Hasta La Gadget!

Toshiba has been selling TV in North America for a long time with mixed success. The company has never been one of the top brands in the business mostly unable to compete on pure performance and unable to sell at prices as low as other TV makers. The company has now announced that it plans to pull out of the … Continue reading

Screens won’t be the only things that will be bending soon. Flexing ones again its manufacturing prowess, LG Chem, the company’s chemical arm, which makes batteries among other things, is flaunting a new type of lighting panel. Aside from its extremely bright luminance, the main attraction for this module is its flexibility. Going beyond how far current glass-based OLED lighting … Continue reading

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — The FBI on Thursday added a former taxi driver from northern Virginia to its list of most-wanted terrorists, saying he was a recruiter for the al-Shabab terror group in Somalia.

An arrest warrant, originally issued in February, was unsealed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Alexandria for Liban Haji Mohamed, 29, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Somalia. He is the older brother of Gulet Mohamed, who for the past four years has been challenging his placement on the government’s no-fly list, the attorney representing the younger Mohamed, Gadeir Abbas, told The Associated Press on Thursday. A hearing on Gulet Mohamed’s case is scheduled in federal court in Alexandria on Friday.

Abbas said Liban Mohamed aggressively advocated on his younger brother’s behalf when Gulet Mohamed was detained in Kuwait several years ago and barred from returning to the U.S., and that the FBI began to harass him as a result. He said his family suspects he went into hiding to avoid the harassment.

“Al-Shabab has killed Liban’s uncle and imprisoned his cousins,” Abbas said. “His family believes the allegations have no basis in fact.”

The FBI did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment on Abbas’ allegations late Thursday.

Liban Mohamed is charged with providing material support to al-Qaida and al-Shabab. Additional court records detailing the charges against him in federal court remained under seal Thursday.

He is now one of 31 people on the FBI’s list of most wanted terrorists.

The FBI believes Liban Mohamed left the U.S. in July 2012 for east Africa. He lived in the Alexandria area of Fairfax County prior to that, working as a taxi driver. The FBI says he is a key target because his knowledge of the nation’s capital could help al-Shabab plot an attack here.

“It is important for us to locate Mohamed because he has knowledge of the Washington, D.C., area’s infrastructure such as shopping areas, Metro, airports, and government buildings,” said Carl Ghattas, special agent in charge of the Counterterrorism Division at the FBI’s Washington Field Office. “This makes him an asset to his terrorist associates who might plot attacks on U.S. soil.”

The FBI is offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to Liban Mohamed’s arrest and conviction.

Abbas said the timing of the FBI’s announcement is an attempt to influence a judge to toss out a lawsuit that Gulet Mohamed filed against the government challenging his placement on the no-fly list. The government is seeking to have the case tossed out, in part because it says it would be forced to divulge state secrets if forced to defend the lawsuit.

“We would question the timing of the FBI’s placement of Liban on the most-wanted list on the day before a major hearing on the government’s authority to maintain the no-fly list,” Abbas said in a telephone interview.

Gulet Mohamed, an Alexandria resident and also naturalized U.S. citizen, was 19 when he was detained by Kuwaiti authorities in 2011. He has said that he was beaten and interrogated at the behest of the U.S. and denied the right to fly home. U.S. authorities allowed Mohamed to fly home after he filed a federal lawsuit, but Mohamed says he remains on the list without justification.

Abbas said Liban Mohamed aggressively advocated on his brother’s behalf to get him home, and in return the FBI subjected him to harassment.

“He was constantly being approached by people of dubious backgrounds that bore the hallmark of FBI informants,” Abbas said. “The family believes Liban may have sought to escape that scrutiny.”

Abbas said that in 2012, the Mohamed family lost contact with Liban Mohamed and asked the lawyer to see if the FBI knew of his whereabouts.

The U.S. has long refused to even confirm whether Gulet Mohamed is on the no-fly list. Gulet Mohamed said he went to Somalia and Yemen briefly in 2009 to stay with family and learn Arabic, and investigators questioned him about his travels.

The FBI, in announcing Liban Mohamed’s placement on the most-wanted list, described him as a “close associate” of Zachary Chesser, a northern Virginia man who in 2011 was sentenced to 25 years in prison for trying to join al-Shabab and for making online threats against the creators of the “South Park” cartoon for an episode perceived as an insult to the prophet Muhammad.

A recent episode of NPR’s new podcast, Invisibilia shed light on a form of obsessive-compulsive disorder that’s rarely talked about: One that involves intrusive thoughts about harming others.

The show’s hosts, Alix Spiegel and Lulu Miller interviewed an unidentified man who, after watching the violent Brazilian drama, City Of God, developed obsessive thoughts about killing his wife, explaining:

[In the movie] the gangs would go, and they’d fight amongst each other and kill each other. And there was a lot of pretty graphic violence. And about midway through the movie, I started getting just inundated with violent thoughts. What if I were to brutally stab someone or shoot someone or harm my wife?

Those who suffer from “harm OCD” are plagued by these types of thoughts and images, but they experience a great deal of stress, anxiety and discomfort as a result. The thoughts are no indication of a person’s true character or desires, according to Dr. Bruce Hyman of the OCD Resource Center of Florida. They occur “completely out of context” of the history and the character of the person experiencing them, he said.

That’s a far cry from the repetitive hand-washing and fear of dirty door knobs that are typically associated with the disorder in popular culture. And this narrow view of what OCD can look and feel like can be a source of confusion to those who experience the relatively common disorder in a way outside the cultural norm. For example, those with intrusive thoughts of harming others may worry that they are psychopathic, even though their upset suggests otherwise.

The disorder is estimated to affect up to 2.3 percent of the American population. Some data has even suggested that up to 25 percent of adults has experienced either obsessions or compulsions at some point in their lives — meaning that up to 60 million Americans may have experienced OCD symptoms, even if they do not meet diagnostic criteria for the disorder.

In blanket terms, OCD is characterized by two things: obsessions (intrusive, recurring thoughts) and compulsions (behaviors, typically repetitive, that are performed to lessen the anxiety of the thoughts). But the disorder can be difficult to identify because it can present in so many different ways.

The National Alliance on Mental Illness defines OCD as a “disease of doubt,” in which individuals experience “pathological doubt” because they have trouble distinguishing between probable and highly unlikely events.

“The sufferer can get stuck in something of a behavioral loop, where the thoughts recur and the compulsions recur non-stop,” Hyman told The Huffington Post. “They repeat many times during the day, causing a great deal of impairment to the person’s ability to function.”

In the case of “S,” the anonymous man interviewed on Invisibilia, he was able to seek therapy and the thoughts subsided, but what about other people like him?

Here are four important truths about OCD that will change the way you see the disease.

Obsessions are more than just worries.

The obsessions that characterize OCD occur in the mind “spontaneously and intrusively,” Hyman said, adding: “There is tremendous fear and anxiety attached to the thought.”

Researchers believe OCD thoughts are the result of a chemical imbalance in the brain, which results in an inability to filter out undesired thoughts, possibly due to low serotonin levels.

However, Hyman emphasizes that the thoughts of people with OCD are not substantially different than the thoughts of people without OCD. Research on the content of thoughts has shown that anyone can have an out-of-character intrusive thought (for instance, you might think, What if I was to push this old lady into the oncoming train? when standing on the subway platform). The person with OCD, however, relates to it in a different way — they might grossly misinterpret the thought to mean that they are a dangerous person, whereas the non-OCD person will not take the thought so seriously.

Because the person perceives the mere presence of the thought to indicate a larger and more disturbing possibility, they will do whatever in their power to get rid of it, performing various compulsions.

Compulsions can be much more subtle than counting or washing hands.

We tend to think of OCD in terms of extreme compulsions, like washing one’s hands until they bleed, counting out loud, checking locks over and over again, or rearranging items to make them more orderly. But many, if not most, cases of OCD can’t be spotted by these kinds of obvious behaviors.

Roughly 20 percent of OCD patients experience only obsessions, in a variation of the condition is what’s known as Primarily Obsessional or Purely Obsessional OCD.

However, as Hyman notes, some research conducted in the 1990s suggests that even in this form of OCD, there are still some compulsions occurring — they just may not be as evident. Instead, they may take the form of internal compulsions (the repetition of a mantra in one’s head, for instance), as well as avoidance behaviors (such as staying out of the kitchen so as to avoid being around knives).

“Just because there aren’t any obvious compulsions doesn’t mean that there aren’t many, many internal compulsions,” said Hyman. “The idea of obsessions without compulsions doesn’t really hold up.”

OCD often has nothing to do with cleanliness or organization.

Around a third of OCD sufferers have conditions that revolve around issues of germs and cleanliness. Commonly, this form of OCD is exhibited by a compulsion to clean one’s space and wash oneself, caused by the fear of contamination.

“People do make the mistake of associating OCD with germs and being a germ freak and excessive cleaning,” said Hyman. “But in reality, that is a minority. It’s a significant minority, but it’s a not a complete picture of OCD.”

Other common obsessions and compulsions have nothing to do with cleanliness. These fixations and behaviors include violence/harm, sexual deviancy, hoarding, magical thinking, religious beliefs, symmetry/orderliness and checking locks and appliances.

OCD cannot be cured, but it can be treated very effectively.

Hyman emphasized that OCD, while incurable, is an extremely treatable disorder. Popular treatment options include exposure and response therapy, mindfulness-based therapies and medication. Exposure and response is usually the first line of behavioral treatment — it helps the OCD patient to overcome intrusive thoughts by exposing them to the triggering item, such as a knife or a dirty doorknob. Mindfulness, said Hyman, can be a very powerful complementary intervention.

“Mindfulness is really teaching an impassive non-response to the obsessive thoughts, and learning to be open and accepting of this horrific thought, despite the disturbance it causes,” said Hyman. “Mindfulness approaches can have tremendous benefits when combined with exposure and response prevention.”

It’s easy to be cynical about professional sports — especially the NFL. But despite the disturbing headlines the league earned this year, ranging from lax penalties for domestic violence to a growing awareness of the impact of traumatic brain injuries, there will always be at least one silver lining for professional football.

That would be the undisputed, research-supported evidence that there are very real mental health advantages to claiming a sports team as your own. Yes, there are studies that show blood pressure rises during games or testosterone plummets after a loss. But epic fandom is also linked to higher levels of well-being and general happiness with one’s social life, as well as lower levels of loneliness and alienation, according to research by sports psychology professor Daniel Wann of Murray State University.

Wann, author of the book Sport Fans: The Psychology And Social Impact Of Spectators, explains that there are two routes to feeling good through sports fandom.

“One would be following a successful team, and the second would simply be identifying with them,” Wann told The Huffington Post. “You can get these well-being benefits even if your team doesn’t do well; we’ve found this with historically unsuccessful teams as well,” he added.

In the end, said Wann, it all comes down to how community lifts our spirits. Sports fandom is simply another kind of community, much like the community fostered among costumed Star Wars fans or opera season tickets holders.

“The simple fact is that people are looking for ways to identify with something, to feel a sense of belonging-ness with a group of like-minded individuals,” said Wann. “People might not understand the sports side of things, but my response to that is: Think of, in your own life, what you care about and what you identify with. Sport is what these fans have chosen.” Wann himself closely follows no less than four teams: two college men’s basketball teams (the Murray State Racers and Kansas Jayhawks), as well as the Kansas City Royals and the Chicago Cubs. And he never misses a Racers home game.

Still, there is one edge that sports has over all those other cultural communities, said Wann.

“You have no idea who’s going to win the Super Bowl, and you won’t know who’s going to win next year’s Super Bowl,” said Wann. “But if you go see the new Star Wars movie, and then you go to see it twice, I’m pretty sure it’s going to be the same ending.”

So the next time anyone gives you flack about your epic fandom, just let them know that all the face paint, fantasy leagues, tailgating and game-day viewing parties are crucial to your mental health. Read on to learn more about the benefits of being a die-hard (or even fair-weather) fan.

1. Fandom gives you built-in community

Longtime fan Gary Sargent, 66, of Winchendon, Massachusetts, eats a hotdog at Fenway Park in Boston, September 10, 2014. (Photo by Jessica Rinaldi/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)

“We’ve known for years in psychology that feeling connections and affiliations with others is important for well-being,” said Wann. “What fandom allows you to do is to gain those connections, which then in turn provides you with social and psychological health.”

For instance, doing something as simple as putting on a team baseball cap can have a powerful effect on one’s sense of community, said Wann. Say, for instance, that you’re wearing a Red Sox cap while walking through Boston. Several passersby will give you a thumbs up, high-five, fist bump or even stop to chat with you about your local team and its prospects.

“All these people are going to be your friends and your comrades, even though you don’t know their names, you’ve never seen them before, and you’re probably never going to see them again,” said Wann. “But you feel this important sense of connection to the world around you.”

2. The community, in turn, boosts your sense of well-being.

Of course, if you watch a game with others, your feelings of loneliness are going to be at least temporarily lower during the event. But Wann’s research finds that simply knowing or feeling that you’re part of a larger community has long-term positive effects. In fact, sports fans report lower levels of loneliness whether or not the game is on.

“We’ve gone to people in classrooms. We’ve gone to dorm rooms. We still still find this general effect,” said Wann. “They have this enduring level of connections to others, and lower levels of loneliness and alienation, whether or not they’re watching the game.”

3. Fandom gives us a common language.

Being a fan of a sports team can also be a deeply rooted heritage that connects you to others across time, transcending the barriers that divide people generationally, adds Professor Alan Pringle, Ph.D. Pringle specializes in mental health nursing at the University of Nottingham and noted that soccer, the U.K.’s most popular sport, gives families a “common currency” that connects family members unlike few other subjects.

“Most granddads were not that interested in the latest computer games, and most grandsons did not really want to hear what it used to be like to work in a coal mine,” Pringle wrote in an email to HuffPost. “But the game offered often three generations of a family a shared experience, shared language and shared emotion that is not found in too many other areas of life.”

4. Fandom is a safe space.

Pringle also noted that in a culture where men often feel that they have to stifle emotional expressions, sports fandom offers some a safe space to feel, cry, laugh or show signs of affection.

“The classic difficulties British men have with expressing emotion often means that they are limited in their opportunity to externalize emotion and often internalize it,” wrote Pringle. “For many of them, football offers a safe space where expressed emotion is acceptable (even crying or hugging other men!).”

In Pringle’s research, he examines how following local soccer leagues gave some men a safe way to express identity, reduce their stress and feel a sense of continuity. He quotes one fan of a Mansfield Town soccer club, who said, “When I was a kid I used to go there, when I was married I went, when I was divorced I went, when I was married again I went, when I was divorced again I went, it’s the only constant thing in my life.”

5. Sports fandom allows others to experience success

Ikaika Woolsey, #11 of the Hawaii Warriors, dumps Gatorade on head coach Norm Chow to celebrate their win after the end of a college football game between the UNLV Rebels and the Hawaii Warriors at Hawaiian Airlines Field at Aloha Stadium on November 22, 2014, in Honolulu, Hawaii. (Photo by Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)

Finally, being a fan of a sport provides some with a rare experience: success. Feeling victorious, even vicariously, is a precious emotion in troubled times, psychology professor Ronald F. Levant of the University of Akron told CantonRep.com.

“Identifying with your sports teams is one of the ways you can vicariously experience success, and in real life, success is hard,” Levant said in the 2010 article. “We have ups and downs, a lot of things don’t always go our way … especially in this economy.”

And for fans who love the sport enough to play it, that feeling of success is even more crucial. Pringle noted that in his town of Nottingham, hospital services are funding soccer leagues for young men with depression, schizophrenia or drug-related problems to play regularly scheduled matches.

“The interesting thing is that it is one area of their lives where they can experience real success,” Pringle wrote to HuffPost. “If you are going to be good at football you have usually developed real skill by around [age] 13 to 14, so lots of these guys struggle badly in many areas of their lives but can play really well, and for the time they are on that field they can engage in an activity [on] which their symptoms can, in many cases, have only a minimal impact.”