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Former Lawyer in Private Practice. Holder of degrees in Law and Economics. Now teaching Law and Economics somewhere.

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Monday, March 12, 2007

BUT of course, there're 2 sides to every story...

Last Updated: Sunday, 19 October, 2003, 23:37 GMT 00:37 UK

Parents a moody lot say teens


Teenagers say they dislike the way they are portrayed
Teenagers say moody parents are their biggest headache.

And more than half of those responding to a BBC survey agreed they get "a bad press" - with only 13% agreeing that society values teenagers.

Almost one in five felt that this stereotyping was the hardest thing - above exam pressures, mood swings and boyfriend/girlfriend relationships.

The findings are from responses of more than 16,000 teenagers and 6,000 parents to an online survey done this summer.

LMT

The link is here.

Now we know why...

Teenage mood swing hormone found

Teenage mood swings are known to be down to hormones, but scientists claim they have identified the specific one that makes adolescents so volatile.
A team from the State University of New York identified a hormone which normally acts to calm anxiety, but the effect is reversed in adolescence.

And they add the study should help parents and teachers understand teens.

A hormone called THP is normally released in response to stress.

It usually behaves like a tranquiliser, acting at sites in the brain that calm brain activity and, in adults and pre-pubescent children, helps someone cope with stress.

But a mouse study by the New York team shows THP actually increases anxiety at puberty.

'Things are harder for teenagers'

They found that the target for the hormone, a specific receptor, is more prevalent in the part of the brain which regulates emotion during puberty.

This appears to reverse the normal calming effect.

...

"As adults, we just deal with things, but it is harder for teenagers because of their biology. I think it's important for people to know that."

Heh Heh.

The full article at: TEEN HORMONES

Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Earthquake Hits Eastern Sumatra

First time I'd ever been in a swinging (ok, make that swaying) building. Quite amusing, actually, to be honest, from a totally personal point of view. There I was typing away on the computer when the whole world started to shake a little around me. I thought I was giddy, perhaps insufficient sleep or stress from the upcoming meeting, but I hadn't suffered from stress-induced giddiness in, like, a million years, if ever, so there I was closing my eyes and quietly and slowly leaning back in my chair - thinking a few minutes' sleep would be enough to shake off the giddiness.

Then the chair started shaking and that was when I got REALLY worried - worried that I was seriously hallucinating, that is.

Thankfully there were other human beings around and they affirmed upon my enquiry that I was not going mad or suffering a serious loss of blood to the brain; in fact, they had initially looked at me like I was insane, since they were rushing to evacuate the building and there lay yours truly snoozing, to all intents and purposes, in his comfortable office chair.

Anyway the entire population of the office decamped to the field outside and then adjourned to the nearby (low-level) canteen for lunch as the earthquake passed.

After a while staff began to whip out their respective O2 XDA's, Palm TX's, and other similar devices to access the Internet in the hope of discovering more about what was obviously an earthquake, probably somewhere in Indonesia. Amazing isn't it, that nowadays we have come to expect so much of cellular telephone networks and broadband wireless Internet access. In the end the first word of the earthquake came from good old fashioned television. Channel News Asia reported the earthquake long before BBC News and AsiaOne picked it up. One day some bright young Channel 5 executive is going to create a screenplay based on this and call it The Evacuation of Shenton Way or something.

Familiarity breeds contempt. The aftershock came around 2 hours later, when we had all returned to the office. This time we half-heartedly made it all the way to the lift column and then decided, en masse, to turn back for our all-important meeting. So nobody evacuated.

At the commencement of the meeting, our senior colleague stood up (the swaying had stopped, thankfully, it was starting to give me a headache) to announce that the building was safe, so long as we all stopped working whenever it was swaying. Somehow I found that very funny.

News of the earthquake can be found here: Earthquake News from the BBC

LMT