Monthly Archives: June 2006

Dancing Therapy Helps Children with Mental Illness

A research project in Sweden, the first of it’s kind, has shown that dance therapy is effective in treating AD/HD in boys and depression in girls. For sullen teenagers who often refuse or are unable to talk about what is troubling them, dance therapy helps to loosen them up and shake off their mental shackles.

Boys affected with AD/HD start out with frenetic, high energy dancing, and then move on to slower, more methodical exercises which require them to pay attention and mimic.

Depressed and self-destructive teenage girls learn self-esteem, setting limits and saying ‘no’ through flamenco dancing.

The researchers are hoping that other countries will introduce dance therapy as a compliment to traditional psychotherapy.

New HIV Drug in Trials

A new class of HIV drug is in trial in the United States. Doctors have noticed that patients on a retroviral “cocktail” often develop resistance to the drugs. This new class of drugs attacks the virus in a novel way, and researchers are hoping that it will be an effective weapon against HIV.

HIV Virus DiagramThe drug, called PA-457, attacks the virus’ ability to produce capsid protein. The capsid is a conical membrane which protects the viral RNA genetic material.

Mapping the Planet in Different Ways

We’ve all seen maps of the planet Earth, but have you seen maps that display the state of internet censorship or the levels of debt? A few organizations are organizing information that is hard to visualize with just numbers onto maps of the world.

The best collection of these information maps is found at MapleCroft where you can view almost anything – including invest risk, corporate governance, and the prevalence Malaria.

Mapping the majority is about mapping the places where most people live using various demographic information.

The Open Net Initiative has a map that shows how open the internet is in each country.

Portugal Gets a Tan

Portugal has started building their largest solar power facility yet!

“The 58m euro (£40m) plant near Serpa, 200km (125 miles) south of Lisbon, will produce enough electricity for 8,000 homes when it starts next January.

The 11-megawatt solar power plant, to be made up of 52,000 photovoltaic modules, will cover a 60-hectare (150-acre) southern-facing hillside.”

Drink it Black

Coffee makes you more open minded. The New Scientist is reporting that a study has found that coffee actually makes you think clearer.

“Moderate doses of caffeine can also make you more easily convinced by arguments that go against your beliefs, say Pearl Martin of the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, and her colleagues.

In 2005, her team published a paper suggesting that the compound primes people to agree with statements that go against their typical views because it improves their ability to understand the reasoning behind the statements.”

I think that politicians should be required to drink coffee before any debate.