From Caron Goode, a Fort Worth, Texas-based psychotherapist and author of the new book “Kids Who See Ghosts: How to Guide Them Through Fear” (Weiser Books):

Your kid’ s imaginary friend

s could very well be real, according to psychotherapist Caron Goode.

She says

parents should believe their kids when they say they see ghosts.

Goode says that while some kids play with imaginary friends, there are others who

are convinced they are being visited by spooks and apparitions.

Well, are they

?

Depends on your upbringing, Goode says.

Read article. Sounds helpful.

This is a Brazili an toddler, not

an animation.

Pretty talented, I’d say.

Previous studies suggest gene mutation takes place with each cigarette smoked, according to Reuters.

With this particular patient, Zhang said the analysis revealed that for every three cigarettes he smoked, one genetic mutation occurred.

“If you imagine over a lifetime you are going to develop this many mutations in the genome, some people may think twice about it,” Zhang told Reuters in hopes his new findings will prevent people from picking up t

his dangerous habit, the largest cause of lung cancer.

Read article.

This is a beautiful “wear your seatbelt” from the UK.

Evidently, the man who made it was not hired to do so.

He did it because the cause is important to him.

He came up with this idea, and now it’s being hailed across the world as a “beautiful” commercial. It is.

Watch You Tube.

Posted by chrisbowers
June 14, 2010

This post originally appeared on Open Left.

One of the most disappointing outcomes in

the Wall Street reform fight to date was the resounding defeat of the Brown-Kaufman amendment to strictly limit the size

of large financial institutions.

To put it bluntly, the amendment would have broken up the big banks, thus reducing their almost unprecedented concentration of power and wealth (and the control over our democracy that comes with that concentration of power and wealth).

However, even though this sweeping amendment failed, a series of piecemeal efforts to break up the big banks continues.

Here are updates on three ongoing efforts that aim to reduce the size and power of our largest financial institutions:

Read article.

The “invisibility cloaks” being made in labs today can hide objects when viewed from a wide range of directions and in visible light – both considered implausible developments when the first working invisibility cloak was demonstrated just four years ago.

But the technology that makes objects vanish looks set to be more useful for the safety of offshore structures and

for unlocking cosmological secrets than

for would-be Harry Potter impersonators.

Read article.

Jeremy Hsu writes:

A brain hormone that fosters fuzzy feelings between mothers and children may also goad soldiers to launch preemptive strikes in defense of their comrades, according

to new research.

Read article.

From a very perceptive article by Stephen Tompkins:

“Religion is all about mystery, and nothing

is so mysterious as the minds of

the professionally offended.

One mystery is what kind of God they serve.

The Bible gives us rather conflicting impressions of God’s attitudes to this kind of thing, but none

of them fit very well with the God of Carb.

. . . . . . . . .

If God has little need of protection from hurt feelings or dented pride, there remains the mystery of whose pride campaigners are defending, and the obvious answer would seem to be their own.

Blasphemy dents their sense of honor, by insulting their religion, and what Christians call serving God could often be called self-serving.”

Read article.

Chris Hedges concludes:

“Let us not st and

meekly at the open gates of the city waiting passively for the barbarians. They are coming.

They are slouching toward Bethlehem.

Let us shake off our complacency and cynicism.

Let us openly defy the liberal establishment, which will not save us, to demand and fight for economic reparations for our working class.

Let us reincorporate these dispossessed into our economy.

Let us give them a reality-based hope for

the future.

Time is running out.

If we do not act, American fascists, clutching Christian crosses, waving American flags and orchestrating mass recitations of the Pledge of Allegiance, will use this rage to snuff us out.”

This is the end of an insightful article. I don’t agree with everything in it, but it’s a must read for all who are concerned about the well being of our country.

Read more.

Little-known candidates backed by the movement have shot in to the national spotlight, but some Republicans are nervous about whether they will be able

to beat their Democratic opponents in

the fall.

Read article. Noth ing like shoot

ing yourself in the foot by embracing extremes.