08:54 – More lab work today, but I should finish making up most of the solutions we need for the new batch of biology kits. Then I’ll start filling bottles.
12:58 – Angela Merkel has apparently survived her trip to Greece, although many were concerned about her safety visiting a country that has compared her with Adolph Hitler. Love Merkel or hate her, one has to admit that she is a brave woman. The Greeks laid on a personal security detail for her that included 7,000 cops, water cannon, and at least one helicopter. Of course, they’ll probably expect Germany to pay for that, just as they expect Germany to pay for everything else.
I now have all but a few of the solutions made up for the new batch of biology kits. The main ones still missing are the ones I’m lacking a chemical to make up. Everything I need is currently on order, and I still have enough spares to put together several biology kits if we need them before the chemicals show up.
I have been stating this for years.
http://vitals.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/10/08/14301214-is-it-possible-to-be-too-clean-researchers-say-yes?lite
When I was on the farm I was constantly exposed to all kinds of filth from the animals and the resulting bacteria and viruses. Over time I developed fairly good immunity. I can drink raw water from the Clinch River without issues while others will get sick. I could probably eat things that would make a billy goat puke and not suffer.
I also don’t run to the emergency room every time I get the sniffles like the welfare moms and just let the ailment take its course. They are raising a generation that has not allowed the bodies defense system to do it’s job. The body does a good job on it’s own. The occasional help is needed and for that I am grateful for antibiotics and will use them. I use them as little as possible.
“eat things that would make a billy goat puke”
Go Rambo! Or Ray-m-bo!
Thought y’all might get a chuckle from this:
http://iowahawk.typepad.com/iowahawk/2012/10/white-house-scientists-struggle-to-contain-outbreak-of-scrutonium.html
Ray, I’ve been saying the same thing since I was 12 or so, long before the “hygiene hypothesis” came into vogue. My mother would always tease, “‘So I suppose Lister had it all wrong?” Like you, I don’t take it too far; once in a blue moon antibiotics are indicated but I suspect their rampant overuse, esp. in children, has, is and will cause all kinds of trouble down the line. I’ll guess you’ve heard of studies linking altered intestinal flora because of ABX use to obesity?
WHat I want is a Campylobacter vaccine. AT least that what I think it is. Seems that every time I go to India I come down multiple bouts of gastroenteritis, even though I’m eating the same damn food my friends eat. Usually self-limiting, but occasionally I resort to ABX which cure is simply amazing: takes effect in as little as 6 hours. I suppose one of these days I’ll just have to get some cultures done and root out the culprit. You’d think by now I’d have acquired some immunity!
Another one of my pet theories is that chronic, low-grade infection leads to atherosclerosis, probably mediated by inflammatory response. There’s a term called ‘focal infection’ used in medical textbook prior to ABX era and its treatment is almost always suggested in cases of heart disease, and teeth are the first things mentioned. If you Google the term, you’ll get a bunch of crack-pots citing root canals as the source of all evil. While I don’t take it that far, I think the idea has some merit, and I’m glad to see the relationship between infection, inflammatory response and heart disease is getting more attention.
BTW Ray, I should have taken your advice given a year or more ago and seen an ophthalmologist about my screwy eyes. I finally gave up on my optometrist and hunted down a guy more interested in helping me than selling lenses and frames and shooing me out the door. Turns out the problem is cyclo torsional rotation or something like that. Optical physics on that level are beyond my ken, but he’s pretty sure he can correct for it. We’ll know in a couple weeks.
Loved the Colin story. If I ever get a dog, it’ll be a BC! I know I”m probably anthropomorphising, but I’ll swear my ferret can pick up on my moods. Weird damn creatures!
but he’s pretty sure he can correct for it. We’ll know in a couple weeks.
It is amazing the technology that can be applied to eyes to correct vision. You just have to get the correct person. I had two people, a retina surgeon who did the vitrectomies and the lasering of the retina; a opthamologist who did the cataract surgery. Both are really good at what they do.
Another acquaintance is going through some vision problems. Vision that was once 20/800 is now going to be close to 20/20 in both eyes after extensive surgery.
Vision is not something to be messed with and cost should not be a factor in the decision. You will never regret the money spent on the proper procedures.
So good luck in your vision adventures. And be prepared to be amazed while kicking yourself heartily in the ass for not doing the vision procedures earlier.
Why should she pay for it? Obama came to Newport Beach, CA this past summer for a fund raiser. His campaign was billed $30,000 for the extra police and related costs which, of course, was refused.
Heh. I remember during the 1980 presidential campaign, Ed Clark visited some city or other, which provided a police escort. Clark instructed the LNC staff to contact the city authorities to determine how much it had cost them to provide the escort and then to write them a check for that amount.
“Why should she pay for it? Obama came to Newport Beach, CA this past summer for a fund raiser. His campaign was billed $30,000 for the extra police and related costs which, of course, was refused.”
Ave Caesar! Ave Imperator!
Bow like he does to muslim scumbags, and remember that shit rolls downhill. He is their boy and we are his boyz and grrls, to do with as he sees fit, whether tax-enslaved peon serfs or cannon fodder in endless Sandbox clusterfucks.
Remember also, that Mittens would be no different. Well, in one respect he would: Barry wouldn’t pay because he’s a skinny little arrogant son of a bitch. Mittens wouldn’t because it simply wouldn’t even occur to him, living in the stratosphere like he does. (preparatory, of course, to skying up to outer space as some kind of Time Lord with a harem of young beauties and the crusty old crone of a wife ditched.
Greg thinks Roman Catholics are weird; yo, Dude from Oz: take a look at Mormon theology sometime.
For some reason Romney wants me to have pizza with him. He keeps emailing me.
Yes, MrAtoz, he wants to have pizza with you because..ah..he’s a little short…right now…ah…on cash…and would really like to dig into a extra-large pepperoni and mushroom pizza about now….
Bush Senior was famous for this shit, all the time; never carried cash and so SS guys would always be paying for stuff whenever he wanted anything on his travels. Rich Republicrats don’t want their lily-white hands coming into direct contact with filthy lucre, even if it is totally fiat currency.
Just remember if you piss him off, he will strap you to the roof of his SS SUV and take off for the interstate. On the other hand, I don’t think he gets pissed off, actually. There’s just nothing going on up there.
Dave, they’re both weird.
And Mittens has said he wants to sign up fore more Middle Eastern adventures. Don’t lock up your daughters, lock up your pocketbooks.
Shit, I thought he really liked me. Really, really liked me.
Does anybody have experience with some kind of Linux equivalent to Microsoft Publisher? Over the years, I have created a lot of forms that I use in business and personally (including my daily calendar) and since M$ already threatened to close out Publisher once, I would like to get away from it.
Not imperative that M$ Publisher documents can be opened in the alternative program, as most of my documents are in A4, and I need to adjust them back to US Letter, so I am facing work one way or another. Definitely needs to be able to snap lines to grids like Publisher. Libre Office does not seem like a substitute. Is Scribus?
RBT: Just a thought, but does your local Fire Department know about the various chemicals in your domicile, and how they might react with large volumes of water? Back when I was a ‘student’ at the * Institute of Technology, there was an explosion & fire in the chemistry building. The large city FD finally showed up, jumped out of their pretty red trucks, and immediately began hooking up to the nearby hydrants. (They had been told “Fire in the Jones Building” rather than “Fire in the Chemistry Building”.) The head of the labs for the Chem department came running out of his office, waving to get their attention, and shouting “No, no, no, you’ll blow us all up!!!!”
We don’t have any really hazardous chemicals in amounts large enough to matter, and none of them are water-reactive.
What’s considered hazardous for shipping purposes and what’s actually hazardous are two entirely different things. For example, we can’t ship our standard kits to Canada because they include chemicals that are flammable: 15 mL (one tablespoon) each of isopropanol (rubbing alcohol) based solutions in capped and tape-sealed plastic bottles, with the bottles inside a sealed plastic bag filled with vermiculite. Any reasonable person would understand that this presents essentially zero fire hazard, but government regulations are not written by reasonable people. At least the US has the “small quantity exemption”, but that’s unique to the US.