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Es will dir niemand etwas böses..

immerweiter — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 18:56:17 +0000

sagte meine Freundin zu mir, als ich letztes Mal in die Klink bin, für Cortison.

Klar, kann man denken, klar, will mir niemand etwas böses, ich bin ein netter Mensch, ich bin freundlich und höflich, es gibt nicht wirklich einen Grund, wieso mir jemand etwas böses wollen sollte…

Aber, sie sagt öfters Sachen zu mir, die noch lange nachklingen.

Dieser Satz auch.

Und mit der Zeit merkte ich dann, tief in mir drin ist jemand, der tatsächlich immer denkt, der die das andere will mir böses…

Aber, es ist Zeit, Zeit zu merken, das ist ein Irrtum vergangener Zeiten.
Weil, es will mir niemand etwas böses, die machen alle nur ihre Arbeit, oder tun, was sie tun wollen, oder machen was sie halt machen, weil sie es machen… aber nicht mit der Zielrichtung mir zu schaden.

Happiest person

gordeecampbell — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 18:46:02 +0000

My late aunt would think this day would be the happiest day of all time. She suffered from Multiple Sclerosis (MS) all of her life. The reason I have no cousins is because the fear of her doctors was that MS prevented pregnancy. And certainly in the North American culture of the time prevented her from having any energy to raise a family.

Its almost as bad as having the disease yourself. Aunt Betty and Uncle Bill were my favorite relatives. And to know a person up close afflicted with such a disease wears on everything in life. To see a day when that terrible disease comes to an end, ranks right up there with the moon landing. I thought I would see the Mars landing before I saw a cure for most of the MS sufferers in this world, in this time.

I would rather have this time line.

And what is it with these Zamboni’s? First inventing a machine for hockey rinks, now this?

I am so happy I wish to make available to the students of this blyg the following extract from the Toronto Globe and Mail. This for information purposes only.

André Picard and Avis Favaro

From Saturday’s Globe and Mail Published on Friday, Nov. 20, 2009 9:07PM EST Last updated on Monday, Nov. 23, 2009 3:07AM EST

Elena Ravalli was a seemingly healthy 37-year-old when she began to experience strange attacks of vertigo, numbness, temporary vision loss and crushing fatigue. They were classic signs of multiple sclerosis, a potentially debilitating neurological disease.

It was 1995 and her husband, Paolo Zamboni, a professor of medicine at the University of Ferrara in Italy, set out to help. He was determined to solve the mystery of MS – an illness that strikes people in the prime of their lives but whose causes are unknown and whose effective treatments are few.

What he learned in his medical detective work, scouring dusty old books and using ultra-modern imaging techniques, could well turn what we know about MS on its head: Dr. Zamboni’s research suggests that MS is not, as widely believed, an autoimmune condition, but a vascular disease.

More radical still, the experimental surgery he performed on his wife offers hope that MS, which afflicts 2.5 million people worldwide, can be cured and even largely prevented.

“I am confident that this could be a revolution for the research and diagnosis of multiple sclerosis,” Dr. Zamboni said in an interview.

Not everyone is so bullish: Skeptics warn the evidence is too scant and speculative to start rewriting medical textbooks. Even those intrigued by the theory caution that MS sufferers should not rush off to get the surgery – nicknamed the “liberation procedure” – until more research is done.

U.S. and Canadian researchers are trying to test Dr. Zamboni’s premise.

For the Italian professor, however, the quest was both personal and professional and the results were stunning.

Fighting for his wife’s health, Dr. Zamboni looked for answers in the medical literature. He found repeated references, dating back a century, to excess iron as a possible cause of MS. The heavy metal can cause inflammation and cell death, hallmarks of the disease. The vascular surgeon was intrigued – coincidentally, he had been researching how iron buildup damages blood vessels in the legs, and wondered if there could be a similar problem in the blood vessels of the brain.

Using ultrasound to examine the vessels leading in and out of the brain, Dr. Zamboni made a startling find: In more than 90 per cent of people with multiple sclerosis, including his spouse, the veins draining blood from the brain were malformed or blocked. In people without MS, they were not.

He hypothesized that iron was damaging the blood vessels and allowing the heavy metal, along with other unwelcome cells, to cross the crucial brain-blood barrier. (The barrier keeps blood and cerebrospinal fluid separate. In MS, immune cells cross the blood-brain barrier, where they destroy myelin, a crucial sheathing on nerves.)

More striking still was that, when Dr. Zamboni performed a simple operation to unclog veins and get blood flowing normally again, many of the symptoms of MS disappeared. The procedure is similar to angioplasty, in which a catheter is threaded into the groin and up into the arteries, where a balloon is inflated to clear the blockages. His wife, who had the surgery three years ago, has not had an attack since.

The researcher’s theory is simple: that the underlying cause of MS is a condition he has dubbed “chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency.” If you tackle CCSVI by repairing the drainage problems from the brain, you can successfully treat, or better still prevent, the disease.

“If this is proven correct, it will be a very, very big discovery because we’ll completely change the way we think about MS, and how we’ll treat it,” said Bianca Weinstock-Guttman, an associate professor of neurology at the State University of New York at Buffalo.

The initial studies done in Italy were small but the outcomes were dramatic. In a group of 65 patients with relapsing-remitting MS (the most common form) who underwent surgery, the number of active lesions in the brain fell sharply, to 12 per cent from 50 per cent; in the two years after surgery, 73 per cent of patients had no symptoms.

“ I am confident that this could be a revolution for the research and diagnosis of multiple sclerosis ”— Dr. Paolo Zamboni

Augusto Zeppi, a 40-year-old resident of the northern Italian city of Ferrara, was one of those patients. Diagnosed with MS nine years ago, he suffered severe attacks every four months that lasted weeks at a time – leaving him unable to use his arms and legs and with debilitating fatigue. “Everything I was dreaming for my future adult life, it was game over,” he said.

Scans showed that his two jugular veins were blocked, 60 and 80 per cent respectively. In 2007, he was one of the first to undergo the experimental surgery to unblock the veins. He had a second operation a year later, when one of his jugular veins was blocked anew.

After the procedures, Mr. Zeppi said he was reborn. “I don’t remember what it’s like to have MS,” he said. “It gave me a second life.”

Buffalo researchers are now recruiting 1,700 adults and children from the United States and Canada. They plan to test MS sufferers and non-sufferers alike and, using ultrasound and magnetic resonance imaging, do detailed analyses of blood flow in and out of the brain and examine iron deposits.

Another researcher, Mark Haacke, an adjunct professor at McMaster University in Hamilton, is urging patients to send him MRI scans of their heads and necks so he can probe the Zamboni theory further. Dr. Haacke is a world-renowned expert in imaging who has developed a method of measuring iron buildup in the brain.

“Patients need to speak up and say they want something like this investigated … to see if there’s credence to the theory,” he said.

MS societies in Canada and the United States, however, have reacted far more cautiously to Dr. Zamboni’s conclusion. “Many questions remain about how and when this phenomenon might play a role in nervous system damage seen in MS, and at the present time there is insufficient evidence to suggest that this phenomenon is the cause of MS,” said the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada.

The U.S. society goes further, discouraging patients from getting tested or seeking surgical treatment. Rather, it continues to promote drug treatments used to alleviate symptoms, which include corticosteroids, chemotherapy agents and pain medication.

Many people with multiple sclerosis, though, are impatient for results. Chatter about CCSVI is frequent in online MS support groups, and patients are scrambling to be part of the research, particularly when they hear the testimonials.

Kevin Lipp, a 49-year-old resident of Buffalo, was diagnosed with MS a decade ago and has suffered increasingly severe attacks, especially in the heat. (Heat sensitivity is a common symptom of MS.) His symptoms were so bad that he was unable to work and closed his ice-cream shop.

Mr. Lipp was tested and doctors discovered blockages in both his jugular and azygos veins. In January of this year, he travelled to Italy for surgery, which cleared five blockages, and he began to feel better almost immediately.

“I felt good. I felt totally normal. I felt like I did years ago,” he said. He has not had an attack since.

As part of the research project, Mr. Lipp’s siblings have also been tested. His two sisters, both of whom have MS, have significant blockages and iron deposits, while his brother, who does not have MS, has neither iron buildup nor blocked arteries.

While it has long been known that there is a genetic component to multiple sclerosis, the new theory is that it is CCSVI that is hereditary – that people are born with malformed valves and strictures in the large veins of the neck and brain. These problems lead to poor blood drainage and even reversal of blood flow direction that can cause inflammation, iron buildup and the brain lesions characteristic of multiple sclerosis.

It is well-established that the symptoms of MS are caused by a breakdown of myelin, a fatty substance that coats nerve cells and plays a crucial role in transmitting messages to the central nervous system. When those messages are blurred, nerves malfunction, causing all manner of woes, including blurred eyesight, loss of sensation in the limbs and even paralysis.

However, it is unclear what triggers the breakdown of myelin. There are various theories, including exposure to a virus in childhood, vitamin D deficiency, hormones – and now, buildup of iron in the brain because of poor blood flow.

While he is convinced of the significance of his discovery, Dr. Zamboni recognizes that medicine is slow to accept new theories and even slower to act on them. Regardless, he can take satisfaction in knowing that the woman who inspired the quest, and perhaps a dramatic breakthrough, has benefited tremendously.

Dr. Zamboni’s wife, Elena, has undergone a battery of scans and neurological tests and her multiple sclerosis is, for all intents and purposes, gone.

“This is probably the best prize of the research,” he said.

André Picard is the public health reporter at The Globe and Mail. Avis Favaro is the medical correspondent at CTV News.

With reports from Elizabeth St. Philip, CTV News

W5 DOCUMENTARY

Watch W5’s documentary on the groundbreaking new treatment for multiple sclerosis, which includes the first time the “liberation” surgery was filmed.

It is available on the Web at www.W5.ctv.ca, and will be replayed Sunday on CTV Newschannel.

MS IN CANADA

An estimated 55,000-75,000 Canadians have multiple sclerosis, and every day three more people in Canada are diagnosed with the disease. Canada has one of the highest rates of MS in the world. MS is the most common neurological disease affecting young adults in Canada.

Women are more than three times as likely as men to develop MS.
MS can cause loss of balance, heat sensitivity, impaired speech, extreme fatigue, double vision and paralysis. The disease is characterized by lesions on the brain, a result of the breakdown of myelin, the protective covering wrapped around the nerves of the central nervous system.
The most common treatment for MS is corticosteroids. Steroids reduce inflammation at the site of new demyelination, lessening symptoms.
MS was first identified and described by French neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot in 1868.
MS is widely believed to be an autoimmune disorder, but the cause or causes are unknown. There are a number of theories about what might trigger the disease, including exposure to a virus in childhood; exposure to tobacco smoke; lack of the female sex hormone prolactin, which plays a role in the development of myelin; and vitamin D deficiency. Vitamin D may play a role in MS because it helps to construct the interior layer of blood vessels.
Despite the long-held assumption that MS is an autoimmune disorder, new research suggests it is actually a vascular disease triggered by a buildup of iron in the brain due to problems in blood flow.

Source: MS Society of Canada

My Life is not Mine in 2009 (and Enzymes)

lunalupina — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 17:58:50 +0000

This post is by way of a mini-update in the recent dead air of this blog. I’d really like to

FIVE STRATEGIES FOR BUILDING YOUR ETHICAL BRAND, WITHOUT BEING ACCUSED OF GREENWASHING

Conscious Ventures — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 17:16:39 +0000

There’s been a lot of discussion about elevating corporate responsibility to become a strategic driver of your business. Most companies would like to benefit from their ethical efforts in the form of increased customer attraction and loyalty, yet few have figured out how to do it successfully. When marketing and PR are relied on, it can often backfire in accusations of greenwashing. The secret is to apply brand-strategy principles to build your ethical reputation.

Brand: Who you are, not what you say

First, let’s back up and define what a brand is. More than a logo, tagline or campaign, a brand is a promise delivered. It’s no longer about marketing; it’s about co-creating your reputation with your customers and managing perceptions through your actions. That means your brand could be favorable or unfavorable, depending on how you interact within your ecosystem and whether you’ve actively managed your brand or not.

A brand strategy is, in essence, a focused strategic platform that guides every aspect of the business. It should incorporate 4Ds: desirable by customers, deliverable by the company, distinctive from the competition, and durable over time. It’s a blueprint for how you do business, as well as for the entire customer experience.

Since brand is inherently about building a reputation, it’s not a stretch to say that strategic CSR is all about brand-building… not philanthropy or community programs. The latter are among the tactics to be judiciously identified and tailored to support a desired outcome, which should be to build a clear, consistent and believable reputation among your constituents that engenders preference and loyalty. That desired outcome informs the entire customer experience as well as how you do business.

Five strategies for aligning brand with values

There are five brand strategy approaches that are directly relevant to building your ethical reputation.

Align with Brand Differentiator

Ideally your ethical initiatives will directly support your brand promise. Remember, a brand is a promise delivered… so consider what makes your brand unique from competitors and develop key initiatives to support that. For example, one of Target’s philanthropy programs is to support the arts and design, which directly supports Target’s “affordable design” brand differentiator. Instead of cutting your CSR programs during the downturn, consider shifting resources from generic programs to those that support and drive not just your category, but your brand.

Create an Ingredient Brand

Think Westin’s Heavenly Bed or, in the CSR space, Marks & Spencer’s Plan A or GE’s Ecomagination. This is the ‘special sauce’ that makes your brand preferable to values-based buyers and employees. Creating a brand for your ethical initiatives accomplishes several important objectives:

Helps clarify for employees and customers your ethical value proposition
Makes it easier to allocate human and financial resources to your initiative (hint: assign a brand manager to own, drive and measure)
Serves as a growth platform for customer experiences, products and services
Elevates your social and environmental initiatives above me-too commodity status.

There are a few risks of goodwashing with this approach, so be sure that everyone is committed to creating something of unique value that’s completely aligned with the vision and values of the parent brand. And any misstep by the parent brand may end up discrediting the hard work done to build the ethical ingredient brand.

Create a Product Brand

If there are values-driven buyers in your category (highly likely), consider launching a product just for them. Clorox GreenWorks and BP Solar are good examples. Note that these brands are tied closely to their parent brands, so don’t consider this option unless the parent company is doing its part on the ethics front. But a product brand is an excellent opportunity to help customers experience your values and simultaneously boost the profit part of the triple bottom line. Case in point, GreenWorks has now captured 42% of the natural cleaner category in a little over a year.

Create a New Sub-Brand

A separate brand (with its own customer experience, distribution channels, etc.) that’s completely anchored on the triple-bottom line puts a bit of distance between it and the parent company. Good examples include Starwood’s Element or, through acquisition, Unilever’s Ben & Jerry’s. Why use a sub-brand strategy?

To lead your category in capturing hearts and minds of values-oriented consumers without being saddled with baggage of the parent company
To minimize claims of greenwashing, as all actions of the sub-brand are (should be) congruent.
To help “turn the Titanic” and reposition the parent company as an ethical brand. The parent company can “borrow” the positive brand equity from the sub-brand while going through the process of cleaning up its act.

Acquisition is the easier route, but often the ethical brand gets flack for “selling out” if it’s not handled carefully, and core values still need to be aligned. Building it yourself is harder, but the benefits could easily outweigh the effort required.

Reposition the Brand

This option is especially important for companies with a history of contributing to the problems of the planet rather than the solutions. Formerly “evil” companies like Wal-Mart, McDonald’s and BP have made great strides in redefining their brands as more responsible. With a very large company, this is a process that takes years and top-down dedicated effort to fundamentally change the essence and ethos of the company. For a smaller brand it’s definitely easier.

No hard and fast rules

Please note that there are no easy answers or guidelines here. The most appropriate approach for your company depends on the unique combination of your customers, their expectations and perceptions of your brand versus other options, the progress you’ve made in the ethical realm, whether or not you actually have a clearly defined brand promise, the commitment level from your executive team… I could go on, but you get the point.

Source: The Green Economy Post, Author: Jennifer Rice

UNT partners with Collin College to offer degree options

Hannah — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 17:13:28 +0000

UNT will now offer degree options at Collin Higher Education Center in McKinney due to a new partnership between UNT and Collin College. President Bataille participated in a signing ceremony on November 9^th to formalize the creating of the center. Degree options include:

Bachelor of Applied Arts and Sciences — Two concentrations: Alternative Dispute Resolution and Non-Profit Management, Volunteer and Community Resource Management
MS in Engineering Systems — Two concentrations: Construction Management, Engineering Management
Ed.D. in Educational Administration (includes superintendent certification)
M.Ed. in Higher Education

SO COOL, AND SO ETHICAL

Conscious Ventures — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 16:05:32 +0000

Bono and his wife, Ali Hewson, have launched their own socially conscious fashion label

Not long ago, ethical fashion had an image problem. No one wanted to wear baggy-bottomed Thai fisherman’s trousers or an ecru smock top. Unflattering and unappealing, eco-fashion was best left to eco-warriors.

But there has been a definite swing over the past year. Ethical consumerism – from buying products made from recycled or renewable sources to supporting companies that adhere to fair trade principles – is on the rise. It is now cool to care.

So cool in fact, that the latest edition of Vogue has devoted 10 pages to ethical clothing. And London Fashion Week, which starts next week, will include an exhibition space dedicated to 13 ethical labels.

But it’s the celebrities behind the movement who are really making a difference. They’ve made ethical consumerism sexy. One is Bono. Last year, along with his wife, Ali Hewson, and designer Rogan Gregory, he launched Edun, a socially conscious fashion label.

Its clothes are made in locally run factories in Africa, South America and India and the company promotes trade rather than aid. The range is brilliantly designed: this autumn there are beautiful Art Nouveau printed silk dresses, elegant tie-neck chiffon blouses, urban skinny jeans and denim trench coats.

This year Bono also launched Project Red, a collaboration between Armani, Amex, Converse, Motorola and Gap. Each brand markets covetable and ecologically sound products under the Red banner; profits are donated to a fund fighting Aids, malaria and TB in Africa.

Project RED’s unofficial face is Scarlett Johansson, who appears in October’s issue of Vogue wearing Armani’s designs for the charity. The actress told the magazine: “We don’t have to live in a teepee and wear a hemp skirt to be conscious about what’s going on. Maybe somebody thinks, ‘It’s cool that she’s wearing the Red T-shirt, I’ll hop over to Gap and pick one up’.”

Gap, which launched the T-shirts in the spring ( parkas, hoodies and jeans will follow) isn’t the only store turning out fashionable and ethically produced clothes. Last week saw the launch of Adili, a website devoted to the top 25 ethical fashion labels, including Ciel, Patagonia, HUG and People Tree, which has a concession in Topshop, Oxford Circus.

People Tree has given the movement a boost with Trudie Styler as its new face. It has designed T-shirts in conjunction with Action Aid; 10 per cent of profits will go to help raise Fair Trade awareness in Asia, Africa and the Americas.

Small, independent fashion labels have also furrowed the green path. Brighton-based Enamore sells everything from pretty hand-made kimono tops to delicate hemp knickers ( far more appealing than they sound).

Chic shoes can be found at ethical boutiques such as Terra Plana, which designs shoes with recycled materials. And rather than squeezing into jeans made from cotton cultivated with pesticides, consumers can now choose brands such as Loomstate, whose eco-friendly designer jeans are sold at Harvey Nichols and Urban Outfitters.

Larger companies are catching on. Timberland, which sells eco-friendly footwear made with vegetable tanned leather and recycled rubber soles, is launching a reforestation project – it will plant one tree for each pair of boots sold.

And Marks & Spencer, which recently commissioned a survey that found that 78 per cent of shoppers wanted to know more about the way products were made, has just launched its own Fair Trade line.

Tesco, meanwhile, is to sell a range of organic clothing designed by Katherine Hamnett, a long-time crusader for ethical fashion.

Of course, it can be argued that eco-fashion is an oxymoron. How can eco-friendliness fit with so ephemeral an industry? The most significant progress should perhaps come from consumers: buying less, and more ethically, could be the most ecologically sound way to shop.

Source: Telegraph.co.uk, Author: Clare Coulson

Hope?

wendygraham — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 15:47:57 +0000

This is for my aunt…
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/researchers-labour-of-love-leads-to-ms-breakthrough/article1372414/

Media Digest 11/23/2009 Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Bloomberg

247wallst — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 08:59:42 +0000

Reuters: The dollar may keep rising as investors close out bets on oil and the currency.

Reuters: Black Friday deals may not signal a retail comeback.

Reuters: Kraft (NYSE:KFT) is weighing a higher Cadbury bid as competition from Hershey (NYSE:HSY) and Nestle may emerge.

Reuters: A group of economists raised their estimates for US growth next year.

Reuters: Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and News Corp (NASDAQ:NWS) are working on a distribution deal that would take News Corp’s news sites off Google (NASDAQ:GOOG).

Reuters: A Fed official said the mortgage-related asset purchase program should be extended.

Reuters: Chieftain Capital may break into two firms.

Reuters: JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM), Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS), and Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) may outsource some back office operations to India which would bring hundreds of millions of dollars in sales to Wipro (NYSE:WIT), Infsys (NASDAQ:INFY) and Tata Consultancy. More US financial firms may move operations as they pay TARP funds.

Reuters: Japan is leaning toward buying F-35 fighters from Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT).

WSJ: Investors are backing away from risk as the year ends.

WSJ: Italy’s Eni will buy oil stake in Uganda.

WSJ: Reliance Industries made a $12 billion bid to take control of LyondellBasell

WSJ: Nissan may produce its electric cars in China.

WSJ: eBay’s (NASDAQ:EBAY) search feature was down on Saturday.

WSJ: Existing home sales are up but that has not helped the US housing market much.

WSJ: Banks are playing a dangerous game by using short term debt to fund loans.

WSJ: Chrysler is offering 10% financing and $5,000 cash back on 2010 models.

WSJ: Government payments on debt are based on interest rates that are likely to rise and by 2019 debt service could be $700 billion a year.

FT: Microsoft and News Corp are talking about a web deal to counter Google News.

FT: Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO) will work to triple sales in China within a decade.

Bloomberg: The dollar may not bottom until next year.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Week 3: Value Study. Geek, Biomech and the Post Apocalyptic. Out of Class Drawing.

trudalakingglatz — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 06:21:26 +0000

What is this? What I am seeing? What does it mean? Ooooh. For more information, see the Week 3 Sketchbook entry on this blog.

Time: 6 hours. Paper: Sennelier pastel card. 19 x 26″. Media: Black, white and gray pastel. Actuals: a standard laptop run amok on MS Vista and a bonsai root trained on a circuit board:

Process: I love drawing on pastel card, basically like drawing on sand paper. It allows for many clean layers of pastel. If only it came in 54″ x 10 yard rolls. First layer:

Second layer. Drawing from bonsai, overemphasizing the circuit board and linear perspective because I liked it that way:

Third layer. Printed out bits of my Perl program (CTRL + PRTSC) graphically enhanced, (Print Mask for GIMPs). Pastel on back of print, then traced with ball point.

Fubbler's Cove

hatebusters — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 01:24:06 +0000

11-21-09 by Ed Chasteen All the way from Nashville, Tennessee by car he came. Ten days on business h

B&G &Sweet Ice Tea

hatebusters — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 01:22:44 +0000

Dear HateBusters, Bless you! I need your help. Please read this message. Then take whatever action

Bicycle Stories #12

hatebusters — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 01:20:07 +0000

By Ed Chasteen “The bicycle is the most civilized conveyance known to man. Other forms of tran

Bicycle Stories #11

hatebusters — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 01:18:45 +0000

By Ed Chasteen “The bicycle is the most civilized conveyance known to man. Other forms of tran

Bicycle Stories #10

hatebusters — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 01:16:53 +0000

By Ed Chasteen “The bicycle is the most civilized conveyance known to man. Other forms of tran

Bicycle Stories #9

hatebusters — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 01:10:55 +0000

By Ed Chasteen “The bicycle is the most civilized conveyance known to man. Other forms of tran

Is MS a vascular disease?

rbrands — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 23:01:34 +0000

Take a look at this article from the Toronto Globe and Mail (Saturday Nov-21-2009), which describes how a researcher’s hypothesis about his wife’s MS led to a potential new treatment. There is a description of some trials of a new therapy.

Go out on a limb, now rather than later! How likely is it that we are witnessing an actual breakthrough?

Graue Zellen wachsen auch bei Senioren nach! - Lernen und Jonglieren: Bodybuilding fürs Gehirn

oka — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 17:29:52 +0000

Dogma der Hirnforschung wankt

Bis vor etwa zehn Jahren galt es in der Hirnforschung als unumstößliche Gewissheit, dass das Gehirn nach der Pubertät nur noch abbaut und nicht mehr wachsen kann. Was durch Alter oder Krankheit an grauer Hirnsubstanz verschwindet, ist unwiderruflich verloren, glaubte man. Doch seit Mitte der 1990er Jahre müssen Ärzte und Wissenschaftler umdenken – nicht zuletzt durch neue bildgebende Verfahren in den Neurowissenschaften. Berühmt geworden ist vor allem eine 1997 publizierte Studie an Londoner Taxifahren. Sie belegte, dass bei ihnen der hintere Teil des Hippokampus stark vergrößert war – einer Hirnregion, die unter anderem für das räumliche Orientierungsvermögen zuständig ist. Auch bei anderen hochspezialisierten Berufsgruppen wie Musikern und Schachspielern zeigte sich, dass bei ihnen bestimmte Areale des Hirns deutlich vergrößert waren. Doch waren sie nun Taxifahrer, Schachspieler oder Musiker geworden, weil ihre Hirne anders sind als bei anderen? Oder hatten sich die graue Masse wegen ihrer Tätigkeit und der langjährigen Übung so entwickelt?

Jonglieren: Hochleistungssport für’s Gehirn

Eine Studie der Universitäten in Regensburg und Jena unter der Leitung von Arne May sollte diese Frage endgültig klären. Drei Monate jonglierten junge Erwachsene (Durchschnittsalter 22 Jahre) mindestens eine Minute täglich mit drei Bällen. Die Jonglier-Neulinge sollten die Bälle mindestens 60 Sekunden in der Luft halten – eine enorme Herausforderung für visuelle Wahrnehmung, räumliches Vorstellungsvermögen und Reaktions- und Koordinationsfähigkeit. Dreimal wurden die Hirne der Probanden im Kernspin-Tomografen untersucht: vor dem Training, nach dreimonatigem Üben, und dann wieder nach einer dreimonatigen Übungspause. Nach drei Monaten Training waren zwei Hirnareale der Amateur-Jongleure deutlich vergrößert – vor allem in solchen Bereichen, die für das visuelle Erfassen von Bewegungsabläufen zuständig sind. Dagegen waren diese Areale nach der Trainingspause wieder auf ihr altes Maß geschrumpft.

Neue Hirnzellen für ergraute Köpfe

Dass sich auch bei Erwachsenen das Hirn durch Lernen noch anatomisch verändern kann, war damit bewiesen – eine wissenschaftliche Sensation: Erstmals war das jahrzehntealte Dogma von der Unveränderlichkeit des erwachsenen Gehirns widerlegt. Nun wollten die Forscher wissen, ob die grauen Zellen in jedem Alter nachwachsen – macht es einen Unterschied, ob die Versuchspersonen 22 oder 62 Jahre alt sind? Eine Folgestudie am Institut für Systemische Neurowissenschaften am Universitätsklinikum Hamburg-Eppendorf wiederholt das Experiment im Winter 2006 mit einer älteren Gruppe. 40 Probanden ab Mitte 50 unterziehen sich hier dem Jonglier-Training. Noch ist die Studie nicht abgeschlossen, aber erste Ergebnisse liegen vor – und sie sind spektakulär: Selbst 60jährige Jonglier-Novizen können die Kunst mit den drei Bällen in drei Monaten erlernen. Zwar deutlich langsamer und nicht ganz so gut wie die Zwanzigjährigen aus dem Regensburger Versuch. Die schafften es doppelt so häufig wie ihre älteren Kollegen, die Bälle eine Minute in der Luft zu halten. Dafür scheinen die ersten Analysen in Hamburg aber zu bestätigen, dass auch bei Älteren das Gehirn tatsächlich noch wächst! Mit anderen Worten: Auch bei ihnen vermehrt sich die graue Substanz. Beim körperlichen Training werden die Gehirne der Senioren in den entsprechenden Bereichen größer. Allerdings wissen die Forscher nicht, was da genau wächst – es könnte die Zahl der Hirnzellen selbst oder die Anzahl der Verbindungen zwischen den Zellen sein. Die derzeit gängigen Untersuchungsverfahren können das nicht unterscheiden.

(Das bedeutet ja nicht, dass nun jeder mit dem Jonglieren beginnen müsste, um das Gehirn zu stärken. Es zeigt sich hier aber erneut, das es viele Beschäftigungen gibt, die dem Gehirn sehr gut tun, und sogar noch Freude machen können, wie z.B. ein Tanzkurs, Kreuzworträtseln, aber auch Spazieren und Jonglieren. Nach Meinung vieler Wissenschaflter kann diese Erkenntnis genutzt werden, um neurologische Erkrankungen wie Multiple Sklerose zu behandeln.)

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Quelle, Text und Bild: wdr.de

Cast related: Philip Glenister's M&S ad 'sexist'

dirtymartini — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 15:37:59 +0000

A handful of people have complained that Philip Glenister’s comment in the new M&S Christmas ad is ’sexist’. Eight to be exact.

I would expect a handful of people to complain. I would also expect a handful of people to complain if they were handed a cheque for £5 million. Here’s a thought: there will always be at least a handful of people, probably about eight, who can find fault with anything. Eight people do not a critical mass make.

I think the fact that Gene Hunt IS sexist, is the entire point of his being in the ad and if what he was saying WASN’T sexist…well, we wouldn’t quite get why he was there in the first place? Clearly M&S are guilty…of overestimating the British public, or at least eight of them anyway.

This country is going insane…

11/21

tfem — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 08:16:01 +0000

EM: Hey baby! I just slapped a boy in DKE really hard outside of a1 after riding there in a shopping cart from Sig Ep.

Ajax cleanser removes ink and paint from PVC fences

doggonedmysteries — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 07:30:10 +0000

I was all set to to do a light hearted post tonight. I even had the basic idea for it jotted down.

Then I spent several hours today doing something I shouldn’t have had to do. I had to scrub our side fence. Why? Because some #@%%*!! idiots tagged it. I just thank my lucky stars that they were reaching the end of their spray paint can when they got to our fence.

However, one of the freaking brats decided to use some sort of pen on one of the main posts. They laid the ink on thick and it took me longer to remove than the damned paint. Remove it, I did. There’s no sign of ink or paint left out there.

I’m angry. Angry that people are no longer taught to have respect for other people and their property. Angry, that I didn’t catch the little s***s in the act so I could shove their paint cans and teeth down their throats. Tag, you’re freaking it. It would’ve been worth the jail time.

I need to hit the lottery. I want to move. When I move I will only give my address out to people I love and trust. That way we won’t have certain people popping in on us that, we’d rather never see again. As if, they’d bother anyway.

being less my own

violacious — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 06:33:26 +0000

Right now I am in the middle of reading a bunch of books about M/s to try and puzzle out my confusion and wariness about it. The structure of authority exchange, as opposed to power exchange, seems unworkably dogmatic to me, but I’ve seen people do it really beautifully and compassionately and I’m fascinated by how that happens. My resistance stems principally from fear about putting a frame around my [everything coming to consciousness] self that would be so necessarily contingent and reliant upon somebody else. And although frames for one’s self made of people’s consciousnesses are all around, in book format and as workshops and course outlines, those can be entered and left relatively at will and carry no obligations (other than maybe trying not to drop them in the bath or interrupt them with your cell phone, and, er, the obligations of religious and political worldviews. Hm). Let’s just say they require time, but not necessarily investment or complete acquiescence.

How much sovereign self assurance does any person need? I’ve come to recognize that I’ve got very strong natural tendencies towards obedience and I often feel I have to take countermeasures against this (to avoid, for example, accidentally following the odd person with a lot of presence around at work). You may smirk, but people’s assertiveness really works on me. It’s scary how well. Unconscious surrender comes naturally to me, and I’m not convinced it’s thoroughly healthy.

I’m pretty immersive—I don’t like doing things by halves—so I have to think about probable costs and benefits of getting on board with something before I decide to invest myself in it so I don’t get unintentionally consumed. Significant word choice: my partner A. says, “I’ve never heard anyone actually refer to their supervisor as ‘the person in charge of me’ but that’s actually how you see it, isn’t it?”—and I do: I see labour more as a channeling of energy towards accomplishment than an activity to be overseen. I also relate strongly to the phrase, “getting on board with something,” because once I’ve aligned myself with another force, I don’t parcel out my investment at every step; I simply do what it takes by leaps and bounds and give what I’ve got to the finishing stroke.

I know that the M/s dynamic is not for me—I don’t need it, it doesn’t suit me, and in fact, if anything, I’m moving in the opposite direction on a separate path: learning to claim and channel more in D/s. But since my natural orientation blends conditional submission, willing service, and instinctive surrender—and it’s that last one that troubles me the most—it might benefit from some of the tools and approaches used in M/s, though certainly not as a categorical mode of relating.

Anyway, more book reviews to follow shortly. And surely more posts.

Interesting blog

beingisbewildering — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 00:01:20 +0000

ms video diarymsvideodiary.blogspot.com

Gripe A/H1N1 faz as primeiras três vítimas na Dinamarca

CarlAn — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 23:18:46 +0000

Sábado, 21 Novembro 2009 20:38 CarlAn Dossier Gripe A/H1N1 – Dossier Gripe A As autoridades sa

Who let the dogs out?

craftycritter — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 21:50:57 +0000

Meeting number 2 for my MS Support / Social Group happened today and it was amazing! I contacted a local dog trainer, Clark Inghram of Inghram’s Sit ‘N Stay Dog Academy about doing a presentation on service dogs. Clark Inghram is the owner/founder and provided a wonderful presentation.

He brought with him two volunteer trainers and 5 dogs, including a 9 month old Australian Shephard. He showed us the basic commands that he teaches all the dogs and explained some of the different things service dogs have been trained on to assist their owners. One dog acts as a brace for the owner who has MS. If the owner needs assistance in getting up the dog is able to provide that and wears a special harness to be able to do so. Another dog assists a person with Cerebal Palsy who walks leaning forward and quickly. This places his weight off center and the person was prone to falling. He was matched with a dog that walks slower so the dog walks slightly behind and is able to slow the person down a bit. This dog is also trained as a brace so if his master does fall down the dog can assist him in getting back up.

Inghram’s first does basic training, making sure the dogs are able to sit, stay, back up, leave it, etc. Once that foundation has been laid, they then move on to any additional specialty training based on the needs of the owner. Currently they have 5 puppies (one of which was the Australian Shepard) that are being fostered and going through their basic training. Once the pups reach a year Inghram’s is going to locate service personnel in the area in need of a service dog and determine what that particular person needs. Once that has been determined than additional training for both the dog and its new owner will take place. The same procedure is carried out for all of their service dogs, the additional training occurs once they have identified what services the dog is needed to provide.

Everyone really enjoyed the presentation and I was really happy to see people learning about an alternative assistive device, something other than wheelchairs or canes, etc.