Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Study finds work-related stress can kill
By Michael Kahn Tue Jan 22, 8:24 PM ET
Reported by Reuters.
LONDON (Reuters) - Work really can kill you, according to a study on Wednesday providing the strongest evidence yet of how on-the-job stress raises the risk of heart disease by disrupting the body's internal systems.
"This is the first large-scale population study looking at the effects of stress measured from everyday working life on heart disease," said Chandola, who led the study. "One of the problems is people have been sceptical whether work stress really affects a person biologically."
Heart disease is the world's leading cause of death. It is caused by fatty deposits that harden and block arteries, high blood pressure which damages blood vessels, and other factors.
The researchers measured stress among the civil servants by asking questions about their job demands such as how much control they had at work, how often they took breaks, and how pressed for time they were during the day.
The team conducted seven surveys over a 12-year period and found chronically stressed workers -- people determined to be under severe pressure in the first two of the surveys -- had a 68 percent higher risk of developing heart disease.
The link was strongest among people under 50, Chandola said.
"This study adds to the evidence that the work stress-coronary heart disease association is causal in nature," the researchers wrote in the European Heart Journal.
Behaviour and biological changes likely explain why stress at work causes heart disease, Chandola said. For one, stressed workers eat unhealthy food, smoke, drink and skip exercise -- all behaviours linked to heart disease.
In the study, stressed workers also had lowered heart rate variability -- a sign of a poorly-functioning weak heart -- and higher-than-normal levels of cortisol, a "stress" hormone that provides a burst of energy for a fight-or-flight response.
Too much cortisol circulating in the blood stream can damage blood vessels and the heart, Chandola said.
"If you are constantly stressed out these biological stress systems become abnormal," Chandola said.
(Reporting by Michael Kahn; Editing by Maggie Fox and Caroline Drees)
Ha! I knew it! Thats why we all need this....
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Raegan
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3:44 PM
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OK, I saw Cloverfield
I know this is late, but it has taken me this long to file my thoughts about it. Though, it would have been quicker if it wasn't for the damn flu. So, I have been following the clues and the back stories. I have been totally and completely obsessed with a movie, and my husband has become equally obsessed with me. Now that we have seen the movie, it just raises more questions.
My thought is....
The movie is another clue.
Just like all of the other viral marketing stuff. The movie is one huge clue.
And I cannot wait until it continues.
We all know that there is going to be a sequel. So...let the game continue.
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Raegan
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3:24 PM
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Tuesday, January 22, 2008
RIP Heath Ledger
NEW YORK — Actor Heath Ledger was found dead Tuesday at a downtown Manhattan residence in what authorities say is a possible drug-related death, the NYPD said. He was 28. NYPD spokesman said that Ledger had an appointment for a massage at the Manhattan apartment that is believed to be his home. The housekeeper who went to let Ledger know the masseuse was there, and found him dead at 3:26 p.m, Browne said. The Australian-born actor was an Oscar nominee for his role in "Brokeback Mountain" and has numerous other screen credits. I hope that the movie The Dark Knight will leave a bright note on his career.
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Raegan
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2:12 PM
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Monday, January 21, 2008
Global Warming! Kill the Cows!!!
*uncontrollable laughter* STOCKHOLM, Sweden — A Swedish university has received $590,000 in research funds to measure the greenhouse gases released when cows belch. About 20 cows will participate in the project run by the Swedish University for Agricultural Sciences in Uppsala, about 40 miles north of Stockholm, officials said Monday. Cattle release methane, a greenhouse gas believed to contribute to global warming, when they digest their food. Researchers believe the level of methane released depends on the type of food the eat. Project leader Jan Bertilsson said that the cows involved in the study will have different diets and wear a collar device measuring the methane level in the air around them. He said 95 percent of the methane released by cows comes out through the mouth. "This type of research is already being conducted in Canada so we will be in contact with Canadian agricultural researchers in the near future," he said. The research will be funded by a grant from the government's Swedish Research Council for Environment, Agricultural Sciences and Spatial Planning.
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Raegan
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7:02 PM
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Wednesday, January 9, 2008
9 Days....

Till the premiere of Cloverfield. I will be there....will you?
Will this kitty be our hero? Watch and find out!
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Raegan
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11:13 AM
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Life Imitates Art...
NEW YORK — Two men wheeled a dead man through the streets in an office chair to a check-cashing store and tried to cash his Social Security check before being arrested on fraud charges, police said. David J. Dalaia and James O'Hare pushed Virgilio Cintron's body from the Manhattan apartment that O'Hare and Cintron shared to Pay-O-Matic, about a block away, spokesman Paul Browne said witnesses told police. "The witnesses saw the two pushing the chair with Cintron flopping from side to side and the two individuals propping him up and keeping him from flopping from side to side," Browne said. The men left Cintron's body outside the store, went inside and tried to cash his $355 check, Browne said. The store's clerk, who knew Cintron, asked the men where he was, and O'Hare told the clerk they would go and get him, Browne said. A police detective who was having lunch at a restaurant next to the check-cashing store noticed a crowd forming around Cintron's body, and "it's immediately apparent to him that Cintron is dead," Browne said. The detective called uniformed New York Police Department officers at a nearby precinct. Emergency medical technicians arrived as O'Hare and Dalaia were preparing to wheel Cintron's body into the check-cashing store, Browne said. Police arrested Dalaia and O'Hare there, he said. Cintron's body was taken to a hospital morgue. The medical examiner's office told police it appeared Cintron, 66, had died of natural causes within the previous 24 hours, Browne said. "He was deceased in the apartment when he was removed by these two," Browne said. Dalaia and O'Hare, both 65, were being held by police and faced check fraud charges, Browne said. A call to a telephone number listed for Cintron at the apartment he shared with O'Hare went unanswered Tuesday evening. Police said they didn't have an address for Dalaia or attorney information for him or O'Hare.
Looks like a couple of douchebags watched this movie too many times and tried to cash the social security check of a dead man.....by carrying him to the bank.
This originally posted by the Associated Press:
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Raegan
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10:32 AM
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Monday, January 7, 2008
Panasonic will own you.

This year at CES, we had a chance to witness history. The 150 in flat screen television. Men now have a reason to live. They can watch the Victoria's Secret fashion show the way God intended it. Thank you Panasonic for single handedly ruining women's weekends.
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Raegan
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10:09 PM
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Sunday, January 6, 2008
The Bible According to Cats

Well, they did it. A translation of the Bible that is in LOLCat Language. It's awesome.
John 3:16-
So liek teh Ceiling Cat lieks teh ppl lots and he sez 'Oh hai I givez u me only kitteh and ifs u beleevs in him u wont evr diez no moar, k?'
LOLCat Bible.
Take a gander
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Raegan
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5:05 PM
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Friday, January 4, 2008
Cloverfield!!!!

ok, so I can't wait for this movie. if you want some great tips on this flick, go to Cloverfield Clues.
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Raegan
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8:42 PM
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List of Communist Goals
You know, this is quite disturbing. Some of these have been fulfilled. This is thanks to Casey Henderickson who is a radio personality extraordinaire from AM 840 KXNT.
Communist Goals (1963)
Congressional Record--Appendix, pp. A34-A35
January 10, 1963
Current Communist Goals
EXTENSION OF REMARKS OF HON. A. S. HERLONG, JR. OF FLORIDA
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Thursday, January 10, 1963
Mr. HERLONG. Mr. Speaker, Mrs. Patricia Nordman of De Land, Fla., is an ardent and articulate opponent of communism, and until recently published the De Land Courier, which she dedicated to the purpose of alerting the public to the dangers of communism in America.
At Mrs. Nordman's request, I include in the RECORD, under unanimous consent, the following "Current Communist Goals," which she identifies as an excerpt from "The Naked Communist," by Cleon Skousen:
[From "The Naked Communist," by Cleon Skousen]
CURRENT COMMUNIST GOALS
1. U.S. acceptance of coexistence as the only alternative to atomic war.
2. U.S. willingness to capitulate in preference to engaging in atomic war.
3. Develop the illusion that total disarmament of the United States would be a demonstration of moral strength.
4. Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war.
5. Extension of long-term loans to Russia and Soviet satellites.
6. Provide American aid to all nations regardless of Communist domination.
7. Grant recognition of Red China. Admission of Red China to the U.N.
8. Set up East and West Germany as separate states in spite of Khrushchev's promise in 1955 to settle the German question by free elections under supervision of the U.N.
9. Prolong the conferences to ban atomic tests because the United States has agreed to suspend tests as long as negotiations are in progress.
10. Allow all Soviet satellites individual representation in the U.N.
11. Promote the U.N. as the only hope for mankind. If its charter is rewritten, demand that it be set up as a one-world government with its own independent armed forces. (Some Communist leaders believe the world can be taken over as easily by the U.N. as by Moscow. Sometimes these two centers compete with each other as they are now doing in the Congo.)
12. Resist any attempt to outlaw the Communist Party.
13. Do away with all loyalty oaths.
14. Continue giving Russia access to the U.S. Patent Office.
15. Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States.
16. Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights.
17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers' associations. Put the party line in textbooks.
18. Gain control of all student newspapers.
19. Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack.
20. Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policymaking positions.
21. Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures.
22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to "eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms."
23. Control art critics and directors of art museums. "Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art."
24. Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them "censorship" and a violation of free speech and free press.
25. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV.
26. Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as "normal, natural, healthy."
27. Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with "social" religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity which does not need a "religious crutch."
28. Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of "separation of church and state."
29. Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.
30. Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the "common man."
31. Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the "big picture." Give more emphasis to Russian history since the Communists took over.
32. Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture--education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc.
33. Eliminate all laws or procedures which interfere with the operation of the Communist apparatus.
34. Eliminate the House Committee on Un-American Activities.
35. Discredit and eventually dismantle the FBI.
36. Infiltrate and gain control of more unions.
37. Infiltrate and gain control of big business.
38. Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand.
39. Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose Communist goals.
40. Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.
41. Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents.
42. Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special-interest groups should rise up and use united force to solve economic, political or social problems.
43. Overthrow all colonial governments before native populations are ready for self-government.
44. Internationalize the Panama Canal.
45. Repeal the Connally reservation so the United States cannot prevent the World Court from seizing jurisdiction over nations and individuals alike.
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Raegan
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8:35 PM
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My first Blog!!
Welcome! Seems like I have finally decided to explore the facets of professional blogging. This blog is going to showcase my life personally through my career and my personal life. There will be blogs about politics, music, movies, and anything that moves me.
Some things you need to know about me....
I am a political conservative. Though, I do have some views that some would see as liberal. I love music. I am a huge classical and country music fan. I will speak my mind on this blog. I am a firm believer of the right to free speech and free press. You don't like what I have to write, then you don't have to read it.
Anyway, enjoy, and there will be a lot more to come.
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8:12 PM
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