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What Are We to Do With Psychopaths If It Is Genetic?

Not all psychopaths are locked up in prison for committing crimes. Many are still out there in the community. Often one comes across a person who seems strange and does not respond to normal social cues. Psychopaths have no empathy with others, so one does nothing and can do nothing until a crime is committed.

The "disease" is now thought to be genetic. Psychopaths will soon be able to be identified by a DNA test. It is possible that in the future all criminals will be tested. What to do with them after they are identified will be a major problem for society. Are they to be locked up for a longer time, or will they go to an institution where they will be given medication and psychiatric treatment?

It could be some time before medical knowledge reaches the point where the "bad" genes can be silenced or eliminated. Furthermore, having some psychopaths in society may be an evolutionary imperative. Most of these people do not know if another person is angry or afraid. This is the basis of the odd behavior, but many are highly intelligent. Two per cent of the population are psychopaths and not all of them commit crimes. However, a genetic basis is proven with records of ancestors having problems fitting into society.

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Society

Search for Smart Genes

It seems the level of intelligence is determined by a few genes. This must surely be too simplistic, particularly because specialists cannot agree on what intelligence is. How do you compare memorizing general knowledge to the skill of knitting a fine jumper? There are people who know just about everything about Australian rugby league, but this is their only area of expertise.

Finding will be made easier, apparently, by questioning the crowd rather that by brain scans, etc. It is believed that the sought after genes affect brain size. Considering that Neanderthals had larger brains than modern man, this seems to be the wrong hypothesis to start with.

While "the team" is sure they will find the genes they do admit that culture, education, health and upbringing can affect intelligence. How are they going to filter these things out? Obviously they can't. Twenty one thousand subjects were catalogued and brain imaging was used. Strangely, when the team was reaching its conclusions they discovered that another group was doing the same research with more people. Now that is clever.

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Society

Vacuuming the House Is Dangerous for You

If you want to stay healthy don't vacuum your house. Have you ever done some hoovering and got a dry irritating cough? This could mean you need a new vacuum cleaner or should dump the existing one.

It is the way vacuum cleaners work that is the problem. They take in clumpy material which is caught in the filter bag. Very fine particles and bacteria get through and are pumped into surrounding air. If you are close-by, you breath in that foul air.

Top brands were tested including Hoover, Dyson, Electrolux, Sanyo and iRobot. When they were only six months old their HEPA filter systems failed. Allergens, bacteria and dust were pumped straight into the room.

Ideally we shouldn't have carpets in our homes at all. Having an industrial cleaner built into your home is the only answer. With these, dust is caught in a filtration unit outside of the house.

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Society

Cat Punches Dog

"Take that Biffo"

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Man Robs Store With a Florescent Light Tube

Can't get gun or a knife but you want to hold up a store? Don't worry you can always use a light bulb. A man walked into a Brisbane service station and threatened the till operator with a florescent light bulb. He got away with a sum of cash.

The Caucasian man, about 180cm tall with a chubby build and blue eyes was wearing a singlet with white stripes down the sides, shorts, white sports shoes and a dark balaclava at the time of the robbery.

It begs the question - Why would an employee be afraid of someone wielding a florescent light bulb, knowing that a descent "whack" would probably result in it being smashed into harmless pieces?

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Society

To Swear Or Not To Swear

Eighty per cent of people swear every day including children. The little ones don't just get this habit from parents. Some children are awake late at night and hear it on television.

In different eras there are new sets of popular swear words. Words such as "bloody hell" and "bugger" were once really offensive, Today they are not treated as swear words any more. Personally, I find phrases containing the word "shit" quite off-putting. Hearing "bullshit" and "shitloads" tends to create images in the minds of listeners. It makes one move away from the speaker.

The question is - Does swearing do any harm? It does lower the "status" of an occasion if someone begins swearing when everyone else is in formal mode. One wouldn't swear when university degrees are being given, but at the pub swearing is almost expected particularly in the public bar.

Swear words are just sounds like other words. The sounds, however, do have meaning. Policing the use of offensive words would be impossible, People are regularly fined for swearing at police officers. It does not change behavior. They continue to swear afterwards. The more swearing there is, the sooner such words will be accepted in normal speech.

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Society

Childcare Makes Men More Effeminate

Men become more effeminate after marriage. When men marry, particularly when they have children, the level of testosterone in men's bodies falls. Tests on Filipino men highlighted this phenomenon. It appears that the more men care for children, adopting female behavior, the lower their testosterone.

Research subjects were 21 years old on average. They were tested at the beginning and after 4 years. At the latter time 50 per cent were married. These married men had very high testosterone levels initially, which indicates that testosterone makes men more attractive as marriage partners.

Very low testosterone was found in married men with a child less than one month old. Males who cared directly for a child had 80 per cent of the testosterone level of men who left childcare to mothers.

Obviously behavior drives hormone level. This is a new discovery. If testosterone is affected by behavior it is possible that other hormones levels are determined by the way people act.

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Society

Biolytix Was Faulty From the Start

Authorities and individuals need to be careful about adopting a lauded new invention because a new concept can be a real furphy. Dean Cameron developed a sewerage system that was claimed to be the greenest yet.

Biolytix won the 2007 Asia Innovation Award, EPA Sustainable Industries Award, Clunies Award, Premier's Smart Business Award and the Global Environmental Award, such was the euphoria generated by the new system. Though a lifetime guarantee was given it was known from the beginning that if anything went wrong a complete rebuild became necessary.

The product was sold in all Australian states with 80 per cent of them not working correctly. Joe Langford of Everhard Aqua Nova warned of the potential problems from Biolytix from the start. Mr Langford even lobbied government, to no avail. He said the concept was sound. The problem was in its construction - it was poorly made.

The National Parks and Wildlife Service spent a lot of money installing them. It has absorbed the loss. Thousands of customers across the country are left with faulty system. The cost to repair them ranges from $3,000 to $12,000. Biolytix the company is now in liquidation.

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Society

Your Dog Could Be Taken

People want dogs. They really do. Apart from pit bull crosses used for fighting, pedigree and cute dogs are also being taken by "admirers". There was a time when you just tied your dog up outside a shop and when you came back the pet was still there, but not today. Do this and you may never see your beloved friend again.

When thieves in the UK break in to steal your car keys they are likely to take the family dog as well. In the US dogs are stolen from parked cars and when they go for a run in the park with their owners.

Microchips are no deterrent. The new owners never take dogs to places where chips can be scanned. Unchipped dogs are resold. Some are held for ransom money to be paid.

Introducing laws making microchipping compulsory only works when dogs reach a shelter, and this only happens when the new owners have lost interest in them.

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Society

University of Queensland Blunders on Data

New research shows excessive watching of television is bad for your health. This is commonsense really. When you are watching TV you aren't doing anything physically. It is claimed that for every hour of TV one's lifespan is reduced by 22 minutes.

Many people watch eight hours of television each day, so the calculation is,

8hrs x 30Years x 365Days
-------------------------------- = 3.7 years lost.
65.5(22 minutes) x 365Days

OR,

8hrs x 365days 30yrs = 87600hrs total

87600hrs x 22mins
------------------- = 32120hrs total
60

32120hrs
--------- = 3.7 years lost
24 x 365

Just how did they reach this specific conclusion? Apparently obesity and diabetes were mentioned; then the figure was just fished out of the air.

They chose a ridiculous figure of two hours of TV every day over a lifetime. No one watches this tiny amount. They even decided that men were affected more than women: 1.8 years lost for men and 1.5 for women. Because women live longer the calculation should show a greater loss for them!

The University of Queensland should be careful about releasing such nonsensical information. The institution will lose all respect.

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Society

Surgery the Only Cure for Baldness

Bald men try just about anything to turn back a receding hairline. For some, hair loss is at the back and they don't know it until a "friend" tells them. For others the hairline goes out like the tide.

All manner of things are tried from hair tonics, to laser and LED treatments. Some medications offer some hope but they do take away some of your "maleness". The only real solution is transplanting of hair follicles from the back of the head to to the bald area. This is time consuming surgery and the result is new hair spread very sparsely over the bald spot.

For centuries a search has been on for the Holy Grail of baldness cures. Because it is really a hormone problem a lot of work has been done on this. Unfortunately, there are side affects and the mere stopping of further hair loss is the best that can be expected. Stress also causes baldness. Of course, for this there is no treatment.

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Society

Atheists Are Bad Citizens

Atheists are bad people. New findings show religious people contribute more to the community than non-believers. Apparently those who have no faith just get on with their lives caring only for themselves. But there is a saying "all of my best friends are atheists." They could be friendly. However, they have little drive to help society in a general sense.

Considering religious citizens believe in the writings of books that "command" believers to help others this finding is hardly surprising. Saying that such people are "nicer" though is too simplistic. Moreover, a fellow soldier who does not believe is just as likely to take a risk to save you in a battle as a religious person.

Atheists also give less to charity. Considering most charities are religious institutions, this is to be expected as well. Is the behavior of believers really altruistic? They are trying to get into heaven after all. Belief is a fickle thing. Even atheists have faith. They have faith that God does not exist.

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Religion

Pharmcists Should Stay Out of Mental Health

Pharmacists should stay out of health treatment and do what they do best - glorified clerks. They have no training in curing disease. Their education is solely based on chemical analysis. They are scientists not physicians. Ask their advice and they tell you what is written on the packet.

Now the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia is saying pharmacists are qualified to treat people with mental illness. They may "give" drugs to such patients but they do not prescribe them. Heaven help us if they get involved will-nilly in advising those with mental disorders. Having someone continually talking in your ear about how to take your prescription medicine it not going to help one recover.

Doctors need direct contact with a patient to give the greatest assistance. Having a pharmacist in the middle is only going to mess things up. A mental patient is already stressed. Saying pharmacists will reduce medication errors is implying that they have qualifications to oversee physicians. Obviously, they do not have such expertise.

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Health

Religion is Weakening But It Will Not Die

The world is at war between those who believe in God and those who do not. Christianity is becoming less relevant to some as they lead busy lives. Islam is still strong and growing. The other religions are still important to many, particularly when there are hardships in life.

All religions are under threat as people clamber for democracy in countries where whole societies revolved around the dictates of the prevailing religion. From census data taken in 85 Western nations, it was found that the number of people ticking "unaffiliated" is increasing. Though the formula predicts total extinction of religious belief it is doubtful that this will actually occur. Even when a religion is outlawed people tend to go underground with their beliefs. It comes to life again when circumstances improve.

The thing is, we will never really know if there is a God. Many go to church as "insurance", just in case there is life after death. Religious books give us answers to the questions in life. Science may "disprove" such things as Adam being created just five thousand years ago but these books are so complex that a reader will find an answer somewhere in there amongst the complicated and confusing text.

~~~~~Religion~~~~~

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Memories Are Not Real

Childhood memories are figments of your imagination. If you believe that you'll believe anything. Children in the UK were asked to recall memories of things their parents said didn't happen. But how do we know if children were trying to please their parents? Most children live in a dream land anyway. So asking them to recall seeing Santa Claus is just "baiting". And asking them about flying through the air is "hypnotising" for dream recall.

If you broke your leg as child you certainly remember that, and whether the sun was out when it happened. The pain makes it stay in your mind. One thing that really remains is the care one receives from others. You remember things done with grandma because she was always kind and forgiving. Furthermore, really horrible events like being involved in a road accident and then taken to hospital remain as clear as the day they occurred.

We wouldn't have an identity without memories. We are the sum of our experiences. Taking that away from someone is condemning that person to live in the forever "now". Debate is rife about whether learning is anything of value. For example, a day after taking exams most of it is forgotten. But a university degree or any other academic test is something the individual values and society values. Whether you actually remember things taught is quite irrelevant. You have gone down that road and reached the destination. Surely, that is what life is about: having experiences, chronologically, with the past leading to the present and into the future and remembering certain milestones.

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Save the Rabbit!

It's amazing. With all the suffering in the world from hunger and war, you would think people would be concerned about something other than a rabbit. No home can be found for Copper the rabbit so the Humane Society has decided to euthanize the animal. People are up in arms about this. There have been protesters in the street holding placards. Pleas for the rabbit to be spared have come from all over the world.

The little animal has a feisty disposition, apparently. It bit a society worker. Veterinarians have found Copper to be unfit for rehabilitation. Many have said they will take him, but the society does not want to be held responsible for any consequent injuries.

This outpouring of concern is touching. Yet there is no such reaction for the thousands of dogs and cats euthanized every day. Humans have really unusual feelings about the external world. They don't worry about the cow that was slaughtered to make the pie they are eating. But end the life of a pony or a cuddly rabbit and they are impassioned to the nth degree.

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