Friday, March 18, 2011

THE SNAKE RECOILS



As soon as the UN announced a No-Fly Zone over Libya, just like a snake poked with a stick, Ghadafi reacts immediately.  Now he will act like a chameleon and buy time and regroup to focus his next offensive move.  It's laughable to think that he has his hands raised waving a white flag.

 He will pull back but only for enough time to cool things off somewhat.  Then he will then come back with the same old behaviors but at a more tolerable level for the war-weary world states that think they are the keepers of the gates of world peace. 

This has been seen before and very is predictable and standard procedure when dictators find themselves painted into a corner. 
He is calling the shots once again.

Thursday, March 17, 2011

MISGUIDED AND MISPLACED AID FOR JAPAN!



Animal Welfare Groups Race To Save  Abandoned Japanese Pets 

I've never been more disgusted than when I read that headline today!Do they think that people without food, water, electricity, shelter and medical aid really care about the lives of animals at this point in time? 

Are these groups really going to feed and water and shelter animals instead of humans?  It is a sad day if indeed this IS the day that animals have become more important than people.

This is a serious moral lapse, it is misguided sentimentality and it is misplaced 'welfare'.  People who support organizations like this need to rethink their priorities. 

Taxpayers don't want their hard earned money to be squandered at a time that history may well be marked by this day as the worst humanitarian disaster of all times. 

I can think of 100 things to do with that the money, time and effort and not one of them has to do with animals. 

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

A SHIP ASHORE



The skeletal remains of a ship bodes an unspoken fear of what is happening in Japan and what might happen in the very near future.  With the spectre of what appears to be an Apocalyptic reality four if not all six nuclear power plants are compromised and on the verge of meltdown.  The enormity of this disaster and seemingly impossibility of any sustained, productive rescue attempts has now turned into recovery mode.  Hope seems to be just impossible.  There are no roads, no machinery to move debris to find people, no food, water, electricity, or easy access to hospitals or ready medical help.  In some places the sludge is ten feet deep.  Even if all these problems can somehow be overcome in a timely manner the enormous cost of reconstruction alone will be crippling.  Tourism, an important aspect of every nation, will be lost for a very, very long time.  The people who survive now face the horrible fear of radiation poisoning.  One elderly Japanese woman when asked to compare the WW ll nuclear bombings to this nuclear event she said,  "This is worse because that is in the past but this is in our future."

Let us hope none of these things will be a bad as it seems at the moment and let us give our all in support to the Japanese people in whatever way we can, physically, emotionally, financially and spiritually.

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

OLDER PEOPE ARE NOT JUST WRINKLY ADULTS



 Now a few hospitals are opening ERs specially designed for seniors, without all the confusion and clamor of regular ERs and with a little more comfort.
It's a fledgling trend, but expected to increase as the population rapidly grays. The question is whether they'll truly improve care.
"Older people are not just wrinkly adults. They have totally different needs," says Dr. David John, who chairs the geriatric medicine division of the American College of Emergency Physicians.
Modern ERs are best equipped to handle crises like gunshot wounds or car crashes, not the lengthy detective work it can take to unravel the multiple ailments that older people tend to show up with, John says.
Those older patients may not even have the same symptoms as younger people. They're less likely to report chest pain with a heart attack, for instance, complaining instead of vague symptoms such as dizziness or nausea. Urinary tract infections sometimes cause enough confusion to be mistaken for dementia.
And a study published in January called delirium and dementia an "invisible hazard" for many older patients because ERs don't routinely check for not-too-obvious cognitive problems — yet such patients can't accurately describe their symptoms or understand what they're supposed to do at home.
Seniors already make 17 million ER visits a year, and 1 in 5 Americans will be 65 or older by 2030.
St. Joseph's Regional Medical Center in Paterson, N.J., started a 14-bed Senior Emergency Center two years ago, and plans to open a larger one in the fall, said emergency medicine chairman Dr. Mark Rosenberg.
"It's still hustle and bustle, but it's a couple notches down from the craziness of the main emergency department," he says.
The idea behind senior ERs: Put older patients in an area that's a bit calmer for team-based care to not just treat the problem that brought them to the hospital, but to uncover underlying problems — from depression to dementia to a home full of tripping hazards that might bring them back.
Rosenberg has documented a big drop in the number of seniors who make return visits since his center began day-after-discharge calls to monitor how they're doing.
There's no official count, but at least a dozen self-designated senior ERs have opened around the country since the first in Silver Spring, Md., in 2008. The one in Maryland and eight in Michigan are operated by Catholic health system Trinity Health of Novi, Mich., which plans to open two in Iowa later this year, followed by more in other states.
How does it work? Seniors still enter through the main ER, where triage nurses decide if they have an immediately life-threatening condition. Those patients stay in the regular ER with all its bells and whistles. But other seniors get the option of heading for these new special zones.
"It's a very nurturing environment," says nurse practitioner Michelle Moccia, who heads the senior ER at Trinity's St. Mary Mercy Hospital in Livonia, Mich.
There, doors instead of curtains separate beds, tamping down the noise that can increase anxiety, confusion and difficulty communicating.
Nurses carry "pocket talkers," small amplifiers that hook to headphones so they don't have to yell if a patient's hard of hearing.
Mattresses are thicker, and patients who don't need to lay flat can opt for cushy reclining chairs instead; Moccia says people feel better when they can stay upright. Nonskid floors guard against falls. Forms are printed in larger type, to help patients read their care instructions when it's time to go home. Pharmacists automatically check if patients' routine medications could cause dangerous interactions. A geriatric social worker is on hand to arrange for Meals on Wheels or other resources.
"In the senior unit, they're just a lot more gentle," says Betty Barry, 87, of White Lake, Mich., who recently went to another of Trinity's senior ERs while suffering debilitating hip pain. But Moccia says the real change comes because nurses and doctors undergo training to dig deeper into patients' lives. While they're awaiting test results or treatments, every senior gets checked for signs of depression, dementia or delirium. An example: A diabetic was treated for low blood sugar in a regular ER. A few weeks later she was back, but the newly opened senior ER uncovered that dementia was making her mess up her insulin dose, repeatedly triggering the problem, says Dr. Bill Thomas, a geriatrician at the University of Maryland Baltimore County who is advising Trinity Health Novi's senior ER program. It doesn't take opening a separate ER to improve older patients' care, says New Jersey's Rosenberg, who calls better overall geriatric awareness and training the real key. Still, he says his center saw a 15 percent rise in patients last year. "Those hospitals that have the money and space and the luxury to do something like that are going to get a definite advantage down the road," predicts John at the American College of Emergency Physicians, who says his own Boston hospital didn't have the money to try it.

Monday, March 14, 2011

HAVE YOU SEEN THIS MAN??? IT WOULD BE HARD NOT TO!





The Canadian Press
Date: Sunday Mar. 13, 2011 4:43 PM ET
EDMONTON — The sister of a murderer who escaped custody in Alberta has been arrested and is accused of helping her brother.
RCMP say Sandra Lynn Myshak, 47, of Edmonton faces seven criminal charges that include assisting a person escaping custody and aiding in a kidnapping with a firearm. 

William Wade Bicknell, 42, made his escape last week by taking a guard hostage during an escorted temporary absence from the Drumheller Institution north of Calgary.
The guard was released but Bicknell is still on the loose and police say he is armed and considered dangerous.
Police allege Bicknell visited his sister during his escorted absence.
Bicknell has been serving a life sentence since 2003 for the beating death of Angela Steer, who was from Maple Ridge, B.C.
He is 6-foot-6, and weighs 402 pounds.

I only have one question...Why would this convicted murderer, the size of two men at 402 pounds and 6 foot 6, be allowed to be escorted by just one guard? 

Police have said Bicknell had visited Edmonton while on his temporary absence, and that he overpowered his lone guard while on the return trip to prison. He took control of the vehicle, police allege, and then made his way back to Edmonton with the guard as a hostage.
He picked up guns and ammunition along the way, police say, and then drove with the guard to a rural home in the Chipman area northeast of Edmonton, where he forced his way into the home and took the keys to a car. He then left the homeowner and the guard behind, but disabled the phone and warned them not to call police.
RCMP haven't said how Bicknell acquired firearms.

Taniguchi said police are still looking for the vehicle Bicknell was last seen driving on Thursday, a 2009 grey Chevy Impala with licence plate CXE 602.
He said police had received a limited number of tips on Bicknell's whereabouts, are hoping the public can still help police locate him.

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Emphysema Found In Blood May Help You Quit Smoking


How would you like a test that can predict with 95% certainty whether you would get a specific disease?  Sounds too good to be true but if you want to save what's left of you life if you are a smoker then read on and live.

 A new blood test is being developed that detects the early development of emphysema well before symptoms occur and provide some form of peace of mind. Not all smokers develop emphysema, but finding out far in advance may just be the wakeup call you need.

Dr. Ronald G. Crystal, chairman and professor of genetic medicine and the Bruce Webster Professor of Internal Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College and chief of the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center says:

"We know, from other studies, that smokers who learn from objective evidence that their health is in danger are much more likely to quit. That is the only thing that will help them avoid this deadly disorder."


Emphysema and chronic bronchitis are the twin disorders that make up chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), which is now the fourth leading cause of death in Americans. Given the aging population, COPD is soon expected to move up to third in mortality prevalence.

The new test measures particles that are shed by tiny blood vessels known as capillaries that surround air sacs (alveoli) in lungs. These particles are debris shed by ongoing injury to the air sacs; damage that eventually results in devastation of the sacs and the "Swiss cheese" appearance of the lungs. The alveoli are where critical gas exchanges occur: blood in the capillaries brings carbon dioxide from the rest of the body for release into the air sacs, and the oxygen in the sacs (taken in from breathing) is taken up by the blood and transported to the rest of the body.

As the sacs are destroyed, people develop shortness of breath because they cannot take in enough oxygen to feed the body and eventually cannot remove carbon dioxide from the blood.

Dr. Crystal and his colleagues reasoned that as capillaries surrounding the air sacs are being injured, the debris would be carried out by the blood supply and could potentially be quantified as a disease biomarker. So they began to look for evidence of what they called endothelial micro particles (EMP).  Endothelial micro particles are small vesicles that are released from endothelial cells and can be found circulating in the blood.

Although circulating endothelial micro particles can be found in the blood of normal individuals, increased numbers of circulating endothelial micro particles have been identified in individuals with certain diseases, especially hypertension and cardiovascular disorders and could potentially be used in further understanding the pathogenesis of cells in rheumatoid arthritis.

The researchers found a 95% positive correlation between elevated EMPs in the blood and an abnormal DLCO test result, meaning that it detected nearly all verified cases of early emphysema in participants.