Night Owl Blogging

Those who thrive on little sleep may have rare genetic mutation: study

UN: Israel had 'impunity' in Gaza
"Significant prima facie evidence indicates that serious violations of international humanitarian law as well as gross human rights violations occurred during the military operations of 27 December 2008 to 18 January 2009, which were compounded by the blockade that the population of Gaza endured in the months prior to Operation Cast Lead and which continues.
At least 1,400 Palestinians were killed during Israel's 22-day offensive on Gaza, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights says.
Rights violations included torture, extra-judicial execution, forced eviction, arbitrary detention, home demolition and other violence and restrictions on freedom of movement and expression.

Chinese learn credit card perils the hard way

In the past two years, banks have blindly issued credit cards," said Nie Junfeng, an expert on personal debt at CITIC Bank, the country's seventh-largest lender.

"The bubble has started to form and the risks rooted in false application information and low-income customers are beginning to emerge," Nie said.

China's banking watchdog, the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC), told banks in July not to offer gifts to new credit card holders, set quotas for their sales staff, and perhaps most importantly, not to issue cards to people under 18.

The regulator's admonition followed the disclosure by the People's Bank of China that 4.97 billion yuan of credit card payments were at least 60 days late in the first six months of 2009, a jump of 133.1 percent from a year earlier.

( This scenario looks like a clone of the U.S. bank bubble. Funny about that.)

FDA OKs New Schizophrenia, Bipolar Drug

The FDA has approved a new drug called Saphris to treat schizophrenia and bipolar I disorder in adults.
All atypical antipsychotic drugs carry a "black box" warning, the FDA's sternest warning, alerting prescribers about an increased risk of death associated with off-label use of these drugs to treat behavioral problems in older people with dementia-related psychosis. Saphris isn't approved for those patients.

U.S. tests system to break foreign Web censorship

The U.S. government is covertly testing technology in China and Iran that lets residents break through screens set up by their governments to limit access to news on the Internet.

The "feed over email" (FOE) system delivers news, podcasts and data via technology that evades web-screening protocols of restrictive regimes, said Ken Berman, head of IT at the U.S. government's Broadcasting Board of Governors, which is testing the system.

ASPCA Asks Court to Direct Helmsley Money Back to Dogs
Invisible doorways or portals a step closer to reality, claim scientists

Global Warming - Facts and Solution!