slitrk5 gene, which exists in humans as well as in mice, appears to plays a role in the release and uptake of glutamate in the brain, a neurotransmitter that helps regulate urges. In the knockout mice, researchers found the greatest irregularities in the frontal cortex and the striatum — the gene was excessively active in one part of the frontal cortex, while the level of glutamate receptors in the striatum was decreased. In humans, the frontal cortex–striatum circuit is involved in laying down memories and processing rewards that may later guide the planning and control of behavior; it makes sense that dysfunction here could be related to the uncontrollable urges and behaviors of OCD. Earlier studies have also linked variations on the Slitrk5 gene to Tourette's syndrome, a condition characterized by involuntary tics, vocalizations and even shouting of obscenities. Some doctors place Tourette's along the OCD spectrum too — though admittedly at a far end.

via time.com

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Keep Israel Safe

Human Rights Watch [UPDATED]

So the New Republic published the most thorough critique to date of Human Rights Watch’s record on Israel this week. Contrary to its typical belligerency, HRW has not responded [beyond this tepid and largely unresponsive letter to TNR from a co-chair of HRW’s Middle East advisory committee, who is not an employee of HRW, but not from HRW itself–thanks to a reader for pointing this out]. That’s unusual, but not too strange; given how often HRW spokespeople get themselves into trouble when they defend the organization’s record on Israel, they are clearly better off keeping quiet.

What is very strange is that members of the left blogosphere who have previously vigorously (and reflexively) defended HRW have all been silent. Where is Matthew Yglesias? Andrew Sullivan? Daniel Levy? Aryeh Neier? Adam Horowitz? Even Kevin Jon Heller has blogged not a word about the TNR story.

I’m not given to conspiratorial thinking, but it’s almost as if “headquarters” has sent out word to ignore the TNR piece in the hopes it will go away. 

via volokh.com

Many of those on the left of the human-rights “community” may feel conflicting emotions when it comes to dealing with radical Islam, as if the former is somehow a dangerous distraction from the real struggle. In 2006 Scott Long, the director of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights programme at Human Rights Watch, attacked the British campaigner Peter Tatchell, accusing him of racism, Islamophobia and colonialism for having the temerity to lead a campaign against Iran’s executions of homosexuals — a campaign that Long believed was unconstructive and based on “a Western social-constructionist trope”.

via elderofziyon.blogspot.com

Abbas rules out peace
...without unilateral concessions on property in Jerusalem where Jewish people live and can not prosper and survive without building as needed

Watch South Park Episode 201 Here

I'm not sure how long I can keep this up:
RIGHT CLICK HERE and SAVE AS South Park S14E06 272 HDTV H264.mp4

those who thought my JOKE was in poor taste

...so last night an uptight woman who is an administrator of a page whose political slant I support blocked me for telling a pedophilia joke.  Mind you this was a page about free expression especially to those offensive ideas that just happen to be true.  But this girl who is asking every one to draw the Mohammad with the cute Mohammad bear obviously doesn't get the reason at all.  It isn't because South Park did it... but rather because we all know the truth can be really offensive!

the girl running this page is psychotic and doesn't get the issue she is representing. avoid this fanpage

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Everybody-Draw-Mohammad-Day-May-20th-2010/120352401315688

the Admins are completely nuts.  If you admin a page all about making fun of Mohammed you shouldn't be shocked when people actually do.  this is a conversation in my inbox:

Mimi Sulpovar April 30 at 8:12pm
Allow me to introduce myself - I am Infidel Bear of "Everybody Draw Mohammad Day - May 20th, 2010". Shhhhh don't tell anyone ;) Cheers,
Mimi

Noah David Simon April 30 at 8:14pm
oh I see now. so everyone thinks you are a man because you are a Mohammad Bear

Mimi Sulpovar April 30 at 8:15pm
Yeah, it's pretty cool :)

Noah David Simon April 30 at 8:55pm
do you get to molest any little under age girls Mr Bear?

Mimi Sulpovar April 30 at 8:55pm
Of course not. What kind of a question is that?

...to answer the question:
I ask all my Mohammed Bears the same question!
so... if you thought that joke was in poor taste. Here is what is going on today.

The marriage took place at one of the Nigerian capital's most recognizable landmarks, under the golden dome of the National Mosque in front of an audience of the elite.
But the recent wedding of one of the Muslim leaders who brought Shariah law to Africa's most populous nation is under scrutiny as human rights groups say he married a 13-year-old Egyptian girl.
As authorities investigate Senator Ahmad Sani Yerima, the marriage is drawing fresh questions about the role of religion in a country of 150 million people split between Christians and Muslims.
Yerima, 49, arranged the marriage with the girl after paying her family a $100,000 dowry, according to a complaint filed by the Nigerian Human Rights Commission in April. Initially, Yerima couldn't arrange a visa for the girl to travel from Egypt to Nigeria, so he instead brought the girl through neighboring Niger, said Chidi Odinkalu, a lawyer for works for the Open Society Justice Initiative.
That leaves Yerima open to human trafficking charges, as well as possible child-sex and endangerment charges, the lawyer said.
"You don't need the Quran or the Bible to get this," Odinkalu said. "I think most people, irrespective of the cleavage between the two faiths, wouldn't marry off their 13 year old."
Yet 30 members of the girl's family attended the ceremony at the National Mosque, the human rights commission said. It's unclear who else attended the wedding. Ustaz Musa Mohammed, the chief imam of the National Mosque, could not be reached for comment.
Under child protection laws enforceable in Abuja, Nigeria's capital, a woman must be 18 before being able to consent to marriage. However, those laws aren't enacted in all of Nigeria's 36 states and activists say child brides have been married off in Muslim communities after their first period.
It also isn't the first time Yerima has apparently married a child bride. The right commission alleged that he married a 15-year-old girl, only to divorce her at 17 as she nurses his child.
"The senator is in the habit of marrying minors and has gained notoriety in enticing girls to marry him," the commission said.
Yerima himself appears unrepentant in recent interviews, though he has declined to say how old his new wife is.
"As a Muslim, as I always say, I consider God's law and that of his prophet above any other law," Yerima told the BBC's Hausa language radio service. "I will not respect any law that contradicts that and whoever wants to sanction me for that is free to do that."
Religion has played an integral part in Yerima's political career. As Nigeria came out of a string of military dictatorships and into democracy in 1999, Yerima was elected as governor of Zamfara state in northern Nigeria. There, Islam has been the dominate religion since Muslim warriors on horseback claimed the territory in the early 1800s.
When he became governor, Yerima was one of the first politicians to champion the idea of putting a Shariah court system in place, which rules based on Islamic civil law. Now, more than a dozen northern states allow Shariah law, something that Nigeria's Christian south warily accepted — if at all. Rioting and violence over the introduction of Shariah law left thousands dead.
Yerima himself blames the attention on his marriage to that, though it sealed his political fortunes.
"I consider all those complaining about this issue as detractors, because since 1999 ... many people have been waging different kind of wars against me," he said.
But those who have brought the allegations against Yerima are struggling not to make it a religious debate in a nation where killings over faith still happen. The Senate is investigating Yerima over allegedly breaking the law, while other agencies are examining whether he illegally brought the child bride into the country.
"He's breached the law. It's not about faith," said Iheoma Obibi, executive director of Alliances for Africa, a human rights group. "In the campaign with the sisters from the north, we've been very careful not to address this in the religious situation."
The whereabouts of the Egyptian girl remain unknown.
"She should be in school," Obibi said. "She shouldn't be rolling off your bed."

via google.com

UN 1701 and other promises

Prior to the 1991 war, the Americans promised Israel that in the event of a Scud attack, U.S. aircraft would concentrate on knocking out the Scuds within the first 48 hours. However, as explained by Moshe Arens, who served as Israel’s defense minister at the time:

The problem of hitting mobile launchers was far more difficult than the U.S. had envisioned. Although there was intensive aerial activity directed at hitting the Scud launchers, not a single Scud launcher was hit or immobilized during the five weeks of the Gulf War.

Then the Americans sent over the Patriots. The Patriot was probably the most advanced anti-aircraft missile around at the time, and was advertised as also having anti-missile capability. As it turned out, the Patriot missiles in Israel did not succeed in intercepting a single Scud missile.

Today, senior American officials are not promising to destroy Hizbullah Scuds; they are denying that they’re in Lebanon.
After all, such a deployment would be a serious violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701 which prohibits the “supply of weapons to any entity in Lebanon without the consent of the Government of Lebanon.” (This raises the question of whether Lebanon’s government, cowering before a resurgent Syria, agreed to the Scud deployment. If so, that makes Lebanon, its military, and infrastructure complicit and fair game in the event of another war.)

via pajamasmedia.com

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