aphar

feel the difference - почувствуй разницу

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 19:49:39 GMT

22 September 1914. The German submarine U-9 sunk a British light cruiser. Two other cruisers busied themselves with rescuing the crew, so presented themselves as an excellent target. They were sunk too. 1,459 sailors died. Otto Weddigen received half a dozen decorations for this.

7 November 1915. The British submarine E19 sunk the German light cruiser SMS Undine. The crew was rescued by the two accompanying destroyers; only 14 perished. Francis Cromie did not interfere with the rescue.

22 сентября 1914 года. Германская подлодка U-9 потопила Британский лёгкий крейсер. Два других лёгких крейсера занялись спасением команды; и, будучи неподвижными, были легко потоплены. 1459 моряков погибло. Отто Веддиген получил полдюжины наград за эту атаку.

7 ноября 1915 года. Британская подлодка E19 потопила Германский лёгкий крейсер Ундина. Команда была спасена двумя эсминцами сопровождавшими крейсер, погибло лишь 14 моряков. Фрэнсис Кроми не стал мешать спасательным работам.

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 20:08:15 GMT

Am I Human?
Аз есмь людь?

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 22:04:33 GMT

Новая стратегия работы с жалобами бабушек: звонить им решать проблемы, когда идет сериал!
Дольше пяти минут разговор не продлится и они со всем согласятся!

ффсем кто в танке: что такое грип и как с ним бороться

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 19:28:14 GMT

http://focus.ua/opinion/76586

Запомните самое главное: тактика ваших действий совершенно не зависит от того, как называется вирус. Это грипп сезонный, свиной, слоновий, пандемический, это вообще не грипп - это не важно. Важно лишь то, что это вирус, что он передается воздушно-капельным путем и что он поражает органы дыхания. Отсюда и конкретные действия.

Профилактика

Если вы (ваш ребенок) встретитесь с вирусом, а у вас нет в крови защитных антител, вы заболеете. Антитела появятся в одном из двух случаев: либо вы переболеете, либо вы привьетесь.

Привиться можно только от сезонного гриппа. От свиного вакцины пока нет (в Украине). Тем не менее иметь защитные антитела к тем трем вирусам, которые входят в состав сезонной вакцины, лучше, чем не иметь вообще никаких.

1. Есть возможность привиться (привить дитя) - прививайтесь, но при том условии, что, во-первых, вы здоровы и, во-вторых, для вакцинации не надо будет сидеть в сопливой толпе в поликлинике. Последнее положение делает ваши шансы на адекватную вакцинацию призрачными.

2. Никаких лекарств с доказанной профилактической эффективностью не существует. Т.е. никакой лук, никакой чеснок, никакая горилка и никакие глотаемые вами или засовываемые в дитя таблетки не способны защитить ни от какого респираторного вируса вообще, ни от вируса гриппа в частности. Все, за чем вы убиваетесь в аптеках, все эти якобы противовирусные средства, якобы стимуляторы интерферонообразования, стимуляторы иммунитета и жутко полезные витамины, все, что в аптеках к сегодняшнему дню исчезло, все, чем правительство обещало в ближайшие дни аптеки наполнить - все это лекарства с недоказанной эффективностью, лекарства, удовлетворяющие главную ментальную потребность украинца - «треба щось робити» - и россиянина - «надо что-то делать».

Основная польза всех этих лекарств - психотерапия. Вы верите, вам помогает - я рад за вас, только не надо штурмовать аптеки - оно того не стоит.

3. Источник вируса - человек и только человек. Чем меньше людей, тем меньше шансов заболеть. Карантин - замечательно! Запрет на массовые сборища - прекрасно! Пройтись остановку пешком, не пойти лишний раз в супермаркет - мудро!

4. Маска. Полезная штука, но не панацея. Обязательно должна быть на больном, если рядом здоровые: вирус она не задержит, но остановит капельки слюны, особо богатые вирусом.

5. Руки больного - источник вируса не менее значимый, чем рот и нос. Больной касается лица, вирус попадает на руки, больной хватает все вокруг, вы касаетесь этого всего рукой, - здравствуй, ОРВИ.

Не трогайте своего лица. Мойте руки, часто, много, постоянно носите с собой влажные дезинфицирующие гигиенические салфетки, мойте, трите, не ленитесь!

Учитесь сами и учите детей, если уж нет платка, кашлять-чихать не в ладошку, а в локоть.

Начальники! Официальным приказом введите в подчиненных вам коллективах запрет на рукопожатия.

Пользуйтесь кредитными карточками. Бумажные деньги - источник распространения вирусов.

6. Воздух!!! Вирусные частицы часами сохраняют свою активность в сухом теплом и неподвижном воздухе, но почти мгновенно разрушаются в воздухе прохладном, влажном и движущемся. В этом аспекте митинг в центре Киева, на который собралось 200 000 человек, менее опасен, чем собрание 1000 человек в клубе в Ужгороде.

Гулять можно сколько угодно. Подцепить вирус во время прогулки практически нереально. В этом аспекте, если уж вы вышли погулять, так не надо показушного хождения в маске по улицам. Уж лучше подышите свежим воздухом, а маску натяните перед входом в автобус, офис или магазин.

Оптимальные параметры воздуха в помещении - температура около 20 °С, влажность 50-70%. Обязательно частое и интенсивное сквозное проветривание помещений. Любая система отопления сушит воздух. Именно начало отопительного сезона стало началом эпидемии! Контролируйте влажность. Мойте пол. Включайте увлажнители воздуха. Настоятельно требуйте увлажнения воздуха и проветривания помещений в детских коллективах.

Лучше теплее оденьтесь, но не включайте дополнительных обогревателей.

7. Состояние слизистых оболочек!!! В верхних дыхательных путях постоянно образуется слизь. Слизь обеспечивает функционирование т.н. местного иммунитета - защиты слизистых оболочек. Если слизь и слизистые оболочки пересыхают - работа местного иммунитета нарушается, вирусы, соответственно, с легкостью преодолевают защитный барьер ослабленного местного иммунитета, и человек заболевает при контакте с вирусом с многократно большей степенью вероятности. Главный враг местного иммунитета - сухой воздух, а также лекарства, способные высушивать слизистые оболочки (из популярных и всем известных - димедрол, супрастин, тавегил, трайфед - список далеко не полный, мягко говоря).

Увлажняйте слизистые оболочки! Элементарно: 1 чайная ложка обычной поваренной соли на 1 литр кипяченой воды. Заливаете в любой флакон-пшикалку (например, из-под сосудосуживающих капель) и регулярно пшикаете в нос (чем суше, чем больше народу вокруг - тем чаще, хоть каждые 10 минут). Для той же цели можно купить в аптеке физиологический раствор или готовые солевые растворы для введения в носовые ходы - салин, аква марис, хумер, маример, носоль и т.д. Главное - не жалейте! Капайте, пшикайте, особенно тогда, когда из дома (из сухого помещения) вы идете туда, где много людей, особенно если вы сидите в коридоре поликлиники.

В отношении профилактики это все.

Лечение

Фактически единственным препаратом, способным разрушить вирус гриппа, является озельтамивир, коммерческое имя - тамифлю. Теоретически есть еще одно лекарство (занамивир), но оно используется лишь ингаляционно, да и шансов увидеть его в нашей стране немного.

Тамифлю реально разрушает вирус, блокируя белок нейраминидазу (ту самую N в названии H1N1).

Тамифлю не едят все подряд при любом чихе. Это и недешево, и побочных явлений много, да и смысла не имеет. Тамифлю используют тогда, когда болезнь протекает тяжело (признаки тяжелой ОРВИ врачи знают), или когда даже легко заболевает человек из группы риска - старики, астматики, диабетики (кто относится к группам риска, врачи тоже знают). Суть: если показано тамифлю, то показано как минимум наблюдение врача и, как правило, - госпитализация. Неудивительно, что с максимально возможной вероятностью тамифлю, поступающий в нашу страну, будет распределяться по стационарам, а не по аптекам (хотя все может быть).

Внимание!!!

К абсолютному, к подавляющему большинству тех, кто читает эти строки, лечение противовирусными средствами не имеет никакого отношения.

ГРИПП - ЛЕГКАЯ БОЛЕЗНЬ ДЛЯ БОЛЬШИНСТВА.

Лечение ОРВИ вообще и гриппа в частности - это не глотание таблеток! Это создание таких условий, чтоб организм легко с вирусом справился.

ПРАВИЛА ЛЕЧЕНИЯ.

1. Тепло одеться, но в комнате прохладно и влажно. Температура около 20 °С, влажность 50-70%. Мыть полы, увлажнять, проветривать.

2. Категорически не заставлять есть. Если просит (если хочется) - легкое, углеводное, жидкое.

3. Пить (поить). Пить (поить). Пить (поить)!!!

Температура жидкости равна температуре тела. Пить много. Компоты, морсы, чай (в чай мелко порезать яблочко), отвары изюма, кураги. Если дитя перебирает - это буду, а это нет - пусть пьет что угодно, лишь бы пил. Идеально для питья - готовые растворы для пероральной регидратации. Продаются в аптеках и должны там быть: регидрон, хумана электролит, гастролит и т.д. Покупайте, разводите по инструкции, поите.

4. В нос часто солевые растворы.

5. Все «отвлекающие процедуры» (банки, горчичники, припарки, ноги в кипятке и т.д.) - классический совковый родительский садизм и опять-таки психотерапия (надо что-то делать).

6. Если надумали бороться с высокой температурой - только парацетамол или ибупрофен. Категорически нельзя аспирин.

Главная беда в том, что тепло одеть, увлажнить, проветрить, не пихать еду и напоить - это по-нашенски называется «не лечить», а «лечить» - это послать папу в аптеку…

7. При поражении верхних дыхательных путей (нос, горло, гортань) никакие отхаркивающие средства не нужны - они только усилят кашель. Поражение нижних дыхательных путей (бронхиты, пневмонии) не имеют к самолечению никакого отношения. Поэтому самостоятельно никаких «лазолванов-мукалтинов» и т.п.

8. Противоаллергические средства не имеют к лечению ОРВИ никакого отношения.

9. Вирусные инфекции не лечатся антибиотиками. Антибиотики не уменьшают, а увеличивают риск осложнений.

10. Все интерфероны для местного применения - лекарства с недоказанной эффективностью или «лекарства» с доказанной неэффективностью.

11. Гомеопатия - это не лечение травами, а лечение заряженной водой. Безопасно. Психотерапия (надо что-то делать).

Когда нужен врач

ВСЕГДА!!!

Но это нереально. Поэтому перечисляем ситуации, когда врач нужен обязательно:

отсутствие улучшений на четвертый день болезни;
повышенная температура тела на седьмой день болезни;
ухудшение после улучшения;
выраженная тяжесть состояния при умеренных симптомах ОРВИ;
появление изолированно или в сочетании: бледности кожи; жажды, одышки, интенсивной боли, гнойных выделений;
усиление кашля, снижение его продуктивности; глубокий вдох приводит к приступу кашля;
при повышении температуры тела не помогают, практически не помогают или очень ненадолго помогают парацетамол и ибупрофен.

Врач нужен обязательно и срочно:

потеря сознания;
судороги;
признаки дыхательной недостаточности (затрудненное дыхание, одышка, ощущение нехватки воздуха);
интенсивная боль где угодно;
даже умеренная боль в горле при отсутствии насморка;
даже умеренная головная боль в сочетании с рвотой;
отечность шеи;
сыпь, которая не исчезает при надавливании на нее;
температура тела выше 39 °С, которая не начинает снижаться через 30 минут после применения жаропонижающих средств;
любое повышение температуры тела в сочетании с ознобом и бледностью кожи.

Все, что я написал выше, - это информация, которая теоретически должна быть известна любому врачу и которую врачи должны нести в массы.

Down with the daylight saving time!

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:01:42 GMT

Today my kids woke me up before the alarm clock went off - despite an explicit exhortation yestereve.
Those who want an extra hour for golf in the summer - or those who don't like to wake up in the dark in the winter - should mess up their own circadian rhythms, not mine or my kids'.
I don't care whether we stick with the astronomical time (12noon = astronomical noon in the middle of the time zone) or some sort of shifted time (e.g., summer time all year long), but clock shifts twice a year must stop!

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 23:41:26 GMT

наш admin: В этом вашем интернете хрен поймешь, кто прикалывается, кто реально дебил, а кто прикалывающийся дебил.

daylight saving time

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 23:06:48 GMT

There have been plenty of research which conclusively proves that there is no (within the margin of error) economic benefits to daylight saving time, as well as plenty of evidence that traffic accidents and heart attacks spike right after the time change.
So, when are we going to drop this horror?

wiki:
Adding daylight to afternoons benefits retailing, sports, and other activities that exploit sunlight after working hours, but causes problems for farming, evening entertainment and other occupations tied to the sun. Traffic fatalities are reduced when there is extra afternoon daylight; its effect on health and crime is less clear. Although an early goal of DST was to reduce evening usage of incandescent lighting, formerly a primary use of electricity, modern heating and cooling usage patterns differ greatly, and research about how DST currently affects energy use is limited and often contradictory.

DST's occasional clock shifts present other challenges. They complicate timekeeping, and can disrupt meetings, travel, billing, recordkeeping, medical devices, heavy equipment, and sleep patterns. Often, software can adjust computer clocks automatically, but this can be limited and error-prone, particularly when DST rules change.

sign a petition!

снос башни

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 22:48:41 GMT

PSL(2,7)==GL(3,2) (изоморфизм групп 168 элементов)
все, кому это интересно, это уже давно знают, а я только что узнал.
изоморфизм строится конструктивно(!),
охренеть можно: матрицы 2*2 над полем из 7и элементов
оказываются связанными с матрицами 3*3 над полем из 2х элементов.

Не насилуют - значит расисты!

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 19:54:29 GMT

http://www.beseder.co.il/ne-nasiluyut-znachit-rasistyi

приза преподавателей Еврейского Университета удостоилось прелюбопытнейшее исследование, посвященное массовым изнасилованиям израильскими солдатами палестинских девушек. То есть, если точнее, исследование посвящено отсутствию вышеупомянутых изнасилований и влиянию сего возмутительнейшего факта на международный имидж и престиж Израиля.

Предисловие документа, ... гордо объявляет, что "отсутствие организованных военных изнасилований является альтернативным методом достижения политических целей". ... "В контексте Израильско-палестинского конфликта можно рассматривать отсутствие военных изнасилований как средство усиления этнических различий и укрепление барьера между народами".

... изнасилования не происходят, поскольку имел место процесс обесчеловечивания арабских девушек и женщин в глазах израильских солдат и прочих оккупантов. Значительная часть этого блестящего исследования посвящена гипотезе о том, что в природе имеет место быть тайный заговор, запрещающий израильским солдатам надругательство над арабками - поскольку родившиеся в результате дети будут относиться к арабской нации, влияя на демографическую ситуацию неподходящим для Израиля образом.

Clean Smells Promote Moral Behavior

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 22:17:43 GMT

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/10/091025091148.htm

People are unconsciously fairer and more generous when they are in clean-smelling environments

"Could be that getting our kids to clean up their rooms might help them clean up their acts, too."

The study titled "The Smell of Virtue" was unusually simple and conclusive. Participants engaged in several tasks, the only difference being that some worked in unscented rooms, while others worked in rooms freshly spritzed with Windex.

The first experiment evaluated fairness.

As a test of whether clean scents would enhance reciprocity, participants played a classic "trust game." Subjects received $12 of real money (allegedly sent by an anonymous partner in another room). They had to decide how much of it to either keep or return to their partners who had trusted them to divide it fairly. Subjects in clean-scented rooms were less likely to exploit the trust of their partners, returning a significantly higher share of the money.

* The average amount of cash given back by the people in the "normal" room was $2.81. But the people in the clean-scented room gave back an average of $5.33.

The second experiment evaluated whether clean scents would encourage charitable behavior.

Subjects indicated their interest in volunteering with a campus organization for a Habitat for Humanity service project and their interest in donating funds to the cause.

* Participants surveyed in a Windex-ed room were significantly more interested in volunteering (4.21 on a 7-point scale) than those in a normal room (3.29).
* 22 percent of Windex-ed room participants said they'd like to donate money, compared to only 6 percent of those in a normal room.

Follow-up questions confirmed that participants didn't notice the scent in the room and that their mood at the time of the experiment didn't affect the outcomes.

"Basically, our study shows that morality and cleanliness can go hand-in-hand," said Galinsky of the Kellogg School. "Researchers have known for years that scents play an active role in reviving positive or negative experiences. Now, our research can offer more insight into the links between people's charitable actions and their surroundings."

While this study examined the influence of the physical environment on morality, Zhong and Liljenquist previously published work that demonstrated an intimate link between morality and physical cleanliness. Their 2006 paper in Science reported that transgressions activated a desire to be physically cleansed.

Liljenquist is now researching how perceptions of cleanliness shape our impressions of people and organizations. "The data tell a compelling story about how much we rely upon cleanliness cues to make a wide range of judgments about others," she said.

Refutations of Popular Gun Myths

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 22:13:54 GMT

http://generalnewsgroup.wordpress.com/2009/10/25/refutations-of-popular-gun-myths/

MYTH: “The police can protect you.”
---- Police write great reports, but an officer can only protect you if he/she happens to be there when the crime starts.

MYTH: “A handgun in a home is 43 times more likely to kill one of the residents than a criminal.”
---- Bogus. If you remove the suicides from his sampling, his statistic is now “6 times more likely”. Most of the remaining “victims” were multiple criminals living together, where one shot the other in a fight.

MYTH: “More children die of gunfire in America that the next 25 industrial nations combined”
---- Bogus. This "statistics" includes Kuwait(?!) but leaves out Russia and Brazil.

MYTH: “Countries with strict gun laws have less crime”
---- Russia, Mexico, South Africa and Brazil have very strict gun laws and much higher crime than we do. Switzerland has almost 100% handgun ownership. If guns caused crime, Switzerland would be the most dangerous nation on earth, rather than one of the safest. Finland has higher per-capita gun ownership than America, and they also have lower crime rates. Israel has 40% higher gun ownership, and near zero murder, except for terrorists. New York, California, Chicago, and Washington DC have the strictest gun laws in America, and the highest crime rates. Virginia borders Washington DC, yet it has few gun laws and far fewer violent crimes. Vermont has the least restrictive gun laws in America, and their gun crime rate is 48th out of 50 states. Every state that started allowing average citizens to carry concealed weapons saw a decrease in violent crime over the ensuing years. Gun laws have been proven to make things worse, not better.

MYTH: “Guns should be registered like cars”
---- Registering guns only makes sense if you want to confiscate all of them.

MYTH: “What if only one life is saved by more gun laws, isn’t is worth it?”
---- How many lives will be lost because of gun laws? 2.5 Million crimes per year are stopped by armed citizens. What are their lives worth?

MYTH: “The Second Amendment was written when muskets were the primary military arms. The Founding Fathers never would have considered allowing citizens to own assault rifles.”
---- Shall we also ban free speech on television, radio, and the Internet because they weren’t invented in 1791

MYTH: “The Second Amendment was about state militias like the National Guard”
---- We see dozens of statements in the writings of the Founding Fathers that the right to keep and bear arms is a personal right and none that say otherwise. E.g., “The Constitution shall never be construed to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms.”

when seconds count, the cops are only minutes away

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 20:24:59 GMT

http://media.causes.com/555988

http://generalnewsgroup.wordpress.com/2009/10/25/why-do-i-carry-a-gun/

Why do I carry a gun?

“In case I need to employ it in a worst-case scenario to prevent the
imminent and otherwise unavoidable danger of death or great bodily
harm to innocent people, my family or even me.”

“It is my most important job to keep myself and my family safe, and
this is the best tool that I have to do so.”

I don’t carry a gun to kill people.
I carry a gun to keep from being killed.

I don’t carry a gun to scare people.
I carry a gun because sometimes this world can be a scary place.

I don’t carry a gun because I’m paranoid.
I carry a gun because there are real threats in the world.

I don’t carry a gun because I’m evil.
I carry a gun because I have lived long enough to see the evil in the world.

I don’t carry a gun because I hate the government.
I carry a gun because I understand the limitations of government.

I don’t carry a gun because I’m angry.
I carry a gun so that I don’t have to spend the rest of my life hating
myself for failing to be prepared.

I don’t carry a gun because I want to shoot someone.
I carry a gun because I want to die at a ripe old age in my bed, and
not on a sidewalk somewhere tomorrow afternoon.

I don’t carry a gun because I’m a cowboy.
I carry a gun because, when I die and go to heaven, I want to be a cowboy.

I don’t carry a gun to make me feel like a man.
I carry a gun because men know how to take care of themselves and the
ones they love.

I don’t carry a gun because I feel inadequate.
I carry a gun because unarmed and facing three armed thugs, I am inadequate.

I don’t carry a gun because I love it.
I carry a gun because I love life and the people who make it meaningful to me.

Police Protection is an oxymoron. Free citizens must protect themselves.
Police do not protect you from crime, they usually just investigate
the crime after it happens and then call someone in to clean up the
mess.

Personally, I carry a gun because I’m too young to die and too old to
take an ass kickin’.

Funny ones:

• Because I can’t carry a COP!!
• I carry a gun because I’m too old to fight. A young guy will kick
your ass, but an old man will just shoot you.
• Because I can’t throw a rock 1000 fps.
• For the same reasons I have fire extinguishers and wear my seatbelt.
• I would rather have a gun and not need it than need a gun and not have it.
• Don’t let your dying words be “Damn, I wish I had my gun.
• Because a cop is too heavy to carry?
• OK, so a cop can walk, but then you have to carry donuts, to keep
him close by.
• When did Noah build the Ark? That’s right, before it rained.
• Doesn’t everyone carry a gun?
• In case I need to shoot something… or someone.
• Because when seconds count the cops are only minutes away.
• Cuz a gun ain’t got no legs…
• Because you never know when one of us is going to come up lame and
need to be put down!
• You know…because of the killer clowns.

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 16:03:37 GMT

An Epidemic of Fear: How Panicked Parents Skipping Shots Endangers Us All

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 18:49:15 GMT

http://www.wired.com/magazine/2009/10/ff_waronscience/all/1

...To hear his enemies talk, you might think Paul Offit is the most hated man in America. A pediatrician in Philadelphia, he is the coinventor of a rotavirus vaccine that could save tens of thousands of lives every year...
He boldly states — in speeches, in journal articles, and in his 2008 book Autism’s False Prophets — that vaccines do not cause autism or autoimmune disease or any of the other chronic conditions that have been blamed on them. He supports this assertion with meticulous evidence.

This isn’t a religious dispute, like the debate over creationism and intelligent design. It’s a challenge to traditional science that crosses party, class, and religious lines. ... In the center of the fray is Paul Offit. “People describe me as a vaccine advocate,” he says. “I see myself as a science advocate.”

In certain parts of the US, vaccination rates have dropped so low that occurrences of some children’s diseases are approaching pre-vaccine levels for the first time ever.

In May, The New England Journal of Medicine laid the blame for clusters of disease outbreaks throughout the US squarely at the feet of declining vaccination rates, while nonprofit health care provider Kaiser Permanente reported that unvaccinated children were 23 times more likely to get pertussis, a highly contagious bacterial disease that causes violent coughing and is potentially lethal to infants. ... A disease that vaccines made rare... is making a comeback.

“I used to say that the tide would turn when children started to die. Well, children have started to die,” Offit says, frowning as he ticks off recent fatal cases of meningitis in unvaccinated children in Pennsylvania and Minnesota. “So now I’ve changed it to ‘when enough children start to die.’ Because obviously, we’re not there yet.”

Twelve epidemiological studies have found no data that links the MMR (measles/mumps/rubella) vaccine to autism; six studies have found no trace of an association between thimerosal (a preservative containing ethylmercury that was used in vaccines until 2001) and autism, and three other studies have found no indication that thimerosal causes even subtle neurological problems. The so-called epidemic, researchers assert, is the result of improved diagnosis, which has identified as autistic many kids who once might have been labeled mentally retarded or just plain slow. In fact, the growing body of science indicates that the autistic spectrum — which may well turn out to encompass several discrete conditions — may largely be genetic in origin. In April, the journal Nature published two studies that analyzed the genes of almost 10,000 people and identified a common genetic variant present in approximately 65 percent of autistic children.

Pediatrics published an investigation of a popular hypothesis that children with autism have a higher incidence of gastrointestinal problems, which some allege are caused by injected viruses traveling to the intestines. Jenny McCarthy’s foundation posits that autism stems from these bacteria, as well as heavy metals and live viruses present in some vaccines. Healing your child, therefore, is a matter of clearing out the “environmental toxins” with, among other things, special diets. The Pediatrics paper found that while autistic kids suffered more from constipation, the cause was likely behavioral, not organic; there was no significant association between autism and GI symptoms. Moreover, gluten- and dairy-free diets did not appear to improve autism and sometimes caused nutritional deficiencies.

...the suggestion that pharmaceutical companies make vaccines hoping to pocket huge profits is ludicrous to Offit. Vaccines, after all, are given once or twice or three times in a lifetime. Diabetes drugs, neurological drugs, Lipitor, Viagra, even Rogaine — stuff that a large number of people use every day — that’s where the money is.

Babies Win Wars

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 17:54:04 GMT

more from Gunnar Heinsohn
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB114159651882789812.html

Dying nations are usually defined as those with fertility rates of 1.5 or lower. By that measure, 30 European countries are either dying today or -- like France -- seeing their cultures and populations transformed by growing ethnic and religious minorities.

After 1500 and right up to 1914, West European women raised on average about six children, twice as many as during the Middle Ages.
The European economy couldn't keep up. Because a father's land went to his oldest son, the younger brothers were often left to fend for themselves. They quickly found an outlet. In the 16th century, Spain called its young conquistadors "Secundones," second sons, those who don't inherit. Starting with Columbus' second voyage (1493), Europe's surplus males (representing about 10% of the world's fighting-age males at the time) began the conquest of the world. And despite their wars around the globe and the 80 million who died in Europe's domestic wars and genocides, their population rose tenfold to 400 million. The original population bomb was a weapon made in Europe. Over the next few centuries, Europeans took control of 90% of the globe.

After 1945 Europe lost every war it fought, from Indochina, to Algeria to Timor. Euphemisms such as "emancipation of the colonies" hide the true causes behind this chain of defeats. If Europeans had continued to multiply like in its imperialistic prime, the world would still tremble before their armies. In just 100 years, Muslim countries have duplicated the tenfold growth that Europe experienced between 1500-1900. In the last century, the Muslim population skyrocketed to 1.4 billion from 140 million.

If Europe had merely matched the fourfold increase of the United States (to 300 million from 75 million between 1900-2006), the continent's 1.6 billion would still dwarf China (1.3 billion) and India (1.1 billion). Yet, Europe's share of the world's fighting-age males, which stood at 27% in 1914, is lower today (9%) than it was in 1500 (11%). Thus, the new clothes of European "pacifism" and "soft power" conceal its naked weakness.

Ending the West's Proxy War Against Israel

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 15:37:42 GMT

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123171179743471961.html
http://www.zman.com/news/article.aspx?ArticleId=55484 (по-русски)
by Gunnar Heinsohn

In the six decades since Israel's founding, "only" some 62,000 people (40,000 Arabs, 22,000 Jews) have been killed in all the Israeli-Arab wars and Palestinian terror attacks. During that same time, some 11 million Muslims have been killed in wars and terror attacks -- mostly at the hands of other Muslims.

What accounts for the Mideast conflict's relatively low body count? Hamas and their ilk certainly aim to kill as many Israelis as possible. To their indignation, the Israelis are quite good at protecting themselves. On the other hand, Israel, despite all the talk about its "disproportionate" use of force, is doing its utmost to spare civilian deaths. Even Hamas acknowledges that most of the Palestinians killed by Israeli air raids are from their own ranks. But about 10%-15% of Gaza's casualties are women and minors -- a tragedy impossible to prevent in a densely settled area in which nearly half the people are under 15 and the terrorists hide among them.

The reason for Gaza's endless youth bulge is that a large majority of its population does not have to provide for its offspring. Most babies are fed, clothed, vaccinated and educated by UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East. Unlike the U.N. High Commission for Refugees, which deals with the rest of the world's refugees and aims to settle them in their respective host countries, UNRWA perpetuates the Palestinian problem by classifying as refugees not only those who originally fled their homes, but all of their descendents as well.

As long as we continue to subsidize Gaza's extreme demographic armament, young Palestinians will likely continue killing their brothers or neighbors. And yet, despite claiming that it wants to bring peace to the region, the West continues to make the population explosion in Gaza worse every year.

If the West prefers calm around Gaza even before 2025, it may consider offering immigration to those young Palestinians only born because of the West's well-meant but cruelly misguided aid.

100 years of Big Content fearing technology—in its own words

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 15:20:12 GMT

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/10/100-years-of-big-content-fearing-technologyin-its-own-words.ars

The anxious rhetoric around new technology is really quite shocking in its vehemence, from claims that the player piano will destroy musical taste and the "national throat" to concerns that the VCR is like the "Boston strangler" to claims that only Hollywood's premier content could make the DTV transition a success.

In 1906, famous composer John Philip Sousa took to Appleton's Magazine to pen an essay decrying the latest piratical threat to his livelihood, to the entire body politic, and to "musical taste" itself. His concern? The player piano and the gramophone, which stripped the life from real, human, soulful live performances.

The photocopier, invented by Xerox, became a target. In 1972, Time quoted UCLA law professor Melville Nimmer as saying, "the day may not be far off when no one need purchase books" thanks to the sinister uses of the copier.

One lobbyist (rightly) contended that "the VCR is the greatest friend that the American film producer ever had," to which Valenti responded, "I say to you that the VCR is to the American film producer and the American public as the Boston strangler is to the woman home alone."

...a famous rhetorical campaign attempted to argue that the analog cassette was literally destroying an entire industry.
Later in the 1980s, the cassette threat diminished in importance as digital audio tape (DAT) appeared on the market.
Forget cassettes—it was DAT that was finally going to bury the music industry.
RIAA President Jason Berman appeared before Congress to testify that "DAT poses the most significant technological threat the American music industry has ever faced."

... ranted about ad skipping. "It's theft," he said. "Your contract with the network when you get the show is you're going to watch the spots. Otherwise you couldn't get the show on an ad-supported basis. Any time you skip a commercial or watch the button you're actually stealing the programming."
The comment was puzzling; had any American ever signed or agreed to such a contract? Furthermore, the interviewer pointed out that commercials have always been skipped: "What if you have to go to the bathroom or get up to get a Coke?"

vesti.ru в своём репертуаре

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 14:54:58 GMT

http://www.vesti.ru/doc.html?id=320212
Тель-Авив продемонстрировал всему миру свой арсенал. В столице Израиля открылась выставка вооружения
они там принципиально географию не учат?

-Мама, проверь меня по географии!
-Столица Германии?
-Берлин!
-Столица Польши?
-Берлин!
-Столица Франции?
-Берлин!
-Умница, Адольф!

Bukovsky on PC

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 14:46:16 GMT

Vladimir Bukovsky on Political Correctness:

ПОЛИТКОРРЕКТНОСТЬ ХУЖЕ ЛЕНИНИЗМА:
Был такой философ – Герберт Маркузе, ревизионист-марксист. Он был несогласен с Марксом в одной точке: Маркс считал революционным классом пролетариат (что очевидно не так), а Маркузе учил, что истинный революционный класс – разнообразные меньшинства. Патологию нужно объявить нормой, а норму – патологией. "Только тогда, - пишет Маркузе, - мы, наконец, разрушим буржуазное общество".
Активисты, которые якобы защищают права меньшинств – гомосексуальные и феминистические организации – на самом деле о меньшинствах не заботятся. Они, как в свое время Ленин – рабочих, используют их как инструмент давления и контроля над обществом, и приносят им больше вреда, чем всем остальным. В Америке жена моего друга 7 лет назад основала движение "Женщины Америки против феминизма". Начинала она с несколькими подругами, а теперь у их журнала тираж – 2 млн. Женщины начинают понимать, что феминизм им враждебен, что он разрушает их жизнь, что он не дает им выбирать то, что хочется им, а не то, что им навязывают разные активистки.
Короче говоря, мы имеем дело с серьезной идеологией, которая под вывеской политической корректности пытается разрушить наше общество. Чем меньшинствам хуже, тем лучше их лидерам: будет что защищать. Но их задача – уничтожить наше общество, и это – новая, злейшая версия марксизма.

Former Soviet Dissident Warns For EU Dictatorship:

...political correctness spreads and becomes an oppressive ideology...
..the original idea was to have what they called a convergency, whereby the Soviet Union would mellow somewhat and become more social-democratic, while Western Europe would become social-democratic and socialist. Then there will be convergency. The structures have to fit each other. This is why the structures of the European Union were initially built with the purpose of fitting into the Soviet structure. This is why they are so similar in functioning and in structure.
It is no accident that the European Parliament, for example, reminds me of the Supreme Soviet. It looks like the Supreme Soviet because it was designed like it. Similary, when you look at the European Commission it looks like the Politburo. I mean it does so exactly, except for the fact that the Commission now has 25 members and the Politburo usually had 13 or 15 members. Apart from that they are exactly the same, unaccountable to anyone, not directly elected by anyone at all. When you look into all this bizarre activity of the European Union with its 80,000 pages of regulations it looks like Gosplan. We used to have an organisation which was planning everything in the economy, to the last nut and bolt, five years in advance. Exactly the same thing is happening in the EU. When you look at the type of EU corruption, it is exactly the Soviet type of corruption, going from top to bottom rather than going from bottom to top.

Men lose their minds speaking to pretty women

Fri, 04 Sep 2009 14:56:06 GMT

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/6132718/Men-lose-their-minds-speaking-to-pretty-women.html

The research shows men who spend even a few minutes in the company of an attractive woman perform less well in tests designed to measure brain function than those who chat to someone they do not find attractive.

The findings have implications for the performance of men who flirt with women in the workplace, or even exam results in mixed-sex schools.

Women, however, were not affected by chatting to a handsome man.

...recruited 40 male heterosexual students. Each one performed a standard memory test where they had to observe a stream of letters and say, as fast as possible, if each one was the same as the one before last.

The volunteers then spent seven minutes chatting to male or female members of the research team before repeating the test.

The results showed men were slower and less accurate after trying to impress the women. The more they fancied them, the worse their score.

But when the task was repeated with a group of female volunteers, they did not get the same results. Memory scores stayed the same, whether they had chatted to a man or a woman.

Fri, 28 Aug 2009 17:55:14 GMT

...всё идёт к исконно-православной парадигме Троицы: Царь-отец, Царь-сын, сейчас Сталина залижут до блеска - будет Царь-святой дух...

all the taken men are best

Fri, 28 Aug 2009 16:15:13 GMT

They asked 184 heterosexual students at the university to participate in a study on sexual attraction and told the volunteers that a computer program would match them with an ideal partner. Half the participants were single and half attached, with equal numbers of men and women in each group.

Unknown to the participants, everyone was offered a fictitious candidate partner who had been tailored to match their interests exactly. The photograph of "Mr Right" was the same for all women participants, as was that of the ideal women presented to the men. Half the participants were told their ideal mate was single, and the other half that he or she was already in a romantic relationship.

"Everything was the same across all participants, except whether their ideal mate was already attached or not," says Burkley.

The most striking result was in the responses of single women. Offered a single man, 59 per cent were interested in pursuing a relationship. But when he was attached, 90 per cent said they were up for the chase.

Men were keenest on pursuing new mates, but weren't bothered whether their target was already attached or not. Attached women showed least interest and were slightly more drawn to single men.

...single women may be more drawn to attached men because they've already been "pre-screened" by other women and found to be satisfactory as a mate, whereas single men are more of an unknown quantity.

...similar mate-poaching strategies have been reported in birds and fish.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17619-its-true-all-the-best-men-are-taken.html

Nicotine improves brain function in schizophrenics

Fri, 07 Aug 2009 16:41:28 GMT

http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/node/2904/full

Nicotine enhances attention and memory in schizophrenics, says a study that supports the development of new treatments which could relieve symptoms and prevent smoking-related deaths.

A strong link between schizophrenia and smoking – with over three times as many schizophrenics smoking (70 to 90%) as the population at large – prompted scientists to investigate the link.

...

Nicotine itself is unlikely to make an effective treatment, because of its side effects and addictive potential, but drugs known as nicotinic agonists, which target nicotine receptors in the brain, are front runners in the challenge to find an effective replacement.

Organic 'has no health benefits'

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 16:04:15 GMT

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8174482.stm

There is little difference in nutritional value and no evidence of any extra health benefits from eating organic produce, UK researchers found.

The Food Standards Agency who commissioned the report said the findings would help people make an "informed choice".

Researchers from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine looked at all the evidence on nutrition and health benefits from the past 50 years.

Among the 55 of 162 studies that were included in the final analysis, there were a small number of differences in nutrition between organic and conventionally produced food but not large enough to be of any public health relevance, said study leader Dr Alan Dangour.

Overall the report, which is published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, found no differences in most nutrients in organically or conventionally grown crops, including in vitamin C, calcium, and iron.

The same was true for studies looking at meat, dairy and eggs.

Differences that were detected, for example in levels of nitrogen and phosphorus, were most likely to be due to differences in fertilizer use and ripeness at harvest and are unlikely to provide any health benefit, the report concluded.

The review did not look at pesticides or the environmental impact of different farming practices.

Tue, 28 Jul 2009 16:43:06 GMT

Флюгер был приколочен намертво, и ветер обреченно дул в указанном направлении (с) не мое