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Texas Study Finds Couple of Drinks Can Help Memory

Older women who have a drink or two a day have better memory skills than non-drinkers, University of Texas researchers said on Wednesday.

"Moderate drinkers reported less depression, had higher self-reported health, performed better on instrumental everyday tasks ... and (had) improved memory performance," Dr. Graham McDougall, associate professor of nursing at the university, said in a statement.

The five-year survey, which began in 2001, is looking at men and women with an average age 75 in central Texas.

As part of the study, a group of women were asked to remember items such as a story, the placement of hidden objects, future intentions and connecting random numbers and letters.

Those who drank alcohol in moderation did better on the tests than those who did not drink at all, according to the study.

"In addition to their actual performance on tests, the confidence of those who drank was higher and they used more strategies to facilitate memory," McDougall said.

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A primer for the debates

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Top Tips for Poetry Readers, by Simon Armitage

taken from ytterbius

Wedge Issues Play Big Part in U.S. Campaign

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Plan Would Let U.S. Deport Suspects To Nations That Might Torture Them

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Judge Blocks U.S. From Secret Searches

Declaring that personal security is as important as national security, a judge Wednesday blocked the government from conducting secret, unchallengeable searches of Internet and telephone records as part of its fight against terrorism.

The American Civil Liberties Union called the ruling a "landmark victory" against the Justice Department's post-Sept. 11 law enforcement powers.

"Today's ruling is a wholesale refutation of excessive government secrecy and unchecked executive power," said ACLU attorney Jameel Jaffer.

U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero struck down a provision of the Patriot Act that authorizes the FBI to force Internet service providers and phone companies to turn over certain customer records. The companies are then barred from ever disclosing the search took place.

In his ruling, the judge called national security of "paramount value" and said the government "must be empowered to respond promptly and effectively" to threats. But he called personal security equal in importance and "especially prized in our system of justice."

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Maryland Man Indicted on Ricin Charges

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Judge rebuked for encouraging lying

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Global Warming Is Expected to Raise Hurricane Intensity

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A guy from MoveOn.org called last night and invited me to a meeting they're having in Ann Arbor tonight. They're trying to get people organized for a voter registration drive, and I live in one of the precincts they're hoping to focus on. I asked the guy if they were going to watch the debate afterward, and he said there would be various "house parties" for just that purpose, and that I'd be welcome to attend any of those.

Anyone interested in attending the meeting? It starts at 7:00 p.m.

found in feminist

This episode is one of the many contradictions in [Andrea] Dworkin's life. Another is her friendship with the poet and gay liberationist Allen Ginsberg. "To me he was like a god," she says. "I plucked up the courage to visit him after we met at an event. He told me over and over again as I was leaving, 'I love you, I love you.' It was very strange."

Dworkin and Ginsberg ended up sharing a godson. In Heartbreak, she describes the confrontation that turned them into sworn enemies. On the day of their godson's barmitzvah, child pornography was criminalised by the supreme court. Dworkin was delighted, but knew that Ginsberg had problems with the legislation.

"Ginsberg told me he had never met an intelligent person who had the ideas I did," she writes. "I told him he didn't get around enough. He said, 'The right wants to put me in jail.' I said, 'Yes, they're very sentimental; I'd kill you.'" When I repeat this story to her, she chuckles, and says in her slow, throaty way, "Oh good, I love that. Don't worry, you can print it now, he is very dead." (Ginsberg died in 1997).

A life without compromise

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Check out this post in philosophy.

via xterminal

Connie Rice: Top 10 Secrets They Don't Want You to Know About the Debates

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House Ethics Committee Criticizes DeLay

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Hands down, Kerry won.

That audible gasp.