via renwick

Morphine Apparently in Your Head

Several persistent researchers finally have proof for a theory they have held for more than a decade, despite dissent from the larger scientific community: Morphine occurs naturally in the human brain.

Most scientists have been skeptical of the claim, saying previously studied samples were likely contaminated with morphine molecules. But a paper published in the Sept. 21 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences seems to put the question to rest.

Meinhart Zenk and his colleagues at Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg in Germany found that human cells grown in a dish synthesized morphine.

"Without doubt, human cells can produce the alkaloid morphine," Zenk wrote in the paper. "The studies presented here serve as a platform for the exploration of the function of 'endogenous morphine' in the neurosciences and immunosciences."

found in feminist

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Dr. Tom Coburn in a radio interview this week said he's performed "lots" of sterilizations on underage women during emergency situations.

Coburn, a physician, has fielded questions for several days about a lawsuit where an Oklahoma woman accused him of sterilizing her without her consent. Angela Plummer was 20 at the time of the 1990 procedure.

Coburn was asked if the situation could happen or had happened with other women.

"I've done this lots to women who have come in for emergency things, who have asked me to sterilize them, under age, when they, when they've already had three babies," Coburn said, according to the radio interview recording and transcript of a KRMG 740 AM interview with radio host John Erling.

His comments drew fire from Democrats on Thursday.

Democratic State Party Chairman Jay Parmley said Coburn, who has repeatedly said he had verbal consent from Plummer for the sterilization, should explain his comments in more detail.

"He needs to tell us how many underage women he has sterilized," Parmley said.


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Cheney To Speak At Coburn Fund-Raiser

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Some people think the first war Americans lost was the Vietnam war.

They're wrong. It was the Civil War that was lost. Not the fighting itself, though that was a horror I couldn't imagine. No, it was the inability to reconstruct the South. If that had gone forward, wow. I can only imagine what kind of world we'd live in today.

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"The diamonds are the remains of our ancestors."

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I borrowed a copy of Rumi's poetry from Anne last Wednesday.

Emily Dickinson said that what takes the roof off her skull, that was poetry.

Rumi's stuff does that to me.

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During his Monday night appearance on David Letterman, Kerry said that during the debates, "George Bush is gonna sit on Dick Cheney's lap," an apparent reference to the widespread Democratic belief that the vice president is the ventriloquist/puppeteer and Bush is the dummy. (At least, I hope that was the reference.)

Great Expectations: Why is Kerry disparaging Bush before their first debate?

If only Americans read British newspapers....

How Bush's grandfather helped Hitler's rise to power

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Scientists Find Diagnoses of 'X-Ray' girl hard to stomach

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So, what is spyware?