Dr. Joe’s cure works for stress and high blood pressure

As pointed out by “Ed” in the comments of this posting sex is also good for reducing stress and blood pressure.  This why when Barb and I get our blood pressure taken they always comment on how good it is.  The research indicates the effects last for up to a week afterward but Dr. Joe’s advice is that this is actually risking more than is necessary and since it’s nearly impossible to overdose you should repeat the treatment as frequently as you have the time and energy for.

Here are some links:

And from News.Scotsman.com:

HAVING full sexual intercourse helps the body cope with stress for up to a week, according to a study by a Paisley University psychologist.

Professor Stuart Brody found that a man and a woman who had had this kind of sex became less stressed than those who had abstained when asked to speak in public or do mental arithmetic out loud.

Their blood pressure rose by about half the amount of people who had other kinds of sex or none at all and it also returned to normal more quickly.

“The effects are not attributable simply to the short-term relief afforded by orgasm, but rather, endure for at least a week,” Professor Brody told today’s issue of New Scientist magazine. He said that the release of the “pair-bonding” hormone oxytocin between partners might account for the calming effect.

In the study, which was reported earlier in the journal Biological Psychology, 24 women and 22 men were asked to keep diaries of their sex lives for a fortnight. They were then given a range of stress tests. Those who did not have sex had the highest blood pressure response to stress.

Prof Brody said: “The difference wasn’t just statistically significant, it was really meaningful. This was a big, big effect on the blood pressure response to stress.”

More research confirming Dr. Joe’s cure for everything

I have a bit of a problem with high cholesterol problem.  According to this I need to convince Barb we need to spend some more time on those kisses before we move on to curing the common cold:

REGULAR kissing is good for your health and women prefer it to making love, a survey suggests.

In the study of more than 500 men and women aged between 16 and 91, most men said they felt kissing was “more of a duty and obligation”.

But 56 per cent of women said they “enjoyed kissing and willingly kissed”.

Sixty per cent of women felt kissing was better than sex.

The survey also revealed that a long kiss can lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels.

The anvil guy is coming back

Just this last weekend I received the Boomershoot entry for the guy that keeps trying to put his anvil into orbit.  I don’t know if he is bringing them back this year or not but here is a picture from one of the Boomershoot 2004 launches:

These guys are very curious

These guys have been sniffing around Boomershoot.org for years.  But I first noticed them on this blog last December when they were looking for exploding targets.  Now they are looking for where their own IP address can be found on the web.  Very curious folks they are.


Domain Name   atfonline.gov ? (United States Government)
IP Address   199.196.144.# (Executive Office of Asset Forfeiture)
ISP   Executive Office of Asset Forfeiture Location  

Continent  :  North America
Country  :  United States  (Facts)
State  :  Virginia
City  :  Dulles
Lat/Long  :  39.0853, -77.6452 (Map)
Language   English (United States) en-us
Operating System   Microsoft WinXP
Browser   Internet Explorer 6.0
Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; .NET CLR 1.0.3705; .NET CLR 1.1.4322)
Javascript   version 1.3
Monitor  

Resolution  :  1280 x 1024
Color Depth  :  32 bits

Time of Visit   Jan 25 2006 2:42:06 pm
Last Page View   Jan 25 2006 2:43:53 pm
Visit Length   1 minute 47 seconds
Page Views   2
Referring URL http://www.google.co%22199.196.144.17%22
Search Engine
google.com
Search Words “199.196.144.17”
Visit Entry Page   http://216.239.51.10 “199.196.144.17”&hl
Visit Exit Page   http://blog.joehuffm47-bce0ebb98a22.aspx
Time Zone   UTC-5:00
EST – Eastern Standard
EDT – Eastern Daylight Saving Time
Visitor’s Time   Jan 25 2006 5:42:06 pm
Visit Number   59,423

Remote searching of your body

There is a new tool for remotely searching your body even while you are moving.  Haven’t these people heard of the 4th Amendment?

Wednesday, January 25, 2006  E-Mail this article to a friend Printer Friendly Version

New US security device spots weapons under clothes

By Christian Wiessner

At its first public demonstration on Monday in New York, the device was able to detect a mock gun and a bomb replica, which the company said, was similar to that used by Al Qaeda

A new surveillance device using radio waves to look under peoples’ clothing for concealed guns, bombs or other weapons may be coming soon to a security checkpoint near you.

But the modest need not worry about screeners sneaking a voyeuristic peek because the system only identifies non-human material tucked inside clothing and does not convey images of the naked form underneath, the maker of the device – Brijot Imaging Systems Inc. of Orlando, Florida – said on Monday.

The BIS-WIDS Prime is the first and only surveillance camera that immediately detects and identifies the exact location of objects hidden beneath a person’s clothing while the person is in motion, the company said.

At its first public demonstration on Monday in New York, the device was able to detect a mock gun and a bomb replica the company said was similar to that used by Al Qaeda.

“The software in the machine itself actually looks at the person, looks at the objects, and actually tells you what it is and, most importantly, where it is on the body,” said Brijot Chief Executive Brian Andrew. “It doesn’t just go ‘bing’ like a metal detector. We can identify weapons’ shapes.”

The device uses computer panels that display images of the body to the security screener, with dark patches marking the location of hidden objects.

The invention was described by company officials as basically a small radio telescope that “sees” radio waves transmitted by the body. If a portion of the body is covered by something underneath clothing, no waves will transmit from that part of the body, raising a red flag to screeners.

“Our bodies radiate radio waves just like a cell phone does, and our camera sees that,” Andrew said.

Since when has the 4th Amendment been about voyeurs?  It’s about preventing a police state.  The use of this by the government or under the direction of government on the general public (in a prison situation, sure, that would be appropriate) fails my Jews In The Attic Test in a big way.

I helped design and build a device using similar technology that was intended to guiding a missle on it’s terminal descent to take out a tank when I worked at Boeing.  I made a simple change in the test unit such that it with the flip of a switch it would track humans instead of a tank.  It was rather creepy to have the seeker point at you as you walked across the room.

One way to defeat it is to create lots of false positives.  A sheet of aluminum foil will block these emissions from your body just as a firearm or other object will.  Sew them into your coat.  Cut them into shapes and make it appear as if you are carrying dozens of guns, drop them into the coat pockets of others, and put them into books and magazines in airport stores.

Joe’s cure for everything

Barb’s been saying for about 30 years, “Joe’s cure for everything is more sex.”  Now scientists are confirming (thanks to Samantha Burns) what Barb and I have long known:

Hot sex treats common cold

Majority of people consider even minor throat irritation or mild fever as a good-enough excuse to isolate themselves from their loved ones.

That is understandable, of course. Up until recently, this was regarded as a logical move. Not so long ago, however, scientists were able to prove just the opposite: it is better to be sick together. This obviously does not mean that one should purposely sneeze at his/her partner. In this case, the effect will be minimal. It is important to battle the disease. And as for microbes, hot passionate kisses and good sex is something they fear the most – concluded Manfred Schedlovski, a Swiss researcher from Zurich.

In the course of his lengthy neuroimmunological experiments, the scientist arrived at the conclusion that sexual intercourse has a positive effect not only on the overall physical condition of both partners but also on their immune systems. Phagocytes are to be praised for the marvel. Phagocytes are cells that help the body rid itself of various ailments. This is how they work: once they locate an alien body, they penetrate it and trigger self-destruction.

During sexual intercourse, number of phagocytes tends to increase significantly; oftentimes, number of these cells almost doubles after orgasm. This in turn enables these cells to detect and destroy antibodies more quickly.

Shcedlovski’s research results have already found support among his colleagues. Immunologist Peter Schleicher also shares the initial hypothesis of his colleague from Zurich. “Not only does sex heal our organism; it also sustains its immune system,” stated Peter Schleicher in his interview to Bild am Sonntag.

Posted in Sex

It’s hopeless

Always the optimist I sometimes I fantasize about people being rational in a political environment.  I know, rationally, that is it is irrational to expect people to be rational.  But I sometimes think that if only I can come up with the right set of facts and logic I could convince almost anyone of the truth of some things–such as gun control is wrong.  Here’s evidence that it’s hopeless:

Political bias affects brain activity, study finds
Democrats and Republicans both adept at ignoring facts, brain scans show

Updated: 6:46 p.m. ET Jan. 24, 2006

Democrats and Republicans alike are adept at making decisions without letting the facts get in the way, a new study shows.

And they get quite a rush from ignoring information that’s contrary to their point of view.

Researchers asked staunch party members from both sides to evaluate information that threatened their preferred candidate prior to the 2004 Presidential election. The subjects’ brains were monitored while they pondered.

The results were announced today.

“We did not see any increased activation of the parts of the brain normally engaged during reasoning,” said Drew Westen, director of clinical psychology at Emory University. “What we saw instead was a network of emotion circuits lighting up, including circuits hypothesized to be involved in regulating emotion, and circuits known to be involved in resolving conflicts.”

And people think I’m the one with the problem because they give the way my mind works a name–they call it Asperger Syndrome (thanks Mike, that was a big help–seriously).  I’m with the Aspies that call them Neurotypical.

This is what happens in places without guns–Case IX

From the U.K. Sun:

O’Mahoney used her video phone to film the attack that left David dying from 44 injuries, including a ruptured spleen and five fractured ribs.

She booted the 37-year-old’s head like a football as other gang members piled in, making sure she had it all on film.

She even gloated: “Pose for the camera.”

Three other members of O’Mahoney’s evil gang were sentenced to 12 years each for manslaughter — in a crime that shocked Britain.

The gang attacked SEVEN other victims later that night and filmed their agony in an orgy of violence on London’s South Bank.

After they were sentenced there were sickening scenes outside the court. Friends and relatives of the killers hurled insults at David’s pals and family, including his elderly dad Geoffrey.

They screamed and even made throat cutting gestures. Incredibly, one voice shouted: “Your friend has cost my cousin 12 years.”

Emphasis in the original.

Don’t you wish we too lived in a gun free paradise like the U.K.?

Boomershooters from India

There are plans for one or more Boomershooters from India this year.  This is going to be the year of international attention–the media from U.K. and shooters from Canada and India.  Very cool.

Airplane security may be unsolvable problem

I’ve been saying for a long time that airport screening for weapons on airplanes may be an insolvable problem and that we need to consider alternatives.  Now research from the University at Buffalo and Georgia State University suggest we may now know why it is such a difficult problem:

Screeners at airport security checkpoints perform an important task in which they search for objects that belong to threat categories in complex X-ray images. New research by cognitive psychologists at UB and Georgia State University explores the cognitive processes that underlie screening, suggests limits on those processes and has implications for the training and evaluation of screeners in the field.

The findings were published in the article “Specific-Token Effects in Screening Tasks: Possible Implications for Aviation Security” in the November-December issue of the American Psychological Association’s Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition (Vol. 31, No. 6) and in the article “Visual Search and the Collapse of Categorization,” in the November-December issue of the APA’s Journal of Experimental Psychology: General (Vol. 134, No. 4).

The problem addressed by the research, Smith says, “is that screeners must be able to bring ‘category-level’ knowledge to their search for targets. That is, they must search for guns and knives generally, not for specific Beretta guns or Bowie knives they have been trained to recognize. Yet it has been unknown how the processes of categorization stand up to visual complexity or why they fail facing it. We filled this research gap by creating a visual-search and categorization paradigm in which participants searched for members of target categories in complex displays.”

The reliance on familiarity might also have implications for the training and evaluation of screeners in the field for the following reason: The “Threat Image Projection” (TIP) system provides an important potential means of assessing performance at security checkpoints. It includes a library of test images that can be digitally injected into the X-ray image of a bag as it is presented to the screener. This lets screeners’ ongoing target-detection performance be evaluated, provides ongoing training and maintains screener vigilance. Yet, a strategy of using a fixed library of test images risks the specific-token effects that Smith and his colleagues observed. Estimates of screener performance might be inflated by these familiarity effects, compared to the detection levels that would be observed for real threats that will be from outside the library and unfamiliar. A more conservative and truer estimate of screener performance would result if one arranged testing so that targets essentially never repeated, so that familiarity could never develop and so that screeners were forced to rely on category general knowledge and strategies.

Smith notes that it is to the Transportation Security Administration’s credit that it has actively responded to this specific-token effect by increasing the size of TIP libraries and by planning periodically to infuse new targets. These changes have the potential to keep TIP as a viable and accurate indicator of detection levels in the security system. These steps also show the promise of cognitive scientists and sponsoring agencies cooperating toward solving important problems. 

Unfortunately, knowing why it is a difficult problem also means everyone knows how to make it difficult for the screeners.  We need to consider the alternatives.

Quote of the day–Jeff Cooper

I have been criticized by referring to our federal masked men as “ninja,” when in the view of the critic the traditional role of the ninja in Japan was to fight against oppression and tyranny. Let us note that almost no one ever resorts to force and violence unless he is convinced that his cause is right, but without going into that let us reflect upon the fact that a man who covers his face shows reason to be ashamed of what he is doing. A man who takes it upon himself to shed blood while concealing his identity is a revolting perversion of the warrior ethic.

It has long been my conviction that a masked man with a gun is a target. I see no reason to change that view.

Jeff Cooper
From Jeff Cooper’s Commentaries
Vol. 2, No. 16
20 December 1994

Quote of the day–George H. Smith

It is my firm conviction that man has nothing to gain, emotionally or otherwise, by adhering to a falsehood, regardless of how comfortable or sacred that falsehood may appear.  Anyone who claims, on the one hand, that he is concerned with human welfare, and who demands, on the other hand, that man must suspend or renounce the use of his reason, is contradicting himself. There can be no knowledge of what is good for man apart from knowledge of reality and human nature-and there is no manner in which this knowledge can be acquired except through reason.  To advocate irrationality is to advocate that which is destructive to human life.

George H. Smith
From: Atheism: The Case Against God
[I regard gun control and socialism as religions.  They are faith based and ignore factual data.  Understanding the psychology of religiosity is useful in understanding the psychology of the anti-freedom crowd.–Joe]