What makes you think Democrats aren't for it just as much as well? They make their little protestations, but then vote for it every time. You wont get rid of that way.
And medical information is being sent already anyway. Every single time you go fill a prescription they send it off to the federal government, hell, they even sell it to drug companies.
I listened to Rush the other day, and he did his "I challenge anyone to name an abuse of the Patriot Act". I couldn't get through (nor would I have likely gotten past their call screeners even if I had) top tell him "Your own drug case, Rush, was an abuse of the Patriot Act. How else do they get your records? Or perhaps you just...forgot...about that?"
I know this thread is going to turn into a huge gripe on massive corporations and how corrupt and evil and bad they are... but... considering the company is being publicly humilated, it's stock is trading at half the price it was a 2 years ago, and it's hemorrhaging jobs. I think it's fair to say the free market is correctly punishing this big business that is supposedly "running the world". But that's just me.
The invisible hand of the market can not raise the dead, and in this case, those most severely injured are dead, and more of them than our losses in the Vietnam war. The executives will have transferred much of the assets into tangibles elsewhere and immune from the rightful wrath of the legal system, much like how money at Enron was transferred. Instead of punishing the people responsible with death, or long imprisonments, the punishment will be meted out by reducing the savings of those who invested in the company, grandma and granpa's retirement fund, employees not smart enough to see the writing on the wall...
I suppose that is the kind of "anti-corporate" rant you expect. However, the shoe fits.
I'm going to tell you what socialism really is. Its a chance to put a hell of a lot of public money in a pot to give to corporates and cronies. The goals always sound great, free health care for all, free education for all, free...whatever.. until you realize where the money comes from and feel the lightness of ones wallet. Then you watch how it is distributed.
In this case they are using "fair taxation" and "public safety" as the "feel good fuzzie wuzzie fluffy bunny". Behind that fluffy wuffie lies the truth, more money into the government coffers = less in your back pocket, more people "in the system" = more money in state coffers. This will do both of those.
In my state, the tax rate isn't that bad, about 6%, if you make $40,000 a year you pay a little over $2,400 in state taxes, and probably a grand total of $5,800 by the time you pay property and vehicle taxes (a small amount more if you have a nicer home than I). If the state puts you in prison, it gets $40,080 from the federal government to keep you there. You are worth 6.9 times as much to them in prison as you are just going about your business paying taxes. This is part of why the prison industrial complex is the fastest growing segment of the economy. Not to mention that (like China) it can make extra money selling your labor in prison to other companies, while it pays you only a few pennies for it. They even used to sell prisoners blood/plasma for profit, but because of AIDS/Hep were forced to cease. Blood cow for the state indeed. You are worth more to them in the system than out of it. The same is also true of our foster care system, it has incentives to seize as many children as possible - it pays. Just as it pays to set child support amounts ever higher - there are matching dollars for every dollar collected.
This thought ought to put a chill down your spine. You are worth more to them incarcerated or otherwise in the system than being a productive member of society. When the incentives are such, what do you think they will do? In Europe their socialism only keeps you poor and provides you with a few services while trying to keep you out of it. In ours, the socialism takes the most punitive form, a custodial blood cow.
Consider speed limits--they are now up to 70mph on some highways. But it wasn't that long ago that 70mph was considered suicidally fast for the average driver. Technological advances made safe driving at such high speed possible. But it was years of data showing that people can drive safely at such speeds that convinced governments to up the speed limit. But with 100% speed limit enforcement, those years of data would never have been collected and we'd likely all still be driving 50mph to get everywhere
You don't know your own countries history. Speed limits were 70mph and greater and in many places they didn't have them at all before James Earl Carter and the Congress of that time rammed through the 55mph speed limit restriction during the oil cartel squeezing us and faked shortage "energy crisis". It was incredibly unpopular. All we have done is return to close to what we had before, but still slower than we used to be able to travel in most areas. It has squat to do with safety. The safety nazis were against returning the limits to reasonable speeds. The trucking companies & average voter, however, were very much in favor of it. Time is money, trips across the vast land no longer have to take all day.
Remember when you could go to the DMV without an appointment? They actually had to attend to you? How about when you could explain that your vehicle was not being operated and you did not owe them any money for it. Now you have to inform them ahead of time that it is no longer in service, and you have to pay to do them this favor! Thousands of people wind up paying the DMV for *not* using their roads. And what about the price of tickets, when were those prices snuck through. Who figured out that $50 isn't enough deterrent for speeding or not wearing your seat belt? Why the fuck is not wearing your seat belt an offence at all!
The very first licensing was started in New York City, and it was sold as to apply to commercial vehicles only. When this was voted upon, it was never intended to apply to non-commercial use of the roads. The arguement was that trucks were tearing up the roads and making lots of money off of it, so we should regulate it. The very idea that this would lead to lead to a defacto internal passport, mandatory insurance, picture ID, vehicle registration for everyone, license plates, city stickers, or that the right of free travel would be turned to a privilege by regulation was not a twinkle in the eyes of the voters who approved it -- but it was on the mind of a few of those legislators.
I agree, it is silly to think that Americans are going to go along with having to pay more tax based on how much we drive. Overwhelmingly in polls, and when given the chance to vote on it (Texas) they do not support these kinds of measures. It makes no difference, the government is doing it anyway. The Federal government is the wheel which is pushing this...
As far as the conspiracy theorists who think this is going to violate your privacy need to calm down. Even if this were to be come a common place device on all cars, you will be mearly a blip on some screen or in a computer in a large cloud of other blips. That hardly means that Big Brother is going to be staring into your life or mind 24hrs a day. You are going to have to do something to really standout in order for any law enforcement agency to take notice of your blip. Don't bet on it, and once people come to accept that the logs are a 'reliable indicator of where such and such is', it will be no problem to add entries to the log to place whomever they want at the scene of whatever they want. It also raises alarms about who else gets the data, the ability of the government to learn your habits, entire social network - so that should you ever become an enemy of the state all of your places of travel that you would go to would be known. Its about creating a climate of fear. You just wait till they get the ability to disable your vehicle remotely on top of it. Think I'm joking? They are talking about that as well.
I can think of thousands of malicious ways this can be used both by itself and in combination with existing and other serious encroachments on the table. Right now I'm thinking about the methods they used against nuclear protesting groups. If they had this system in place, they likely would have been disabling cars left and right and arranging for people to be stopped well away from the scene so they could disrupt their operations. The government went as far as to jam their phones, pagers, sabotage vehicles, install provocateurs to instigate violence (so they could arrest entire groups), they even distributed their own fliers with false dates - times - places for their events and rented a bus to take activist to a different location and cancelled the bus one group had rented. Couple this with things like MATRIX, REGENT and other databases (we have a national for fugatives that I can not think of at the moment), the TSA "NO FLY LIST", and cell phone and visual face recognition technology - and the potential to disrupt your life and be subject to a near complete control grid is endless. This is a government which disappears people, no trial, no lawyer, no hearings, no nothing. Indefinite detention without notificaiton. Somehow your "you must be doing something really important" assurance seems rather meaningless. One that is already so far out of control it threatens to declare martial law on a regular basis, herds protestors into pens miles away from events, and dresses its LEO's in all black riot gear with no name tags. It looks like a star wars episode with all of the riot gear, except they are in black and not white storm trooper gear at any major political event or trade conference. A government that calls us "civilians" instead of "citizens" like its an occupying force. Wake up already.
These things are coming down from the Federal level. In Texas they have a similar project planned, except its going to install RFID like transmitters on the license plates even though the people of Texas overwhelmingly voted against it. They know it will be used not only to turn all roads into toll roads, but to track them and to issue tickets for speeding and other offenses. No one wants this stuff. So ask yourself, why is it being implimented? The Federal money, and Federal power trip is driving this thing.
When this country was founded we made a pact to form a federal government that would basically exist for the national defense, and as a device to guarantee our rights. It has far far exceeded its purpose, and is now in the business of funding tracking grids on the populace, locking people up indefinitely without charge council or trial, rendering people to foreign lands to be tortured, making wars of aggression on sovreign nations, stealing property through imminent domain & other means of seizure, entering us into global trade organizations that rob us of our sovreignty as a free people. It has tried to turn the rights we hold dear in every measure into privileges -- the right of free travel (licensed and taxed..turned to privilege), ownership of property, right to bare arms, our personal sovreignty - it even tries to claim ownership of our children. There is not an area of our life, nor of our God given sacred freedoms upon which it has not encroached. It has even turned over the right to coin money to a private (for profit) corporation. Run us into ruinous debt, more debt generated by this administration that in all of our prior history as a nation combined.
Instead of the Federal government being servant of the people and the sovreign states, it has tried to make us the servant of the Federal government at every turn. It has sold us down the river and is trying to turn us into slaves. Slaves that need permission for basic human rights at every turn. To be tracked, tagged, taxed, chipped, spied upon, injected, herded like cattle to no end. At this very moment this venomous demon we have unleashed is plotting to end our country and merge us with Mexico & Canada - they even have a new currency set and ready to go "The Amero". The federal government has even failed to secure our own borders, the very purpose it was founded for! - Our border patrol agents are now guarding the southern border...of Mexico! Our own Federal Emergency Management Agency is building clandestine camps with which it plans to imprison us. They are so brazen that they even talk of shadow government openly. Was the PATRIOT ACT not enough for you to show you its true nature? I ask you, does this beast now resemble in any way the servant we created as guarantor of our rights?
This beast has gotten out of hand, it has reached the level of intolerability and its far time we reign it in. It should never have gotten the power to tax, we should have added meaningful penalties to the Constitution for violating it - and perhaps that is where we went wrong. This 'experiment' has failed, by every measure it has failed for the purpose we have created it. Its time to rid our lands of this beast, and recall the federal government and start over again. We need a complete reorganization of our government. Its time for a new constitutional convention where we redraft this document aware of the reality of the mistakes that were made. Aware that the checks on the Federal government were completely inadequate to restrain it to the task for which it was created. It must include that we shall print our own money, that all laws violating it are expressly null & void, it must include meaningful penalty for those agents who violate it, and be expressly denied the ability to lay direct taxation.
As I see it, we either opt out, and go our separate ways returning to the sovreign states we were the full authority they are entitled - or set about fixing in dramatic way the compact on which this grea
How about instead we overthrow this tyrannical government which is every daily finding new ways to impliment its tyranny and inflict a control grid upon us?
I don't get massive CPU use, I get a big obnoxious grey bar at the bottom that cuts my display area for webpages by 1/3, and I can't get rid of the darn thing with any of the options it has. Apparently it doesn't like my dual display setup. Its buggy on either display, either graphics card. Of course, its still there when I disable the other display, so may just not like the graphics card period.
I reverted back the previous version pretty quickly. This one isn't finished baking yet.
As I read this thread, and all of the coffee snobbery one way or another - the biggest factor in a good cup of coffee is good beans, freshly roasted, and freshly ground. The basic technology involved in making a good cup of coffee hasn't changed that much.
Buy your beans green, unroasted. Roast them yourself. You can use a variety of methods, pan roasting is fairly easy, air poppers make decent roasters. The important thing here is to remember they keep roasting for a few minutes after the heat is no longer applied, and there are still plenty of chemical changes going on a few hours after. Some people prefer to let the beans sit a day after roasting before they use them, some prefer to just go ahead and use them right away. I'm in the former camp (I like to let them sit for a day, and I don't grind till I use it), but I've tried it the other way (with Kenyans who pan roast) and it was pretty good and sweet. Some local shops do sell fresh roasted (as in that morning) coffee, you are probably already going in to buy your unroasted beans from them. Nothing wrong with using this service, but you do pay for it, and its hard to find a shop that has truly fresh roasted coffee for sale in my area. Even finding unroasted beans took a bit of calling around.
I don't have expensive coffee making equipment. I have a Braun KF-187B, the only l33t tech here is a decent water filter (to strip out chlorine and other nasty taste, made moot becuase I have RO-filters for the house for any water for drinking), and a temperature control which doesn't really do more than control the hot plate. I use a cheap "Good-Food" grinder, $12, and it does just as good as the expensive ones. I also have a Barista espresso machine should I desire that, but I don't use it very often. I also have a press-pot ($13), which makes slightly better coffee than the Braun, but is a bit of trouble (mostly with clean up. 205F water in, let it sit for 4 1/2 minutes, put the plunger down, done).
Most of what is needed in making a decent cup is at the front end, good ingredients in. In the case of espresso, its just a matter of learning the correct pull length for the machine and your particular beans. So play with it a bit with a stop watch and figure it out. Once you know, it isn't going to change much.
The one exception I will make to this, is some equipment on the espresso side is indeed garbage. I was given a Salton machine for making espresso, and aside from mostly just making a mess, it never did make a pleasant cup no matter what I did with it. I gave it to Goodwill.
No rocket science involved. Just quality control. No $1200 of equipment to buy. You could buy my set up with a little internet shopping for $150. The end result is a sweet coffee that you largely don't need sugar or cream for. Now I don't make the frothy drinks and frothy cream and what not, if you want that, you'll have to spend a little more on equipment for that. If I want whipped cream on my coffee, I use a whisk and heavy cream. Yes, its low tech, it works.
People want to make it more complicated than it is, or send you on a good chase to get expensive equipment for this or that, and it mostly isn't needed. For the price of an air popper ($30), a grinder ($12-14), a jar for roasted beans ($4) and a press pot ($13) you can have better coffee than you can buy from 99% of the specialty stores. If you want espresso, $75-80 more for that.
I'm running gaim and I got this aimbot stuff. I deleted them and they're gone for now. I don't mind it so much since I'm still getting a lot for paying nothing. I don't get ads with gaim and so AOL hasn't made a dime off me directly.
This depends on if the knowledge of your social network, or any of the content of your conversations is useful in any way -- even 50 years into the future. Its quite possible that your conversations are being datamined for terms, sold to marketers, and it is 100% guaranteed if your real name is tied to the account that AOL will use it for 'hit' pieces if there is anything interesting in it should you choose to do anything important in the future that they don't like.
You should take a look at their terms of service and seriously consider using encryption for all of your conversations through AIM, GoogleTalk, and MSN. AOL has already demonstrated that they can, and more to the point will use this knowledge gathered through their services to supply people with info for 'hit pieces'...
From the terms of service for AIM: Although you or the owner of the Content retain ownership of all right, title and interest in Content that you post to any AIM Product, AOL owns all right, title and interest in any compilation, collective work or other derivative work created by AOL using or incorporating this Content. In addition, by posting Content on an AIM Product, you grant AOL, its parent, affiliates, subsidiaries, assigns, agents and licensees the irrevocable, perpetual, worldwide right to reproduce, display, perform, distribute, adapt and promote this Content in any medium. You waive any right to privacy. You waive any right to inspect or approve uses of the Content or to be compensated for any such uses.
For a good overview you can read "The Fluoride Deception" by Christopher Bryson. Which contains a lot of the actual documents, and extracts from others. It deals more with the conspiratorial nature of the process of water fluoridation coming to pass than with the health consequences.
Just a quick scan of the literature in my own collection:
Fluoride and bone cancer (Osteosarcomsa)
1. Maurer JY, Cheng MC, Boysen BG, Anderson RL. Two-year carcinogenicity study of sodium fluoride in rats. Journal, National Cancer Institute 82 111811261990. [Found significant dose-related increase in osteosarcoma incident in male rats, in addition, found fluoride correlation with thyroid follicular cell adenomas, and a rare type of liver cancer.]
2. Hoover RN, Devesa S, Cantor K, Fraurneni JF Jr. Time trends for bone and joint cancers and osteosarcomas in the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) Program, National Cancer Institute. In: Review of Fluoride: Benefits and Risks, Report of the Ad Hoc Committee on Fluoride of the Committee to Coordinate Environmental Health and Related Programs. US Public Health Service, 1991 pp F 1 -177. [Found higher incidence of bone cancer in males 20 and under in fluoridated vs non-fluoridated area. Did not control for halo effect unfortunately.]
3. Cohn PD. A brief report on the association of drinking water fluoridation and the incidence of osteosarcoma among young males. New Jersey Department of Health, Trenton NJ November 8 1992. [While Cohn could not eliminate other sources of carcenogens, he found a clear and convincing association and correlation with water fluoridation and the incidence of osteosarcoma. Quote directly from study: "Thus it can be seen that, for these populations, the chance of osteosarcoma for males age 10-19 years was 6.9 times higher in the fluoridated municipalities."]
No or scant evidence of protection from Fluoridation or Fluoride exposure in dental carries reduction:
1. Hildebolt CF, Elvin-Lewis H, Molnar S et al. Caries prevalences among geochemical regions of Missouri. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 78 79-92 1989.
2. Yiamouyiannis J A. Water fluoridation and tooth decay results from the 1986- 1987 national survey of US schoolchildren. Fluoride 23 55-67 1990
3. Brunelle JA, Carlos JP. Recent trends in dental caries in US children and the effect of water fluoridation. Journal of Dental research 69 (Special Issue) 7237281990.
4. Attwood D, Blinkhorn AS. Dental health in school children 5 years after water fluoridation ceased in south-west. Scotland. Dent J. 1991 Feb;41(1):43-8.[No evidence that removing the fluoride affects dental carries levels.]
5. Kobayashi S, Kawasaki K, Takagi O, Nakamura M, Fujii N, Shinzato M, Maki Y, Takaesu Y. Caries experience in subjects 18-22 years of age after 13 years' discontinued water fluoridation in Okinawa. Community Dent Oral Epidemiol. 1992 Apr;20(2):81-3. [No evidence of increase in dental carries after 13 years of fluoridation being ceased.]
6. Kalsbeek H, Kwant GW, Groeneveld A, Dirks OB, van Eck AA, Theuns HM. Caries experience of 15-year-old children in The Netherlands after discontinuation of water fluoridation. Caries Res. 1993;27(3):201-5. [More of the same, no statistically signicant evidence of increase in dental carries when fluoridation ceases.]
7. Seppa L, Karkkainen S, Hausen H. Caries frequency in permanent teeth before and after discontinuation of water fluoridation in Kuopio, Finland. Community Dent Oral Epidemiol. 1998 Aug;26(4):256-62. [Again, evidence did not favor fluoridation looking at before addition, during addition, and after removal of fluoride].
8. Kunzel W, Fischer T. Caries prevalence after cessation of water fluoridation in La Salud, Cuba. Caries Res. 2000 Jan-Feb;34(1):20-5. [Found a slight decrease in carried after fluoridation was ceased.]
9. Burt BA, Keels MA, Heller KE. The effects of a break in water fluoridation on the development of dental caries and fluorosis. J Dent Res
I read the first few paragraphs of your fluoride conspiracy diatribe, and as far as I can tell, all of the results you're referencing (well, not referencing...you didnt really reference anything) describe situations where people or animals were given enormous amounts of fluoride, far in excess of what the ADA recommends. Would you be surprised if a study found ill effects in humans who swallowed 125 times the recommended dose of aspirin? You can believe this rubbish if you want, but at least be consistent - aspirin too should be condemned by your standards.
I guess the Institute of Medicine, the National Research Council, the US Dept of Health, the Center for Disease Control, and the World Health Organization are all in on it too, right? This conspiracy reaches much further than we thought!:P
The WHO (World Health Organization) concurs with my position. The CDC does not, but I wouldn't expect them to. They are responsible for the addition of fluoride into the water in the first place, as was the sturcture of our government at the time. No, I am not talking exposures "125 times", I am talking about mere factor of 2 to 3, and one that is easily exceeded in a substance as toxic as fluorine compounds are as the quantities involved are very minute.
You mean like the people who ramble on and on about a fluoride conspiracy and then wonder why their teeth are messed up and full of cavities?
He would be in rather good company: Germany, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Finland, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden have banned fluoride in the water, and several have gone as far as ban a wide variety of fluoride containing products. It seems countries with socialized dental programs figured out it didn't work out on the balance sheet. Their teeth are fine, and on average, in better health than the teeth of similarly situated countries who allow its use.
Proposals go up every year to ban the use of fluoridated salt as well. People who scream that criticism of fluoride is based merely on far out conspiracies have never stopped to look into just how low of a dose can cause very severe health consequence. In countries where fluoride occurs naturally in the water, and they lack the technology or financial means to effectively remove it, you can compare their consumption levels to our own.(Parts of the US use water with high levels of naturally occuring fluoride as well, and when remediation isn't taken, they end up with the same health effects.) The margin of difference between having a fair portion of your society sick from fluoride and escaping the worst (but not the mild & moderate effects of toxicity) is not high at all. Its often less than a factor of 2.
When I see a village in India, or Pakistan, or Sudan, or Kenya, or Peru with 20-30% of the inhabitants clearly suffering from excess fluoride exposure,and their water levels come back a mere 3.02 and we have 1.0 in the water here, then compare dietary exposures, and it brings their total adjusted exposure to 4.12 and ours to 2.78..We are talking about a razors edge margin of safety. This margin could easly be exceeded by a person who drinks more water, or drinks a lot of tea, or eats regularly grapes, raisins, wine (where the grapes are subject to cyrolite pesticide use), cereals processed with fluoridated water, or drinks beer occasionally.
It is plainly obvious to see that the US Government is not telling the truth when they say there are no measurable consequences to using less than 8ppm of fluoride in the water and diet. Cases of fluoride toxicity in the US itself show it merely takes longer if the exposure levels are in the 3.0-7.9 range. Cases from around the world show that a mere 3.12 in the water is enough to substantially affect the health of a large number of residents over time. Even the EPA's MCL of 4.0 is ovbiously set too high. (Of course, when they try to lower it, the bosses at the EPA tend to put them on unpaid leave and the union has to step in to sue to get peoples
Seeing as how the gum probably doesn't contain fluoride, I think we can say pretty safely that chewing it is not as good as brushing.
The gum probably isn't as good as brushing, but that has to do with reasons of bacteria forming what is called a biofilm which needs to be broken up to be eliminated readily. A good brushing action is more effecting than the chewing action of gum.
This is nothing to do with fluoride. Fluoride would be counter productive here. The only circumstances people benefit from low dose topical fluoride is when they are children, and the effect is rather unremarkable. You can look at places that use it, and don't use, and not see any tangible benefit in dental outcomes outside of a few years in the teens. Once adulthood sets in, fluoridated areas fare worse in several outcome measures than non-fluoridated. Once adulthood sets in and the teeth are formed, as in the case of combat soldiers, it becomes entirely counterproductive. Its also counterproducive when the dose is excessive, as in the case of many cities in the USA where they have fluoridated water, use fluoride toothpaste, and consume numerous products (cereals, beer [used to stop brewing process in American beers], other beverages, plant stores like tea..etc) that contain fluoride compounds, in addition exposure through the air from steel, aluminum, nuclear materials production, other metals, phosphate fertilizer manufacture, and burning coal.
The teeth are not the only part of the body affected by fluoride as well. It has been shown to store in the bones and cause brittle bones, a demonstratable increase in hip fractures, it is neurotoxic (which has been demonstrated on multilple species of animals and people working in nuclear processing and aluminum manufacturing facilities) can cause confusion, delerium, decrease in intelligence and other damage to the nervous system that does not appear to be short term, it can lead to arthritic changes in the joints, there is also the matter of a demonstrable increase in bone cancer in boys, dental fluorsis, skeletal fluorosis, damage to the spine and nerves in the spine. It is a cumulative poison, and one of the more toxic ones in regular use.
The military actually tried high dose fluoride treatments in combat situations to prevent tooth decay. They did this in Vietnam, every 6 months soldiers in the field would be called back to use a high dose fluoride tooth paste, and a high dose multicompound fluoride rinse. The results are what you would except, a very short term decline in dental carries, as the fluorsing effects did indeed make the outer enamel shell of the tooth harder, but this occured at the expense the material inside of the tooth. A year later their teeth were crumbling & they were far worse off than those who had not had the treatment at all. The only benefit was short term, it allowed the warfighter to stay out in the field without breaks for dental care for a few months at the expense of damage to all of their teeth later.
There are other methods that could be employed with a delivery device like gum that would likely be more effective. Zinc gluconate and folic acid in a gum would make a very inhospitable environment for bacteria, you could also add antibacterial enzymes and low dose calcium to the gum. Zinc gluconate mouthwashes have demonstrated a high effectiveness for reducing bacteria and resulting decay. Folic acid washes reduce gum inflammation (thus the size of the pockets bacteria can get into to create problems). Antibacterial enzymes are used commercially already in dental mouthwashes such as biotene with a fair degree of effectiveness. Xylitol is also in wide use, though it is not as effective as the other methods. It will be interesting to see what their gum product actually contains. Even just increasing the saliva flow would be good in this environment. Stress tends to reduce the flow, and allows decay to set in faster. The body itself has means to deal with bacteria in the mouth, our normal state is not rotting t
I don't think you'll find any reasonable person saying to kick them back to Africa and the Mideast. But you will find that there is a strong resentment among reasonable people towards these freeloaders and complainers who have infiltrated the country and are suddenly trying to turn it into something that it has never been. Concessions should not be forthcoming only from the existing populace. The immigrants should also be prepared to adopt some cultural changes if they wish to migrate.
I think you will find plenty of reasonable people advocating the position that multiculturalism does not work, leads to conflict, and in the case of N. Africans leads to a good deal of crime as well.
I can fully understand Arabs & Muslims not wanting us in their countries, just as easily as I can understand large number in the US not wanting the invasion of Mexicans & Haitians we have, or people in France not wanting the invasion of Africans they have.
After people get done shouting "racist", "xenophobe", "blah blah blah"... and actually sit down and look at the data, then take a look around the world where its been tried, then take a look back at history and see the ruins of civilizations that thought it was a grand way to go... A fair & reasoned arguement can be made upon the facts, historical record, and current trials in quite a few diverse cultures that it weakens the society invaded & often destroys it.
It isn't a problem if the people coming over are prepared to assimilate into that culture, speak a common language, share basic cultural values. But when you get large numbers that do not share those values, will not assimilate, will not speak a common language - you end up effectively with two disparate peoples trying to share a single state. If it goes on long enough, you usually see two state solutions offered, and its rarely a peaceful transition to that point.
Given history, I find nothing unreasonable in the arguement that France and French people may be unwilling to continue the current course: to abandon their cities endlessly and watch them turn into the equivalent of Detroit, and to face a civil war down the road which likely splits the state.
I think the government lacks the backbone to bring real solutions to this problem to the table and will return to appeasement rather quickly, but it is the real issue and not the immediate economic issues. Their only way out of this may well be a very radically different immigration policy, and deporting those who are unwilling & unable to assimilate and become productive members of the society and culture they have.
The cost for multicultural experiements which don't pan out is quite high indeed.
I'm wondering if this is the same 'workaround' fix for this as the last time IDN was exploited..IE: Just turn IDN off.
Anyone know? If that is the case, I'm not vulnerable as I never believed they would get IDN right without a mess of problems & intentionally turned it off.
Its very integrated as well. Contests sites like Fuse immediately take you to Yahoo, so they can track you with the full demographic information *(name, phone number, age, sex, address..etc). I've seen a few others that install their cookies as well, and several that try to do it with mini-flash icons.
Have to remember to change the settings in flash if you want privacy. Eventually, even with flash disable, you'll have to click on one to navigate it...
A good quality multimeter, and a large lighted magnifying glass. . So many problems can be traced and solved with that. Doesn't hurt to have an exacto knife and some copper tape as well, depending on the exact type of repair work you do (I can salvage some boards and cards this way, though its patient work).
ll freedom of speech means is that the Government won't try to stop your (should be political) speech.
It doesn't even mean that. You have freedom of speech till enough people start listening or you say anything truly important that rattles the people in power. Then its the same here as anywhere.
If you think freedom of speech exist as you say, I suggest you go try to protest again nuclear power at a nuclear power plant, or in a town with one. Or against the war on drugs in Chicago. Or at the undemocratic unelected WTO. Hell, even the RNC or DNC. Maybe even your local water board against fluoridation.
Now if you are saying you have freedom of speech but have to pay the consequences such as: Getting arrested on trumped up charges, maced, pepper sprayed, tazered, clubbed on the head with batons, shot with plastic and/on real bullets, subjected to low frequency sounds, irradiated (coming soon to a protest near you), scientific papers rejected, loss of employment, your personal communications spied on, potential material witness arrest and endless detention (disapparence), assassinated if you get too popular & rattle too many in power. Then by all means I agree with you.
You can speak all you want in the nice little narrow box. You can even assemble without getting bashed by the police if you are doing such for say breast cancer or similar. Try doing it for the things that matter and things become a little different.
We are at a point where to protest and exercise that speech we have to bring 4 cameras, 2 cell phones, have an answering machine with a very long tape, water to deal with chemical weapons assaults, face masks, and a lawyer. It still wont stop you from being detained, arrested, beat, items stolen/smashed, harassed, communications disrupted, communications intercepted and spied on... Its only a deterrent, it decreases the odds of bad things happening, doesn't eliminate them.
Its all about keeping you out of the process. Its far worse now than it was in the 80s, but it was bad in the 80s too if you touched on defense issues or ruffled with the nuclear industry or war on drugs.
The people who say this classroom God Is An American Civics crap have never gone out and fought for anything controversial or participated in a meaningful way that ruffled those above. I highly suggest taking a sign to your local military recruiters office that says "Only a moron would let their kid sign up for imperialist conquest" and get a first hand demonstration of what I speak. Bring a few friends.
When you should buy your kid a laptop? NEVER! Let him or her get a frickin' job and buy their own laptop! Seriously, it isn't that much money. You teach them real life lessons like wage slavery sucks, savings, personal restraint, and how many weeks of their labor it takes to bring those toys home.
I'm not very skeptical that it does damage, I am wondering how much of the damage is recoverable. They have been in use long enough that some people would obviously show this kind of damage. Maybe no one has put 2+2 together, or the body is able to heal most of it, or the effects are minor enough from this low of a level that it doesn't cause enough impairment for people to complain, at least in the short term.
On a trip to Normal Illinois from St Louis I accidentally left my cell phone on in analog mode and it was sitting in my shirt pocket for a little over a half hour. I got a pretty nasty RF burn in the 36 minutes it was on. That area remained sensitive for well over a month from a standard Nokia phone. Now I realize most people are using these things in digital mode & that is less, but if it did that to my skin and muscle underneath it, putting that right next to your face and therefor your eyes is probably not going to be too good for you for extended periods of time. The burn healed, life went on, I got a bill for $50 for the phone call to nowhere...
Its also interesting that the military is having eye damage problems with its Active Denial System. I've heard it causes severe damage when contacts are left in, or when glasses are worn. That might not be enough to stop them from deploying it though. While that is more intense, it points to the same kinds of problems as well.
Somewhat off topic, but I'm sure the industry spin will be interesting...I've also seen some work where they showed being exposed to the radiation from a phone can slow your reaction times. I got a good laugh at the PR version of this "heated up brain makes you think quicker" when the results were like having a glass of booze.
I use a split key (not slanted) keyboard and can type for extended periods without a problem. But I wish I would have gotten one with a built in touchpad for the mouse (and still keep a traditional optical mouse too, touchpads suck for some things).
Taking a break helps for mild symptoms. Getting a steroid shot usually works for awhile as well. However, a lot of these problems I think are more to do with your habits than anything else.
Things are hurting. Your body is trying to tell you something, but you aren't listening. A lot of these problems are due to simple diet, exercise/lack of, bad positioning and setup, and at the worst end disease. You can get away with a lot of these things when you are 15-25 or so, but as you get older it starts to take a toll. Just like a car you don't take care of, things do break down.
If I was in your shoes I would be looking into getting a steroid shot to fix the immediate problem, but also change my habits. Start working out & exercising, get on a diet that eliminated the junk -- and eliminate foods that cause inflammation/heat. Look into good ergo as well, find a keyboard you like, find a chair you like (most of you programmers are in the chair far longer than you realize. A $200 investment in a chair sure beats a $200 doctor visit.) Deal with stress as well, and while this sounds like its pretty pointless, stress causes your muscles to tense up and thus puts more strain on the tendons and connective tissues. Stress also seems to reduce blood flow to the area. (So do splits in my opinion, useful for a short period, but not something to make a habit of. They can cause a whole range of problems if you keep using them.)
I don't think Dvorak or Qwerty makes all that much of a difference. But getting a good split key, redesigning your desk so you aren't having to extend out and reach to do things, making sure it is the right height for you, forcing yourself to use better posture - those can make a real difference. Think: Minimize the wear and tear & take care of the body. See a doc anyway, sometimes you have an underlying inflammatory problem like arthritis and those are far better to catch early, and even in that scenario all of the same applies.
Its your body, you only get one. Not listening to it is positively the worst thing you can do for it. I know this from experience. Wear out takes a lot longer if you do the maintainence.
It probably depends on where you dip your measuring stick in. My own numbers taken from abuse reports do not support their conclusions.
I looked through my last 300 abuse reports and over 80% of mine go to...(drum roll) Korea! Most of them from Kornet. Does anyone know if Kornet has actual legit customers that aren't spammers/scammers? Or are these folks just a bulletproof hosting company?
The second largest country of report is China, and after that the good ol' USA (most of them go to Comcast).
Slashdot Mirror
What makes you think Democrats aren't for it just as much as well? They make their little protestations, but then vote for it every time. You wont get rid of that way.
...forgot...about that?"
And medical information is being sent already anyway. Every single time you go fill a prescription they send it off to the federal government, hell, they even sell it to drug companies.
I listened to Rush the other day, and he did his "I challenge anyone to name an abuse of the Patriot Act". I couldn't get through (nor would I have likely gotten past their call screeners even if I had) top tell him "Your own drug case, Rush, was an abuse of the Patriot Act. How else do they get your records? Or perhaps you just
I know this thread is going to turn into a huge gripe on massive corporations and how corrupt and evil and bad they are... but... considering the company is being publicly humilated, it's stock is trading at half the price it was a 2 years ago, and it's hemorrhaging jobs. I think it's fair to say the free market is correctly punishing this big business that is supposedly "running the world". But that's just me.
The invisible hand of the market can not raise the dead, and in this case, those most severely injured are dead, and more of them than our losses in the Vietnam war. The executives will have transferred much of the assets into tangibles elsewhere and immune from the rightful wrath of the legal system, much like how money at Enron was transferred. Instead of punishing the people responsible with death, or long imprisonments, the punishment will be meted out by reducing the savings of those who invested in the company, grandma and granpa's retirement fund, employees not smart enough to see the writing on the wall...
I suppose that is the kind of "anti-corporate" rant you expect. However, the shoe fits.
I'm going to tell you what socialism really is. Its a chance to put a hell of a lot of public money in a pot to give to corporates and cronies. The goals always sound great, free health care for all, free education for all, free ...whatever.. until you realize where the money comes from and feel the lightness of ones wallet. Then you watch how it is distributed.
In this case they are using "fair taxation" and "public safety" as the "feel good fuzzie wuzzie fluffy bunny". Behind that fluffy wuffie lies the truth, more money into the government coffers = less in your back pocket, more people "in the system" = more money in state coffers. This will do both of those.
In my state, the tax rate isn't that bad, about 6%, if you make $40,000 a year you pay a little over $2,400 in state taxes, and probably a grand total of $5,800 by the time you pay property and vehicle taxes (a small amount more if you have a nicer home than I). If the state puts you in prison, it gets $40,080 from the federal government to keep you there. You are worth 6.9 times as much to them in prison as you are just going about your business paying taxes. This is part of why the prison industrial complex is the fastest growing segment of the economy. Not to mention that (like China) it can make extra money selling your labor in prison to other companies, while it pays you only a few pennies for it. They even used to sell prisoners blood/plasma for profit, but because of AIDS/Hep were forced to cease. Blood cow for the state indeed. You are worth more to them in the system than out of it. The same is also true of our foster care system, it has incentives to seize as many children as possible - it pays. Just as it pays to set child support amounts ever higher - there are matching dollars for every dollar collected.
This thought ought to put a chill down your spine. You are worth more to them incarcerated or otherwise in the system than being a productive member of society. When the incentives are such, what do you think they will do? In Europe their socialism only keeps you poor and provides you with a few services while trying to keep you out of it. In ours, the socialism takes the most punitive form, a custodial blood cow.
Consider speed limits--they are now up to 70mph on some highways. But it wasn't that long ago that 70mph was considered suicidally fast for the average driver. Technological advances made safe driving at such high speed possible. But it was years of data showing that people can drive safely at such speeds that convinced governments to up the speed limit. But with 100% speed limit enforcement, those years of data would never have been collected and we'd likely all still be driving 50mph to get everywhere
You don't know your own countries history. Speed limits were 70mph and greater and in many places they didn't have them at all before James Earl Carter and the Congress of that time rammed through the 55mph speed limit restriction during the oil cartel squeezing us and faked shortage "energy crisis". It was incredibly unpopular. All we have done is return to close to what we had before, but still slower than we used to be able to travel in most areas. It has squat to do with safety. The safety nazis were against returning the limits to reasonable speeds. The trucking companies & average voter, however, were very much in favor of it. Time is money, trips across the vast land no longer have to take all day.
Remember when you could go to the DMV without an appointment? They actually had to attend to you? How about when you could explain that your vehicle was not being operated and you did not owe them any money for it. Now you have to inform them ahead of time that it is no longer in service, and you have to pay to do them this favor! Thousands of people wind up paying the DMV for *not* using their roads. And what about the price of tickets, when were those prices snuck through. Who figured out that $50 isn't enough deterrent for speeding or not wearing your seat belt? Why the fuck is not wearing your seat belt an offence at all!
The very first licensing was started in New York City, and it was sold as to apply to commercial vehicles only. When this was voted upon, it was never intended to apply to non-commercial use of the roads. The arguement was that trucks were tearing up the roads and making lots of money off of it, so we should regulate it. The very idea that this would lead to lead to a defacto internal passport, mandatory insurance, picture ID, vehicle registration for everyone, license plates, city stickers, or that the right of free travel would be turned to a privilege by regulation was not a twinkle in the eyes of the voters who approved it -- but it was on the mind of a few of those legislators.
I agree, it is silly to think that Americans are going to go along with having to pay more tax based on how much we drive. Overwhelmingly in polls, and when given the chance to vote on it (Texas) they do not support these kinds of measures. It makes no difference, the government is doing it anyway. The Federal government is the wheel which is pushing this...
As far as the conspiracy theorists who think this is going to violate your privacy need to calm down. Even if this were to be come a common place device on all cars, you will be mearly a blip on some screen or in a computer in a large cloud of other blips. That hardly means that Big Brother is going to be staring into your life or mind 24hrs a day. You are going to have to do something to really standout in order for any law enforcement agency to take notice of your blip. Don't bet on it, and once people come to accept that the logs are a 'reliable indicator of where such and such is', it will be no problem to add entries to the log to place whomever they want at the scene of whatever they want. It also raises alarms about who else gets the data, the ability of the government to learn your habits, entire social network - so that should you ever become an enemy of the state all of your places of travel that you would go to would be known. Its about creating a climate of fear. You just wait till they get the ability to disable your vehicle remotely on top of it. Think I'm joking? They are talking about that as well.
I can think of thousands of malicious ways this can be used both by itself and in combination with existing and other serious encroachments on the table. Right now I'm thinking about the methods they used against nuclear protesting groups. If they had this system in place, they likely would have been disabling cars left and right and arranging for people to be stopped well away from the scene so they could disrupt their operations. The government went as far as to jam their phones, pagers, sabotage vehicles, install provocateurs to instigate violence (so they could arrest entire groups), they even distributed their own fliers with false dates - times - places for their events and rented a bus to take activist to a different location and cancelled the bus one group had rented. Couple this with things like MATRIX, REGENT and other databases (we have a national for fugatives that I can not think of at the moment), the TSA "NO FLY LIST", and cell phone and visual face recognition technology - and the potential to disrupt your life and be subject to a near complete control grid is endless. This is a government which disappears people, no trial, no lawyer, no hearings, no nothing. Indefinite detention without notificaiton. Somehow your "you must be doing something really important" assurance seems rather meaningless. One that is already so far out of control it threatens to declare martial law on a regular basis, herds protestors into pens miles away from events, and dresses its LEO's in all black riot gear with no name tags. It looks like a star wars episode with all of the riot gear, except they are in black and not white storm trooper gear at any major political event or trade conference. A government that calls us "civilians" instead of "citizens" like its an occupying force. Wake up already.
These things are coming down from the Federal level. In Texas they have a similar project planned, except its going to install RFID like transmitters on the license plates even though the people of Texas overwhelmingly voted against it. They know it will be used not only to turn all roads into toll roads, but to track them and to issue tickets for speeding and other offenses. No one wants this stuff. So ask yourself, why is it being implimented? The Federal money, and Federal power trip is driving this thing.
...of Mexico! Our own Federal Emergency Management Agency is building clandestine camps with which it plans to imprison us. They are so brazen that they even talk of shadow government openly. Was the PATRIOT ACT not enough for you to show you its true nature? I ask you, does this beast now resemble in any way the servant we created as guarantor of our rights?
When this country was founded we made a pact to form a federal government that would basically exist for the national defense, and as a device to guarantee our rights. It has far far exceeded its purpose, and is now in the business of funding tracking grids on the populace, locking people up indefinitely without charge council or trial, rendering people to foreign lands to be tortured, making wars of aggression on sovreign nations, stealing property through imminent domain & other means of seizure, entering us into global trade organizations that rob us of our sovreignty as a free people. It has tried to turn the rights we hold dear in every measure into privileges -- the right of free travel (licensed and taxed..turned to privilege), ownership of property, right to bare arms, our personal sovreignty - it even tries to claim ownership of our children. There is not an area of our life, nor of our God given sacred freedoms upon which it has not encroached. It has even turned over the right to coin money to a private (for profit) corporation. Run us into ruinous debt, more debt generated by this administration that in all of our prior history as a nation combined.
Instead of the Federal government being servant of the people and the sovreign states, it has tried to make us the servant of the Federal government at every turn. It has sold us down the river and is trying to turn us into slaves. Slaves that need permission for basic human rights at every turn. To be tracked, tagged, taxed, chipped, spied upon, injected, herded like cattle to no end. At this very moment this venomous demon we have unleashed is plotting to end our country and merge us with Mexico & Canada - they even have a new currency set and ready to go "The Amero". The federal government has even failed to secure our own borders, the very purpose it was founded for! - Our border patrol agents are now guarding the southern border
This beast has gotten out of hand, it has reached the level of intolerability and its far time we reign it in. It should never have gotten the power to tax, we should have added meaningful penalties to the Constitution for violating it - and perhaps that is where we went wrong. This 'experiment' has failed, by every measure it has failed for the purpose we have created it. Its time to rid our lands of this beast, and recall the federal government and start over again. We need a complete reorganization of our government. Its time for a new constitutional convention where we redraft this document aware of the reality of the mistakes that were made. Aware that the checks on the Federal government were completely inadequate to restrain it to the task for which it was created. It must include that we shall print our own money, that all laws violating it are expressly null & void, it must include meaningful penalty for those agents who violate it, and be expressly denied the ability to lay direct taxation.
As I see it, we either opt out, and go our separate ways returning to the sovreign states we were the full authority they are entitled - or set about fixing in dramatic way the compact on which this grea
Not using violence of course... :)
How about instead we overthrow this tyrannical government which is every daily finding new ways to impliment its tyranny and inflict a control grid upon us?
I don't get massive CPU use, I get a big obnoxious grey bar at the bottom that cuts my display area for webpages by 1/3, and I can't get rid of the darn thing with any of the options it has. Apparently it doesn't like my dual display setup. Its buggy on either display, either graphics card. Of course, its still there when I disable the other display, so may just not like the graphics card period.
I reverted back the previous version pretty quickly. This one isn't finished baking yet.
As I read this thread, and all of the coffee snobbery one way or another - the biggest factor in a good cup of coffee is good beans, freshly roasted, and freshly ground. The basic technology involved in making a good cup of coffee hasn't changed that much.
Buy your beans green, unroasted. Roast them yourself. You can use a variety of methods, pan roasting is fairly easy, air poppers make decent roasters. The important thing here is to remember they keep roasting for a few minutes after the heat is no longer applied, and there are still plenty of chemical changes going on a few hours after. Some people prefer to let the beans sit a day after roasting before they use them, some prefer to just go ahead and use them right away. I'm in the former camp (I like to let them sit for a day, and I don't grind till I use it), but I've tried it the other way (with Kenyans who pan roast) and it was pretty good and sweet. Some local shops do sell fresh roasted (as in that morning) coffee, you are probably already going in to buy your unroasted beans from them. Nothing wrong with using this service, but you do pay for it, and its hard to find a shop that has truly fresh roasted coffee for sale in my area. Even finding unroasted beans took a bit of calling around.
I don't have expensive coffee making equipment. I have a Braun KF-187B, the only l33t tech here is a decent water filter (to strip out chlorine and other nasty taste, made moot becuase I have RO-filters for the house for any water for drinking), and a temperature control which doesn't really do more than control the hot plate. I use a cheap "Good-Food" grinder, $12, and it does just as good as the expensive ones. I also have a Barista espresso machine should I desire that, but I don't use it very often. I also have a press-pot ($13), which makes slightly better coffee than the Braun, but is a bit of trouble (mostly with clean up. 205F water in, let it sit for 4 1/2 minutes, put the plunger down, done).
Most of what is needed in making a decent cup is at the front end, good ingredients in. In the case of espresso, its just a matter of learning the correct pull length for the machine and your particular beans. So play with it a bit with a stop watch and figure it out. Once you know, it isn't going to change much.
The one exception I will make to this, is some equipment on the espresso side is indeed garbage. I was given a Salton machine for making espresso, and aside from mostly just making a mess, it never did make a pleasant cup no matter what I did with it. I gave it to Goodwill.
No rocket science involved. Just quality control. No $1200 of equipment to buy. You could buy my set up with a little internet shopping for $150. The end result is a sweet coffee that you largely don't need sugar or cream for. Now I don't make the frothy drinks and frothy cream and what not, if you want that, you'll have to spend a little more on equipment for that. If I want whipped cream on my coffee, I use a whisk and heavy cream. Yes, its low tech, it works.
People want to make it more complicated than it is, or send you on a good chase to get expensive equipment for this or that, and it mostly isn't needed. For the price of an air popper ($30), a grinder ($12-14), a jar for roasted beans ($4) and a press pot ($13) you can have better coffee than you can buy from 99% of the specialty stores. If you want espresso, $75-80 more for that.
I'm running gaim and I got this aimbot stuff. I deleted them and they're gone for now. I don't mind it so much since I'm still getting a lot for paying nothing. I don't get ads with gaim and so AOL hasn't made a dime off me directly.
This depends on if the knowledge of your social network, or any of the content of your conversations is useful in any way -- even 50 years into the future. Its quite possible that your conversations are being datamined for terms, sold to marketers, and it is 100% guaranteed if your real name is tied to the account that AOL will use it for 'hit' pieces if there is anything interesting in it should you choose to do anything important in the future that they don't like.
You should take a look at their terms of service and seriously consider using encryption for all of your conversations through AIM, GoogleTalk, and MSN. AOL has already demonstrated that they can, and more to the point will use this knowledge gathered through their services to supply people with info for 'hit pieces'...
From the terms of service for AIM:
Although you or the owner of the Content retain ownership of all right, title and interest in Content that you post to any AIM Product, AOL owns all right, title and interest in any compilation, collective work or other derivative work created by AOL using or incorporating this Content. In addition, by posting Content on an AIM Product, you grant AOL, its parent, affiliates, subsidiaries, assigns, agents and licensees the irrevocable, perpetual, worldwide right to reproduce, display, perform, distribute, adapt and promote this Content in any medium. You waive any right to privacy. You waive any right to inspect or approve uses of the Content or to be compensated for any such uses.
For a good overview you can read "The Fluoride Deception" by Christopher Bryson. Which contains a lot of the actual documents, and extracts from others. It deals more with the conspiratorial nature of the process of water fluoridation coming to pass than with the health consequences.
Just a quick scan of the literature in my own collection:
Fluoride and bone cancer (Osteosarcomsa)
1. Maurer JY, Cheng MC, Boysen BG, Anderson RL. Two-year carcinogenicity study of sodium fluoride in rats. Journal, National Cancer Institute 82 111811261990. [Found significant dose-related increase in osteosarcoma incident in male rats, in addition, found fluoride correlation with thyroid follicular cell adenomas, and a rare type of liver cancer.]
2. Hoover RN, Devesa S, Cantor K, Fraurneni JF Jr. Time trends for bone and joint cancers and osteosarcomas in the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) Program, National Cancer Institute. In: Review of Fluoride: Benefits and Risks, Report of the Ad Hoc Committee on Fluoride of the Committee to Coordinate Environmental Health and Related Programs. US Public Health Service, 1991 pp F 1 -177. [Found higher incidence of bone cancer in males 20 and under in fluoridated vs non-fluoridated area. Did not control for halo effect unfortunately.]
3. Cohn PD. A brief report on the association of drinking water fluoridation and the incidence of osteosarcoma among young males. New Jersey Department of Health, Trenton NJ November 8 1992. [While Cohn could not eliminate other sources of carcenogens, he found a clear and convincing association and correlation with water fluoridation and the incidence of osteosarcoma. Quote directly from study: "Thus it can be seen that, for these populations, the chance of osteosarcoma for males age 10-19 years was 6.9 times higher in the fluoridated municipalities."]
No or scant evidence of protection from Fluoridation or Fluoride exposure in dental carries reduction:
1. Hildebolt CF, Elvin-Lewis H, Molnar S et al. Caries prevalences among geochemical regions of Missouri. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 78 79-92 1989.
2. Yiamouyiannis J A. Water fluoridation and tooth decay results from the 1986- 1987 national survey of US schoolchildren. Fluoride 23 55-67 1990
3. Brunelle JA, Carlos JP. Recent trends in dental caries in US children and the effect of water fluoridation. Journal of Dental research 69 (Special Issue) 7237281990.
4. Attwood D, Blinkhorn AS. Dental health in school children 5 years after water fluoridation ceased in south-west. Scotland. Dent J. 1991 Feb;41(1):43-8.[No evidence that removing the fluoride affects dental carries levels.]
5. Kobayashi S, Kawasaki K, Takagi O, Nakamura M, Fujii N, Shinzato M, Maki Y, Takaesu Y. Caries experience in subjects 18-22 years of age after 13 years' discontinued water fluoridation in Okinawa. Community Dent Oral Epidemiol. 1992 Apr;20(2):81-3. [No evidence of increase in dental carries after 13 years of fluoridation being ceased.]
6. Kalsbeek H, Kwant GW, Groeneveld A, Dirks OB, van Eck AA, Theuns HM. Caries experience of 15-year-old children in The Netherlands after discontinuation of water fluoridation. Caries Res. 1993;27(3):201-5. [More of the same, no statistically signicant evidence of increase in dental carries when fluoridation ceases.]
7. Seppa L, Karkkainen S, Hausen H. Caries frequency in permanent teeth before and after discontinuation of water fluoridation in Kuopio, Finland. Community Dent Oral Epidemiol. 1998 Aug;26(4):256-62. [Again, evidence did not favor fluoridation looking at before addition, during addition, and after removal of fluoride].
8. Kunzel W, Fischer T. Caries prevalence after cessation of water fluoridation in La Salud, Cuba. Caries Res. 2000 Jan-Feb;34(1):20-5. [Found a slight decrease in carried after fluoridation was ceased.]
9. Burt BA, Keels MA, Heller KE. The effects of a break in water fluoridation on the development of dental caries and fluorosis. J Dent Res
I read the first few paragraphs of your fluoride conspiracy diatribe, and as far as I can tell, all of the results you're referencing (well, not referencing...you didnt really reference anything) describe situations where people or animals were given enormous amounts of fluoride, far in excess of what the ADA recommends. Would you be surprised if a study found ill effects in humans who swallowed 125 times the recommended dose of aspirin? You can believe this rubbish if you want, but at least be consistent - aspirin too should be condemned by your standards.
:P
..We are talking about a razors edge margin of safety. This margin could easly be exceeded by a person who drinks more water, or drinks a lot of tea, or eats regularly grapes, raisins, wine (where the grapes are subject to cyrolite pesticide use), cereals processed with fluoridated water, or drinks beer occasionally.
I guess the Institute of Medicine, the National Research Council, the US Dept of Health, the Center for Disease Control, and the World Health Organization are all in on it too, right? This conspiracy reaches much further than we thought!
The WHO (World Health Organization) concurs with my position. The CDC does not, but I wouldn't expect them to. They are responsible for the addition of fluoride into the water in the first place, as was the sturcture of our government at the time. No, I am not talking exposures "125 times", I am talking about mere factor of 2 to 3, and one that is easily exceeded in a substance as toxic as fluorine compounds are as the quantities involved are very minute.
You mean like the people who ramble on and on about a fluoride conspiracy and then wonder why their teeth are messed up and full of cavities?
He would be in rather good company:
Germany, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Finland, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden have banned fluoride in the water, and several have gone as far as ban a wide variety of fluoride containing products. It seems countries with socialized dental programs figured out it didn't work out on the balance sheet. Their teeth are fine, and on average, in better health than the teeth of similarly situated countries who allow its use.
Proposals go up every year to ban the use of fluoridated salt as well. People who scream that criticism of fluoride is based merely on far out conspiracies have never stopped to look into just how low of a dose can cause very severe health consequence. In countries where fluoride occurs naturally in the water, and they lack the technology or financial means to effectively remove it, you can compare their consumption levels to our own.(Parts of the US use water with high levels of naturally occuring fluoride as well, and when remediation isn't taken, they end up with the same health effects.) The margin of difference between having a fair portion of your society sick from fluoride and escaping the worst (but not the mild & moderate effects of toxicity) is not high at all. Its often less than a factor of 2.
When I see a village in India, or Pakistan, or Sudan, or Kenya, or Peru with 20-30% of the inhabitants clearly suffering from excess fluoride exposure,and their water levels come back a mere 3.02 and we have 1.0 in the water here, then compare dietary exposures, and it brings their total adjusted exposure to 4.12 and ours to 2.78
It is plainly obvious to see that the US Government is not telling the truth when they say there are no measurable consequences to using less than 8ppm of fluoride in the water and diet. Cases of fluoride toxicity in the US itself show it merely takes longer if the exposure levels are in the 3.0-7.9 range. Cases from around the world show that a mere 3.12 in the water is enough to substantially affect the health of a large number of residents over time. Even the EPA's MCL of 4.0 is ovbiously set too high. (Of course, when they try to lower it, the bosses at the EPA tend to put them on unpaid leave and the union has to step in to sue to get peoples
Seeing as how the gum probably doesn't contain fluoride, I think we can say pretty safely that chewing it is not as good as brushing.
The gum probably isn't as good as brushing, but that has to do with reasons of bacteria forming what is called a biofilm which needs to be broken up to be eliminated readily. A good brushing action is more effecting than the chewing action of gum.
This is nothing to do with fluoride. Fluoride would be counter productive here. The only circumstances people benefit from low dose topical fluoride is when they are children, and the effect is rather unremarkable. You can look at places that use it, and don't use, and not see any tangible benefit in dental outcomes outside of a few years in the teens. Once adulthood sets in, fluoridated areas fare worse in several outcome measures than non-fluoridated. Once adulthood sets in and the teeth are formed, as in the case of combat soldiers, it becomes entirely counterproductive. Its also counterproducive when the dose is excessive, as in the case of many cities in the USA where they have fluoridated water, use fluoride toothpaste, and consume numerous products (cereals, beer [used to stop brewing process in American beers], other beverages, plant stores like tea..etc) that contain fluoride compounds, in addition exposure through the air from steel, aluminum, nuclear materials production, other metals, phosphate fertilizer manufacture, and burning coal.
The teeth are not the only part of the body affected by fluoride as well. It has been shown to store in the bones and cause brittle bones, a demonstratable increase in hip fractures, it is neurotoxic (which has been demonstrated on multilple species of animals and people working in nuclear processing and aluminum manufacturing facilities) can cause confusion, delerium, decrease in intelligence and other damage to the nervous system that does not appear to be short term, it can lead to arthritic changes in the joints, there is also the matter of a demonstrable increase in bone cancer in boys, dental fluorsis, skeletal fluorosis, damage to the spine and nerves in the spine. It is a cumulative poison, and one of the more toxic ones in regular use.
The military actually tried high dose fluoride treatments in combat situations to prevent tooth decay. They did this in Vietnam, every 6 months soldiers in the field would be called back to use a high dose fluoride tooth paste, and a high dose multicompound fluoride rinse. The results are what you would except, a very short term decline in dental carries, as the fluorsing effects did indeed make the outer enamel shell of the tooth harder, but this occured at the expense the material inside of the tooth. A year later their teeth were crumbling & they were far worse off than those who had not had the treatment at all. The only benefit was short term, it allowed the warfighter to stay out in the field without breaks for dental care for a few months at the expense of damage to all of their teeth later.
There are other methods that could be employed with a delivery device like gum that would likely be more effective. Zinc gluconate and folic acid in a gum would make a very inhospitable environment for bacteria, you could also add antibacterial enzymes and low dose calcium to the gum. Zinc gluconate mouthwashes have demonstrated a high effectiveness for reducing bacteria and resulting decay. Folic acid washes reduce gum inflammation (thus the size of the pockets bacteria can get into to create problems). Antibacterial enzymes are used commercially already in dental mouthwashes such as biotene with a fair degree of effectiveness. Xylitol is also in wide use, though it is not as effective as the other methods. It will be interesting to see what their gum product actually contains. Even just increasing the saliva flow would be good in this environment. Stress tends to reduce the flow, and allows decay to set in faster. The body itself has means to deal with bacteria in the mouth, our normal state is not rotting t
I don't think you'll find any reasonable person saying to kick them back to Africa and the Mideast. But you will find that there is a strong resentment among reasonable people towards these freeloaders and complainers who have infiltrated the country and are suddenly trying to turn it into something that it has never been. Concessions should not be forthcoming only from the existing populace. The immigrants should also be prepared to adopt some cultural changes if they wish to migrate.
... and actually sit down and look at the data, then take a look around the world where its been tried, then take a look back at history and see the ruins of civilizations that thought it was a grand way to go... A fair & reasoned arguement can be made upon the facts, historical record, and current trials in quite a few diverse cultures that it weakens the society invaded & often destroys it.
I think you will find plenty of reasonable people advocating the position that multiculturalism does not work, leads to conflict, and in the case of N. Africans leads to a good deal of crime as well.
I can fully understand Arabs & Muslims not wanting us in their countries, just as easily as I can understand large number in the US not wanting the invasion of Mexicans & Haitians we have, or people in France not wanting the invasion of Africans they have.
After people get done shouting "racist", "xenophobe", "blah blah blah"
It isn't a problem if the people coming over are prepared to assimilate into that culture, speak a common language, share basic cultural values. But when you get large numbers that do not share those values, will not assimilate, will not speak a common language - you end up effectively with two disparate peoples trying to share a single state. If it goes on long enough, you usually see two state solutions offered, and its rarely a peaceful transition to that point.
Given history, I find nothing unreasonable in the arguement that France and French people may be unwilling to continue the current course: to abandon their cities endlessly and watch them turn into the equivalent of Detroit, and to face a civil war down the road which likely splits the state.
I think the government lacks the backbone to bring real solutions to this problem to the table and will return to appeasement rather quickly, but it is the real issue and not the immediate economic issues. Their only way out of this may well be a very radically different immigration policy, and deporting those who are unwilling & unable to assimilate and become productive members of the society and culture they have.
The cost for multicultural experiements which don't pan out is quite high indeed.
I'm wondering if this is the same 'workaround' fix for this as the last time IDN was exploited..IE: Just turn IDN off.
Anyone know? If that is the case, I'm not vulnerable as I never believed they would get IDN right without a mess of problems & intentionally turned it off.
They might care more about the Chinese dissidents if they knew the death vans each have quotas to fill and they turn the executed into cosmetics products... http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/200 5/09/14/2003271560/print
Slather some more dead people on your face. Enjoy it!
Its very integrated as well. Contests sites like Fuse immediately take you to Yahoo, so they can track you with the full demographic information *(name, phone number, age, sex, address..etc). I've seen a few others that install their cookies as well, and several that try to do it with mini-flash icons.
Have to remember to change the settings in flash if you want privacy. Eventually, even with flash disable, you'll have to click on one to navigate it...
The essential I couldn't do without:
A good quality multimeter, and a large lighted magnifying glass. . So many problems can be traced and solved with that. Doesn't hurt to have an exacto knife and some copper tape as well, depending on the exact type of repair work you do (I can salvage some boards and cards this way, though its patient work).
ll freedom of speech means is that the Government won't try to stop your (should be political) speech.
It doesn't even mean that. You have freedom of speech till enough people start listening or you say anything truly important that rattles the people in power. Then its the same here as anywhere.
If you think freedom of speech exist as you say, I suggest you go try to protest again nuclear power at a nuclear power plant, or in a town with one. Or against the war on drugs in Chicago. Or at the undemocratic unelected WTO. Hell, even the RNC or DNC. Maybe even your local water board against fluoridation.
Now if you are saying you have freedom of speech but have to pay the consequences such as: Getting arrested on trumped up charges, maced, pepper sprayed, tazered, clubbed on the head with batons, shot with plastic and/on real bullets, subjected to low frequency sounds, irradiated (coming soon to a protest near you), scientific papers rejected, loss of employment, your personal communications spied on, potential material witness arrest and endless detention (disapparence), assassinated if you get too popular & rattle too many in power. Then by all means I agree with you.
You can speak all you want in the nice little narrow box. You can even assemble without getting bashed by the police if you are doing such for say breast cancer or similar. Try doing it for the things that matter and things become a little different.
We are at a point where to protest and exercise that speech we have to bring 4 cameras, 2 cell phones, have an answering machine with a very long tape, water to deal with chemical weapons assaults, face masks, and a lawyer. It still wont stop you from being detained, arrested, beat, items stolen/smashed, harassed, communications disrupted, communications intercepted and spied on... Its only a deterrent, it decreases the odds of bad things happening, doesn't eliminate them.
Its all about keeping you out of the process. Its far worse now than it was in the 80s, but it was bad in the 80s too if you touched on defense issues or ruffled with the nuclear industry or war on drugs.
The people who say this classroom God Is An American Civics crap have never gone out and fought for anything controversial or participated in a meaningful way that ruffled those above. I highly suggest taking a sign to your local military recruiters office that says "Only a moron would let their kid sign up for imperialist conquest" and get a first hand demonstration of what I speak. Bring a few friends.
When you should buy your kid a laptop? NEVER! Let him or her get a frickin' job and buy their own laptop! Seriously, it isn't that much money. You teach them real life lessons like wage slavery sucks, savings, personal restraint, and how many weeks of their labor it takes to bring those toys home.
I'm not very skeptical that it does damage, I am wondering how much of the damage is recoverable. They have been in use long enough that some people would obviously show this kind of damage. Maybe no one has put 2+2 together, or the body is able to heal most of it, or the effects are minor enough from this low of a level that it doesn't cause enough impairment for people to complain, at least in the short term.
On a trip to Normal Illinois from St Louis I accidentally left my cell phone on in analog mode and it was sitting in my shirt pocket for a little over a half hour. I got a pretty nasty RF burn in the 36 minutes it was on. That area remained sensitive for well over a month from a standard Nokia phone. Now I realize most people are using these things in digital mode & that is less, but if it did that to my skin and muscle underneath it, putting that right next to your face and therefor your eyes is probably not going to be too good for you for extended periods of time.
The burn healed, life went on, I got a bill for $50 for the phone call to nowhere...
Its also interesting that the military is having eye damage problems with its Active Denial System. I've heard it causes severe damage when contacts are left in, or when glasses are worn. That might not be enough to stop them from deploying it though. While that is more intense, it points to the same kinds of problems as well.
Somewhat off topic, but I'm sure the industry spin will be interesting...I've also seen some work where they showed being exposed to the radiation from a phone can slow your reaction times. I got a good laugh at the PR version of this "heated up brain makes you think quicker" when the results were like having a glass of booze.
I use a split key (not slanted) keyboard and can type for extended periods without a problem. But I wish I would have gotten one with a built in touchpad for the mouse (and still keep a traditional optical mouse too, touchpads suck for some things).
Taking a break helps for mild symptoms. Getting a steroid shot usually works for awhile as well. However, a lot of these problems I think are more to do with your habits than anything else.
Things are hurting. Your body is trying to tell you something, but you aren't listening. A lot of these problems are due to simple diet, exercise/lack of, bad positioning and setup, and at the worst end disease. You can get away with a lot of these things when you are 15-25 or so, but as you get older it starts to take a toll. Just like a car you don't take care of, things do break down.
If I was in your shoes I would be looking into getting a steroid shot to fix the immediate problem, but also change my habits. Start working out & exercising, get on a diet that eliminated the junk -- and eliminate foods that cause inflammation/heat. Look into good ergo as well, find a keyboard you like, find a chair you like (most of you programmers are in the chair far longer than you realize. A $200 investment in a chair sure beats a $200 doctor visit.) Deal with stress as well, and while this sounds like its pretty pointless, stress causes your muscles to tense up and thus puts more strain on the tendons and connective tissues. Stress also seems to reduce blood flow to the area. (So do splits in my opinion, useful for a short period, but not something to make a habit of. They can cause a whole range of problems if you keep using them.)
I don't think Dvorak or Qwerty makes all that much of a difference. But getting a good split key, redesigning your desk so you aren't having to extend out and reach to do things, making sure it is the right height for you, forcing yourself to use better posture - those can make a real difference. Think: Minimize the wear and tear & take care of the body. See a doc anyway, sometimes you have an underlying inflammatory problem like arthritis and those are far better to catch early, and even in that scenario all of the same applies.
Its your body, you only get one. Not listening to it is positively the worst thing you can do for it. I know this from experience. Wear out takes a lot longer if you do the maintainence.
It probably depends on where you dip your measuring stick in. My own numbers taken from abuse reports do not support their conclusions.
I looked through my last 300 abuse reports and over 80% of mine go to...(drum roll) Korea! Most of them from Kornet. Does anyone know if Kornet has actual legit customers that aren't spammers/scammers? Or are these folks just a bulletproof hosting company?
The second largest country of report is China, and after that the good ol' USA (most of them go to Comcast).