News Stories

[Vexx]

Originally Posted by bladeofdarkness

Syria is NOT that small.
it's about 2/3's the size of Iraq.

From my perspective that's pretty small, slightly larger than North Dakota. Hell, France is smaller than Texas in that respect and I know people and have relatives scattered all over Texas. My point was that Syria is small enough that any random Syrian army unit has a noteworthy chance of being related to people they're bombing or shooting at.

[Xellos-_^]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/nation...c7J_story.html

Industrial fishing in the deep sea should be banned because it has depleted fish stocks that take longer to recover than other species, according to a paper to be released this week by an international team of marine scientists.


The article, published in the scientific journal Marine Policy, describes fishing operations that have in recent decades targeted the unregulated high seas after stocks near shore were overfished.


Describing the open ocean as “more akin to a watery desert,” the scientists argue that vessels have targeted patches of productive areas sequentially, depleting the fish there and destroying deep-sea corals before moving on to new areas

Just remember Solyant Green is People

[Ithekro]

I didn't care for eating fish all that often anyway.

[DonQuigleone]

Originally Posted by MrTerrorist

Is the US ready for 'Little Mosque on the Prairie'?

I have watched the show and it was very funny. Do you think there should be a US version?

I saw that news broadcast myself. The first few episodes aren't great, but if you watch something from later seasons it's a lot better. Baber steals the show though...

[Roger Rambo]

Originally Posted by bladeofdarkness

Syria is NOT that small.
it's about 2/3's the size of Iraq.

Oh! Europeans and their perspective on how big countries are!

[DonQuigleone]

And I thought Ireland was pretty big...

[ganbaru]

Originally Posted by JMvS

The recipe could be worst than Irak, for at least the latter didn't have that much Palestinian refugees and a border with Israel.

No but Irak have a border with Iran and given their common past ( the Iran-Irak War ) you can expect some problem. And their border with Turkey, given the ''kurdes issue'' is also a potential hot spot.

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by ganbaru

No but Iwreck have a border with Iran and given their common past ( the Iran-Iwreck War ) you can expect some problem. And their border with Turkey, given the ''kurdes issue'' is also a potential hot spot.

Fixed spelling issues.

Nearly 40 percent of Europeans suffer mental illness

(Reuters) - Europeans are plagued by mental and neurological illnesses, with almost 165 million people or 38 percent of the population suffering each year from a brain disorder such as depression, anxiety, insomnia or dementia, according to a large new study.

With only about a third of cases receiving the therapy or medication needed, mental illnesses cause a huge economic and social burden -- measured in the hundreds of billions of euros -- as sufferers become too unwell to work and personal relationships break down.

"Mental disorders have become Europe's largest health challenge of the 21st century," the study's authors said.

At the same time, some big drug companies are backing away from investment in research on how the brain works and affects behavior, putting the onus on governments and health charities to stump up funding for neuroscience.

"The immense treatment gap ... for mental disorders has to be closed," said Hans Ulrich Wittchen, director of the institute of clinical psychology and psychotherapy at Germany's Dresden University and the lead investigator on the European study.

"Those few receiving treatment do so with considerable delays of an average of several years and rarely with the appropriate, state-of-the-art therapies."

Wittchen led a three-year study covering 30 European countries -- the 27 European Union member states plus Switzerland, Iceland and Norway -- and a population of 514 million people.

A direct comparison of the prevalence of mental illnesses in other parts of the world was not available because different studies adopt varying parameters.

Wittchen's team looked at about 100 illnesses covering all major brain disorders from anxiety and depression to addiction to schizophrenia, as well as major neurological disorders including epilepsy, Parkinson's and multiple sclerosis.

The results, published by the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ENCP) on Monday, show an "exceedingly high burden" of mental health disorders and brain illnesses, he told reporters at a briefing in London.

Mental illnesses are a major cause of death, disability, and economic burden worldwide and the World Health Organization predicts that by 2020, depression will be the second leading contributor to the global burden of disease across all ages.

Wittchen said that in Europe, that grim future had arrived early, with diseases of the brain already the single largest contributor to the EU's burden of ill health.

The four most disabling conditions -- measured in terms of disability-adjusted life years or DALYs, a standard measure used to compare the impact of various diseases -- are depression, dementias such as Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia, alcohol dependence and stroke.

The last major European study of brain disorders, which was published in 2005 and covered a smaller population of about 301 million people, found 27 percent of the EU adult population was suffering from mental illnesses.

Although the 2005 study cannot be compared directly with the latest finding -- the scope and population was different -- it found the cost burden of these and neurological disorders amounted to about 386 billion euros ($555 billion) a year at that time. Wittchen's team has yet to finalize the economic impact data from this latest work, but he said the costs would be "considerably more" than estimated in 2005.

The researchers said it was crucial for health policy makers to recognize the enormous burden and devise ways to identify potential patients early -- possibly through screening -- and make treating them quickly a high priority.

"Because mental disorders frequently start early in life, they have a strong malignant impact on later life," Wittchen said. "Only early targeted treatment in the young will effectively prevent the risk of increasingly largely proportions of severely ill...patients in the future."

David Nutt, a neuropsychopharmacology expert at Imperial College London who was not involved in this study, agreed.

"If you can get in early you may be able to change the trajectory of the illness so that it isn't inevitable that people go into disability," he said. "If we really want not to be left with this huge reservoir of mental and brain illness for the next few centuries, then we ought to be investing more now."

When big words start appearing, you will start smelling a farce.

[JMvS]

Originally Posted by ganbaru

No but Irak have a border with Iran and given their common past ( the Iran-Irak War ) you can expect some problem. And their border with Turkey, given the ''kurdes issue'' is also a potential hot spot.

Actually, Syria also has a Kurd minority, which make the whole issue worse in regards to the stability of Turkey.

Actually, current Irak doesn't seem to have particular problems with Iran, on the contrary, they never enjoyed better relations since the Islamic Revolution, for those now in command are the Shia majority, which was opressed by the Sunni minority during the Saddam era.

[Kamui4356]

Originally Posted by SaintessHeart

Fixed spelling issues.

Nearly 40 percent of Europeans suffer mental illness



When big words start appearing, you will start smelling a farce.

That's nothing. 88% of the population of France has one of the closest real world equivalents to Hinamizawa Syndrome. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxoplasmosis#Epidemiology

Think about that the next time you decide to go for a vacation in Europe.

[Solafighter]

In the north west of Germany and the Netherlands was at around 9:15 an earthquake of 4.7. I felt it myself. Omg.

[ganbaru]

Syrian activists appeal for international help
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/...78744L20110908

Syria's underground opposition appealed to the international community on Thursday to send in human rights monitors to help deter military attacks on civilians in an increasingly bloody crackdown on popular unrest.

They aren't much likely go get any help I fear...

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by Kamui4356

That's nothing. 88% of the population of France has one of the closest real world equivalents to Hinamizawa Syndrome. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxoplasmosis#Epidemiology

Think about that the next time you decide to go for a vacation in Europe.

Dammit! I always wanted to date a French maid!

[Xellos-_^]

Originally Posted by Solafighter

In the north west of Germany and the Netherlands was at around 9:15 an earthquake of 4.7. I felt it myself. Omg.

it is only a 4.7,

you guys are almost as bad as the east coasters.

[Sugetsu]

Originally Posted by Xellos-_^

it is only a 4.7,

you guys are almost as bad as the east coasters.

What you don't get is that east coast region has not experienced an earthquake in nearly 3 generations. The last one was in 1812. Now you tell me what the odds of that are? By the way I find all this, hurricane, flooding, earthquake and fish and birds dying in the thousands for no apparent reason a little spooky >_<

[Vexx]

Well.. according to World Weekly News, we've been under an alien invasion for the last couple of years. All kept in secrecy of course but the weird weather and 'natural' events are what leak out. Putin, of course, is on the job and looking good while doing it:
http://weeklyworldnews.com/headlines...efense-system/

(this has been a MiB report, please look this way for a free eye exam)

[killer3000ad]

Turkey offers to escort aid ships to Gaza

Turkey's prime minister said the country would follow aid ships to Gaza, in an effort to stop incidents like last year's raid by Israeli commandos that killed eight Turks and one Turkish-American.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told Al Jazeera television network Thursday that "Turkish warships are primarily responsible to protect our ships that carry humanitarian aid to Gaza. From now on, we will not allow these ships to be subjected to attacks from Israel similar to what happened with the Freedom Flotilla ... Israel will be answered appropriately."

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by killer3000ad

Turkey offers to escort aid ships to Gaza

FFS Turkey, please stop trolling. We know that the Shayetet 13 doesn't really care which boat their limpet mines blow up.

[ganbaru]

Originally Posted by killer3000ad

Turkey offers to escort aid ships to Gaza

A good way to sound cool and to get into trouble.

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by ganbaru

A good way to sound cool and to get into trouble.

They are playing on the fact that under watchful eyes of the international community, Israel won't dare to sink those ships.

Israel probably won't dare to sink those ships OVERTLY, but covertly, we don't know if they will bribe someone on-board to strap on a bulletproof vest and scuttle it.