ReportWire

Tag: Washington State University

  • MORE College Students Say Bryan Kohberger Stalked Them Before Idaho Murders! – Perez Hilton

    [ad_1]

    Bryan Koherberger wasn’t only stalking the four University of Idaho students before he brutally murdered them almost three years ago! It turns out he also watched two other female college students while attending Washington State University!

    According to copies of their interview obtained by People on Tuesday, the two women told the Idaho State Police the former criminology student visited them “daily” at their work. That’s how it started, and the situation became increasingly concerning when he began to show up at their homes unexpectedly.

    The first woman, who worked at the Washington State University bookstore, said Kohberger “seemed very used to being put off by women.” The 30-year-old teacher’s assistant had many complaints about his “rude and belittling behavior toward women,” as well as for making them feel “uncomfortable,” and “discriminatory comments which were homophobic, ableist, xenophobic and misogynistic in nature.” So yeah, he was used to it.

    Related: Idaho Murder Victim’s Mother Forgives Bryan Kohberger!

    A few months before the Idaho murders, in August or September of 2022, she claimed to police that “she was home alone one night, changing in her room, and someone knocked on her window.” She called her husband, and the person ran away. That wasn’t the end of the nightmare, though. It happened again. The report said:

    “Another time, after she had started working she heard someone moving around on her porch at approximately 7:00 in the evening. Her husband came home again and saw a white car leaving the area.”

    The report doesn’t specify the kind of car it was, but we know that Kohberger drove a white Hyundai Elantra. Could it have been his vehicle leaving her home? The woman seemingly thinks so.

    She also shared that it seemed the convicted killer researched her because he knew personal information about her that she had never told him before — like her name. According to the woman, he once came into her work and asked for her by name. However, she told police she was “certain she never told Kohberger her name, and she doesn’t wear a name tag.” Kohberger even knew “what hours she worked and made remarks about her hours,” per the report.

    Creepy!

    And she wasn’t the only victim of his stalking! Another female student worked with Kohberger in the criminology department, but was an undergraduate. He tried to pursue her, but she told cops she rejected his advances, telling him she was a lesbian. However, that didn’t stop him. Kohberger continued to seek her out at work “almost daily.” The report noted that she said:

    “She was not the first person to have problems with Kohberger.”

    One night, she recalled, she was working late and spotted him “walking outside as she was locking up.” And what happened next will send chills up your spine. The woman alleged:

    “Kohberger made eye contact with her when she looked out, which seemed strange because you would have to be looking directly at the window where she worked to make eye contact.”

    When she was about to lock up, she ran and hid in the bathroom because she saw Kohberger enter the building and wanted to avoid him. Smart move! Another day, she received a call from a neighbor who said they “saw someone very close outside her window and to make sure to lock the door.” The woman found out soon after that “she lived fairly close to Kohberger.”

    How chilling!

    His classmate also told police she felt someone outside her window and discovered “snow footprints leading to the back window of her apartment.” She noticed “whoever had left the footprints had backtracked within the tracks.” The woman added that another student had heard someone trying to open the door of their home a few weeks before that incident.

    A professor warned Kohberger would be “harassing, stalking, and sexually abusing” students if he ever became a professor in the future. But it looks like he was already doing it to several women — not just Kaylee Goncalves before he killed Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen, Ethan Chapin, and her.

    Reactions, Perezcious readers? Let us know in the comments.

    [Image via Monroe County Correctional Facility, Kaylee Goncalves/Xana Kernodle/Instagram]

    [ad_2]

    Perez Hilton

    Source link

  • There Are Too Many Ways to Exercise

    There Are Too Many Ways to Exercise

    [ad_1]

    This year, I’m going to get into shape. It does not matter that I’ve made this same resolution every year for more than a decade, or that I gave up after a month each time. In 2024, I mean it. Unlike years past, my motivation is not aesthetic but utilitarian: I want to get fit so I stop feeling like garbage. As I enter my late 30s, I’m struggling with the health issues that come with the terrain—high blood pressure, lower-back pain, and persistently achy joints. On top of those, I’m a new mom, chronically sleep-deprived and exhausted. My six-month-old son saps all my energy but also steels my resolve to protect it.

    With all my new motivation, I first had to find a workout regime. Scrolling through social media for inspiration, I saw athletes of every variety across my feed. There were people sweating it out at a Navy SEAL–style workout, a Muay Thai–inspired kickboxing class, and a workout designed and taught by former inmates. Yoga isn’t just yoga anymore; it can be hot, aerial, acrobatic, Drake, and even goat. Personal trainers shout commands through media including YouTube, VR headsets, and, uh, mirrors. You can work out alone or in a group (or alone in a group, if Peloton is your thing). For the graceful, there is barre; for the nerds, there is a Lord of the Rings–themed app that logs exercise as movement from the Shire to Mordor.

    We are living in a golden age of fitness: With workouts to accommodate every skill level, interest, time commitment, and social capacity, it should be easier than ever for novices to find one and get started. But it’s not. Instead of finding a workout that suited me, choice overload left me even more inert, and less motivated, than I was when I started my search. If you’re serious about committing to a fitness regime, choosing one isn’t just about moving your body. It could shape your future schedule, lifestyle, and even identity. To others, the way you exercise might say something about who you are, whether that’s a marathon maniac or a #PelotonMom. To the exercise newbie, this can make the stakes feel dauntingly high.

    The stakes are high. Exercise will lead to results only if you do it consistently, potentially spending hours on it each week. It’s essential to pick right. I was never fitter than when I played in a basketball league in my early 20s and was held accountable for going to games and practice. Since then, I’ve only dabbled in activities—like kickboxing, spinning, and something called Dance Church. None of them stuck. In the search for the ideal workout, baseline criteria include practical concerns such as location and affordability. No matter how exciting the class, a gym that’s out of the way or prohibitively expensive is not one you will attend regularly. Then there is what I call doability—as in, Can my body do that? Answering honestly can eliminate unlikely options, such as the grueling circuit that turned actors into Spartans for the movie 300. Being too pragmatic, however, can also stifle fitness aspirations. If your goal is an eight-pack, the “lazy-girl workout” probably isn’t going to cut it.

    Ruling out options based on practicality only whittles the list down so much. The next step is harder: figuring out what you actually want to do. For a goal as broad as “get in shape,” you can drive yourself crazy trying to find the answer. Picking a workout that ticks all the boxes is virtually impossible, because there will always be other options that seem better. At first, streaming Yoga With Adriene in my living room seemed like a cheap, enjoyable, and physically demanding option, but it lacked a social component to hold me accountable. Programs inspired by high-intensity interval training (HIIT), such as F45, promise to get people ripped—fast!—but exercising under a constant deadline is my idea of hell. I found flaws in workouts as varied as rock climbing, rugby, Orangetheory, Tabata, Aqua Tabata, and Tabata-style spinning.

    Adding to the gravity of the decision is what it signals about who you are. Personal fitness is rarely personal these days. Stereotypes inform the culture of certain workouts and how their adherents are seen: Indoor rock climbing is associated with tech bros, running with intensely driven morning people, weight lifting with gym rats. Many boutique workouts come with even more distinct personality types, perpetuated by the communities they spawn in real life and on social media. Perhaps the most recognizable is the CrossFit Bro, an aggressive, bandanna-wearing jock who can’t stop talking about CrossFit. Pure Barre and SoulCycle call to mind lithe, athleisure-clad smoothie drinkers; Peloton, the kind of person who can afford a Peloton.

    New identities can also form by virtue of the lifestyle shifts that these workouts can bring about. Friendships are nurtured by sweat spilled during class; exercise may even shift eating habits. For some, fitness programs become so embedded in daily life that they begin to resemble institutionalized religion. In an extreme case of life imitating exercise, a couple who met at CrossFit got married and served a paleo cake at their wedding, which was held during a CrossFit competition. Because exercise is so good at fostering community, the search for a workout is sometimes described as finding “your tribe.”

    Read: The church of CrossFit

    These stereotypes are not always true, of course, and they can also be aspirational. Embarrassed as I am to admit it, I would love to be a smoothie girl. But the notion of joining a tribe makes pedaling on a stationary bike or joining a rock-climbing gym feel much more consequential than the activities themselves. I was getting nowhere in my own fitness search, so I turned to experts for a reality check. Selecting from a multitude of fitness options is “quite a dilemma,” Sarah Ullrich-French, a kinesiology professor at Washington State University, told me, but the way out is to focus on what feels good, physically and psychologically. Fitness identities, however palpable, only have to mean something if you want them to. If the stereotype of the intensely focused predawn runner inspires you to get up for a morning jog, lean into it. But if it seems like an annoying downside to running, it’s okay to treat it as such. Pay attention to workouts that bring up anxiety and dread; even if you aspire towards a certain identity, “negative associations and feelings will often win over our goals and what we think we should do,” Ullrich-French said.

    Part of my problem was having a goal that was too diffuse. Theoretically any workout could help me get fit, but if I refined my ambition to, say, “getting up the stairs to work without heaving,” doing so would narrow my options to exercises that optimize stamina and strength. Instead of immediately signing up for a weekly running club, start with small, attainable goals, such as taking the time to stretch each morning, Adam Makkawi, an assistant professor of medicine at Columbia University, told me.  Small goals are easier to achieve, and can help make more workout options a real possibility.

    My biggest mistake was to treat choosing a workout as an intellectual endeavor, sort of like shopping for a new vacuum by reading endless online reviews. Test several options, and when you’ve found one that you like, customize its intensity and frequency until it suits you, Catherine Sabiston, a professor of kinesiology and physical education at the University of Toronto, told me. The likelihood you’ll stick to it, she added, boils down to competency—how well you feel you can accomplish a task—and enjoyment, both of which can be known only through experience.

    Choice overload is real, but it can also be a powerful excuse to stay inert. Although a little self-reflection about fitness identities can be helpful, fixating on them can rule out perfectly viable options. In this spirit, I compiled a list of doable, challenging, and conceivably fun workouts to try—and even mustered up excitement for a fitness identity that brought me joy. This week, I begin my search in earnest, embarking on a virtual Lord of the Rings running journey across the rugged terrain of Middle Earth.

    [ad_2]

    Yasmin Tayag

    Source link

  • Munchies Explained Scientifically in New Study | High Times

    Munchies Explained Scientifically in New Study | High Times

    [ad_1]

    A new study has found scientific evidence and further explanation for why cannabis increases and stimulates the appetite, more commonly known as “the munchies.”

    The study, championed by researchers at Washington State University and published in the peer-reviewed journal Scientific Reports was performed by administering vaporized cannabis sativa to mice, after which they scanned their brains using technology similar to an MRI machine to see how the mice reacted. 

    According to a press release, the researchers found that a particular set of neural cells in the hypothalamus of the mice, an area of the brain most associated with maintaining homeostasis in the body, was activated in the mice who were exposed to cannabis. The same neural cells did not appear to become activated in the mice who were not exposed to the cannabis vapor. 

    “When the mice are given cannabis, neurons come on that typically are not active,” said Jon Davis, an assistant professor of neuroscience at WSU and corresponding author on the paper. “There is something important happening in the hypothalamus after vapor cannabis.”

    Now, this is not the first study to associate cannabis use with hypothalamus stimulation. A 2015 study published in Nature found that activation of a certain cannabinoid receptor in the brain which in turn regulates a group of neurons that normally suppress appetite is believed to be what causes cannabis to increase hunger in its users. A 2019 study by UC Davis built on this knowledge by introducing vaporized cannabis as opposed to injected, as was used by most cannabis-related studies before it. The most recent study at Washington State University attempted to build on that knowledge in a bit of a different way. 

    The exact methods used by Davis and the Washington State University researchers were described in Scientific Reports using the following language: 

    “To determine how cannabis vapor affects temporal feeding patterns, we housed rats in metabolic chambers with real-time automated feeding measurement of meal frequency and meal size following exposure to air or a behaviorally characterized dose of cannabis vapor known to elicit feeding behavior,” the study said. “Further analysis of meal patterns revealed that cannabis vapor exposure promoted increased meal frequency and reduced meal size throughout the evaluation period, suggesting that inhaled cannabis may provoke motivational components of feeding.”

    Beyond the more-or-less direct association that inhaling cannabis vapor tends to increase appetite, the research team involved in this study took it a step further. They used what’s known as a “chemogenetic” technique, which according to the National Library of Medicine is “technique that allows for the reversible remote control of cell populations and neural circuitry via systemic injection or microinfusion of an activating ligand.” This is a very scientific and fancy way of saying that certain groups of cells can be turned on and off like a “light switch” as Washington State University described it. 

    This light switch technique was used to essentially block the effects of cannabis from the group of neurons that were lit up in the mice, scientifically known as Agouti Related Peptide (AgRP) neurons. Essentially, what they found was that cannabis increased appetite in mice who did not have these neurons turned off and had no effect on appetite when the neurons were blocked. 

    The researchers also found that cannabis managed to stimulate appetite in the mice without inhibiting their ability to move around, referred to as “locomotor activity.”

    “Our data demonstrate that inhalation of cannabis vapor augments the appetitive phases of feeding behavior as evidenced by an increase in the number of meals consumed, a decrease in meal size and enhanced effort-based responding for palatable food,” the study said. “Notably, these behavioral observations occurred in the absence of reduced locomotor activity, and in the presence of increased energy expenditure.”

    If all of that scientific jargon didn’t really make sense to you, Davis best summarized the findings of this study in the following, very succinct statement:

    “We now know one of the ways that the brain responds to recreational-type cannabis to promote appetite,” Davis said.

    [ad_2]

    Patrick Maravelias

    Source link

  • Munchies Mystery Solved: Cannabis Activates Brain’s Appetite Neurons – Cannabis Business Executive – Cannabis and Marijuana industry news

    Munchies Mystery Solved: Cannabis Activates Brain’s Appetite Neurons – Cannabis Business Executive – Cannabis and Marijuana industry news

    [ad_1]





    Munchies Mystery Solved: Cannabis Activates Brain’s Appetite Neurons – Cannabis Business Executive – Cannabis and Marijuana industry news






























    [ad_2]

    AggregatedNews

    Source link

  • Marijuana Reduces Migraine Pain

    Marijuana Reduces Migraine Pain

    [ad_1]

    They are incredibly disablitating, migraines occurs most often among people aged 20 – 50 years, and are 3 times more common with women.  Roughly 10% of the population will get one.  Around 95% of the population will get a headache.  The most common headaches include tension-type headaches (must frequent), cluster headaches, and persistent headaches (NDPH). This doesn’t include alcohol and food related headaches.  A migraine  differed stands out since it is neurological condition causing a variety of symptoms, most notably a throbbing headache on one side of your head. Migraines often get worse with physical activity, lights, sounds or smells. They usually last at least four hours or even days.

    Data suggests marijuana may reduce migraine pain and be the best over the counter relief. More research needs to be done, but early studies show promise. Published in The Journal of Pain, the first study to utilize big data in analyzing the role cannabis plays in managing pain from headaches and migraines. Using archival data from the Strainprint—an app in which patients track their symptoms before and after using medical marijuana—scientists determined inhaled marijuana reduced the severity of self-reported pain 47.3% for headaches and 49.6% for migraines.

    “We were motivated to do this study because a substantial number of people say they use cannabis for headache and migraine, but surprisingly few studies had addressed the topic,” said study lead author Carrie Cuttler, an assistant professor of psychology at Washington State University.

    RELATED: What You Need To Know About The Healing Benefits Of Marijuana’s CBG

    Instead of documenting the before and after data points in real time, previous research asked patients to recall how marijuana affected the severity of past headaches. A clinical trial, as Science Daily first reported, found that cannabis could be more effective at reducing headache pain than ibuprofen, though the researchers used nabilone, a synthetic cannabinoid drug, in the trial.

    Photo by gradyreese/Getty Images

     

    However, in the Washington State study, 1,300 patients who used the app more than 12,200 times submitted information about their headache before and after marijuana use, while 653 patients used the app over 7,400 times to track their changes in migraine pain.

    More conventional treatments can cause an “overuse headache,” which can cause patients’ headaches to worsen over time. But researchers found no such result in patients using cannabis. They did, however, find patients consuming more marijuana over time, indicating they may be developing a tolerance to the plant. In addition, the study reported a difference in headache reduction between genders, with significantly more sessions involving men (90%) than women (89.1%).

    RELATED: Consuming Medical Marijuana Is Proven To Help Migraine Sufferers

    Patients received no additional benefits when using cannabis strains with higher or lower THC and CBD concentrations. As the plant contains more than 100 cannabinoids outside THC and CBD, researchers believe this indicates other cannabis elements like terpenes could be playing a factor. The study did report concentrates, like oil, elicited stronger decreases in headache severity than marijuana flower.

    “I suspect there are some slight overestimates of effectiveness,” Cuttler said. “My hope is this research will motivate researchers to take on the difficult work of conducting placebo-controlled trials. In the meantime, this at least gives medical cannabis patients and their doctors a little more information about what they might expect from using cannabis to manage these conditions.”

    [ad_2]

    Amy Hansen

    Source link

  • Twin study finds epigenetic signature for obesity

    Twin study finds epigenetic signature for obesity

    [ad_1]

    Newswise — PULLMAN, Wash. – A susceptibility to gain weight may be written into molecular processes of human cells, a Washington State University study indicates.

    The proof-of-concept study with a set of 22 twins found an epigenetic signature in buccal or cheek cells appearing only for the twins who were obese compared to their thinner siblings. With more research, the findings could lead to a simple cheek swab test for an obesity biomarker and enable earlier prevention methods for a condition that effects 50% of U.S. adults, the researchers said.

    “Obesity appears to be more complex than simple consumption of food. Our work indicates there’s a susceptibility for this disease and molecular markers that are changing for it,” said Michael Skinner, a WSU professor of biology and corresponding author of the study published in the journal Epigenetics.

    The study focused on twins to help eliminate the role of genetics and instead focus on epigenetics, molecular processes which are separate from DNA but influence how genes are expressed. The fact that the epigenetic signature was found in cheek cells rather than fat cells also suggests that the obesity signature is likely found throughout the human system.

    The signature’s systemic nature also suggests that something may have occurred early in one twin’s life that triggered obesity susceptibility, Skinner added. It’s also possible that it was inherited by one twin and not the other.

    For this study, Skinner worked with lead author Glen Duncan, director of the Washington State Twin Registry based at WSU, to identify 22 twin pairs, both identical and fraternal, who were discordant for obesity: one sibling had a body mass index of 30 or higher, the standard for obesity defined by the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, while the other sibling was in the normal range of 25 and below.

    The research team analyzed cells from cheek swabs provided by the twins. In the cells from the twin siblings who were obese, they found similar epigenetic changes to DNA methylation regions, areas where molecular groups made of methane attach to DNA, regulating gene expression or turning genes on or off.

    The study would need to be replicated with larger groups of people to develop a biomarker test for obesity, the authors said.

    The goal would be able to identify people earlier in life before they become obese so health care providers might help create interventions such as lifestyle changes, medication or both, said Duncan. 

    “Ultimately we would like to have some kind of preventative measure instead of our usual approach which is treatment,” he said. “It’s a simple fact that it’s better to prevent a disease, then try to treat it after you have it.”

    This research was funded by the John Templeton Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.

    [ad_2]

    Washington State University

    Source link

  • TikTok health videos: trends, topics, influencers

    TikTok health videos: trends, topics, influencers

    [ad_1]

    Newswise — PULLMAN, Wash. –Sexual health, diet and exercise are the three topics that steal the show when it comes to popular health-related videos on TikTok. Unfortunately, there’s little else in terms of engaging health-related content on the video sharing platform, a Washington State University study found. 

    The social media platform’s mostly young audience also seems to prefer health-related videos featuring popular influencers’ role model appeals, such as their diet or exercise routine, rather than expert medical advice, according to the study in the Journal of Health Communication. 

    “Not surprisingly, we saw a great deal of role model appeals as influencers have a strong voice on this platform,” said Nicole O’Donnell, a WSU assistant professor of communications and lead author of the study. “The issue we have with this from a health communication perspective is that most of these videos weren’t providing attainable steps for behavior change but rather sharing aesthetic details of what is often a highly unobtainable lifestyle.”

    Compared to Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, TikTok is a relatively new platform with user patterns that scientists are still trying to understand. To address this knowledge gap, the research team, comprised of O’Donnell and communications Ph.D. students Sultana Ismet Jerin and Di Mu, analyzed 400 health-related videos from TikTok’s #EduTok campaign. 

    They found most of the videos focused on mental health diet, exercise, or sexual health, which are areas of interest likely influenced by TikTok’s younger audiences. However, mental health videos had relatively low levels of audience engagement, and other important topics that are especially relevant to teens, such as substance abuse prevention, bullying and sexual violence prevention, were largely absent. 

    Unsurprisingly, they also found that videos employing ‘role model’ appeals, such as a famous actress or sports star encouraging a healthier lifestyle, had the highest levels of engagement. Videos designed to shock or scare people from participating in a certain type of behavior also did well in terms of viewership. But both these types of videos often lacked essential factual information and fell short of promoting attainable behavior changes. 

    “Almost 50% of the videos had role model appeals in them,” Jerin said. “Our results indicate that audiences highly engage with personal stories. The emotional appeal of the content is also a factor that influences audience engagement. In another study, we are specifically looking at emotional appeals of mental health messaging to learn more about engagement as mental health videos appeared the least engaging although being the most frequently covered health topic in EduTok videos.”

    Another worrisome trend that the researchers identified was the prevalence of videos promoting self-diagnosis of mental health issues, with O’Donnell noting the potentially serious implications of individuals, especially young people, diagnosing their own health issues based on brief social media videos.

    “Videos of people self-diagnosing their depression, anxiety or other issues related to mental health tended to have very high engagement which is a problematic trend that we would hope to have some public messaging about in the future,” O’Donnell said. “We plan to look more closely at the topic of mental health in general and the emotional appeals that creators are using.” 

    Moving forward, the researchers hope is that healthcare providers as well as state and federal agencies can use their findings to better engage with young people on a variety of health-related topics. 

    “Authentic stories about people’s lives tended to generate a lot more engagement than a person in a white coat sharing their opinion,” O’Donnell said. “And so, one strategy we would recommend is to have health professionals find ways to share people’s authentic stories while also providing credible and reliable information.” 

    [ad_2]

    Washington State University

    Source link

  • Pro-cannabis social media linked to youths’ intentions to use

    Pro-cannabis social media linked to youths’ intentions to use

    [ad_1]

    Newswise — PULLMAN, Wash. – Despite laws against advertising cannabis to teens, young people reported in surveys that they still see a lot of positive cannabis messages through social media posts.

    Washington State University researchers found these messages were also connected to the teens’ intentions to use cannabis, and for college students, with their actual use. Anti-cannabis messages also had an effect in lessening use-intentions, but young people saw less of those types of messages.

    “Youth, in particular, have really grown up bombarded with cannabis information compared to previous generations,” said Jessica Willoughby, first author on the study published in the journal Health Communication and an associate professor in WSU’s Murrow College of Communication. “We found that they were seeing more positive messages about using cannabis and a lot less about the risks.”

    For this study, the researchers surveyed 350 teens and 966 college students from across Washington state, where recreational marijuana has been legal since 2012.

    The state does have regulations aimed at preventing advertising cannabis to minors, such as prohibiting the use of cartoons or youth-oriented celebrities. This does not prevent individuals from posting about cannabis on social media, however.

    Of the study participants, the vast majority, over 80%, reported seeing pro-cannabis messages on social media, such as posts about being high or claims that marijuana is harmless. The pro-cannabis messages most often encountered were those from celebrities or lyrics in songs.

    “Parents might not understand that if their kid is using a social media site—whether it’s Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook or Snapchat —they are going to see cannabis messages. That’s just the reality,” said co-author Stacey Hust, a professor at WSU’s Murrow College of Communication. “This means we need to be getting training into schools at much younger ages. At the very least middle school and high school health classes need to talk about cannabis and how it can be harmful to the developing brain.”

    The study participants also reported seeing some anti-cannabis messages, such as that cannabis can cause harm or that smoking it is gross or for losers, but they saw these types of messages less often than pro-cannabis ones.

    The youth, both teens and college students, who reported seeing higher levels of positive messages were more likely to indicate an intention to use cannabis. The college students were also asked about actual use and there was a positive connection between exposure to pro-cannabis posts and use for that group.

    The good news is that seeing the anti-cannabis messages had some effect, although indirectly. Among the youth who already held beliefs that cannabis use could cause negative outcomes, such as damaging their brain or doing worse in school, seeing anti-cannabis messages appeared to lower their intentions to use.

    The researchers said this finding indicates a good area for parents and counselors to target.

    “Prevention efforts can have an impact,” said Willoughby. “Since youth are seeing more of that positive cannabis content, it’s worthwhile to put out more content highlighting the risks, especially to the young people like them.”

    This study received partial funding through Washington state’s initiative measure 502 which taxes production processing and wholesale retail sales of marijuana.

    [ad_2]

    Washington State University

    Source link

  • Does Criminology Have a Crime Problem? Not at All, Experts Say.

    Does Criminology Have a Crime Problem? Not at All, Experts Say.

    [ad_1]

    When authorities named a criminology student at Washington State University as a suspect in the murders of four University of Idaho students, the internet went wild with speculation.

    Could Bryan C. Kohberger’s academic background have played a role in the crimes he is accused of committing? Some speculated he could have been trying to collect data and firsthand experience for his Ph.D. dissertation. Others pointed to prior examples of serial killers with criminal-justice degrees.

    But several experts in criminal justice, forensics, and sociology told The Chronicle that it’s unlikely Kohberger might have learned how to commit a high-profile crime while studying criminology. Nor is it likely that the field is attracting would-be criminals, they said.

    Kohberger is facing four first-degree murder charges for the deaths of Ethan Chapin, 20; Kaylee Goncalves, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20; and Madison Mogen, 21. The four University of Idaho undergraduates were stabbed to death in an off-campus house on November 13. The University of Idaho’s campus in Moscow, Idaho, is less than 10 miles away from Washington State’s campus in Pullman, Wash.

    “In my career, I never had an undergraduate or graduate student who was studying criminology to commit crimes,” said Steven E. Barkan, a retired professor of sociology at the University of Maine. “Actually, students took my courses because they wanted to prevent and reduce crime.”

    Barkan said that criminology graduate students tend to pursue careers as professors or researchers. Meanwhile, those at the master’s level tend to become practitioners, such as probation officers.

    “There is no evidence that criminology students want to learn to commit crimes themselves. In fact, most people who commit conventional crimes don’t go to college,” Barkan said. States that have higher levels of college-educated people tend to have lower crime rates than the national average, according to the Justice Policy Institute, a think tank based in Washington, D.C., that focuses on criminal justice.

    In a 2021 study published in the British Society of Criminology, the researchers Julie Trebilcock and Clare Griffiths found that helping others by preventing crimes is one of the three main motivations for students pursuing a criminology degree. None of the motivations found by the researchers were about committing crimes.

    Chris D. Bertram, an assistant professor of criminal justice at Salt Lake Community College who has over 25 years of law-enforcement experience, said that Kohberger’s case is unique, and that the vast majority of criminal-justice majors aren’t looking to become criminals. He also said that learning criminology in an academic setting doesn’t necessarily mean one would know how to commit homicide without leaving evidence behind.

    “[Kohberger] had a good academic background in criminal justice, but he didn’t have the operational background,” Bertram said. “If you’re simply taking classes, reading Wikipedia, Googling things, you’re going to learn something, but you’re not going to know everything that is out there, including technology and higher-end law-enforcement investigative services.”

    In my career, I never had an undergraduate or graduate student who was studying criminology to commit crimes. Actually, students took my courses because they wanted to prevent and reduce crime.

    “He may have considered the fact that the Moscow police department was small and didn’t have the capacities that some of the larger departments have, not realizing that the chief of police would call the FBI immediately to help with this investigation,” Bertram said. The Moscow police department has about 30 officers and has never had to investigate a crime of this magnitude before.

    Joseph L. Giacalone, an adjunct professor of law, police science, and criminal-justice administration at the City University of New York John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said that it’s rare that criminology students commit crimes. “I don’t see this as a problem for the course of study,” he said.

    He said that those who carry out horrific crimes could have studied any academic discipline. “The potential of a student committing a financial crime doesn’t stop our economics classes from teaching pyramid schemes. We’ve also seen nurses who became serial killers themselves,” Giacalone said, referring to four Austrian nurses known as “angels of death” who killed at least 49 people in the 1980s.

    According to a 2009 survey, only one in five American colleges reported that they run criminal background checks on applicants, regardless of program of study. The Chronicle asked over a dozen criminology programs at colleges across the country whether they collected data on students’ criminal backgrounds. The two that responded do not collect information on criminal backgrounds outside of self-disclosure.

    Giacalone said that some of Kohberger’s actions could be attributed to him having some knowledge about how evidence is left behind. “He did try to shut his cell phone off. He was wearing a mask — I doubt he was worried about Covid. He was probably worried about spitting and DNA,” he said. “But he didn’t wear gloves, for example. For somebody who has been studying this, he makes a lot of mistakes.”

    Joseph Scott Morgan, an associate professor of applied forensics at Jacksonville State University, in Alabama, said that many in the media and on social media aren’t aware of the differences between criminology and forensic science as separate fields of study. While criminology focuses on sociological and psychological aspects of crime, forensic science is the application of traditional sciences in order to examine crime scenes.

    “Many are assuming he’s some kind of criminal mastermind that would be able to ‘cover his tracks.’ I doubt he had any kind of substantial forensic training,” Morgan said. “There’s no such a thing as a perfect crime. Any time a human is introduced, there’s potential for them to miss something. It’s unpredictable.”

    “There isn’t enough data to create a picture of his rationales,” Morgan said. “Jumping into conclusions doesn’t help anybody involved.”

    Kohberger’s first court appearance in Idaho was on January 5. He has been denied bail, and his next court appearance is set for January 12.

    Sylvia Goodman contributed to this reporting.

    [ad_2]

    Marcela Rodrigues

    Source link

  • How a Washington State U. Doctoral Student Became a Suspect in the U. of Idaho Murders

    How a Washington State U. Doctoral Student Became a Suspect in the U. of Idaho Murders

    [ad_1]

    Surveillance-video footage from Washington State University was critical in identifying a Ph.D. student as a suspect in the murders of four University of Idaho students, a court document revealed on Thursday.

    Bryan C. Kohberger was studying criminology at WSU, located less than 10 miles from the Moscow, Idaho, home where the Idaho students were killed on November 13. The 28-year-old was arrested on December 30 and is facing four first-degree murder charges for the deaths of Ethan Chapin, 20; Kaylee Goncalves, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20; and Madison Mogen, 21.

    A probable-cause affidavit made public on Thursday details how investigators used security-camera footage from the suspect’s university and elsewhere, along with cellphone data, DNA evidence, and eyewitness accounts, to tie Kohberger to the murders.

    The affidavit, written by Cpl. Brett Payne of the Moscow Police Department, reveals that one of the two surviving housemates of the victims saw a “figure clad in black clothing and a mask that covered the person’s mouth and nose walking towards her” the morning of the murder.

    The housemate, identified in the affidavit as D.M., told the police that she was awakened at around 4 a.m. by what sounded like Goncalves playing with her dog, and that a short time later she heard Goncalves saying, “There’s someone here.” D.M. opened her bedroom door, the affidavit said, but didn’t see anyone. After that, she heard crying coming from Kernodle’s room and a male voice saying, “It’s OK, I’m going to help you.” D.M. opened her door again, and that’s when she saw the black-clad figure, who then walked toward the back sliding-glass door and left. D.M. said she froze in shock and then locked herself in her room, according to the affidavit.

    Investigators obtained cellular data that suggest the suspect had been near the Moscow residence at least a dozen times in the months leading up to the murders.

    The police were not called to the house until almost noon that day. The affidavit did not say why D.M. did not contact law enforcement earlier.

    The person D.M. saw was a man at least 5-feet-10-inches tall, “not very muscular, but athletically built with bushy eyebrows” — a description that would later match the suspect investigators tracked down through video footage from businesses and residences around the Moscow neighborhood and from Washington State University.

    The footage showed a white Hyundai Elantra driving by the victims’ residence three times in the early morning hours of November 13. The vehicle returned a fourth time at about 4:04 a.m., and was seen leaving the neighborhood at 4:20 a.m. “at a high rate of speed.”

    After the Moscow police asked local law-enforcement agencies to be on the lookout for the car, Daniel Tiengo, a Washington State University police officer, searched records for white Elantras registered with the institution and found one in Kohberger’s name. Investigators used WSU security footage to track the suspect’s movements between the residence in Moscow, and WSU’s campus in Pullman, Wash.

    Investigators also obtained cellular data that suggest Kohberger had been near the Moscow residence at least a dozen times in the months leading up to the murders, and that his phone was turned off or on airplane mode the morning of the murders. The device’s movements at other times were consistent with the movements of the white Hyundai Elantra, the affidavit said.

    In December, as the University of Idaho community mourned the loss of Chapin, Goncalves, Kernodle, and Mogen, Kohberger drove with his father from Washington to Pennsylvania, where his family lives. They were stopped by local police officers in Indiana for tailgating.

    Later that month, after having mapped the car’s movements and its match with a cellular device under Kohberger’s name, investigators used trash left outside Kohberger’s family home to collect DNA, and compared it to a tan leather knife sheath left at the murder scene. The DNA profile obtained from the trash matched DNA obtained from the knife sheath.

    Kohberger agreed to be extradited to Idaho on Wednesday. He appeared in an Idaho court for the first time on Thursday, minutes after the affidavit was released.

    The affidavit reveals that Kohberger has undergraduate degrees in psychology and cloud-based forensics, and that he had applied for an internship with the Pullman Police Department in the fall of 2022. “Kohberger wrote in his essay he had interest in assisting rural law-enforcement agencies with how to better collect and analyze technological data in public safety operations,” Corporal Payne wrote.

    The affidavit also notes that Kohberger had posted a research survey on Reddit seeking to “understand how emotions and psychological traits influence decision making when committing a crime.” He wrote that the study was approved by the internal review board at DeSales University, where he earned bachelor’s and graduate degrees.

    In an email to the Washington State University community on Tuesday, the chancellor, Elizabeth S. Chilton, referred to Kohberger as a “former” graduate student and encouraged the community to cooperate with law enforcement in the investigation.

    Chilton wrote that a new year and a new semester bring the opportunity for growth, peace, and healing. “I am hopeful that the coming days and weeks will provide all of us with additional answers and information about the nature of this incident,” she wrote. “I want to remind you all to support each other, be kind, and take time for yourself.”

    Officials at the University of Idaho did not respond to a request for comment on Thursday.

    [ad_2]

    Marcela Rodrigues

    Source link

  • New study suggests Mayas utilized market-based economics

    New study suggests Mayas utilized market-based economics

    [ad_1]

    Newswise — More than 500 years ago in the midwestern Guatemalan highlands, Maya people bought and sold goods with far less oversight from their rulers than many archeologists previously thought. 

    That’s according to a new study in Latin American Antiquity that shows the ruling K’iche’ elite took a hands-off approach when it came to managing the procurement and trade of obsidian by people outside their region of central control. 

    In these areas, access to nearby sources of obsidian, a glasslike rock used to make tools and weapons, was managed by local people through independent and diverse acquisition networks. Overtime, the availability of obsidian resources and the prevalence of craftsmen to shape it resulted in a system that is in many ways suggestive of contemporary market-based economies. 

    “Scholars have generally assumed that the obsidian trade was managed by Maya rulers, but our research shows that this wasn’t the case at least in this area,” said Rachel Horowitz, lead author of the study and an assistant professor of anthropology at Washington State University. “People seem to have had a good deal of economic freedom including being able to go to places similar to the supermarkets we have today to buy and sell goods from craftsmen.” 

    While there are extensive written records from the Maya Postclassic Period (1200-1524 AD) on political organization, much less is known about how societal elites wielded economic power. Horowitz set out to address this knowledge gap for the K’iche’ by examining the production and distribution of obsidian artifacts, which are used as a proxy by archeologists to determine the level of economic development in a region. 

    She performed geochemical and technological analysis on obsidian artifacts excavated from 50 sites around the K’iche’ capital of Q’umarkaj and surrounding region to determine where the raw material originally came from and techniques of its manufacture. 

    He results showed that the K’iche’ acquired their obsidian from similar sources in the Central K’iche’ region and Q’umarkaj, indicating a high degree of centralized control. The ruling elite also seemed to manage the trade of more valuable forms of nonlocal obsidian, particularly Pachua obsidian from Mexico, based off its abundance in these central sites. 

    Outside this core region though, in areas conquered by the K’iche, there was less similarity in obsidian economic networks. Horowitz’s analysis suggests these sites had access to their own sources of obsidian and developed specialized places where people could go to buy blades and other useful implements made from the rock by experts. 

    “For a long time, there has been this idea that people in the past didn’t have market economies, which when you think about it is kind of weird. Why wouldn’t these people have had markets in the past?” she said. “The more we look into it, the more we realize there were a lot of different ways in which these peoples’ lives were similar to ours.”

    The Middle American Research Institute at Tulane University loaned Horowitz the obsidian blades and other artifacts she used for her study. The artifacts were excavated in the 1970s. 

    Moving forward, Horowitz said she plans to examine more of the collection, the rest of which is housed in Guatemala, to discover further details about how the Maya conducted trade, managed their economic systems, and generally went about their lives.

    [ad_2]

    Washington State University

    Source link