Peter Bromberg's UnBlog

Endorphins are among the brain chemicals known as neurotransmitters, which function to transmit electrical signals within the nervous system. At least 20 types of endorphins have been demonstrated in humans. Endorphins can be found in the pituitary gland, in other parts of the brain, or distributed throughout the nervous system. Stress and pain are the two most common factors leading to the release of endorphins. Endorphins interact with the opiate receptors in the brain to reduce our perception of pain and act similarly to drugs such as morphine and codeine. In contrast to the opiate drugs, however, activation of the opiate receptors by the body's endorphins does not lead to addiction or dependence. In addition to decreased feelings of pain, secretion of endorphins leads to feelings of euphoria,well-being and the ability to "think" clearly - precisely what software developers need to do!  It's a known fact that chili, jalapeno and similar peppers stimulate the se...

Yesterday, the Senate began what is expected to be a week-long, contentious debate over legislation to combat global warming by mandatory reductions in carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. You can read up on my post re the World Bank’s experiments with carbon credit trading to see how this is likely to pan out. President Bush said that the measure amounted to "a huge spending bill fueled by tax increases" and that it "would impose roughly $6 trillion in new costs on the American economy." It isn’t just that the alarmists are trumpeting climate model results that we know must be wrong. It is that they are predicting catastrophes that couldn’t happen even if the models were right, in order to justify costly policies to try to prevent global warming. The average person conflates alarmism with science – the Senate and House of Representatives being no exception. The results can be tremendously misguided and dangerous legislation. Meanwhile, a U.N. FAO repor...