Thursday 11 May 2017

The effects of chronic stress


by samsurikamal
Your nervous system isn’t very good at distinguishing between emotional and physical threats. If you’re super stressed over an argument with a friend, a work deadline, or a mountain of bills, your body can react just as strongly as if you’re facing a true life-or-death situation. And the more your emergency stress system is activated, the easier it is to trip and the harder it is to shut off.


If you tend to get stressed out frequently—as many of us do in today’s demanding world—your body many be in a heightened state of stress most of the time. And that can lead to serious health problems. Chronic stress disrupts nearly every system in your body. It can suppress your immune system, upset your digestive and reproductive systems, increase the risk of heart attack and stroke, and speed up the aging process. It can even rewire the brain, leaving you more vulnerable to anxiety, depression, and other mental health problems.

UFC boss Dana White sets deadline for Conor McGregor negotiations to fight Floyd Mayweather


by samsurikamal
UFC President Dana White insists he’s not going to wait much longer for progress in negotiations for a Conor McGregor vs. Floyd Mayweather boxing match.

White today said that if he can’t get McGregor (21-3 MMA, 9-1 UFC) and his team to agree to terms by Sunday, he plans to move on from the matchup with Mayweather (49-0 boxing) altogether. If he gets things sorted with McGregor, though, then he will move on to talks with Mayweather.

“I plan on having this thing locked up by this Sunday and then moving on to Team Mayweather and start to negotiate with them,” White told “The Jim Rome Show” on CBS Sports Radio. “If we really do get it done in that timeframe, then this thing could possibly happen. Again, I still have to go negotiate with them. There’s no guarantee that we’re going to come to a deal.”

Talks of a McGregor vs. Mayweather fight began this past November after McGregor knocked out Eddie Alvarez at UFC 205 to become the first in UFC history to hold multiple titles simultaneously. It’s picked up real steam in recent months, though, with White declaring he’s going to do everything he can to get a deal done and bring the bout to fruition.

McGregor was clear following UFC 205 that he wasn’t planning to return to any type of combat sports until the birth of his first child. That happened this past week. But soon after, it was revealed the proposed bout lost it’s targeted Sept. 16 fight date when a boxing mega-fight between Canelo Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin was announced for the same date.

“That was the date we were shooting for,” White said. “I was doing an interview earlier and they said, ‘Well the MGM says you hadn’t held the date.’ We hadn’t – we hadn’t held the date. But that’s the date we were shooting for. … I didn’t see any big fights coming up that we couldn’t have took the date from if they ended up with that date.

“Then they come up with Canelo and ‘GGG,’ which is a real fight. That’s a fight I’ll actually buy tickets for and go to myself. So, yeah, life waits for nobody. We should have moved faster, we should have moved further along in the negotiations, and it’s our own fault.”

Although White absorbs the blame for not locking in Sept. 16 sooner, he said not all hope is lost. The clock apparently is ticking, though, and an agreement with McGregor needs to be finalized before the end of the weekend.

That deadline might seem soon, but White said he feels it’s doable. That’s just one half of the work that needs to be done, though, and White said reaching a deal with Mayweather could be an entirely different animal.


“I think (the chances of a deal with McGregor) are pretty good,” White said. “Hopefully Monday I’m going to sit down and negotiate with Team Mayweather. I just can’t keep messing with this thing. I have to run my business and I have to focus on all the other things that are going on around here.”For more on the UFC’s upcoming schedule, stay tuned to the UFC Rumors section of the site.

Charlie Hebdo Shooting: 12 Killed at Muhammad Cartoons Magazine in Paris

by samsurikamal
Masked gunmen armed with AK-47s and shouting "Allahu Akbar" stormed the offices of a French satirical news magazine Wednesday in a terror attack that left 12 people dead, including the editor and two police officers.

The suspects shot dead one of the officers on the street as they fled — escaping first in a black Citroen that they abandoned after a crash, and then in a sedan they carjacked from a bystander.
There was no verified claim of responsibility or motive for the ambush, but the target, a weekly publication called Charlie Hebdo, has published cartoons of the Muslim Prophet Muhammad and was firebombed three years ago.

Late in the day, authorities released the names of three suspects: Said Kouachi and Cherif Kouachi, both in their 30s, and 18-year-old Hamyd Mourad. Officials later said the youngest suspect had turned himself in.

France declared Thursday a national day of mourning, raised its terror threat level and stepped up security for media organizations, large stores and places of worship, and launched a manhunt for the killers with the assistance of the FBI.

"We will find the people who did this," French President Francois Hollande vowed. He later called for national unity.

"Freedom is always bigger than barbarism," he said. "Vive la France."
Condemnation of the attack, which unfolded at 11:30 a.m. local time (5:30 a.m. ET), poured in from the Vatican to the White House.

President Barack Obama said in a statement that "the French people have stood up for the universal values that generations of our people have defended." Secretary of State John Kerry called the victims "martyrs for liberty."

They included the paper's editor, Stephane Charbonnier — widely known by his pen name Charb — and his police guard, according to the Associated Press, citing a police union spokesman. Also killed was economist and writer Bernard Maris, who is a senior figure with France's central bank. Eleven people were injured, four of them critically.

Prosecutors said two gunmen wearing balaclavas arrived at the building in a black Citroen C3 and killed a maintenance worker on the way in before heading to the third-floor editorial offices of the magazine. There, they shot dead eight journalists, a guest and a police officer who had been assigned to protect workers.

"Hey! We avenged the Prophet Muhammad! We killed Charlie Hebdo," one of the men shouted in French, according to one video shot from a nearby building and broadcast on French TV.

In another video, shouts of "Allahu Akbar" — or "God is great" — can be heard as the shootings took place. The Associated Press reported that the gunmen spoke flawless, unaccented French.

"It was a pretty horrible sight," said Anders Lund, a 28-year-old musician who heard the gunshots from his apartment just 200 yards away. "I heard a few bangs, loud ones," he told NBC News. "I did not know they were gunshots until I heard all the sirens."

"I went down there, and there were officers and people from ambulances in the street. It was pretty chaotic...From afar I could see people on stretchers being carried out. It did not look good."
As the gunmen fled, there were confronted by police three times. Twice, they fired on officers, but no one was hurt. But on Boulevard Richard le Noir, they killed an officer in cold blood, a prosecutor said.

Racing toward the north of the city, the suspects hit the car of a civilian, who was wounded, officials said. Ditching their vehicle, they then hijacked a Renault Clio at gunpoint.
Police union official Rocco Contento told Reuters that other attacks remained "a possibility" and "other sites are being secured."

Charlie Hebdo is a publication that has always courted controversy with satirical attacks on political and religious leaders. It published cartoons of Muhammad in 2012, forcing France to temporarily close embassies and schools in more than 20 countries amid fears of reprisals. Its offices were also firebombed in November 2011 after publishing a caricature of Muhammad on its cover.

Its most recent tweet was a cartoon of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of ISIS. The caption translates to: "Best wishes, by the way."

A cartoon published in this week's issue now seems like an eerie premonition. "Still no attacks in France," an extremist fighter says. "Wait — we have until the end of January to present our New Year's wishes."

One of the magazine's editors, Gerard Biard, told France Inter radio: "I don't understand how people can attack a newspaper with heavy weapons. A newspaper is not a weapon of war."

Hollande said that several other attacks had been thwarted in France "in recent weeks."

"No barbaric act will ever extinguish the freedom of the press," the French president said in a tweet. "We are a united country."

There was a similar response on Twitter, where the hashtag #jesuischarlie — "I am Charlie" — expressed in solidarity with the magazine was tweeted more than 162,000 times, according to analytics website Topsy.

Thousands headed to a demonstration at the Place de la Republique in central Paris. More than 22,000 Facebook users said they would attend.

Wednesday's shooting is one of the worst terror attacks on French soil. In March 2012, seven people were killed in three gun attacks targeting French soldiers and Jewish civilians in Montauban and Toulouse, while a string of bombings in 1995 killed eight and injured more than 100.

The U.S. Embassy in Paris said in a statement that it had no plans to close or limit access to diplomatic facilities in France. "We are open for business as usual," it said.

U.S. defense officials also said there were no plans to increase the level of security for U.S. military bases and personnel throughout Europe. Despite Wednesday's attack, there appears to be no direct or imminent threat against U.S. military installations or personnel, the officials said.


NBC News' Ed Kiernan, Nancy Ing, David Wyllie, Robert Windrem, Jim Miklaszewski and Jason Cumming, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

Angkor Wat

by samsurikamal
The newest finds at Angkor Wat can only be described as unreal. The ancient religious site in Cambodia recently yielded a treasure trove of new discoveries—eight buried towers, a spiral, concealed paintings, and the foundations of an entire medieval city.The rock towers are shattered in their graves next to a gateway by the moat. The spiral, a unique structure made of sand nearly 1.6 kilometers (1 mi) long, flows in rectangular lines. 

Two hundred paintings adorn the temple walls, and all are invisible to the naked eye.When digitally enhanced, murals come to life depicting gods, horsemen, animals, and musical scenes. Most spectacularly, laser technology recently revealed a lost city. Called Mahendraparvata, it was previously only known from ancient texts.The major temples of Angkor are surrounded by a considerable urban area linked up by roads and canals. Mahendraparvata was among the first capitals of the Khmer Empire and built centuries before Angkor Wat.

Petra

by samsurikamal
In Jordan, archaeologists have been excavating the ancient city of Petra for two centuries. The metropolis is massive. Carved from desert cliffs, there are places of worship, tombs, homes, and forts at least two millennia old. After all that time shoveling and studying, one would think that nothing big would be left to find.Incredibly, a mammoth structure was found in 2016.

 Located about 1 kilometer (0.6 mi) from the city, a giant rectangular platform was revealed and it came with extras. It contained a smaller version of itself on top, pillars, a stairway, and terrace walls, making it one of the most monumental finds at Petra.The platform is on a plateau and measures about 56 by 49 meters (184 by 161 ft). The structure was built by Petra’s inhabitants while the city was the height of its power. But what this colossal platform was used for remains a mystery.

Seahenge

by samsurikamal
In 1998, a prehistoric circle was found on a Norfolk beach. The so-called Seahenge became famous, but it has a much neglected sister. Found during the same year, she was even overlooked when protesters tried to prevent the removal of the 55 oak posts and the centerpiece oak stump belonging to Seahenge.Removal was necessary because of damage caused by the tides. 

The second circle, known as Holme II (technically Seahenge is Holme I), is dying a slow death. Originally, its oak posts and fences formed an oval around two oak logs in the middle. Today, most of it is gone.Sadly, complete destruction is inevitable since there are no plans to remove Holme II. Both henges date to 2049 BC, pointing toward a unified purpose as one monument. Seahenge is believed to be a memorial to somebody who died, while Holme II’s now-missing central logs are suspected to have supported the deceased’s coffin.

Ancient City Of Knossos

by samsurikamal
Knossos, the oldest city in Europe, was built by the Minoan culture and is home to Crete’s most famous landmark, the Palace of Knossos. Fieldwork revealed that the scale of the Bronze Age metropolis was three times larger than previously thought and spread out over a large part of the Knossos valley.Newly discovered tombs contained imported goods, indicating that this flagship city was a trade hub of the ancient world and a shopper’s dream. 

Knossos wasn’t just advanced and spectacular, it was resilient, too. Its sociopolitical system crumbled around 1200 BC.However, the new urban ruins show a city that recovered and expanded rapidly during the Iron Age. By 1100 to 600 BC, Knossos was wealthy and influential again, thanks to its trading with several countries as near as mainland Greece and as far as the Near East and Egypt.