- Crazy cat ladies have psychological problems? No way. According
to a study led by Dr. Teodor Postolache, an associate professor of psychiatry at the
University of Maryland School of Medicine, the problems normally associated
with lonely women who take in dozens of stray cats and turn their home into a
giant litter box of filth and squalor are not the only mental stumbling blocks
for these individuals. In a study involving more than 45,000 women in Denmark, Postolache
and his team found found women infected with the Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii)
parasite, which is spread through contact with cat feces or eating undercooked
meat or unwashed vegetables, are at increased risk of attempting suicide. In a disturbing
bit of news, one-third of the world’s population is infected with the parasite,
which hides in cells in the brain and muscles, often without producing
symptoms. The infection, known as toxoplasmosis, has been linked to mental
illness, such as schizophrenia, and changes in behavior. “We can’t say with
certainty that T. gondii caused the women to try to kill themselves, but we did
find a predictive association between the infection and suicide attempts later
in life that warrants additional studies,” Postolache explained. Postolache is
a leading expert on suicide neuroimmunology and his is the largest ever of T.
gondii and attempted suicide and the first prospective study to document
suicide attempts that occurred after the infection was discovered. In tandem
with researchers in Denmark, Germany and Sweden, Postolache is working to
further examine the various factors in the higher suicide rates. In cats, the the
T. gondii parasite thrives in the intestines and eventually spreads to their
brain and muscles, hiding from the immune system within “cysts” inside cells.
Humans can contract the parasite hanging their infected cats’ litter boxes,
eating unwashed vegetables, drinking water from a contaminated source or by eating
undercooked or raw meat that is infested with cysts. In the study, researchers scoured
Danish health registries to determine if any women who contracted the parasite later
attempted suicide, including cases of violent suicide attempts which may have
involved guns, sharp instruments and jumping from high places. They found that women
infected with T. gondii were one and a half times more likely to attempt
suicide compared to those who were not infected. However, the study did not
filter out other possible causes of the suicidal behavior, so maybe crazy cat
ladies are simply crazy for other reasons……….
- Central Florida basketball player Marcus Jordan will never
be as great as his father and that is a reality he has lived with his entire life.
But just because the son of former NBA great Michael Jordan can’t live up to
his old man’s standards on the court doesn’t mean he has to turn his life into
a train wreck away from it. That’s exactly what Marcus Jordan seems intent on
doing and his latest misstep came when he was arrested in Omaha early Sunday
following a disturbance outside a downtown hotel. Police responded to a call at
the Embassy Suites and found hotel security trying to subdue Jordan, who was
engaged in an argument with two women in the hotel driveway at 2:11 a.m.
Amazingly enough, he was also drunk off his ass. People who are belligerent and
disorderly in a public place at 2 a.m. are never, ever drunk. A police report
said Jordan was "very animated, intoxicated and uncooperative," and
it took multiple officers to control and handcuff him.
Sadly, he was
not on the receiving end of a Taser blast, which really would have made it an
entertaining story. He was booked at the Douglas County Department of Corrections
for resisting arrest, disorderly conduct and obstructing and released a few
hours later. The arrest comes on the heels of a recent Twitter slip-up in which
Jordan tweeted out to a porn star about paying her for sex, apparently not
understanding the difference between a tweet that can be seen by the world and
a direct message, which can be seen only by the recipient. Ironically, Jordan
has been a rising star on the court and averaged 13.7 points for UCF last
season, even as his personal life is coming off the rails……….
- Eating pizza that tastes like cardboard and playing in a
grossly unsanitary pit of large plastic balls that hundreds of children have
dragged their germs into is about to get a lot cooler. Chuck E. Cheese, a national franchise
operation of more than 500 pizza restaurants, is ditching its longtime cartoon
mascot in favor of something cooler. The giant rodent's outdated likeness and the
man who voiced its character for nearly two decades are out and CEC
Entertainment Inc. launched a national ad campaign Thursday with a revamped
image of Chuck E. Cheese as a hip, electric-guitar-playing rock star. The
original Chuck E. Cheese, now 35 years old, was a New Jersey rat who sometimes
carried a cigar. He is now a cartoon mouse playing a guitar and will be voiced
by the hacky, faux-punk/pop stylings of Jaret Reddick, the lead singer for the
pop-punk bank Bowling for Soup. CEC Entertainment, based in Irving, Texas, is
struggling mightily to convince the public to come in and enjoy its games,
prizes and a musical variety show featuring creepy, oversized robotic puppets.
Revenue at its locations open at least a year fell 4.2 percent in the first
quarter. Duncan Brannan, the man who had voiced Chuck E. Cheese in restaurants
and commercials since 1993, didn’t exactly get a heads-up that he was being
replaced. In fact, he learned of his firing as the voice of the mascot only
after coming across "Chuck's Hot New Single" online and realizing it
was sung by someone else. CEC Entertainment went with some true corporate
bullsh*t in explaining Brannan’s status with the company, insisting he wasn't
fired but that it simply "chose to utilize new voice talent" and
saying he is still in contract with the company to provide entertainment in its
restaurants. Whatever you say, cardboard pizza servers………
- For a change of pace, how about the world being pissed at
South Korea instead of the Communist hellhole at the northern end of the Korean
Peninsula? The South is drawing the ire of environmental groups around the
Pacific Rim for its plan to begin scientific whaling. The plan was quickly
condemned by the Australian Greens, an envrionmental group lobbying for
diplomatic pressure on South Korea for its decision. Australian Greens
spokesman Greg Hunt labeled the plan a complete surprise and a deep
disappointment. "The world is moving away from whaling, this is a practice
of the past," Hunt said. “We would roundly reject this and I think this is
an area where there could be very strong bipartisan support in Australia to
oppose the push for a renewal of whaling by South Korea.” Hunt believes
Australia and other countries in the region can band together to stop South
Korea from starting its new hobby. "I would hope that the Australian
government is talking with the South Koreans today," he said. There should
be no delay. There should be no half messages. What we need is complete clarity
that this is an unacceptable practice and it's a negative step." Kang
Joon-Suk, the South Korean delegate to an International Whaling Commission
(IWC) gathering in Panama, announced the plan to conduct whaling for scientific
research. Non-lethal sighting surveys were rejected as insufficient. Commerical
fishermen in South Korean waters have complained about minke whales causing
problems for their operations and have asked the government to address the
problem. "This is because they are experiencing disturbances in their
fishing activities due to frequent occurrences of cetaceans in their fishing
grounds and an increasing number of minke whales are eating away large amount
of fish stocks which should be consumed by human being (sic)," Kang said. Environmental
experts expect South Korea to target minke whales in the Sea of Japan, which
Koreans call the East Sea. The IWC has imposed a moratorium on commercial
whaling since 1986, but Japan has exploited a loophole in the ruling that
allows the killing of whales for scientific research and now South Korea wants
to follow suit. Australia, New Zealand and other anti-whaling nations objected
to the plan and South Korean officials refused to promise anything more than hearing
their concerns. Time to swim for safer waters, Sea of Japan whales……..
- What has nine arms, rocks and is planning to re-record its
entire
back catalogue? Classic ‘80s rockers Def Leppard, that’s who. For those who
aren't fans of classic rock, the nine-arms joke is commonly made by classless
a-holes as a shot at Rick Allen, the band’s drummer who lost an arm in a car
accident but continued to drum with a modified set. Modification is on the
minds of Def Leppard at the moment, as the band wants to re-do their back
catalog following a disagreement with their one-time record label Universal
over royalties and compensation for digital downloads. Frontman Joe Elliott
said that the disagreement has led to the band deciding to phase out their
recordings for Universal and swap them out for an all-new collection of the
same songs, which the band is “forgeries.” "We'll just replace our back
catalogue with brand new, exact same versions of what we did," Elliott
said. Def Leppard’s music has never veered far from the public consciousness on
account of 1987's “Pour Some Sugar on Me” being the classic stripper anthem for
as long as it has existed. The band re-recorded the song for the bomb-tastic
movie musical “Rock of Ages,” starring the newly-divorced Tom Cruise, and
Elliott explained that re-recording the rest of the songs was merely a matter
of grabbing for more cash, er, um, having them in fans’ hands as soon as
possible. "We just wanted studio versions of those songs available for
this summer,” Elliott said. "You just don't go in and say: 'Hey guys,
let's record it,' and it's done in three minutes... Where am I gonna find a
22-year-old voice? I had to sing myself into a certain throat shape to be able
to sing that way again. It was really hard work, but we did have a good laugh
over it here and there.” With the re-done Def Lep classics on
the way, mulleted dudes everywhere can climb into their totally bitchin’
Camaro, rock their fanny pack and proudly roll in their neon-green sunglasses
to celebrate………..
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