Inspirational and good news.
According to an article on Fox News, cannabis does not increase the risk of lung cancer in smokers. Even frequent users who have smoked tens of thousands of joints over their lifetime are at no greater risk than infrequent users or non-users.
The researchers are not sure exactly why this is, but think it may have something to do with the active ingredient in cannabis, THC.
After creating the fantastic and educational video game for kids, Food Force, the UN is providing a way for kids to talk to humanitarian workers on the front lines. From the UN press release:
“Fresh from the global success of the world’s first humanitarian video game designed to arouse children’s interests in the challenges of fighting hunger, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today announced the launch of a blog, an interactive internet chat site, that allows youngsters to talk directly to aid workers on the battle’s frontlines.
“In response to queries from Food Force players all over the world on how they could help, the new blog is a way to channel interest and a place to exchange ideas,†WFP said, referring to the educational video game which has now been played by at least 4 million people since its launch in April 2005 and is currently available in five languages.”
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.
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.
The 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.
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.