Trends
12 March 2010
22
'From porn to Parliament': Woman adult Soon, a device that writes film-maker selected as Lib Dem candidate data directly into brain London : So far, she has been a staunch advocate of all things blue. The first woman in Britain to direct adult films revealed yesterday, however, that her political colours are of a different hue. Anna Arrowsmith, hailed in some quarters as a champion of 'female-friendly porn', has been chosen as a Liberal Democrat candidate in the General Election. Explaining why she wanted to be an MP, the 38-year-old - whose films include Where's The Rent Boys? (sic) - said she was 'disgusted' by the MPs' expenses scandal and believes women are under-represented in Parliament. Mrs Arrowsmith, who is fighting Tory Adam Holloway's seat of Gravesham in Kent, said: 'I am not a professional politician, I have worked all my life to set up a successful business and I want to fight for the rights of people in Gravesham.' A quick glance through the titles of her 300 or so films may suggest she has used them to address some of the major challenges facing Britain today. Hug A Hoodie, for example,
could pass as a David Cameron sound bite about disaffected youths. And another - its title unsuitable for a family newspaper - tackles the frustrations of buxom matrons in the NHS.
Mrs Arrowsmith, who works in porn under the pseudonym Anna Span, is managing director of adult film company Easy on the Eye. She began shooting porn films after graduating from Central St Martins School of Art with a degree in Fine Art (Film & Video) in 1998. Named best director in the 2008 and 2009 UK Adult Film and Television Awards, she says she became involved in porn to make it more accessible to women. She has also written a book for couples about how to make porn at home. 'I would say to the people of Gravesham, don't judge me by the industry as a whole,' she said. 'I have gone into the porn industry with a view to changing it and making it more female friendly. 'In this day and age, people who live in a democratic society should be able to choose what they want to watch. 'I have spent years campaigning for equal opportunities for female workers and this has given me an excellent experience for the coming campaign.'
Washington: Scientists in Japan are developing electric sensors using nanotechnology that could not only read information from our brains, but also write information to it. Keiichi Torimitsu of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) says that the technology could have real practical applications in helping sufferers from Parkinson's disease or stroke. "Establishing connections between the brain and electrical instruments is important for understanding how the brain works and for controlling neural activity," Discovery News quoted Torimitsu as saying. "To develop some kind of devices or interfaces with the brain that would make it possible to transmit our information, sending it through the telecommunication pathways to another person or device such as a computer - that is the goal", he added. The brain-reading device would incorporate a nanosized electrode coated with a membrane that would mimic the receptor proteins found on the
TVs in their rooms. Minorities were at higher risk than whites for nearly every factor. "It's striking," said lead author Dr Elsie Taveras of Harvard Medical School. The researchers questioned 1,826 Boston-area mothers, but Taveras said the study results apply to youngsters across the US. Many circumstances studied are more
common in low-income, less educated families, including whites. Taveras said the researchers accounted for that and still found race was frequently a factor regardless of income. The inflammation study involved data on more than 16,000 children aged 1 to 17 who had blood tests during 1999-2006 national health surveys. Inflammation markers including a
outside of brain cells. There is electrical activity when the receptors and neurotransmitters interact, and the nanoelectrode would be able to pick up that activity, which could then be read by external equipment. Torimitsu also hopes the device would not just be a bystander but be able to interact in the connections between the neurons, known as synapses. Professor Gordon Wallace, of the University of Wollongong's Intelligent Polymer Research Institute in Australia, is working with Torimitsu's team on the device. He said: "People are starting to realize all around the world that there are lots of tools that we can use that we already have at our disposal to make this field progress very quickly." The work was presented by Torimitsu, the head of NTT's molecular and bioscience group, at this week's International Conference on Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICONN) in Sydney.
Black, Hispanic kids likelier to be obese Chicago: The odds of obesity appear stacked against black and Hispanic children starting even before birth, provocative new research suggests. The findings help explain disproportionately high obesity rates in minority children. Family income is often a factor, but so are cultural customs and beliefs, the study authors said. In a separate, equally troubling study, researchers found signs of inflammation in obese children as young as 3 years old. High levels were more common in blacks and Hispanics. These inflammatory markers have been linked with obesity in adults and are thought to increase chances for developing heart disease. Their significance in early childhood is uncertain. "We think that fat cells in the body cause inflammation and that inflammation causes vessel damage," said University of North Carolina researcher Asheley
Cockrell Skinner, the lead author of this study. The results suggest that 3-year-olds with inflammation might already have artery changes that could make then prone to later heart problems. Both studies were released on Monday in the journal Pediatrics. Dr Reginald Washington, a Denver pediatric heart specialist who has worked with the American Academy of Pediatrics on obesity issues, called both studies important. Twenty percent of black and Hispanic children ages 2 to 19 are obese, versus 15% of whites, recent government data show. In the racial disparities study, risk factors examined included: mothers smoking during pregnancy; unusually rapid weight gain in infants; starting solid food before 4 months; mothers' pressuring kids to eat more; children sleeping less than 12 hours daily between 6 months and 2 years; and allowing kids to have sugary drinks, fastfood, and/or
substance called C-reactive protein or CRP were measured. CRP levels of at least 1 milligram per deciliter of blood have been linked with heart disease risks in adults. Starting at age 3, very obese children were more likely than less heavy kids to have levels at least that high. Even higher levels were most common in black and Hispanic kids.