Mental Health: Middle Age is really depressing

A study performed in London using data from 80 different countries finds that depression is most common among men and women in their forties. The countries studied ranged widely in development status but all but eight of them followed a U-shaped pattern of disbursement when it came to happiness-age relationships.

The study tested some 2 million people on depression, anxiety and general metal health and well being. Regardless of the demographic, whether married or single, with or without children and rich or poor, the truth comes out that people in their forties are sadder worldwide.

The dip in mental health and happiness comes on slowly, not all at once and most people do not begin to emerge from the slump until they approach their fifties. Although some speculation exists regarding the cause of this age-related depression, nothing has been positively determined.

The good news is that if you manage to reach 70-years old and still retain your physical health, you will, on average, be as happy and mentally healthy as a 20-year old.

For those of you just entering your forties, that really sucks. Look forward to a decade of pain and sorrow as you realize how many of your dreams will never be realized and wait for the day that the deaths of your friends gives you a new appreciation on life allowing you to climb out of the black pit of despair.

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Environment: Flex-Fuel Cars Help Environment and Stop Terrorism

Venezuela and Iran have recently joined forces in threatening a raise in oil prices to $200 per barrel. Since 1999, the OPEC oil cartel has successfully pushed the price of oil steadily upward. In 2007 alone we saw a 50 percent increase.

While this declaration will come as a frustration to most Americans who are already feeling the pinch at the pumps, it should be taken very seriously by everyone. Most of the money that we spend on oil gets filtered through a network of fronts, ending up funding the spreading of terrorist ideology and, in the case of Iran, is used to develop technology and materials to be used in nuclear weapons.

With the steady increase of oil prices, we will soon be spending more on oil than we do on our own military. Bad news for us when you consider that the money we spend on oil is, in effect, funding organizations and countries that could eventually oppose us in battle.

Everyone is well aware of America’s dependency on oil. From financial concerns, to environmental concerns, to foreign disputes, we have been heavily immersed in ‘oil talk’ for the last decade. The problem is, the government has done very little to make changes that will break the oil cartel’s power and America’s oil addiction.

It is more important now than ever that Congress pass a law requiring that all new cars sold in America be fueled by an alcohol/gasoline combo. The cars, referred to as flex-fueled, are already being produced but, like the demise of the electric car, conflicts between supply, demand, and availability of refueling stations have kept them from gaining a strong foot hold in the market. By making it nationally mandated that new cars be capable of running on high alcohol fuels, the problem of available pumps would be solved and the call for oil would be dramatically reduced.

Aside from the obvious benefits to the environment and the breaking of our dependency on foreign oil, there would be worldwide ripples, as international car companies would be forced to match the US restrictions if they wish to compete in the American market. We would also be capable of re-channeling the money we currently give to the oil cartel into world agriculture. This would benefit our own farmers as well as those of third world countries and shift spending from terrorism to world development.

Headlines: Marijuana Vending Machines in California

California has begun to introduce marijuana vending machines into the public for use by people with prescriptions for the controlled substance.

Patients with a valid prescription will be permitted to apply for a vending machine card. To get this card they must undergo a fingerprinting and photo process, which will be stored in a database for the machine’s use. When a cardholder approaches a machine they will have to submit their fingerprint and have their picture taken again, to ensure that the person with the card is, in fact, the person with the prescription. The machines will also be guarded by security guards who will provide a human element to the checking process.

This could be a new trend that will eventually be applied to other prescription drugs, allowing less expensive and less educated personal to monitor the machines rather than highly skilled pharmacists. For now though, the machines are limited to dispensing medicinal marijuana.

Medicinal marijuana is reputed to be an effective painkiller and an appetite stimulator for patients with diseases or medications that cause chronic nausea. Although there are currently eleven US states that allow medicinal marijuana use, it is still considered a controlled substance by the federal government and is banned under the 1970 Controlled Substance Act.

Headlines: Lego Celebrates 50th Birthday

Most of us remember playing with LEGOs in our childhood. I remember the good old days when LEGO castles were all bricks, no prefab walls! Whether you were the type to follow the instructions, building to-spec castles and vehicles and then keeping them intact for future play, or the type that designed their own monoliths of creative construction, it is doubtless that you gained hours of entertainment from the colored cubes.

LEGO history began in 1932, when Ole Kirk Christansen built his first factory for wooden toys and named the company “LEGO”, which was a meshing of the Danish words “Leg” and “Godt” meaning “Play Well”.

Several years later, Christansen discovered plastic as a more ideal material for making toys and purchased equipment to introduce plastic fabrication into his factory. In 1949 he developed the LEGO brick prototype. Although the design of the LEGO brick has changed over the years, bricks made today still fit with bricks made as long ago as 1958.

There are now 2,400 different types of LEGO bricks, which are produced in Denmark, Czech Republic and Mexico. The company even recycles old or unsold LEGO bricks, making them into new bricks and pieces.

LEGO is celebrating its birthday by rolling out tons of new sets and featured products. Whether your interest is in Star Wars, law enforcement, medieval castles, or space stations, LEGO has a set for you!

Holiday: Martin Luther King and General Lee Share Holiday

The third Monday in January is recognized nationally as the birthday of Martin Luther King, but in Arkansas, Alabama and Mississippi, there is another man’s birthday being celebrated. General Lee, the leader of the Confederate Army during the Civil War shares his honorary birthday with Martin Luther King, spokesman for the Civil Rights Movement.

It may seem odd that the man who spoke out against racism would have to share his birthday with the man who led the south in a war advocating slavery; however, their actual birthdays really do fall quite close to one another (King’s birthday is Jan. 15 and Lee’s is on Jan. 19). What is more, Lee’s birthday was declared a memorial day long before King’s.

In 1947, Arkansas legislators named Lee’s birthday a legal holiday in honor of the general. It wasn’t until 1983 that King’s birthday was to receive recognition in the same way. In 1985, the two memorial days were combined and changed to the third Monday in January. This allowed workers to have the day off regardless of which man they celebrated rather than having to choose between the two, as was often the case previously.

The issue of the combined recognition has been rankling some people for many years. Dale Charles, president of the Arkansas chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in 1997 felt that it is inappropriate to honor King and Lee on the same day. “Dr. King worked hard to unify the country,” he said. “I wouldn’t say General Lee would be in the same notion of Martin Luther King. He was a great general and all, but he didn’t come close to what Martin Luther King was about.”

Headlines: Bobby Fischer Dead at Age 64

There are 64 squares on a chessboard and, apparently, 64 years in the life of chess grandmaster, Bobby Fisher. Fischer died Thursday of kidney failure after an extended illness. The child prodigy was residing in Iceland.

Fischer was born in the United States (Chicago to be exact) but relocated to Iceland in 2005. In 2004 Fischer was arrested on a warrant for violating international sanctions in 1992, when he traveled to Yugoslavia to play a match against Boris Spassky. He was held for nine months before being released to Iceland where he had been granted citizenship. Iceland is well known for its obsession with chess.

Fischer’s early life was riddled with success. He began playing competitively at age 8 and was the youngest player in history to win the United States Junior Championship, a feat he managed at age 13. Fischer took the first of his eight United States Open Championship wins at age 14. He broke another ‘youngest ever’ record when he became an international grand master at age 15.

Fischer continued his erratic career as a chess super-star, having his most famous match in 1972 against Boris Spassky. The American-Russian match was seen as a foreshadowing of the end of the Cold War as Fischer finished the tournament 12.5 points to Spassky’s 8.5 points over 21 matches. In addition to Fischer’s well-known reputation for gracelessness, rudeness, and unusual demands concerning playing conditions, he is remembered as the American that took down Russia in an allegorical struggle against our greatest nemesis of the day.

Headlines: UFO Invasion in Texas

The end of the world approaches, first target: Stephenville, Texas. This rural community has been plagued by visits from a low flying, brightly-lit object that runs silently across the night sky, bewildering the lowly humans that witness its flight.

Steve Allen, a freight company owner and pilot reported that the object was a mile long and a half mile wide, “It was positively, absolutely nothing from these parts,” he said. Other locals who saw the aircraft swear that it was larger, quieter, faster and lower to the ground than a terrestrial aircraft.

The January 8, 2008 appearance of the craft was possibly not the first. Ricky Sorrells said that he has seen the object on more than one occasion as it hovered over his pasture near his home. On one occasion, Sorrells watched the UFO through his rifle’s telescopic lens and describes the object as being very large and without seams, nuts or bolts.

Maj. Karl Lewis, a spokesman for Forth Worth Naval Air Station, stated that there were no aircraft from his base in the area on the night in question. “I’m 90 percent sure this was an airliner,” Lewis said, “With the sun’s angle, it can play tricks on you.” The two neighboring Air Force bases also report that none of their aircraft were in the area last week.

Erath County Constable Lee Roy Gaitan saw the event and attempted to examine the craft through binoculars. He was able to see the rapidly moving lights but was unable to focus on the object to which the lights were attached. “I didn’t see a flying saucer and I don’t know what it was, but it wasn’t an airplane, and I’ve never seen anything like it.”

So keep your eyes on the sky Texas, we are counting on you to raise the alarm when the space aliens arrive to eat our brains.