Smoke up

Smoking can lessen IQ, thinking ability: study
By Charnicia E. Huggins

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - The poorer mental function seen among alcoholics, many of whom also regularly smoke cigarettes, may be partially due to the long-term effects of nicotine, new research suggests.

"People who are also smokers are at a much higher risk," Dr. Jennifer M. Glass, of the University of Michigan's Addiction Research Center, told Reuters Health.

In her study, "cigarette smoking was negatively related to IQ and thinking," she said.

This finding may seem counterintuitive, since many smokers attest to feeling more alert and focused after smoking. Indeed, research shows that improved mental functioning is one of the immediate effects of nicotine exposure. Chronic smoking, however, is known to have the opposite effect.

Studies show that up to 87 percent of alcoholics smoke cigarettes, compared to less than 30 percent of the general United States population. Yet, few studies have looked into cigarette smoking as a factor that might explain the cognitive deficits reported among alcoholics.

To investigate that association, Glass and her colleagues examined brain function among 172 men from the same community, including 103 men who abused alcohol.

The team found that men with higher scores on the lifetime alcohol problems scale (LAPS) and those who reported a higher number of pack-years of smoking (i.e. packs of cigarettes smoked per day times number of years) both had lower IQ scores and lower scores on a test of global proficiency.

The proficiency test took into account the speed and accuracy with which the men were able to perform on a battery of tests including those that measured short-term memory, verbal reasoning and mathematical reasoning.

Upon further investigation, the researchers found that smoking predicted poorer global proficiency even more strongly than alcoholism did. Their findings were published online before publication in Drug and Alcohol Dependence.

Smoking also appeared to be independently associated with weaker verbal and visual-spatial reasoning, the study indicates.

Thus, though smoking did not account for all of the decreased neurocognitive functioning observed among the alcohol abusers, it did seem to account for some of the effects, the report indicates.

The reason for the observed associations is unknown, and the researchers did not investigate the "cause and effect story," Glass said, but she speculated that the diminished cognitive ability among smokers may be partly due to some mechanism involving a restricted flow of blood and oxygen to the brain.

Based on the current report, Glass said, "if you need another reason to quit smoking, it's a good potential one to add to the list."

SOURCE: Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 2005

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$$$$

Why Savers Are Losers
by Robert Kiyosaki
Monday, October 17, 2005

My poor dad believed in saving money. "A dollar saved is a dollar earned," he often said.

The problem was he didn't pay attention to changes in monetary policy. All his life he saved, not realizing that after 1971 his dollar was no longer money.

You see, in 1971 President Richard Nixon changed the rules of money. That year, the U.S. dollar ceased being money and became a currency. This was one of the most important changes in modern history, but few people understand why.

Prior to 1971, the U.S. dollar was real money linked to gold and silver, which is why the U.S. dollar was known as a silver certificate. After 1971, the U.S. dollar became a Federal Reserve Note -- an IOU from the U.S. government. Instead of our dollar being an asset, it was turned into a liability. Today, the U.S. is the largest debtor nation in history due in part to this change.

Taking a brief look back at the history of modern money, it's easy to understand why the 1971 change was so important.

After World War I, Germany's monetary system collapsed. While there were many reasons for this, one was because the German government was allowed to print money at will. The flood of money that resulted caused uncontrolled inflation. There were more marks, but they bought less and less. In 1913, a pair of shoes cost 13 marks. By 1923, that same pair of shoes was 32 trillion marks!

As inflation increased, the savings of the middle class was wiped out. With their savings gone, the middle class demanded new leadership. Adolf Hitler was elected Chancellor of Germany in 1933 and, as we know, World War II and the murder of millions of Jews followed.

A New System of Money

In the closing days of World War II, the Bretton Woods System was put in place to stabilize the world's currencies. This was a quasi-gold standard, which meant currencies were backed by gold. The system worked fine until the 1960s when the U.S. began importing Volkswagens from Germany and Toyotas from Japan. Suddenly the U.S. was importing more than it was exporting and gold was leaving our country.

In order to stop the loss of gold, President Nixon ended the Bretton Woods System in 1971 and the U.S. dollar replaced gold as the world's currency. Never in the history of the world had one nation's fiat currency been the world's money.

To better understand this, my rich dad had me look up the following definitions in the dictionary.

"Fiat money: money (as paper money) not convertible into coin or specie of equivalent value."

The words "not convertible into coin" bothered me. So my rich dad had me look up the word: "fiat."

"Fiat: a command or act of will that creates something without or as if without further effort."

Looking up at my rich dad I asked, "Does this mean money can be created out of thin air?"

Nodding his head, my rich dad said, "Germany did it and now we are doing it."

"That's why savers are losers," he added. "I fought in France during World War II. That's why I never forget that it was after the middle class lost their savings that Hitler came to power. People do irrational things when they lose their money."

Most economists would disagree with my rich dad's correlation between the loss of savings and Hitler. It may not be an accurate lesson, but it's one I never forgot.

Between 2000 and 2005 housing prices went through the roof. Oil went from $10 a barrel in 1997 to over $60 a barrel in 2005. Gold went from $275 an ounce in 1996 to over $475 an ounce in 2005.

In spite of all these increases in prices, the federal government's economists say, "Inflation is low. It's under control." They are allowed to say that because the government is charged with only monitoring inflation in consumer prices -- not asset prices. The consumer price index (CPI) is the pressure gauge the government watches because they want to make sure the consumer is happy finding bargains at Wal-Mart, which is easy because China is forcing consumer prices down.

The problem is our dollars return to the U.S. to buy our assets. In simple terms, we send cash overseas to buy goods, and overseas investors take our cash and use it to buy our assets. That's why the Wal-Mart shopper finds bargains in the store but can't afford to buy a house, gas, gold, or stocks. Those same "consumers" also worry about their jobs going overseas.

In summary, investors shop for asset bargains, and consumers shop for consumer bargains and try hard to save money that is not really money. That is another reason why the rich are getting richer.

For more on this subject I recommend reading "The Dollar Crisis"by Richard Duncan.

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Jerks

Too much ugliness tolerated in NFL
Thursday, October 13, 2005
Bill Livingston
Plain Dealer Columnist

This is what happens when you make leaders of thugs in a league that projects intimidation as the ultimate virtue.

The Baltimore Ravens happen. Twenty-one penalties happen. Two ejections happen. The ugliest scenes happen since Pittsburgh coach Chuck Noll said the Oakland Raiders had a "criminal element."

This is what happens when a football coach like Brian Billick abdicates his responsibility as a disciplinarian, when he talks sociological gobbledygook rather than indicating clearly behavior that won't be tolerated.

In a loss to Detroit Sunday, the Ravens were the most out-of-control team most of us ever saw. Crotch-grabbing, ref-shoving, six personal fouls, three unsportsmanlike conduct penalties, two of those for taunting, and a cuckoo in a pear tree - they were a disgrace.

It recalled the University of Miami's penalty-filled, goon tactics in a Cotton Bowl rout of Texas in 1991. The Hurricanes have always supplied their share and more of the NFL's motorcycle gangs. Two of the Ravens' habitual offenders, Ray Lewis and Ed Reed, are from that program.

In Cleveland, we had a small taste of such posturing during the Butch Davis era. Unlike the Ravens, a contending team for years, and the old Raiders, it was mostly bluster here. The Davis Browns came up even shorter than Jerry Glanville's Houston Oilers of the 1980s, who talked the talk to filibuster lengths, but seldom walked the walk.

The NBA always gets the reputation among fans as a showcase for poor behavior. The players aren't armored and helmeted, can be seen at close range, and are given to making ditzy statements while sitting for their latest tattoo.

The NFL just puts a better front on things, though.

There are plenty of coaches who say one thing and do another. Somebody give Kansas City's Dick Vermeil a hanky, so he can wipe his teary eyes. Big character guy, Vermeil - when he's not drafting a woman beater like Lawrence Phillips or welcoming back with open arms a drunk driver who killed someone like Leonard Little.

In Baltimore, Ray Lewis, who pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice in a double murder case, and Jamal Lewis, who did jail time on drug conspiracy charges, are the team leaders. Ray Lewis thrives on his "gangsta" image.

It is a destructive method of projecting toughness. It is given glamour by people who should be role models.

The Ravens take their cues from Ray Lewis, who was the NFL's best defensive player for years, although Reed was last season. Ray Lewis is always in someone's face on the field, whipping himself into a froth.

Billick hides behind psychobabble, invoking the magic concept of "diversity" in excusing the inexcusable.

There has been nothing but silence from Ozzie Newsome, the former Brown who is the general manager.

The NFL, which made an icon of Ray Lewis, fined Terrell Suggs and Reed $15,000 each Wednesday for making contact with an official. B.J. Ward, ejected along with Suggs, avoided Paul Tagliabue's wrath entirely. The laughable commissioner hit New Orleans harder when he slapped the devastated city in the face and made the Saints play a "home" game on the road.

At 1-3 and in the apparent throes of a conniption, the Ravens next play the team from the city they deserted. The Browns better watch their backs.

To reach this Plain Dealer columnist:

blivingston@plaind.com, 216-999-5754

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Phishing

Threat Alert: Spear Phishing

Targeted e-mail attacks try to lure you in with specific, convincing messages.
Erik Larkin
From the November 2005 issue of PC World magazine
Posted Friday, September 30, 2005
"After three unsuccessful attempts to access your account, your Online Profile has been locked. This has been done to secure your accounts and to protect your private information. You may unlock your profile by going to: ..."

Sounds like a normal phishing e-mail, right? But what if the e-mail seemed to come from the head of IT at your small business, warning about your company account? Would you click the link?

Today's phishers hope so. In fact, the excerpt above didn't appear in the usual global barrage of e-mail sent out to catch recipients with eBay or PayPal accounts. Instead, it went exclusively to students and faculty of the University of Kentucky as part of a directed, or "spear-phishing," attack against the small, 33,000-member university credit union this May. Another widely reported incident involved an Israeli company that used spear-phishing techniques to install spyware on PCs at the office of one of its competitors.

According to Peter Cassidy, secretary general of the Anti-Phishing Working Group, spear phishers act much like marketers, crafting a message and then directing it to just the right people.

These targeted attacks make better use of social engineering to trick people who are tuning out the widespread spam of typical phishing attacks, Cassidy says, but who might not expect an e-mail aimed at a smaller company or organization.

Expect it: According to IBM's Global Security Index report, intercepted spear-phishing attempts exploded from a mere 56 instances in January to more than 600,000 cases in June.


Protect Yourself

Be skeptical: No matter who the e-mail is from, if it concerns account information, don't trust it outright.

Make a phone call: If you receive an e-mail you find suspicious in any way, call the named organization.

Don't click suspect e-mail links: Instead, navigate to the company's home page on your own.

Try the NetCraft toolbar: This antiphishing utility can warn you of suspicious sites

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