Heads up, PS3 gamers. Now that you’re getting your exclusive Battlefield: Bad Company 2 beta, here’s a look at the Arica Harbour multiplayer map that …
Author: Serkadis
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TELUS confirmed to carry the Storm2

Recently, TELUS issued a press release letting Canadians know that their handsets are now being offered through Black’s, the nation-wide digital camera chain. This news in itself didn’t interest us in the least, but for giggles we clicked on through to Black’s website just to see what handsets it was going to be offering considering the odd partnership. What did we see in the line up? None other than a TELUS branded BlackBerry Storm2. Unfortunately what you see above is all we have for now as this sucker has not yet been announced by TELUS, but we have a feeling that will change very, very soon.
Thanks, Tony!
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Android This Week: Two Droids Hit Big Red; Carrier Channels Debut
Verizon has been all over the Android news this week, with two of the hottest phones finally arriving on the scene. The Motorola Droid, a stylish phone almost as thin as the iPhone but with a sliding QWERTY keyboard, debuted Friday. Early reviews are not finding the keyboard to be much of a bonus, but it’s amazing to find one at all in a thin handset. Verizon is also offering the HTC Droid Eris for just $99 with a contract. It’s shipping with the HTC Sense interface on top of the stock Android UI, making it the cheapest phone thus equipped.Some Droid phone reviewers have taken note of the Verizon Channel in the Android Market. This channel offers apps that have met Verizon’s approval before offering them to customers. T-Mobile announced its own channel for the Android Market this week. Both channels allow customers to buy apps and have them charged to the phone bill, eliminating the need for a credit card transaction.
Meanwhile, two recently announced e-book readers could have more than the Android OS in common. Spring Design this week sued Barnes & Noble over the Nook reader, claiming it has features the bookseller gleaned from information Spring Design shared with B&N under NDA. It has requested an injunction to prevent the Nook from being sold.

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Amazon steps up and matches Walmart’s Xbox 360 deal

Thank the gaming gods for retail competition. You know the Xbox 360 Walmart is running today, right? Yeah, Amazon is going to match it.At 9:00 am EST and 3:00 pm EST Amazon will give you a a $100 promotional code when you purchase an Xbox 360 Arcade for $199. You better be sitting in front of your computer all signed in and ready to go before the two times though. The deal is good only for a limited quantity. [via Cheap Ass Gamer and Gizmodo]
Update: All done! All gone!
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PM urges fairer balance of risks and rewards at G20 meeting
The Prime Minister has set out his vision for the future relationship between financial institutions, the public and the rest of the economy.Gordon Brown was speaking to G20 Finance Ministers who met at St Andrews in Scotland this morning.
Mr Brown called on the G20 to investigate ways to provide a fairer balance of risks and rewards between taxpayers, citizens, shareholders and bank employees.
He said global financial markets must be brought into closer alignment with the “values held by the mainstream majority: hard work, responsibility, integrity and fairness”.
“It can not be acceptable that the benefits of success in this sector are reaped by the few but the costs of its failure are borne by all of us.
There must be a better economic and social contract between financial institutions and the public based on trust and a just distribution of risks and rewards.”
He said the G20 group have already agreed “far-reaching” reforms which provide proper accountability of global banks and financial institutions.
But the PM said more needed to be done to change the balance of risk. He proposed measures including insurance fees for systemic risk, resolutions funds, contingent capital arrangements and a global financial transactions levy.
Gordon Brown stressed that achieving “a better economic and social contract between financial institutions and the public” would depend on global support.
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Sekilas Erysipelas
KODE ICD-10 : A46.0 : Erysipelas
Pernahkah pembaca menjumpai seseorang menderita penyakit kulit yang ditandai dengan kulit berbercak merah, berbatas tegas, melepuh, kadang berair, adakalanya bernanah dan membentuk area erosi cukup luas pada permukaan kulit ? Jika iya, maka tanda umum tersebut merupakan gambaran dari Erysipelas.Meski sekarang sudah jarang, penyakit ini masih dapat dijumpai di praktek sehari-hari, terutama pada anak-anak yang sebelumnya ditemukan adanya koreng atau luka di sekitar timbulnya Erysipelas (Erisipelas).
Apa Erysipelas itu ?
Erysipelas ( Erisipelas ) adalah infeksi akut pada kulit dan jaringan di bawah kulit yang sebagian besar disebabkan oleh bakteri Streptococcus pyogenes. Erysipelas dapat terjadi pada semua usia dan semua bangsa (ras), namun paling sering terjadi pada bayi, anak dan usia lanjut.
Aste N, Atzori L, Zucca M, Pau M, Biggio P menyebutkan bahwa Erysipelas lebih sering terjadi pada pria ketimbang wanita, dengan perbandingan 4:1.
Sekitar 85 % Erysipelas terjadi di kaki dan wajah, sedangkan sebagian kecil dapat terjadi di tangan, perut dan leher serta tempat lainnya.
Bagaimana terjadinya ?
Erysipelas terjadi oleh penyebaran infeksi yang diawali dengan pelbagai kondisi yang berpotensi timbulnya kolonisasi bekteri, misalnya: luka, koreng, infeksi penyakit kulit lain, luka operasi dan sejenisnya, serta kurang bagusnya hygiene.
Selain itu, Erysipelas dapat terjadi pada seseorang yang mengalami penurunan daya tahan tubuh, misalnya: diabetes millitus, malnutrisi (kurang gizi), dan lain-lain.
Apa saja tanda-tandanya ?
Erysipelas pada umumnya diawali dengan panas, menggigil, sakit kepala, nyeri sendi, muntah dan rasa lemah.
Pada kulit nampak kemerahan, berbatas tegas dengan bagian tepi meninggi, nyeri dan teraba panas pada area tersebut.
Di permukaan kulit adakalanya dijumpai gelembung kulit (bula) yang berisi cairan kekuningan (seropurulen). Pada keadaan yang berat, kulit nampak melepuh dan kadang timbul erosi (kulit mengelupas).
Perlukah pemeriksaan Laboratorium ?
Tidak perlu ! Pasalnya, penyakit ini sangat mudah dikenali secara kasat mata. kalaupun dilakukan pemeriksaan Lab, hasilnya menunjukkan peningkatan lekosit hingga 20.000 atau lebih. Itu saja. Kecuali untuk tujuan penelitian di RS Sentra Pendidikan Kedokteran, dimana diperlukan kultur darah dan cairan erosi luka untuk mengetahui jenis kuman.
PENGOBATAN
Saat ini, sudah sangat jarang dijumpai Erysipelas yang berat disertai kondisi tubuh lemah hingga memerlukan rawat inap. Pada umumnya masyarakat segera berobat saat masih fase awal sehingga hanya diperlukan rawat jalan dan perawatan di rumah sekitar 7 – 10 hari.
Obat-obat yang lazim digunakan:
Obat pilihan utama (drug of choice):
Penicilline masih merupakan obat pilihan utma dan memberikan respon sangat bagus untuk penyembuhan Erysipelas.
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Benzyl penicilline 600-1200 mg, diberikan secara intravenous setiap 6 jam, sedikitnya 10 hari.
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Penicilline Procain G: 0,6-1,2 juta unit, diberikan secara intramuskuler (suntik di bokong atau paha), 2 kali sehari selama 10 hari.
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Amoxycilline 500 mg, diminum 3 x 1 selama 7-10 hari. Atau ampicilline 500 mg, diminum 4 x 1 selama 7-10 hari. Dapat juga diberikan kombinasi Amoxycilline dan Clavulanic acid selama 10 hari.
Obat-obat lain yang dapat digunakan, diantaranya:
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Erythromycin. Diminum 4 kali 250-500 mg sehari, selama 10 hari. Dosis anak: 30-50 mg per kg berat badan per hari, diberikan 3-4 kali sehari selama 10 hari.
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Cloxacilline atau Dicloxacilline, diminum 4 kali 250-500 mg sehari, selama 10 hari.
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Cephalosporine, misalnya cefadroxyl, diminum 3 kali 500 mg selama 10 hari.
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Dan lain-lain.
Obat Topikal (obat luar):
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Kompres dengan Sodium Chloride 0,9 %.
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Salep atau krim antibiotika, misalnya: Natrium Fusidat, Mupirocin, Garamycin, Gentamycin.
Apakah Erysipelas berbahaya ? Jika diobati secara dini tentu tidak bahaya. Hanya saja dibutuhkan kesabaran, mengingat waktu yang diperlukan untuk penyembuhan sekitar 7 – 10 hari atau lebih.
Semoga bermanfaat.
:: :: :: posting menggunakan WLW :: :: ::
Posted in Artikel, Health, Informasi, Kesehatan Tagged: Erisipelas, Erysipelas, Infeksi, Informasi, Kesehatan, Penyakit, Penyakit Kulit

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Daily Crunch: Bread Line Edition

Toyjector: Cute mini projector to be released in Japan
Does anyone in tech pay attention to unemployment numbers? Hard to buy that new gizmo when you don’t have a job, right?
Exclusive video of the Litl Webbook
You are not worthy of the 18-button OpenOfficeMouse (and it has an analog stick)
Siren.gif: Microsoft COFEE law enforcement tool leaks all over the Internet~! -
Square Enix teases November 13 announcement
Earlier today, Square Enix posted an anagram on their forums, teasing something about Final Fantasy XIII (Xbox 360, PS3). A mere couple of hours later…
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Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising DLC rolls out with screenshots and trailer
Codemasters’ first person tactical shooter Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising (PlayStation 3, Xboc 360, and PC) has just released its first DLC…
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Orlando shooter, US army Fort Hood shooter both linked to psychiatric drugs
(NaturalNews) US Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan shot and killed 13 people and wounded 30 others in a violent attack at a Texas Army base this past week. He reportedly opened fire at the Fort Hood army base without any particular reason or motivation. In fact, as a psychiatrist, he had counseled many other soldiers on how to cope with the consequences of extreme violence (losing limbs, mental anguish, etc.).
As an army psychiatrist, he was also allowed to prescribe powerful psychiatric drugs to both his patients and himself. Many psychiatrists self-medicate, and Hasan was extremely anxious about the possibility of being sent overseas by the army, according to statements from family members (Reuters, below). Although official confirmation will probably never be made, it seems altogether likely that Hasan was treating himself with powerful psychotropic medications.
The mainstream media, not surprisingly, has utterly failed to raise this question. But it’s being raised by independent media like Prison Planet (http://www.prisonplanet.com/was-fort-hood-killer-on-psychotropic-drugs.html), where writer Paul Joseph Watson says, “Psychiatrists have a history of ‘self-medication’ because of the easy access they have to psychotropic drugs. In almost every major mass shooting over the past two decades, since anti-depressant drugs became popular, the killer has been on SSRI’s , serotonin reuptake inhibitors.”
An informative article in The Examiner also asks the same question: Was Major Hasan on mind-altering prescription medications when he opened fire? (http://www.examiner.com/x-8358-Detroit-Substance-Abuse-Examiner~y2009m11d6-Nidal-Malik-Hasan-His-own-patient).
Meanwhile, a study in the journal Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics reveals that 16% of psychiatrists self-medicate (http://www.cchrint.org/2009/11/05/was-fort-hood-psych-on-drugs/).
Given all the psych drugs linked to such acts in previous shootings, such a link seems not only probably, but likely.
Orlando shooter confirmed on psych drugs
It’s been a busy week for violent, drug-induced outbursts in the USA. Orlando shooter Jason Rodriguez is now confirmed to have been on psychiatric medications when he went on a shooting spree in an Orlando office building last week, killing one person and wounding five others.In a televised interview with Fox News, the former mother-in-law of Rodriguez goes on the record saying, “He was under medication …for control of the brain.” That video segment is available here:
Mind-altering medications made Rodriquez “paranoid,” she explains. (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,572605,00.html)
This paranoia and acting out of violence against others is a classic side effect of SSRI drugs typically used to “treat” depression. These powerful, mind-altering medications have been linked to nearly every major shooting that has taken place in the United States over the last twenty years, including the Columbine, Colorado school shootings.
Listen to my hip-hop song, SSRIs – S.S.R.Lies, which explains more: http://www.naturalnews.com/SSRIs_S_S_R_Lies.html
Why the shootings will continue until the psych drugs are banned
What’s clear about both the Orlando shooting and the Fort Hood shooting is that there’s a psychiatric drug connection to both. Neither of these men was acting rationally. Something “flipped a switch” in their brains. That something was almost certainly a psychiatric drug.Until we halt the chemical holocaust being perpetrated against our world by the psychiatric drugging industry, we will continue to see more of these violent, drug-induced shootings take place. Count on it. Psych drugs cause violence. And the more psych drugs are prescribed, the more violence we’ll see.
According to Medwatch statistics, 63,000 people in the U.S. have committed suicide while on antidepressant drugs (that’s more than ten times the number of Americans who have died from H1N1 swine flu, by the way). (http://www.naturalnews.com/022930_drugs_antidepressant_drugs_antidepressants.html)
The mainstream media absolutely refuses to tell you the truth about the link between psychiatric drugs and violent killings, but it’s the obvious connection in nearly every single shooting that’s taken place in recent memory: The Virginia Tech shooting (http://www.naturalnews.com/021798.html), the Stephen Kazmierczak Illinois shooting (Stephen Kazmierczak), the Omaha mall shooting (http://www.naturalnews.com/022330.html), and so on.
In December, 2007, I made this public prediction:
“There will be more. I hate to be accurate about this grisly prediction, because I grieve for the families of those lost to pharmaceutically-induced violence, but the truth is that until we stop drugging our children with psychotropic drugs, the shootings are not going to stop.”
And indeed, there have been more. As long as these dangerous, mind-altering psychiatric drugs continue to be prescribed to patients, they will continue to drive people to violence. More innocent lives will be lost while Big Pharma pockets billions of dollars in profits from the very same drugs that are leading people to deadly violence.
The Citizens Commission on Human Rights (www.CCHR.org) is the leading group fighting this chemical holocaust. Check out the shocking videos on their website to learn more about the dangers of psychiatric medications.
Sources for this story include:
Reuters:
http://www.reuters.com/article/wtMostRead/idUSL7699001The Examiner:
http://www.examiner.com/x-19632-Salt-Lake-City-Headlines-Examiner~y2009m11d6-Video-Orlando-Shooter-is-apprehended-after-1-dead-and-5-woundedCCHR:
http://www.cchr.org -
Associated Press declares war on alternative medicine (opinion)
(NaturalNews) The Associated Press has declared war on alternative medicine, publishing a series of stories attacking everything from nutritional therapies to bioidentical hormones. These stories, which are syndicated across thousands of websites around the world, are prefaced with the following highly-opinionated “Editor’s Note”:
EDITOR’S NOTE: Ten years and $2.5 billion in research have found no cures from alternative medicine. Yet these mostly unproven treatments are now mainstream and used by more than a third of all Americans. This is one in an occasional series examining their use and potential risks.
What this note reveals is an extraordinary bias against natural medicine from the start. It’s clear from the claim of “examining their use and potential risks” that the Associated Press isn’t even looking for potential benefits of natural medicine. They’re just looking to discredit it. And the part about “Ten years and $2.5 billion in research have found no cures” is factually incorrect.
To be more accurate, the statement should have said “Ten years and $2.5 billion in research by pharmaceutical researchers who don’t even know how to study something holistically have found no cures that they are willing to publicly acknowledge.”
Because, in reality, natural medicine has provided the populations of the world with countless cures spanning thousands of years of indigenous use by billions of people. Oh, but wait… the Associated Press doesn’t count that. The only evidence they will consider is “proof” provided by researchers on the payroll of the criminally-operated pharmaceutical industry and rubber-stamped by a corrupt, racketeering U.S. Food and Drug Administration that unquestionably pushes a pro-pharma agenda at the expense of public health.
In one story about alternative medicine, the Associated Press characterized the teaching of acupuncture as “Harry Potter medicine.” The story criticizes acupuncture and demeans any mention of “energy channels” even though acupuncture has been scientifically proven to be extremely effective at managing pain. There is no mention in the AP story of the published, peer-reviewed studies that promote acupuncture’s proven effectiveness and safety.
What happened to just reporting the truth?
As I’ve stated here on NaturalNews many times, the whole system of “evidence-based medicine” is biased against natural medicine from the start because the FDA maintains an official policy of declaring all plant-based medicines to be inert in the human body, regardless of how much scientific evidence demonstrates otherwise.In the FDA’s eyes, there is no such thing as a food, herb, dietary supplement or nutrient that has any beneficial effect against any disease or health problem in the human body. And you know why? Because according to the FDA, only “drugs” can be used to prevent, treat or reverse any disease or health condition, not nutrients. All nutrients are inert by decree.
So the simple truths that vitamin C cures scurvy or that vitamin D prevents cancer are censored out of existence by the FDA and its media cohorts. So the AP, instead of reporting to the American people what works to make them healthy, spends its time attacking Suzanne Somers over her new book featuring interviews with doctors who have cured cancer using nutritional therapies and other forms of alternative medicine. (http://www.amazon.com/Knockout-Interviews-Doctors-Cancer-Prevent/dp/0307587460/)
When it comes to health, the Associated Press apparently isn’t interested in reporting what works. It’s not interested in educating the public how to be healthy, how to avoid cancer, or how to explore natural therapies that might support their health rather than destroying it (like chemotherapy does). Instead, the AP has taken the side of the criminally-operated pharmaceutical industry to discredit and destroy anything that offers the American people freedom of choice in their medicines.
The AP is a powerful, global news manufacturer. Its stories are picked up and republished by thousands of newspapers around the world. Because it is creating “ready-for-publication” news to be dropped into newspapers and magazines, it is supposed to write objective news, without the level of editorializing that you might expect from blogs or sites like NaturalNews. AP is supposed to be leave editors’ opinions out of the stories and just print the actual news.
But instead, AP is now prefacing many of their health stories with this stilted, opinionated and completely inaccurate statement attempting to trash the entire alternative medicine industry. That’s not a news service… that’s just a highly opinionated smear against the only industry that offers any real solutions for lasting health.
Knowing the association’s outright bias against natural medicine, now you have to wonder about everything they publish: Are they censoring success stories about natural medicine? Are they collaborating with drug companies to hype up the supposed “benefits” of pharmaceuticals? Are they twisting stories to try to discredit natural medicine in the minds of readers?
I’ve been watching both the AP and Reuters very carefully for the last several years. I’ve never seen Reuters pull the kind of stunt AP has just committed. Although Reuters covers conventional medicine, it also covers breakthroughs in natural medicine, so even though I don’t agree with everything Reuters says, that news organization at least takes their objectiveness seriously, and they seem to do a good job providing some balanced mainstream coverage of health issues.
The AP, though, has lost all credibility on health issues. It’s just another Big Pharma mouthpiece, spouting out the same babble we get from FDA cronies and crooked drug company CEOs. It’s all the same broken record: Plants don’t contain medicine, take your vaccine shot, take your prescription drugs, patented chemical pills will cure you, and so on ad nauseam.
So I have a question for the AP editors who are writing their opinions-parading-as-news stories: You say $2.5 billion has been spent on alternative medicine with almost no cures found. Do you have any idea how much money Americans are spending on pharmaceutical medicine every year with absolutely no cures being offered?
In 2006, the world spent $643 billion on pharmaceuticals. Where are the cures?
• There are no pharmaceutical cures for cancer.
• There are no pharmaceutical cures for heart disease.
• There are no pharmaceutical cures for diabetes.
• There are no pharmaceutical cures for kidney disease.
• There are no pharmaceutical cures for depression.
• There are no pharmaceutical cures for liver disease.
• There are no pharmaceutical cures for Alzheimer’s disease.… in fact, if you add it all up, the pharmaceutical industry is the biggest rip-off in the history of medicine! The world spends nearly a trillion dollars a year on pharmaceuticals now, and yet there hasn’t been a single cure found by the drug industry for any major disease or health condition.
Not a single cure.
Where is the cure for cancer? For diabetes? For heart disease?
Alternative medicine offers cures for all three. You can cure cancer using the natural medicine described right here on this website. You can reverse diabetes through simple changes in diet and exercise. You can reverse heart disease with nutritional strategies such as shifting to a plant-based diet. Pharmaceuticals can cure none of these things, even after trillions of dollars have been spent trying to “find cures.”
If the Associated Press had any interest at all in printing real news, they might want to report on how the pharmaceutical industry is the greatest medical hoax ever perpetrated in the history of the world. They might be interested in the trillions of dollars being wasted on false hope from dangerous pills that cure nothing. Maybe the AP would want to report on the price fixing, the bribery of doctors, the fraudulent science, the hidden studies showing harm, the fact that 80% of drug ingredients are made in China and India, or any of a hundred other areas of concern about the criminal pharmaceutical industry.
But no, the AP chooses to attack Suzanne Somers instead. Instead of reporting actual news that might be important to your health, the AP is manufacturing its own agenda-driven opinion pieces and passing them off as real news.
Maybe the Associated Press should change its name to “The AP Blog.”
Sources for this story include:
Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pharmaceutical_industryAP story attacking bioidentical hormones:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hHNmXN7OZofHuB_yOh74RGYHSvQgD9BI7JQ80AP story attacking Suzanne Somers:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hA60E_ueyggHVwotNK3YsFCyUIyQD9BEFOO00Suzanne Somers’ new book that challenges the conventional cancer industry:
http://www.amazon.com/Knockout-Interviews-Doctors-Cancer-Prevent/dp/0307587460AP story attacking acupuncture:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gsNHRbdyZ9vVtdxqFQB6t8Ikta_AD9BMRGKO0 -
Why Health Care Costs are So High (Opinion)
(NaturalNews) Recently, USA Today has been running an interesting series of articles on our ridiculous health care system or, as reality would put it, our “disease care” system. While more and more Americans are concerned with the increasing costs of the U.S. health care system, hawked as the best medical care in the world, the problem is that those that cannot afford it are steadily increasing.
A poll found that eighty percent of those that responded were not thrilled with the $2.2 TRILLION, or $7,129 a person, being spent on health care in the U.S. and that medical company profits or malpractice lawsuits were the biggest causes of the spending. Actually, of the $2.2 trillion, 660 billion is spent on hospital care; 462 billion is spent on doctors, and 220 billion on drugs. (See end for complete breakdown)
For the most part, this medical inflation is perpetuated by Big Pharma`s drug hype as the solution to everything. This inflation is also brought about by waste, inefficiency, and the growing number of chronic diseases caused by our epidemic of obesity.
The crossroad we are at is believing the propaganda that we have the best health care system in the world. We realize though that this is a myth built on deception and lies. The reality is that we have the best disease-care system in the world. It is a system designed to take as much money as possible from consumers and taxpayers under the illusion of getting quick and easy pill solutions for their illnesses without having to give up anything to achieve this.
The real way to drop medical costs is to take responsibility for your own health and emphasize care, not treatment. Drugs, doctors, surgery and hospitals rarely solve chronic health problems. That which will have a more profound effect on your health is switching to an organic plant-based, whole (not refined) foods diet and eliminating all dairy products and flesh foods. You know – all those creatures that had a face and a mother.
Dairy products should be eliminated due to the fact that they are laden with pus, antibiotics and bovine growth hormones. Flesh foods should be eliminated due to the fact that they contain growth enhancers, chemicals to keep their flesh red and rosy (otherwise it would be a putrid gray) and stink reducers (after all, the nature of a dead body is to rot and smell).
Let`s not forget processed foods which contain MSG, preservatives and hydrogenated oils, aka cancer causing trans fats. Then there is soda and diet drinks containing aspartame, which converts to formaldehyde at 86 degrees F (the body`s temperature is 98.6 F). Talk about “Night of the Living Dead”. It would be an added plus to not consume sugary juices and to get plenty of exercise and sunlight.
According to Randall Fitzgerald, author of “The Hundred Year Lie”, we have no idea of the effect on our health when all the chemicals we consume through food and industrial pollutants mix together in our bodies. If you think you do not ingest chemicals, read the labels on the food that you buy from your trusted supermarket. One important thing to remember is that if you have trouble pronouncing the ingredient, do not eat it.
Here is your choice: if you want to be as healthy as possible and not have to worry about degenerative diseases or being hooked on drugs for life, you must make these life saving changes. If you don`t care or think that this is nonsense, then carry on. But, someday, when you have some debilitating illness, look in the mirror and realize that the person you see there is the cause of your problems – not your spouse, not your doctor, not the fact that no one told you. YOU are the cause, and you and you alone must take responsibility for your misery.
Don`t be afraid. Change is good.
Aloha!
Complete Breakdown:
Hospital care: 660 Billion 30%
Doctors: 462 Billion 21%
Rx Drugs: 220 Billion 10%
Dental: 220 Billion 10%
Administration: 154 Billion 7%
Investment: 154 Billion 7%
Nursing Home: 132 Billion 6%
Gov’t public health activities: 66 Billion 3%
Other medical products: 66 Billion 3%
Home health care: 44 Billion 2%Total 2.112 Trillion 99%
Rounding throws the numbers off
About the author
Hesh Goldstein: Vegetarian since 1975, vegan since 1990. Moderator of a weekly radio show in Honolulu called, “Health Talk” since 1981. Obtained a Master’s degree in Nutrition, in 2007, to silence the so-called “doctors” that called in on my weekly radio show asking for my “credentials”. At 70, I am in perfect health, have no illnesses, take no meds, play 4 on 4 half court hoops 2 hours a week, body surf, race walk, do various cardio and weight exercises and teach women’s self defense classes based upon 30 years of Wing Chun training .
To obtain a state of good health, if it had a face or a mother or if man made it, don’t eat it.
For more information: www.healthtalkhawaii.com
Hesh is also the distributor of Organic Sulfur Crystals, an incredible healing nutrient. For more information on this go to his website and click on Products. -
Activision hires P.I. to bust Modern Warfare 2 thieves, would-be pirate
Activision will definitely not be kind to those people who attempt to pirate their goose that’s sure to lay golden eggs, Modern Warfare 2 (PC, PS3 and…
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Iwata: Digital distribution will have to wait another 20 years before its turn
Digital downloads seem to be the way of the future, looking at the current landscape of the gaming industry now. Even analysts say that retail will be…
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Weekly Address: Tragedy at Fort Hood
The President condemns the "despicable" attacks at Fort Hood, honoring those who were killed and injured. He also commends those who stood up to help and console those affected: "even as we saw the worst of human nature on full display, we also saw the best of America."
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Weekend downloads line-up: DSi and WiiWare
Looking for more new games to play? Coming in just in time for the weekend are new download game options for both the Wii and DSi stores. Seven new on…
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New PS3-compatible Sony Bluetooth mouse
Sony’s released a new Bluetooth mouse that’s also compatible for use with your PlayStation 3 unit. The VGP-BMS80 is a multi-function laser mouse that …
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LittleBigPlanet Patch 1.20 details, now out
In case you haven’t heard yet, Patch 1.20 has been released yesterday for Media Molecule’s LittleBigPlanet. Otherwise known as “Celtic Promise”, this …
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Modern Warfare 2 Avatar Clothing on Xbox
The latest and exclusive video of Modern Warfare 2. It is the Xbox Avatar clothing. Check it below and let us hope for some more such videos before the release of the game on November 10, 2009. Stay tuned as we keep you updated.
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Thinking About Real Copyright Reform
Michael Scott alerts us to a recent paper by professor and copyright expert Jessica Litman about “Real Copyright Reform.” While there’s been some chatter here and there about doing real copyright reform, there seems to be no real effort behind it. That’s for a few reasons, including the fact that many people still remember what a pain the last attempt at real copyright reform was (it took decades) combined with the realization (especially on the part of copyright holders) that their ability to push through laws that solely favor themselves to greater and greater degrees may not be so easy this time around. Thanks to the internet and various “wars” on consumers, copyright isn’t just an arcane subject that the day to day person doesn’t know much about. A serious attempt at remaking copyright laws might actually draw out well-reasoned and well-argued points that go against the current views held by the record labels and movie studios. See what’s been happening in Canada, for example.
Litman’s paper goes through the problems with today’s copyright law, and begins to explore what real copyright reform should entail, even while noting the political difficulty of having it go anywhere:
A wise approach to copyright revision might inspire us to rethink the model. If both creators
and readers are ill-served by distributor-centric copyright, and if the economics of digital distribution
now makes it possible to engage in mass dissemination without significant capital investment, perhaps
it is time to reallocate the benefits of the copyright system. The consolidation of control in distributors’
hands does not appear to have made life easier or more remunerative for creators. Copyright lobbyists
have not shown that recent enhancements to copyright have made it easier or more rewarding for
readers, listeners and viewers to enjoy copyrighted works. Perhaps the classic picture of copyright is
too far removed from its reality to be useful.
From there, Litman makes similar arguments that have been made recently by James Boyle and William Patry (among others), wondering why there is little investigation into the actual impact of changes in copyright law, rather than just assuming that “stronger protections” lead to better results, when so much of the evidence suggests otherwise. And, of course, all of this harkens back to the speeches by Thomas Macauley from over a century and a half ago, back when he was able to point to the lack of evidence from those who wished to extend copyright law:
Copyright is monopoly, and produces all the effects which the general voice of mankind attributes to monopoly…. I believe, Sir, that I may safely take it for granted that the effect of monopoly generally is to make articles scarce, to make them dear, and to make them bad. And I may with equal safety challenge my honorable friend to find out any distinction between copyright and other privileges of the same kind; any reason why a monopoly of books should produce an effect directly the reverse of that which was produced by the East India Companys monopoly of tea, or by Lord Essexs monopoly of sweet wines. Thus, then, stands the case. It is good that authors should be remunerated; and the least exceptionable way of remunerating them is by a monopoly. Yet monopoly is an evil. For the sake of the good we must submit to the evil but the evil ought not to last a day longer than is necessary for the purpose of securing the good.
And yet, in copyright reform today, there seems to be no one in the political realm with enough power to play the role of Macauley today. But Litman raises these same issues:
Instead of asking how to enhance copyright owner control, I suggest, we ought to be asking
why. Does a particular proposed enhancement of copyright owner prerogatives seem likely to
expand opportunities for creators or improve reader, listener or viewer enjoyment of copyrighted
works? Is it likely to make the copyright system simpler, more effective, or more transparent? Does it
seem to be designed to shore up copyright’s apparent legitimacy? If not, it seems as likely to make the
current mess worse instead of better.
Litman goes on to suggest that the fact that so many people out there don’t have any respect for copyright law at all is pretty clearly the fault of the current copyright holders who have twisted and abused the law to the point that people just don’t respect it. So, her ideas for copyright reform are based on bringing back “legitimacy” to copyright law by focusing on four principles:
- Radically simplifying copyright law
- Empowering content creators (rather than intermediaries and distributors)
- Empowering readers, listeners and viewers (who, after all, are supposed to be part of the beneficiaries of copyright law)
- Disintermediating copyright away from the middlemen who seem to control the law today
To then accomplish this, she suggests the following steps:
- Focus on commercial exploitation (rather than personal use)
- Simplify what copyright covers (rather than breaking out each separate exclusive right within copyright)
- Reconnect creators to their copyright (via a termination right that lets them take copyrights back from third parties)
- Clearly recognize readers’ (or viewers’, listeners’, users’, etc) rights
- Get rid of existing compulsory license (and similar) intermediaries, such as ASCAP, BMI, SoundExchange and others
It’s definitely an interesting proposal, though I think there are some serious problems with it. I’ve said in the past that the line between commercial use and personal use is increasingly blurry, so trying to draw that distinction may be a lot harder than most people think. We’re already seeing the kind of mess termination rights create, and I’m still not sure why they help matters, rather than just make them more complex. And, of course even as Litman notes, new intermediaries will spring up to fill the void of the old ones.
Still, if you’re interested in copyright and copyright reform, it’s certainly a worthwhile paper to read just to get you thinking.
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