Credit: splitsider.com
Modern life can feel defined by low-level anxiety swirling through society: continual reports about terrorism and war; a struggle to stay on top of family finances and hold onto jobs. At the heart of issues like these lies uncertainty – the unknown likelihood of how ongoing crises will evolve over time.
Worries Knocking on the Door
When unpredictability or uncertainty [3] prods us to consider the prospect of a bleak future, it fuels a state of apprehension that scientists study in the form of anxiety. Anxiety sits along a continuum of defensive behaviors we use when threats are somewhat remote from our current experience. It’s less extreme than the full-on fear elicited by direct, acute situations like an immediate physical attack.
Anxiety triggers the release of stress hormones and reorganizes our priorities to prepare for a future threat. Cognitive effects include repetitive worries, hyper-vigilant scanning for signs of trouble in the environment, and attentional and memory biases toward threat-related material.
In our age of terrorism, for instance, people worry about flying. When they do fly, people are […]
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Thursday, November 27th, 2014
Gina McCarthy, EPA Admninistrator - CNN
Stephan: This is some excellent news. This makes my day, and will strongly effect our future.
Emissions from a power plant in Kentucky. The sweeping regulation will aim at smog from power plants and factories across the country.
Credit Luke Sharrett for The New York Time
For 44 years, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has defended the American people’s right to breathe clean air by setting national air quality standards for common air pollutants.
Successful public health protection depends on the latest science. Think of it this way: If your doctor wasn’t using the latest medical science, you’d be worried you weren’t getting the best care.
That’s why the Clean Air Act requires EPA to update air quality standards every five years, to ensure standards “protect public health with an adequate margin of safety” based on the latest scientific evidence.
So today, following science and the law, I am proposing to update national ozone pollution standards to clean up our air, […]
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Thursday, November 27th, 2014
Alex Halperin, - Fast Company
Stephan: This is what I feared would happen. A few large players would through influencing the government come to control marijuana. Marijuana should be thought of like wine, a product growing from a living plant, not a pharmaceutical model. This is not a happy trend.
Marijuana Shop
Credit: www.tokeofthetown.com
A 46-year-old mother of three, Dooley is the cofounder and president of Julie’s Baked Goods, a purveyor of cannabis-infused snacks. She has celiac disease and wanted to create gluten-free products that would relieve her pain without damaging her intestine. Dooley’s Denver company released its first product, granola mixed with cranberries and almonds, in 2010 and now sells about 6,000 units a month, employing 11 people.
Even in Colorado, where medical and recreational marijuana are both legal, the cannabis business involves its share of hassles. Initially, Dooley’s license cost $1,250 and required a 25-page application. Renewing it, she said, cost more than twice that and required investing about $25,000 in the company’s kitchen, including a security system with 24-hour video surveillance. She wouldn’t have a business today if her husband weren’t a manufacturing specialist, she says.
As hard as she’s worked, Dooley’s experience has been relatively easy for a medical marijuana business in this country. Marijuana remains illegal federally, which leaves every state which allows the product to figure out its own regulations. […]
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