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Cocaine, marijuana, tobacco, alcohol -- the usual drugs and their dangers are familiar to most children and parents alike. Is sound an equally dangerous "gateway drug"? As preposterous as that idea sounds, it's precisely what the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics claims. They are warning parents of a dangerous new drug -- binaural sound. > Oklahoma officials are convinced, though, that it's just the latest way for kids to get high. They call it "i-dosing" and claim that "digital dealers" are selling children the aural equivalent of crack in their eyes. Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs spokesman Mark Woodward...

Blackhawks defenseman Duncan Keith hopped back onto the ice Sunday after losing seven teeth when he was hit in the mouth with a puck. But now hear this: Hall of Famer Stan Mikita not only lost teeth playing hockey, he once returned to action after losing an ear lobe. "I got one (puck) glance off my eyeball and my nose that nailed me pretty good. I couldn't see good for two or three days," the former Blackhawks center (1958-80) recalled Monday. "I got hit three or four times with the puck. If you're skating across the line of fire and...

"When they cut off my nose and ears, I passed out," 19-year-old Bibi Aisha of Afghanistan says with chilling candor. Her beauty is still stunning and her confidence inspiring. It takes a moment for the barbaric act committed against her to register in your mind and sight. "When you have ... 50 percent of a population on their knees, it's very easy for extremists, tyrants to take over a country," she adds. "They have a ready-made enslaved population."

A butterfly species equipped with tiny ears on its wings can distinguish between high and low pitch sounds, possibly as a way to listen in on nearby birds, new research suggests. Scientists thought butterflies were deaf until 1912 when the first butterfly ears were identified. Only in the past decade or so have researchers examined the anatomy and physiology of butterfly ears, which they are finding to be quite diverse and present in several butterfly species. The latest discovery was made with the blue morpho butterfly (Morpho peleides), which dazzles with its bright-blue wing coloration when it flits about in...

Obama, in op-ed, says economy should be rebuilt 'better than before'Associated Press Last update: July 12, 2009 - 9:26 AM WASHINGTON - With the economy still firmly in the grip of a tenacious recession, President Barack Obama is urging Americans to have patience and give his economic recovery plan time to work. Restating themes he laid out in his weekly radio and Internet address, Obama said in an op-ed posted early Sunday on The Washington Post's Web site that his $787 billion stimulus program was not expected to return the economy to full health, but to provide a boost that...

Listen up! Carbon dioxide being absorbed by the oceans is having a puzzling effect on fish — their ears get bigger. Now, that doesn't mean you're going to reel in the Mr. Spock of the sea. Fish ears are inside their bodies. But, as in humans, their ears perform a major role in sensing movement and whether the animal is upright — abilities that are important for survival.

April 02, 2009Obama bows down to Saudi KingClarice Feldman I am quite certain that this is not the protocol, and is most unbecoming a President of the United States.

Need Freeper Help. I have a 3 yr old cocker spaniel that has really bad ear infections. I knew it would probably be an issue when I got him but for the first 2 years he never had any problems. Now, however, he has had re-occurring infections and now the vet says that his ear canals have calcified to the point that they need to be “scraped out”, a procedure that will leave him deaf. Does anybody know of a better solution?

Ever since president-elect Obama mentioned that his kids are getting a puppy, dog lovers around the world have been panting with anticipation to learn what kind of dog will become first pup. Obama, who described the decision as a "major issue," is on the hunt for an allergy-free dog, since daughter Malia is allergic. Seeing that Obama is the first "global president," it's not surprising that the Fido frenzy has gone international.

11/5/2008 - SAN ANTONIO (AFNS) -- Looking in the mirror, Marine Capt. Ryan Voltin couldn't get past his ears. Not that they were strange looking, but that they were there at all. He just wasn't used to seeing them. The AH-1 Cobra pilot lost his when the helicopter he was flying erupted in flames during a training accident last year. The fire severely burned the captain's face -- to the point that his ears simply dissolved. "I was conscious the entire time," he said. "And I remember thinking that I shouldn't be alive." But, he was, because of the quick...

TALIBAN militants dragged a school teacher out of a mosque in Afghanistan and cut off his ears as a "punishment" for working for the Government, an education official said. The rebels took another dozen people, most of them elderly men, out of the mosque in the southern province of Zabul and beat them up on similar charges, provincial education chief Mohammad Nabi Khushal said overnight. The men had burst into the mosque while dozens of worshippers were in a late night prayer session Saturday and singled out primary school teacher Bismillah Khan, Mr Khushal said, blaming Taliban rebels. "They took...

It is the Internet, so Yoda the cat's four ears could easily be an optical illusion or a camera trick along the lines of those semi-animated, talking cats whose mouths move on kitty litter commercials. Or perhaps the 2-year-old feline is just a remarkable showcase of genetic mutation.

[MCCAIN HAS BEEN ON COVER TWICE]

Obama "Pivots" on the IssuesJack Kelly Tue Jul 15, 7:30 AM ET During his eight years in the Illinois state senate, Barack Obama voted "present" 130 times. That's an astounding 12-13 times a year in which he said, in effect, "I'm here, but I'm not going to take a stand on this issue." Given that record of bold leadership, I'm surprised Sen. Obama acted as he did on the legislation Congress passed July 9 to renew the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Sen. Obama had pledged to filibuster FISA if it contained a provision to provide retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies...

Sooner or later, voters are going to recognize the exquisite sensitivity of the Obama campaign to ridicule as weakness. By choosing to cry foul  over the New Yorker cover depicting the Obamas as the opposition supposedly sees him, the campaign reveals the precariousness of the substance-free image-building effort to date. The irrepressible Doug Ross  dug up a New Yorker cover mocking Bush and Cheney as the gay cowboys from Brokeback Mountain, sarcastically noting the missing firestorm of protest.   Are Americans really going to want to vote for someone who holds himself to be above criticism and mockery?    

Grover Norquist, a former CRNC executive director, dropped by the LA Times’ Washington bureau and shocked the media: “As part of his negative critique of Obama’s liberal stances on economic issues and other matters, he termed the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee ‘John Kerry with a tan.’”

The long-standing argument centers around outer hair cells, which are rod-shaped cells that respond to sound waves. Located in the fluid-filled part of the inner ear called the cochlea, these outer hair cells sport tufts of hair-like cilia that project into the fluid. The presence of outer hair cells makes mammalian hearing more than 100 times better than it would be if the cells were absent. As sound waves race into the inner ear at hundreds of miles per hour, their energy--although dissipated by the cochlear fluid--generates waves in the fluid, somewhat like the tiny waves made by a pebble...

Barack Obama looked as if he needed a smoke and he needed it bad. So there he was, trying to meet the deep, inexhaustible needs of both Iowa activists and the global press behemoth on his first swing across the state, while giving up cigarettes. He was a tad testy. “I’ve been chewing Nicorette all day long,” he told reporters at a press conference in Ames on Sunday, where he was getting irritated at suggestions that he lacked substance and at the specter of his vanishing privacy. The Illinois senator didn’t have on an implacable mask of amiability, as Hillary...

U.S. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) speaks to members of the travelling press aboard a chartered plane from Springfield to Cedar Rapids, February 10, 2007. Obama formally announced his campaign for U.S. President in the 2008 election during a campaign rally in front of the Old State Capitol in Springfield on Saturday. REUTERS/Jason Reed (UNITED STATES)

SPRINGFIELD, Illinois (Reuters) - Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama (news, bio, voting record), citing the legacy of Abraham Lincoln, pledged on Saturday to bridge the partisan gridlock in Washington, end the war in Iraq and transform American politics as the first black U.S. president. Launching his 2008 White House campaign outside the building in where Lincoln began his fight against slavery with a famous 1858 speech that declared "a house divided against itself cannot stand," Obama said it was time to "turn the page" to a new politics. "Let us begin this hard work together. Let us transform this nation,"...