What's Better And What's Worse In The News?

*What's Better With The U.S. Hacking?
  Edward Snowden claims in a Hong Kong newspaper that the the NSA has done 61,000 global hackings with dozens of them in Hong Kong and Communist China. This has been going on since 2009. He claims that huge Internet routers enable the NSA to break into multiple computers without having to hack each one.
* What's Better With Depression?
  Finding the right antidepressant for depressed people is tricky with only half of the people who take the same antidepressant getting any relief from their depression. A study of the antidepressant Lexapro showed that patients who improved on it had a distinct pattern in the region of the brain called the insula. This was seen using the  positron emission technique (PET). Scientists are hopeful that they can build on this and use PET to show who should get what kind of antidepressant.
*What's Worse With al-Qaida's Weaponry?
  Al-Qaida has the SA-7 surface-to-air missile and probably plenty of them since piles of instruction manuals have been found in a captured al-Qaida stronghold in Mali. At least one SA-7 has been seized by the French Army, and photographers allowed to take pictures of it. It has a range of 1.4 miles so the French are now using planes instead of heliocopters to fly high fast.
  The SA-7 was developed by the Soviets in the sixties and is not much larger than a poster tube. They are heat-seeking missiles.
*What's Worse For Russian Gays?
   Russian continues clamping down on individual rights in that the Duma has just passed a nationwide law prohibiting the "promotion of homosexual propaganda." This mislabeled law means that holding gay events, speaking in defense of gays, or saying that gay relationships are equal to straight relationship are all promotions of homosexual propaganda." The bill mandates stiff fines and jail terms. Even if you are a Russian and don't like homosexuality, taking away the rights of homosexuals places the Soviet security goons one step closer to your door. Restricting the rights of homosexuals encourages the government to restrict your rights next.
Peter Nickerson, MS, MSW  Gainesville, Florida 352-359-0850 Sources: Wall Street Journal, Gainesville Sun, talk show hosts Cain, Limbaugh,  Morrison  (FM - 97.3, Gainesville, Florida), Dean, Savage, and reading widely.