Psyber

Possibly helping reduce the effects of the next Ice Age??? Seriously, I think we should be paying attention to reducing our effect in polluting the planet whether it is with our CO2 output or other by products. We should be cleaning up our act regardless of whether global warming is being caused by us or is part of a natural cycle, instead of obscuring the issue while arguing about our role in global warming.. Personally, I am not convinced that the changes we have recorded lately - since say 1900 - have anything to do with anything but normal fluctuations, but we should be looking at preventing our aggravating the situation in future.

Deep inhalation can cause acidosis and agitation unless you slow it right down too, which is of course part of the yoga technique. When I was studying Physiology I experimented with it and could get down to 4 breaths a minute, which dropped my pulse rate and blood pressure. It also got me involved in being wired up for Physiology experiments and in that stage we found Angiotensin had no effect on my blood pressure - presumably my arteries were fully constricted. In that state, I inevitably fell asleep eventually.

Let's here it for Vivaldi.

Obviously they skimped on an important element in rocket design - Viagra. Actually, Insulin production may be normal but cellular response to its release lacking in some cases - the cells fail to take up glucose in response to increased Insulin release. Oral medications may improve the response to the Insulin if this is mild and prevent the need for Insulin therapy. In other cases Pancreatic damage or autoimmune attack on the Insulin producing cells may reduce Insulin production. Then its replacement is essential.

People who do well in exams and get into Universities don't always have a good grip on reality. Some years ago I met a guy who had a PhD in atomic particle impingement patterns, and who had had work published as a co-author with his internationally known supervisor in a major international journal, but who couldn't see the connection between his inability to get a job at a University and his then position as national secretary for the Nazi movement in Australia.....

I know it ain't gonna happen for a while. Somebody read my palm recently and said I'd settle overseas when I was 68!!

ICD and DSM [the US equivalent] are both a bit rigid and old in their thinking. DSM in particular was designed to pin down diagnostic groupings very narrowly for research purposes and was never intended to be all inclusive in the way Lawyers and Insurance companies try to use it. Psychiatrists are now forgetting about Bipolar Disorder type I and type II et cetera, and talking of "Bipolar Spectrum Disorders", just as "Autistic Spectrum Disorders" is replacing fixed categories like Autism and Asperger's Syndrome. OCD appears to have a strong association with the genetically determined depressive tendency carried by 8% of the population. PS: Freud, Jung, etc. are all a bit passe in the modern, post-human genome, world of today.

Back in 1000 AD farmers didn't plant crops because Christ was about to return. Famine was bad in 1001.. There have been predictions of the same type every few years ever since, for various spurious reasons and crackpot theories, and it hasn't happened yet!

X-rays are a long exposure compared to the speeds used in normal photography, so any movement of ribs, shoulders, internal organs will blur things, like fine cracks in ribs, the shape of lymph nodes in the chest cavity, the curve of major blood vessels. So, you need to keep absolutely still for the duration of the time exposure.

The situation varies from country to country. I was fortunate enough to get my Bachelor degrees on scholarships, but I did my post-grad qualification while working in a related field and was able to integrate practical work and learning. [And my employer contributed by allowing time off for lectures - so long as I got the work done.]

The problem is determining what consciousness is. When a local wild King Parrot comes to the bird feeder on my verandah and finds it empty, and it then goes to the kitchen window where my wife may be or the study window where I may be, sits on the window ledge and whistles, then meets you at the bird feeder by the time you have stood up and gone out with the seed, is it performing a conscious act? Yes, I can tell the individual birds apart - well about 10 of them - by variations in their red and green plumage. I can also pick the one [male] who like others sits on your arm to eat out of your hand, but unlike the others bites your thumb when the seed runs out if you are not quick with the refill.

Thanks guys- that all sems very reasonable.

It is easier to hold your breath and keep still long enough if you breathe in rather than out, as you take longer to get the urge to breathe again. In addition full expansion of the lungs may help to show up things that may otherwise be hidden, as air is more tranparent - even to x-rays.

Mineral ions are mineral ions - source is immaterial.

The de-synchronisation of sleep, dreaming, and muscle relaxation, are well known, and more likely to happen if you are sleep deprived, or under physiological stress - including by drugs or alcohol. You can dream before you get to sleep or after you wake - called hypnogogic and hypnopompic hallucinations. And you can sleep-walk or wake semi-paralysed. [You are still breathing.]

Most suicides are probably carried out by those in the 8% carrying a genetic predidposition to depression , or the estimated 2% carrying a predisposition to Bipolar Spectrum Disorder. Add drug or alcohol abuse, and life stressors, and the likelihood goes up.

My wife rather likes the machine running the Ubuntu OS I built for her. I do, however, have a desktop and a laptop running XP Pro because of specialist software I need to use. Yes, I could run XP on a Mac, but PC parts are cheap and they are easy to build and upgrade yourself. I guess Macs are moving towards that.

I'm very politically incorrect and traditional, so, "Merry Christmas and a happy New Year!" Not everyone takes PC issues too seriously. I met a lass who was a Sergeant in the Israeli army at a Christmas party in Adelaide [south Australia] once upon a time, and we got on very well for the 3 months she was staying.

That makes sense I guess. Politics is a troublesome issue and there are many provocateurs out there. I have read The Spectator for years, and have some interest in UK politics because I am coming to work there in mid-2008. I have part-time consultancy work lined up although I have been offered, and turned down, full time jobs in Inverness and Leeds.

Another site I use doesn't like you resurrecting old threads on a similar theme and wants you to start new ones in preference - customs vary - then Oz is a very NEW orientated place.

Spike Milligan's unpublished letters. I may not have bought it myself, but it is an interesting read.

As a Newbie at this site - just to get up to speed - is there some historical reason why the Politics section is "Private"?? I recognise that it is easier to have political debate when all the posters are in one country and are debating similar issues. Even in an Oz-based site I use we have problems with people from different states not quite grasping what the others are on about. I imagine international politics can get even more heated than national ones. Perhaps I have put up some answers to my own question...

For a sense of proportion, and a basis for starting figures. http://www.atlasoftheuniverse.com/ And for located planets. http://www.extrasolar.net/

That sounds more like sub-acromial impingement, but it could be weakness in the muscles lifting the shoulder blade due to a neck problem. He should request referal to an Occupational Physician or a Rehabilitation Physician - the terms vary from place to place and they aren't easy to find because it is not a big specialty. The muscles attaching the arm to the shoulder lift the arm to horizontal but if scarred they may jam between two bony surfaces before you get that far and the shoulder blade movement which is usually involved to lift the arm above the shoulder has to kick in sooner - but that then limits how high you can go. A clicking sensation associated with pain when raising the arm straight and laterally - outwards - usually points to sub-acromial impingement.

People believe all sorts of strange things if they want to enough and in the end there is no absolute proof that cannot be challenged somehow if you are keen to find a way to support one or other side of the debate about any given issue. Truth is what was recorded by whoever won the last big fight. Me. I don't believe anything until I experience it, and not always then!