Secrets of Body Language

Body language is a form of non-verbal communication, which consists of body posture, gestures, facial expressions, and eye movements. Humans send and interpret such signals almost entirely subconsciously.

John Borg attests that human communication consists of 93 percent body language and paralinguistic cues, while only 7% of communication consists of words themselves; however, Albert Mehrabian, the researcher whose 1960s work is the source of these statistics, has stated that this is a misunderstanding of the findings.

Others assert that research has suggested that between 60 and 70 percent of all meaning is derived from nonverbal behavior.

Delve into the science of non-verbal signals as this very visual and highly entertaining expose reveals the hidden language in which 93% of human communication takes place.

From President Franklin D. Roosevelt, to British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and 2008 presidential hopefuls Senators Barack Obama and John McCain, see how both politicians and celebrities use the subtle movements of body language to persuade masses, establish power, and advance careers.

Identifying Pierre Poutine.

Elections Canada sifts through Tory database to identify Pierre Poutine

Elections Canada is combing through internal Conservative Party e-mails and database records as it tries to close in on Guelph robo-call scammer “Pierre Poutine,” sources said.

The election watchdog has gained access to the electronic logs that track who drew down information from the party’s database of voters in the riding of Guelph during the 2011 campaign.

Elections Canada is looking for evidence that the tightly held list was used by one or more political operatives as fodder for robo-calls that directed non-Tory supporters in the Ontario riding to the wrong polling station in the 2011 ballot.

Agency investigators are operating on the assumption that the hunt for the fake-call culprit who hid behind the alias “Pierre Poutine” will lead to the local Tory campaign in Guelph.

The Conservatives keep track of supporters and other voters through a massive database called the constituency information management system (CIMS), which was created and expanded under Stephen Harper’s leadership of the party.

Access to CIMS is controlled through personal accounts with passwords. One person familiar with the local Guelph campaign estimated that perhaps 10 to 15 people working there had personal CIMS accounts.

“Everything is logged,” a Conservative source said.

Someone familiar with the investigation said that CIMS records indicate Michael Sona, then-communications director to candidate Marty Burke, never used his CIMS account to draw down lists of voters during the campaign.

Mr. Sona resigned from his job with Tory MP Eve Adams’s office near the outset of the robo-call controversy. Anonymous Conservative sources have repeatedly alleged – without proof – that he played a role in the fake calls that were routed through RackNine, an Alberta firm that is not suspected of wrongdoing.

Mr. Sona has publicly protested his innocence, saying he left Ms. Adams’s office only because the allegations swirling in the media prevented him from doing his job.

Conservative Party spokesman Fred DeLorey said the party has willingly turned over confidential records to Elections Canada to help its probe in Guelph. The party has not been served with a court order requiring it to do so.

“We have proactively reached out to Elections Canada and offered to assist them in any way we can,” Mr. DeLorey said. “That includes handing over any documents or records that may assist them.”

He would not divulge what the party handed over “as we do not want to compromise any part of the investigation.”

Separately on Tuesday, friends of Mr. Sona’s said the former Conservative staffer is eager to prove he isn’t Pierre Poutine by submitting to a test. RackNine CEO Matt Meier spoke to the unknown man who set up the Pierre Poutine account at his calling firm and Mr. Sona has told friends he would like to participate in a “voice lineup” that challenges Mr. Meier to identify the caller.

Mr. Sona has told former co-workers he learned from the Sun News Network that he was being fingered by Conservative sources in connection with the phony calls. Friends say the ex-aide was sitting in his office in late February when Sun News broke a story that Tories had tied him to “a robo-calling scandal.”

The Sun News Network was the first media outlet to link Mr. Sona to the controversy.

The former aide has told friends he was stunned that nobody from the Conservative Party had ever mentioned a word of this to him before.

He told them he offered his resignation to Ms. Adams and she initially refused it – but later accepted it after receiving a call from Jenni Byrne, now director of political operations at the Conservative Party. She served as national campaign manager for the Tories in 2011.

Elections Canada has alleged a political operative using the name Pierre Poutine engineered an off-the-books scheme via robo-calls and a disposable cellphone to discourage opposition voters from casting ballots in Guelph.

Mr. Sona has repeatedly told co-workers that there’s no way he had the technical skills to engineer the robo-calls, telling them he fared poorly in math at school and that his computer knowledge is limited to one computer science course.

Other sources familiar with the Conservative Guelph campaign said key officials knew in the days before the 2011 election that the Tories would lose the riding since the results from advance polls put them too far behind to catch up with the Liberals.

Also on Tuesday, the Liberal Party boasted that it had sent data on its robo-calls in the 2011 election to Elections Canada. It said this included the scripts and recordings of automated phone messages.

Elections Canada is fielding complaints from dozens of other ridings in which voters complain that live or automated calls sent them to the wrong polling station.

The NDP and the Liberals have compiled examples of about 30 ridings where the script of the calls was basically the same: A call purporting to be from Elections Canada falsely informed the listener that their polling station was changed due to high voter turnout.

This pattern hints at a bigger scheme, opposition parties charge.

“Liberals are committed to co-operating with this investigation,” Interim Liberal Leader Bob Rae said. “We are setting the standard for openness and transparency, and we expect that all other political parties will follow suit.”

Speaking to reporters later, Mr. Rae acknowledged the bounty of materials provided to Elections Canada did not include information on a Liberal robo-call in Guelph that attacked Conservative candidate Marty Burke for his stand on abortion.

“That was a local call that doesn’t have much to do with the national campaign,” Mr. Rae said.

The Liberals late last week admitted they had funded an anti-Burke robo-call during the Guelph race – a message that didn’t include the acknowledgment it was authorized by them.

Liberal spokesman Dan Lauzon said that Guelph Liberal MP Frank Valeriote and his staff have already proven “forthcoming and co-operative” with Elections Canada over their robo-call.

source- 

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/elections-canada-sifts-through-tory-database-to-identify-pierre-poutine/article2368557/

Canadians protest election 'robocall' scandal

Canadians protest election 'robocall' scandal

Protesters gathered in cities across Canada Sunday to demand a full public inquiry into the federal election "robocall" scandal.

The largest turnout seemed to be in Toronto, with hundreds of people marching along downtown streets, waving placards and chanting: "Election crime, election time."

There were modest turnouts of several dozen protesters in Halifax and Montreal. A small crowd had gathered on Parliament Hill in Ottawa as well.

Rallies were planned in as many as 27 Canadian cities from coast to coast.

Elections Canada has launched an investigation into suspicious calls voters received during the last federal election after receiving a high volume of complaints.

Canadians in dozens of ridings have reported either receiving automated calls telling them to go to incorrect polling stations on election day, or being telephoned late at night and harassed by people who claimed to represent political parties.

Opposition parties are blaming the Conservatives, alleging the party resorted to "dirty tricks" and voter suppression tactics. The Tories responded with counter-accusations and Prime Minister Stephen Harper has denied any knowledge of the calls.

On Saturday, Liberal MP Frank Valeriote admitted his party did not identify that it was behind an anti-Conservative robocall used during the election in Guelph, Ont.

The riding is already the focus of the Elections Canada "robocall" probe.

The Liberals' automated call was critical of Conservative candidate Marty Burke and his anti-abortion views. The message goes on to say that the race in Guelph is close and asks people to vote "strategically."

Audio of the recording surfaced Friday night.

The recording does not state that it came from the Liberal Party or from Valeriote's campaign. The Elections Act requires parties or candidates to identify themselves in campaign ads.

Valeriote, who won the riding, told CTV News Saturday that it was an "oversight" that the party and candidate were not identified on the call.

Conservative MP Dean Del Mastro called the message "dishonest," and "sleazy."

source-

http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/TopStories/20120311/canadians-plan-robocall-rallies-120311/

How Hemp Got High: Cannabis Genome Mapped

A team of Canadian researchers has sequenced the genome of Cannabis sativa, the plant that produces both industrial hemp and marijuana, and in the process revealed the genetic changes that led to the plant's drug-producing properties.

Jon Page is a plant biochemist and adjunct professor of biology at the University of Saskatchewan. He explains that a simple genetic switch is likely responsible for the production of THCA, or tetrahydrocannabinolic acid, the precursor of the active ingredient in marijuana.

"The transcriptome analysis showed that the THCA synthase gene, an essential enzyme in THCA production, is turned on in marijuana, but switched off in hemp," Page says.

Tim Hughes, co-leader of the project, is a professor at the Terrence Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research and the Department of Molecular Genetics at the University of Toronto. He explains the team compared the potent Purple Kush marijuana variety with 'Finola' hemp, which is grown for seed production. Hemp lacks THCA, but does contain another, non-psychoactive substance called CBDA, or cannabidiolic acid.

"Detailed analysis of the two genomes suggests that domestication, cultivation, and breeding of marijuana strains has caused the loss of the enzyme (CBDA synthase), which would otherwise compete for the metabolites used as starting material in THCA production," Hughes says.

Essentially, this means that over thousands of years of cultivation, hemp farmers selectively bred Cannabis sativa into two distinct strains -- one for fibre and seed, and one for medicine. Marijuana has been used medicinally for more than 2,700 years, and continues to be explored for its pharmaceutical potential.

"Plants continue to be a major source of medicines, both as herbal drugs and as pharmaceutical compounds," Page says. "Although more than 20 plant genomes have been published, ranging from major food crops such as rice and corn, to laboratory models like Arabidopsis, this is the first genome of a medicinal plant."

The researchers expect that sequencing the Cannabis sativagenome will help answer basic questions about the biology of the plant as well as furthering development of its myriad applications. These include strains for pharmaceutical production, high-producing industrial hemp plants, and hemp seed varieties to produce high-quality edible oil. Hemp seed oil is rich in omega 6, an essential fatty acid, and its fibre is used in the production of textiles.

According to the Canadian Hemp Trade Alliance, about 25,000 acres of the crop were sown in Canada in 2010, much of this in Manitoba. Due to hemp's association with marijuana, farmers need to be licensed through Health Canada to grow the crop. Canadian medicinal marijuana is currently produced under Health Canada contract with Prairie Plant Systems, a 

 Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided byUniversity of Saskatchewan.

Hindu holy men mark religious gathering

A Hindu holy man, or sadhu, applies ashes on his face at the Pashupatinath Temple during the Shivaratri festival in Kathmandu Monday. Hindu holy men from Nepal and India come to this temple to take part in the Shivaratri festival, which is one of the biggest Hindu festivals dedicated to Lord Shiva and celebrated by devotees all over the world.

Photograph by: Navesh Chitrakar, Reuters , Reuters

Hindu holy man Tarkeshwor Giri sat naked at Nepal's biggest annual religious gathering on Monday as throngs of pilgrims sought his blessings at a centuries-old temple in Kathmandu.
Devotees bow before Giri, who has travelled from Rudra Prayag in the northern Indian state of Uttaranchal, and offer him coins, rice and sweets. He places his palm on their heads and paints a streak of ash on their foreheads.
"I do this for the prosperity and welfare of the world," 50-year-old Giri, with ash-smeared body and dreadlocked hair that has not been combed or cut for 20 years, said as he smoked marijuana sitting cross-legged by the side of burning logs.
"We are the Naga army and work for the protection of our Vedic religion," Giri said of the Naga Sadhu sect, who are said to have overcome earthly life and declare themselves "dead."
Hundreds of naked Sadhus like Giri have travelled from neighbouring India, alongside others dressed in saffron clothes and those holding tridents, to add religious fervour to the Maha Shivaratri or the great night of Lord Shiva, one of the trinity of Hindu gods.
Some also celebrate the festival as Shiva's wedding night, marking the deity's union with consort Parvati.
"Lord Shiva is truth and that is beautiful," said devotee Ganga Bista waiting in line to get into the shrine.
One folklore has it that the lord, who fled his Himalayan abodes of Mount Kailash in Tibet, was later found in the form of a golden-horned deer grazing in the Mrigasthali forests close to the sprawling Pashupatinath temple on the outskirts of Kathmandu where the festival is held.
The shrine, a UNESCO heritage site, is located on the banks of the sacred Bagmati River next to the forests where some of the rare deer roam.
Lord Shiva is depicted in sketches as a young man sitting on a tiger skin with a snake garland around his neck.
The festival is marked by the simple rituals of devotees, who ignore pollution in the river to bathe or sprinkle its water over their heads and bodies to wash away their "sins."
Many devotees began queuing outside the temple before dawn, holding marigold garlands, incense sticks, butter lamps and coconut fruits in leafy trays.
Organizers said more than 4,200 police stood guard over crowds expected to top 800,000 people.
Some poured milk from tiny pitchers over the Shiva Lingam, or stone phallus, symbol of the virile energy of Lord Shiva, and carried sandal wood paste to take back for relatives.
Hindu holy men, considered the god's attendants, sat around the fire with a smell of burning butter lamps and cannabis heavy in the air.
The drug is banned in Nepal but the holy men are spared during the festival.
Around 80 per cent of Nepal's 26.6 million people are Hindus, many deeply religious. Devotees say the marijuana smoking naked men add to the colour of the festival.
"It is a matter of understanding. It is the beauty of our culture. It is okay," said Jagannath Mahato, from Nepal's southern plains standing by Giri's side.
Norwegian tourist Marit Thomasse - who stood on the pebbles outside the Hindus-only temple watching long lines of devotees - accepted that entrance was something that should be reserved for believers alone.
"I can understand that. I have to respect the tradition."

Read more: http://www.windsorstar.com/life/Nepal+Hindu+holy+mark+religious+gathering/6182803/story.html#ixzz1oBEZfBPP

Why Weed Makes You…huh??

Scientists have long suspected that THC somehow affects the hippocampus region of the brain, the bit responsible for controlling short-term memory, but have never been able to prove it. Turns out that's because they were looking at the wrong grey matter.

A duo of researchers, Giovanni Marsicano of the University of Bordeaux, France, and Xia Zhang of the University of Ottawa Institute of Mental Health Research, have been credited with the discovery published today in the journal Cell. Previously, scientists believed that THC "loosened" synapses in the hippocampus, resulting in memory loss. But contrary to convention, the effect isn't rooted in the drug's effect on the neurons alone but also on an undiscovered reaction between THC and non-neuronal cells known as astrocytes.

Astrocytes used to be thought of simply "support" cells that helped neurons function. However, the team's research showed that these cells also produce a chemical called AMPA when they interact with THC and it's the AMPA compound that can mitigate or enhance the looseness of the neuron's synapse.

To prove the hypothesis, the team employed three types of rats with various alterations to their neurons' CB1 receptors (these receptors bind with THC and activate the cells when THC is present). The first set lacked receptors on cells that produce the neurotransmitter glutamate, the second set lacked receptors on cells that create the neurotransmitter GABA, and the third set lacked them on the AMPA-producing astrocytes. Basically, if the cells lacked this receptor, THC wouldn't affect them and they wouldn't produce the associated chemical.

The team inserted electrodes into the anesthetized rats' brains, got them blunted, and then recorded the results. The glutamate and GABA sets of rats responded in the same way that normal rats would—high as shit and terrible short-term memory. The AMPA-less rats however were unaffected.

So hey, great, they've figured out how to get rats high but not forget what they were just doing. How does that affect the average toker in the street? It's actually kind of a big deal, since science had no clue that astrocytes did much more than sit there. It opens up an entire new avenue of neuroresearch and Marsicano envisions this discovery leading to THC-derived pain-killers that don't affect working memory—think Ambien without all the pesky sleep-driving.

And for tokers looking to take advantage of this discovery—right now, before you forget—should check with their local dispensary for strains containing high concentrations of cannabidiol. A2010 study noted that strains high in it didn't produce the impairing side effect. [Nature]

source-

http://gizmodo.com/5889856/why-weed-makes-youyouhuh

Florida woman admits she burned down a tree ‘older than Jesus’

Florida woman admits she burned down a tree ‘older than Jesus’

26-year-old Floridian woman admitted to burning down one of the oldest trees in the world Tuesday afternoon.

According to WFTV, Sara Barnes was arrested after admitting she set The Senator, a 3,500 year old bald cypress tree, on fire on a mid-January night in Longwood, Florida.

Barnes, a regular drug user who was smoking meth with a friend at the time, lit the tree on fire so that she could see in the dark but could not stop it from spreading.

“I can’t believe I burned down a tree older then Jesus,” Barnes told authorities before taken into custody by police.

The Senator, which became a landmark in Longwood, was the fifth oldest tree in the world.

 WATCH: Video from WFTV, which was broadcast on February 28, 2012.