Moments of Awareness

Just as it was during the recent uprisings in Tunisia, the role of social media in the recent upheaval in Egypt has been the subject of much debate since the unrest began on Thursday. Daily Show host Jon Stewart on Friday poked fun at the idea that Twitter might have played a key part in the demonstrations, and there are many observers who share his skepticism . The real trigger for the uprisings, they argue, is simply the frustration of the oppressed Egyptian people — which is undoubtedly true. But it also seems clear that social media has played a key role in getting the word out, and in helping organizers plan their protests. In the end, it’s not about Twitter or Facebook: it’s about the power of real-time networked communication. Foreign Policy magazine columnist Evgeny Morozov has argued that Twitter and Facebook should not be credited with playing any kind of critical role in Tunisia, and suggested that doing so is a sign of the “cyber-utopianism...

The well known philosopher of mind, Jerry Foder, famously quipped that, "Not only have we no idea what conscious 'is,' we have no idea what it would be like to have an idea what consciousness 'is.'" To my considerable surprise, I do have an idea what consciousness may be, and how to begin to test for it. In the last blog, following Alfred North Whitehead, who thought in terms of Actuals giving rise to Possibles giving rise to Actual, and W. Heisenberg, among the giant founders of Quantum Mechanics, with a similar view, I proposed a testable hypothesis of a new dualism, the realm of the Possible, Res Potentia, and the realm of the Actual, Res Extensa. Res Potentia and Res Extensa really are linked by quantum measurement. In von Neumann's axiomatization of Quantum Mechanics, this is his R process, the "collapse of the wave function". I quote Shimon Malin, a quantum field theorist, from "Physics and Whitehead" (Ed. T.E. Eastman...

The last big blocks of the net's dwindling stock of addresses are about to be handed out. The event that triggers their distribution is widely expected to take place in the next few days. When that happens each of the five regional agencies that hand out net addresses will get one of the remaining blocks of 16 million addresses. The addresses in those last five blocks are expected to be completely exhausted by September 2011. Final five [...] Full article at  bbc.co.uk   Posted via email from Peace Jaway

Davos delegates have been glued to laptops, tablets and smartphones We're not just connected now, we're hyper-connected: superfast, always-on, and on the move. And if the technology and business leaders at the World Economic Forum have got it right, the impact of this development will be far deeper than most of us imagine. For starters, forget about PCs. For every desktop computer, there are 10 mobile devices. Around the world, mobile phones outnumber toothbrushes two-to-one. These devices generate data, and this firehose of information is aimed straight at us, and change the way we live, work, learn and make money. "Hyper-connectivity will change every business model and supply chain; it's at an inflection point this year... and the uptake of connectivity is accelerating ever more," says the boss of one of the companies powering the internet (under [...] Full article at  bbc.co.uk   Posted via email from Peace Jaway

Many cyclists wear masks to try and minimise the effects of air pollution Cycling is a great way to get around cities and become fit at the same time - but do cyclists get enough public health information about the damage air pollution could be doing to their lungs? In this week's Scrubbing Up, Amanda Dryer, based at the infirmary' s Platt Rehabilitation Unit says cyclists need to be given more information about the risks of cycling in polluted areas. Cycling is fantastic exercise. It yields many health benefits and should not be discouraged due to concerns regarding air pollution. It is critical however that we raise public awareness about the effects that air pollution has on the respiratory system - both in the short and long term. [...] Full article at  bbc.co.uk   Posted via email from Peace Jaway

The first satellite images of Lake Vostok were obtained in the 1990s With only about 50m left to drill, time is running out for the Russian scientists hoping to drill into Vostok - the world's most enigmatic lake. Vostok is a sub-glacial lake in Antarctica, hidden some 4,000m (13,000ft) beneath the ice sheet. With the Antarctic summer almost over, temperatures will soon begin to plummet; they can go as low as -80C. Scientists will leave the remote base on 6 February, when conditions are still mild enough for a plane to land. [...] Full article at  bbc.co.uk   Posted via email from Peace Jaway

The flooding is considered the worst natural disaster Brazil has ever suffered. Brazil says it is going to build 8,000 houses to give free to poor people made homeless by floods and landslides in Rio de Janeiro state this month. President Dilma Rousseff said 6,000 homes would be paid for by the state and federal governments. The other 2,000 would be donated by a consortium of construction companies. Ms Rousseff said there would also be heavy investment in flood prevention measures. More than 830 people died in the floods and landslides. [...] Full article at  bbc.co.uk Awesome. :) Posted via email from Peace Jaway

AURORA BOREALIS: Earth's magnetic field is mostly quiet. Nevertheless, some bright auroras were caught swirling around the Arctic Circle on Jan. 28th. Military satellites photographed the lights from above , while sky watchers in Canada saw them from ground level . An even bigger display is expected on Feb. 3-4 when an incoming solar wind stream reaches Earth. DOUBLE ERUPTION: Jan. 28th began with not one but two major eruptions on the sun. Separated by more than a million kilometers, the two blasts occurred almost simultaneously on ...

From: Farm Aid < memberservices@farmaid.org > Date: Fri, Jan 28, 2011 at 11:32 AM A new year brings new challenges and new opportunities, and for many, New Years' resolutions. Did you make a food or farm resolution this year? How's this for a challenge — trying to get food from local family farmers all winter long? This month, we show you how! When you think of Minnesota during the winter, your first thought probably isn't growing fresh produce, but this month, we tell the story of a family farmer couple doing just that . We also answer a reader question about the best way to get food from local farmers outside the summer months . And we trudge through the snow to visit a new winter farmers market in Massachusetts to see just what's available this time of year . This month, we spoke with Carol Ford & Chuck Waibel . These determined Minnesotans turned a love of fresh, local produce into a year-round business providing food to their communit...

Is Wood the Best Renewable Fuel for Heating? Wood heating isn't what it used to be. It's now clean, efficient and, in the right stove, high-tech. And, as it's always been, it's a renewable resource. Here is what the future holds for wood heating. Lee Richards lives with his wife in a 1957 brick rancher in a neighborhood of cookie-cutter homes in Charlottesville, Va., where he works as the city's commissioner of revenue. In the past decade, he decided to become a more self-sufficient consumer of energy. He commutes to work on foot and by bus. He powers his home with 18 solar panels bolted to his roof and sells the excess electricity back to the grid. He heats his water with a solar-thermal system. And he heats his home in winter with biomass—in this case, firewood—using three small but highly efficient Jøtul wood stoves in the living room, sunroom and basement. He spends $1200 a year on wood—five truckloads, split and delivered—an...

From: Environmental Working Group < ewg@ewg.org > Date: Fri, Jan 28, 2011 at 10:09 AM Dear Friend, Interested in eating healthier -- from tips to shopping smarter to exploring our current food policy? Don't miss TEDxManhattan's Changing the Way We Eat . On February 12, the Glynwood Institute for Sustainable Food and Farming will bring together thought leaders, policy experts and foodies to talk about Changing the Way We Eat . EWG will be there and so should you. Speakers will discuss how the nation can shift to a more sustainable way of eating and farming. EWG President Ken Cook will present a smart and accessible farm bill primer that addresses the question, "How can the next farm bill change the way we eat?" Want a sneak peak today? We've already started the discussion on our AgMag blog. Click here to read how changes to farm bill spending can help get more fruits and vegetables on your child's lunch tray at school. TEDxManhattan ...

Social media's role in the Tunisian revolt has been well documented .  The contributors to a Posterous site, 24sur24.posterous.com ,  were responsible for sharing some of the most powerful videos of the street uprisings. With Twitter and Facebook now shut down in Egypt to quell government protests , email is the only reliable sharing platform left. [...] ~~~~~~~~~~~~ If you are in Egypt and need help setting up your site to continue to get the word out, contact us. Full article at  blog.posterous.com Any and every avenue is useful when it comes to disseminating information. I like this one; you might as well. :) Posted via email from Peace Jaway

...   MY BLOG : Britney can't touch Bollywood. Yum. Posted via email from Peace Jaway

As online students, you don't often have the same kind of access to educational resources that traditional students have access to. Traditional students can walk to the university library and speak with a librarian if they need help. They can set up an appointment to meet their professors for conferences. They can work one-on-one with a tutor in the university writing center to help them revise their essays. Online students, however, have a different kind of access to educational resources. Of course, online students can still go out into the world and access libraries and other educational facilities, but the support networks are not as built in or as easy to use as they are for traditional students. You may be able to use facilities at other institutions if your online school has a partnership with a local university; however, if that's not the case, you'll have to strike out on your own and find some alternative educational resources. So when you're an onli...

Spring Break is a time for college students to let loose and have fun for one week in March before starting finals. Many students from traditional and online colleges take this opportunity to go on trips with their friends to locations where the weather is warm and the beer is flowing. Spring Break may be one of the best and wildest times in all of college, but it's also one of the most dangerous and reckless weeks for students. This time of the year brings many tragic accidents and deaths that could have been avoided for some and not so for others. Here are the top 10 college Spring Break tragedies: Michael Finney : In 2010, NYU student Michael Finney died during his Spring Break vacation in Florida. The 20-year-old drowned after he and a friend were swept up by a current and taken 80 yards from shore. A bystander ran into the water to try to rescue Finney and his roommate, Shreshth Dugar, but was only able to reach Dugar on the first attempt. The man went back to rescu...

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You can also read and listen to this report at KPBS.org. By Joanne Faryon  KPBS and Kevin Crowe  Watchdog Institute Matthew Jacob Bryce was born a healthy 8 pounds, 9 ounces on Oct 11, 2010, so when he showed signs of a cold at just two weeks, his parents knew something more might be wrong. They were not first-time parents. “He was just really stuffy. He was having difficulty breathing,” Marlon, Matthew’s father, recalled. The doctor suspected whooping cough, although everyone in the house had been vaccinated. For Marlon and Cindy Bryce, a young couple who had met in San Diego when both were in the Navy, it was a terrible prospect: whooping cough, known also as pertussis, can be fatal in babies. [...] ~~~~~~~~~~~ © 2011 Watchdog Institute via watchdoginstitute.org To me this seems like a natural outgrowth of the mass-vaccination movement. I think some vaccinations are appropriate for immuno-compromised people and people who a...

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Judging by the weather, the world seems to have flipped upside down. For two winters running, an Arctic chill has descended on Europe, burying that continent in snow and ice. Last year in the United States, historic blizzards afflicted the mid-Atlantic region. This winter the Deep South has endured unusual snowstorms and severe cold, and a frigid Northeast is bracing for what could shape into another major snowstorm this week. Yet while people in Atlanta learn to shovel snow, the weather 2,000 miles to the north has been freakishly warm the past two winters. Throughout northeastern Canada and Greenland, temperatures in December ran as much as 15 to 20 degrees Fahrenheit above normal. Bays and lakes have been slow to freeze; ice fishing, hunting and trade routes have been disrupted. Iqaluit, the capital of the remote Canadian territory of Nunavut, had to cancel its New Year’s snowmobile parade. David Ell, the deputy mayor, said that people in the region had been lookin...

The next time you watch a Bollywood film or a TV show, look closely at what you see on the screen. [...] via bbc.co.uk Product placement is the future. Posted via email from Peace Jaway

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. — For her wedding over the weekend, Nina Johnson had worked through a predictable checklist of locations in town: hotel ballrooms, restaurant halls and catering outfits. In the end, though, she opted for the most glamorous, upscale and stylish setting she could find — a parking garage. “When we saw it, we were in total awe,” said Ms. Johnson, 26, an art gallery director. “It’s breathtaking.” Parking garages, the grim afterthought of American design, call to mind many words. (Rats. Beer cans. Unidentifiable smells.) Breathtaking is not usually among them. Yet here in Miami Beach, whose aesthetic is equal parts bulging biceps and fluorescent pink, bridal couples, bar mitzvah boys and charity-event hosts are flocking to what seems like the unimaginable marriage of high-end architecture and car storage: a $65 million parking garage in the center of the city. [...] Full article at nytimes.com   Posted...

MTV says Skins 'addresses issues confronting teens in a frank way' The MTV US version of hit UK teen drama Skins has caused controversy after a parents' group branded it "dangerous". The Parents Television Council (PTC) said the show could be breaking US laws against sexual exploitation of minors. The group also claimed Skins may break child porn laws - and has asked the US government to investigate. In a statement, MTV said it reviews all its shows "to ensure they comply with laws and community standards". [...] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Follow Radio 1's US reporter Sima Kotecha on Twitter Full article at  bbc.co.uk   Posted via email from Peace Jaway

January is accepted as the most depressing month of the year and lots of people will be feeling pretty glum at the moment. [...] Full article at  bbc.co.uk   Posted via email from Peace Jaway

PORTLAND, Ore. — The first episode of “Portlandia,” a new television show that pokes at this Northwest confection’s urban preciousness, includes a scene in which a couple at a restaurant interrogates a waitress about the quality of the life lived by a chicken they hope to order. The couple soon learns that the bird was raised locally on sheep’s milk, soy and hazelnuts, and that it had a name, Colin. “He looks like a happy little guy who runs around,” says the character played by Fred Armisen , a Saturday Night Live star and a creator of “ Portlandia, ” when he is shown a photograph of a pre-plucked version of the bird. “A lot of friends?” It is a funny moment, a sendup of this city’s obsession with provenance. Yet the fact that it is a spoof might not always be clear. “This is Sir Francis Bacon,” said Jamie Dunn, the owner of the Gilt Club , the restaurant in Portland’s Old Town nei...

Click to play An operation to control her epilepsy left Karen Byrne with no control of her left hand Imagine being attacked by one of your own hands, which repeatedly tries to slap and punch you. Or you go into a shop and when you try to turn right, one of your legs decides it wants to go left, leaving you walking round in circles. Last summer I met 55-year-old Karen Byrne in New Jersey, who suffers from Alien Hand Syndrome. Her left hand, and occasionally her left leg, behaves as if it were under the control of an alien intelligence. [...] Full article at  bbc.co.uk Ya know, I see a political analogy here. Posted via email from Peace Jaway

Click to play Dr Malcolm Macleod explains the process of cooling the brain after a stroke Cooling the brain of patients who have suffered a stroke could dramatically improve their recovery, a group of Scottish doctors has said. They are joining others from across Europe who believe that inducing hypothermia in some patients can boost survival rates and reduce brain damage. Similar techniques have already been tried successfully on heart attack patients and those with birth injuries. [...] Full article at  bbc.co.uk Posted via email from Peace Jaway

The report calls for an urgent change to food production in order to feed future generations A UK government-commissioned study into food security has called for urgent action to avert global hunger. The Foresight Report on Food and Farming Futures says the current system is unsustainable and will fail to end hunger unless radically redesigned. It is the first study across a range of disciplines deemed to have put such fears on a firm analytical footing. The report is the culmination of a two-year study, involving 400 experts from 35 countries. [...] Full article at  bbc.co.uk   Posted via email from Peace Jaway

TARA Stiles does not talk about sacred Hindu texts, personal intentions or chakras. She does not ask her  yoga  classes to chant. Her language is plainly Main Street:  chaturangas  are push-ups, the “sacrum” the lower back. She dismisses the ubiquitous yoga teacher-training certificates as rubber stamps, preferring to observe job candidates in action. In her classes, videos and how-to book, “ Slim Calm Sexy ,” Ms. Stiles, a 29-year-old former model with skyscraper limbs and a goofball sensibility, focuses on the physical and health aspects of yoga, not the spiritual or the philosophical. For traditionalists, this is heresy, reducing what they see as a way of life to just another gym class. But if she has deviated from the conventional path, it has not slowed her down. Ms. Stiles, a native of rural Illinois who owns Strala Yoga in NoHo, has built a powerful yoga brand, with no less than Jane Fonda and Deepak Chopra among her devotees...

There is nothing quite like a drive on the open road but how people will go about driving in the future could change the motor industry for good. [...] Full article at  news.bbc.co.uk   Posted via email from Peace Jaway

Click to play Doctors recorded Brenda Jensen's first words - courtesy UC Davis and UCL A woman in the US is able to speak for the first time in 11 years after a pioneering voicebox transplant. Brenda Jensen said the operation, which took place in California, was a miracle which had restored her life. Thirteen days after the surgery she said her first words: "Good morning, I want to go home." [...] Full article at  bbc.co.uk   Posted via email from Peace Jaway

Lenin's embalmed body has been on public display since his death in 1924 An online poll organised by Russia's ruling party suggests there is strong support for burying Lenin's body. Of more than 250,000 people who have voted in the poll, two-thirds so far say Lenin should now be buried. The revolutionary leader's embalmed body has been on display in a mausoleum in Red Square in Moscow since his death in 1924. The debate about what to with his body resurfaces with every anniversary of his death - on 21 January 1924. [...] Full article at  bbc.co.uk   Posted via email from Peace Jaway

Taking a test is not just a passive mechanism for assessing how much people know, according to new research. It actually helps people learn, and it works better than a number of other studying techniques. The research, published online Thursday in the journal Science , found that students who read a passage, then took a test asking them to recall what they had read, retained about 50 percent more of the information a week later than students who used two other methods. One of those methods — repeatedly studying the material — is familiar to legions of students who cram before exams. The other — having students draw detailed diagrams documenting what they are learning — is prized by many teachers because it forces students to make connections among facts. These other methods not only are popular, the researchers reported; they also seem to give students the illusion that they know material better than they do. [...] Full article at  nytime...

The global rights database is backed by EMI Music Publishing whose clients include Ozzy Osbourne Music publishers are building a song rights database which will make it easier to launch online music services - and fight piracy. The global repertoire database will detail which publisher or song writer owns which rights. That will enable the rights owners to get paid each time their song is played online or via mobile services. The music-industry backed database could be up and running within two years. [...] Full article at  bbc.co.uk   Posted via email from Peace Jaway

British engineers are planning to put a mobile phone in space. The team at SSTL and the Surrey Space Centre in Guildford want to see if the sophisticated capabilities in today's phones will function in the most challenging environment known. The mobile will run on Google's Android operating system but the exact model has not yet been disclosed. It will be used to control a 30cm-long satellite and take pictures of the Earth in the mission later this year. [...] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk Full article at  bbc.co.uk   Posted via email from Peace Jaway

Meet the new buzzword, same as the old buzzword. In advance of the State of the Union, President Obama has telegraphed his main theme: competitiveness. The President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board has been renamed the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness. And in his Saturday radio address, the president declared that “We can out-compete any other nation on Earth.” This may be smart politics. Arguably, Mr. Obama has enlisted an old cliché on behalf of a good cause, as a way to sell a much-needed increase in public investment to a public thoroughly indoctrinated in the view that government spending is a bad thing. But let’s not kid ourselves: talking about “competitiveness” as a goal is fundamentally misleading. At best, it’s a misdiagnosis of our problems. At worst, it could lead to policies based on the false idea that what’s good for corporations is good for America. About that misdiagnosis: What se...

BOISE, Idaho — The skies over southwest Idaho will be the home of more training by military fighter pilots. Officials at Mountain Home Air Force Base say F-15E Strike Eagles will be used in medium altitude training this week over Boise, the Danskin Mountains and the small mountain towns of Pine and Featherville. [...] Full article at  idahostatesman.com   Posted via email from Peace Jaway

‘We may need to seriously rethink the university and its future.’ [feel free to substitute ‘school’ for ‘university’] Another thought-provoking video by Dr. Michael Wesch. Happy viewing! via dangerouslyirrelevant.org Posted via email from Peace Jaway

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Obituary (worth a read) Posted via email from Peace Jaway

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by Nishi Gupta Posted on January 23, 2011 at 5:24 PM BOISE-- The Boise Police Department has a relatively new kind of siren that you will feel. Yes, feel. Several squad cars are equipped with a Rumbler. It’s a siren that causes a vibration, letting everyone in the area know that a police officer is around. The Rumbler is used for officer safety and in DUI enforcement. [...]   Full article at  ktvb.com I think we felt these last night when they went by the studio. Posted via email from Peace Jaway

What does it mean to discover a species? Who should get the credit for it? Why did early naturalists think it worth risking their lives, and often losing them, to ship home the first specimens of a previously unknown butterfly or bat? These turn out to be tangled questions, and it is easy to get stuck on the thorns. Not long ago, for instance, I wrote that a 19th-century French missionary and naturalist in China, Pére Armand David, had “discovered” the snub-nosed golden monkey. A reader sent me this somewhat testy comment: “The answer to the question ‘who discovered it’ is actually the Chinese.” Père David had merely “observed it and introduced it (and many other animals) to the West and into the Western zoological system.”   George Wong/European Pressphoto Agency A male snub-nosed golden monkey. My irritated reader had a point, of a misguided sort. It’s common these days to dismiss the scie...

What if new tests for Down syndrome could one day mean no more affected babies are born? Is that cause to celebrate medical advances or reason to worry we are callously weeding out the less-than-perfect in our midst?   The possibility is on the horizon now that researchers in Hong Kong have announced they've developed a test that relies on DNA technology to scan the mother's blood for indications of Down syndrome. The new screen could help most moms-to-be — 98%, according to the authors — avoid more invasive forms of testing. “This test brings a lot of anticipation and welcome benefit, but it ushers in a whole host of provocative questions,” says Brian Skotko, a doctor in the Down syndrome program at Children's Hospital Boston who also chairs the clinical advisory board for the National Down Syndrome Society. ( More on Time.com : 5 Things for the New Mom Who Has Everything ) Also called trisomy 21, Down syndrome means a fetus carries an extrane...

The history of drug policy is one of unintended—though often predictable—negative consequences. The AP reports on the latest example of this phenomenon, as it relates to recent attempts to eliminate methamphetamine misuse. Reporter Jim Salter writes : Electronic systems that track sales of the cold medicine used to make methamphetamine have failed to curb the drug trade and instead created a vast, highly lucrative market for profiteers to buy over-the-counter pills and sell them to meth producers at a huge markup. An Associated Press review of federal data shows that the lure of such easy money has drawn thousands of new people into the methamphetamine underworld over the last few years. While causing annoying inconvenience to people with colds and flus, these laws have created a tremendous source of revenue for those facing foreclosure and unemployment. People willing to put [...] ~~~~~~~~~~~ Related Links: Adderall May Not Make You Smarter, But I...

There are so many healthy reasons to eat vegetables that it feels redundant to keep enumerating them. But if a stronger immune system, cancer-fighting antioxidants and heart-healthy fiber aren't reason enough for some, perhaps we can appeal to their vanity: a study published in the journal Evolution and Human Behaviour found that eating foods high in carotenoids — a nutrient found in some fruits, leafy greens and root vegetables — gave them a healthy glow that rivaled a sun tan and made them more attractive in tests. ( More on Time.com: Eat Veggies, Cheat Death ) "We found that, given the choice between skin color caused by suntan and skin color caused by carotenoids, people preferred the carotenoid skin color," Dr. Ian Stephen, the study's lead researcher, now of the School of Psychology, University of Nottingham, Malaysia Campus, said in a statement. "So if you want a healthier and more attractive skin color, you are better off eating a healthy diet wi...

With all the fuss over the harshness of Amy Chua's unrelenting "tiger mother" parenting style — the discussion, which was sparked by a Wall Street Journal excerpt of Chua's new memoir about motherhood, made its way onto the cover of TIME this week — few have commented on one simple fact. This tiger mother had help.   Chua says that she often spent three hours a day ensuring that her children completed their violin or piano practice, and hours more supervising their homework or otherwise snuffing their desire for a normal social life (no sleepovers, no playdates, no school plays, no sports and certainly no computer games or TV). Since Chua also has a day job as a professor at Yale Law School — hardly a part-time gig — and since she fails to indicate that she's been taking speed to stay awake 24/7 to keep up with her duties, something doesn't add up. That missing piece is her Mandarin-speaking nanny. That's right, the full-time growling Tiger...

When people consider the connections between drugs and violence, what typically comes to mind are illegal drugs like crack cocaine. However, certain medications — most notably, some antidepressants like Prozac — have also been linked to increase risk for violent, even homicidal behavior. A new study from the Institute for Safe Medication Practices published in the journal PloS One and based on data from the FDA's Adverse Event Reporting System has identified 31 drugs that are disproportionately linked with reports of violent behavior towards others. ( More on Time.com: New Hope For An Anti-Cocaine Vaccine ) Please note that this does not necessarily mean that these drugs cause violent behavior. For example, in the case of opioid pain medications like Oxycontin, people with a prior history of violent behavior may seek  drugs in order to sustain an addiction, which they support via predatory crime. In the case of antipsychotics, the drugs may be given in...

(CNN) -- Kelly, 22, has suffered from depression since age 8. But it's only recently that she realized how much worse she feels when her acne flares up. During the two years in college when her depression waned, so did her skin problems. "When I was free of the depression, I was feeling completely confident and able to make use of all of the opportunities, and much more able to present myself and meet people," said Kelly, who asked that her last name not be used. "And, of course, also with the acne clearing up, I didn't worry about people seeing me and judging me based on acne." The connection between acne and depression has long been documented, especially in teens, but some attributed it to particular medications for acne such as isotretinoin (sold as Accutane, Clarus and others). But a recent study in the British Medical Journal found that the drug itself may not matter; according to Swedish researchers, acne itself raises the risk of depression...