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Making Unique Observations in a Very Cluttered World

Thursday 14 March 2013

Are babies born bullies? Study shows infants learn social stratification as early as nine months -


Are babies born bullies? Study shows infants learn social stratification as early as nine months - 


Babies today are all about blankies, bottles and … bullying?

A new University of British Columbia study done by the Centre for Infant Cognition suggests nap time may be the new frontier in the war on bullying.

Bullied children may bring exclusion on themselves with gene-linked behaviour, study says

The episodes of bullying that mar early grade school years for hundreds of children may be a partial result of the victim’s DNA, a new study suggested Wednesday.

The behaviours that most often lead to exclusion and victimization in the classroom or schoolyard have their roots in a student’s genes, the study said, arguing that children’s genetic makeup has a direct impact on the quality of the interactions they enjoy with their peers.

The findings were published on the website of the journal Child Development.

Michel Boivin, lead researcher and psychology professor at Laval University, said a child’s genes will often dictate the way they act, which will in turn shape their experiences both in and out of the classroom.
In experiments conducted by UBC psychology professor Kiley Hamlin, babies aged nine to 14 months were found to take pleasure in the bullying of individuals they saw as different from themselves.

The study, in a terrifying preview of the social minefield that is the high school cafeteria, offered the infants a choice between a snack of graham crackers or green beans. The children were then shown a video of two puppets. In the video, one puppet favoured the same snack as the child while the other puppet made a food faux pas by choosing the snack the child had passed on.

The children, when asked which of the puppets was their favourite, selected the puppet with similar tastes.

The experiment takes a slightly sinister turn when the children are shown videos of the puppets bullying each other. Not only did the children not mind when their favourite puppet picked on the puppet who chose differently from them, they also showed favouritism to new puppets who bullied the puppet that liked different snacks from the infant.

Read more -
http://life.nationalpost.com/2013/03/14/are-babies-born-bullies-ubc-study-shows-infants-learn-social-stratification-as-early-as-nine-months/

25 disturbing facts about psych drugs, soldiers and suicides -


25 disturbing facts about psych drugs, soldiers and suicides - 

We are living in an age of upside-downs, where right is wrong, fiction is truth and war is peace. Those who fight the wars are subjected to their own house of mirrors via pharmaceutical “treatments.” Instead of providing U.S. soldiers and veterans with actual health care, the government throws pills at them and calls it “therapy.”

Stimulants, antidepressants, anti-psychotics, sedatives and pain meds are the new “fuel” for America’s front-line forces. While the idea of sending medicated soldiers into battle was unthinkable just three decades ago, today it’s the status quo. And the cost in human lives has never been more tragic.

Here are 25 disturbing facts about psych drugs, soldiers and suicides. They are disturbing because everybody seems to be pretending there is no link between psychiatric drugs and soldier suicides. So soldiers and veterans keep dying while the Pentagon (and the VA) keep pretending they don’t know why. (Sources are listed at the bottom of this article.)

1) 33% of the U.S. Army is on prescription medications, and nearly a quarter of those are on psychotropic drugs

2) In 2010, the Pentagon spent $280 million on psychiatric drugs. That number has since risen.

3) There are now over 8,000 suicides each year by U.S. soldiers and veterans; that’s over 22 a day

4) 33% of those suicides are attributed to medication side effects

5) That means medications are killing more U.S. soldiers and veterans than Al-Qaeda

6) 500% more soldiers abuse prescription drugs than illegal street drugs

7) Under the Obama administration, the number of veterans waiting for VA care has risen from 11,000 in 2009 to 245,000 today

8) More active duty soldiers die from suicide than from combat: 349 dead last year

9) The number of prescriptions for Ritalin and Adderall written for active-duty soldiers has increased 1,000% in the last five years

10) For every active-duty service member who dies in battle, 25 veterans die by suicide

11) Only 1 percent of Americans have served in the Middle East, but veterans of combat there make up 20% of all suicides in the United States

12) The suicide rate of active-duty soldiers in the Civil War was only 9 – 15 per 100,000 soldiers. The suicide rate of active-duty U.S. soldiers in the Middle East is 23 per 100,000. And casualty rates were far higher in the Civil War, meaning the Civil War was more psychologically traumatic.

13) In the Korean War, the suicide rate among active-duty military soldiers was only 11 per 100,000

14) To date, the Pentagon has spent more than a billion dollars on psychiatric drugs, making it one of the largest customers of Big Pharma

15) In 2010, over 213,000 active-duty military personnel were taking medications considered “high risk” by the Pentagon

16) In the years since the Iraq War began, twice as many soldiers of the Texas Army National Guard have died of suicide than in combat

17) Defense Secretary Leon Panetta calls military suicides an “epidemic”

18) Of all the branches of the military, the Army has the highest number of suicides each year, almost 400% more than the Marines

19) Most active-duty soldiers who take psychiatric medications consume a combination of three to five prescriptions

20) The use of prescription medications by active-duty soldiers is largely unregulated. Soldiers are given a bottle of meds and sent into combat. If they run out of meds, they are given a refill, no questions asked.

21) The mainstream media says the answer to lowing suicides of veterans is to take away their guns so that they cannot shoot themselves. This is the logical equivalent to trying to fix your car’s engine by removing the “check engine” light.

22) The Pentagon is initiating new research (in 2013) to try to figure out why psychiatric medications cause soldiers to commit suicide. The research involves tracking brain activity by attaching electrodes to the skull.

23) One-third of military suicides are committed by soldiers who have never seen combat

24) In the last year, the military wrote over 54,000 prescriptions for Seroquel to soldiers, and all those prescriptions were “off label,” meaning the intended use has never been approved by the FDA as safe or effective.

25) Dr. Bart Billings, a retired Army Colonel and former military psychologist, refers to psychiatric drugs as a “chemical lobotomy” for soldiers.

Read more - 
http://www.naturalnews.com/039473_psychiatric_drugs_soldiers_suicides.html

Young Child Found, Ate Used Condom At MCDONALD'S Play Area... -


Young Child Found, Ate Used Condom At MCDONALD'S Play Area... - 


A diner at a Gage Park neighborhood McDonald’s is suing the fast food giant, claiming her young child ate a used condom he found in the restaurant’s play area.

Anishi Spencer filed the suit Wednesday in Cook County Circuit Court on behalf of herself and her young sons, Jacquel and Jonathan Hines.

Jonathan, then 3, and Jacquel, 2, were visiting the restaurant at 5733 S. Kezie Ave. on Feb. 4, 2012, when they allegedly found the used condom on the play area floor, Spencer claims in the suit.

The mother claims Jacquel later coughed up a piece of the condom, the suit says. Both toddlers had to receive medical treatment because of the incident.

The suit accuses McDonalds Corp. and McDonalds of Illinois of failing to properly clean hazardous debris from an area used by children.

It also blames the restaurant chain for not using surveillance or inspections to uncover any “deviant activities” at its eatery.

A message left with spokespersons for the Oak Brook-based corporation were not immediately returned Wednesday night.

The three-count premises liability suit claims negligence, and seeks compensation for the children’s medical treatment. It seeks at least $50,000 in damages.

Read more - 
http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2013/03/13/suit-young-child-found-ate-used-condom-at-mcdonalds-play-area/