by Miwa SuzukiThu Sep 27, 2:54 PM ET

Japanese researchers have succeeded in producing see-through frogs, letting them observe organs, blood vessels and eggs under the skin without performing dissections.

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Associated Press
Sept. 17, 2007 04:44 PM

LINCOLN, Neb. – The defendant in a state senator’s lawsuit is accused of causing untold death and horror and threatening to cause more still. He can be sued in Douglas County, the legislator claims, because He’s everywhere.

State Sen. Ernie Chambers sued God last week. Angered by another lawsuit he considers frivolous, Chambers says he’s trying to make the point that anybody can file a lawsuit against anybody.

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During times like ours, when pending war, a smallpox scare, suicide bombers, and snipers are the dramas that define our daily narratives, people who do not usually experience feelings of anxiety are being gripped by the sudden sensations of an accelerated heartbeat, a rise in blood pressure, a tightness in the chest, or excessive sweating. These feelings can sometimes have a deep psychological impact, where people are afraid to leave their homes for fear of “something bad happening,” or they have trouble sleeping or performing their jobs. At other times, anxiety coexists with mental health illnesses like depression, eating disorders, and substance abuse.

“Anxiety is mostly caused by two emotions: anger and sadness,” says Gay Hendricks, Ph.D., author of Conscious Breathing: Breathwork for Health, Stress Release, and Personal Mastery (Bantam, 1995). “People get anxious about not being able to control their anger or about not knowing how to deal with situations that make them sad. And that is what fear is—the inability to solve the problem that is making you angry or sad.”

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backyardgardener

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Get ready for a visual overload once you bring this plant home and put it in your garden. My father decided to get 2 of these plants to spruce up the front yard during the cooler temperatures we have here in oklahoma and I think he made a wise choice. Although I’m not a big fan of hot and spicy food, I enjoy marveling at this plant. We’ve only had it for less than 2 months and its already starting to bloom beautiful white flowers. I have nothing bad to say about this plant, other than the fact that I won’t ever eat it. As soon as I learn all about seed collecting, I plan on keeping alot of the seeds around. Please let me know if you’d like to swap or trade.

This definitely will change… get ready world.

Click here to listen to “Pretty Wings”

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I could watch her slow wind all damn day.

Ms. D

From Mark Stibich, Ph.D.

Can Sex Increase Life Expectancy?:
While Taoism and other philosophies teach that preserving sexual energies extends life, the opposite just might be true. Sex releases several hormones in the body, increases intimacy and bonding, and works against loneliness and depression. Staying sexually active has physical, stress relieving, social and mental benefits. According to the RealAge books, frequent orgasms (about 100 per year) can increase life expectancy by 3-8 years, however, keep in mind that the science on this is somewhat spotty. Studies show that men with a high frequency of orgasms have a 50 percent reduction in mortality risk.

The Value of Touch: Touch is necessary for mammals to thrive. Animals and babies deprived of physical touch are sickly and do not develop normally. How touch impacts health is a mystery, but it likely works on several levels:

• Cements relationships Touching helps create bonds. These bonds provide vital social support and other benefits known to be linked to life expectancy.
• Increases self-esteem: Self-esteem is largely our perception of worth. Frequent touching is a way to communicate worth to one another.
• Provides physical stimulus: It is possible that touch releases hormones and other substances much like relaxation and meditation.

What Is Major Depression?

Major depression may make you feel as though work, school, relationships, and other aspects of your life have been derailed or put on hold indefinitely. You feel constantly sad or burdened, or you lose interest in all activities, even those you previously enjoyed. This holds true nearly all day, on most days, and lasts at least two weeks. During this time, you also experience at least four of the following signs of depression:

• a change in appetite that sometimes leads to weight loss or gain
• insomnia or (less often) oversleeping
• a slowdown in talking and performing tasks or, conversely, restlessness and an inability to sit still
• loss of energy or feeling tired much of the time
• problems concentrating or making decisions
• feelings of worthlessness or excessive, inappropriate guilt
• thoughts of death or suicide, or suicide plans or attempts.

Other signs can include a loss of sexual desire, pessimistic or hopeless feelings, and physical symptoms such as headaches, unexplained aches and pains, or digestive problems. Depression and anxiety often occur simultaneously, so you may also feel worried or distressed more often than you used to.

Although these symptoms are hallmarks of depression, if you talk to any two depressed people about their experiences, you might well think they were describing entirely different illnesses. For example, one might not be able to summon the energy to leave the house, while the other might feel agitated and restless. One might feel deeply sad and break into tears easily. The other might snap irritably at the least provocation. One might pick at food, while the other might munch constantly. On a subtler level, two people might both report feeling sad, but the quality of their moods could differ substantially in depth and darkness. Also, symptoms may gather over a period of days, weeks, or months.

Despite such wide variations, depression does have certain common patterns. For example, women are almost twice as likely as men to suffer from depression. And while major depression may start at any time in life, the initial episode occurs, on average, during the mid-20s.

Depression or hopelessness may feel so paralyzing that you find it hard to seek help. Even worse, you may believe that treatment could never overcome the juggernaut bearing down.

Yet nothing could be further from the truth. The vast majority of people who receive proper treatment rebound emotionally within two to six weeks and then take pleasure in life once again. When major depression goes untreated, though, suffering can last for months.

Furthermore, episodes of depression frequently recur. About half of those who sink into an episode of major depression will have at least one more episode later in life. Some researchers think that diagnosing depression early and treating it successfully can help forestall such recurrences. They suspect that the more episodes of depression you’ve had, the more likely you are to have future episodes, because depression may cause enduring changes in brain circuits and chemicals that affect mood (see The Problem of Recurrence). In addition, people who suffer from recurrent major depression have a higher risk of developing bipolar disorder than people who experience a single episode.

Source

By Michael Kahn

LONDON (Reuters) – Depression is more damaging to everyday health than chronic diseases such as angina, arthritis, asthma and diabetes, researchers said on Friday.

And if people are ill with other conditions, depression makes them worse, the researchers found.

“We report the largest population-based worldwide study to our knowledge that explores the effect of depression in comparison with four other chronic diseases on health state,” the researchers wrote in the Lancet medical journal.

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(Graphic Language)

Enlarge Photo

Eye-catching coffin-shaped purse with tufted burgundy satin lining and silver hardware lets your necessities rest in peace. 12″ long hard case looks like a miniature Coffin Case guitar road case.

CoffinCase

In September 2006, a group of African American high school students in Jena, Louisiana, asked the school for permission to sit beneath a “whites only” shade tree. There was an unwritten rule that blacks couldn’t sit beneath the tree. The school said they didn’t care where students sat. The next day, students arrived at school to see three nooses (in school colors) hanging from the tree. (Please note, the tree above is not the tree, but a tree at Jena High School.)

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Jeans
When to Buy: October

Why: Get this year’s styles at clearance prices. Retailers start discounting their jeans after the back-to-school promotional push ends in September, says fashion expert Kathryn Finney, a.k.a. The Budget Fashionista . Expect even better deals this year, predicts Finney. “Dresses are very ‘in’ this year, which may cut into jean sales,” she says. More stock on the shelves means bigger discounts at a faster rate.

Plants (Trees/Shrubs/Perennial Flowers)
When to Buy: September

Why: Nurseries and gardening stores would rather deeply discount their inventories of trees, shrubs and perennial flowers than try to hold them over until spring — and risk losing everything, says Charlie Nardozzi, a senior horticulturist with the National Gardening Association. Even better news: “Now is actually also the best time to plant,” says Nardozzi. “The soil is still warm so they’ll put in a lot of root growth before winter.”

Sneakers
When to Buy: November

Why: Get trendy shoes for less before the winter hits. In September, retailers push sneakers for back to school. But by mid-October, they’ve moved on to anticipating snowier pastures, says Finney. “Stores start to push more toward boots,” she says. That means more sneakers on sale.

Toys
When to Buy: October

Why: Most new toys debut in September, says Jim Silver, editor of Toy Wishes magazine. “It’s the start of the holiday season, so to speak,” he says. Retailers begin making price adjustments based on what the others are selling a given toy for. By October, you’ll see hot price competition — and those must-have holiday toys that everyone will be fighting over in November will still be on the shelves.

Wedding Dresses
When to Buy: November (specifically, after Thanksgiving)

Why: “The dynamic of the wedding industry is that most people get engaged at Christmas, and most people who are planning [a wedding] get distracted by the holidays,” says Alan Fields, co-author of “Bridal Bargains.” The result: very lonely bridal-shop owners anxious for business. “You have much more negotiating power,” says Fields. You could easily save 15% to 25% on your dress or get free alterations (typically a $300 value).

Wine
When to Buy: September

Why: “Fall is always when the new bottles from last year’s harvest show up on shelves,” says Natalie MacLean, editor of Nat Decants , a wine education site. The crush of vineyards clamoring for your attention keeps prices low. The exception: high-demand, low-supply “cult wines” like Burgundies and California Cabernets. You won’t find low prices on these, says MacLean — but September is your best shot to snag these hard-to-find bottles.

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