The Effects of Cocaine on the Human Brain

The human brain weighs approximately three pounds and influences everything a person does. You may not realize it, but your brain is not the same today as it was yesterday or last month. The brain is a continuously changing collection of cells. When you learn something new or have a new experience, new synapses form. Some synapses get stronger, or some synapses may even disappear. Your brain even enables you to feel pleasure. Whenever you do something that you enjoy, such as eating your favorite snack, drinking a cold drink on a hot summer day, or laughing with your friends, the reward pathway in your brain is activated. It is that stimulation of the neurons in the reward pathway that makes you feel good.
Cocaine acts on the neurons in the reward pathway. Cocaine increases the release of dopamine. The increased dopamine levels give drug abusers the rush or a high that they enjoy for a short time. The feelings of pleasure the drugs create only last a short time, but drugs can cause changes in the brain that last a very long time. Some of the changes may even be permanent.
One of the changes that occur when a person takes Cocaine is the development of cravings. If a person takes Cocaine and then stops taking it, he or she will crave the drug. In other words, the individual will have a strong desire to take more of the drug. Cocaine exerts such a strong effect that even the mention of it may stimulate cravings in Cocaine addicts. Figuring out why addicts are so prone to relapse is a major area of research. One culprit is the phenomenon of craving, or the powerful "hunger" for drugs that can linger months or years after an addict quits using. Scientists have discovered evidence that this craving may be partly a physiological phenomenon, related to the long-term changes in brain function that addiction causes. Now accustomed to functioning in the presence of drugs, the addicted brain, in essence, has become unable to function normally in their absence.
As you have learned in previous, on a short-term basis, Cocaine alters the release of dopamine. But what happens when a person takes Cocaine over a long period of time? Does the body respond to it in the same way it did when the person tried the drugs for the first time? Often, the individual doesn't get as intense of a response after taking it repeatedly. This is called "tolerance." The brain has adapted to having a certain amount of the drug present and doesn't respond the same way it did initially. The body may become more efficient at metabolizing or breaking down the drug. This reduces the amount of drug in the bloodstream. Or, the cells of the body and the brain can become more resistant to the effect of the drug by causing changes in the activity of the receptors. Tolerance explains why drug abusers and addicts take increasingly higher doses of drugs over time.

Chris Till has been in the field of addiction for over 4 years. He is a certified chemical dependency counselor. www.cocaine-addiction.ca

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U.S. Ends Oil Dependency; Turns B.S. Into Fuel
While America is experiencing a gasoline shortage, the nation’s dependence on foreign oil is about to end.

A researcher at The Department of Energy, from which breakthrough ideas emanate on a regular basis, noticed that Americans, along with most people who ever lived, have a virtually unlimited and renewable supply of B. S. He wondered if it might be turned into fuel.

The hypothesis proved so promising that his work produced a marvelous result in as short a time as it took to record some B. S. from a wonderfully fertile colleague and wire it to a refinery. He calls the new potion Bio-Super.

“It’s the most concentrated fuel in history,” he tells us, “with an octane rating of 99.9. I figure we’ve got enough of a supply to meet our total energy needs for the foreseeable future. All we have to do is keep B. S.-ing the way we do, and we’ll have all the Bio-Super we and our children need.”

The product is ready for mass production. The technique calls for the collection of B. S. from all over the country by having the most irrepressible exponents of it talk into microphones. The B. S. is then broadcast to the closest refinery.

Bio-Super also has an advantage over other fuels in terms of pollution, because the process actually takes a lot of it out of the air.

Since the B. S. is so highly concentrated to begin with, the production of Bio-Super is quite a lot more efficient than the manufacture of biofuel from corn or woodchips. Just a hundred words of good old American B. S., particularly from people who like to hang out at bars after work and talk their heads off, can produce enough to fill up the gasoline tank on a Hummer.

The only negative aspect is the product’s exceptional volatility. Once you pump it into your tank, you have to slam the gas cap shut instantly or it will all evaporate. Motorists are also advised only to remove the cap when the gauge is nearly on empty and to stand aside; otherwise, there is the risk of being knocked out with a force that scientists have calculated is equivalent to six airbags.

Tom Attea, creator of Newslaugh.com, has had six shows produced Off-Broadway and has written comedy for TV. Critics have called his writing ""delightfully funny" and "witty" with "good, genuine laughs."

Downloading Online Movies
There are many online websites for downloading movies, though the legality issue was still a major question mark until recently, especially since sites downloading music like Napster were shut down. The big news for many computer junkies recently was that the companies of Movielink and CinemaNow are recognized as being the first major online sources for legal downloadable movies in the United States. Previously the studios were shy about licensing online stores for anything but video rental, but now that has changed.

Movielink has managed this breakthrough by pushing forward with the backing of Universal, Twentieth Century Fox, Paramount, Sony Pictures, and Warner Brothers. Cinema Now is in a similar situation, which is part of the reason why these companies are experimenting to see how the downloads process works. Movie downloads for new releases become available on the same day as the DVD release, and there is an ever growing backlist of previously made films all ready. The one thing to keep in mind that makes these downloads different than others: you can not burn anything onto DVD, the download will only stay on your computer and can not be copied.

Pricing, according to studios, is currently "competitive" with the DVD release, which in many peopleï¿½s minds makes it a bad buy, being way too expensive for what you get. Classic movies are generally be priced at $13.99, with some movies priced as low as $9.99. New movies are all over the map. King Kong, for instance, will sell for $19.99, compared to $14.96 + shipping from retailers like Amazon. The Bad News Bears (2005), on the other hand, sells for $26.00 online at Movielink, which is essentially the same price Amazon is carrying at the moment. Most of these offerings, however, will not offer the extras found on today's DVD and you instantly sacrifice the ability to take your movies with you on the go.

Encrypted or not, the standard DVD is at least portable. All in all, this makes movie downloads from these sites, even with the reassurance of everything being acceptable and ï¿½legalï¿½ as really weak.. Until a better pricing appears, it would seem that these companies are doomed to failure. At least they would be, if the movie companies did not own them. Wait for a better deal.

Dave is the owner of divx-movies.info and free-movies-download-full.info websites providing information on movie downloads

Landscape Photography: Tips To Enhance The Experience
One of the great things about landscape photography is that the possibility is endless on where you can go, what to take a picture of and it all starts with a few steps from your own back door. The horizon is your limit.

Lighting speaks volumes in landscape photography. Getting up with the sun at dawn, watching the animals hurry around as they gather their food for the day, and while the sun is just peaking its face over the background would make for great photo with perfect light. When the sun is on its way down, this is great for a landscape picture of peace and serenity. This time of day is when animals and people are heading home for the night where the land is clear of “clutter” and the trees, skies and land are open. Shadows will add depth to any photo of the landscape and give it more of a three-dimensional feel to it.

Landscape photography should be relaxing and fun to do. It also requires some time to get the precise composition. When a camera is slightly shifted one way or another, you can see how it will dramatically improve the picture you are looking to take. When it comes to taking a picture of the landscape, taking one photo is just as good as taking ten. You do not have to waste film on something that can be done right the first time, this can be achieved with a bit of patience, and some practice.

When photographing landscapes, give your photo a feeling of depth by including close objects in the frame as well as the distant objects.

A fine lens for landscape photography is the 50 mm lens that comes as standard equipment on many SLR cameras. But if you are seriously interested in photographing landscapes, a good lens to have would be a wide-angle lens.

Losing detail due to camera shake is the biggest problem in landscape photography. So, a tripod and a shutter release cable are very helpful tools to have.

Albreht Moy offers photographs for sale at his website.

Using Filters In Photography
Photographic filter is an attachment that will allow certain kinds of light to be able to pass through, and able to reduce or block out other unwanted light sources.In short, the term filter really means anything that modifies the incoming light in some way and includes: polarizing screens, multi-image prisms,close-up attachments, soft focus filters, neutral density (ND) filters, graduated ND filters, and color filters for black and white photography. Filters come in two main shapes: round and square.

Filters add color and a certain touch to a photo that complements the individuals style of photo taking. When you are using a black and white film with filters, you can darken or lighten the tone of the subjects color. The color filters that are used can darken the tone of an opposite color and brighten the tone of the color filter that is being used. For an example, a red filter will make the red leafs on an autumn tree look very rich and bright, while on the other hand the sky behind it that was blue, is now almost black.

Neutral density filters reduce the light entering your camera so that a slower shutter speed,or a larger aperture can be used. Graduated ND filters are used to balance out bright skies against darker foreground scenes.

A neat filter is called the star filter. This type of filter in photography is placed on the cameras lenses to create a star look effect form any source of light. This is very popular with television game shows and used for portraits to provide a soft overall diffusion. A split field lenses is really a full lenses but only half of it is close-up, it is great for taking a picture of something close-up at the bottom like a small flower or bug in focus. The top of the lenses is just blank or empty and the camera uses its lenses to background in focus, say the mountain in the distance.

Albreht Moy has many photographs for sale at his website.