| Sleep Deprivation Stirs Up Emotions
A new study shows that sleep deprivation is linked to a disconnect in the part of the brain responsible for keeping emotions under control, adding to the already long list of negative effects of lack of sleep on health.
Researchers say the results are the first to explain on a scientific level how lack of sleep may lead to emotionally irrational behavior.
"It's almost as though, without sleep, the brain had reverted back to more primitive patterns of activity, in that it was unable to put emotional experiences into context and produce controlled, appropriate responses," says researcher Matthew Walker, director of the University of California, Berkeley's Sleep and Neuroimaging Laboratory, in a news release.
"You can see it in the reaction of a military combatant soldier dealing with a civilian, a tired mother to a meddlesome toddler, the medical resident to a pushy patient.
Man accused in pregnant girlfriend's death
Linn County deputies have charged a Lyons man for the shooting death of a pregnant Salem woman. Christopher Weston, 27, is accused of shooting Tanicia Kay Velasco during an argument Thursday about their relationship, Linn County Sheriff Tim Mueller said. Deputies arrested Weston about 2 a.m. Sunday. He is being held in Linn County Jail on a charge of murder. Velasco, 23, was late in her first trimester or early in her second at the time of her death. Part of the argument involved her pregnancy, Mueller said. The shooting occurred about 8:15 a.m. Thursday at Weston's home in the 100 block of Sixth Street in Lyons. Investigators initially were told Velasco had shot herself in the chest, Mueller said. However, subsequent interviews with witnesses and review of the crime scene led deputies to think Weston pulled the trigger.
out your back window
Smith recently received a fax from the national headquarters of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), one of the largest animal-rights groups in the country, which is also virulent in its opposition to hunting and fishing. PETA asked the sheriff and jail officials to refrain from serving any meat products to inmate Christopher McCuin -- a man jailed for murdering his girlfriend and "possibly participating in cannibalism" of the victim’s body. PETA Vice President Bruce Friedrich wrote, "It is up to [the Sheriff] to prevent McCuin from contributing to any more suffering and death." Obviously, this is just another ridiculous request from the folks who consider drinking milk and eating cheese crimes against nature. But the true outrage lies in the reasoning behind PETE making such a request. "Like humans, animals are made of flesh, blood, and bone," said Friedrich. "Only in a culture where people routinely kill and eat living, feeling beings would anyone even think to kill and eat a human loved one." Friedrich compared eating a hamburger to eating human flesh, saying that all meat is from a corpse, and absurdly warned that the alleged murderer and cannibal, McCuin, might become violent and kill if he ate meat! After grafting their extremist agenda to a cannibalistic psychopath, what’s next? Would PETA suggest that America’s hunters and anglers should be treated as murderers and cannibals? The fact that that question must even be pondered speaks volumes and reminds us, yet again, that PETA remains outrageous.
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