Doctors Can Now Prescribe FDA-Approved Drug Derived From Cannabis

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Marijuana Medication

Just a few decades ago, the idea of a medical use for cannabis was little more than a pipe dream. Now, there’s a cannabis-derived drug on the market that doctors can prescribe as readily as any other medication.

As of Thursday, doctors in the nation are free to prescribe patients Epidiolex, making it the first drug on the market specifically designed to treat a rare form of childhood epilepsy. It’s also the first prescribable cannabis-derived drug.

First Step

In June, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the sale of Epidiolex to treat treat two rare forms of epilepsy that manifest during childhood: Lennox-Gastaut syndrome and Dravet syndrome.

While a few treatments for the former were already available, none existed for the latter. Epidiolex showed remarkable promise during trials, though, reducing seizures by up to 40 percent.

Final Step

Even though the FDA approved Epidiolex in June, prescribing it was still illegal because the Drug Enforcement Agency classifies all forms of cannabis as a Schedule I drug — the same category that heroin and LSD fall under.

That changed on September 27 when the DEA classified Epidiolex as a Schedule V drug. That classification means that doctors in all 50 states are now as free to prescribe Epidiolex as they are cough suppressants containing small amount of codeine.

The cannabis-derived drug has already improve the lives of many of the young patients who participated in its trials, and now that it’s widely available, it has the opportunity to improve many more.

READ MORE: The First FDA-Approved Cannabis-Based Drug Is Now Available [Fast Company]

More on Epidiolex: The Digest: A Marijuana-Derived Medication Is Now Approved for Sale in the US

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Doctors Can Now Prescribe FDA-Approved Drug Derived From Cannabis

A Giant Space Laser on Earth Could Blast Messages at Alien Planets

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Phone Home

Scientists have a new idea to contact alien civilizations: build a huge laser and start blasting exoplanets with messages.

We could build such a laser, according to research by MIT scientists published Monday in The Astrophysical Journal, with technology that either exists today or requires just minor developments.

Death Star

The laser is more of a homing beacon than a death ray. A one or two-megawatt laser, beamed out through a 30 to 45-meter telescope, would be powerful enough to reach planets as far as 20,000 light years away. For reference, the star nearest our sun is Proxima Centauri, which is just over four light years from us.

If any planet hit with our laser that happens, by some infinitesimally small chance, to host extraterrestrial life that had developed advanced technology, its occupants would be able to look back at Earth and see signs of life.

Waiting Game

The scientists behind this research are counting on SETI, the government agency responsible for scanning the night sky for alien life, to complete more full-sky scans and invest in the infrared technology that could help identify which distant planets likely have habitable atmospheres.

With those advances and if there are aliens out where with a laser of their own — that’s a big “if” — the researchers argue that we could have a back-and-forth conversation over decades or centuries, with each message taking many years to reach its target.

READ MORE: E.T., we’re home [MIT News]

More on the search for alien life: Scientists want Your Help Crafting a Message to Aliens

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A Giant Space Laser on Earth Could Blast Messages at Alien Planets

This Gadget Tells You Exactly What Allergens You’re Inhaling

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Allergic Reaction

Every minute you’re outside, you’re likely inhaling hundreds of “bioaerosols” — pollens, spores, microbes, and other tiny objects that can cause allergic reactions.

Today’s best method for measuring that allergen load is decidedly low-tech — researchers catch bioaerosols in filters or spore traps and study them under a microscope to identify each one. But a new gadget, hacked together by UCLA researchers, uses machine learning to dramatically speed up that process. Eventually, it might even give you a better sense of the air you’re breathing.

Pollen Kingdom

The UCLA researchers describe their device, which they built for less than $200 in parts, in a new paper published in the journal ACS Photonics. 

Basically, the apparatus catches bioaerosols on a sticky surface and scans them with a laser and a small sensor. Then it feeds the resulting image into a neural network trained to recognize common allergens such as oak, ragweed pollen, and certain mold spores. Finally, it tells you exactly what’s making you sneeze.

Air Apparent

Though promising, the UCLA prototype isn’t quite ready for action. Its algorithm can only recognize five allergens, and its accuracy is a good-not-great 94 percent.

But incremental improvements could result in a compelling gadget that would let you analyze the air around you — and maybe decide whether it’s time to pop an antihistamine.

READ MORE: New Mobile Device Identifies Airborne Allergens Using Deep Learning [UCLA]

More on allergies: The FDA Has Approved a Faster Way to Check for Allergies

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This Gadget Tells You Exactly What Allergens You’re Inhaling

Our Efforts to Heal the Ozone Layer Are Finally Paying Off

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Good News, Everyone

It seems like every recent study on the environment has had the same takeaway: We’re heading toward a climate catastrophe.

A newly released report backed by the United Nations bucks that trend with some very positive news. It seems our global efforts to repair the ozone layer are actually paying off — and even better, future efforts already in the works have the potential to help us address global warming.

How’s that for a breath of fresh, non-toxic air?

In the Zone

Every four years, an international team of researchers releases a report focused on the state of Earth’s stratospheric ozone, a naturally occurring gas that shields the planet from ultraviolet (UV) radiation.

Unfortunately, our actions on Earth have had a detrimental effect on the ozone layer. For decades, we pumped chemicals called chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) into the air, and these depleted the ozone layer, leaving us vulnerable to that harmful UV radiation.

In 1987, the world decided to take action against this damage to the ozone layer through the Montreal Protocol, an international treaty focused primarily on the phasing out of CFCs. As of 2010, the harmful chemicals were completely banned.

Based on this newly released report, those efforts have paid off.

Ozone in certain parts of the stratosphere has increased by 1 to 3 percent every decade since 2000. Based on current projections, the ozone layer above the Northern Hemisphere will be completely healed by the 2030s, with the Southern Hemisphere following in the 2050s and the polar regions by 2060.

Building Momentum

Though the findings of this new report are promising, we are far from any sort of “mission accomplished” moment when it comes to the ozone.

We already know that not everyone is abiding by the CFC ban — looking at you, China — so we’ll need to figure out a way to address that issue.

We’re also just months away from the implementation of the Kigali Amendment, an update to the Montreal Protocol that will guide the phasing out of another type of harmful chemical, hydroflourocarbons (HFCs). This amendment has the potential to not only build on the ozone-repair efforts already in place, but also help us avoid up to 0.4 percent of global warming this century, so we’ll need to ensure the world is as committed to phasing out HFCs as it has been CFCs.

If we can do that, who knows? Maybe environmental reports containing positive news could become the norm.

READ MORE: Healing of Ozone Layer Gives Hope for Climate Action: UN Report [UN News]

More on CFCs: Report Identifies China as the Source of Ozone-Destroying Emissions

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Our Efforts to Heal the Ozone Layer Are Finally Paying Off

Go Phub Yourself: How Phones Pull You Away From Your Loved Ones

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Phub off

When it comes to smartphone etiquette, we tend to be pretty rude. Most of us — 62 percent according to a new Australian poll— have checked our phone in the middle of an in-person conversation.

The people we snub the most are romantic partners and close friends, according to The Conversation, perhaps because those relationships can survive the occasional rudeness in the form of phubbing — phone snubbing.

All Night Long

Aside from commuting and lunch breaks — honestly, we get it — the most common place people phubbed was in bed, scrolling Reddit or Twitter for hours before falling asleep next to their partner, according to the research, which will be published next month in the Proceedings of the International Conference on Information Systems.

And aside from frying your eyes by staring at a bright blue screen in a dark room, phubbing could be a serious detriment to your relationships. Research published in the journalPsychology of Popular Media Culture in 2016 suggests that cell phone use — texting your bud during dinner or tweeting during movie night — can harm personal relationships and personal well-being.

Screen Time

Of course, these findings alone aren’t enough to extrapolate the future of relationships. But all signs are pointing to the increasing presence of personal technology in our lives, especially our bedrooms, are getting in the way of human intimacy.

Next time, instead of scrolling Reddit for relationship horror stories, see if you can try and prevent your own.

READ MORE: Phubbing (phone snubbing) happens more in the bedroom than when socialising with friends [The Conversation]

More on smartphones: Musk: You’ll be Able to Remote Control Your Tesla Within 6 Weeks

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Go Phub Yourself: How Phones Pull You Away From Your Loved Ones

Exercise Your Civic Duty by Shaming Your Friends Into Voting

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Everyone Else Is Doing It

Barring a few special circumstances, every U.S. citizen has the right to vote — or not vote — in government elections. But don’t expect to stay home on election day guilt-free.

In the U.S., your voting record is public information — depending on the state, your record could include anything from the political party you’re affiliated with to whether or not you voted in past elections.

Now, at least two tech startups have created apps that use this information to give people an easy way to peer pressure their friends into voting.

Text the Vote

On Sunday, The New York Times published a compelling story on two political apps, VoteWithMe and Outvote. The apps pull the voting data of everyone in your contact list and group those contacts based on how engaged they are in the voting process.

You can then use the apps to encourage your contacts to vote in the coming election in several ways. For example, you could send reminders of the election date to the less-than-committed voters in your contact list or ask your more committed friends to be sure to encourage their friends to vote.

Shifting Focus

Unfortunately, these political apps might work better in theory than in practice.

First, there’s the fact that they don’t really provide a full picture of your voting history — they only show the data for the state you’re currently registered in. Then there’s the possibility that the apps might affect how people vote — not just how often.

Right now, you might not think twice about registering as a Democrat even though you work for a decidedly Republican-leaning company, but you might if you knew your boss was likely to download an app that reveals that information.

It’s a tricky situation. Democracies work best when everyone participates, but is app-delivered peer pressure really the best way to encourage a higher voter turnout in the future? Just a thought, but maybe we should all focus on securing our elections and restoring Americans’ faith in the democratic process instead.

READ MORE: Did You Vote? Now Your Friends May Know (and Nag You) [The New York Times]

More on democracy: Pre-Teen Hackers Prove It: The U.S. Election System Simply Isn’t Secure Enough

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Exercise Your Civic Duty by Shaming Your Friends Into Voting

An Ancient Star Reveals Our Galaxy Is Older Than We Thought

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Old Kid on the Block

In the outer layers of the Milky Way is an old star, newly discovered by Johns Hopkins University astronomers, that might be one of the oldest in the universe.

New research which will soon be published in The Astrophysical Journal describes a star with the mouthful of a name, 2MASS J18082002-5104378 B. It’s about one-sixth the size of our sun and dates back 13.5 billion years — just 300 million years younger than the entire universe.

Old-School Metal

We know this star is so old because of its metal composition. As stars die and their leftover materials form new stars, the nuclear fusion reactions that power their cores give off heavy metals like gold and platinum. The more heavy metals, the more generations a given star must have been through.

But this star, still dimly twinkling, has such a small heavy metal content that astronomers think it comes from just the second generation of all the stuff in the universe — its celestial predecessor would have been formed in the Big Bang itself. For reference, our sun first emerged many generations after that, a 4.6 billion-year-old youngster compared to 2MASS.

I Wish I Might

This star is far older than anything else found in our galaxy so far, and its discovery opens the doors to finding even older stars.

That means we may soon learn more about how the Big Bang gave rise to the universe — and a better understanding of our own origins.

READ MORE: Johns Hopkins Scientist Finds Elusive Star with Origins Close to Big Bang [Johns Hopkins University]

More on old stars: Scientists Now Know When the First Stars Formed in the Universe

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An Ancient Star Reveals Our Galaxy Is Older Than We Thought

Huge Wind Farms Could Weaken Hurricanes Before They Make Landfall

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Breezing Up

The devastation of hurricanes such as Florence and Harvey is a reminder of the terrible power of storms and our apparent helplessness when they strike.

But new research suggests that there might be a way to fight hurricanes before they come ashore — and it might even help generate renewable electricity.

Tilting Windmills

According to a paper published this summer in the journal Environmental Research Letters, computer simulations suggest that offshore wind turbines suck the energy out of hurricanes and force them higher into the sky, resulting in decreased rainfall and potentially less destruction when they make landfall.

“Offshore wind farms definitely could be a potential tool to weaken hurricanes and reduce their damage,” author Cristina Archer, a professor at the University of Delaware, told Popular Science. “And they pay for themselves, ultimately, which is why I am excited about this.”

Damage Plan

Today’s wind farms often switch turbines off during high winds, so current wind farms aren’t a good defense mechanism against hurricanes.

But turbines scheduled to hit the market by 2020, Archer said, will be strong enough to withstand hurricane winds — so she’s hopeful they’ll be able to protect coastal communities, and maybe even generate some electricity in the process.

READ MORE: Scientists Want to Put ‘Speed Bumps’ in Hurricane Alley to Slow Down Storms [Popular Science]

More on nanobots: Death Count from Hurricane Maria Was Way Off. That Might Slow Puerto Rico’s Recovery.

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Huge Wind Farms Could Weaken Hurricanes Before They Make Landfall

China Can Now Identify a Citizen Based on Their Walk

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Big Brother

China’s latest weapon in its war against citizen privacy: gait recognition software.

According to a new story by the Associated Press, police in Beijing and Shanghai are using a gait recognition system developed by artificial intelligence company Watrix to identify Chinese citizens — even when their faces aren’t visible.

Walk This Way

Watrix claims its system can identify a person from up to 165 feet away even if their back is to a camera or their face turned away. It doesn’t require any special cameras, either — it can analyze existing surveillance footage to ID an individual with 94 percent accuracy.

“You don’t need people’s cooperation for us to be able to recognize their identity,” Watrix CEO Huang Yongzhen told the AP. “Gait analysis can’t be fooled by simply limping, walking with splayed feet, or hunching over, because we’re analyzing all the features of an entire body.”

However, the software doesn’t yet work in real time. It needs roughly 10 minutes to analyze about an hour’s worth of video, during which time it extracts a person’s silhouette and then creates a model of their individual gait.

Eyes Everywhere

It’s easy to see how this technology could be useful on a smaller scale. A company could produce a database of all its employees’ gaits and then use that database to ensure unauthorized individuals aren’t in restricted areas.

It’s harder to imagine how China could make use of the technology on a nationwide scale, though.

Facial recognition tech is easy to implement because the faces of most citizens are already in government databases. Would the nation need to produce a similar database of citizen gaits? Or would the tech work retroactively — arrest someone for a crime, have them walk for you, and then compare their gait to that of the criminal caught on camera?

Whatever the case may be, police in Beijing and Shanghai are making use of this tech somehow, which means it might just be a matter of time before anyone on the move in China will find themselves under the watchful eye of the nation’s government.

READ MORE: Chinese ‘Gait Recognition’ Tech IDs People by How They Walk [Associated Press]

More on Chinese surveillance: If You Jaywalk in China, Facial Recognition Means You’ll Walk Away With a Fine

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China Can Now Identify a Citizen Based on Their Walk

Unless Governments Get Involved, Plant-Based Meat Won’t Take Off

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Meatless Monday

Plant-based meats are finally taking off: animal-free beef is popping up everywhere from high-end burger joints to, uh, biochemical research facilities.

Fine, plant-based and 3D-printed burgers, steaks, and chicken cutlets haven’t quite yet liberated the world’s livestock. But the technology behind these scientific snacks is progressing — with enough support, food researcher Jacy Reese predicts in a new book that we could replace a good chunk of traditional meats in a matter of decades.

Let Them Eat Steak

If we want to prevent catastrophic levels of global climate change, we need to farm and eat less meat. The various startups working on fake meat, perhaps the most famous of which is Impossible Foods, are pursuing an ambitious workaround: bringing cheap, sustainable food to the world without completely making people give up meat.

“In addition to contributing towards decreasing the effect of livestock on climate change, desertification and avoid animals slaughter, the development of these kinds of technological advances should help the populations living in the rural areas of our planet to have better access to healthy food and a varied diet,” Giuseppe Scionti, a biomedical researcher who found a way to 3D print realistic chicken cutlets and steaks, told Futurism.

Hamburger Helper

But major governments need to step in if these plant-based meats are ever going to get out of bougie restaurants and into the hungry mouths of the world.

Without massive structural investments, Fast Company’s reporting corroborated, plant-based meats will be stuck as a fad diet and may never become widespread and inexpensive enough to help the world.

READ MORE: Can we end animal farming by the end of the century? [Fast Company]

More on changing diets: To Feed a Hungry Planet, We’re all Going to Need to eat Less Meat

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Unless Governments Get Involved, Plant-Based Meat Won’t Take Off

To Fight Climate Change, The Poor Would Spend More Than The Rich

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Pale Blue Dot

We’re running out of time to avoid a planetary climate change catastrophe. And while the global poor already face problems caused by rising temperatures and severe weather, political leaders often seem frozen.

A new experiment, published last week in the journal PLOS ONE, suggests that those with the resources to change the world are hesitant to do their part. That’s a bummer: If the world is going to make it, we’ll all need to do what we can to slow climate change.

Going Dutch

In the study, researchers gave groups of people different amounts of money that they could choose to keep or donate towards a common goal that would specifically help fight climate change. Those who were given a larger share of the pot were less likely to contribute, while those who were given less money offered most of their donations.

Of course, the study had limitations. Researchers only gave the participants between 20 and 60 euros each, which is chump change compared to the sums involved in the global climate. Still, the finding was a gloomy reflection of the fact that the wealthy cause far more harm to the environment than the poor and do less to clean it up.

Storm the Castle

Perhaps it’s not time to grab a pitchfork and form an angry mob quite yet, but it’s easy to see this new study as a reflection of the many ways that climate change is already hurting the most vulnerable among us — and how the richest seem content to let it happen.

Of course, this is one limited experiment, and the number of participants involved is way too small to extrapolate these results to global politics. All the same, it revealed an unfortunate glimpse into what happens when some get far more money than they need.

READ MORE: Wealthier people do less in the struggle against climate change [Universitat Rovira i Virgili]

More on billionaires: Disrupting the Reaper: Tech Titans’ Quest for Immortality Rages Forward

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To Fight Climate Change, The Poor Would Spend More Than The Rich

China’s New Space Station Is Called The “Heavenly Palace”

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Heavenly Palace

The first components of the International Space Station (ISS) launched into space more than 20 years ago, and it’s been continuously occupied for 18. Right now, it’s the only operational space station in orbit — but that’s about to change.

China just unveiled a life-size replica of the country’s new space station at Airshow China, the largest aerospace exhibition in the country. The new station is called Tiangong, which means “Heavenly Palace” in Chinese.

American Football

The new ISS competitor’s central module is 55 feet (17 meters) long, weighs 60 tons, and can fit three astronauts. That’s actually quite a bit smaller than the ISS, which is about as large as an American football field if you count its large solar panels.

WANG ZHAO/AFP/Getty Images

The new space station will allow astronauts to conduct cutting-edge scientific research in the fields of biology and microgravity, according to the Associated Press.

The new station will technically belong to China, but will open its doors to all UN countries. Construction is expected to be completed around 2022.

Here’s to hoping that China’s new space station will fare better than the Tiangong-1 space lab, which crashed into the Pacific earlier this year after authorities lost control of it in orbit.

READ MORE: China unveils new ‘Heavenly Palace’ space station as ISS days numbered [Phys.org]

More on Tiangong-1: The Chinese Space Station Has Crashed in the Pacific. Why Was It So Hard to Track?

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China’s New Space Station Is Called The “Heavenly Palace”

SpaceX Reveals How It Would Handle an Astronaut Emergency

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Ready for Anything

When it comes to space travel, we can’t overprepare — countless things could go wrong at any step in the process, and even a brief delay in response could be the difference between life and death.

To that end, Elon Musk’s SpaceX recently demonstrated it was ready to handle one of our worst-case space flight scenarios: an injured or sick astronaut.

Testing the Waters

SpaceX will eventually transport astronauts to and from the International Space Station aboard its Crew Dragon spacecraft as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew program.

Some of those return flights will end with the Crew Dragon splashing down in the ocean near Florida’s eastern coast. A crane aboard SpaceX’s recovery ship, GO Searcher, will then lift the craft from the water and place it onto the ship’s main deck. Doctors can then evaluate the returning crew to ensure they’re in good shape before GO Searcher heads to Cape Canaveral.

At least, that’s if everything goes according to plan. If the astronauts aboard the Crew Dragon are sick or injured, SpaceX will need to get them medical attention as quickly as possible.

To prepare for that possibility, SpaceX rehearsed a scenario in which a helicopter landed on GO Searcher. The crew then loaded a stretcher onto the aircraft for transportation to a nearby hospital. The helicopter is also equipped to transport doctors and other medical personnel to GO Searcher so they can care for patients at the ship’s medical treatment facility.

Prior Preparation

SpaceX is ahead of the game with this dress rehearsal — there isn’t even a date set yet for the first water landing of an astronaut-carrying Crew Dragon.

Still, it’s encouraging to know Elon Musk’s space company is taking every precaution to ensure it’s prepared to provide NASA astronauts with the best possible medical care long before they might ever need it.

READ MORE: SpaceX Rehearses Helicopter Landing at Sea [NASA]

More on the Commercial Crew program: NASA Announces the First Commercial Astronauts to Pilot the Next Generation of Spacecraft

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SpaceX Reveals How It Would Handle an Astronaut Emergency

AI Can Tell If You’re Depressed by Listening to You Talk

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Diagnosing Depression

Depression can manifest with many different symptoms, from a “loss of energy” to “indecisiveness” — broad criteria that make the condition difficult to diagnose with a high degree of certainty.

Now, researchers at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory are working on an algorithm that could eliminate some of that guesswork. They used text and audio data from 142 interviews with patients — 30 of whom had been diagnosed with depression — to teach a machine learning algorithm to listen for signs of depression in speech.

Tone of Voice

What makes this effort stand out is that the researchers examined the patients’ tone of voice, not just the specific words they used. That technique made the model surprisingly accurate: It was able to identify subjects who had been diagnosed with depression with a 77 percent success rate.

But before we go on and implement AI as a tool to diagnose mental disorders in the real world, we’ll have to take these results with a substantial grain of salt.

AI Therapy

While chatbots like Woebot have recently surfaced help people to deal with depression, they won’t be able to replace a human therapist, at least for the time being.

There are far too many variables, and while 77 percent sounds promising, a false positive could raise serious ethical concerns. For instance, AI diagnostic tools could fall into the wrong hands — like your employer or insurance company.

But the researchers are realistic about their machine learning model’s ability to detect depression. Rather than replacing human therapists, they see it as another tool in [a clinician’s] toolbox,” MIT researcher James Glass, who worked on the model, told Smithsonian.

READ MORE: Can Artificial Intelligence Detect Depression in a Person’s Voice? [Smithsonian]

More on treating depression: New App for Depression Uses Artificial Intelligence for Therapy Treatments

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AI Can Tell If You’re Depressed by Listening to You Talk

Stormy Daniels’ lawyer pushes back on Cohen’s ‘blanket …

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Daniels' lawyer, Michael Avenatti, is responding to Trump attorney Michael Cohen's request Wednesday to plead his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination in the Daniels lawsuit over her alleged affair with Trump because of the ongoing criminal investigation he faces in New York.

Cohen's request was an attempt to stop a lawsuit over a hush agreement he made with Daniels over the alleged 2006 encounter with Trump.

Cohen told the California court earlier this week that the FBI seized electronic devices and records related to his hush payment to Clifford in raids earlier this month.

In his response, Avenatti wrote that Cohen's lawyers "offer a skeletal declaration from Michael Cohen asserting an across-the-board, blanket refusal to answer any questions.

"But such blanket claims of Fifth Amendment privilege are expressly prohibited by law," he argued.

Avenatti also wrote that other witnesses could testify in the California case, and that would allow it to go forward without Cohen's testimony about certain topics. Avenatti says other potential witnesses include the bank that executed the payment to Daniels, Daniels' former attorney Keith Davidson, Cohen's wife and others.

Avenatti did not name the President as a potential witness in the lawsuit, though Trump is one of the parties being sued in addition to Cohen.

Avenatti also used Cohen's and Trump's own words to make the point that Cohen shouldn't be able to take the Fifth. Daniels' lawyer cited an interview Cohen gave to CNN in which he said his payments to Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, were "perfectly legal." He also pointed to Trump's assertions Thursday morning that Cohen did "absolutely nothing wrong" related to the $130,000 payment to Clifford.

The judge in California, James Otero, indicated earlier this week he would look at whether "less drastic means or measures" than stopping the lawsuit from going forward are possible. The judge may also consider separating Daniels' complaint that Cohen defamed her from a complaint against Trump and a shell company Cohen used regarding the hush agreement.

Cohen was in court in Manhattan on Thursday. Cohen's lawyers and an independent attorney in New York are reviewing the documents to block any that might fall under attorney-client privilege from prosecutors. The criminal investigation involves the Daniels payment, which Cohen made weeks before the 2016 presidential election, and several other business matters.

Avenatti, speaking on CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360" Thursday evening, said he believes Trump's statements on Fox strengthen their case and raises discrepancies in the claims put forward on Trump and Cohen's side.

"I think the President is making it up as he goes along," Avenatti said. "I think Michael Cohen has made it up as he has gone along, and this is what happens."

CNN's Eli Watkins contributed to this report.

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Stormy Daniels' lawyer pushes back on Cohen's 'blanket ...

Liberty University – Official Site

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Liberty's campus gives university guests a comfortable setting to begin their journey as Champions for Christ. The building includes a theater, meeting rooms, and offers a beautiful view of the Blue Ridge Mountains. View Location

Located directly behind Arthur S. DeMoss Hall, the Montview Student Union is a 4-story, 168,000-square-foot structure that includes a lounge overlooking the Academic Commons, retail dining venues, an art gallery, a ballroom, and a bowling alley. The building also has space for academics, meetings, and offices.

Home to Liberty University Flames Basketball and Volleyball teams, the Vines Center is also used for concerts, church services, conferences, and Convocation. View Location

Jerry Falwell Library houses an array of study spaces including six learning commons, one technology commons, and 30 group-study rooms. Multiple terraces and balconies provide additional space to relax, and several dining options are available. View Location

As the largest stadium in the Big South Conference with 19,200 seats, Williams Stadium also boasts a 110-foot viewing tower and houses the Football Operations Center, containing locker rooms, coaches offices, equipment and weight rooms, and a training facility. View Location

The Liberty Baseball Stadium features the latest turf playing surface, as well as full-length, major league-style dugouts, a fully-equipped media area, two suites, a club room, and a spectator picnic area. View Location

Tower Theater is home to Libertys Department of Theatre Arts as well as the professional theater company, Alluvion Stage Company. Tower Theater features a Broadway-style fly tower and professional rigging system and has over 12,000 square feet of backstage and support area. View Location

The Liberty Mountain Snowflex Centre offers students the opportunity to ski, snowboard, and tube year-round with its cutting-edge terrain technology. View Location

The observatory includes a roll-off roof room with several 8-inch telescopes and a 10-foot DIA dome with a high-powered research-quality telescope. The facility also features an RC Optical Systems 20-inch Truss Ritchey-Chrtien telescope equipped with a charge-coupled device camera for exceptional photographs. View Location

As the primary academic building on campus, Arthur S. DeMoss Hall spans 500,000 square feet over four floors and houses computer labs, classrooms and student resource centers, and a rooftop terrace.

The LaHaye Ice Center is home to Liberty men's and women's hockey teams, as well as the synchronized skating and figure skating teams. Recently renovated, the ice center seats 4,000 fans and includes 10 box suites. View Location

The Residential Commons are comprised of three residence halls. The rooms feature a private bath, and every floor provides laundry facilities and a common lounge. Additional residential facilities are also planned for the site.

The Center for Natural Sciences houses classrooms, an auditorium, and more than 30 laboratories designed for hands-on learning, including an advanced anatomy lab and a cell culture lab. The facility has more than $2 million in equipment, including a GC mass spectrometer and a gene sequencer.

The Center for Music and the Worship Arts features 124 Steinway pianos and 43 teaching studios complete with piano, songwriting, and music computer labs. Additionally, the center includes a 1,600-seat concert hall.

Home to the Liberty University College of Osteopathic Medicine, the Center for Health and Medical Sciences includes lecture halls, a research center, standardized patient and simulation facilities, clinical medicine and anatomy labs, an extensive library, and incredible views of the Blue Ridge Mountains. View Location

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Liberty University - Official Site

2nd Amendment – constitution | Laws.com

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Second Amendment: The right to bear arms

What is the Second Amendment?

There are two principle versions of the Second Amendment: one version was passed by Congress, while the other is found in the copies distributed to each individual state and later ratified by them

As passed by the Congress:A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a Free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

As ratified by the States: A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

The Second Amendment Defined:

The Second Amendment is a part of the Bill of Rights, which are the first 10 Amendments to the United States Constitution and the framework to elucidate upon the freedoms of the individual. The Bill of Rights were proposed and sent to the states by the first session of the First Congress. They were later ratified on December 15, 1791.

The first 10 Amendments to the United States Constitution were introduced by JamesMadison as a series of legislative articles and came into effect as Constitutional Amendments following the process of ratification by three-fourths of the States on December 15, 1791.

Stipulations of the 2nd Amendment:

The Second Amendment to the United States Constitution protects the right of the individual to keep and bear firearms.

The right to arm oneself is viewed as a personal liberty to deter undemocratic or oppressive governing bodies from forming and to repel impending invasions. Furthermore, the right to bear arms was instituted within the Bill of Rights to suppress insurrection, participate and uphold the law, enable the citizens of the United States to organize a militia, and to facilitate the natural right to self-defense.

The Second Amendment was developed as a result of the tyrannous rule of the British parliament. Colonists were often oppressed and forced to pay unjust taxes at the hand of the unruly parliament. As a result, the American people yearned for an Amendment that would guarantee them the right to bear arms and protect themselves against similar situations. The Second Amendment was drafted to provide for the common defense and the general welfare of the United States through the ability to raise and support militias.

Court Cases Tied into the Second Amendment

In District of Columbia v. Heller the Supreme Court ruled that the Second Amendment protects an individuals right to possess a firearm to use for traditionally lawful purposes, such as defending oneself within their home or on their property. The court case ruled that the Amendment was not connected to service in a militia.

Controversy

The gun debate in the United States widely revolves around the intended interpretation of the Second Amendment. Those who support gun rights claim that the founding fathers developed and subsequently ratified the Second Amendment to guarantee the individuals right to keep and bear arms. Those who want more stringent gun laws feel that the founding fathers directed this Amendment solely to the formation of militias and are thus, at least by theory, archaic.

State Timeline for Ratification of the Bill of Rights

New Jersey:November 20, 1789; rejected article II

Maryland:December 19, 1789; approved all

North Carolina:December 22, 1789; approved all

South Carolina: January 19, 1790; approved all

New Hampshire: January 25, 1790; rejected article II

Delaware: January 28, 1790; rejected article I

New York: February 27, 1790; rejected article II

Pennsylvania: March 10, 1790; rejected article II

Rhode Island: June 7, 1790; rejected article II

Vermont: November 3, 1791; approved all

Virginia: December 15, 1791; approved all

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2nd Amendment - constitution | Laws.com

List of Psoriasis Medications (208 Compared) – Drugs.com

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List of Psoriasis Medications (208 Compared) - Drugs.com

Psoriasis Types, Images, Treatments – Medical, Health, and …

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Plaque Psoriasis

Plaque psoriasis is the most common type of psoriasis and it gets its name from the plaques that build up on the skin. There tend to be well-defined patches of red raised skin that can appear on any area of the skin, but the knees, elbows, scalp, trunk, and nails are the most common locations. There is also a flaky, white build up on top of the plaques, called scales. Possible plaque psoriasis symptoms include skin pain, itching, and cracking.

There are plenty of over-the-counter products that are effective in the treatment of plaque psoriasis. 1% hydrocortisone cream is a topical steroid that can suppress mild disease and preparations containing tar are effective in treating plaque psoriasis.

Scalp psoriasis is a common skin disorder that makes raised, reddish, often scaly patches. Scalp psoriasis can affect your whole scalp, or just pop up as one patch. This type of psoriasis can even spread to the forehead, the back of the neck, or behind the ears. Scalp psoriasis symptoms may include only slight, fine scaling. Moderate to severe scalp psoriasis symptoms may include dandruff-like flaking, dry scalp, and hair loss. Scalp psoriasis does not directly cause hair loss, but stress and excess scratching or picking of the scalp may result in hair loss.

Scalp psoriasis can be treated with medicated shampoos, creams, gels, oils, ointments, and soaps. Salicylic acid and coal tar are two medications in over-the-counter products that help treat scalp psoriasis. Steroid injections and phototherapy may help treat mild scalp psoriasis. Biologics are the latest class of medications that can also help treat severe scalp psoriasis.

Guttate psoriasis looks like small, pink dots or drops on the skin. The word guttate is from the Latin word gutta, meaning drop. There tends to be fine scales with guttate psoriasis that is finer than the scales in plaque psoriasis. Guttate psoriasis is typically triggered by streptococcal (strep throat) and the outbreak will usually occur two to three weeks after having strep throat.

Guttate psoriasis tends to go away after a few weeks without treatment. Moisturizers can be used to soften the skin. If there is a history of psoriasis, a doctor may take a throat culture to determine if strep throat is present. If the throat culture shows that streptococcal is present, a doctor may prescribe antibiotics.

Many patients with psoriasis have abnormal nails. Psoriatic nails often have a horizontal white or yellow margin at the tip of the nail called distal onycholysis because the nail is lifted away from the skin. There can often be small pits in the nail plate, and the nail is often yellow and crumbly.

The same treatment for skin psoriasis is beneficial for nail psoriasis. However, since nails grow slow, it may take a while for improvements to be evident. Nail psoriasis can be treated with phototherapy, systemic therapy (medications that spread throughout the body), and steroids (cream or injection). If medications do not improve the condition of nail psoriasis, a doctor may surgically remove the nail.

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Psoriasis Types, Images, Treatments - Medical, Health, and ...

Psoriasis Treatments, Symptoms & Causes

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What Is Psoriasis?

Psoriasis is a common, chronic, genetic, systemic inflammatory disease that is characterized by symptoms and signs such as elevated itchy plaques of raised red skin covered with thick silvery scales. Psoriasis is usually found on the elbows, knees, and scalp but can often affect the legs, trunk, and nails. Psoriasis may be found on any part of the skin.

Is Psoriasis Contagious?

Psoriasis is not an infection and therefore is not contagious. Touching the affected skin and then touching someone else will not transmit psoriasis.

What Are Psoriasis Causes and Risk Factors?

The immune system plays a key role in psoriasis. In psoriasis, a certain subset of T lymphocytes (a type of white blood cell) abnormally trigger inflammation in the skin as well as other parts of the body. These T cells produce inflammatory chemicals that cause skin cells to multiply as well as producing changes in small skin blood vessels, resulting ultimately in elevated scaling plaque of psoriasis.

Psoriasis has a genetic basis and can be inherited. Some people carry genes that make them more likely to develop psoriasis. Just because a person has genes that would make him more likely to have psoriasis doesn't mean he will have the disease. About one-third of people with psoriasis have at least one family member with the disease. Certain factors trigger psoriasis to flare up in those who have the genes.

Environmental factors such as smoking, sunburns, streptococcal sore throat, and alcoholism may affect psoriasis by increasing the frequency of flares. Injury to the skin has been known to trigger psoriasis. For example, a skin infection, skin inflammation, or even excessive scratching can activate psoriasis. A number of medications have been shown to aggravate psoriasis.

Psoriasis flare-ups can last for weeks or months. Psoriasis can go away and then return.

Plaque psoriasis is the most common type of psoriasis and is characterized by red skin covered with silvery scales and inflammation. Plaques of psoriasis vary in shape and frequently itch or burn.

Psoriasis Statistics

Approximately 1%-2% of people in the United States, or about 5.5 million, have plaque psoriasis. Up to 10% of people with plaque psoriasis also have psoriatic arthritis. Individuals with psoriatic arthritis have inflammation in their joints that could result in permanent joint damage if not treated aggressively. Recent information indicates that most patients with psoriasis are also predisposed to obesity, diabetes, and early cardiovascular diseases. It is now becoming apparent that psoriasis is not just a skin disease but can have widespread systemic effects.

Sometimes plaque psoriasis can evolve into more severe disease, such as pustular or erythrodermic psoriasis. In pustular psoriasis, the red areas on the skin contain small blisters filled with pus. In erythrodermic psoriasis, a wide area of red and scaling skin is typical, and it may be itchy and uncomfortable.

What Are Psoriasis Treatments?

There are many topical and systemic treatments for psoriasis, but it must be born in mind that although many of them are effective in improving the appearance of the skin disease, none of them cure the condition.

Psoriasis Pictures

Reviewed on 9/11/2017

REFERENCES:

Boehncke, Wolf-Henning, and Schn, Michael. "Psoriasis." Lancet May 27, 2015: 1-12.

Menter, Alan, et al. "Guidelines of Care for the Management of Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis." J Am Acad Dermatol May 2008: 826-850.

Weigle, Nancy, and Sarah McBane. "Psoriasis." Am Fam Physician. 87.9 (2013): 626-633.

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Psoriasis Treatments, Symptoms & Causes