Energy Drink Backlash: Regular Drinkers Face Insomnia, Seizures

         Good Day World!

If you’re an energy drink fan that swizzles the stuff throughout the day you might want to re-consider your habit. A recent survey suggests people who drink too much end up in hospital emergency wards with seizures.

As a matter of fact, lot’s of bad things are coming out about all those energy drinks that dominate the store shelves these days. Nasty effects range from Insomnia ,nervousness, headaches, fast heartbeat, and severe seizures.

To a nation of ass-dragging people who’ve trusted these legal energy drinks to get by, this is going to be shocking news. Now what? Go back to drinking coffee all day to get that buzz? You know what? A good night night’s sleep would be a lot safer and cheaper.

Here’s food for thought:

“A new federal government survey suggests the number of people seeking emergency treatment after consuming energy drinks has doubled nationwide during the past four years, the same period in which the supercharged drinks have surged in popularity in convenience stores, bars and on college campuses.

From 2007 to 2011, the government estimates the number of emergency room visits involving the neon-labeled beverages shot up from about 10,000 to more than 20,000. Most of those cases involved teens or young adults, according to a survey of the nation's hospitals released late last week by the Substance Abuse and Administration.

The report doesn't specify which symptoms brought people to the emergency room but calls energy drink consumption a "rising public health problem" that can cause insomnia, nervousness, headache, fast heartbeat and seizures that are severe enough to require emergency care.

Several emergency physicians said they had seen a clear uptick in the number of patients suffering from , anxiety and heart attacks who said they had recently downed an energy drink.

More than half of the patients considered in the survey who wound up in the emergency room told doctors they had downed only energy drinks. In 2011, about 42 percent of the cases involved energy drinks in combination with alcohol or drugs, such as the stimulants Adderall or Ritalin.

A lot of people don't realize the strength of these things. I had someone come in recently who had drunk three energy drinks in an hour, which is the equivalent of 15 cups of coffee," said Howard Mell, an emergency physician in the suburbs of Cleveland, who serves as a spokesman for the American College of Emergency Physicians. "Essentially he gave himself a stress test and thankfully he passed. But if he had a weak heart or suffered from coronary disease and didn't know it, this could have precipitated very bad things."

Concerns over energy drinks have intensified following reports last fall of 18 deaths possibly tied to the drinks - including a 14-year-old Maryland girl who died after drinking two large cans of Monster Energy drinks. Monster does not believe its products were responsible for the death.

Two senators are calling for the Food and Drug Administration to investigate safety concerns about energy drinks and their ingredients.

The energy drink industry says its drinks are safe and there is no evidence linking its products to the adverse reactions.

Late last year, the FDA asked the U.S. Health and Human Services Department to update the figures its research arm compiles about emergency room visits tied to energy drinks.

The SAMHSA survey was based on responses from about 230 hospitals each year, a representative sample of about 5 percent of emergency departments nationwide. The agency uses those responses to estimate the number of energy drink-related emergency department visits nationwide.

The more than 20,000 cases estimated for 2011 represent a small portion of the annual 136 million emergency room visits tracked by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The FDA said it was considering the findings and pressing for more details as it undertakes a broad review of the safety of energy drinks and related ingredients this spring.

"We will examine this additional information ... as a part of our ongoing investigation into potential safety issues surrounding the use of energy-drink products," FDA spokeswoman Shelly Burgess said in a statement.

Beverage manufacturers fired back at the survey, saying the statistics were misleading and taken out of context.

"This report does not share information about the overall health of those who may have consumed energy drinks, or what symptoms brought them to the ER in the first place," the American Beverage Association said in a statement. "There is no basis by which to understand the overall caffeine intake of any of these individuals - from all sources."

Energy drinks remain a small part of the carbonated soft drinks market, representing only 3.3 percent of sales volume, according to the industry tracker Beverage Digest. Even as soda consumption has flagged in recent years, energy drinks sales are growing rapidly.

In 2011, sales volume for energy drinks rose by almost 17 percent, with the top three companies - Monster, Red Bull and Rockstar - each logging double-digit gains, Beverage Digest found. The drinks are often marketed at sporting events that are popular among younger people such as surfing and skateboarding.

From 2007 to 2011, the most recent year for which data was available, people from 18 to 25 were the most common age group seeking emergency treatment for energy drink-related reactions, the report found.” (Source)

Time for me to walk on down the road…

Beware…‘The Truthers’ are out there and most of them are crazy!

      Good Day World!

I’m no longer surprised by anything any more. So, when I saw the following article about the Sandy Hook massacre and how some people don’t believe it even happened, I shook my head in disgust. Denying the truth about anything is commonplace among a group of people called “Truthers.”

They inspire nuts like Donald Trump to make asses out of themselves. Still, it’s hard to believe anyone would think the murder of 27 people by a deranged shooter was a conspiracy. It just goes to show you how crazy this world is getting. 

“Retired Gene Rosen was hailed as a hero for taking six terrified first-graders into his home and giving them fruit juice during the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre.

The four girls and two boys told Rosen they couldn’t return to class because a man with guns had killed their teacher. Indeed Victoria Soto was among the 26 dead – 20 children and six staffers – gunned down by Adam Lanza at the Newtown, Conn., school that day.

“I comforted them because I’m a grandfather,” Rosen, 69, who lives across the street from the school, said in an appearance on TODAY after the tragedy. “They were mortified.”

Now, Rosen and his wife are scared. He says he is being harassed by so-called Sandy Hook "truthers," conspiracy theorists who believe that facts about Newtown are being covered up by the media or other forces as part of a government or anti-gun plot.

“I’m getting emails with, not direct threats, but accusations that I’m lying, that I’m a crisis actor,” Rosen told the online magazine Salon. A white supremacist message board, Salon said, had ridiculed the “emotional Jewish guy.”

A photo of Rosen's home was posted online and fake social network accounts have been created in his name, according to the report. Blog posts call him a fraud. “What is the going rate for getting involved in a gov’t sponsored hoax anyway?” said one message accusing him of acting, according to Salon.

“The quantity of the material is overwhelming,” Rosen said, adding that his wife is worried for their safety.

Rosen’s treatment is the outgrowth of Newtown shooting conspiracy theories expanding on the Internet. Such claims are even coming from sources that appear to be mainstream.

Florida Atlantic University communications professor James Tracy, who in a blog post stated, “While it sounds like an outrageous claim, one is left to inquire whether the Sandy Hook shooting ever took place – at least in the way law enforcement authorities and the nation’s news media have described.”

Or reporter Ben Swann, who questioned police accounts of the Aurora, Colo., shootings as well as the Sandy Hook massacre in an online program called “Full Disclosure.” Swann, in both instances, latches on to witness accounts reported in the early confusion of the tragedies to question whether more than one gunman was involved. There is “reason to question this whole narrative,” Swann said.

Some of the conspiracy theories blame Jewish people for roles in the Newtown tragedy. Those claims even led Abraham H. Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League to respond. In a blog post Foxman laments the inevitable rumor mill that sprouts up on the Internet after major disasters and tragedies that the news media is hiding the truth and that Jews or Israel a role.

“But never in a million years did I think that the shootings at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, an event that has so traumatized Americans and shocked people the world over, would become the latest fodder for cynical anti-Semites and anti-Israel conspiracy theorists,” Foxman wrote.

Conspiracy theories are nothing new, the ADL's Director of Investigative Research Mark Pitcavage points out, but they come in different stripes. One type is based on a single event, such as Sandy Hook, rather than a long-running series of complex machinations spanning the globe.

"What they tend to share is an incident occurs that is large and heinous, so much so that psychologically there will be people who are unwilling to accept a simple explanation for how the event took place," Pitcavage told NBC News.

Whether Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in assassinating John F. Kennedy 50 years ago is considered the "ultimate example."

"Psychologically people are unwilling, unprepared to accept that it was a lone gunman. So if they can't accept that, there must be some other explanation. That's why these conspiracy theories emerge."

The terrorist attacks on the twin towers of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001, also spawned conspiracy theories, and led to the coining of the phrase "Truthers" to describe them.” (Source)

Time for me to walk on down the road…

The Hypocrite’s Corner: NRA puts out new 'Practice Range' shooting app -- after blaming video games for violence

    Good Day World!

 If anyone has any doubts about the NRA’s sincerity regarding video games,this article will dispel them. “Crazy Wayne” LaPierre (NRA Executive Vice President) went out of his way to claim there’s no need to have more gun control.

  One of the many ways he tried to deflect the roles of guns in recent massacres was to claim violent video games were the problem. Okay…so what happens?

The NRA comes out with a shooting game for all ages. The video game is all about practicing with your assault rifle. How nice. Now future teenage serial killers can practice shooting assault rifles so when the decide to assault teachers and students at schools they’ll get a maximum kill rate!

I just hope Obama’s committee (under Biden) comes up with some real laws with bite regarding assault rifles and gun registration. And now from the hypocrite’s corner:

  “Just weeks after the National Rifle Association forcefully blamed violent video games for gun violence, the gun-rights organization has released a for kids as young as four.NRA: Practice Range, a new app in the iTunes store, was released Sunday by the nation’s largest gun-industry lobby. It features a 3D-shooting range and offers users simulated target practice.

The game's launch comes one month after the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., which touched off a national debate over how to limit gun violence.

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In the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, the National Rifle Association held a news conference in Washington, D.C, blaming the media and video games for cultivating a culture of violence.

“Guns don’t kill people. Video games, the media and Obama’s budget kill people,” NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre said at a Dec. 21 press conference where he addressed the tragedy at Sandy Hook.

"There exists in this country, sadly, a callous, corrupt and corrupting shadow industry that sells and stows violence against its own people, through vicious, violent video games with names like ‘Bulletstorm,’ ‘Grand Theft Auto,’ ‘Mortal Kombat’ and ‘Splatterhouse.’”

The free app, recommended for ages 4 and up, according to the iTunes rating system, “offers a 3D shooting game that instills safe and responsible ownership through fun challenges and realistic simulations,” says the app’s description. “It strikes the right balance of gaming and safety education, allowing you to enjoy the most authentic experience possible.”

Users don’t shoot live subjects in the app, but instead are given an M9 handgun and sent to target practice in three immersive shooting ranges. 

The NRA says the app “puts the organization’s broad scope of resources in the palm of your hand – with 2nd Amendment newsfeeds, gun law information centers and educational materials that you can access anywhere, anytime.”

The app has received three-and-a-half out of five stars in the iTunes store, but has attracted several scathing customer reviews, some calling for it to be pulled from the iTunes store.

“Is this some kind of sick joke?” asked one user known as Papershipsonfire. “The NRA complains about violent games and then releases one a week later. Sure you’re not shooting humans but does it really matter?”

“What a dumb move,” posted Mansonr6. “Good luck getting anyone to take your video game theory serious after this.”

But others praised the educational content offered in the game.

“This is fun and informative plus there is no need for eye and ear protection,” wrote Joe in BrynMawr. “A must have for any gun enthusiast and defender of the U.S. constitution.”

Last week, after a meeting with Vice President Joe Biden’s gun reform task force, the NRA slammed the White House.

"It is unfortunate that this Administration continues to insist on pushing failed solutions to our nation's most pressing problems," the NRA said in a statement. "We will not allow law-abiding gun owners to be blamed for the acts of criminals and madmen." (Source)

Time for me to walk on down the road…

If you THINK you're stressed out it’s enough to cause problems

         Good Day World!

Remember the old saying, “It’s only as bad as you think it is…?”

After analyzing a half dozen studies, researchers have come to the conclusion if you think you’re stressed it’s enough to give you a higher rate of coronary heart disease. That’s right. Worry warts be warned; worrying is causing you some serious problems.

As I always caution in all surveys, studies, and polls, take the results with a grain of salt. Most of the time they’re not definitive because of flawed methodologies and politics. However, after having said that, it doesn’t hurt to use common sense when considering a course of action after reading or hearing about a study,survey, or poll. 

“As if being stressed weren't bad enough, thinking you're stressed might also cause serious problems. Turns out, perceived stress, or how much you think you're stressed, is associated with a higher risk of coronary heart disease, according to a new study published in the American Journal of Cardiology.

Researchers analyzed six studies to see how perceived stress affects your ticker. Each of the studies asked participants to self-report intense or frequent feelings of stress and then followed each participant for about 14 years to see if they were diagnosed with, hospitalized, or died from coronary heart disease. What they found: Participants who reported high levels of stress had a 27 percent higher risk of developing coronary heart disease. (Did you know you can lower anxiety with your diet? Try these 9 Stress-Relieving Foods.)” (Source)

Time for me to walk on down the road…

As It Stands: File your taxes early to help prevent identity fraud

   By Dave Stancliff/For The Times-Standard
   There are two things we all can count on; dying and paying taxes. After that it’s a free-for-all as we take on life’s many challenges. I realize it’s a little early to talk about taxes, but when it comes to warning you about the dangers of filing your taxes it’s never too soon.
   Americans have three options when it comes to paying taxes; filing electronically; the traditional way of filing on paper yourself or going to a tax accountant.
   Not surprisingly, the majority of Americans filed electronically last year. A whopping 81%  filed their returns electronically in 2012, according to a report recently released by the independent IRS Oversight Board. That represents about 119 million taxpayers.
   This 21st century shift in how we pay our taxes comes with a dark side, however. As more people get aboard electronically, thieves using stolen Social Security numbers and  popular tax preparation software are filing fake tax returns and collecting the refunds.

  Over 460,000 people have been victimized by identity theft tax fraud since 2008, according to the IRS Oversight Board report. Before you start to panic and wonder what’s the safest way to file, it’s online, according to security experts.
    Online filing is safer than filing by mail according to Linda Foley, co-founder of ID Theft Info Source and an expert on identity theft. In a recent AP interview, Foley said people should file electronically and then take steps to guard their electronic footprint
online.
   Still, there are some people who aren’t comfortable with filing online. That’s understandable. In that event, the best thing they can do is use a trustworthy accountant. That might sound obvious, but the fact of the matter is the person they pick might be tempted to sell their information, or even use it themselves.
   Obviously, if you’ve been going to the same tax preparer for years, you don’t have to worry about that. However, it’s important to know this is one of the easiest ways for thieves to get access to your account.
    As for those Americans who do file electronically this year, there are steps they can take to safeguard themselves. My biggest reason for writing this column on taxes right now is to warn you to file early. This is one key way to prevent identity theft fraud.  

    One common tactic the thieves use is to take information that was stolen last year and use it to file a fake return as soon as possible, likely in early February, according to Foley. So, fair warning.
   It’s also a real good idea to protect your data. Make sure you’re using a secure computer, Foley warned, and save your data on a thumb drive that you remove from the computer once you’re done filing.
   The IRS suggests installing security software on your computer and running regular credit checks.
    The independent IRS Oversight Board report also recommended steps for the IRS to take to protect people. Among the suggestions was adding more fraud screens and increasing the resources devoted to helping identify theft victims.
  During Congressional testimony late last year, the IRS said they have 3,000 employees devoted to working on identity theft issues. As more people go to online filing, so do more thieves seek opportunity in Cyberspace.   
   It helps to remember that knowledge is power. The more you know about the challenges facing you when you file your taxes this year, the better. I can understand why more people are filing electronically. It’s a pretty easy thing to do.

   And when the security experts say you can protect your data more easily by filing your own taxes, rather than sharing them with a tax preparation service, it’s time to step into the 21st century of tax preparation.
   Please forgive me if I’ve bummed you out by making you think about your taxes so soon after the arrival of the new year. My wife sometimes accuses me of being a “worry wart,” but even she said it was okay to pass this information along this soon!
    As It Stands, the bottom line is, don’t let anyone come between you and the IRS when it’s time to file your taxes.

Why we should be okay with being bored…

                              Good Day World!

Growing up, whenever I got bored it usually led to trouble. True story. I had teachers in elementary school make a point of not letting me be bored by keeping me in sight at all times. I was social kinda kid and liked to make funny faces to entertain others every chance I got.

Mimicking teachers behind their back was my specialty. Until my 4th-grade science teacher caught me in the act! I got a couple of swats for that prank, a common practice back when I was in school for miscreants such as myself.

Anyway…this group of psychs got together recently and came to the conclusion it’s good to be bored. Who knew?  

“Don’t dread tedious workplace assignments like reading reports or sitting through meetings — they’re making you more productive.

Boring, monotonous tasks help you become a better problem-solver, new research finds, because our brains use that unstimulating “down time” to branch out and think in more creative ways. 

“Boredom has always had such bad press, but some boredom is possibly good... especially if it gives us the opportunity to daydream,” said Sandi Mann, senior psychology lecturer at the University of Central Lancashire in the U.K. Mann's research was presented this week at the Annual Conference of the British Psychological Society Division of Occupational Psychology.

“Being able to have that down time when you let your mind wander can be great for creativity,” Mann said.

Americans are getting less creative overall, according to a landmark 2010 study. Kyung-Hee Kim, an associate professor at the college of William & Mary’s , analyzed results from creativity tests and found that our creativity has been on the wane for more than 20 years now, even though IQ scores are climbing.” (Read the rest here).

Time for me to walk on down the road…

Astronomers discover the largest structure in the universe!

This is big stuff (pun intended). It seems like every time scientists and astronomers get together they have to re-write one space theory or another. Right now there’s some giddy astronomers running around England with the exciting news.

The newly discovered large quasar group is so enormous, in fact, that theory predicts it shouldn't exist, according to researchers. Now, that’s big:

“Astronomers have discovered the largest known structure in the universe, a clump of active galactic cores that stretches 4 billion light-years from end to end.

The structure is a large quasar group (LQG), a collection of extremely luminous galactic nuclei powered by supermassive central black holes. This particular group is so large that it challenges modern cosmological theory, researchers said.

"While it is difficult to fathom the scale of this LQG, we can say quite definitely it is the largest structure ever seen in the entire universe," lead author Roger Clowes, of the University of Central Lancashire in England, said in a statement. "This is hugely exciting, not least because it runs counter to our current understanding of the scale of the universe."

Quasars are the brightest objects in the universe. For decades, astronomers have known that they tend to assemble in huge groups, some of which are more than 600 million light-years wide.” (Read the rest here)

Just What’s Needed These Days in America…a New Rifle That Makes Anyone a Sniper

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Just think…you can kill someone 7 football fields away now.

 Good Day World!

In this violent country we love so much, new weapon capabilities grow every day. With this latest innovation to sights on rifles someone who has never fired a real weapon before can make a kill shot.

Wow! Just think about that. Doesn’t it make you feel all warm and cuddly?

“It all goes back to "Top Gun." In the heads-up display on Maverick's Tomcat, you can see a computer compensate for human aim with precision laser guidance and careful calculations. How long before that technology made its way to to a conventional hunting rifle? It's here now, with a price tag of $17,000 to $21,000.” (read the story here)

Time for me to walk on down the road…

Another classroom shooting today in California!

The big question is: how did someone just stroll into a classroom with a loaded 12-gauge shotgun? With all the awareness on school shootings, you’d think there was additional security. Here’s what happened:

A high school teacher and a campus supervisor talked a student into surrendering after he opened fire in a classroom, wounding a classmate at a school in California's southern San Joaquin Valley on Thursday morning, police said.

The student had intentional targets when he brought a 12-gauge into the Taft Union High School classroom halfway through the first period, Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood said in a news conference. The incident happened around 9 a.m. local time and students were evacuated to the football field, NBC affiliate KGET of Bakersfield reported. (Source)

Guess which state is having a python hunting contest this weekend?

Good Day World!

Reptile haters rejoice! It’s open season on pythons in Florida’s Everglades this weekend. Saturday’s scheduled competitive snake slaughter is supposed to raise awareness of the threat Burmese pythons pose to the Everglades ecosystem.

The whole competition sounds like an opportunity for a bunch of crazy people to get lost while hunting snakes as big as themselves in the snake’s turf. Crazy stuff. Only in America:

“A python hunting competition starting on Saturday is drawing hundreds of amateurs armed with clubs, machetes and guns to the Florida Everglades, where captured Burmese pythons have exceeded the length of minivans and weighed as much as grown men.

Python Challenge 2013, a month-long event sponsored by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, is open to hunters and non-hunters alike.

But the idea of luring weapon-wielding amateurs into the harsh environment of the Everglades has raised some alarms.

"I just thought it was as exciting as could be. It's a once- in-a-lifetime opportunity," said contestantRon Polster, a retired salesman from Ohio whose closest encounter with the swamp has been from the highway heading south for the winter.

Participants pay a $25 entry fee and take an online training course, which consists mostly of looking at photographs of both the targeted pythons and protected native snakes to learn the difference.

The state wildlife agency is offering prizes of $1,500 for the most pythons captured and $1,000 for the longest python.

A Burmese python found in Florida last year set records as the largest ever captured in the state at 17-feet, 7-inches (5.4 meters). The snake weighed nearly 165 pounds (75 kg).

FWC spokeswoman Carli Segelson said the number of registered contestants reached about 500 this week and was growing, with people coming from 32 states.

The stated goal of the competition is to raise awareness of the threat Burmese pythons pose to the Everglades ecosystem. The snakes are native to Southeast Asia and have no known predators in Florida.

The contest also serves as a pilot program to determine whether regular hunting competitions can cull the growing population of the invasive species, said Frank Mazzotti, a wildlife expert from the University of Florida who helped create the competition.

Python Challenge rules require contestants to kill specimens on the spot in a humane fashion, recommending shooting the snakes precisely through the brain.

"I was hoping there would be a lot of machetes and not a lot of guns," said Polster, the retired salesman. He said he worries "these idiots will be firing all over the place."

Shawn Heflick, star of the National Geographic "Wild" television show "Python Hunters," told Reuters that despite the formidable size of the snakes, he expects the swamp itself, with its alligators, crocodiles and venomous snakes, to pose a greater threat to the contestants.

"You get these people going down there, they'll get lost, they'll get dehydrated, they'll get sucked dry by mosquitoes," Heflick said.

Segelson said the wildlife agency will provide training on the use of GPS devices and on identifying venomous snakes at the kick-off event. In the meantime, she said, contestants should be familiarizing themselves with the Everglades environment, just as they should before entering any other strange territory.

Heflick said most of the contestants likely were drawn to the Python Challenge by the romantic mystique of bagging a giant predator. He expects few will last long in the hunt."The vast majority of them will never see a python. The vast majority of them will probably curtail their hunting very quickly when they figure out there's a lot of mosquitoes, it's hot, it's rather boring sometimes - most of the time really, and I think a lot of them will go home," Heflick said.” (source)