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.

There was a shooting in a Toronto school. One kid died.

Toronto Police tell AM 640 Toronto Radio, a young man was found suffering from gunshot wounds near the pool at the school. He was taken to hospital, where he succumbed to his wounds.

Students at the school identified the victim as 15 year old Jordan Manners.

I realize that the majority of the people who read this are over the age of 25 or 30… but I’m assuming you know a 15 year old. …What’s so weird to me is that I think back to the grade 9 class I taught, they would all be 15 or 16 now… and it just tears me apart to think that kid just like them was shot.

Now, I know… I was the one who was like “put it into perspective to the shootings across seas!” when everyone was making a stink about the shooting earlier this year. But it’s just so scary … when I see the picture of the cops I picture Clarkson’s school cop, around the Clarkson pool… looking down at one of the kids I taught. It’s just scary.

It looks like ebay is becoming the market of choice for elephant poachers:

“International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) said it had conducted a survey in Britain, Australia, China, Germany, the Netherlands, France, Canada and the United States and tracked more than 2,200 elephant ivory items listed on eBay websites,” the wire service says.

More than 90% of these listings violated the auction site’s rules, according to the group, which wants eBay to ban all ivory sales.

The IFAW report is here. A World Wildlife Fund overview of the ivory trade is here.

Maybe I should just stop reading the news.

A Mogadishu hospital was caught in the war between the pro-government ethiopians and insurgents.

Relatives and medical staff ran from the SOS hospital after at least four missiles hit. Casualties are unclear.

This is one of many hospitals that have been bombed in the 8 day clash going on between the interim government, resurgents and Hawiye Clan. Attempts at humanitarian air are being blocked… People are without food and shelter. Ethiopian troops “say” they’re beginning to pull out..

“The efforts of international agencies to come to the aid of these stricken people are being thwarted on the one hand by militia looting relief supplies, demanding ‘taxes’ and violently threatening aid workers, and on the other by administrative obstacles imposed by the transitional federal government,” AP news agency quotes a letter written last week by the German ambassador to Kenya.

In other Africa news - De Beers is moving in for more diamond mining.

The diamond mining ship, named Peace in Africa, was inaugurated in both Western and African traditions in Cape Town before the R1 billion ($142 million) vessel of 176 metres long and 28m wide sails off next week to produce an estimated 240,000 carats annually off the Namaqualand coast on South Africa’s Atlantic coast.  The vessel is equipped with a large undersea tracked mining tool (crawler) and has a specialised diamond recovery treatment plant, manufactured by specialist Bateman Engineering, on board.

The company is quoted as being “excited” to employ new workers……….. I’ll resist the sarcastic and cynical commentary today. Except… GAH. Priorities. (I’m not criticizing Gordo here - he’s just relaying what the rest of America was interested in while other people are getting gunned down.)

I’ve had this post open all day waiting to be written. And its not that I haven’t had the time - I most definitely have. Its that I’ve sat and stared at a blank area time and time again not being able to find the words that I want to write.

I’m angry. At the world. At America. At people who have fucked up priorities.

A story unfolding at press time gives a taste of that global energy-security issue everyone’s worried about: according to news reports, gunmen attacked an oil field in eastern Ethiopia run by a Chinese company, killing 65 local workers and nine Chinese workers, and taking seven Chinese hostages. Xu Shuang, acting manager of the Zhongyuan Petroleum Exploration Bureau, reported that the gunmen took control of the oil field after a 50-minute shootout with 100 soldiers guarding the area. The conflict is apparently tied to Ethiopia’s military presence in neighboring Somalia, where the Ethiopian government has backed the effort to quell Islamic insurgents. But it is resource-related too: China’s growing presence in Africa on a hunt for oil and other resources is highly controversial. Last year, an Ethiopian rebel group said foreign investment in the area attacked today “would not be tolerated.” Eleven Chinese oil workers were also kidnapped in Nigeria in recent months; two remain in captivity.

But you know. Fuck. Lets start making Facebook groups to commemorate those gunned down in Virginia - but completely ignore this. Keep driving around in our cars with no connection or worry to the consequences of these actions.

I understand that I get irrationally angry at things - and this may be one of those things. But that doesn’t stop me from being pissed off. The world is just so messed up. Im starting to think that maybe I’m just stressed out at the fact that in like 36 hours I need to hop on a plane and go home - but I’m sitting amongst a mess with an empty wallet… So perhaps I’m just taking things harder than usual. But nothing excuses the ignorance and segregation that we create to calm our nerves.

Sources: China Post, BBC News, USA Today, China View