The pervasive prescription drug abuse is, however, starting make it seem like all nurses are crack-heads. She does not seem to be able to get through the day without some sort of prescription pain killer. Now maybe some of the 100 million prescriptions for pain medications dished out by doctors in the United States last year, may wind up in the hands of nurses, but Nurse Jackie needs to be careful not to piss off the nurses. It’s hard to believe this show will attempt to remain credible, while at the same time showing a nurse carrying out her duties while being stoned on narcotics all day.

View the full review here.

Total sleep time is maximal when thermoneutrality is achieved, and decreases above and below the thermoneutrality zone. Thermoneutrality is reached when sleeping in an environmental temperature of 30-32 degrees C without night clothing or a blanket, or 16-19 degrees  C with a pyjama and at least one sheet.

Noise also modifies sleep structure and above 50dB shortens total sleeping time. Although subjects do become subjectively accustomed to noise, vegetative cardiovascular reactivity to environmental noise remains unchanged.

The spontaneous circadian awake/sleep cycle is 25 hours, slightly longer than the body temperature cycle, but when subjects are exposed to environmental synchronization (day/night cycles), the two cycles coincide.

In individuals undergoing temporal isolation(no awareness of passage of time), the two rhythms become independent often leading to subjective discomfort and fatigue. Certain factors including age can favour internal desynchronization.

Other factors may include social contact, stress due to mental work load, and constant lighting which could lengthen the awake/sleep cycle. Caffeine blocks the receptors of adenosine, and thus its effects of inhibiting neurotransmission.Intake 30 to 60 minutes before sleeping shortens total sleep time and increases the duration of stage 2 and shortens stage 3 and 4.

Alcohol may act as a relaxing, sedative agent when consumed just before sleeping but can also lead to night-time awakening due to sympathetic activation which does not return to baseline levels until the blood alcohol levels have returned to 0.

Nicotine has a biphasic effect on sleep: at low concentrations, it leads to relaxation and sedation and at high concentrations inhibits sleep. A careful study of sleeping habits is the first step in evaluating complains of insomnia or hypersomnia. Before relying on drugs, treatment should start with attention to the sleep environment and personal habits.

Click here for original study.

We all want to eat healthier and not die of cancer or nutrient deficiency. We seldom stop to wonder just how it is that these, 3 times more expensive, miracles of modern agriculture are made healthier. Perhaps we picture a farmer lovingly planting individual tomatoes. Perhaps we picture a farmer lovingly watching individual tomatoes and flicking the bugs off them to keep them pesticide free. Maybe we thought that the farmer hand picks every “organic” product, and then quickly hand-delivers them to our local grocer.

Ever wonder why the industry likes to use generic terms like “organic” or “natural”, instead of something specific like “pesticide free”, “E. Coli free”, “Salmonella free”, “Miracle-Gro free”?

Here is some food for thought. To prove something “not organic” the company would basically have to be selling you a rock. Any life on earth (plant, animal, insect) that contains carbon, would fall into the organic category. Your dog’s shit is organic, but that doesn’t mean you should be paying extra to eat it. So unless someone is trying to sell rocks, they can call whatever it is, organic. If, however, one were to make a claim of being “pesticide free”, or free of growing additives, or preservatives, that could be checked and companies can be sued. Makes me think the organic food industry is staffed by ex-politicians.

http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSTRE56S3ZJ20090730

34 radio stations have been closed down, 200 more stand threatened with broadcast license revocation.

In addition to bankrupting his country, turning himself into God with no term limits, this ex-coca farmer also give weapons to Colombian drug runners to kill and kidnap civilians in Colombia. I wonder if it’s related to the fact that he is an ex coca farmer and the FARC make all their money selling coke?
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/03/world/americas/03venez.html?ref=global-home

He was quick to demonize Bush, deserved as it may have been, but turned out to be just as big an asshole. Just goes to show you, every socialist haven, is one power-mad shithead away from a fascist dictatorial state. I myself, am eagerly awaiting the UN Security Concil resolution that will be passed most expeditiously to deal with this threat to security and stability of another country. On second thought, all they have time for is anti-Israel resolutions, so probably not.

Movement and Play Control

Overall, the play control in Prototype is excellent and very responsive. The vehicle controls start out a little sluggish, but once you get all possible upgrades, it gets much easier. The move selection in this game is very rich and you have numerous different powers to choose from, though a few of them are there just for show, such as super strength or the HammerFist power. You will probably end up using Alex’s Blade power (for maximum damage) or the WhipFist power (for maximum reach) most of the time.

Something I found annoying was the tendency of the character to get stuck running, which made fighting on the move a bit tricky. It also made the completion of some side-quests more difficult, because trying to turn or change directions sharply while running, frequently resulted in falling off a building and having to start the mission over. Let’s say you are running toward a group of enemies or a piece of enemy armor, and you do a running attack like a jump-kick. You expect that once the character recovers from the move, you can start following up with combos or other ground based attacks, but the character recovers and keeps running so all you get is another jump-kick.

Game Progression

The game can be finished within about 10 hours, or take much longer if you do all the side missions. There are lots of side-quests to do, which train you in the moves you need to master, as well as provide the opportunity to earn credits to buy upgrades. Depending on how close you get to a stated goal of the side mission (such as: timer, or number of units killed), you get awarded bronze, silver, or gold medals.  Every action by Alex that kills a military or infected unit, or destroys military hardware generates credits. The side missions started out fun and mostly easy, and gradually get harder as you progress. New side quests are unlocked as you follow the main quest line. Some of the vehicle missions get very difficult because of your limited ability to dodge.

Fun Factor

This game was a lot of fun. Because of the excellent play control and freedom of action, you can complete missions several ways. For example if you need to destroy something, you can jump into a tank, or hijack a helicopter, consume an army unit with a bazooka or use any of your own array of powers. The different missions take part in different parts of the city, so it helps to make some of the repetitive side missions more palatable.

Replay value

The replay value is diminished because you get most of the powers on the first run through the game. By the time you can run it on normal+ or hard+, you already have most of the upgrades. Unless you want to see the ending sequences again, or just prove to yourself that you have mastered the moves and want to try hard mode,  you will probably only play this game once.

Difficulty

The game starts out very easy. You are considerably more powerful than anything you face, and if you listen to the instructions and start learning the moves in the first few missions, you will find the game pretty easy at first. Once you have more of your moves and have progressed towards the end of the game, you will start getting harder missions where more enemy units come at you non-stop. An experienced gamer will find this game fun, and only frustrating at some of the final missions.

Graphics

Without counting pixels the game looks good. The building models are seamless and well designed, and you can see a fair bit into the distance. There are no glitches or artifacts that affect game-play in a noticeable way. The only problems I noticed were the blue/red orbs you need to collect for more bonus credits. Whether you can see them or not depends on your position, your viewing angle, and whether you are above or below the object. You therefore end up scanning the horizons while parked on different rooftops to see if any orbs are around. Some sort of detector would have made this easier and less of an Easter-egg hunt.

Biggest Pro

The game is fun. The missions are fun. Driving the vehicles is fun. Flying around is fun and stealth-consuming people is fun. Lots of fun.

Biggest Con

A few minor things to knit-pick at, but that is just for the sake of thoroughness. The problem with seeing the orbs I mentioned before will make it really hard to find all 200 of them. Should have made the devastator moves a little easier to do.

To Buy or Not To Buy

The answer to this question is a resounding yes. The game was immensely fun. Leaping from building to building chasing down helicopters, riding tanks and helicopters, infiltrating enemy bases, and pulverizing someone to a pulp before absorbing them, are just some of the fun things you get to do. Some of the challenges are very difficult to complete, and require repeated attempts with different tactics, which just teaches you different nuances of the game. Don’t miss this title.

I have not experienced almost any glitches with this title. That in itself is a rarity among games these days, as publishers rush titles out the door, in some cases, wayyyyyy before they were ready.

If you have played Prototype already or are planning to buy it, please leave your comments and opinions for the benefit of others.

I shit you not!

In this video she demonstrates her vaginal prowess, by flinging glass stuff on a rope that is attached to a ball that is being held by her most intimate of muscles. Apparently she started doing this, after noticing her those muscles being weak from child-birth and just never stopped. She is now able to hoist a 14 Kg weight with her privates.

I have always wanted to be able to crack a walnut with my anus but I didn’t know if it was possible. Now I know it is, and I finally feel inspired enough to try. I will debut my new maneuver at the next BBQ.

World’s strongest vagina

North Korea is accused of lunching an attack on various US and South Korean web sites. The attack was a plan old fashioned DOS flood using zombie machines; something that script kiddies have been doing for years now. How these guys managed to become a threat in any respect is beyond me. And why isn’t all traffic from North Korea, and Iran automatically just discarded into the trash in the first place?

http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE56709E20090711

If you don’t know where you heart is, do you really deserve to even have one?

“Overall, people knew less basic anatomy than the researchers expected — even those patients being treated for a specific condition involving that organ.” Can you believe that people who have some sort of affliction of a particular organ still don’t know where it is or what it looks like?

http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/06/15/body.knowledge.survey/index.html?iref=mpstoryview

After years of ripping consumers off in pretty devious ways by using fine print, trickery, deception, and plain old bad faith the credit companies now have pretty onerous restrictions on many aspects of their business model. The fees, hidden charges, and trickery they were using to keep higher interest rate amounts on your card and drag out your repayment as long as possible are now under much more scrutiny, and require a lot more notice from the credit card companies.

For examples of just a few of the changes check out this New York times article. Only after reading the new changes and restrictions, can one really grasp the nature of the lube less butt love we have been getting from the credit card companies.

Of course as is the usual norm, Canada’s brainless politicians will adopt the American laws after they have done all the hard work and thinking. We in Canada, for anyone not Canadian, don’t do any of our own thinking. Not sure if we can’t afford it, or just too peaceful to care which, incidentally, is our response to everything. We actually just copy whatever the US does a few years later, which makes one wonder why we even have paid politicians. I mean I’m pretty sure I can copy paste American laws and ideas in my spare time and save us all the money and embarrassment of Prime Ministers who accept money in envelopes under the table in restaurants. The only reason we are not in the same credit crisis the US is in, is that our banks/govn were too slow to copy this time around.

Speak of the devil, here he comes now and only a day after the US annoucement this time. Once in my lifetime I wish to see Canada have a good idea and announce and implement it before the US does. I think I”ll die an unsatisfied bitter old man.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2009/05/21/credit-cards-flaherty021.html

Other things we have copied include (for those who think I talk out of my ass):

1) cell phone number portability – finally made it’s way here 2-3 years later than the US, finally giving consumers a choice to move to another carrier if they were unhappy

2) do not call lists – finally made their way here a year or more later

3) forced switch to digital television – hasn’t happend yet, but it is in the works

4) NAFTA -US and Mexico were signing, so we jumped on board but it was a US idea

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/20/your-money/20money.html?em