The Raw Story

Friday, 23 January 2015

The physiological benefits of hugging

Hugs make you feel good for a reason and it's not just the loving embrace that gives us that warm feeling in our hearts. It's much more. It affects the entire body to such an extent that many scientists claim it is equivalent to the effect of many different drugs operating on the body simultaneously. Even seemingly trivial instances of interpersonal touch can help people deal with their emotions with clarity and more effectively.

1. REDUCE WORRY OF MORTALITY

In a study on fears and self-esteem, research published in the journal revealed that hugs and touch significantly reduce worry of mortality. The studies found that hugging -- even if it was just an inanimate object like a teddy bear -- helps soothe individuals' existential fears. "Interpersonal touch is such a powerful mechanism that even objects that simulate touch by another person may help to instill in people a sense of existential significance," lead researcher Sander Koole wrote in the study.

2. STIMULATES OXYTOCIN

Oxytocin is a neurotransmitter that acts on the limbic system, the brain's emotional centre, promoting feelings of contentment, reducing anxiety and stress, and even making mammals monogamous. It is the hormone responsible for us all being here today. You see this little gem is released during childbirth, making our mothers forget about all of the excruciating pain they endured expelling us from their bodies and making them want to still love and spend time with us. New research from the University of California suggests that it has a similarly civilizing effect on human males, making them more affectionate and better at forming relationships and social bonding. And it dramatically increased the libido and sexual performance of test subjects. More frequent partner hugs and higher oxytocin levels are linked to lower blood pressure and heart rate. The chemical has also been linked to social bonding. "Oxytocin is a neuropeptide, which basically promotes feelings of devotion, trust and bonding," DePauw University psychologist Matt Hertenstein told NPR. "It really lays the biological foundation and structure for connecting to other people." When we hug someone, oxytocin is released into our bodies by our pituitary gland, lowering both our heart rates and our cortisol levels. Cortisol is the hormone responsible for stress, high blood pressure, and heart disease.

3. LOWERS HEART RATE

Embracing someone may warm your heart, but according to one study a hug can be good medicine for it too: In an experiment at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill , participants who didn't have any contact with their partners developed a quickened heart rate of 10 beats per minute compared to the five beats per minute among those who got to hug their partners during the experiment.

4. STIMULATES DOPAMINE

Everything everyone does involves protecting and triggering dopamine flow. Many drugs of abuse act through this system. Problems with the system can lead to serious depression and other mental illness. Low dopamine levels also play a role in the neurodegenerative disease Parkinson's as well as mood disorders such as depression. Procrastination, self-doubt, and lack of enthusiasm are linked with low levels of dopamine and hugs are said to adjust those levels. Dopamine is responsible for giving us that feel-good feeling, and it's also responsible for motivation! Hugs stimulate brains to release dopamine, the pleasure hormone. MRI and PET scans reveal that when you hugs people or listen to music that excites you, your brain releases dopamine and even in anticipation of those moments. Dopamine sensors are the areas that many stimulating drugs such as cocaine and methamphetamine target. The presence of a certain kinds of dopamine receptors are also associated with sensation-seeking.

5. STIMULATES SEROTONIN

Serotonin flows when you feel significant or important. Loneliness and depression appears when serotonin is absent. It's perhaps one reason why people fall into gang and criminal activity -- the culture brings experiences that facilitate serotonin release. Reaching out and hugging releases endorphins and serotonin into the blood vessels and the released endorphins and serotonin cause pleasure and negate pain and sadness and decrease the chances of getting heart problems, helps fight excess weight and prolongs life. Even the cuddling of pets has a soothing effect that reduces the stress levels. Hugging for an extended time lifts one's serotonin levels, elevating mood and creating happiness.

6. WELL-HUGGED BABIES ARE LESS STRESSED AS ADULTS

Want to do something for future generations? Hug them when they're still little. An Emory University study in rats found a link between touch and relieving stress, particularly in the early stages of life. The research concluded that the same can be said of humans, citing that babies' development -- including how they cope with stress as adults -- depends on a combination of nature nurture.

7. PARASYMPATHETIC BALANCE

Hugs balance out the nervous system. The skin contains a network of tiny, egg-shaped pressure centres called Pacinian corpuscles that can sense touch and which are in contact with the brain through the vagus nerve. The galvanic skin response of someone receiving and giving a hug shows a change in skin conductance. The effect in moisture and electricity in the skin suggests a more balanced state in the nervous system - parasympathetic.

8. ENHANCE IMMUNE SYSTEM

Research shows that the hug hormones above are immuno-regulatory. All of this has an even deeper meaning on the way our systems work with each other, including our immune system. his also parallels with the way that hugs promote the relaxation response -- they help to change the way your body handles both physical and social stresses, thus boosting your immune system naturally, to do the job it was designed to do!

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Sources:

tinyshift.com

dopamineproject.org

brainhq.com

huffingtonpost.com

npr.org

dailymail.co.uk nih.gov

Chomsky: We Are All – Fill in the Blank.

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Last year, Tennessee became the first state to define drug use during pregnancy as a crime. Women whose newborns test positive for narcotic drugs can be charged with assault and punished with up to 15 years of prison.

When critics of the measure -- which included everyone from addiction counselors to doctors to Obama's drug czar -- pointed out that terrorizing pregnant addicts with the threat of prison would not be helpful in the treatment of their condition, supporters shot back that they didn't want to put women in jail; the law would merely allow prosecutors to help push women into rehab.

Since the law went into effect in July, most of the women charged with assault for drug use during pregnancy have been placed in treatment programs. Still, as a Nation investigation found, doctors and counselors who work with pregnant addicts also say many women have begun avoiding prenatal care because they're scared of going to jail. Some have fled the state to give birth.

It looks like their fears are warranted. On Thursday Jamillah Falls, the second woman in the state to be charged with assault after her newborn tested positive for heroin, was sentenced to six months in prison, reports WREG. Her child is with the Department of Children's services, according to the report. A spokesman for the Shelby County prosecutor's office tells AlterNet that Falls failed to complete the terms of her probation.

Cherisse Scott, founder of the reproductive rights advocacy group SisterReach, doesn't know how Falls allegedly violated her probation, but notes that she's had an exceedingly hard time in the program. After a 28 day detox, Falls was placed at a halfway house in an unsafe neighborhood. She was reportedly stressed out about the criminal charge that hung over her head and heartbroken to be separated from her baby. She had to find a job to stay in the halfway house, no easy feat given that her face had been splashed all over local news as "pregnant heroin addict." Scott says Falls was desperate to find work, even calling her up to see if she had anything at her organization.

"It's what we feared," Scott tells AlterNet. "Women already dealing with poverty trying to maintain beyond the detox mandate. Now they have to deal with the stress of the court system, of urine samples, appointments."

Farah Diaz-Tello, a staff attorney with the National Advocates for Pregnant Women, is saddened but not surprised that Falls will end up in prison.

"This is exactly how this law is intended to work," Diaz-Tello tells AlterNet. "It was never intended to get people help. It's a method for criminalizing women for the outcome of their pregnancy. It bears out all of the warnings that advocates for women's health tried to sound the alarm about."

Although she is not familiar with the specifics of Falls' probation, Diaz-Tello points out that forced drug treatment for the poor looks nothing like how most people picture rehab, based on, say, where celebrities go to clean up their act.

"We think of treatment as being a therapeutic relationship; that it's confidential, that it helps a person get their problem under control. But for people under supervision by the correctional system, it's just another form of state surveillance."

Drug addiction is so hard to cure precisely because it is often rooted in trauma: a majority of female drug addicts have experienced sexual assault or other violence. Poor people without access to mental health care might use drugs to self-medicate, but many treatment programs don't account for the complex interplay between poverty, trauma and addiction.

"Most court-ordered treatment is not trauma informed, which is important for women," Diaz-Tello says. "People who don't have access to the system do what they can to get by. It's no surprise that people under stress, scrutinized by the state, with the threat of their baby being taken away -- that they would experience stress that could lead them to use again."

© Reuters/Luke MacGregor

A Scottish Saltire flag and British Union flag fly together with the London Eye behind in London September 19, 2014.

The British government began a historic transfer of powers to Scotland on Thursday, keeping a pledge it had given to persuade Scots to reject independence as renewed nationalist support surges.

The draft bill, to be enacted after a general election on May 7, will further dismantle Britain's highly centralized system of government, a move critics fear could trigger the beginning of the end of the United Kingdom.

It has already spurred demands from some politicians for similar moves in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, teeing up political uncertainty and heralding an eventual redistribution of power in the world's sixth largest economy.

Under the law, Scotland, which voted to reject full independence in a referendum in September, will be able to set income tax rates, have some influence over welfare spending, and be given the authority to decide how the Scottish parliament and other structures are elected and run.

"The leaders of the other main political parties and I promised extensive new powers for the Scottish Parliament -- a vow -- with a clear process and a clear timetable," British Prime Minister David Cameron said in a speech in the Scottish capital Edinburgh.

"And now, here we have it: new powers for Scotland, built to last, securing our united future."

Cameron, whose party is deeply unpopular in Scotland, moved to quell nationalist doubts the draft law would reach the statute book, saying the new powers were "guaranteed" whoever formed the next British government.

"The Scottish parliament will have more control of its tax and spending, making it one of the most powerful devolved parliaments in the world," he said.

The pro-independence Scottish National Party (SNP) welcomed the law's publication but complained it did not go far enough and left the British government with too much power in Scotland.

Nicola Sturgeon, the SNP leader, said she wanted "an urgent rethink" of the law to remove what she said were British government vetoes in certain policy areas.

"I welcome the draft clauses today as far as they go," she told the Scottish parliament. "But I think in some key respects there has been a significant watering down."

The SNP, which is hoping to hold the balance of power in Britain after May's UK-wide election after a surge in support despite its referendum loss, has questioned if it will really become law, despite assurances from London-based parties.

"A big issue in the (election) campaign will be making sure it's delivered, because unfortunately Scotland's been round and round here before," Steven Paterson, an SNP candidate for Stirling, told Reuters before publication.

The independence referendum, which saw Scots reject a breakaway by 55-45 percent, exposed scepticism about promises made by politicians like Cameron, something the SNP has since capitalized on, surging in opinion polls.

The new law is part of an effort by Britain's established parties to neutralize the SNP threat.

The opposition Labour party, which has relied on Scotland to give it dozens of lawmakers in the British parliament for decades, is hoping, but cannot be sure, that it will revive its own flagging fortunes in Scotland before May's election.

Scots nationalists have suggested they may push for another independence referendum if British voters choose to leave the European Union in a 2017 referendum that Cameron, a Conservative, has said he will call if he returns to office.

© Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press

Technically Incorrect: Conceived to combat cyberbullying, a new law in Illinois may result in schools demanding social media passwords, even if the posting was not done at school or on school computers.

Illinois can't seem to decide whether it's the home of midwestern gentlefolk or of the most draconian humans this side of Moscow.

One of the state's newest laws, for example, may have goodness at its heart. However, it may have something else in various of its extremities.

The law, which went into effect on January 1, is designed to curb cyberbullying, but it also could encourage schools to pry into students' personal lives.

KTVI-TV reported that the law was already making some parents deeply uncomfortable. That's because one of its stipulations is troubling.

Indeed, this week Illinois parents began receiving a letter from school authorities informing them that their children's social media passwords may now have to be handed over, as part of school discipline. Motherboard reports that it obtained one of these letters. It reads, in part:

School authorities may require a student or his or her parent/guardian to provide a password or other related account information in order to gain access to his/her account or profile on a social networking website if school authorities have reasonable cause to believe that a student's account on a social networking site contains evidence that a student has violated a school disciplinary rule or procedure.

You might imagine that this stipulation only applies to school computers and activity on school premises. It does not. The schools may ask for passwords and search on the basis of any posting by a student at any time and in any place.

And who will decide what is reasonable cause? Leigh Lewis, superintendent of Triad Community Schools Unit District 2, told Motherboard that if someone didn't cooperate, there might be trouble. Not detention, criminal charges.

Those of sharp eyes and, perhaps, parenting experience, will wonder just what private information the schools might encounter as they search for their alleged evidence.

As one parent who had received the latter, Sarah Bozarth, told KTVI: "It's one thing for me to take my child's social media account in there and open it up for the teacher to look at (...) but to have to hand over your passport and personal information to your accounts to the school is just not acceptable."

I have contacted Illinois' Board of Education to ask how educators justify what seems like the potential for a considerable invasion of privacy. I will update, should I hear.

What if, in performing a search, the school discovers that a student is involved in, say, criminal activity or a sexual relationship? What if it discovers that the student has a particular medical problem?

Will it pinkie promise not to tell? I contacted Lewis to ask her views and will update, should she reply.

The whole idea of an authority being able to demand social media passwords has undergone some challenges over the last couple of years. This year, Oregon became the latest state to decide that colleges and employers would be forbidden from demanding social media usernames and passwords.

It's one thing for authorities to observe what employees, students or suspects are posting on social media. It's surely another to think that they have the automatic right to simply demand what is quite obviously personal information. In Illinois, it will all likely come down to the idea of reasonable cause. (No case has yet emerged of a school exercising its alleged right to ask for a password.)

Three years ago, however, 12-year-old Riley Stratton sued her Minnesota schools district after she claimed she'd been coerced into revealing her Facebook password. Last year, the case was settled with the Minnewaska Schools District paying Stratton $70,000. In this case, Stratton was accused of writing nasty things about her hall monitor.

Facebook's Statement of Rights and Responsibilities -- something to which all users agree (perhaps unknowingly) when signing up -- has a section 4.8. It reads: "You will not share your password (or in the case of developers, your secret key), let anyone else access your account, or do anything else that might jeopardize the security of your account."

Clearly, cyberbullying is awful and potentially dangerous. However, where will the balance be struck between the need to find the alleged bully and the protection of someone's basic rights?

Is it mere coincidence that 'ISIS terror' pops up at the right time and place with respect to the long-term geostrategic interests of the Atlantic Empire?

Are 'Islamic' terrorists in the Balkan region threatening the freedom of the EU?

The European Union is concerned about efforts by Islamist terrorist groups to seize the western Balkans as a springboard for action in the EU. The EU is planning closer cooperation with the countries from the region and tougher controls at border crossings.

One preliminary question to ask might be; how did any such 'Islamic' terrorists wind up in the Balkans in the first place?

Having trained and armed their terror brigades to fight the 'Soviet invaders' during the Afghan-Soviet war, the U.S. was so pleased by their efforts that they expanded their field of operation.

In the wake of the Cold War, the CIA continued to support the Islamic brigades out of Pakistan. New undercover initiatives were set in motion in the Middle East, Central Asia, the Balkans and south East Asia.

As the FBI whistleblower Sibel Edmonds revealed, the Balkan region, along with Central Asia and the Caucasus, was turned into one of the main fields of operations for 'Gladio B' - that is, using jihadist mercenaries as foot soldiers for the Western empire. So if you hear about terrorists operating out of some location, it's a safe bet that they were put there by our leaders.

While we have no evidence that these alleged terrorists are presently using the Balkans as a springboard for further terror activity in the EU, we do have evidence that the U.S. is doing so. An article that appeared in the notes that the U.S., along with Britain and other European states, is shipping weapons to rebels terrorists in Syria - via Zagreb, Croatia.

The claims that 'Islamic' terrorists are operating out of the Balkan region is also being used to justify the crack-down on our ever-eroding civil liberties, and will further serve to target the Muslim population there, which is being blamed as the source of jihadism, terrorism and all things evil.

Since the authorities can't just outright start arresting and spying on people, they need to create the 'reality' of an 'Islamic' terrorist threat. So we get claims about various 'terror cells' that are allegedly operating in and around Europe.

EU plans to establish closer cooperation with the countries of the region in order to prevent terrorist activities, passengers from the Western Balkans who are traveling to the EU can count on being exposed to additional checks of their travel documents and luggage when entering the Schengen Area.

The hordes of terrorists that are allegedly curled up somewhere in the Balkans are actually furthering the plans of the powers-that-be. We can expect more Western-styled 'freedom arrests' to be made, followed by press conferences announcing more foiled terror plots, all in order to justify the never-ending 'War on terror.'

We get a clue as to what's really going on here when we read how the liberal, ex-pat Balkan media service, 'Balkan Insight', framed this latest 'terror threat' in Europe:

Islamist Terror Threat Draws EU, Balkans Together

Balkan Insight is part of a regional media network funded by Western NGOs, whose mission is to prepare Yugoslavians for the 'inevitability' of complete assimilation within the EU.

'Security strategies' and 'security structures' are purely NATO's domain, so the idea that security issues would be left to EU civilian bureaucrats is laughable.

The EU is here playing the role of facilitator for the expansion of the Atlantic Empire. The CIA-NATO knows damn well how many 'terrorists' it has in Kosovo, Bosnia and Albania... because it put them there in order to break up Yugoslavia in the 1990s, then later used the 'Kosovo Liberation Army' to bait Milosevic into an action that 'justified' carpet-bombing Serbia, and now to incorporate what remains of the region it first smashed to pieces.

By bringing the 'War on Terror' to the Balkans, the Atlanticists are putting pressure on regional leaders to not wander from the 'inevitability' of their becoming permanent vassal states of the Atlantic Empire.

Ante Sarlija

Born and raised in Croatia, Ante joined the SOTT editorial team in 2014 and has been researching since then. He is also a part of the Croatian SOTT translation team.

A former sex offender has been taken into custody after Nebraska police discovered he had forced a woman in a long-term abusive relationship with him to sign a 'slave contract,' the Journal-Star reports.

Nicholas Allen Talbot, 35, was charged with second-degree domestic assault, after the unidentified woman showed injuries she had sustained to her pastor who contacted police authorities.

"They were horrific," said the Rev. Kathy Gouin of the Lincoln Foursquare Church.

According to authorities, Talbot forced the 32-year-old woman to sign what he said was a legal document titled "Slave Contract" on Jan. 15.

In an affidavit, Lincoln Police Officer Angela Morehouse said that document stated the woman "only had rights the master gave her."

The affidavit states that Talbot whipped the woman, burned her with cigarettes, and forced her to drink his urine several times a day.

Police discovered burn marks on the woman's spine, buttocks, and one breast where the woman said Talbot used a heated screwdriver.

According to Morehouse, the woman had "PROPERTY OF NICK" written on her left arm in black marker.

The woman explained to investigators that Talbot had been abusing her nearly 10 years, but she had been afraid to go the police because she had been led to believe they were part of Talbot's "company" or "gang," Morehouse said.

The woman stated that he had threatened to have her parents and grandmother killed in front of her if she didn't obey him.

The Rev. Gouin said she has known the woman for approximately one year and described her as "very sweet and innocent' and "vulnerable."

"She's very innocent and believes people," Gouin said.

Talbot previously served three years in prison for sexually assaulting a child twice in 1998, and is being held in jail pending bail.

Teleportation has been the holy grail of transport for decades, ever since Mr Scott first beamed up Captain Kirk and his crew in the 1966 opening episode of . Now the technology may have been cracked in real life ... sort of.

Scientists from the Hasso Plattner Institute in Potsdam have invented a real-life teleporter system that can scan in an object and "beam it" to another location.

Not quite the dematerialisation and reconstruction of science fiction, the system relies on destructive scanning and 3D printing.

An object at one end of the system is milled down layer-by-layer, creating a scan per layer which is then transmitted through an encrypted communication to a 3D printer. The printer then replicates the original object layer by layer, effectively teleporting an object from one place to another.

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"We present a simple self-contained appliance that allows relocating inanimate physical objects across distance," said the six person team in a paper submitted for the Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interaction conference at Stanford University. "Users place an object into the sender unit, enter the address of a receiver unit, and press the relocate button."

The system dubbed "Scotty" in homage to the Enterprise's much beleaguered chief engineer, differs from previous systems that merely copy physical object as its layer-by-layer deconstruction and encrypted transmission ensures that only one copy of the object exists at any one time, according to the scientists.

Real-world applications are pretty short for this kind of destruction and reconstruction. But the encryption, transmission and 3D printing objects could be key for companies wishing to sell goods via home 3D printers, ensuring only one copy could be made per purchase - effectively digital rights management for 3D printed objects.

Those looking to cut their commute by simply beaming into the office will have to wait at least another decade or two.

The Raw Story

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Friday, 23 January 2015

The physiological benefits of hugging

Woman thrown in jail for having an addiction while pregnant

Britain announces new transfer of powers for Scotland, edges toward federalism

New Illinois law allows school officials to demand access to students' Facebook passwords

SOTT Exclusive: EU-NATO hopes latest 'Islamist' terror-mongering will draw Balkans closer to West

Man arrested after forcing woman to sign "slave contract" and torturing her

Scientists invent teleporter that works using 3-D printer

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