A little this and a little that...

I don't trust onions that don't make me cry. White onions are too mild. Vidalias however, Niagara falls over the cutting board. A squirrel that will not run from me when I go to chase it away from my bird feeder deserves a good ping in the butt from a pellet gun. Too many peace love and happiness types in the city to make my squirrel problem go away on the hush-hush. You can't even smack a kid for breaking into a car without some overweight hippie in a tie dye threatening to call the cops. Imagine if I made a squirrel assume room temperature? This is how my morning train of thought has gone so far.

But church was right on time...it was all about not letting opportunities pass you by without making the most of them. I have some possible career decisions to make over the next few days. Pretty good timing I would say. Anybody have any life-changing questions they need answered? I'll be in pretty tip-top shape, mentally, for the next several minutes or so.

The onions are now in a quiche which is about 20 minutes away from being done. I threw some mushrooms, ham and provolone in as well. Fresh chives will garnish the top. The gym work starts again tomorrow so I might pull out the Clamato and make a red-cup Bloody Mary then watch the rain soak fresh Basil and Parsley plants that patiently wait for a good dose of sunshine in our living-room window box.

Eli and I went on a nice walk so he could relieve the excitement he contained for about 20 minutes while watching the squirrel eat my dang sunflowers. I wish the Mongrel could climb trees so he could seize the opportunity to rid St. Paul Avenue of a pesky squirrel or two. Hippies won't yell at dogs will they?

Also on my agenda for the day is picking a new John D. MacDonald to read. I ordered a couple non Travis McGee novels online. He is a brilliant writer. My boys from the Irish Brigade turned me on to him and I will be forever grateful.

Now it's time to go eat some quiche and meditate on some opportunities...

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Stress Weaken Our Endurance

The research discusses the relationship of stress and the immune system known as the body's immune system is getting a lot done. Since the development of science of psychoneuroimmunology is a science that links the relationship between the science of psychology, neuroscience and immunology, the conditions associated with this has been more widely studied.

Psychoneuroimmunology emphasizes the proofs associated with the body's immune system and its relationship to stress that occurs in person. Mentioned, a lot of the impact of stress on the human body's immune system resulting in a person more susceptible to diseases associated with the body's immune system.
Some time ago, when the day of the second world congress of the International College of Psychosomatic Medicine in Seoul, South Korea, speaker Prof. Christopher Coe of the University of Wisconsin, the United States back on psychoneuroimmunology explains in his lecture entitled "All Roads Lead To psychoneuroimmunology"

In his lecture Prof. Coe said that is getting a lot of research and facts that illustrate the involvement of stress in influencing the human immune system. Some diseases are connecting it and emphasized during the lecture is on asthma and fibromyalgia.
Asthma we know as a disturbance of respiratory diseases involving inflammatory cells and immune system in the body. Incurable disease that is (can only be controlled) is strongly associated with the role of the immune system and stress that can trigger an attack.

Fibromyalgia itself is a disease that emphasizes fault conditions on the complaint of pain in various parts of the body and the atmosphere is uncomfortable feeling associated with this condition. Pain disorder is more widely available on these women have recently studied the effects associated with stress and the immune system.
Conditions related to the immune system in patients with fibromyalgia disorders associated with decreased levels of cells called Natural Killer (NK), and Interleukin Sitokon. These conditions are also found in patients with depression.

No wonder the symptoms of depression and anxiety also is one sign of the condition of fibromyalgia. Fibromyalgia itself is known once more to a collection of symptoms (syndrome) involving a variety of complaints. Syndrome conditions is also often overlap with other conditions such as somatoform disorders include (psychosomatic), pain disorder, depressive disorder and disruption of prolonged fatigue (chronic fatigue syndrome).

At the end of his lecture, Professor Coe says there are still many open fields of research in this field and will certainly still more and more knowledge to be gained by studying stress and its relationship to the human body's immune system.

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Long-Term Stress Make Our Brain Shrink

Reputation of stress as a cause of guard cells in the body becomes sluggish security has long been known. However, the impact of stress to health does not stop there. Stress also causes the brain to shrink a long time.
There are many causes of stress, such as unhappy marriages, jobs less stressful, traumatic events, up to trivial issues such as congestion. If chronic stress is left then the impact is quite harmful to the brain.

When stressed the body releases chemicals. In the long run these chemicals will be toxic to brain tissue, it can even kill brain cells when chemicals called corticosteroids was abundant and long lasting.
Corticosteroids are actually required by the body to increase the speed of reaction to the threat or often called the fight or escape response (fight or flight), by suppressing the immune system and increase the amount of sugar in the blood circulation.

Hippocampus, a part of the brain responsible for memory formation, is the most vulnerable to stress. That's why experts consider stress is closely related to the occurrence of dementia.
The scientists found that smaller brain condition that when they did brain scans of patients suffering from post traumatic stress of 9 / 11 attacks. The smaller size of the hippocampus was almost equal to the size of the brains of elderly patients with dementia.

Even so, experts said the results of this study may be too early to conclude the effects of stress on the brain because the number of respondents is too small.
While some studies have found that war veterans suffering from post traumatic syndrome also suffer from a severe brain disorder.

The study also revealed that the stress experienced by middle age can increase the risk of Alzheimer's. They are often under stress and anxiety are also two times higher risk of suffering from dementia.

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This is Getting Ridiculous

How long will it be before everything we own has a tracking device inside it? If only stalking was an accepted practice...it is so easy now. In days gone by one had to put in a lot of legwork and be very discreet in order to discover the routine of an object of affection. Today, you don't even have to leave the house!

During my first year of college I saw a girl in a play and instantly became enamored with her. The program told me her name but her bio gave me very little information to work with. I waited around after the show to see what she looked like up close. I tried to think of things to say that would make a good impression but I was only eighteen. That was a long time ago. I was no where near as smooth then as I am now, which I know is very hard for some of you readers to believe. 

When Lady K came out of the theatre building my heart started pounding even more than it did when she first stepped out on stage. I had to meet her, but I couldn't muster up the gumption to say hello or congratulations or anything. Rather, I leaned back against some doric column and watched her head off into the night with a small entourage. But then a few months later I saw her walking down the street....

During those few months I had not forgotten about her at all. My inept ways had kept me pretty much dateless so Lady K was still the one I dreamed about at night and during Geography class. Seeing her walking down College Avenue had to be serendipitous; I was not to let this good fortune pass by without putting in some effort to meet the lady who had consumed my thoughts for countless hours. So I pulled over into the nearest open parking spot and waited. Just before she passed by I slid down in my seat and made it look like I was trying to pull a Whitesnake cassette tape out of my player. Luckily she did not notice me before turning down some forgotten avenue a few blocks away. Being the Sam Spade of stalkers I pulled out into traffic and followed after her. It was not long before she stepped off the sidewalk and onto the walkway that lead to a quaint brick bungalow. With the number of the house solidly memorized I whipped the car around and headed to the nearest flower shop. I returned, an hour later with a bouquet of white daisies and babies breath and a beautifully penned card that included my phone number. It took a whole lot of deep breaths for me to park in front of that house and walk to the door. After I knocked an elderly couple opened the door and smiled at me. I told them I had a delivery for Lady K. They said she lived in their basement apartment and they would make sure she got the flowers. I turned and hurried back to my car before my face exploded from the heat that was filling my cheeks.

Two hours later Lady K called me and agreed to go on a date. Over dinner at the Old Ebbitt Grill in Washington D.C. she asked me how I knew her address. I told her the whole story. I told her how I saw her in "Little Shop of Horrors," was dying to meet her, then saw her, then stalked her, then got her flowers. Instead of getting up and hitting me with a big shot of pepper spray she actually folded her hands and put them under her chin and smiled. She said she was absolutely flattered by the effort I put into tracking her down. Our first date was great and we went on several more. In fact, we almost became boyfriend/girlfriend but then I found her in bed with the Head of the Theatre department at MWC. 

At one point in time stalking was not such a bad thing then like everything good somebody had to ruin it by taking things too far. Nowadays it seems that technology isn't helping keep people's privacy safe. The news has been reporting a lot of unnerving stories about everything from Google saving every search you have ever typed into your computer, Iphones tracking your whereabouts, and now the New York Times reports that packages of electronic cigarettes will now alert users when someone else who smokes electronic cigarettes is within 50 feet. Isn't this a form of electronic stalking? Something does not seem right about this.

Are these electronic cigarette devices necessary? E-smokers don't exactly blend in to the woodwork. Personally, I find these particular brand of folks, when in bars and coffee shops, to be the most annoying people in the room. Just go outside and have a Camel Light! Now their cigarette packs are going to light up and buzz? These things cost 80 dollars and they also report information back to Blu, the company who makes them. When is enough going to be enough?  

The evolution of technology has me a little on edge. I don't want Apple to know that I went to Home Depot, Tipre's Hardware, and Walgreens to buy birdseed. AND...I don't want two e-smokers in the same bar I am drinking in. Go away choppers! If you are going to smoke man up and smoke some real Carolina tobacco. I think it's almost time to get rid of all these confounded devices and go back to typewriters, rotary phones, Pall Malls, stationary and intelligible customer service agents to answer our questions about consumer products. My old days weren't so bad...but back then there was no Priceline.com.

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Antibiotics Is Not Super Drugs

Several studies have shown, tend to be excessive use of antibiotics and is commonly given to a disease or condition that does not require antibiotics.

Antibiotics are powerful drugs and has saved many lives. But the point is well known, antibiotics are not a cure for all kinds of diseases. Antibiotics can only cure the diseases caused by bacterial infection.
"Use antibiotics appropriately to prevent immune germs," ​​said Prof.. Prahasto Iwan, Professor of the University of Gajah Mada Farmakolgi in the workshop and briefing the media about drug prescribing patterns in Indonesia, especially antibiotics, Saturday (26 /3/2011) on campus University of Indonesia,  Depok,  West Java.

In society, antibiotics are often purchased without a prescription and explanation. Communities often purchased with a prescription antibiotic that had previously gained, taking antibiotics for coughs, fevers and colds.

Furthermore, Iwan explained that the inappropriate use of antibiotics could endanger public health. As a result of bacteria that can be generated is mutated so that it becomes resistant (immune) to antibiotics. Bacteria that are resistant or immune to these difficult attenuated by the usual antibiotics.

Iwan admitted, information about the antibiotic so far has not been evenly distributed to medical personnel. "The unavailability of adequate information about drugs that are neutral is also one big problem for medical practitioners. Meanwhile, the information conveyed directly by the pharmaceutical industry through his envoys is often misleading or misleading," he added.

Dr. Sharad Adhikary, representatives from WHO, confirmed, treatment of infections caused by antibiotic resistant bacteria that normally would be very expensive. This is because what is needed is an antibiotic that is more up to date with the possibility of drug side effects is greater, and longer duration of treatment.
According to Sharad, the problem of antibiotic resistance is not a new problem, but more and more alarming and dangerous. "We can go back to the era before antibiotics," he said.

Why the bacteria can become resistant to antibiotics? Every time someone taking antibiotics, the bacteria that are sensitive will be killed. But the resistant bacteria will continue to live, grow and reproduce.

The use of antibiotics over and over again and not appropriate is a major cause of increasing number of drug-resistant bacteria. So, for those of you who have a cough, flu and fever does not need to consume antibiotics. Because, often taking antibiotics will not make you more healthy, and will not make you better.

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Why Does Our Works Make Us Stress?

If you feel unhappy with the work undertaken, you are not alone. At least a quarter of workers around the world feel their jobs have taken away the joy of living. Stress is accumulated over time turned into a depression that is not realized.

In a survey of 1,200 employees in the United States known to only 12 percent who felt optimistic about the job.

Experts say the main cause of the employee's depression is an unstable economy. "The pressure to succeed and achieve higher targets created the concept of avoiding mistakes than the pursuit of success, the report of a survey conducted by management consulting firm.

To understand why the work environment creates a negative mindset, consider the general situation that is often experienced in the workplace.

1. Too results-oriented

The workers feel happy when they are productive and can not feel bad if otherwise. But with such a high target current employees often feel unhappy. Although even the lure of corporate giving rewards to employees whose performance is good but it can not be a source of motivation.

Motivation of employees should be driven by internal satisfaction as a positive reward and social support. Many workers complained they are required to not make the slightest mistake, but rarely get the appreciation for the excellent work already done.

2. Motivated by fear

Difficult economic situation and lack of employment make many employees are afraid to make mistakes and motivated by the fear of being fired if performance is bad.

3. There is no satisfaction

When asked if that makes you stay at work even though salaries are given a small, mostly answering to develop career opportunities, challenging work and exciting, as well as opportunities to improve skills through appropriate training.

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How We Project Ourselves Effects Many...

When I first heard the news last night I too wanted to celebrate. I wanted to run out in the streets with a 40 wrapped in a paper bag and dance a jig with my fellow Americans. But then there was the whole thing about celebrating death that made rethink my reaction to Bin Laden assuming room temperature. I thought about my own reactions to other people's reaction to death so I decided to just sit back and quietly sip a glass of red wine with Grace and the mongrels. I said a silent prayer of thanks that justice had been served for all those affected by Al Qaeda then I slipped in a quick request to please let NeNe survive another week on Celebrity Apprentice...

While contemplating the news last night I remembered watching television 10 years ago and seeing people dancing in the streets after thousands of people had been killed on 9/11. The anger that grew within me was unlike anything I had ever experienced before. Thoughts of retribution against those revelers raced through my mind. I thought of driving right over to the recruiters office and signing up to be a sniper. I dreamed of mixing the flying powers of Superman with the wardrobe choices of Batman and morphing into SuperChip (my nickname at one point in my adolescent years) and singlehandedly executing swift justice on all Islam with Toby Keith playing in the background...and that is why I would have made a poor harbinger of justice.

I got caught up in the incendiary newscasts and declared war on the masses that were different than myself.  At the time I had a very good friend who was Muslim and often visited me in Oxford and I pretty much figured our friendship was done. Thankfully, my wits returned to me as soon as I stopped watching television and went back to trying to love my neighbor as myself. Seeing people celebrate death on television was tough to endure and made it hard to live and think as I should.

What we project from this country might have the same effect on people overseas. Yes I am glad justice was served for all who died in New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia and I am enjoying the success of our President and the brave ones in the armed forces. If I had any money I would send cases of tenners to the heroes who risked their lives in Pakistan. But when it comes to the reality at home I have to turn the channel when I see impromptu festivals in the streets. Such behavior is as negatively effective as the reveling on 9/11. Ideally I would want America to take the higher road and set an example as the world watches from all points on the compass. I am down with the enjoying the victory of this particular battle but let's save the keggers for when the Bulls win the NBA championship this year!  

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WHO Worried about Antibiotic Misuse

World Health Organization (WHO) warned, drug resistance is partly fueled by irrational use of antibiotics has killed hundreds of thousands of people every year. Therefore, the necessary treatment immediately to resolve the issue.

"We really see the evolution of rapidly increasing in the spread of this problem and the point is faster than solving the problem," said WHO's assistant director general Keiji Fukuda, Thursday (07/04/2011).

Health experts noted, few saj anegara who has a plan to handle the problem of drug resistance, which rose on increased consumption of antibiotics.

"In most countries, there is no plan, no budget, no line of accountability for this very serious problem. The surveillance system is weak, the system did not exist in many places," said Mario Raviglione, WHO officials who led the campaign against of tuberculosis. He added that the quality of antibiotics is questionable in some countries. "Optimal dose is not really a trigger mechanism that develop drug resistance. The use of antibiotics is often not feasible, we call it irrational. It allows the creation of resistance to drugs," he explained. In addition, the use of antibiotics in livestock - in order to promote growth and prevent disease and treat sick animals - also contributes to drug resistance. Any microbes that are resistant to the drugs develops in cattle can move on to humans through the food chain.

Because the microbes will always try to be resistant to the drugs, "this problem will never disappear," Fukuda said.

WHO expose the problem of antibiotic use as a major issue in memeringati World Health Day this year. WHO wants all governments, civil society and the pharmaceutical industry copes with a variety of strategies to deal with drug resistance.

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