Study: People More Risky When Drunk Than Sober

DOC OBVIOUS FINAL JEOPARDY for $20,000.

Answer: Drunk drivers, most victims of alligators and bar fights.

Question: Name three things that result from a reduced sense of fear brought on by drinking.

[WARNING: The following sentence has been determined to be obvious beyond belief.]
A new study--which no doubt cost thousands of dollars--has determined that drinking alcohol dulls the brain's ability to detect threats.

Duh.

U.S. researchers stated that the the study helps explain why drunk people get into bar fights and drive their cars recklessly. The researchers seemed excited that their study was the first to demonstrate alcohol's effect on the human brain as it responded to threats.

"You see this all the time. People get into confrontations when they are intoxicated that they probably wouldn't get into when they are sober," said Jodi Gilman of the National Institutes on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, whose study appears in the Journal of Neuroscience.

Ms Gilman studied 12 people who were given intravenous infusions of alcohol and then monitored their brain activity using functional magnetic resonance imaging while they looked at pictures of frightened and neutral faces.

Her team did the same study on these people when they were given a simple saline infusion as a placebo.

As expected, when people were given the placebo, their brains responded to the fearful faces.

"Our brains respond more to fearful stimuli," Ms Gilman said.

"They signal to us that we are in threatening situations."

When these same people were given infusions of alcohol, however, this response was dulled, suggesting that while intoxicated, "our brain can't distinguish between the threatening and non-threatening stimuli".
[WARNING: The following two sentences have been determined to be obvious beyond belief.]
She said this impaired appreciation for threats could lead to a host of risky situations, including drunk driving. It also explained why alcohol was sometimes called a social lubricant.

"People have used alcohol for years to become euphoric and to decrease anxiety. Alcohol has been used in particular to increase sociability. How alcohol acts on the brain to produce these effects has not been well understood or studied," Ms Gilman said.

Study: Alligator, Too Much Beer Don't Mix well

This real study reminded us of another study announced two years ago in the prestigious Onion Medical Journal.

In a breakthrough study that contradicts decades of understanding about the nature of alligator–drunkard relations, Louisiana State University researchers have concluded that people's drunkenness does not impair the ancient reptiles' ability to inflict enormous physical harm.

That study also had some information to share on the alcohol/risk relationship (not) occuring in the drunk person's brain.

"In 10 out of 10 documented cases of violent alligator–drunkard encounters, the reptile was not influenced by the fact that the victim was 'just kidding' or 'just having some fun,'" said professor Ryder McCrory, chair of the Wildlife Taunting Department of LSU's prestigious Center For Bullying And Hazing Studies.

This study help explain why so many men and women, after a hard night's drinking, fearlessly leave the bar room with such scary partners.

by Mondoreb
image: RidesAPaleHorse
Sources:
*Drink a beer and lose the fear-study
* Study: Alligators Dangerous No Matter How Drunk You Are


DBKP.com - Bigger, Better!.
Back to DBKP at Blogger Front Page

Environmental Ideas: Celebrating Low Flow Toilet Blow-up Day

An important day has come and gone and we missed celebrating it.

Of course, we're talking about Low Flow Toilet Blow-up Day.

LFTBU Day is the reasoned response to the last big environmental conservation idea: low flow toilets. Like most rushed-through, well-intentioned environmental products, low-flow toilets suffered from the most basic of flaws: they didn't work.

The low flow toilet required as many as 4 flushes to work correctly; instead of saving water, they used more.

Most people who had the misfortune of installing a low flow toilet can truly appreciate the following video.



There are still die-hards who insist that the low-flow models work just fine.

These are likely the same people who buy Segways and put buckets of water on their roof to let the sun "do the work of a water heater".

For the rest of humanity outside this tiny circle of low-flow toilet believers, we'll let Low Flow Toilet Blow-Up Day serve as our judgment on the old-new-fangled water closets.

by Mondoreb
image: RidesAPaleHorse; boomershoot.com
Source: boomershoot.com


DBKP.com - Bigger, Better!.
Back to DBKP at Blogger Front Page

Josef Fritzl: Father Who Kept Daughter Captive Built "Dungeon" With Government Grant

Government Grant Paid for Secret Dungeon

New details have emerged in the case of Josef Fritzl, the Austrian father who held his daughter captive as a sex-slave for 24 years in a secret basement prison and fathered all seven of her children. How Fritzl was able to get a government grant for thousands of pounds to finance his diabolical dungeon and how his daughter and three of her children locked in a secret room in the cellar failed to raise anyone's suspicions.

It's been reported that authorities are looking into whether Fritzl, the father of Elisabeth, the daughter he held captive, plus six other children with his wife, Rosemarie, was convicted of raping a woman back in the late sixties and served time in prison. So far the authorities haven't disavowed the information but haven't said it's true.

Another detail that has emerged is that the Fritzl family home also served as an apartment house to 8 other tenant flats. One former tenant whose flat was directly above the basement and the secret prison, a 42-year-old petrol pump attendant, said that he was "shocked" when he opened a paper and read the news of Elisabeth and her seven children, how he realized "all this awful stuff had been happening in the same house where I used to live".

The former tenant went on to state that Friztl banned his tenants from going into the basement or the back garden. Alfred Dubanovsky said that he rented the flat directly above the basement for 12 years, that he had moved out last year. He also said that Josef warned the tenants that the basement was guarded by a "sophisticated electronic alarm" and that anyone caught down there would have their lease terminated immediately.

Dubanovsky said that from his window he could look out to the back garden and that he saw Josef use a wheelbarrow to bring food to the cellar... and only at night. Another strange tidbit from Dubanovsky, a grown son of Josef and Rosemarie lived at home but was only allowed to go out one night a week.

Read More Austrian Father Who Kept Sex-Slave Daughter Captive 24 Yrs Used Government Funds to Build Dungeon at DBKP.com

Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page

Hulk Hogan: Daughter Brooke's "Pool Boy"

We saw these photos of Hulk Hogan and daughter Brooke and thought a couple of them kinda strange.

Take a look at the video and tell us what you think.



Someone posed the question, are they Austrian?

DBKP.com - Bigger, Better!.
Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.

State of the Earth: April 30, 2008 13:50 EDT

A snapshot of Planet Earth on April 30, 2008 at 13:50 EDT.

POPULATION

POPULATION: 6,666,305, 110

BIRTHS THIS YEAR: 42, 801, 923

DEATHS THIS YEAR: 17, 599, 801

BIRTHS Today: 205, 088

DEATHS Today: 84, 130

VARIOUS:

Military Expenditures this Year (in Millions US$$$): $455, 415

Education Expenditures this Year ( in Millions US $): $ 822, 110

Computers Sold this Year: 94, 442, 311

Cumulative Hours Waiting for Internet Pages to Download this Year: 10,029, 139,650

Produced Energy this Year (in metric tons of coal): 3,935,695,755

Consumed Energy this Year (in metric tons of coal): 3,731,581,078

Just so you'll know, in case anyone asks in the next few minutes.


compiled by Mondoreb
image: DBKP
Source: worldometer.info


DBKP.com - Bigger, Better!.
Back to DBKP at Blogger Front Page

Dead: Albert Hofmann, LSD Inventor Takes Final Trip

Albert Hofmann, the inventor of the mind-blowing, day-tripping drug LSD, has passed on to another reality.

LSD inspired millions in the 1960s hippie generation to "turn on, tune in, drop out".

Hofmann was 102. He died yesterday at his home in Burg im Leimental, Switzerland, where he retired to in 1971.

LSD may have been banned and blamed for the corruption of youth, but Hofmann defended his invention with the zeal of a father.

"I produced the substance as a medicine. ... It's not my fault if people abused it," he once said.

The Swiss chemist discovered lysergic acid diethylamide-25 in 1938 while studying the medicinal uses of a fungus found on wheat and other grains at the Sandoz pharmaceuticals firm in Basel.

He became the first human guinea pig of the drug when a tiny amount of the substance seeped onto his finger during a laboratory experiment on April 16, 1943.

"I had to leave work for home because I was suddenly hit by a sudden feeling of unease and mild dizziness," he subsequently wrote in a memo to company bosses.

He said his initial experience resulted in "wonderful visions."

"What I was thinking appeared in colors and in pictures," he told a Swiss television network for a program marking his 100th birthday two years ago. "It lasted for a couple of hours and then it disappeared."

But then Hofmann experimented with a larger dose and went on a "bad trip".

"Everything I saw was distorted as in a warped mirror," he said, describing his bicycle ride home. "I had the impression I was rooted to the spot. But my assistant told me we were actually going very fast."

"The substance which I wanted to experiment with took over me. I was filled with an overwhelming fear that I would go crazy. I was transported to a different world, a different time," Hofmann wrote.

Pharmaceutical giant Sandoz sold LSD 25 under the name Delysid and promoted it to doctors, urging them to try it themselves. It was hoped that LSD would be an important treatment for mental illnesses.

LSD was one of the strongest of medicines: a couple of grams was enough to drug 20-40,000 people for up to 12 hours.

Hofman lived long enough to applaud the decision by Swiss authorities last year to allow LSD to be used in therapy experiments.

There was no word if the funeral music will include selections by the Jefferson Airplane or the Grateful Dead.


by Mondoreb
image: wikipedia
Source: Albert Hofmann, Father of drug LSD, dies in Switzerland


DBKP.com - Bigger, Better!.
Back to DBKP at Blogger Front Page

Saudi Justice: Women Flogged, Men Get Haircuts for Flirting

Justice Carries a Pair of Scissors

"Ready for that Haircut now, you treacherous flirtatious Man-Whore?"

Journey for a moment to the Magic Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, where the women get flogged for flirting and men--get a haircut?

It has been announced that men caught flirting publicly with the fairer sex in northern Saudi Arabia are to be punished by being given haircuts.

Prince Fahd bin Badr ordered police to administer the trims after seeing a group of men with long hair pestering female students as they left school in the town of Skaka. Many clergymen in the conservative Gulf country say men should not have long hair because Islam prohibits the sexes from emulating each other.

According to Amnesty International:

"In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia it is illegal to wear a cross necklace, read a Bible, or utter a Christian prayer in the privacy of your own home. Under the law, conversion to Christianity by Saudi citizens is a criminal offense punishable by death."

Drug dealers are routinely beheaded.

The moral of this story: Serial flirters, when in Saudi Arabia, would find it wise to leave their cross, Bible and nickel bag at home.

by Mondoreb
image: cheatseekingmissiles
Source: Flirting men to get haircut punishment


DBKP.com - Bigger, Better!.
Back to DBKP at Blogger Front Page

Houston Police Shoot Mystery CIA Man After High Speed Chase

Tuesday morning Houston police officers shot and killed 52-year-old mystery man, Ronald Vincent Carnaby, after a high speed chase.

While an initial search of Carnaby's Jeep revealed no weapons, after the SUV was taken into custody police claim they discovered two pistols and a shotgun. Now the HPD has several mysteries on its hands. Who was Ronald Vincent Carnaby? A secret CIA agent as he claimed to cohorts and friends? Why didn't the cops find the two pistols and the shotgun, one of which was purportedly "within reach" during their initial search of his vehicle and why did Carnaby run in the first place?

Who was Ronald Vincent Carnaby?

Carnaby was a local enigma who told friends he was a federal intelligence agent. Sometimes he'd allude to being a CIA or Homeland Security Agent. Carnaby was President of the local chapter of the Association for Intelligence Officers whose members include former President George H. W. Bush. According to the Houston Chronicle, Carnaby's friends said they had seen him in the company of high level law enforcement officers and CIA bureaucrats. One friend said he and Carnaby had recently attended a party in Washington for retired intelligence agents.

Karate, Knife Tricks, Guns, and Seven Languages

Carnaby had a long time friendship with Houston car dealer Alan Hefman where Carnaby purchased several vehicles over the years. Hefman said that at times Carnaby would stop by the dealership "daily" showing off knife tricks, karate skills, his arsenal of weapons, and the seven languages he purportedly spoke.

Authorities discovered Carnaby had listed his address on his driver's license as a private mailbox at a UPS store in downtown Houston. He had registered the address of his Jeep at another UPS store.

Carnaby's Final Exit

Just what transpired yesterday that lead to Carnaby's death is still being investigated by local authorities. Carnaby had been pulled over near Orem on Texas 288 for a routine traffic stop. He "took off" when the officers learned he had a license to carry a concealed weapon. Carnaby then took the police on a 100 mph ride headed north on the South Freeway then west on the Katy Freeway. He then went south on the West Loop and exited on Woodway where officers forced his vehicle to a stop. He refused to acknowledge the officers nor put his hands up. After the cops smashed his passenger side window he "stepped out of the vehicle, turned around and reached under the seat" according to Houston Police Sgt. John Chomiak. It was then that the officers opened fire on Carnaby. He was later pronounced dead at Ben Taub hospital.

Read more Houston Police Shoot Mystery Man Dead After High Speed Chase at DBKP.com

Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.

Fitness With the Force: Yoda's Gym

"Can the Burn You Not Feel?"

Sometimes, even the most mundane events--say, a workout--turn out terribly wrong.




We didn't think nearly enough attention has been paid to the problem of Star War addicts getting enough exercise.

Just one blog's attempts to fix a little corner of the world.

by Mondoreb
image: DBKP


DBKP.com - Bigger, Better!.
Back to DBKP at Blogger Front Page

Another Ultimate Car for Limousine Liberals

Click on image to enlarge]

The true test of luxury for any greenie.

ALSO at DBKP.com:
* The Ultimate Car for Limousine Liberals

by RidesAPaleHorse


DBKP.com - Bigger, Better!.
Back to DBKP at Blogger Front Page

Man Who Held Daughter Captive 24 Yrs in Basement: Prior Sex Assault Alleged

Allegations of a past sexual assault conviction and a stint in jail are the latest details to emerge in the case of Josef Fritzl, the Austrian father who held his daughter captive in the basement for the past 24 years, fathering seven children.

The Times Online is reporting that Fritzl may have been convicted of sexual assault and arson in the 1960's and had spent time in prison. Austrian authorities said they were aware of the allegations of Fritzl's past and were attempting to track them down.

Appearances Are Deceiving

The town of Amstetten is in shock, two years ago they had feted Josef and his wife Rosemarie's fiftieth wedding anniversary. But those who are older have memories of a different Josef, of warning their children to stay away from the man because of rumors he had spent time in prison for raping a woman.

The woman at the center of the story, Josef's daughter Elisabeth, claims her father drugged, then locked her into a makeshift prison hidden in the basement behind a secret door back in 194 when she was just 19. She also claims he repeatedly beat her and raped her. She subsequently delivered seven children, one of whom who died shortly after its birth. Josef allegedly threw the baby boy's body in a furnace.

Josef, a retired electrical engineer, had the Amstetten town authorities inspect the basement/dungeon a year before he locked his 19-yr-old daughter up in 1984. The plans for the basement expansion were approved by the town in 1978, five years later local inspectors gave final approval after they inspected the premises. Some are now questioning as to why the inspectors were not prescient enough to envision the renovated basement would be used as a dungeon for the next 24 years by Josef to repeatedly rape and beat his daughter and raise three of their seven children.

Josef acted as midwife and delivered all seven of the babies born to Elisabeth. The last child, Felix, is now five. The oldest, Kersten, is 19 and lies in an induced coma at a local hospital. Doctors have been unable to diagnosis what has caused Kirsten to be critically ill and on dialysis.

Read More Father Who Held Daughter Captive in Basement 24 Yrs: Prior Sex Assault Alleged at DBKP.com

Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.

Cultural Changes: Color Me Homophobic

CULTURE WATCH by Nancy Morgan

The powers that be have decreed that homosexuality and all its variations are normal, and woe to anyone who dares question this alternate lifestyle. Homosexuality has been added to the list of topics, along with race and global warming, that is off limits for discussion. The debate has been declared over.

Homosexuality, which not very long ago was defined as a "disorder" in medical journals, is well on its way to becoming a lifestyle option. Despite the fact that it is based on a premise which has been thoroughly discredited.

The normalization of homosexuality has its genesis in 1948, when Alfred Kinsey published the first ever study of male human sexuality. Entitled the Kinsey Report, this research involved illegal sexual experimentation on several hundred young children. It was based on a non–representative group of Americans — including hundreds of sex offenders, prostitutes, prison inmates and exhibitionists. This research purported to show that infants and children are sexual beings and could enjoy and benefit from sexual activity, especially with adults. Kinsey's research has never been duplicated or verified. Indeed, if someone tried, they would be jailed for child abuse. No matter.

Fast forward 60 years. This debunked research still serves as the official sex education doctrine in the United States and has been adopted as the foundation of modern "sex science." Kinsey's claim that one in 10 people are homosexual has been accepted by our government and society at large, despite having been proven totally false. Kinsey's assertion that all sex is natural and all societal limits are unnatural is accepted by large segments of mainstream America.


Government schools, under the guise of tolerance, are actively recruiting young impressionable children and teens to the gay lifestyle. Just last Friday, government schools across the country held a "Homosexual Day Of Silence". This blatant indoctrination was not open to discussion, at least not to parents. A principal in a Massachusetts school decreed that support for homosexuality was approved, but 'condemnation' was banned. Can you spell censorship?

Businesses have also jumped aboard the gay bandwagon, both supporting and promoting the gay message. The most recent example being last week's episode of Days of our Lives where two sensitive young men engage in deep throat kissing. Thank-you, Procter and Gamble.

And thank you, Children's Hospital in Boston. They have launched a program that actually gives drugs to pre-teens in order to delay puberty. The reason? They want to give the child more time to decide if they want to be male or female. That's right. Gender is now optional.

Personally, I cringe when I see two guys swapping spit. Or when half naked transsexuals flaunt their sexuality in public places. I always wonder what they're celebrating. A lifestyle that takes 20 years off your life? A dangerous, deadly and costly way of life that effectively undermines traditional families? The fact that gays and lesbians experience twice the partner abuse of straight couples? No, they're celebrating their empowerment, leaving all other Americans to pay the social and financial costs involved. After all, they've got rights.

I've got rights, too. I have the right to pick my nose in public and wave it in someone else's face (unless they're gay or black - then it would be a hate crime). Good manners and a decent upbringing keep me from exercising this right. I also have the right to object when someone shoves their personal sexual habits in my face and demand that I not only tolerate it, but endorse it. That's just plain rude. Hey, I'm still trying to figure out why weenie waggers are arrested while half nude trans-sexuals sporting fake organs have the right to wave them in public.

Gays are portrayed as victims of an unfeeling society. As such, they have been granted special rights not available to other Americans. The right not to be offended, the right to automatic respect, and the right to offend any person or group that dares to object. Imagine the outcry if Christians were granted these same rights.

The gurus of political correctness have decided that anyone who is not in agreement with the increasingly blatant homosexual agenda is a homophobe. Color me homophobic. I not only disagree with flaunting ones privates in public, I also disagree with exposing this behavior to children and telling them its their right, if not their duty, to put their sexuality above all other considerations.

The fear of being branded homophobic, racist, mean-spirited or any of the other PC labels has effectively silenced millions of Americans. Well, here's a news flash: Just because you label someone a homophobe or a bigot, doesn't make them a homophobe or bigot. Besides, isn't that profiling?

America is a country based on individual rights, not group rights. Americans still have the right to hold opposing viewpoints. We have the right to accept or condemn behavior based on our own moral values. No amount of name calling can take away those rights.

I will accept as legitimate the gay lifestyle only when gays realize that rights come with responsibilities. Societal acceptance implies a social contract. A contract that involves a net benefit to society, an earned respect and an acknowledgment that the rights of one person don't trump the rights of another.

In the meantime, I have one small request. I'd sure appreciate it if you all would keep your privates to yourselves. That's just good manners.


by Nancy Morgan

Nancy Morgan is a columnist and a news editor for RightBias.com
She lives in South Carolina, where she writes "Culture Watch" weekly.

Article may be reprinted with attribution. Bio available on request.


DBKP.com - Bigger, Better!.
Back to DBKP at Blogger Front Page

Father Who Kept Daughter Captive in Basement 24 Yrs: TV, Note Play Part in Release

Picturesque Austria

New details have emerged in the case of the father who held his daughter captive in the dungeon-like cellar of their Austrian home for 24 years and "fathered" seven children with her. How a note and a television in the secret dungeon may have played a key part in ending the daughter and her children's captivity.

Josef Fritzl, The Sins of the Father

Seventy three-year-old Josef Fritzl has been remanded into police custody for two weeks while DNA tests have confirmed that he's the father of all seven of his daughter's children: Kerstin, 19, Stefann, 18, Lisa, 16, Monika, 14, Alexander, 12, and Felix, age 5. Another child, a twin boy born the same time as Monika, purportedly died shortly after childbirth and whose body Josef allegedly burned in the garden behind the Friztl's concrete villa.

Read More Father Who Locked Daughter in Basement for 24 Yrs: TV, Note, Play Part in Escape at DBKP.com


Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.