StringJunky

I think you are looking for a single decisive factor but it seems their relative rarity in the UK is the result of a multiplicity of inhibiting factors. Here's a few, most alreay mentioned, and I'm sure there are quite a few more: - Temperatures generally low for rampant Leptospira activity - Average UK hygiene is better - Wide humidity range - Can’t tolerate arid conditions - Can’t replicate outside of the host - Average human proximity to rat-infested areas is less

Or, as my grandma use to say: "You're biting your nose to spite your face".

No, it isn't, that's why I asked the question. One doesn't come across odometers everyday except if one drives a car - I call it a 'mileometer'! -. In fact, I didn't know the word until yesterday. . it sounds like a device for smelling things with.

In my thread Clocks and Rulers, I, ignorantly, conflated the ruler and clock as directly equivalent when I should have used an odometer instead of a ruler to compare properly with a clock..

Did a bit of reading. Leptospira is fragile to dry heat and being frozen, slow-growing and needs to pass through the mucus membrane or cuts. Thinking about puddles; how long does one last usually? A few days at most. A rat's got to pee in it and someone has to fall in it with a break in their skin when the bacteria population has sufficient infectious potential (our climate is generally cool) and all this before the puddle dries out. I think it's a combination of the bacteria's relatively fragile traits, slow growth and the weather conditions in the UK. This was one of my sources: Leptospira as an emerging pathogen: a review of its biology, pathogenesis and host immune responses

In this matter, follow your wife's wishes and be polite to her family. Part of this, understandbly, is that you have a vision of how you want things to be when you are married with this perfectly straight road ahead of you both. It's not going to happen. Marriage between families is nearly always a fragile alliance. Accept that you are taking on her past and present. For better or worse... your challenge is to make happiness in an environment of uncertainty and in-laws; this is a common fact of most people's married lives.

Yes, what can be scarier than your own imagination where the impossible becomes possible?

Because it will always measure at c, regardless of your own velocity. This is a central tenet of SR. If it always measures the same, how can you use it to gauge velocities of things relative to it?

I would use the word 'terse' rather than dismissive; responses can be too short for the questioner, leading to that impression.

Pass. I've been petrified upon waking up from a nightmare before so the quality must be similar I would thought.

Right.

My own experience is that emotions in dreams are much more intense and fearsome than when awake; it's like everything is turned up full volume. There is no tempering of them, like in waking life.

Add "...of pregnancy-related deaths" after the numbers to give them correct context.

One could say: truth is that which is proven; nothing is proven in science. I think it was said the only place you'll find proofs is in maths.

I am a member of a Hepatitis C forum for people who are afflicted with it. I am happy to say that NHS treatment cured me of it and I am in a normal state of health now, luckily. My question is: Is it responsible for the forum administration to be complicit in allowing members to talk to each other about acquiring generic medicines from overseas? I know at least of one or two of them that are treating themselves without medical supervision or, at most, paying privately to have their viral loads tested, and the number is growing. Most GPs won’t agree to help them with the necessary tests to monitor the effects of treatment which can be serious and life-threatening if certain physiological parameters are allowed to fall outside the safe range. Ribavirin, for instance, causes anaemia as a side effect and one either has a dose reduction if the leucocyte count goes too low or even taken off them, which means treatment is cancelled. This is just one example of many potential pitfalls, depending on the state of the patient. My obvious concern is that the membership or administration would not know if a participating member, who stopped posting, had died or suffered seriously from this unsupervised treatment regimen. There is also the unknown variable of whether the imported drugs are counterfeit or not. Buying imported Hep C drugs, through buying clubs is a recent phenomenon; probably a year or so ago it started. The members who report a positive experience and coming out cured are now encouraging those who still have to wait, because they are not ill enough for these extremely expensive branded new drugs, are getting the itch to pursue this generic path themselves. The available treatment for those that don’t qualify, which I did (interferon +ribavirin), is horrible to put it mildly and they don’t want to do it and don’t want to wait either. The cost to the NHS is about £25-30 000 who have to buy in the branded versions, whereas the generic imported version can be bought for about £1000 from Indias by an individul but I can’t help but feel this is going to cause real damage to some people who go this path and we’ll never know, only that they stopped posting. Could there be potential legal ramifications for the admin even though they are not mad on the idea?

But, surely, if Schrodinger is being invoked one would be in superposition and thinking inside and outside box simultaneously.

The quote button doesn't work sometimes, it just leaves a blank reply box. I then have to click the button top left (above the 'bold' button to use quote tags. It's working at the moment.

Guns probably represent some sort of power to those who have none.

Yeah, that's another one I did. It just seems to be random when I have to use quote tags or not. I'd rather not.

I click the button in the top left of the input box to quote most of the time. It doesn't work otherwise.

I tried getting rid of them but, as you saw, it just made it worse. The software made the nests, not me; I was only trying to make one normal quote

Did I say it was? The problem here seems to be what I mean and what you mean by response. I mean the initial thought or emotion that precedes the action. the latter maybe be modulated. I never "dismissed" it with just seven words. Verbosity is not my thing when seven words will do;.that's all that was required. I think you have a problem with comprehending what I said there. Try reading it again.

The 'filtering' I mentioned is the modulating.

A fool and his money...

It's not the pro-life argument. Those two arguments you mention are not reasons of intellectual or physical aesthetics, which is what Prometheus is alluding to, that many think is an undesirable path to take. What an individual does is one thing but you are suggesting a high level policy which goes into questions of ethics at a large scale.