By Ursula Dicke and Gerard Roth As far as we know, no dog can compose music, no dolphin can speak in rhymes, and no parrot can solve equations with two unknowns. Only humans can perform such intellectual feats, presumably because we are smarter than all other animal species—at least by our own definition of intelligence. Of course, intelligence must emerge from the workings of the three-pound mass of wetware packed inside our skulls. Thus, researchers have tried to identify unique features of the human brain that could account for our superior intellectual abilities. But, anatomically, the human brain is very similar to that of other primates because humans and chimpanzees share an ancestor that walked the earth less than seven million years ago. Accordingly, the human brain contains no highly conspicuous characteristics that might account for the species’ cleverness. For instance, scientists have failed to find a correlation between absolute or relative brain size and acumen among humans and other animal species. Neither have they been able to discern a parallel between wits and the size or existence of specific regions of the brain, excepting perhaps Broca’s area, which governs speech in people. The lack of an obvious structural correlate to human intellect jibes with the idea that our intelligence may not be wholly unique: studies are revealing that chimps, among various other species, possess a diversity of humanlike social and cognitive skills. © 1996-2008 Scientific American Inc

Keyword: Intelligence; Evolution
Link ID: 11982 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Lauren Cahoon Here's a trick to make a rubber hand come to life. Hide your right hand under a cloth and stick the rubber hand where your right hand should be. Now have someone stroke your right hand and the fake hand at the same time. Before you know it, you'll begin to "feel" sensation in the rubber hand. But what happens to your real right hand? New research suggests that your body begins to disown it. Psychologists have used the rubber-hand illusion for years to study how people perceive body boundaries. How, for example, does your brain know where you stop and a bicycle begins? Brain scans reveal that the premotor cortex, the part of the brain that integrates vision and touch, helps the body adopt the rubber hand, but no one had looked at what was going on with the hidden, real hand. Lorimer Moseley, a neuroscientist who studies pain at Oxford University in the U.K., and colleagues repeated the rubber-hand experiment on 11 volunteers, but they added a twist: They took the temperature of the hidden hand. During the 7-minute illusion, the researchers found that the average temperature of the hidden hand dropped 0.27°C in all participants; the temperature of other body parts, including the person's other real hand, remained the same. © 2008 American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Keyword: Miscellaneous
Link ID: 11981 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Ewen Callaway Next time you’re at a blackjack table trying to decide whether to hold or hit, just trust your gut. New research shows that our brains pick up on subliminal signals – a dealer’s tell, for instance – when making risky decisions. “When you think that you are referring to your intuition, actually you just learn an association between subliminal signals in your context and the outcome of your actions,” says Mathias Pessiglione, a neuroscientist at the Centre for Neuroimaging Research in Paris, France, who led the study. Doctors and gamblers may be used to trusting their instincts in make-or-break situations, but scientists have had a tough time proving that the brain can learn subconsciously. To uncover this ability, Pessiglione and colleague Chris Frith, of University College London, tested 20 volunteers with a simple game based on winning and losing small amounts of money. On a computer screen, the volunteers watched an animated abstract pattern for a few seconds, which included one of three symbols part way through. Unbeknownst to the subjects, the symbols indicated whether they would lose or gain £1 or break even if they accepted the gamble. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Emotions
Link ID: 11980 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Experimental RNA drug may cause blindness Erika Check Hayden An experimental therapy to treat the eye disease macular degeneration might actually cause blindness in some patients, according to a study published today. The treatment uses so-called 'small interfering RNA' molecules (siRNAs) to try and slow down degeneration in the area of the retina that is responsible for central vision. This type of degeneration is the leading cause of vision loss in people over the age of 50 in the United States. The warning that siRNAs might cause more harm than good in the eye has been dismissed by one of the companies testing the therapy. But scientists are concerned because there are no published studies that have tested whether the side-effect is occurring in ongoing human trials. "This study really poses serious concerns about whether siRNAs can cause damage, although this will need to be tested further," says retina specialist David M. Brown of the Methodist Hospital in Houston, Texas, who was not involved in the work. The study, led by Kang Zhang of the University of California, San Diego, adds an extra layer of complexity to the phenomenon of RNA interference, a process in which small pieces of genetic material, such as siRNAs, trigger cells to shut down or silence the activity of certain genes. Two companies — OPKO Health of Miami, Florida, and Allergan of Irvine, California — are testing whether siRNAs could slow the progression of the 'wet' version of macular degeneration, where abnormal blood-vessel growth damages cells in the retina. © 2008 Nature Publishing Group

Keyword: Vision
Link ID: 11979 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Rachel Zelkowitz A cure for hearing loss could be closer, now that a team of scientists has produced key ear cells in mice--and for the first time verified that the cells work just like natural ones. The inner ear turns sound waves into electrical signals inside the organ of Corti, which is lined with rows of 15,000 to 20,000 hairlike cells. The cells respond to vibrations by producing electrical impulses that travel via nerves to the brain. It's a fragile system; loud noises can damage the hair cells and age can deplete them, resulting in hearing loss. Researchers guessed that they could restore some hearing by replacing those hair cells. Previous studies isolated a protein called Atoh1, which triggers hair-cell growth. But it wasn't clear that the engineered cells would have the same mechanical and electrical properties as normal ones when produced in an animal. To address that concern, John Brigande, a developmental neurobiologist at Oregon Health and Science University in Portland, and colleagues injected embryonic mice with DNA containing several copies of Atoh1. The researchers inserted the genes about a week before birth--after they could identify tissue that would become the inner ear and before the natural development of hair cells had begun. Four days after the mice were born, the researchers examined their hair cells. © 2008 American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Keyword: Hearing; Regeneration
Link ID: 11978 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Devin Powell A strain of noisy laboratory mice shows all the signs of autism that are used to diagnose human beings, according to new research. The mice may help scientists study the complicated genetics of autism. Maria Luisa Scattoni of the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, Maryland, and colleagues, separated baby mice of different laboratory strains from their mothers. The pups, which had not yet opened their eyes, made noises aimed to bring mom back. These ultrasonic sounds – too low for the human ear to detect – come in 10 different types, from clicking to pure tones. Most mice in the study used all 10 categories. But the vocabulary of one strain, called BTBR, was limited to four calls, focusing on "harmonics" that contain multiple, simultaneous sounds - like guitar strings plucked together. BTBR mice also called louder and for longer periods of time. "This is similar to what others have found in autistic infants," says Scattoni. Language problems in human babies with autism lead them to hum and grunt for extended periods, and squeal loudly and inappropriately. These babies may also cry for extended periods. Previous studies from the same group have shown that these mice also show the two other symptoms normally used to diagnose human autism – repetitive behavior and restricted social interaction. "BTBR is the first [mouse strain] to have all three," says Scattoni. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd

Keyword: Autism; Language
Link ID: 11977 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Three warnings from Health Canada on the risk of death and stroke among seniors taking antipsychotic drugs failed to reduce the prescription rates of those drugs, according to researchers who suggest health warnings are ineffective at protecting patients. Between October 2002 and June 2005, Health Canada issued three warnings of increased risk of death or stroke in elderly patients with dementia who take atypical antipsychotic drugs. In the 1990s, antipsychotics such as Zyprexa (olanzapine), Seroquel (quetiapine) and Risperdal (risperidone) were developed for schizophrenia and other psychiatric conditions. Of the three drugs, only risperidone is approved by Health Canada to treat symptoms of aggression and psychosis in elderly patients with dementia, although doctors may prescribe conventional and atypical antipsychotic drugs off-label for dementia. "The three warnings about serious adverse events associated with use of atypical antipsychotic agents in elderly people with dementia had a limited effect on the prescription rates of these agents," Dr. Geoffrey Anderson of the department of health policy, management and evaluation at the University of Toronto and his colleagues write in Tuesday's issue of the Canadian Medical Association Journal. © CBC 2008

Keyword: Schizophrenia; Alzheimers
Link ID: 11976 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By ABIGAIL ZUGER, M.D. Doctors get seriously ill just like ordinary people, and some of them never recover from the shock. If of a literary bent, they are often moved to reflect for posterity on this disruption of the natural order, detailing their former hubris and the enlightening misery of health care experienced from the other side of the bed. Against this generally lackluster collection of memoirs, Dr. Thomas Graboys’s stands out as a small wonder. Unsentimental and unpretentious, it manages to hit all its marks effortlessly, creating a version of the old fable as touching, educational and inspiring as if it had never been told before. The story’s success lies partly in its almost mythic dimensions: Dr. Graboys rose high, and he fell hard. Until age 50 he was a medical version of one of Tom Wolfe’s masters of the universe: a noted Harvard cardiologist beloved by colleagues and patients, happily married to a tall, beautiful blonde. He was a marathon runner, a demon on the tennis courts and ski slopes, and, if he says so himself, a particularly handsome guy. Then everything fell apart. Over a terrible two-year period Dr. Graboys’s wife died a lingering death from colon cancer. In his grief he barely noticed that he was not functioning quite as well as usual. Those around him figured his fatigue and uncharacteristic fumbling were only to be expected. He pulled himself together, met another woman, and then collapsed on the wedding day — the beginning of physical problems that could no longer be ignored. It was Parkinson’s disease, the neurological condition that makes the body stiffen and shake, but it took Dr. Graboys many months to take the irrevocable step of giving his problems a name. Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Parkinsons
Link ID: 11975 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By ANAHAD O’CONNOR Manipulating your neck is supposed to relieve pain, not cause it. But years ago neurologists noticed a strange pattern of people suffering strokes shortly after seeing chiropractors, specifically for neck adjustments. Their hypothesis was that a chiropractic technique called cervical spinal manipulation, involving a forceful twisting of the neck, could damage two major arteries that lead through the neck to the back of the brain. Strokes in people under age 45 are relatively rare, but these cervical arterial dissections are a leading cause of them. Studies that followed suggested a link. One at Stanford that surveyed 177 neurologists found 55 patients who suffered strokes after seeing chiropractors. Another, published in the journal Neurologist, said young stroke patients were five times more likely to have had neck adjustments within a week of their strokes than a control group. It estimated an incidence of 1.3 cases for every 100,000 people under 45 receiving neck adjustments. But other studies have cast doubt. One published this year examined 818 cases of stroke linked to arterial dissections at the back of the neck. Before their strokes, younger patients who saw chiropractors were more likely to have complained beforehand of head and neck pain — symptoms often preceding a stroke — suggesting they had undiagnosed dissections and had sought out chiropractors for relief, not realizing a stroke was imminent. Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Stroke
Link ID: 11974 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By MICHELLE NIJHUIS Crows and their relatives — among them ravens, magpies and jays — are renowned for their intelligence and for their ability to flourish in human-dominated landscapes. That ability may have to do with cross-species social skills. In the Seattle area, where rapid suburban growth has attracted a thriving crow population, researchers have found that the birds can recognize individual human faces. John M. Marzluff, a wildlife biologist at the University of Washington, has studied crows and ravens for more than 20 years and has long wondered if the birds could identify individual researchers. Previously trapped birds seemed more wary of particular scientists, and often were harder to catch. “I thought, ‘Well, it’s an annoyance, but it’s not really hampering our work,’ ” Dr. Marzluff said. “But then I thought we should test it directly.” To test the birds’ recognition of faces separately from that of clothing, gait and other individual human characteristics, Dr. Marzluff and two students wore rubber masks. He designated a caveman mask as “dangerous” and, in a deliberate gesture of civic generosity, a Dick Cheney mask as “neutral.” Researchers in the dangerous mask then trapped and banded seven crows on the university’s campus in Seattle. In the months that followed, the researchers and volunteers donned the masks on campus, this time walking prescribed routes and not bothering crows. The crows had not forgotten. They scolded people in the dangerous mask significantly more than they did before they were trapped, even when the mask was disguised with a hat or worn upside down. The neutral mask provoked little reaction. The effect has not only persisted, but also multiplied over the past two years. Wearing the dangerous mask on one recent walk through campus, Dr. Marzluff said, he was scolded by 47 of the 53 crows he encountered, many more than had experienced or witnessed the initial trapping. The researchers hypothesize that crows learn to recognize threatening humans from both parents and others in their flock. Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Learning & Memory
Link ID: 11973 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Daniel Cressey Despite thousands of years of coexistence, exploitation and cheese, humanity seems to have missed an intriguing fact about cows: they like to point north. Or possibly south. An analysis of more than 8,000 cows claims they have a statistically significant preference to align themselves in a north-south direction. The team behind this study has also found a similar preference in deer, and believes the animals must be sensing the Earth's magnetic field. While 'magnetoreception' has been documented in insects, birds and some mammals, the idea that such a prominent example of it could have gone unrecognised for years comes as a surprise. What evolutionary advantage, if any, the cattle might accrue is unclear. "It is amazing that this ubiquitous conspicuous phenomenon apparently has remained unnoticed by herdsmen and hunters for thousands of years," write Sabine Begall, of the University of Duisberg-Essen in Germany, and colleagues in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Begall's team used satellite photos from Google Earth to analyse the orientation of 8,510 cattle at 308 sites around the globe. The photos were chosen to ensure the animals were clearly visible, standing on flat ground, and not close to water or feeding areas that would influence their position. "The whole search was quite time-consuming," says Begall. "Sometimes you find several pastures within minutes, and at other times you search and search without finding anything useful." © 2008 Nature Publishing Group

Keyword: Animal Migration
Link ID: 11972 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Jeremy Hsu "Carl, let me in," whispered actor-director Ben Stiller, grasping at empty air near a sullen teenage boy. "I want to know what makes my little nephew tick." The sketch at the 2008 MTV Movie Awards showcased Stiller's self-mocking attempt to promote his new comedy "Tropic Thunder" and get inside the head of his potential audience. But in reality, both Hollywood studios and neuroscientists are increasingly using technologies such as brain scans to peer inside the minds of moviegoers. That alliance promises to do more than just sell Hollywood's movies to the masses — it may revolutionize how filmmakers create movies to begin with. Story continues below ↓advertisement New York University's Film School has produced renowned directors ranging from Oliver Stone and Joel Coen to Martin Scorsese and Spike Lee. But perhaps the most interesting film development at the university today is unfolding inside the psychology department. "In the last four years or five years, we used movies in our experiments," said Uri Hasson, a neuroscientist at NYU, "but we used movies basically to understand about the brain." © 2008 Microsoft

Keyword: Brain imaging
Link ID: 11971 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Bruce Bower There’s good news and, not surprisingly, bad news for children and teenagers grappling with the psychological aftermath of trauma. On the up side, research shows that certain interventions ease post-traumatic stress disorder and other trauma-related problems in young people. On the down side, most mental-health practitioners use trauma treatments for kids and teens that lack scientific support. These conclusions come from an extensive research review conducted by the Task Force on Community Preventive Services, an independent group of 12 investigators partly funded by the federal government. Its findings appear in the September American Journal of Preventive Medicine. To make matters worse, pediatricians and school officials rarely screen children for past exposure to traumatic events and resulting psychological symptoms, the task force notes. Efforts are underway to develop web-based guides for parents and teachers to identify and help kids experiencing trauma-related problems. Although the review focuses on Western countries, research has also just started to explore the use of trained non-professionals to treat traumatized children in developing nations, where mental health workers are scarce. Kids with trauma-related psychological problems tend to do poorly in school if they remain untreated or are inadequately treated, remarks psychologist and social worker Marleen Wong of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. © Society for Science & the Public 2000 - 2008

Keyword: Stress
Link ID: 11970 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By KENNETH CHANG At the tip of the noses of mammals, including humans, is a ball of nerve cells known as the Grueneberg ganglion, named after Hans Grueneberg, the scientist who described the structure in mice in 1973. Grueneberg thought it was just a nerve ending. Only in last few years, after scientists devised strains of mice that glow green under fluorescent light, did they deduce that the Grueneberg ganglion is a component of the olfactory system. But they still did not know what the ganglion smelled. In the Aug. 22 issue of the journal Science, researchers at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland report that they have figured it out, at least for the green-glowing mice. All sorts of organisms, including plants, insects and mammals, release “alarm pheromones” when they sense danger; the pheromones waft through the air to warn others. Very little is known about the alarm pheromones of mammals other than that they exist. Scientists have not identified the compounds; they do not know where in the body the pheromones are produced. Nonetheless, the Lausanne scientists could collect the pheromones by simply stressing mice and sucking up the air around them. Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Chemical Senses (Smell & Taste); Emotions
Link ID: 11969 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Growing up with a pet dog could increase your chances of being a snorer later in life, claims a Swedish study. This is not just a potential annoyance - heavy snoring has been linked to early death, heart disease and stroke. The University Hospital Umea research, published in the BioMed Central, found being exposed to a dog as a newborn boosted the risk of snoring by 26%. They suggested allergic swelling could alter the shape of a person's airways for life. Just under one in five of the 15,556 people from Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Denmark and Estonia reported "habitual snoring", described as loud and disturbing on at least three nights a week. The same questionnaire asked them to recall other facts about their home lives, and various factors seemed to increase the risk of snoring later in life. These included being hospitalised for a respiratory infection before the age of two, having recurrent ear infections as a child, and growing up in a large family. While there is no concrete evidence of a mechanism which might explain these findings, lead researcher Dr Karl Franklin, from University Hospital Umea, suggested that they could all "enhance inflammatory processes" and "alter upper airway anatomy early in life". These permanent changes would then increase the chances of noisy nights to come. Dr Franklin said that the problem extended beyond the prospect of sleep deprivation for the snorer and their partner. "People who snore run an increased risk of early death and cardiovascular diseases, such as heart attacks or strokes," he said. (C)BBC

Keyword: Sleep; Neuroimmunology
Link ID: 11968 - Posted: 08.23.2008

By Tina Hesman Saey Dopamine, a feel-good brain chemical, helps keep sleep-deprived people awake, researchers from the National Institute on Drug Abuse show in the August 20 Journal of Neuroscience. Dopamine is also required for activity of a drug that treats narcolepsy, Japanese and Chinese scientists report in the same issue of the journal. “Dopamine has been a forgotten neurotransmitter for sleep regulation,” says Emmanuel Mignot, a sleep researcher and Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator at Stanford University. Increasing evidence is pointing toward dopamine as an important ingredient in the brain’s recipe for promoting wakefulness. The new findings suggest dopamine may naturally increase when a person is sleep-deprived, as a way to counteract a revved-up drive to sleep, says David Dinges of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Dinges was not involved in the two new studies, but he has studied the effect of sleep deprivation on people. Sleep deprivation affects some people profoundly, impairing their ability to pay attention and lengthening their reaction times, Dinges says. Other people function nearly as well when mildly sleep-deprived as they do when well-rested. The extent to which dopamine rises in the brain after sleep loss may help explain some of the variability in people’s abilities to cope with sleep deprivation, Dinges says. © Society for Science & the Public 2000 - 2008

Keyword: Sleep
Link ID: 11967 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Dear EarthTalk: Can those energy-efficient compact fluorescent light bulbs that are popular now cause headaches because of the flickering they do? I converted my whole house over last fall and both my kids were complaining of headaches on and off. -- Sandy, Eugene, OR With a switch to energy efficient compact fluorescent (CFL) light bulbs already in full swing in the U.S. and elsewhere—Australia has banned incandescents, Britain will soon, and the U.S. begins a phase-out of incandescents in 2012—more and more complaints have arisen about the new bulbs causing headaches. Many experts say that the issue is being overblown, however, that there is no scientific evidence that the bulbs cause headaches and that a kind of hysteria has grown out of a small number of anecdotal reports. Industry experts acknowledge that day-to-day exposure to older, magnetically ballasted long tube fluorescent bulbs found mostly in industrial and institutional settings could cause headaches due to their noticeable flicker rate. The human brain can detect the 60 cycles per second such older bulbs need to refresh themselves to keep putting out light. However, modern, electronically ballasted CFLs refresh themselves at between 10,000 and 40,000 cycles per second, rates too fast for the human eye or brain to detect. “As far as I’m aware there is no association between headaches and the use of compact fluorescent lamps,” says Phil Scarbro of Energy Federation Incorporated (EFI), a leading distributor of energy efficiency-related products—including many CFLs. © 1996-2008 Scientific American Inc

Keyword: Vision; Pain & Touch
Link ID: 11966 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Gisela Telis Scientists have pinpointed the region of the mammalian nose that detects the smell of fear--a discovery that solves a 35-year-old puzzle. A mysterious lump of cells called the Grueneberg ganglion appears to be a sensitive and specialized danger detector, picking up the alarm signals animals emit when they're distressed. Grueneberg ganglions were first spotted in 1973 in mice, then forgotten for decades until olfactory researchers stumbled across them again in 2005. The function of the ganglion remained unknown, but biologist Marie-Christine Broillet of the University of Lausanne in Switzerland suspected it might have something to do with sniffing out fear when electron microscopy revealed proteins associated with pheromone reception. So she and colleagues created three classes of mice: those that had undergone surgery to remove their ganglion, those that underwent surgery but whose ganglion was intact, and those that never saw the scalpel. They then pumped pheromones from stressed mice into the test mice's Plexiglas cages. Those pheromones should cause mice to "freeze or run away," Broillet explains. And that's just what mice with intact ganglions did. But the ganglion-lacking mice went on about their exploratory business, apparently unaware of the alarm pheromones around them. Other than that, their sense of smell seemed to be intact: All groups of mice were able to sniff out a cookie hidden in their cages' bedding, the team reports tomorrow in Science. Previous studies had linked fear signals and the olfactory system in a general way, but Broillet's is the first to show exactly what part of the system detects the signals. © 2008 American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Keyword: Emotions
Link ID: 11965 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By John Bohannon Are you for Obama or McCain in the U.S. presidential election? If you call yourself undecided, you may be fooling yourself. A study of decision-making suggests that your mind may be made up long before you think it is. When deciding between choices, people usually feel as if they're completely in control. They evaluate the criteria and weigh the available information before committing. And when that information doesn't seem to tip the balance, they report that they are undecided. But psychologists know that decision-making is strongly affected by the unconscious mind. Might the unconscious mind of an undecided person already know what it will choose? To find out, a team led by Silvia Galdi, a social psychologist at the University of Padova, Italy, asked 129 residents of Vicenza, Italy, about their attitude toward a controversial enlargement of a nearby U.S. military base. Most of the people already had a position for or against it, but 33 said they were undecided. To gauge the conscious basis of their decisions, the subjects answered a series of questions relevant to the issue, such as the environmental, economic, and political consequences of the base enlargement. For the unconscious analysis, the researchers had the volunteers watch images of the base and then rapidly choose from lists of positive or negative words. The same tests were repeated a week later. © 2008 American Association for the Advancement of Science

Keyword: Attention; Emotions
Link ID: 11964 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Jennifer Viegas -- The world's first known modern human was a tall, thin individual -- probably male -- who lived around 200,000 years ago and resembled present-day Ethiopians, save for one important difference: He retained a few primitive characteristics associated with Neanderthals, according to a series of forthcoming studies conducted by multiple international research teams. The extraordinary findings, which will soon be outlined in a special issue of the Journal of Human Evolution devoted to the first known Homo sapiens, also reveal information about the material culture of the first known people, their surroundings, possible lifestyle and, perhaps most startling, their probable neighbors -- Homo erectus. "Omo I," as the researchers refer to the find, would probably have been considered healthy-looking and handsome by today's standards, despite the touch of Neanderthal. "From the size of the preserved bones, we estimated that Omo I was tall and slender, most likely around 5'10" tall and about 155 pounds," University of New Mexico anthropologist Osbjorn Pearson, who co-authored at least two of the new papers, told Discovery News. Pearson said another, later fossil was also recently found. It too belonged to a "moderately tall -- around 5'9" -- and slender individual." "Taken together, the remains show that these early modern humans were...much like the people in southern Ethiopia and the southern Sudan today," Pearson said. © 2008 Discovery Communications, LLC

Keyword: Evolution
Link ID: 11963 - Posted: 06.24.2010