High School Seniors Now Prefer Marijuana to Cigarettes

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More students in the 12th grade said they smoked pot every day, compared to those who smoke daily cigarettes, finds a new federal report. It’s the first time since the survey began in 1975 that daily marijuana use surpassed cigarettes.

The “Monitoring the Future” survey released on Wednesday shows that 6% of 12th graders used marijuana every day—about the same rate as last year—while 5.5% of seniors reported smoking cigarettes daily. (That’s a drop from 2014, when 6.7% of high school seniors smoked cigarettes every day.)

Their perceptions of pot also changed; fewer students think it’s dangerous. Almost 32% of seniors said they thought regular marijuana use could be harmful, compared to 36% who felt that way last year. “The sense that marijuana has medicinal purposes and that doctors are prescribing it creates a sense that this drug cannot be so harmful,” says Dr. Nora D. Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse at the National Institutes of Health (the group that funded the research).

Volkow says she is surprised that marijuana rates didn’t rise from 2014, after the past year’s attitude and policy changes surrounding the legalization of marijuana. “All of those factors have led many to predict that there would be an increase in the pattern of use of marijuana among teenagers, and we are not seeing it,” she says. Still, it was one of the only substances in the report that did not decline in usage. (Read more from “High School Seniors Now Prefer Marijuana to Cigarettes” HERE)

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Here’s What Megafans Have to Say About the New Star Wars

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It is one of the most highly anticipated films of the year and fans have remained cautiously optimistic about Episode VII – The Force Awakens after being disappointed by the string of prequels.

But from the reaction of the first people to see the new Star Wars blockbuster last night, it appears to live up to all expectations.

Although reviews are embargoed until December 16, some audience members were unable to resist sharing their thoughts on Twitter after they got their phones back from security.

Documentary director Brett Morgen, best known for Montage of Heck, about Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain, wrote: ‘Force Awakens might be the best blockbuster since the original.’

He added: ‘Force Awakens delivers on every level. Lucas and Spielberg in the house tonight. DO NOT READ ANY REVIEWS. Experience it fresh.’ (Read more from “Here’s What Megafans Have to Say About the New Star Wars” HERE)

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Zombie Apocalypse A Possibility? Rise in Zombie-Like Infection Should Trigger An International Call of Action, An Expert Reveals

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Can a zombie apocalypse really occur? Tara Smith, an associate professor from Ohio’s Kent State University is issuing an international call to action to fund and promote studies on how to prevent a possible zombie outbreak.

“Zombie expert Matt Mogk defines a zombie with three criteria: it is a reanimated human corpse; it is relentlessly aggressive, and it is biologically infected and infectious. But Mogk notes that this definition has been altered by the recognition of “rage” zombies, which are infected but still alive,” Smith wrote on a recently published BMJ study.

Smith cited several scientific studies, news reports and fictional works to back up her research. As listed on Discovery News, the author specified three possible pathogens that could cause an outbreak: the Black Plague bacteria Y. pestis, mad cow disease as well as the Cordyceps fungus.

Out of the three pathogens, it is the Cordyceps fungus which is the most common, with 400 known species. According to the publication, the parasitic fungus invades the body of its host and takes over, using the body as a means to make the fungus spores spread.

In a report by EurekAlert, Smith believes that the increase of similar zombie pathogens should be a sign that additional attention and funding should be provided into studying possible disease outbreaks. (Read more from “Zombie Apocalypse a Possibility? Rise in Zombie-Like Infection Should Trigger an International Call of Action, an Expert Reveals” HERE)

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Artificial Intelligence Doctors and Virtual Reality Vacations Are on the Horizon

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Robot doctors, virtual reality vacations and smart toothbrushes. These are just a few of the things the world can expect to see in the not-so-distant future, says Stanford and Duke researcher and lecturer Vivek Wadhwa.

Speaking to a crowd of more than 300 people in Palm Beach in December at billionaire Jeff Greene’s “Closing the Gap” conference, which addressed the growing divide between the wealthy and poor and how the rise of machines might kill white-collar jobs, Wadhwa sketched a sci-fi vision for the future that he says will soon be a reality thanks to rapid technological innovation.

“The future is going to be happening much, much faster than anyone ever imagined,” said Wadhwa, explaining that tech growth has been exponential — meaning as technology advances it does so with increasing speed.

It took more than a century to go from Alexander Graham Bell’s first telephone to Gordon Gekko’s iconic clunker in the movie Wall Street. Just two decades later we had the first iPhone. In 2010, $1,000 would buy a computer with the computational power of a mouse brain; soon it will buy you a computer as strong as the human brain.

“In about seven or eight years the iPhone 12 will have the same computing power that you do,” said Wadhwa. (Read more from “Artificial Intelligence Doctors and Virtual Reality Vacations Are on the Horizon” HERE)

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Homeless Squatters Are Taking over LaGuardia Airport

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Vice President Joe Biden once compared it to a “Third World country” — but LaGuardia Airport has become so riddled with homeless that it could now even make some of those nations look good.

The number of derelicts living at the airport has increased dramatically in the past year, turning the main terminal into the city’s most popular de facto flophouse, where they sleep, eat and wash up while competing for space with passengers, according to Port Authority sources.

At least 50 homeless people live inside the airport’s Terminal B, which anyone can get into without passing through security, sources said.

On one night last week, men and women were sacked out on cardboard that they had spread out over warm vents on the floor, a reporter observed. Others were curled up on chairs near Air Canada while televisions blared above their heads. A few were bunched together in couples, but most were solo and kept their distance from others.

Meanwhile, passengers tried to keep as far away as possible while they waited for their flights. (Read more from “Homeless Squatters Are Taking over LaGuardia Airport” HERE)

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Drone Owners Get Christmas Surprise from FAA

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Buyers beware! If that drone you find under the Christmas tree weighs much more than half a pound, you’re going to have to register it with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) before you fly it outside.

The FAA and the Department of Transportation (DoT) announced new rules on Monday that will mean nearly all drone operators will have to register their drones in a national database.

The authorities have been attempting to crack down on unlicensed drones amid their rising popularity – they are expected to be one of this Christmas’s biggest toys. But drones have been seen as a major menace and have disrupted firefighting efforts, been used to snoop on neighbors and to smuggle drugs into prison (not to mention regularly flying too close to manned aircraft).

The new rules cover all drones weighing more than 0.55lb (0.25kg) and take effect on 21 December. A significant number of Christmas toys may be affected – and quite a few children may need to get their parents to register for them, because licensed drone pilots must be over 13 years of age. Drone owners who began flying their quadcopter vehicles before that date will have until 19 February to comply.

New drone toys are notably light – the box containing the largest radio-controlled flying Millennium Falcon toy weighs barely 1.7lb, according to the manufacturer, Spinmaster, and that includes the remote. A spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and a customer service representative could only give the weight of the vehicle and its controller. (Read more from “Drone Owners Get Christmas Surprise from FAA” HERE)

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Asteroid to Pass Earth on Christmas Eve

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A large asteroid is approaching the Earth-moon system and will provide a good opportunity for radar observations in the days ahead. Asteroid 163899 – also known as 2003 SD220 – will come closest to Earth on Christmas Eve (December 24, 2015). It’ll pass at a safe distance, and there’s no need to worry about reports claiming it will skim the Earth, or cause earthquakes. At its closest, asteroid 2003 SD220 will be some 6,787,600 miles (11 million km) from our planet’s surface. That’s more than 28 times the Earth-moon distance! It’s so far away that only professional and advanced amateur astronomers are likely to capture optical images of this space rock.

Don’t believe any media suggesting that this space rock may cause earthquakes. Those assertions are misleading and incorrect. Even if 2003 SD220 were passing closer, it’s doubtful earthquakes would result. In fact, there’s no scientific evidence that an asteroid’s flyby can cause any seismic activity, unless it collides with Earth, but – in this case – that clearly will not be the case.

This asteroid isn’t a newly discovered object. Its name – 2003 SD220 – indicates its discovery year. The Lowell Observatory Near-Earth Object Search (LONEOS) program in Flagstaff, Arizona discovered the asteroid on September 29, 2003.

One notable feature of this asteroid is its large size. Preliminary estimates suggested a size of 0.7 miles to 1.5 miles (1.1 km to 2.5 km). Now the size estimate has been bumped up, after recent radar observations from the Arecibo telescope in Puerto Rico. The new observations suggest the asteroid is about 1.25 miles (2 km) long.

The asteroid is thought to have a very slow rotation of about one week. (Read more from “Asteroid to Pass Earth on Christmas Eve” HERE)

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Still in a Crib, yet Being Given Antipsychotics

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Andrew Rios’s seizures began when he was 5 months old and only got worse. At 18 months, when an epilepsy medication resulted in violent behavior, he was prescribed the antipsychotic Risperdal, a drug typically used to treat schizophrenia and bipolar disorder in adults, and rarely used for children as young as 5 years.

When Andrew screamed in his sleep and seemed to interact with people and objects that were not there, his frightened mother researched Risperdal and discovered that the drug was not approved, and had never even been studied, in children anywhere near as young as Andrew.

It was just ‘Take this, no big deal,’ like they were Tic Tacs,” said Genesis Rios, a mother of five in Rancho Dominguez, Calif. “He was just a baby.”

Cases like that of Andrew Rios, in which children age 2 or younger are prescribed psychiatric medications to address alarmingly violent or withdrawn behavior, are rising rapidly, data shows. Many doctors worry that these drugs, designed for adults and only warily accepted for certain school-age youngsters, are being used to treat children still in cribs despite no published research into their effectiveness and potential health risks for children so young.

Almost 20,000 prescriptions for risperidone (commonly known as Risperdal), quetiapine (Seroquel) and other antipsychotic medications were written in 2014 for children 2 and younger, a 50 percent jump from 13,000 just one year before, according to the prescription data company IMS Health. Prescriptions for the antidepressant fluoxetine (Prozac) rose 23 percent in one year for that age group, to about 83,000. (Read more from “Still in a Crib, yet Being Given Antipsychotics” HERE)

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Autonomous Weaponized Robots: Not Just Science Fiction

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Robots have been keeping police officers safe for years by disposing of bombs and assisting in hostage situations, but a rapid increase in technology could trigger a robot revolution over the next decade.

Robots are already being weaponized: In 2014, a South African company started selling drones that could shoot 80 pepper balls per second, and police in North Dakota have been cleared to use a type of drone that is armed with tear gas and Tasers. Police use of Tasers—they’re designed to be nonlethal but can trigger cardiac arrest—killed 540 Americans from 2001 to 2013, according to Amnesty International. Right now, this technology requires an operator to remotely control the robots and the weapons.

(Read more from “Autonomous Weaponized Robots: Not Just Science Fiction” HERE)

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Scientists Have Found a New Strain of Bacteria That Is Resistant to All Antibiotics

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FOR years experts have warned there would come a day when antibiotics would cease being effective.

And it seems that day could be sooner than first thought after scientists discovered a new superbug that is not just impervious to the last line of defence medication, but has the ability to infect other bacteria.

But instead of destroying its virulent cousins this new strain of e.coli actually strengthens them by giving them the same antibiotic shield . . .

Experts, while worried about the potential effect this discovery would have, hoped it would remain in China . . .

But this week those hopes were dashed when researchers in Denmark revealed they had found a similar strain in poultry from Germany as well as in a Danish man who had never travelled outside the country. (Read more from “Scientists Have Found a New Strain of Bacteria That Is Resistant to All Antibiotics” HERE)

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