I’ve always wondered if this is true:

But an addictive personality can’t be destroyed, only transferred to something else. Whenever I stop smoking pot, I start getting drunk 1-2 times a week. I also start to eat total shit, as I begin to crave anything to push the “make me feel good” button. The time I waste on the internet goes way up (when I’m stoned, chores and work are actually fun. When I’m not, all I do is aimlessly watch TV and surf the internet, trying to distract myself). Programs like AA don’t actually treat alcoholics, they just try to replace one addiction with another (usually religion) that isn’t as physically harmful.

From here.

Stroke caused by blood clots or other obstructions – ischaemic stroke – accounts for 80% of all cases.
A blockage is called a cerebral thrombus or cerebral embolism and can be caused by atherosclerosis – hardening of the arteries.
In both types of stroke – those caused by blood clots and those caused by burst blood vessels – blood supply to the brain is interrupted, depriving the cells of oxygen and other nutrients. The cells are then damaged or die.
Mini-strokes, or transient ischaemic attacks (TIAs), may be a warning sign of an imminent full-blown stroke.
Embolic
In an embolic stroke, a blood clot – or embolus – forms somewhere in the body, usually the heart, and travels through the bloodstream to the brain.
Once in the brain, the clot eventually travels to a blood vessel small enough to block its passage. The clot lodges there, blocking the blood vessel and causing a stroke.
Thrombotic
In the other form of blood-clot stroke, blood flow is impaired because of a blockage to one or more of the arteries supplying blood to the brain – a thrombus.
The process leading to this blockage is known as thrombosis and strokes caused in this way are called thrombotic strokes.
In atrial fibrillation, where the two upper chambers of the heart – the atria – quiver instead of beating properly, blood is not properly pumped out of the heart. As a result it may form clots and if the clot becomes lodged in an artery in the brain, a stroke may result.
The American Heart Association says arond 15% of strokes are caused in this way.
Blood clot strokes can also happen as the result of unhealthy blood vessels clogged with a build up of fatty deposits and cholesterol.
The body regards these build ups as multiple, tiny and repeated injuries to the blood vessel wall and reacts as it would to bleeding from a wound, by forming clots.
The symptoms of stroke:
Sudden numbness or weakness of the face, arm or leg, particularly if it is on one side of the body
Sudden confusion, trouble speaking or understanding. Sudden difficulty with walking, dizziness, loss of balance or co-ordination
Sudden trouble seeing in one or both eyes
Sudden severe headache with no known cause
Anyone identifying themselves or friends or family as having a stroke should call emergency services, not a GP, as any delay reduces the chance of a full recovery.
The speed of treatment after a stroke is extremely important as the longer the brain cells are deprived of oxygen, the more damage they will suffer.
Treatment
Clot-busting drugs can be used in the first minutes or hours – up to a maximum of three hours – after an ischaemic stroke to dissolve the clot.
After this time aspirin, which is not as powerful, may be given.
Survival rates are better for patients in specialist stroke units, because of the expert nature of staff and early use of rehabilitation, but such units are not always available.
Rehabilitation programmes will be given to most stroke patients to help them recover lost mobility and speech.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/medical_notes/g-i/764070.stm

On stroke.
STROKE
There are two types of stroke – those caused by blood clots in the brain and those that occur when blood vessels burst. In both cases, the brain is starved of oxygen, damaging or killing cells.
Sufferers are often left with difficulty talking, walking and performing other basic tasks. The chance of suffering a stroke is cut by eating healthily, quitting smoking and drinking less alcohol. People at risk of stroke are often treated with aspirin.
After a stroke, various drug treatments are available and rehabilitation is commonly used to improve patients’ speech and movement.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/in_depth/health/2000/heart_disease/stroke.stm

So one day later and I’m still scared of the dark. I am wasting electricity. I wonder if being a pussy is ingrained in me or if I got it from… someone in my family? I’m pretty sure everyone in my family is a robot when it comes to scary shit. Oh well

In other news, there’s a reddit post about some cocky nerd guy who is on the bus and Twilight (not the famous version…). Here’s the comment thread of interest.

He gets served in the first reply. The only problem is that I don’t think he took the hit hard enough. You can tell in his other replies when he’s trolling and how people are laughing with him. I don’t know why, I just feel like he should be seriously reflecting on his life after that comment. Okay I can probably explicate a bit. I hate cocky nerdy guys because I am, of course, one of them. This guy’s just dumber (though perhaps wittier), but in the end we’re one in the same. And I just wish he would stop talking and start thinking about how retarded he was for being a total hipster douche. I’m obsessed with the complete emotional breakdown of people like him. The nerd hipster is probably the worst thing since the hipster. Fuck reddit

Oh and the other reason why that post is interesting is because of how misogynstic it is (check where they start talking about The Catcher in the Rye), and how closely it aligns with my own view of women. Also because I’m not a fan of The Catcher in the Rye.

Stroke details.
HEART DISEASE
The heart pumps blood around the body carrying oxygen and other nutrients to the areas that need it. When this process is interrupted, or does not work properly, serious illness and even death can result.
The risk of heart disease is greater for people with poor diet, who smoke and do not exercise, and men are more likely to suffer from it than women.
A range of tests and treatments, including drugs, heart bypass surgery and transplants, exist to alleviate symptoms or save the lives of sufferers.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/in_depth/health/2000/heart_disease/heart_disease.stm

Series of articles in BBC ;very useful.
INTRODUCTION
The UK has one of the highest rates of death from heart disease in the world – one British adult dies from the disease every three minutes – and stroke is the country’s third biggest killer, claiming 70,000 lives each year.
Heart attacks occur when blood flow is blocked, often by a blood clot, while strokes are caused either by blocked or burst blood vessels in the brain. A range of other conditions, including heart failure, when blood is not pumped properly around the body, and congenital heart defects can also cause long term problems, and even death, for sufferers.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/in_depth/health/2000/heart_disease/default.stm

When things seem to be looking up disclosures of this nature crops up.Intended leaks by vested interests?
Story:
KABUL, Afghanistan — An American military detention camp in Afghanistan is still holding inmates, sometimes for weeks at a time, without access to the International Committee of the Red Cross, according to human rights researchers and former detainees held at the site on the Bagram Air Base.

Notes from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq and other areas of conflict in the post-9/11 era.
The site, known to detainees as the black jail, consists of individual windowless concrete cells, each illuminated by a single light bulb glowing 24 hours a day. In interviews, former detainees said that their only human contact was at twice-daily interrogation sessions.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/29/world/asia/29bagram.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=a1

Breathtaking.
http://digg.com/d31BEAE

Funny and unusual.
Story;
Suicide Cures Depression.

Boob Job Saves Life

Obesity Crushes Virus

Fistfight Corrects Vision

Lightning Fixes Everything
http://www.cracked.com/article/149_5-self-destructive-ways-people-accidentally-cured-themselves/

Depression and anxiety can be tackled only by the individual concerned.Medicines and counseling can go only thus far.What is needed is understanding of some facts.
Out of desire comes attachment,from attachment expectations,expectations lead to lead to frustration,it leads to depression.
We have had many desires during our life time.If we sit down and ponder what was interesting and pleasurable at one point of time , no longer excites us, at times repugnant right now..The things we desired for retain their nature then and now.Then why we do not get the same pleasure out of it?Reason is that pleasure does not lie in things per se.They are our attitudes towards them. When the attitude changes, the whole picture changes.Therefore accept things in life as they are and not attach value to it.Do not carry it forward for our attitude may change and we may even be unhappy about the the things we liked.This is the truth.
Anxiety arises when we feel what we have done or achieved is not enough or things do not happen the way we want them to happen.If we are sure we have done our best, that is it.We can do no more.Accept your limitations.Do not set your goals too high.Remember,whatever you achieve is naught when you depart.
Things happen, controlled by various factors ,us being only a factor and not THE factor.As said earlier do your best and leave it at that.
Another reason for depression and anxiety is comparisons .No two things in the world are identical ;at best they are similar.Never try to be other than what you are.You too have a function and a purpose in the scheme of the Universe.
These are few tips to beat anxiety and depression

ScienceDaily (Nov. 18, 2009) — A study by researchers at the University of Bergen, Norway, and the Institute of Psychiatry (IoP) at King’s College London has found that depression is as much of a risk factor for mortality as smoking.

Utilising a unique link between a survey of over 60,000 people and a comprehensive mortality database, the researchers found that over the four years following the survey, the mortality risk was increased to a similar extent in people who were depressed as in people who were smokers.
Dr Robert Stewart, who led the research team at the IoP, explains the possible reasons that may underlie these surprising findings: ‘Unlike smoking, we don’t know how causal the association with depression is but it does suggest that more attention should be paid to this link because the association persisted after adjusting for many other factors.’
The study also shows that patients with depression face an overall increased risk of mortality, while a combination of depression and anxiety in patients lowers mortality compared with depression alone. Dr Stewart explains: ‘One of the main messages from this research is that ‘a little anxiety may be good for you’.
‘It appears that we’re talking about two risk groups here. People with very high levels of anxiety symptoms may be naturally more vulnerable due to stress, for example through the effects stress has on cardiovascular outcomes. On the other hand, people who score very low on anxiety measures, i.e. those who deny any symptoms at all, may be people who also tend not to seek help for physical conditions, or they may be people who tend to take risks. This would explain the higher mortality.’
In terms of the relationship between mortality and anxiety with depression as a risk factor, the research suggests that help-seeking behaviour may explain the pattern of outcomes. People with depression may not seek help or may fail to receive help when they do seek it, whereas the opposite may be true for people with anxiety.
Dr Stewart comments: ‘It would certainly not surprise me at all to find that doctors are less likely to investigate physical symptoms in people with depression because they think that depression is the explanation, but may be more likely to investigate if someone is anxious because they think it will reassure them. These are conjectures but they would fit with the data.’
The researchers point out that the results should be considered in conjunction with other evidence suggesting a variety of adverse physical health outcomes and poor health associated with mental disorders such as depression and psychotic disorders.
In light of the findings, Dr Stewart makes suggestions on the focus of future developments in the treatment of depression and anxiety: ‘The physical health of people with current or previous mental disorder needs a lot more attention than it gets at the moment.
‘This applies to primary care, secondary mental health care and general hospital care in the sense that there should be more active screening for physical disorders and risk factors, such as blood pressure, cholesterol, adverse diet, smoking, lack of exercise, in people with mental disorders. This should be done in addition to more active treatment of disorders when present, and more effective general health promotion
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091117094933.htm

If made durable and repairable, where is the profit?
Story:
The way to lower the quantity of energy required to make and distribute short-lived consumer goods is to make them durable, repairable and upgradeable.

As the middle-class daughter of a refugee mother and a Depression-era father, I grew up straddling two worlds. My parents could afford much more than they were willing to buy. Most things that broke could be and were repaired. My German grandmother’s aphorisms lingered in the air: “Waste not, want not,” “A penny saved is a penny earned,” “A stitch in time saves nine.”

By the time my own children were born, America was flooded with cheap and cheaply made goods. So while my parents continued working at the sturdy antique desks they inherited from my grandparents and sleeping beneath a hand-crocheted bedspread, my children and their friends became the first and last owners of a seemingly endless supply of plastic toys and particle-board furniture.

I was part of the transitional generation. Building blocks were still made of wood. Comforters were still filled with down. I recall the meticulously machined pencil sharpeners with “made in West Germany” stamped on their sides that lasted until I lost them. Even the cheap items—the ones “made in Japan”—tended to hold up pretty well.

Now nearly everything is produced in China and made to be discarded. According to a 2008 report by the Economic Policy Institute, the United States imported $320 billion in Chinese goods in 2007. In that year alone, this country imported $26.3 billion in apparel and accessories, $108.5 billion in computers and electronic products, and $15.3 billion in furniture and fixtures from China.

The manufacture, distribution and disposal of an ever-growing mountain of short-lived consumer goods has taken an enormous environmental toll. Annie Leonard’s website “The Story of Stuff,” which has garnered more than 7 million views in less than two years, has helped spread awareness of that cost far beyond the usual environmentalist circles.

We can’t, however, only blame the quantity and quality of Chinese goods for the environmental and other consequences of this transoceanic factory-to-waste stream. For that we can blame the two horsemen of the modern consumer apocalypse: functional obsolescence and fashion obsolescence.

Functional, or planned obsolescence is the purposeful decision by designers and manufacturers to ensure things don’t last, so that consumers must buy new ones. Fashion obsolescence is the related decision to offer new features and aesthetic changes to entice consumers to discard their old items in favor of updated and supposedly better ones.

Ironically, product obsolescence was once seen as the remedy for what ailed our country. Lizabeth Cohen, chair of the History Department at Harvard University and author of A Consumers’ Republic: The Politics of Mass Consumption in Postwar America (Vintage, 2003), traces the origins of mass consumption to the period immediately before and after World War II, when a demand-driven economy was seen as the key to our nation’s recovery and prosperity.

“In the 1940s and ’50s, there was a much closer connection between consumer demand and factories and jobs,” Cohen says. “That was a completed circle more than it is today. When people were buying things, they were buying things that were made by American workers.”

The only way to guarantee continued demand was to ensure that people would keep replacing the things they owned. The literature on planned obsolescence makes frequent reference to statements by industry analysts and strategists of that era. “Our enormously productive economy … demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfaction, our ego satisfaction, in consumption,” retailing analyst Victor Lebow said in 1948. “We need things consumed, burned up, worn out, replaced and discarded at an ever increasing rate.”

This applied to male as well as female consumers, and to styling lines on cars as well as hemlines on skirts. Allied Stores Corporation’s Chairman B. Earl Puckett, speaking to fashion industry leaders in 1950, said, “Basic utility cannot be the foundation of a prosperous apparel industry. We must accelerate obsolescence.” And General Motors’ design chief Harley Earl said in 1955, “The creation of a desire on the part of millions of car buyers each year to trade in last year’s car on a new one is highly important to the automobile industry.”

Business people and politicians weren’t the only ones pushing this idea, Cohen says. “Labor really bought into this package. Purchasing power was the answer to how people would be employed and have a better life. Consumers would fuel the powers of factories that would provide jobs that would put money in peoples’ pockets.”

http://www.alternet.org/story/144204/our_lives_are_filled_with_worthless_crap_that’s_destroying_the_earth:_here’s_what_you_can_do

Couple of points.It is naive to believe that there is’Change’ in Pakistan.What change?Army and ISI are calling the shots with no accountability.Elected representatives(?) have been forced or allow themselves to be forced to rubber stamp a predetermined deal involving two corrupt and exiled politicians.The only change is the perception that there is an illusion of change.The only change is the guilty and corrupt are allowed to rule the mute and simple people of Pakistan with out their consent.
Secondly,the statement that there can be a transition through ‘negotiated terms’, a very polite way of expressing wheeling and dealing.Is this the way to run a democracy?
Thirdly, the obsession with foreign approval or censure.You run your country as your people want it.When you are undecided, foreign powers interfere;you accept their help ;now there is nothing as free lunch;you have to accept their terms because of your unwillingness or inability to govern yourself.;suddenly you wake up and find you are under foreign dictates when it is too late.
Either people in general and intelligentsia in particular should decide the course of action to restore real democracy.Where are the lawyers who have forced Musharaff to climb down?Run out of steam?Take the action to its logical conclusion of restoring real democracy,sans deals and foreign interference.
If allowed to drift, there seems to be no other option excepting revolution with inevitable bloodshed.Also history has many examples of dictatorship passing into democracy with blood shed,French Revolution being the prime example.(the difference was it was from Dictatorial Monarchs)
Story:

By Ahmed Nadeem Gahla

A study of transformation from military dictatorship to democracy around the world would reveal that there are two possible ways. Either it is achieved through a popular revolution or by negotiations between political forces and dictators.

The former invariably demolishes the entire system and mostly involves bloodshed putting a new system in place while the later allows the change to happen within the prevailing system based upon certain negotiated terms.

These terms might not necessarily meet the international laws and judicial norms as it is always a middle path.

The return of democracy in Pakistan after a long period of military dictatorship is a unique example of such ‘negotiated change’. The terms reached with the help of international power brokers and guarantors ensured withdrawal of politically motivated cases, return of exiled leadership and shedding of uniform by Parvez Musharraf in return for re-election. After assassination of Benazir Bhutto, the international and domestic pressure became so immense that Parvez Musharraf not only have to accept the condition of fair elections but also have to negotiate for an exit in return for protection from prosecution for unconstitutional actions. A civilian dictator might not get such a deal.

Another option available to political forces at that time was to over through dictatorship by a popular revolution. Let us not forgets that the world community would not allow a nuclear armed nation to reach the point of bloody revolution. Especially, when there are more chances of falling in to a civil war hijacked by religious extremists than overthrowing a dictator. Without a negotiated change, how popular a movement might, it is not possible to remove a military backed dictator without bloodshed. We have witnessed the return of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif from exile, who came back in violation of deal reached on guarantees of our ‘friends’ in Middle East and was sent back by next flight. Despite the promises of a million people’s reception by right wing parties, not a dozen were able to break the security arrangements and show up at airport to receive their leader. Even after Nawaz Sharif was forcibly deported to Saudi Arabia, establishment successfully countered public reaction avoiding any law and order situation. Obviously, possibilities of overthrowing dictator’s thorough protests are not that bright.

Unable to fight the powerful military establishment which has far more guns and tanks on their disposal, negotiating was the only option available to Benazir Bhutto. Much debated and controversial National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) promulgated by former dictator Parvez Musharraf paved way for return of Benazir Bhutto and later for Mian Nawaz Sharif, without the fear of being arrested or deported. The cases withdrawn against Benazir Bhutto and her husband Asif Ali Zardari under NRO were registered during regime of former prime minister Mian Nawaz Sharif and remained unproved during lengthy trial and detention of Asif Ali Zardari for eleven years. Both Mian Nawaz Sharif and Saif ur Rehman, the former head of National Accountability Bureau appointed by him have repeatedly confessed that these cases were false and cooked on pressure of establishment which wanted to malign the name of Benazir Bhutto and her family. How big price it is to move towards a democratic process by withdrawing these fabricated cases?

This fact alone leaves no space for political leadership to avoid its responsibility of revoking these politically motivated cases through parliamentary legislation. Mr Sharif and MQM should have taken a bolder stand in parliament while they have repeatedly expressed in public that these cases are false. However, the political leadership is trying to avoid their responsibility to please the establishment, thus pushing the matter of NRO to superior judiciary to decide. Superior courts around the world avoid interfering in to political matters despite having jurisdiction over such issues under the ‘political question doctrine.’ The purpose of this self imposed restriction is to distinguish the role of judiciary from those of the legislature and the executive. Political questions include the ratification of constitutional amendments, conduct of foreign policy and administrative actions of governments. However there is no ridged rule and a court might choose to go ahead in case the ‘demands for a fair trial and criminal justice outweighed the political question doctrine’ as ruled by a US Federal Court in case of President Richards Nixon.

The exception set in Richard Nixon case is widely referred to and abused to neutralize the political rivals in dictatorships and developing democracies where establishments use superior judiciary as a tool to further their own agendas.

The superior judiciary in Pakistan has been a victim of this power game by dictators and political leadership on cost of its integrity and reputation. Judiciary has lost a lot in terms of legitimacy of its decisions while playing power game, from the death sentence of ZA Bhutto being the worst and unrecoverable stigma on its face to providing cover to unconstitutional takeover of Parvez Musharraf. The same superior judiciary in offices today miserably failed to dispense justice to Asif Ali Zardari in eleven long years and convicted Mian Nawaz Sharif under establishment’s pressure. With restoration of Chief Justice and sacked judges through a popular movement, the judiciary has won its independence but its impartiality is still to be tested. Should judiciary once again be dragged to deliver political decisions while political leadership lacks the courage to take bold stand on its publically confessed mistakes of past?

It might not be out of context to mention that first Prime Minister of Pakistan from Sindh was assassinated in Punjab and those in establishment involved in cover up of his murder were blessed with huge estates. ZA Bhutto, the second Prime Minister from same province, was assassinated through a judicial verdict. The third and fourth Prime Ministers Muhammad Khan Junejo and Benazir Bhutto respectively, were unconstitutionally sacked and could not get justice from superior judiciary. Once again the superior judiciary is being dragged in to power game to remove President Zardari from the office for which he has been elected with overwhelming majority from four Provincial Assemblies, the National Assembly and the Senate. The plan to extract a political decision on technical grounds to remove an elected President is not going to strengthen the institution of judiciary or democracy. Especially when the necessary link of ‘demands for a fair trial and criminal justice outweighed the political question doctrine’ as set in Richard Nixon’s case is missing in NRO after confessions of Mr. Sharif and Saif ur Rehman. Will court call Mr Sharif and record his statement while deciding the NRO, and if not, what would be the legitimacy of such decision?

Apart from the outcome of political circus to be staged in superior judiciary, those advising President Zardari to face courts have to realize the fact that he was in continuous imprisonment for eleven years.

His detention is longer than the period of life imprisonment in Pakistan. Even if convicted in cases against him the sentence would have been lesser than imprisonment already undergone by Mr Zardari.

Although according to the judgments of superior judiciary under section 497 of CRPC, any person who is under detention for more than two years and whose trial is not concluded would become entitled to bail. The very same relief of bail was not extended to President Zardari for eleven long years by the superior judiciary. Under the Criminal Laws of Pakistan, if prosecution fails to bring sufficient evidence against accused for a reasonably long period of time, the accused has a right to request the court to drop charges. Mr Zardari’s applications before superior courts for that relief also failed to earn him justice in eleven year. Should not people have reservations that Mr. Zardari will get justice this time from judiciary while even today most of the judges in chair are the same who were unable to dispense justice to him in past?

Even after restoration of Judges, several questions are being raised about its performance even by leadership of the lawyer’s movement. While Mr. Sharif and Altaf Hussain has advised President Zardari to face the courts, both leaders are reluctant to welcome the decision in Roedad Khan’s petition for ISI’s money politics and a judicial enquiry in to 12th May’s massacre respectively. There is a prescribed process for removal of elected President in constitution, if political leadership thinks that Mr. Zardari is either ineligible or unfit for the job, it should resort to constitutional remedy through impeachment motion. Once again, dragging judiciary in to power game would be an unpleasant and undesired burden for institution which still has to go through the test of impartiality and establish its lost credibility. While all other institutions have been deteriorated to core during long dictatorships, the only hope left for people is institution of judiciary, restored after long and tough struggle.

If political leadership once again falls in to establishment’s trap to extract political decision from court, the scars on national unity and institutional integrity might be deeper than we do afford as a nation state.
http://pakteahouse.wordpress.com/2009/11/28/extracting-political-decisions-from-the-judiciary-in-pakistan/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed:+teahouse+(Pak+Tea+House)

Is this not questioning the fundamentals of vaccine?
Story:
The notion of exposing young children to infections in a bid to protect them from later allergies is wrong, latest research suggests.
The decades-old “hygiene hypothesis” holds that early exposure to microbes somehow challenges the immune system and strengthens it against allergies.
Studies have shown children exposed to bugs by older siblings or attending nursery cut their future allergy risk.
But new work published by the American Thoracic Society casts doubt on this.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8241774.stm

Very true.Our obsession with cleanliness and rushing to Doctor even for small ailments is not healthy.Our system’s defense mechanism gets weakened to fight disease and use of antibiotics help the the disease inducing agents to become immune, they mutate and more violent forms are created for which we need to go in for still heavier dosage of medicine and these medicines more than curing disease creates serious side effects.
Best is to wait for sometime excepting in the case of high fever and allow the system to take care.
Story:
Children should be allowed to get dirty, according to scientists who have found being too clean can impair the skin’s ability to heal.
Normal bacteria living on the skin trigger a pathway that helps prevent inflammation when we get hurt, the US team discovered.
The bugs dampen down overactive immune responses that can cause cuts and grazes to swell, they say.
Their work is published in the online edition of Nature Medicine.
Experts said the findings provided an explanation for the “hygiene hypothesis”, which holds that exposure to germs during early childhood primes the body against allergies.
Many believe our obsession with cleanliness is to blame for the recent boom in allergies in developed countries.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8373690.stm

-Credit card companies enhance the credit limits on their own and they also charge an amount for enhancement .If you protest they reverse the entry.
Minimum balance payment is observed more in the breach.
Rate of interest calculation is so complex ,though it appears to be nominal, you will find it is phenomenally high.They say 2.5%, which means 30% p.a.
Best is not to use credit cards for imaginary convenience and you will pay dearly for it, especially if you default in repayments.They charge you if you remit cash towards your outstanding; it has to be paid by Check(in India) .
Do not let the Financial Advisors,they are agents who get a commission, to decide your plan for they will get you a plan that gives them maximum commission.
Ideal is to save 15% of your nett earnings-7% for immediate returns not exceeding 3 years balance 8% to be received by you by your 50th year.
Story;
Truth #1 Preserving money is as important as chasing returns When the markets were shooting sky-ward, it’s likely you were happy to take risks. You may even have be-lieved you had a good tolerance for losing money. I did that myself, and I’ve spent many nights staring at the ceiling as a result. So? I’ve shifted more money into bonds. (I now have around 45 percent in stocks.) I’ll make up the difference in potential growth by saving extra money each month. To figure out an appropriate asset allo-cation, start by taking 100, subtract your age, and put that percent into stocks. If it helps you sleep better, sub-tract yet another five from the num-ber or—if you’re conservative like me—10.

Truth #2 Retirement isn’t as much fun as it seems Don’t let the statistics get you down. A lot of people work into their sev-enties because they love what they do and can’t imagine stopping—and others wish they hadn’t quit. “Too many people retire when what they really need is a break,” Losey notes. He surveyed hundreds of baby boomers for his book Retire in a Weekend! and found that all too often, a few months or a couple of years after re-tiring, people are bored and rest-less. A better strategy: “Talk with your employer about a more flexible work schedule or working from home before you stop entirely,” he says. It may be tougher to negotiate right now than in flusher times, but giving a little can get you a little. And it’s worth noting: A delayed retirement can be far more affordable and secure because you don’t need your money to last as long.

Truth #3 Money is like sports: there’s no defense like a good offense In good times and in bad.
http://digg.com/d31B8gd

Absolutely amazing, breathtaking photos. I love the mystery and spacey isolation these images give off. Wish I could find out the photographer of these.

Story.
Source: Cancer Research/NHS
Lung cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in the world. In the UK, it is the second most-frequently occurring cancer, accounting for one in seven new cases.
Nine in ten of these can be squarely blamed on the pernicious effects of tobacco smoking – and unfortunately the majority of cases cannot be cured.
The risk of lung cancer increases with age. It is less common in people under 40.
Recently, there has been a decrease in the incidence in men, but lung cancer is now rising in women in many countries – this is directly related to changing smoking habits.

Professor Gordon McVie, from Cancer Research UK, is an expert in lung cancer, and says that despite the current poor survival rates, optimism is higher than ever among researchers.
He said: “I’ve have been working to research lung cancer treatment for the last 30 years, and there has never been a more optimistic time.
“We haven’t made a big impact on cure rates yet, but I do believe that that is simply a question of time.”
He said that women in Scotland and the north of England were now more likely to die of lung cancer than breast cancer.
SYMPTOMS
The key symptom of lung cancer is a persistent cough that gradually gets worse.
Other symptoms include:
shortness of breath
drop in ability to exercise
persistent chest pain
persistent cough or coughing up blood
loss of appetite, weight loss and general fatigue
At present there is no effective screening test for lung cancer.
If you are worried that you have lung cancer, your doctor may order a chest x-ray, which allows doctors to look out for shadowy areas on the lungs.
Sometimes a more detailed series of x-rays, called a CT scan, is ordered.
In many cases, this will be followed by a bronchoscopy or mediastinoscopy to examine tissue, and possibly collect samples for analysis.
A bronchoscopy involves putting a thin flexible telescope, often with a grabbing device attached down the airways of your lungs.
In contrast, a in mediastinoscopy a small cut is made in the neck just above the breastbone or on the left side of the chest next to the breastbone.
Then a thin scope (mediastinoscope) is inserted through the opening.
CAUSES
Most lung cancer cases are caused by smoking cigarettes.
Even passive smoking can cause a problem, and the longer period over which the patient smokes, the higher the risks.
Breathing in other carcinogens in the workplace, for example asbestos, can also trigger cancer.
Some people seem to be genetically pre-disposed to developing lung cancer, and medical checks in smokers may in future look for these key genes to work out how likely lung cancer is.
TREATMENTS
Treatment depends on the type of lung cancer and the state or extent of the disease.
There are two types of lung cancer, non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and small cell lung cancer (SCLC). The names simply describe the type of cell found in the tumours.
In NSCLC, the tumour is often located in the outside part of the lung, away from the centre, and if it has not spread, it may be possible to remove it by surgery.
However, overall less than a fifth of all NSCLC patients are suitable for surgery.
Chemotherapy and radiotherapy will also be considered in many cases.
Unfortunately, NSCLC is hard to cure, and in many cases, the treatment given will be to prolong life as far as possible – and relieve symptoms.
SCLC is different from NSCLC. In particular, it has a tendency to spread to distant parts of the body at a relatively early stage.
As a result, small-cell lung cancers are generally less likely to be cured by surgery.
Chemotherapy and radiotherapy are used as well.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3243673.stm

A country which is a thinly veiled totalitarian State,to which world has turned a blind eye because of oil,a country where Human Rights violations can not even be voiced because of monetary clout,a place where people flocked to to work for a people who do not know what to do, a Head of the country who is not accountable to any one, where economic transactions are limited to family coterie, with generous doles to foreign corporations, where ordinary citizens have been led to believe building skyscrapers could lead to their happiness, has burst.
Worst is yet to come.
Story:
Wall Street turned lower on Friday, as traders scrambled to play catch-up after downturns in Asian and European markets over the Thanksgiving holiday.

Investors were spooked by reports that Dubai World, the emirate’s investment vehicle, was seeking to suspend repayments on all or part of its $59 billion in debt. That pushed shares down more than 3 percent on European markets on Thursday; Asia markets posted similar declines on Friday.

Immediately after the markets opened, the Dow Jones industrial average fell about 230 points, but shares then started to regain ground. In the last 40 minutes of trading, the Dow was down 1.3 percent or 133 points. The broader Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index fell 1.5 percent or 16 points, and the technology-dominated Nasdaq slipped 1.3 percent or 28 points. The stock markets will close at 1 p.m. Friday after being closed Thursday for Thanksgiving. The bond markets close at 2 p.m.

The dollar was just below $1.50 to the euro, and crude oil prices fell $3.08 to $74.88 in New York trading. Treasury prices rose.

Analysts said they thought Thursday’s declines might be overdone, and that a true picture of the market’s reaction would emerge next week as buyers return from the holiday and as more details on the Dubai situation come out.

“I don’t think it’s devastating at all,” said Jeffrey Saut, chief investment strategist at Raymond James. “Nobody knows the collateral damage, but it is clear that our banks have exposure to European banks.”

A research note Friday from Credit Suisse estimated that European banks may be the hardest hit if Dubai World cannot meet its obligations, with total exposure estimated at 13 billion euros ($19.6 billion). European banks on Friday played down their exposure.

“Dubai is really a symptom, a legacy, from the previous boom, rather than symptomatic of a start of a whole new set of issues that are going to create a systemic crisis in emerging markets,” Kevin Grice, senior international economist at Capital Economics in London, said. “Markets assume the worst-case scenario.”

The uncertainty in Dubai did not suggest a coming collapse of the global real estate market, Mr. Grice said.

European markets closed slightly higher. The FTSE 100 in London was up 52 points, or 1 percent, while the DAX in Frankfurt rose 71 points or 1.3 percent. In Paris, the CAC-40 increased 42 points or 1.2 percent.

In Europe, investors were concerned about the state of public finances and possible credit rating downgrades in Greece and Ireland.

Asian markets fell. The Hang Seng index in Hong Kong declined 4.8 percent and South Korea’s key market gauge, the Kospi, dropped 4.7 percent. The Nikkei 225 index in Japan and the Taiex in Taiwan both sagged 3.2 percent. The market turmoil was touched off by Wednesday’s announcement from Dubai, one of the seven members of the United Arab Emirates, that it was asking banks to allow Dubai World to suspend its debt repayments for six months.

Dubai’s move — the global high-finance equivalent of a homeowner asking the bank to allow six months of skipped mortgage payments because of a shortage of cash — sowed fear of a contagion of instability that could roil markets that are only now recovering from the near cataclysm of the last year.

“This has sent shockwaves through the markets, even though the problems in Dubai have been known about for two years,” Emil Wolter, a Hong Kong-based strategist the Royal Bank of Scotland, said by phone from Paris.

“But it is not the trigger for a brand-new crisis. Yes, the magnitude of the situation is dramatic for Dubai. But Dubai is not America — and a property crisis in Dubai will not cause the same global crisis as a property crisis in the States.”

Some market experts noted, for instance, that while banks that have lent money to Dubai World could suffer significant losses if the company were to default on all or part of its debt, worries about the sovereign debt of oil-rich Middle Eastern countries were unfounded.

Paul Schulte, head of multi-strategy research at Nomura in Hong Kong, commented in a note on Friday: “Dubai was a carbon copy of Thailand’s disastrous foray as an ‘international financial center’ in the 1990s. Happily, the U.A.E. has oil. Thailand did not.”

Like many Western consumers during the good times, Dubai gorged on debt and borrowed too much to finance a building boom that has gone bust in the downturn.

“Dubai was fairly much the worst example of overextension. It had the worst debt per capita in the world by far,” Christopher Davidson, an expert in Gulf politics at Durham University in Britain, said Thursday. “I would like to put it down as a really enormous white elephant that doesn’t have much in common with the regular economy of a regular state.”

When credit markets froze last year, Dubai, like Iceland, found itself overextended. But Dubai, which has little oil, was backed by its Arab emirate neighbors, especially oil-rich Abu Dhabi — or so investors had assumed.

Saud Masud, head of research at UBS in Dubai, said Thursday that negotiators would feel pressure to reach some kind of deal to present to the markets before trading in the region resumes next week after the Eid holiday. The Dubai government’s total debt is estimated at about $80 billion, of which, Mr. Masud estimated, about two-thirds is held by local investors.

Mr. Schulte of Nomura commented in his note that, in his view, “it is not a matter of when but at what price Abu Dhabi will bail out Dubai.”

Mr. Wolter of RBS said he too believed Abu Dhabi would have no choice but to ultimately come to Dubai’s rescue. Until that becomes clear, though, he said, markets would remain extremely nervous.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/28/business/28markets.html?_r=1&hp&emc=na

Bhai,
You are not our neighbor,but our brother,notwithstanding the acrimony between the nations because of self seeking politicians.We,majority of Indians , feel sorry for Pakistan and also are also angry as to why with such a common back ground, people of Pakistan seem to be harboring ill will against us.When your cricketers like Intiqab Alam,Asif Iqbal,Zaheer Abbas,Javed Maindad,not withstanding his clownish behavior,Wasim Akram are considered as our own , what prevents you from understanding us?
Why can not the people of Pakistan show the door to warped generals and corrupt politicians and become friendly with us rather than distant US and a wily China?Why should you not shun the mullahs who spit venom on India?
Why do not you own up your mistakes in treating India as your enemy and know that we have lived together for centuries?

Story:
Dear Indian friend,

I am sorry for the tardiness in marking 26/11. It was not deliberate but as we fight daily battles with terrorism, it is not easy to tell what date it is. Don’t consider this letter a sign of weakness because I am a member of proud nation which will one day prove its potential and take its rightful place in the comity of nations as a progressive and modern country at peace within and without.

I do realize however that day is somewhere in the future and I write to you today as a member of an embattled nation fighting its demons and trying to undo the terrible legacy of the 1980s Afghan War. What happened on 26/11 was probably part of the same cycle and I am sorry that it had to come to what it did on 26/11. India was attacked. The attackers- hardened militants and frankenstein’s monsters created by Pakistan- had not just India in mind but they wanted to embroil Pakistan and India into Nuclear war which could lead to a wider global conflict involving all major powers. Fortunately that has not come to pass. Statesmenship of the highest order is required however to ensure that we don’t allow the militants to succeed.

Please also realize that Bombay – or Mumbai as you call it now- is not just an Indian city but one of the premier Asian cities. For us Pakistanis it is hallowed ground- it was this city that our founding father Mr. Jinnah called his own, where he made a name for himself through sheer hardwork and perseverence and which allowed to rise from humble origins to significance. The Taj – which was attacked- was where Mr. Jinnah spent his honeymoon with his beautiful wife Ruttie – a marriage that itself signified the pluralistic and secular ethos of that magnificent city. It is this city that his grandson has built his business empire in. For us Bombay is sacred ground and like much of India, which is littered with monuments of varying importance and significance to Pakistanis, it is our heritage as much as yours.

So let us attach a new significance to 26/11… let this day signify an awakening on both sides that enough with this “geo-strategic thinking” of one-upping each other. Let this be a day when we realize that the zero-sum game we have played have cost us dear in the past and that Pakistan and India must work together for peace, prosperity and progress of this common subcontinent of ours. Let us base our relationship on intense rivalry in cricket, human development and economic growth. Let us renounce all tactics of a thousand cuts once and for all and realize that it is not hard to make bombs but prosperous nations are known by their intellectual health, civic sense and adherence to human rights. Let us sack irresponsible Bonapartists like your Military chief who threatened a “limited nuclear war” and instead seek inspiration from what India’s first Prime Minister Nehru told Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in New York: “Zulfi, we have to save South Asia from Nuclear War”.

Let 26/11 be a new beginning and perhaps a return to Mr. Jinnah’s vision for India-Pakistan relations modelled on US-Canada relationship.

Yours sincerely,

YLH – Your Pakistani Well-wisher and rival claimant to progress and prosperity
http://pakteahouse.wordpress.com/2009/11/27/marking-2611-a-letter-to-our-neighbors/#comment-21721

What about other side effects like tooth decay,increase cholesterol and tendency to become obese.?
Story:
AUSTRALIAN scientists have confirmed what chocoholics have been praying is true – their favourite comfort food can reduce stress.

Food rich in fat and sugar can alter chemical composition in the brain to reduce anxiety, professor Margaret Morris said.

In a study of rats, Professor Morris, from the University of NSW’s School of Medical Sciences, found effects of past trauma could be erased by “unlimited access to yummy food”.

“Implementing that diet reversed anxiety … it took an animal back to the non-stressed state,” Professor Morris said.

“We really don’t know why, but there seems to be a biochemical link.”

Using two groups of baby rats, one with normal contact with mothers, the other with lengthy separations and higher stress hormones, scientists found they became less stressed with comfort foods.

“The control group had no effect from the diet really, but the stressed animals had a deficit … which was restored by the diet.”

“(The) food seems to affect neurogenesis similar to the way anti-depressants promote nerve growth in the brain.”
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,26398290-5003426,00.html

Please read this along with my piece on’Stifling anger at work can kill-Reuters.’ filed under Health and draw your conclusions.

Story:
A bad temper can lead to a risk of premature heart attack, scientists claim.
Their comments are based on findings that young men who quickly react to stress with anger are three times more likely to develop heart disease.

Research shows these men were five times more likely than their calmer counterparts to have an early heart attack, even without a family history of the condition.

Some expressed their anger, others were able to conceal it, while many became irritable or engaged in “gripe sessions”.

The most important thing angry young men can do is get professional help to manage their tempers

Dr Patricia Chang, who co-ordinated the US-based research, said: “In this study, hot tempers predicted disease long before other traditional risk factors like diabetes and hypertension became apparent.

“The most important thing angry young men can do is get professional help to manage their tempers, especially since previous studies have shown that those who already have heart disease get better with anger management.”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/1939094.stm

Correct.SriLanka has to be chastised for genocide, not world recognition of any sort.
Story:
The UK will try to block Sri Lanka’s bid to host the next Commonwealth summit over its handling of the recent war, a UK government source has said.
Sri Lanka could not be “rewarded” for actions that had a “huge impact on civilians”, the source said.
The current Commonwealth summit is about to get under way in Trinidad and Tobago.
Climate change and the controversial membership bid of Rwanda are also high on the agenda.
Rising sea levels
The 60th anniversary Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting, being held in Port of Spain, begins on Friday.
One of the key issues will be the choice of the 2011 venue.
The Downing Street source said that Prime Minister Gordon Brown had “real concerns about Sri Lanka’s bid”.

Queen Elizabeth will open the summit on Friday
“We simply cannot be in a position where Sri Lanka – whose actions earlier this year had a huge impact on civilians, leading to thousands of displaced people without proper humanitarian access – is seen to be rewarded for its actions.”
The UN estimates the conflict with Tamil Tiger rebels left at least 7,000 civilians dead with 150,000 people still displaced and living in camps.
Climate change will also be high on the agenda, in the last major gathering of international leaders before the global summit on the subject starts in Copenhagen on 7 December.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Danish PM Lars Rasmussen are also attending the Port of Spain summit, to give weight to any statement on the issue.
About half of the Commonwealth’s members are island states, many of them threatened by rising sea levels.

About half of members, like the Maldives, are island states
Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Patrick Manning, who is hosting the three-day meeting, said he hoped the summit could boost momentum for an agreement on carbon emissions at Copenhagen, amid “concerns about the way the negotiations were going”.
“We hope to arrive at a political statement that can add value to the process that will culminate in Copenhagen next month… what we can do is raise our voices politically,” he said.
The Commonwealth’s 53 nations comprise about two billion people, or one-third of the planet’s population.
The leaders are meeting days after pledges by the US and China to limit their greenhouse gas emissions, amid concerns that the Copenhagen meeting could fail to agree substantial cuts.
Zimbabwe issue
The summit will also discuss Rwanda’s entry into the English-speaking club.
The Francophone nation has been seeking membership following disagreements with France over events leading up to the 1994 genocide.
The issue is likely to be controversial. The nation’s entry bid has received strong backing from some member states.
However, some rights activists are angry that entry would reward a nation they say is guilty of abuses dating back to the 1994 genocide.
BBC diplomatic correspondent James Robbins, in Trinidad, says the leaders are expected to admit Rwanda.
He says most of the leaders apparently believe that if Rwanda is admitted, then they will be able to apply peer pressure to improve the lives of its people.
Zimbabwe’s possible re-entry could also be brought up at the meeting.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8382014.stm

Perils of packaged foods.

Story:
Bisphenol A

Bisphenol A (BPA) is one of the most pervasive chemicals in modern life. More than 2 billion pounds of BPA are produced in the United States each year. As the building block of polycarbonate plastic and a component of epoxy resins, BPA is used in thousands of consumer products, including food packaging.

Research suggests that BPA exposure may contribute to the epidemic of breast cancer now and in the future. Furthermore, BPA exposure has been shown to interfere with chemotherapy treatment for breast cancer.

BPA: A Synthetic Estrogen

BPA was developed in the 1930s as a synthetic estrogen (also called xenoestrogen) so it is not surprising that it acts like an estrogen in humans, increasing the risk of breast cancer. Decades of research have shown that extensive exposure to estrogens, both natural and synthetic, increases breast cancer risk. Reducing exposure to estrogens appears to reduce the risk of breast cancer. For example, experts attribute the recent decline in breast cancer incidence to decreased use of postmenopausal hormone replacement therapy (HRT), following the major study that implicated HRT in increased risk of breast cancer.

Studies of human breast cancer cells in culture show that BPA acts through the same response pathways as natural estrogen (estradiol), and induces cell growth and proliferation. In addition, BPA has been shown to mimic natural estrogen (estradiol) in causing direct damage to the DNA of cultured human breast cancer cells.

Principal Route of Exposure to BPA: Food Packaging

BPA is found in the lining of metal food cans and in some plastic food containers, including some baby bottles, water bottles, microwave ovenware and eating utensils. Because BPA is an unstable polymer and is lipophilic (fat-seeking), it can leach into infant formula and other food products, especially when heated. Once in food, BPA can move quickly into people—a real concern for women of childbearing age and for young children.

Exposure to BPA Begins in the Womb

Exposure to BPA is ubiquitous in the United States and other developed countries, and the exposure begins before birth, when the risk of harm is greatest. BPA has been found in blood samples from developing fetuses as well as in placental tissue and the surrounding amniotic fluid, in umbilical cord blood of newborn infants and in human breast milk. Finding BPA in breast milk confirms the presence of this environmental estrogen in the target organ for breast cancer.

A number of animal studies show that prenatal and early life exposure to extremely low levels of BPA alters development of the mammary gland in ways that predispose the animals to cancer in adult life. Exposure also increases sensitivity to estrogen at puberty. Early exposure to BPA also leads to abnormalities in mammary tissue that can be seen during gestation.

Animal studies implicate BPA in childhood obesity, which raises the risk of early puberty, a known risk factor for breast cancer. Formula feeding (BPA lined containers and/or baby bottles) rather than breastfeeding is also linked with childhood obesity.

http://www.breastcancerfund.org/site/c.kwKXLdPaE/b.2638145/k.1E45/Chemical_Fact_Sheet_Bisphenol_A.htm
.

Breakfast-not later than 7 am,Lunch-not later than 1 pm,Dinner-not later than 10 pm.
Breakfast must be heavy;avoid drinking water during meals.Fill the stomach half part,1/4 water,leave 1/4 empty.Avoid oil in breakfast.
Lunch must have leafy vegetables,nothing should be deep fried,oil to be used minimally,use spice rarely,drink butter milk,minimal use of meat and root vegetables.
Dinner-avoid milk products and curds and desserts like ice cream.
Do not engage in conversation while eating.( Source;Indian food habits as per Smriti)
Take fruits in empty stomach.
ScienceDaily (Nov. 26, 2009) — When you eat may be just as vital to your health as what you eat, found researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. Their experiments in mice revealed that the daily waxing and waning of thousands of genes in the liver — the body’s metabolic clearinghouse — is mostly controlled by food intake and not by the body’s circadian clock as conventional wisdom had it.
See Also:

“If feeding time determines the activity of a large number of genes completely independent of the circadian clock, when you eat and fast each day will have a huge impact on your metabolism,” says the study’s leader Satchidananda (Satchin) Panda, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Regulatory Biology Laboratory.
The Salk researchers’ findings, which will be published in a forthcoming issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could explain why shift workers are unusually prone to metabolic syndrome, diabetes, high cholesterol levels and obesity.
“We believe that it is not shift work per se that wreaks havoc with the body’s metabolism but changing shifts and weekends, when workers switch back to a regular day-night cycle,” says Panda.
In mammals, the circadian timing system is composed of a central circadian clock in the brain and subsidiary oscillators in most peripheral tissues. The master clock in the brain is set by light and determines the overall diurnal or nocturnal preference of an animal, including sleep-wake cycles and feeding behavior. The clocks in peripheral organs are largely insensitive to changes in the light regime. Instead, their phase and amplitude are affected by many factors including feeding time.
The clocks themselves keep time through the fall and rise of gene activity on a roughly 24-hour schedule that anticipates environmental changes and adapts many of the body’s physiological function to the appropriate time of day.
“The liver oscillator in particular helps the organism to adapt to a daily pattern of food availability by temporally tuning the activity of thousands of genes regulating metabolism and physiology,” says Panda. “This regulation is very important, since the absence of a robust circadian clock predisposes the organism to various metabolic dysfunctions and diseases.”
Despite its importance, it wasn’t clear whether the circadian rhythms in hepatic transcription were solely controlled by the liver clock in anticipation of food or responded to actual food intake.
To investigate how much influence rhythmic food intake exerts over the hepatic circadian oscillator, graduate student and first author Christopher Vollmers put normal and clock-deficient mice on strictly controlled feeding and fasting schedules while monitoring gene expression across the whole genome.
He found that putting mice on a strict 8-hour feeding/16-hour fasting schedule restored the circadian transcription pattern of most metabolic genes in the liver of mice without a circadian clock. Conversely, during prolonged fasting, only a small subset of genes continued to be transcribed in a circadian pattern even with a functional circadian clock present.
“Food-induced transcription functions like a metabolic sand timer that runs for 24 hours and is continually reset by the feeding schedule while the central circadian clock is driven by self-sustaining rhythms that help us anticipate food, based on our usual eating schedule,” says Vollmers. “But in the real world we don’t eat at the same time every day and it makes perfect sense to increase the activity of metabolic genes when you need them the most.”
For example, genes that encode enzymes needed to break down sugars rise immediately after a meal, while the activity of genes encoding enzymes needed to break down fat is highest when we fast. Consequently a clearly defined daily feeding schedule puts the enzymes of metabolism in shift work and optimizes burning of sugar and fat.
“Our study represents a seminal shift in how we think about circadian cycles,” says Panda. “The circadian clock is no longer the sole driver of rhythms in gene function, instead the phase and amplitude of rhythmic gene function in the liver is determined by feeding and fasting periods — the more defined they are, the more robust the oscillations become.”
While the importance of robust metabolic rhythms for our health has been demonstrated by shift workers’ increased risk of developing metabolic syndrome, the underlying molecular reasons are still unclear. Panda speculates that the oscillations serve one big purpose: to separate incompatible processes, such as the generation of DNA-damaging reactive oxygen species and DNA replication.
Panda, for one, has stopped eating between 8 pm and 8 am and says he feels great. “I even lost weight, although I eat whatever I want during the day,” he says.
Researchers who also contributed the work include postdoctoral researcher Luciano DiTacchio, Ph.D., graduate students Sandhyarani Pulivarthy and Shubhrox Gill, as well as research assistant Hiep Le, all in the Regulatory Biology Laboratory.
The work was funded in part by the National Institutes of Health and the Pew Scholars
Story Source:
Adapted from materials provided by Salk Institute.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091125094321.htm

Seems to be a fair analysis.
India is surging ahead amidst its myriad of problems,Pakistan is unable to come to terms with itself as a Nation.Sticking to a religious ideology that has been the bane of many a Democracy,looking for phantoms that are out to destroy it, when none is in place,to corrupt politicians( India has its fair share of these specimens),a pathetic people who do not raise their voice though there are a proud and intelligent people with culture.,looking for alms from countries that want Pakistan as a tool in their strategic games,allowing uncultured antediluvian mullahs to rouse passions with wrong interpretations of Islam,allowing an usurper to the highest office,exiled criminals being legally pardoned and allowed to have a decisive say in running the country,Pakistan presents a sad spectacle of a noble dream come unstuck.

Story:
Many Pakistanis are still not prepared to develop the patience required to see democracy through its early, evolutionary stages – especially difficult stages as a result of the violence done to it by military dictatorship after military dictatorship. They still look for and believe in personalities, not for a sustainable and equitable system. Many will tell you that the only cause for all of Pakistan’s woes is “humain aaj tak koi ddhang ka leader nahin mila (we never found a decent leader)”. The observation is correct. But the way we have gone about finding a decent leader has been completely wrong.

A number of Pakistani and even Indian readers may not agree with parts of Steve Coll’s relatively short write-up below. But that is not hugely relevant to the main reason it is being reproduced here. The point that it is meant to highlight is that countries do not necessarily need larger than life heroes to lead them out of trouble. Equally importantly, democracy does not necessarily and need not produce such a perfect specimen. Dull, dreary but adequate will do. The system, if strong, will take care of the rest. Statecraft is not really a one-man job. Democracy is the least bad way of ensuring that, more often than not, the whole might just be greater than the sum of its parts.

Manmohan Singh

By Steve Coll The New Yorker, November 24, 2009

The Indian Prime Minister, who appeared at a joint press conference with President Obama today and who will be fêted at Obama’s first state dinner tonight, is not likely to leave much of an impression on the American public. A few may take passing note of his preference for powder-blue turbans. Otherwise, this Sikh economist and Congress Party technocrat with a sonorous but self-effacing voice normally conducts himself in a way designed not to attract too much attention. Politically, he has been the product of a democratic system in India—and particularly, its ungainly Congress coalitions—that tends to reward consensus builders. Then, too, a democracy as pluralistic and relatively crisis-free as India’s is not the sort of system that will produce outsized leaders, for good or ill—a quality that reflects India’s political and constitutional health.

Singh’s low profile is misleading in important respects, however. His counterparts in the rising Hindu-nationalist movement have made more noise and been more proactive in reshaping post-Cold War Indian politics, but Singh has outlasted them all and will be remembered as a seminal figure of India’s transition from socialism and Soviet-leaning nonalignment to managed capitalism and rising power status. He has in many ways been an indispensable figure in India’s recent transitions. As finance minister during the late, sclerotic socialist period, he quietly helped steer the treasury through various close fiscal calls. He defied political convention and called for India to fight off its anti-colonial hangover, recognize the accumulating failure of its state-run economy, and embrace the opportunities of post-Cold War global trade. During the nineteen-nineties, when the Hindu nationalists rose to power, in large part because of their appeal to the country’s emerging urban business classes, Singh helped hold a fragmenting Congress leadership together, in service of Rajiv Gandhi’s Italian-born widow, Sonia, who embraced the Sikh economist as her political partner. When the Hindu nationalists finally ran out of steam, Singh steered Congress back into power, first in unwieldy alliance with leftist parties, and now, finally, in possession of a solid majority.

It was Singh, more than any individual in India, who was prepared to invest his political career in the pursuit of a transformational peace with Pakistan. It was Singh, after the Mumbai attacks, which came on the cusp of national elections, who had the courage to campaign for reëlection on a platform of steely restraint—and who was rewarded by Indian voters. His record may not stand with the great political figures of our age—Mandela, Gorbachev. In his own country’s history, he certainly does not rank with the Gandhis and Nehrus. Yet he is one of those neglected, careful, seemingly incorruptible, admirable figures that [united] India’s independence movement and democracy have managed to produce regularly.

The Pakistani Experience

Indians, Pakistanis and others come up with all sorts of differences between the two countries in order to explain their increasingly divergent trajectories along the road to stability and, lately, prosperity. To many Indians Pakistan is the country of religious zealots created by the treacherously communal Mohammed Ali Jinnah. To many others Jinnah was simply communal, and the question of treachery did not arise since, according to them, he played no part in India’s independence movement. Both these views have now been ably and successfully countered and discredited by a number of leading scholars.

Emphasis has been added to key parts of the last two lines of Mr Coll’s article to show two important aspects of India and Pakistan. The one about Jinnah, Nehru and Gandhi is the common aspect. However, in Pakistan soon after Jinnah died of natural causes at age 72, constitutionalism and rule of law were murdered in their infancy. What followed was a series of self-appointed messiahs with no legitimate right to rule.

The still-born democracy of Pakistan from the time of Liaquat Ali Khan’s assassination is ultimately the only critical difference between the two countries. Almost none of the other differences are as acute, of course always allowing for differences in size and demography. This is a brief investigation into the critical reason for the disproportionate disparity, not lack of equality. Otherwise both countries have had their share of poverty, even of violence. In India they call it communalism and it has tended to manifest itself in short and intense occasional outbursts of senseless violence. In Pakistan, on the other hand, we call it sectarianism and it has been an ongoing, low-intensity war.

It is this critical difference, of the presence of a more than rudimentary system of rule of law in India that allows some hope that the chief organisers and the occasional high-placed aiders and abetters of such violence might be brought to justice one day. At least there isn’t the case of a dictator like Musharraf arbitrarily letting Ahmed Tariq (founder of Sipah Sahaba) out of prison just so that Musharaf’s own man could be Prime Minister. The Indian judicial system may be inefficient, even incompetent, at places, but it is not without a large degree of freedom and credible levels of fairness. Most importantly, India’s democracy, with all its flaws, offers hope looking to the future.

Perhaps the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the legacies of that war have also been a burden not experienced by our eastern neighbour. But, again, it’s a burden made a thousand times worse by the dictatorship at that time.

In Pakistan, almost 60 years of arbitrary rule of one form or another, punctuated with short, abortive periods of controlled democracy, have never allowed an appreciation of either the reality of politics and of politicians in general, or of the importance and utility of a strong system over ‘great and good’ men of absolute power. A large number of people believe in discriminating between good and bad leaders and not necessarily between legitimate and illegitimate power. It seems that hardly any one is able to appreciate or prepared to accept that as long as there is rule of law and a reasonably robust system of checks and balances, even (suspected) crooks amongst politicians and leaders will do. There is not enough of a realisation that allowing the arbitrary power of a strongman to destroy the system in the irrational hope that he might turn out to be the long-awaited saviour is gambling of the most reckless kind. That it’s suicidal to the extent that it is tantamount to putting aside getting on with all the practical issues, responsibilities and requirements of life and betting on and waiting for a miracle to take care of things instead.
http://pakteahouse.wordpress.com/2009/11/26/the-illegitimate-messiah-syndrome/#comment-21600