she looks like an anorexic ghost… a little…

Apparently a new drug to battle obesity would have effects on children’s brains…

Other researchers have found that cannabinoid receptor blockers interfere with neural connectivity in rat brains — a phenomenon that in humans is associated with depression. The Food and Drug Administration has refused to approve Acomplia because it appears to cause anxiety, depression and suicidal thoughts.

…

This is especially troubling because the mice were young. “The juvenile stage of mice is parallel to what we know as the infant stage in humans, when the brain is plastic and prone to modification,” said Liu.

Beyond interfering with neurological development during the critical stage of infancy, could cannabinoid receptor blockers also keep adult brains from developing?

Alright now. Seriously. Diet drugs that could cause you to commit suicide? Cause anxiety? Stunt the growth of the brain? Is it really THAT HARD to stop eating fast food and eat a salad instead? To the point where we have to keep throwing money into this sort of ridiculous research?

I’m sure I could think of at least 100 other things that the money that goes toward this sort of ridiculous research would be better off put into. It’s like all the energy being put into being angry at at that Miley Cyrus girl.

I’ll admit - I didn’t even know who she was until about a week ago when my mom told me about her and her vanity fair “scandal”. The girl, who is am American teen icon, takes a hardly even sexualized photograph and the entire world turns upside down on her.

The two almost go hand in hand - we keep shoving money into diet research while showing off our under aged daughters perfect little bodies to create more media attention and to push more people to the need to use diet pills. …Okay, im stretching it a bit - but you see what I’m getting at right.

This world is f#$@ed! We put these girls up on pedestals idealizing their bodies. Then for some reason get angry when we sexualize these bodies… This is the world we live in - people get sexualized. Then we have girls trying to be like her going batshit insane because they’re using a million and a half different diet pills causing anxiety and depression. WTF.

So in the name of my generation. I vow never to diet or idolize Miley Cyrus. It’s a long road ahead, but I feel like I can make it.

It’s nearly 2008. I think my favorite part about the last couple weeks in December is looking back at the past year, and seeing what came out of it that was definitely worth the time and effort put into it. So here it is - the my tops lists:

Top 10 albums:

1. LCD Soundsystem - 45:33
2. Rascal Flatts - Still Feels Good
3. Craig David - Trust Me
4. Pinback - Autumn of Seraphs
5. Deerhoof - Friend Opportunity
6. RJD2 - The Third Hand
7. Panda Bear - Person Pitch
8. The Six Parts Seven - Casually Smashed to Pieces
9. Elliot Smith - New Moon
10. Arcade Fire - Neon Bible

Runners up definitely - Feist, Radiohead, M.I.A and Of Montreal
Actually, i think this list of top albums might actually destroy mine… Not only is it a good list, but it’s also 100% Canadian. Woo! Feist!

Top 10 songs:

1. Apologize - Timbaland ft One Republic
2. Hot Stuff - Craig David
3. Toy Solider - Britney Spears
4. Alaska - Camera Obscura
5. The Way I am - Ingrid Michaelson
6. Bartender - T-Pain ft Akon
7. +81 - Deerhoof
8. Blueberry Tree Part II - Husky Rescue
9. My Moon My Man - Feist
10. The Past Is a Grotesque Animal - Of Montreal

Top 5 movies:

1. The Lives of Others
2. Little Miss Sunshine
3. Sweeny Todd
4. Amazing Grace
5. Surfs Up… fo reelz

Top 5 personal moments:

1. Moving home from BC… I miss BC a lot, but it is good to be home. And it looks like I’ll be here for a while, and that’s okay.
2. Getting alcohol poisoning. …I know, it doesn’t really sound all that good, but honestly - it made a good story and has terrified me into drinking less and less each time I go out.
3. The CFI leadership conference. It opened my eyes to a lot of things, introduced me to a lot of people and gave me an opportunity to converse with a lot of open minded, like minded people my age for a few days.
4. My first night out with Future Shop folks. Shit. Show. I established quite the name for myself that night. Gah.
5. Getting to meet Baby AJ! The birth of Baby Ella!

Top 3 games:

1. Oblivion!
2. Guitar Hero 2 - seriously, 3 isn’t really that much better. There are some good songs, but… meh.
3. Bioshock!

I hate halo 3 and the orange box. …so i dont even want to hear it. call of duty 4… it’s more than decent though. As is Assassins Creed, but I haven’t played it enough to put it in a top list.

Top 5 TV shows:

1. Heroes!
2. Flight of the Conchords
3. Planet Earth
4. Yo Gabba Gabba
5. The Office

Top 4 under-reported news stories:

1. Somalia … for some reason, few people knew about the + 1 million Somalians fleeing from their homes - while the UN sits back and watches.
2. Mansions in Luanda … Post-Civil war Angola had an economic growth rate 12.5% higher than China’s 11.5% rate. Thank you oil reserves!
3. 100 000 troops … Lined up along the Ethiopian and Eritrea border, just waiting to have at it, much like the crisis that happened there in 2002.
4. More reasons why teachers need to have background checks, character tests and need to be watched closely. Seriously.

Top 5 books:

1. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
2. Heart Shaped Box by Joe Hill
3. The Debt to Pleasure by John Lanchester
4. Dirt - The Erosion of Civilizations by David Montgomery
5. Busting the Limits of Time by Martin Rudwick

Top 5 environmental stories:

1. Walmarts green appeal. …They’re still not perfect. They still encourage suburban sprawl. They still suck money out of people. They still pay employees shitty wages. But they are doing great initiatives for the environment. That is all.
2. Moving from “environmentalists kill the economy” to creating green jobs to increase economic growth. Creating new economic sectors that cater directly to the hippies. Solar panel companies, organic farms… the new green economy should create over 6 million jobs by 2015.
3. The world’s 15 greenest cities
4. The Great Biofuel Hoax
5. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued its 4th Assessment Report in which it declared that global warming is “unequivocal” and that it was “very likely” that most of the observed warming was caused by man. More than 2500 scientists worked on the report. The panel’s work was recognized with a 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, which it shared with Al Gore.

Top 5 natural disasters:

1. Bangladesh Cyclones

2. Mexico Floods

3. Hurrican Felix

4. Greece Forest Fires

5. Peru Earthquake

this kitten is in a box.

I took the post down. Not for any sort of moral reason, or because I think it’s right to defend the privacy of someone who has killed, but because two guys from high school who I got along with really well asked me really politely to do so. …Err, wait a second, I didn’t get along with one of them at all and we’d fight every time we came within spitting distance of each other and the other probably said about 3 words to me the entire 4 or 5 years we went to school together… and they asked me like total fucking assholes. However, contrary to what they’ll tell you about me, I’m not a bitch and I for some reason feel obligated to bow down to this particular request even though high school was a million years ago and I shouldn’t feel any sort need to do what they asked… so voila. Tis gone.

The world’s largest nuclear plant.

In Kashiwazaki, Japan a 6.8-magnitude earthquake disrupted a nuclear plant on Wednesday creating a radioactive leak. At the time they reported that about 100 barrels had fallen over polluting surrounding areas. Well, turns out it was actually about 400 barrels, with the lids coming off 40 of them.

The amount that leaked into the Sea of Japan was one-billionth of Japan’s legal limit. Other productions were halted because of quake damage at major parts suppliers such as Toyota, Nissan, Mitsubishi and Fuji. Repairs workers are climbing all over charred machinery and unstable structures. There are cracks in the buildings and roads, toppled fences and walls and buckled sidewalks.

Still none of this dismay and damage excuses that the company first said there was no leak, and understated the environmental damage. There are currently being multiple safety checks run to ensure that not only are they being truthful about the amount spilled, but also that the conditions are good enough for workers to continue to be working.

This isn’t the first leak found at this particular plant either. In 2001 a radioactive leak was found. And this is the world’s largest nuclear power plant. After the spill there was also a report that 50 other malfunctions were happening around the plant. Although the information hasn’t been released there are speculations that the fault line may actually be running directly underneath the power plant. The plant has been warned about being too close to a fault line, and many residents had filed lawsuits claiming that the government had failed to conduct sufficient tests and reviews before allowing the construction of the plant. However, in 2005 the Tokyo government threw out 33 complaints saying there were no real grounds for their complaints and concerns and that the government had done a fine job of inspecting the site pre-construction.

We have yet another preventable problem all because people are unwilling to invest money and time into ensuring that people and the environment are safe.

Over all the quakes’ fatalities are at 11, and 8000 residents are being housed in shelters. Many of these residents work in the power plants, and besides not working they’re dealing with heavy rains, landslides, and power/water outages.

Cross posted at Appletree

Okay, so I always get these e-mails from Feminist groups and magazines and what have yous because I like to keep up to date on things and it’s a lot easier for blog material to get sent to me than it is to go and look for some. AH ha. Right, so today I get an e-mail and these feminists are down right pissed off.

The Washington Post ran an article on Hilary Clinton’s cleavage.

Of course the feminists want us all to e-mail the post and sign petitions to let the post know that this sort of thing isn’t acceptable, and they’re right. It’s not acceptable at all, it’s down right disgusting and degrading. …But also hilarious.

She was talking on the Senate floor about the burdensome cost of higher education. She was wearing a rose-colored blazer over a black top. The neckline sat low on her chest and had a subtle V-shape. The cleavage registered after only a quick glance. No scrunch-faced scrutiny was necessary. There wasn’t an unseemly amount of cleavage showing, but there it was. Undeniable.

It was startling to see that small acknowledgment of sexuality and femininity peeking out of the conservative — aesthetically speaking — environment of Congress.

Oh it was not startling you dinkus. They’re BOOBS.

After all, it wasn’t until the early ’90s that women were even allowed to wear pants on the Senate floor.

…Okay, okay. And it wasn’t until the 50’s that they could vote so really - should they already be trying to run for president? Trying to GET votes??? I think not.

Throughout Clinton’s time as first lady, she wore clothes that were feminine and stately. But sexiness was not part of the image.

Vut are you talking about? Clinton is damn sexy…