fighting ISIS

US civilians and veterans leave home for Isis fight with help from social media

From his muddy outpost on the front line in North Iraq, Grim can see the black flag of the Islamic State snapping in the wind just 500 metres away.

The 52-year-old Boston native – who several months ago found his way to a peshmerga base south of Kirkuk – sits in a crude breeze-block shelter, surrounded by mud and dirt, gunfire crackling in the background.

“We are fighting a scourge,” said Grim, who did not want to disclose his real name. “We are fighting murderers and rapists: people who burn people in cages, people who behead people. This is not a civilised army. They are animals.”

Grim said he had been moved to leave behind his life in the US and take up arms after reading about the militant group’s persecution of Yazidi and Christian civilians. “I have two kids and a beautiful woman at home,” he said. “She knows I’m here and she’s not happy about it, but she understands.”

He is just one of dozens – and possibly scores – of Americans who have traveled thousands of miles to northern Iraq to fight alongside Kurdish Peshmerga forces and Christian militias and against Isis. Some of the volunteers are civilian with no military experience; others are veterans of the US interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan; most have washed up in a war zone with little more than a one-way ticket and a few contacts made through Facebook.

These Americans have joined hundreds of western volunteers reported to have trickled into Iraq and Syria since Isis declared its caliphate last year. Their arrival has provoked mixed reactions on the ground: militia groups defending the Christian minority have expressed gratitude; some Kurdish fighters told the Guardian they would rather see the US government send guns and heavy artillery.

But the influx of American volunteers does not look set to end any time soon. Several new groups, predominantly of military veterans, have emerged, hoping to provide a more organized framework for those willing to risk their lives in a foreign war.

via: the guardian news (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/18/us-volunteers-isis-fight-veterans-recruitment)

smoking

The Effects of Smoking on the Body

Tobacco smoke is enormously harmful to your health. There’s no safe way to smoke. Replacing your cigarette with a cigar, pipe, or hookah won’t help you avoid the health risks associated with tobacco products.

Cigarettes contain about 600 ingredients. When they burn, they generate more than 7,000 chemicals, according to the American Lung Association. Many of those chemicals are poisonous and at least 69 of them can cause cancer. Many of the same ingredients are found in cigars and in tobacco used in pipes and hookahs. According to the National Cancer Institute, cigars have a higher level of carcinogens, toxins, and tar than cigarettes.

When using a hookah pipe, you’re likely to inhale more smoke than you would from a cigarette. Hookah smoke has many toxic compounds and exposes you to more carbon monoxide than cigarettes do. Hookahs also produce more secondhand smoke.

In the United States, the mortality rate for smokers is three times that of people who never smoked, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It’s one of the leading causes of preventable death.

Central Nervous System

One of the ingredients in tobacco is a mood-altering drug called nicotine. Nicotine reaches your brain in mere seconds. It’s a central nervous system stimulant, so it makes you feel more energized for a little while. As that effect subsides, you feel tired and crave more. Nicotine is habit forming.

Smoking increases risk of macular degeneration, cataracts, and poor eyesight. It can also weaken your sense of taste and sense of smell, so food may become less enjoyable.

Your body has a stress hormone called corticosterone, which lowers the effects of nicotine. If you’re under a lot of stress, you’ll need more nicotine to get the same effect.

Physical withdrawal from smoking can impair your cognitive functioning and make you feel anxious, irritated, and depressed. Withdrawal can also cause headaches and sleep problems.

source:

- See more at: http://www.healthline.com/health/smoking/effects-on-body#sthash.XOatiobD.dpuf

The Russian Sleep Experiment

Back in the 1940s, a group of unethical Russian scientists performed a sleep deprivation experiment on a group of political dissidents that lead to a horrifying conclusion, or so the story goes. Is the story true or based upon a true story? Is it another object lesson on how a work of fiction can become urban legend? Lets take a look at the story of the Russian Sleep Experiment. 

The story of the Russian Sleep Experiment is a work of fiction that can be found on the popular horror microfiction site called CreepyPasta. The particular story can be found here or here. The story relates a tale of a descent into madness for the victims of the experiment, as well as a number of elements which strongly imply paranormal or supernatural influences. Go have a quick read of it.

continue reading here: (https://skeptoid.com/blog/2014/05/06/the-russian-sleep-experiment/)