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May 18

Final Moments Of Army Sgt. James Brown's Life Captured In GRAPHIC Jail Video

Sgt. James Brown was an active-duty soldier who had served two tours of duty in Iraq.

But he didn’t survive a two-day DWI sentence in 2012.

New graphic video from El Paso County Jail in Texas shows the confusing and terrifying last minutes of Brown’s life, KFOX reports. Brown, who reportedly suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, can be seen thrashing in his cell as officers in riot gear subdue him. About 35 minutes later, he repeatedly tells officers he can’t breathe and loses consciousness.

WARNING: GRAPHIC VIDEO

Brown, 26, an Army combat veteran stationed at Fort Bliss, Texas, surrendered for a two-day sentence at the county jail in July 2012, KFOR reports. After one night behind bars, Brown reportedly called his mother to pay his fine so he wouldn’t have to serve any more time in jail. His mother paid the fine before morning. But by then, Brown was dead.

Details surrounding Brown’s death remain confusing. The video — 20 minutes of which was released to KFOX — begins with Brown smashing his body and arms against his cell door, to the point where he begins to bleed. It’s unclear what sparks the rampage began.

Officers in riot gear subdue him, and he repeatedly tells them he can’t breathe. He appears to offer little resistance as officers hold him down. Eventually, the officers lift Brown over their shoulders and carry him into another room, where his face is covered with a “spit mask,” according to CNN.

Officers inject him with two shots of lorazepam, a sedative, according to KFOX. Brown begs for water, telling officers, “I’ve got problems.” They eventually give him a small cup half-filled with water. After the officers take Brown back to his cell, his breathing worsens. He can be seen on the floor, unresponsive. He was declared dead a short time later.

CNN’s Jake Tapper said the video raises questions that include whether officers used excessive force. Did they offer him enough water, or help him when he couldn’t breathe? Why weren’t emergency medical personnel called until after Brown lost consciousness, 35 minutes after the incident began?

The El Paso County Sheriff’s Office released a statement to CNN, blaming Brown’s death on natural causes.

“Mr. Brown’s death was an unfortunate tragedy… after a thorough investigation it was determined that his death was caused by a pre-existing medical condition.”

Brown may have been suffering from a sickle cell crisis, KFOX reports. Brown’s lawyer said the usually dormant condition may have been triggered by dehydration and stress.

Brown’s mother, Dinette Robinson-Scott, told KFOX she doesn’t understand why her son was in the county jail instead of a military jail in the first place.

“I pray that new laws protecting soldiers in custody will be implemented, that the military adopt new policy procedures in regards to their soldiers being held in custody by an outside agency,” Robinson-Scott told the station in a statement. “If these changes can be made and our soldiers are protected, and another family never has to experience what my family has, then my son’s death would not been in vain.”

Brown reportedly had no criminal history. His family is suing the jail, seeking unspecified damages.

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May 18

Heal Your DNA With Your T and A: Thyroid Care

Posted in: Today's Chili

View Part 1 Here

This second installment will allow you to understand how your DNA, the very code of life that allows you to thrive, can be healed and how your thyroid can help. The final issue will focus more on your adrenals and ways they can keep your genes working well.

We are still scratching the surface of understanding our genes. In fact, it was only a dozen years ago that the human genome was first fully sequenced. In the last few years, we have learned your genes can act in very different ways based on your diet, environment and emotions. Yes, your feelings can literally alter you DNA.

These radical ideas come to us from the newly emerging science of epigenetics. “Epi” means above or next to, and it refers to a group of proteins that surround the genes. Epigenetics are always changing to real time information about your health and can cause the same gene to act in thousands of different ways. On one hand, this new science has made gene therapies much less straightforward; on the other hand, it has made it clear that lifestyle interventions are more powerful than we ever thought.

Of all the factors that alter your epigenetics, studies are showing that your stress resiliency may be the biggest. [1] It is no secret we all face stress on a daily basis. Our resiliency is simply a function of how many things center us minus how many things are throwing us out of balance.

Some stressors are obvious (like the angry boss, the horrible traffic or the strained relationship), but did you know there is also a whole world of invisible stressors?

Invisible stressors are:

Changes in thyroid function

Processed sugar

Lack of sunlight

Noise pollution

These invisible stressors are not as obvious as the yelling, angry boss with a red face and throbbing veins, but they are just as real and chip away at your resilience.

Stress-reduction techniques like yoga and meditation are wonderful, but if your load of invisible stressors is high, trying to meditate to improve your well-being might be like trying hard to row a boat with an anchor stuck on the lake’s bottom. How can you cut the rope? For processed sugar, lack of sunlight and noise pollution, the remedies are self-evident, but what is the remedy for thyroid function?

Your thyroid gland needs a few nutrients and is sensitive to a few toxins. The most important nutrients for your thyroid are iodine, selenium and Vitamin D. Iodine may be the most important, but it is also a double-edged sword. There is only one thing more dangerous to your thyroid than too little iodine, and that is too much iodine. How much do you need, and how can you be sure you’re not getting too much or too little? People who are susceptible to thyroid disease do their best when they get between 100 to 300 µg daily. [2] Thankfully, most people get that much from their diets. Two groups who are at risk for being deficient are vegans and pregnant women. They are wise to use iodized salt and take a multivitamin that has 50 to 100 µg of iodine.

How can you make sure you’re not getting too much? Avoid kelp supplements and be sure that all of your supplements combined do not contain more than 100 µg of iodine. Here is something to consider: If you are on thyroid medication currently, most have between 100 to 200 µg of iodine in them. In those cases, carefully avoiding iodine in supplements and extra amounts in salt can be helpful.

The next important nutrient for your thyroid is selenium. Although selenium can also be toxic when you get too much, this does not happen as easily as with iodine. The best strategy for selenium is to take 200 µg per day in your vitamins and eat one handful of Brazil nuts per week. Take a look at all of your vitamins together, and be sure you do not exceed 400 µg per day of selenium. [3]

The last of the top thyroid nutrients is vitamin D. Studies have shown the most common types of thyroid disease are more typical in those with low levels of vitamin D. [4] Unlike iodine and selenium, people will not respond to the same dose of vitamin D in the same way. It is best to base your vitamin D dose on blood test results. The vitamin D council recommends that adults have blood levels of vitamin D between 40-80 nmol/L.[5] Reaching this level of vitamin D usually takes supplementation, but people may need as little as 1000 IUs or as much as 15,000 IUs to get there. Even if you get frequent sun exposure, it is good to test your vitamin D. Exposure to sunlight has less of an effect upon vitamin D needs than we have been led to believe.

If many people in your family have had thyroid disease, or if you have persistent symptoms, like unexplained hair loss, fatigue, depression, easy weight gain, cold intolerance or muscle pain, it would be smart to be tested to see if you have thyroid disease. Unfortunately, most doctors do not test thoroughly enough, nor closely look at the results.

A thorough thyroid evaluation would include:

Thyroid ultrasound

Thyroid antibody panel

Free T3

Free T4

Reverse T3

In the cases of the above tests, the TSH takes the most understanding to read properly. Many people can have normal levels but still have early thyroid disease. This is because normal levels are defined as average levels in the population receiving these tests, the majority of whom have thyroid disease. Healthy populations rarely showed TSH scores above 2.0 mIU/L.

If your scores are above this, or other scores aren’t normal, getting specific care for your thyroid will be a critical step in making your genes happy.

References:

1. Gudsnuk K1, Champagne FA. Epigenetic influence of stress and the social environment. ILAR J. 2012;53(3-4):279-88. doi: 10.1093/ilar.53.3-4.279.

2. Doğan M, Acikgoz E, Acikgoz M, Cesur Y, Ariyuca S, Bektas MS.
The frequency of Hashimoto thyroiditis in children and the relationship between urinary iodine level and Hashimoto thyroiditis. J Pediatr Endocrinol Metab. 2011;24(1-2):75-80.

3. Liu Y, Huang H, Zeng J, Sun C. Thyroid volume, goiter prevalence, and selenium levels in an iodine-sufficient area: a cross-sectional study. BMC Public Health. 2013 Dec 10;13:1153.

4. Dong Yeob Shin, Kwang Joon Kim, Daham Kim, Sena Hwang et al. Low Serum Vitamin D Is Associated with Anti-Thyroid Peroxidase Antibody in Autoimmune Thyroiditis. Yonsei Med J. 2014 Mar 1; 55(2): 476-481. Published online 2014 Feb 10. doi: 10.3349/ymj.2014.55.2.476.

5. Plum LA and Deluca HF. The Functional Metabolism and Molecular Biology of Vitamin D Action. In Vitamin D: Physiology, Molecular Biology and Clinical Applications by Holick MF. Humana Press, 2010.

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May 18

Original Iraq War Skeptics Find The Rekindled Debate Maddening

Posted in: Today's Chili

WASHINGTON — Though there were some bumps, leading Republican presidential candidates in the past week settled on an Iraq war narrative. But when President George W. Bush made the call, there was consensus that something had to be done about the threat posed by Iraq.

For those lawmakers who actually voted against the war, and those journalists who reported skeptically before the attack, this is misleading at best and self-serving at worst. Watching the revisionist story take hold 13 years after they opposed the invasion is reviving the frustration and marginalization they felt back then.

“I was amazed, absolutely amazed at how people were supporting going to war on the basis of things that just weren’t so,” said former Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), one of a handful of members who opposed the invasion. “It was clear as it could be. Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. None of the intel suggested they had anything to do with 9/11 and the whole rationale for WMD [weapons of mass destruction] was just very, very thin for anybody who read the intelligence reports.” As for the 2016 candidates’ comments, he said: “It is just a rewriting of history in an attempt for everybody to cover their extraordinary mistake; probably one of the most serious mistakes in the military and diplomatic history of the United States, and they were all complicit.”

Presidential campaigns don’t lend themselves to nuanced discussions. But the conversation over the origins of the Iraq war, to the war’s initial detractors, has been particularly narrow. Asking candidates whether they would have authorized the invasion knowing what they know now tripped up former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who stumbled for days with the question. But it has revealed little about the foreign policy world views of the other candidates.

The more interesting question, war skeptics said, is what the candidates would have done during the months when the invasion was being debated — a time when airing doubts about the intelligence or the motives of the Bush administration carried political risk.

“I have to say, not being privy to intelligence briefings as others were, I probably had the benefit of objectivity,” former Sen. Gary Hart (D-Colo.), a war critic, told The Huffington Post. “That is to say, I wasn’t being misled by intelligence briefings by the administration or anyone else. But it didn’t pass the smell test. And, to be honest with you, I didn’t trust the people promoting the war in Iraq. I knew many of them and thought they had a different agenda. They had in mind to use Iraq as an American political and military base in the Middle East and reach out from there to impose peace on the region. It was a grand scheme, but many bridges too far.”

To hear many former and current supporters of the war tell it now, there was remarkably little dissent at the time of the invasion. The case that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction was shared not just by Democrats and Republicans, but by other countries and by previous U.S. administrations, they say. Bush adopted these widely shared conclusions and launched a well-intentioned war based on bad intelligence.

Subsequent reporting complicates this narrative. Immediately after the Sept. 11 attacks, the Bush administration began considering striking Iraq and sought to link Saddam Hussein with al Qaeda. The administration dismissed concerns about the reliability of certain intelligence, and suppressed information that cast doubt on Iraq’s weapons programs. Former Sen. Bob Graham (D-Fla.) who served as chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, would later accuse the White House of a systematic effort to dupe Congress that was so thorough that it irrevocably damaged Congress’ trust in the executive office and compelled him to oppose the war authorization.

Major news outlets didn’t help. Many played a role in selling the war by amplifying bogus claims of an Iraq-al Qaeda link, along with the faulty WMD intelligence. McClatchy newspapers national security correspondent Jonathan Landay, who was part of the reporting team providing a skeptical counterpoint to the media drumbeat, noted the Bush administration “created a parallel intelligence operation” that included the Office of Special Plans in the Pentagon. That office selectively strung together intelligence that contradicted the CIA’s correct assessment at the time that there was no link between Hussein and al Qaeda.

That messy history is mostly lost in the simplistic, knowing-what-we-know-now conversation.

“What was driving a lot this was the politics, not the intelligence,” said Landay in an interview on Monday. “It was the Bush administration’s promotion of an invasion based on bogus and exaggerated intelligence that created a political bandwagon, which it was intended to do, for popular support for the invasion.”

The media’s revisiting of the Iraq war through the lens of the 2016 election comes at an incredibly fragile time for the country. The terrorist group Islamic State took control of the major Iraq city of Ramadi on Sunday, sparking renewed debate over America’s role in the region. Landay suggested journalists focus on what’s happening now on the ground, rather than what politicians think about a 13-year-old vote. “Why are we asking hypotheticals?” he said.

Part of why Landay and others find the hypothetical so irksome is that it absolves politicians and the press of addressing the nitty-gritty of why the country went to war. It also asks those running for the White House to place themselves in Bush’s shoes without context, from the manipulation of intelligence to the real-time opposition to the invasion.

Bill Moyers, whose 2007 documentary “Buying the War” charged the press with falling down on the job in not scrutinizing the Bush administration’s claims, said in an email to HuffPost that Washington is marked by what the Polish poet Czeslaw Milosz called “a refusal to remember.”

Moyers suggested that many in the Washington press corps won’t seriously examine how prescient Iraq war critics were back then, “because it would require them to be somewhere else on the night of the Gridiron than sitting by their sources from the Bush era.” As a result, he said, recent coverage of whether to invade “bears little relation to the past and less understanding of its implications.”

There were 133 members of the House who opposed the war authorization, along with 23 senators. The current Democratic frontrunner for president, Hillary Clinton, was not among them. Hart said he believes that further prevents a more illuminating discussion about the war’s origins. Still, he said he sees Clinton as one of the few candidates capable of the job of president. And it’s precisely the run-up to the Iraq war that illuminates her qualification, he said.

After Iraq, Hart said, “we should insist that any candidate who wants to be president have some familiarity with the intelligence community. Presidents have to be smart enough to know what questions to ask, not just of the CIA, but of defense intelligence and other organization. You can’t hire that. … You have to get inside the mentality of that community and how it thinks and how it operates.”

Hart acknowledged that his standard would prevent most governors from serving. So be it.

“It means that those who decide when they are 11 years old that they want to be president ought to think about things like this instead of how to glad-hand and raise money,” he said.

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

May 18

Aisle View: Popcorn in the Aisles

Posted in: Today's Chili

Aaron Clifton Moten and Matthew Maher in The Flick by Annie Baker.
Photo: Joan Marcus
Annie Baker, in The Flick, has drawn three disparate loners in dead-end menial jobs; engaged them in often aimless-seeming banter, as opposed to meaningful discussion; and keeps them at it for three-plus long hours. Being a theatrical alchemist, Baker’s oddball characters nevertheless grab our attention, and the sometimes sketch-like morsels combine to form a powerfully compelling and unexpectedly moving evening. You might take occasional glances at your watch, early on; once the gears start spinning, though, you realize that the lumbering pace is very much to the point, as the characters sweep up spilled movie-house popcorn and mop up spilled soda and you are enthralled. This is one of those provocative plays that nourishes playgoers and leaves them with something to cogitate.

Ms. Baker, that prolific playwright who has been brightening the scene with works like Circle Mirror Transformation, The Aliens and her adaptation of Uncle Vanya, writes plays that are not only distinguished; they are also quite unlike the plays of everyone else. (Not to make comparisons, but that’s what they said about Eugene O’Neill when he first appeared with Beyond the Horizon and The Emperor Jones.) Like Beyond the Horizon, The Flick–which originated in the spring of 2013 at Playwrights Horizons–won the Pulitzer Prize. It has now reopened in a commercial transfer at the Barrow Street Theatre, virtually intact; the back wall of David Zinn’s authentically rundown set has been reconfigured, presumably to accommodate the upstage exit, but the cast and production team remain the same.

The three principal players are beyond excellent. (There is also a fourth actor, playing two small roles.) Matthew Maher (of Mr. Burns, a post-electric play) is Sam, a 35-year-old who has been passed over so many times by younger menials that he realizes, beneath his omnipresent and slightly fraying Red Sox cap, that he is likely never to advance from the bottom rung. Louisa Krause is Rose, the black-garbed projectionist until digital comes to town and she is fated to be demoted back to the popcorn detail. Aaron Clifton Moten is newcomer Avery, a 20-year-old movie nerd hiding behind thick glasses with his polo shirt neatly buttoned as if it could afford protection. The workplace is The Flick, a rundown single-screen movie house in Worcester County, Massachusetts facing obsolescence and extinction.

Louisa Krause in The Flick by Annie Baker. Photo: Joan Marcus
Each character lives in his or her own shell, with his or her own secrets. Baker manages to draw fully-realized beings while allowing only fleeting passages of personal information. These speeches–Avery’s at the end of the first act and in a solo phone monologue presumably with his shrink, Rose’s as she tries to explain her contradictory nature, and especially Sam’s breakdown of a confession–belie the seemingly casual nature of the everyday grind. The actors seize their moments, and while I suppose others will play these roles in productions to come, I can’t imagine truer–or more wrenching–performances than those of Maher, Krause and Moten.

Director Sam Gold, who since Circle Mirror Transformation in 2009 has served up several intriguing productions and who is a strong contender to pick up a Tony next month for Fun Home, is here at his most incisive and inventive best. Whether he helps Baker or whether she inspires him, they certainly do magical work together. Watch the dialogue exchange between Rose and Avery at the end of the first act. This comes after Rose’s extravagantly primal mating dance, which petrifies the boy altogether (and with reason). Gold has Krause and Moten standing between the rows of movie seats, on opposite sides of the stage. They talk to, but away from, each other; hands are self-consciously crammed in pockets, all four of them. You sit there watching, wanting them to move together and connect so badly that you almost explode. Then they do move together, and they do explode. Later, watch Krause–frozen upstage–during Maher’s extended breakdown. Stunning work from actors and director.

Baker, for her part, does a remarkable job of making something out of nothing. Or rather, what appears to be nothing. Being a canny playwright, though, that is surely her aim, and one she has executed powerfully and effectively in The Flick.

Louisa Krause and Aaron Clifton Moten in The Flick by Annie Baker.
Photo: Joan Marcus

It is worth noting that the producing team of The Flick includes 17 of the 18 producers of Fish in the Dark. It’s almost as if one of them emailed the others and suggested that since they were making so much money from the Larry David comedy, with its $497 premium tickets, they were honor-bound to underwrite something important. The Flick will hopefully do well during its four-month run at the 170-seat Barrow Street Theatre, but their grosses will certainly be chicken feed–or, rather, popcorn kernels–compared to the million-plus Larry David is bringing in weekly. How novel: commerce paying for art, with the theatergoer as beneficiary.
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Annie Baker’s The Flick opened May 18, 2015 and continues through August 30 at the Barrow Street Theatre

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May 18

Watch and listen to the fascinating process of making a steel pan drum

Posted in: Today's Chili

Unsurprisingly, there is a lot of banging and hammering and mashing and even torching involved in making a steel pan drum but watching it all come together and to see flat steel get shaped in the most irregular pounding way to create the most perfect sounding notes for each section is pretty damn awesome. I couldn’t turn my ears away.

Experts say researcher’s in-flight hacking claims are dubious

Posted in: Today's Chili

2015-05-19 1 iss 3 Making headlines yesterday, security researcher Chris Roberts is being investigated by the FBI for claiming the ability to mess with a plane’s flight systems from onboard. An ill-received tweet started it all, as Roberts claimed he could hack his flight’s oxygen regulation. Roberts went on to tell the FBI that he hacked en-route 15 to 20 times over the several … Continue reading

May 18

Apple forgoes TV sets, focusing on online viewing platform

Posted in: Today's Chili

2015-05-19 4 apple tv It looks like we’re unlikely to see Apple branded television sets anytime soon. Apple CEO, Tim Cook, said back in 2013 that Apple had a “grand vision” for television, but the latest interpretation of that concept is that moving further away from actual TV sets and closer towards an online viewing platform.The television set market is already highly competitive, with … Continue reading

May 18

Ricoh invents super-efficient power-producing rubber

Posted in: Today's Chili

No, this is not an image of a delicious Fruit Roll-Up, it’s actually a unique new flexible material from Ricoh that can create electricity from pressure and vibration. Dubbed “Energy-Generating Rubber,” this piezoelectric mat combines the best featur…

May 18

WSJ: Apple shelved its HDTV plans last year

Posted in: Today's Chili

Ever wondered what happened to that Apple HDTV we’ve been hearing rumors about for years ? According to The Wall Street Journal, those rumors weren’t baseless speculation, as the company did work on a television set for nearly a decade. Unfortunately…

May 18

Spotify And Starbucks Team Up For Better Customer Experience

Posted in: Today's Chili

starbucks spotify Some people go to Starbucks because they like the coffee. Some just go out of convenience because it’s nearby, and some go to Starbucks for the environment, the music, the decor, and so on. Now if you’re the type that enjoys just hanging out at Starbucks, reading a book and listening to music, the coffee chain has recently announced a partnership with Spotify.

This partnership aims to enhance the experience of customers visiting Starbucks stores by providing them with playlists of songs that are actually used inside Starbucks itself. These playlists will be curated using an in-store music programming tool provided by Spotify and will be available to Starbucks customers via the Starbucks Mobile App.

These playlists will be available anywhere, meaning that you don’t have to physically be in Starbucks to enjoy it. Starbucks will also introduce a “Stars as Currency” feature which is part of the My Starbucks Rewards loyalty program that will basically allow Spotify Premium subscribers to redeem free drinks.

This is definitely an interesting partnership that showcases just how popular music streaming has become. Prior to this, some of you guys might recall that Starbucks outlets used to promote and sell the albums of certain artists, but with music streaming starting to catch on, this is a new way of going about it.

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