Antipsychotic Use Rising Among Teens and Young Adults

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A growing number of teens and young adults are being prescribed antipsychotics, a new study suggests.

In particular, it appears they’re being used to treat attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) – a condition for which the powerful drugs are not approved.

The percentage of teens using antipsychotics rose from 1.10 percent in 2006 to 1.19 percent in 2010. Use among young adults ages 19 to 24 rose from 0.69 percent to 0.84 percent, the study found.

Overall in 2010, approximately 270,000 antipsychotic prescriptions were dispensed to younger children, 2.14 million to older children, 2.80 million to adolescents, and 1.83 million to young adults, the authors write . . .

For younger children, antipsychotic use declined from 2006 to 2010, the researchers report in JAMA Psychiatry. Prescriptions fell from 0.14 percent to 0.11 percent for kids aged one to six, and from 0.85 percent to 0.80 percent for children aged seven to 12. (Read more from “Antipsychotic Use Rising Among Teens and Young Adults” HERE)

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Judge Jails Kids for Refusing Lunch With Dad

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Three Oakland County children who refused to go to lunch with their father, as part of a bitter divorce and custody battle between their parents, are spending their summer in the county’s juvenile detention center, according to court records.

“We’ll review it when school starts, and you may be going to school there,” Oakland County Family Court Judge Lisa Gorcyca told the children during a June 24 hearing, referring to the center in Waterford Township called Children’s Village, where authorities house as many as 200 juvenile offenders.

Gorcyca, who blamed their mother for poisoning the children’s attitude toward their father, ordered the children be sent to the center for defying her orders — while in court — that they go to lunch with their father.

The children — ranging in age from 9 to 14 — were deemed in contempt of court last month by Gorcyca for disobeying her orders to “have a healthy relationship with your father” . . .

“But I do not apologize for — for not talking to him because I have a reason for that and that’s because he’s violent and he — I saw him hit my mom and I’m not gonna talk to him,” the boy said, later telling the judge, “I didn’t do anything wrong.” (Read more from “Judge Jails Kids for Refusing Lunch With Dad” HERE)

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Cheer up, the Post-Human Era Is Dawning

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Unlike many who believe that artificial intelligence will eventually threaten humankind, this author has a far more optimistic view:

The far future will bear traces of humanity, just as our own age retains influences of ancient civilisations. Humans and all they have thought might be a transient precursor to the deeper cogitations of another culture — one dominated by machines, extending deep into the future and spreading far beyond earth.

Not everyone considers this an uplifting scenario. There are those who fear that artificial intelligence will supplant us, taking our jobs and living beyond the writ of human laws. Others regard such scenarios as too futuristic to be worth fretting over. But the disagreements are about the rate of travel, not the direction. Few doubt that machines will one day surpass more of our distinctively human capabilities. It may take centuries but, compared to the aeons of evolution that led to humanity’s emergence, even that is a mere bat of the eye. This is not a fatalistic projection. It is cause for optimism. The civilisation that supplants us could accomplish unimaginable advances — feats, perhaps, that we cannot even understand.

Human brains, which have changed little since our ancestors roamed the African savannah, have allowed us to penetrate the secrets of the quantum and the cosmos. But there is no reason to think that our comprehension is matched to an understanding of all the important features of reality. Some day we may hit the buffers. There are chemical and metabolic limits to the size and power of “wet” organic brains.

Today’s computers do not learn like we do. Their internal network is far simpler than a human brain, but they partly make up for this disadvantage because their “nerves” transmit messages at the speed of light, millions of times faster than the chemical transmission in human brains. They can learn to identify dogs, cats and human faces by crunching through millions of images. They learn to translate from foreign languages by reading multilingual versions of millions of pages of EU rules, among other documents (and, crucially, they never get bored).

(Read more from “Cheer up, the Post-Human Era Is Dawning” HERE)

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MADNESS: 15-Year-Olds to Get State-Subsidized Sex-Change Operations WITHOUT PARENTAL NOTIFICATION

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The list of things 15-year-olds are not legally allowed to do in this state is long: Drive, smoke, donate blood, get a tattoo — even go to a tanning bed.

But, under a first-in-the-nation policy quietly enacted in January that many parents are only now finding out about, 15-year-olds are now allowed to get a sex-change operation. Many residents are stunned to learn they can do it without parental notification — and the state will even pay for it through its Medicaid program, the Oregon Health Plan.

“It is trespassing on the hearts, the minds, the bodies of our children,” said Lori Porter of Parents’ Rights in Education. “They’re our children. And for a decision, a life-altering decision like that to be done unbeknownst to a parent or guardian, it’s mindboggling.”

In a statement, Oregon Health Authority spokeswoman Susan Wickstrom explained it this way: “Age of medical consent varies by state. Oregon law — which applies to both Medicaid and non-Medicaid Oregonians — states that the age of medical consent is 15” . . .

Members are appointed by the governor and paid by the state of Oregon. With no public debate, HERC changed its policy to include cross-sex hormone therapy, puberty-suppressing drugs and gender-reassignment surgery as covered treatments for people with gender dysphoria, formally known as gender identity disorder. (Read more from “This State Is Allowing 15-Year-Olds to Get State-Subsidized Sex-Change Operations” HERE)

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Pope Receives Crucifix in Form of Hammer and Sickle, Makes Shocking Marxist Statements in Bolivia

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By Daniel Burke. Pope Francis delivered a fiery denunciation of modern capitalism on Thursday night, calling the “unfettered pursuit of money” the “dung of the devil” and accusing world leaders of “cowardice” for refusing to defend the earth from exploitation.

Speaking to grassroots organizers in Bolivia, the Pope called on the poor and disenfranchised to rise up against “new colonialism,” including corporations, loan agencies, free trade treaties, austerity measures, and “the monopolizing of the communications media.”

Here’s what one prominent American priest had to say about the speech:

There is quite a lot to unpack in the speech, including the Pope’s apology for the “many grave sins” committed by Catholic Church against Native Americans “in the name of God.” (Read more from “Pope Receives Crucifix in Form of Hammer and Sickle, Makes Marxist Statements in Bolivia” HERE)

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Pope Receives Crucifix in form of Hammer and Sickle from Bolivian President

By Jonathan Watts. Vatican officials appear to have been flummoxed after Pope Francis was presented with a communist crucifix depicting Jesus nailed to a hammer and sickle by Bolivia’s president Evo Morales.

The gift from the leftwing leader caused an immediate stir among conservative Catholics who said the pontiff was being manipulated for ideological reasons.

The response of the pope was less clear. After being handed the wooden crucifix during a formal ceremony, he examined it for a few seconds before returning it to a Bolivian presidential aide.

His comments were largely drowned out by a flurry of camera clicks, prompting a flood of speculation. While some have claimed he expressed irritation, muttering the words “eso no está bien” (“this is not right”), Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said the pope was more likely to have uttered “eso no sabía bien” (“I didn’t know that”) in bemusement at the origins of the present.

The Bolivian government insisted there was no political motive behind the gift. Communications minister Marianela Paco said Morales had thought the “pope of the poor” would appreciate the gesture. (Read more from this story HERE)

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Nobel Prize-Winning Scientist Says President Obama Is ‘Ridiculous’ and ‘Dead Wrong’ on ‘Global Warming’

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By Jews News. Dr. Ivar Giaever, a Nobel Prize-Winner for physics in 1973, declared his dissent on man-made global warming claims at a Nobel forum on July 1, 2015.

“I would say that basically global warming is a non-problem,” Dr. Giaever announced during his speech titled “Global Warming Revisited.”

Giaever, a former professor at the School of Engineering and School of Science Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, received the 1973 physics Nobel for his work on quantum tunneling. Giaever delivered his remarks at the 65th Nobel Laureate Conference in Lindau, Germany, which drew 65 recipients of the prize. Giaever is also featured in the new documentary “Climate Hustle”, set for release in Fall 2015.

Giaever was one of President Obama’s key scientific supporters in 2008 when he joined over 70 Nobel Science Laureates in endorsing Obama in an October 29, 2008 open letter. Giaever signed his name to the letter which read in part: “The country urgently needs a visionary leader…We are convinced that Senator Barack Obama is such a leader, and we urge you to join us in supporting him.”

But seven years after signing the letter, Giaever now mocks President Obama for warning that “no challenge poses a greater threat to future generations than climate change”. Giaever called it a “ridiculous statement.” (Read more from “Nobel Prize-Winning Scientist Says President Obama Is ‘Ridiculous’ and ‘Dead Wrong’ on ‘Global Warming'” HERE)

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UN Climate Official: Fighting Global Warming Is “Creating a New Reality for the World”

By P.W. Adams. Christiana Figueres, the same United Nations Climate official who stated that we should “make every effort” to reduce the World’s population in order to fight Climate Change, is now also praising the leaders of local governments for taking up the fight against man-made Global Warming.

Business Insider reports that while speaking to a gathering in France, Secretary Figueres not only voiced that she is pleased with the actions of local governments on the Climate Change..errr, Global Warming front, but that their actions are actually creating a “new reality for the world” . . .

Considering that “new reality” consists of making every effort to reduce the population of the world while simultaneously redistributing the wealth, I would like to say they can keep it. I’m sure most Americans prefer their reality the way it is. Or at least, the way it was before Progressives began to fundamentally change it. (Read more from this story HERE)

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ALERT: Chinese Stocks Collapsed Right Before NYSE Shutdown; China Nationalizes $6 Trillion in Stock Losses

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By Kit Daniels. Chinese stocks were suffering huge declines prior to the New York Stock Exchange shutdown due to an alleged “technical issue,” fueling concerns whether the NYSE was actually halted due to the free fall in China.

Companies in China fell 20% from a May high and, right before the NYSE shutdown, the Hang Seng Index plunged its most since the 2008 financial crisis.

“The Hang Seng Index fell 5.8% to 23,516.56 at the close today, the biggest drop since November 2008, after slumping as much as 8.6%,” Bloomberg’s Kana Nishizawa wrote.

Overall, China’s stock market plunge has wiped out around $3.2 trillion since June 12.

“Investors are disappointed and afraid that the Chinese policy makers lost control of the market,” Mari Oshidari, a Hong Kong-based financial strategist, said. “With no end in sight to the plunge, sentiment has turned cold.” (Read more from “ALERT — Chinese Stocks Collapsed Right Before NYSE Shutdown” HERE)

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China Bans Major Shareholders From Selling Their Stakes for Next Six Months

By Reuters. China’s securities regulator took the drastic step of banning shareholders with stakes of more than 5% from selling shares for the next six months in a bid to halt a plunge in stock prices that is starting to roil global financial markets.

The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) said on its website late on Wednesday that it would deal severely with any shareholders who violated the rule.

The prohibition is also seen applying to foreign investors who hold stakes in Shanghai- or Shenzhen-listed companies, although most of their holdings are below 5%.

China’s stock markets opened down again Thursday morning before making up some ground. Shanghai Composite Index fell more than 3% in the first half hour of trading before reversing course and rising 1.4%, while the Shenzhen Component Index opened down just over 1%.

Asian equities also extended losses as concerns over China’s market turmoil spread, while the safe-haven yen shot to a seven-week high as global risk appetite ebbed. (Read more from this story HERE)

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China Nationalizes $6 Trillion in Stock Losses

By Chriss Street. China’s stock market had what traders call a “Dead Kitty” bounce on Thursday as the communist authorities dispatched police and security personnel to “encourage” insider-buying and to arrest short sellers. With the Chinese market still highly inflated even after falling $3 trillion in value, China took action last night to “nationalize” about $6 trillion in losses.

China is about to show its third straight quarter of negative real (after inflation) GDP growth. The nation had been relying on a stock market boom to play a “decisive role” in funding the nation’s “Silk Road” reforms to transition to a consumer economy.

But as Breitbart News warned in “China’s Lehman Brothers Weekend Begins,” the “Red Dragon” has suffered a financial collapse equivalent in degree to the U.S. stock crash in 2008-9. Unlike the U.S., which used a formal government bailout to stabilize markets, the Communist Party instructed the nation’s banks to use their own balance sheets to guarantee the current $8 trillion stated value of all of China’s 2800 listed stocks.

As Stratfor’s John Minnich points out, “market capitalization of Chinese stock markets hovered around $1 trillion to $2 trillion” before the recent stock boom. At its peak on June 12, “China’s stock market capitalization, all the markets across the country, was something in the area of $10 trillion to $11 trillion.”

Minnich comments that people before the boom might gamble some of their personal savings into the stock market, but “it wasn’t critical to financing, corporate financing in the Chinese economy. Almost all corporate finances came through the state-owned banks.” (Read more from this story HERE).

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China’s Efforts to Control the Market Will End Very Badly

By Nils Pratley. Nervous about the Chinese stock market? You should be. First, it looks expensive, even after a dip. Second, the authorities in Beijing, by adopting increasingly desperate measures to prop up share prices, are sending an unmistakable message that they fear a crash is a possibility.

The latest official attempt to manipulate the stock market would be laughed out of court if it were attempted in the West. The central bank is shoveling cash toward a state-backed finance company that lends to individuals who would like to make bigger bets on the stock market than they can afford. That’s right, in today’s communist China, there are subsidies for stock-market speculation.

By way of further encouragement, the state itself is piling in. A state-backed wealth fund is buying blue-chip stocks. Meanwhile, supposedly independent brokers and fund managers have decided this is the ideal moment to invest the equivalent of £12 billion ($18.5 billion) and pledge not to sell until the main Shanghai index has risen at least 20%. This extraordinary effort, apparently, is required to “uphold market stability.” (Read more from this story HERE)

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Very Strange Things That Have Happened in Just the Past Few Weeks

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Have you noticed that events have begun to accelerate? Over the past few weeks, things have officially started to get very weird. Chinese stocks are crashing, the Greek debt crisis is spiraling out of control, the New York Stock Exchange was down for about four hours on Wednesday thanks to a “technical glitch”, and global politicians have been acting very strangely. After several years of relative calm, could it be possible that the second half of 2015 will usher in a time of chaos and confusion on a worldwide scale? Personally, I have never been more concerned about a period of time as I am about the last six months of 2015. And if I am right, what we have seen so far is just the tip of the iceberg. The following are 10 very strange things that have happened in just the past few weeks…

#1 On Wednesday, the New York Stock Exchange, United Airlines and the Wall Street Journal were all taken down by unexpected “technical glitches“. Authorities are assuring us that hackers were not responsible for any of this.

#2 In China, a full-blown stock market crash is unfolding. The Shanghai Composite Index has plummeted more than 30 percent in less than a month, and the Chinese version of the NASDAQ has dropped by more than 40 percent. The amount of “paper wealth” that has been lost in China is 15 times greater than the GDP of Greece.

#3 Just the other day, hackers were able to hack into a German surface-to-air missile battery . . .

Well, this is absolutely terrifying. According to The Local, hackers attacked a German Patriot surface-to-air missile battery, like the one shown above, stationed along the Turkish-Syria border. The cyber attack caused the battery to carryout “unexplained” orders.

(Read more from “Very Strange Things That Have Happened in Just the Past Few Weeks” HERE)

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Here’s Who’s Pledging $32 Billion to Promote Sharia in America [+video]

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By Pamela Geller. Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, a senior member of the Saudi monarchy, says he’ll pledge his $32 billion to advance the islamization of America. This is a MOAB (mother of all bombs) in the information battle-space. Looks as if I will be keeping busy for quite some time.

The Saudis have spent billions already. 80% of the mosques built in America are Saudi-funded. Islamic groups working to impose the sharia are largely funded by the Saudis.

We can look forward to 32 billion more of the “kingdom’s brand of Islam, while censoring criticism of Islam.”

And it’s not just the media that is on the receiving end of this blood money, but also Muslim Brotherhood fronts like CAIR, which spend millions whining about how lucrative the “islamophobia” business is. As if . . .

The Saudis have been wildly successful so far. (Read more from “Here’s Who’s Pledging $32 Billion to Promote Sharia in America” HERE)


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Sharia and Violence Are Acceptable

By Realistic Observer. We are constantly told that only a tiny minority of Muslims hold extremist views and that Muslims make wonderful citizens. But a recent survey refutes all of this optimistic propaganda.

The survey tell us that significant numbers of Muslims in America do not want to be ruled by our Constitution but want Sharia law. Nearly a third of the Muslims said that violence to enforce Sharia blasphemy laws are acceptable. Nearly 10% of American Muslims say that Islamic State is real Islam. (Read more from this story HERE)

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Agency’s Request for 52,000 Rounds of Ammo for Hoover Dam Prompts Inquiry

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In a move that’s prompting questions about the stockpiling of weapons by the federal government’s nonmilitary agencies, the Bureau of Reclamation wants to buy 52,000 rounds of ammunition for use in law enforcement at Hoover Dam and Lake Mead.

After learning about the purchase request, Nevada Rep. Mark Amodei vowed to inquire with the bureau about its operations, number of officers carrying firearms and how much ammunition it uses, according Brian Baluta, a spokesman for Amodei.

Department officials declined to provide specific information to the Sun regarding details of the ammunition purchase request. “We want to limit the amount of information any bad guys might have about our protection capabilities,” said Rose Davis, a Bureau of Reclamation spokeswoman.

A review of federal procurement records by the Sun shows that the Bureau of Reclamation, best known for its management of Western waterways and dams, solicited bids in June for 41,600 rounds of hollow-point ammunition along with 10,400 rounds of shotgun ammunition.

The agency declined to say how many armed officers work at Hoover Dam and how many security threats it faces each year, but according to a 2008 review of federal law enforcement, the bureau had 21 officers patrolling Hoover Dam. (Read more from “Agency’s Request for 52,000 Rounds of Ammo for Hoover Dam Prompts Inquiry” HERE)

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