Gaza border incidents kill 4 Hamas militants

Israeli soldiers are seen near the border between Israel and Gaza, early Friday, Nov. 1, 2013. Gaza officials say Israeli tank fire has killed a Palestinian militant. Gaza health ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Kidra says the militant was killed late Thursday by Israeli tank fire. The Israeli military says it is engaged in a defensive pinpoint operation against a recently uncovered smuggling tunnel from Gaza into Israel. (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov)

Israeli soldiers are seen near the border between Israel and Gaza, early Friday, Nov. 1, 2013. Gaza officials say Israeli tank fire has killed a Palestinian militant. Gaza health ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Kidra says the militant was killed late Thursday by Israeli tank fire. The Israeli military says it is engaged in a defensive pinpoint operation against a recently uncovered smuggling tunnel from Gaza into Israel. (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov)

Israeli soldiers are seen near the border between Israel and Gaza, early Friday, Nov. 1, 2013. Gaza officials say Israeli tank fire has killed a Palestinian militant. Gaza health ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Kidra says the militant was killed late Thursday by Israeli tank fire. The Israeli military says it is engaged in a defensive pinpoint operation against a recently uncovered smuggling tunnel from Gaza into Israel. (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov)

Israeli soldiers are seen near the border between Israel and Gaza, early Friday, Nov. 1, 2013. Gaza officials say Israeli tank fire has killed a Palestinian militant. Gaza health ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Kidra says the militant was killed late Thursday by Israeli tank fire. The Israeli military says it is engaged in a defensive pinpoint operation against a recently uncovered smuggling tunnel from Gaza into Israel. (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov)

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli aircraft bombed what the military described as a "terror tunnel" used by Hamas in Gaza and the militant Palestinian group said three of its fighters were killed in the strike early Friday.

The military said it carried out the strike after five of its soldiers were wounded as they tried to demolish another tunnel used by Gaza's Hamas rulers. That incident drew Israeli fire that killed one Hamas militant.

The soldiers were blowing up the infrastructure of a recently discovered tunnel dug in Gaza that stretched into Israel when an explosive device was detonated late Thursday, wounding the troops and drawing Israeli fire, the military said.

Gaza health ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Kidra said one Palestinian was killed by the Israeli tank fire and Hamas confirmed the man belonged to the militant group.

"During the operation, Hamas detonated an explosive device at the forces, wounding five Israeli soldiers," said a military statement. "The soldiers were evacuated to an Israeli hospital. In an immediate response the soldiers opened fire and directly hit a terrorist."

The military announced last month that it had discovered the concrete-lined, mile-long tunnel dug from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip into Israel.

"The defensive operation was aimed at preventing future terror attacks, utilizing the existing infrastructure leading to Israel," the military said. "The opening of the tunnel was discovered near Israeli civilian communities."

Hamas has dug tunnels into Israel in the past. In 2006, Hamas-allied militants sneaked into Israel through one such tunnel, killed two Israeli soldiers and kidnapped a third, holding him hostage in Gaza for five years.

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri "blessed" the latest attacks saying his group "gave a painful lesson" to Israel.

"Gaza will be the land of hell" for Israel, he said on Friday.

Israel and Hamas are bitter enemies. Hamas does not recognize Israel's right to exist, and since it took power in the Gaza Strip, thousands of rockets have been fired at Israeli communities.

Israel carried out major military operations in 2009 and last year in Gaza in response to the rocket fire.

While various militant groups operate in Gaza, Israel says it holds Hamas responsible. The sides largely have observed a cease-fire since last November.

Hamas has ruled Gaza since 2007 after ousting the rival secular Palestinian Fatah group in bloody street fighting. Fatah and the Palestinian Authority, led by Abbas, now govern part of the West Bank only.

After the Hamas takeover, Israel and Egypt imposed a blockade on the coastal territory. Israel has eased the blockade in recent years, but still restricts the imports of some goods into Gaza.

Since the summer, Egypt's military has tried to destroy or seal off most of the smuggling tunnels under its side of the border with Gaza, and accused Hamas of fomenting unrest in Egypt.

The move followed the popularly-backed coup that ousted Egypt's President Mohammed Morsi, from the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood group, a parent organization of Hamas.

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-11-01-Israel-Palestinians/id-90e915f765144cedb07bc8c72fdd812a
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Behind the Blue Veil: Film Review

The Bottom Line

This powerful if scattershot documentary sheds valuable light on its little-known subject.

The Tuareg people of Mali don’t have it easy these days. These nomadic tribesmen, who have lived in the Sahara region for over 2,000 years, are currently beset by such crises as severe poverty, a lack of food, water and medicine, and political pressures that threaten to drive them from existence. Their travails are movingly conveyed in Robyn Simon’s (Transformation: The Life & Legacy of Werner Erhard) documentary Behind the Blue Veil, the title of which stems from the trademark blue robes worn by the people dye their skin blue over time.

The film’s central figure is Mamatel, the son of a Tuareg chief who works as a music promoter in the capital city of Bamako. This charismatic, articulate figure serves as the viewer’s guide to the culture of the “blue people of the Sahara,” who are fighting for independence from the repressive government even as Al Qaeda militants threaten to overcome the region.

Commentary by Mamatel and various scholars and academics testify to the fact that that the Tuareg are a matriarchal, monogamous society with a rich cultural heritage that is seemingly on the verge of extinction. Among the other figures profiled in the film is twelve-year-old Salah, who seeks an education in Timbuktu, a city facing severe economic pressures due to its dangerously volatile conditions that has made it off limits to tourists.

The film is more impressionistic than informative, lacking the necessary dramatic structure to make it truly compelling. But it well succeeds in its goal of shedding light on these little-known indigenous people, even if at times it more resembles a National Geographic pictorial essay than a fully realized documentary.

Opens: Friday, Nov. 1 (Symon Productions)

Director/producer/editor: Robyn Simon

Executive producers: Linda Simon, James L. Foght, Martha Foght, CA Danella Foundation

Composer: Miriam Cutler

Not rated, 62 min.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/thr/reviews/film/~3/P8G1WhQ-M8Q/behind-blue-veil-film-review-652156
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Direct link established between stimulus-response learning and substance abuse

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

31-Oct-2013

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Contact: Marie france Coutu
marie-france.coutu@douglas.mcgill.ca
514-835-3236
Douglas Mental Health University Institute

Findings from Douglas Institute neuroscientist

Vronique Bohbot, PhD, neuroscientist at the Douglas Mental Health University Institute, found that the region of the brain involved in stimulus-response learning is directly linked to the consumption of alcohol, tobacco and drugs. More specifically, she discovered that people who resorted to stimulus-response learning smoked more, had double the consumption of alcohol and were more likely to use cannabis. Her findings have been published in the most recent issue of Hippocampus.

We rely on one of two strategies to navigate through our surroundings. One is called the spatial strategy, where we use visual cues and landmarks to develop cognitive maps that enable us to know where we are and how to get where we want to go. This process occurs in the hippocampus. The other is the stimulus-response strategy, which is a kind of auto-pilot: after travelling along the same route on a regular basis, we end up taking it out of habit. This process occurs in the striatum.

People who resort to stimulus-response learning have a more developed striatum and would consume more alcohol, tobacco or drugs. Factors such as routine, stress and reward-seeking behaviour also contribute to stimulating the striatum, at the expense of the hippocampus. "The literature indicates that children engage in stimulus-response strategies from a very young age," Vronique Bohbot explains. "Reward-seeking behavior in childhood, especially for immediate rewards like candy or playing action video games, stimulates the striatum and encourages stimulus-response strategies during navigation. This would predispose the child to drug seeking behaviour."

Previous studies have shown that an atrophied hippocampus increases the risk of developing a mental illness such as schizophrenia, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder or Alzheimer's disease.

Vronique Bohbot will present her research results on November 13 at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in San Diego, where she will talk about the importance of improving spatial navigation skills to maintain a balance and increase chances of a healthy cognition.

###

Link to Dr. Bohbot's published study: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/hipo.22187/abstract

Vido: http://www.douglas.qc.ca/videos/243

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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

31-Oct-2013

[


| E-mail

]


Share

Contact: Marie france Coutu
marie-france.coutu@douglas.mcgill.ca
514-835-3236
Douglas Mental Health University Institute

Findings from Douglas Institute neuroscientist

Vronique Bohbot, PhD, neuroscientist at the Douglas Mental Health University Institute, found that the region of the brain involved in stimulus-response learning is directly linked to the consumption of alcohol, tobacco and drugs. More specifically, she discovered that people who resorted to stimulus-response learning smoked more, had double the consumption of alcohol and were more likely to use cannabis. Her findings have been published in the most recent issue of Hippocampus.

We rely on one of two strategies to navigate through our surroundings. One is called the spatial strategy, where we use visual cues and landmarks to develop cognitive maps that enable us to know where we are and how to get where we want to go. This process occurs in the hippocampus. The other is the stimulus-response strategy, which is a kind of auto-pilot: after travelling along the same route on a regular basis, we end up taking it out of habit. This process occurs in the striatum.

People who resort to stimulus-response learning have a more developed striatum and would consume more alcohol, tobacco or drugs. Factors such as routine, stress and reward-seeking behaviour also contribute to stimulating the striatum, at the expense of the hippocampus. "The literature indicates that children engage in stimulus-response strategies from a very young age," Vronique Bohbot explains. "Reward-seeking behavior in childhood, especially for immediate rewards like candy or playing action video games, stimulates the striatum and encourages stimulus-response strategies during navigation. This would predispose the child to drug seeking behaviour."

Previous studies have shown that an atrophied hippocampus increases the risk of developing a mental illness such as schizophrenia, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder or Alzheimer's disease.

Vronique Bohbot will present her research results on November 13 at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in San Diego, where she will talk about the importance of improving spatial navigation skills to maintain a balance and increase chances of a healthy cognition.

###

Link to Dr. Bohbot's published study: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/hipo.22187/abstract

Vido: http://www.douglas.qc.ca/videos/243

---

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| E-mail


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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-10/dmhu-dle103113.php
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Appeals Court Gives Texas OK To Enforce Abortion Law

A federal appeals court has granted a Texas request to reinstate restrictions on abortion providers after a lower court blocked the state from fully implementing the new law.

The stay follows a ruling by District Judge Lee Yeakel on Monday — a day before the law was to have gone into effect. It requires doctors performing abortions to have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of the clinics they practice in.

Yeakel said the provision was unconstitutional and presented an undue burden on women seeking abortions.

But Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott quickly appealed for a stay to allow the law to go forward. On Thursday, a panel of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals granted his request.

The appeals court said Yeakel's ruling focused on emergency room treatment of women experiencing complications following an abortion, which it said "overlooks substantial interests of the State in regulating the medical profession and the State's interest in 'protecting the integrity and ethics of the medical profession.' "

The Associated Press says:

"In its 20-page ruling, the appeals court panel acknowledged that the provision 'may increase the cost of accessing an abortion provider and decrease the number of physicians available to perform abortions.' However, the panel said that the U.S. Supreme Court has held that having 'the incidental effect of making it more difficult or more expensive to procure an abortion cannot be enough to invalidate' a law that serves a valid purpose, 'one not designed to strike at the right itself.'

"The panel left in place a portion of Yeakel's order that prevents the state from enforcing the U.S. Food and Drug Administration protocol for abortion-inducing drugs in cases where the woman is between 50 and 63 days into her pregnancy. Doctors testifying before the court had said such women would be harmed if the protocol were enforced."

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/10/31/242196362/appeals-court-gives-texas-ok-to-enforce-abortion-law?ft=1&f=1001
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It's Easy To Clean Under This Levitating Bed

Scientists claim there are no black holes close enough to harm our solar system. But they're clearly not acknowledging the black holes that exist under every bed, sucking in and trapping dropped items, random clothing, and seemingly every last speck of dust in a room. There's a solution, though, in the form of Letti Bolzan's clever Iorca bed, which lifts your mattress to turn that under-bed void into tons of easily accessible storage space.

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Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/G93xijqZWZw/its-easy-to-clean-under-this-levitating-bed-1455929413
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Kim Kardashian, Kanye West Sue YouTube Co-Founder Chad Hurley for Allegedly Leaking Proposal Video

Kim Kardashian is used to living her life on camera -- but some things aren't meant for public viewing. Among them? Kanye West's marriage proposal to her on Oct. 21. Now, the reality star and her fiance are suing YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley for allegedly leaking video of the romantic moment, TMZ reports.

PHOTOS: Kimye's sweetest moments

According to the site, Kardashian and West claim in the lawsuit that Hurley schemed to post the video of the proposal on his new site, MixBit. They also allege that the tech-savvy entrepreneur wasn't invited to the celebration at AT&T Park but somehow found a way in anyway.

PHOTOS: Kimye, the perfect match

Per TMZ, Hurley signed a confidentiality agreement, which he reportedly broke by posting the video of the proposal on MixBit and then tweeting it out to his followers. He also allegedly issued a press release on the clip.

PHOTOS: Stars at court

"Hurley proceeded to try to turn the event into one starring himself, broadcasting the images he knew were the exclusive property rights of someone else," the site quotes the lawsuit as saying.

TMZ reports that Kardashian and West suing for unspecified damages. The lawsuit doesn't say how much the video is worth, but it does note that the footage was supposed to go to MC Cable Television.

Source: http://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/kim-kardashian-kanye-west-sue-youtube-co-founder-chad-hurley-for-allegedly-leaking-proposal-video-20133110
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Show Us Your Most Spooktacular Halloween Costumes

Tonight millions of kid kids and grownup kids will dress up as all kinds of things. I for, one, am going with a group of friends as Muppets with a disco twist. What are you dressing up as?

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Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/2wniRs8gJmo/show-us-your-most-spooktacular-halloween-costumes-1456136718
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