Q. What causes hot flashes in menopausal women? A. ‘It is truly amazing that although these feelings of intense heat, often followed by sweating, have been described in the medical literature since the 17th century, we still do not know the actual cause, said Dr. Lila E. Nachtigall, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the New York University School of Medicine and an expert on menopause. What is known, Dr. Nachtigall said, is that the flashes, also known as hot flushes, almost always occur as the estrogen production from the ovaries is decreasing or when estrogen is no longer produced at all. ‘Yet careful research has shown that the specific level of estrogen is not what causes flushes, she said, and estrogen levels do not differ between women who have severe flushes at menopause and women who have none. ‘What seems to make the difference, she said, ‘is the number of estrogen receptors in an area of the brain called the hypothalamus. When these receptors are not satisfied, they give off a substance that researchers are calling brain norepinephrine. This substance has not yet been isolated, but it seems to be similar to epinephrine made […]
WASHINGTON — The nation’s top military officer told Congress Tuesday that gay men and lesbians should be allowed to serve openly in the military, the strongest endorsement ever by the nation’s military leadership for overturning the law that excludes them from the U.S. Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen called repeal of the ban ‘the right thing to do.’ ‘No matter how I look at the issue, I cannot escape being troubled by the fact that we have in place a policy which forces young men and women to lie about who they are in order to defend their fellow citizens,’ Mullen told the Senate Armed Services Committee. Mullen’s testimony drew angry responses from most of the committee’s Republicans, in contrast to the deference they’d shown Mullen and Defense Secretary Robert Gates in a morning session on the Pentagon’s budget, where the Republicans declared the men two of the nation’s finest public servants. Sen. John McCain of Arizona spelled out his objections to repealing the law, calling the current policy imperfect but effective, despite having said four years ago that he’d defer to the wishes […]
With Oscar season in full swing Hollywood is on tenterhooks to see which films will triumph on the industry’s glitziest night of the year. But away from the ‘gifting suites’ and parties ahead of next month’s main event, Hollywood studio executives, financiers and producers are closely following two auction processes that could be better barometers of the industry’s financial health. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the studio behind Gone With The Wind and The Wizard Of Oz is on the auction block, as is Miramax, the company behind Pulp Fiction and Shakespeare In Love, which is now part of Walt Disney. MGM owns the biggest film library in Hollywood with 4,000 titles but is up for sale after a failed attempt to relaunch the studio as a production force. Disney, meanwhile, is selling its 700-title Miramax library after deciding to focus on family fare and its branded divisions, such as Pixar and Marvel. Both sales will test the value of film content at a time when the film and television industries are in severe flux. Pay-TV operators such as Showtime, which is part of CBS, are spending less on buying films and investing more in original programming, while revenues from […]
Scientists in Germany have discovered a way of making adhesives used in construction more heat-resistant. More buildings held together with glue may be the result. Heat-resistant adhesives are permitting new forms of construction. Scientists at the Fraunhofer Institute for Wood Research in Braunschweig, northern Germany, have developed a way to harden adhesives that will permit construction work to continue on the Metropol Parasol in Seville, Spain, a planned group of mushroom-shaped buildings by Berlin architect J Mayer H to be be erected as an attraction in the city’s Plaza de la Encarnacion square. Load-bearing elements are to be attached to each other with adhesives rather than with screws, but the adhesive intended for the task only worked up to temperatures of 60 degrees Celsius, which caused concern that the structures might come apart in the searing heat of the Spanish sun. The Braunschweig-based researchers have suggested making the adhesive more heat-resistant through a process known as ‘tempering’. ‘Once the construction components have been glued together they are reheated – and that leads to a hardening reaction,’ says construction technology expert Dirk Kruse. The researchers believe that will enable the glue to retain its adhesive power up […]
A new Research 2000 poll of more than 2,000 Republicans, conducted for the liberal blog Daily Kos, has some eyebrow-raising findings: — 63% of them believe President Obama is a socialist — 53% believe Sarah Palin is more qualified to be president than Obama is — 39% believe he should be impeached — 36% believe he wasn’t born in the United States — 31% believe the president hates white people — 24% believe the president wants the terrorists to win — 23% believe their state should secede from the union The poll was conducted Jan. 20-31, and it has a margin of error of +/- 2%.
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
