It was a full house with the speaker giving a well received talk on investigative journalism throughout the world and then answering questions put to him about specific concerns of IOM residents.
Investigative journalism assists the citizen in their right to know, helping accountability, stamping out injustice, secrecy and wrongs commtted by the powerful against the weak without fear or favour. It "comforts the afflicted and afflicts the comfortable!"
A good journalist has no special fri
IF I KNEW
If I knew it would be the last time
That I'd see you fall asleep,
I would tuck you in more tightly
and pray the Lord, your soul to keep.
If I knew it would be the last time
that I see you walk out the door,
I would give you a hug and kiss
and call you back for one more
If I knew it would be the last time
I'd hear your voice lifted up in praise,
I would video tape each action and word,
so I could play them back day after day.
If I knew i
There is nothing sadder than a Christian fellowship where every song must be of victory, every prayer full of faith, every member always smiling and joyful. It is an exhausting pretence to keep up for long, and it condemns those who cannot hide from their fears to further pain of failure and inadequacy. It is actually dishonest. It means that we can never offer our tears as well as our smiles, our questions as well as our certainties, our wounds as well as our victories. It means that we are alw
Both too much and too little sleep linked to disease and death
Mortality increases are associated with both too much and too little sleep, a new analysis of the Whitehall II study data among civil servants has revealed.
Researchers at the University of Warwick and UCL found they could identify effects on mortality and disease resulting from sleep patterns many years before, even when other factors such as age, alcohol consumption, smoking and so on were taken into account.
Results from
From US/Eastern News of August 12th 2007 comes a story of a most innovative and excellent form of recycling that could save our authorities a fortune, save our shorelines and our marine ecosystem and overcome the problem of glass disposal to boot. That this would also place cohesive granular material back on our beaches that would help arrest the sand draw down on our steepening and non-cohesive shores is yet a further advantage.
http://cbs4.com/consumer/local_story_234142623.html
Broward'
Walking even a short distance a few times a week can yield dramatic improvements in health.
On a relaxing stroll, a walker can burn 200 to 300 calories an hour, shedding pounds with minimal exertion. With a little more effort, the pounds fall away. Walking helps develop stamina, forces oxygen-rich blood into tissues, and improves circulation, and all without the trauma to the knees, hips, and ankles that running and jogging can produce.
The benefits of walking, however, go well beyond t
Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson went on a camping trip. In the middle of the night Holmes awoke and nudged his faithful friend. “Watson, look up at the sky and tell me what you see.”
Watson looked up at the night’s sky, and a vista of God’s creation was spread out before him.
Watson replied, “I see millions and millions of stars.” “What does that tell you Watson?” “Well…astronomically, it tells me that there are millions of galaxies and potentially billions of planets. Horologically
The term "eco-driving" is starting to appear. It saves money, ensures that driving is safer and not only saves lives and injuries but helps to save the planet.
Average CO2 emissions from new cars in the UK in 2006 were 167.2g/km. This can be substantially reduced by "Eco-driving" i.e. driving a vehicle in such a way that it has as little impact on the environment as possible.
This can include, for example:
adhering to speed limits
accelerating gently, keeping speed constant
Bowel Cancer Gene Location Could Save Thousands of
Lives.
Scientists at The Institute of Cancer Research have identified a common genetic variant
that can increase a person's risk of developing bowel cancer. Their findings appear in a
paper published in Nature Genetics.
Several genes are already known to contribute to bowel cancer risk. However, these are
extremely rare among the population – only around one person in every 2,500 carries any
of the known bowel
Research at the University of Michigan suggests creating “Teflon” versions of natural antibiotics found in frog skin can make
potential drugs better at thwarting bacterial defences leading possibly to a better antibiotic. It is all down to antimicrobial
peptides (AMPs). These are produced by most animals and they are the immune system’s early line of defence against
microbes trying to penetrate skin, mucous membranes and other surfaces. Injured or infected frog skin as well as t
Chocolate Medicine
The cocoa tree (Theobroma cacao) has great potential to benefit the public health and
many of the countries where it is grown. There are some 150 different chemicals in its
leaves, fruits, seeds and bark. The medicinal use of the cocoa plant goes back into
antiquity to the Olmec, Mayan and Aztec civilisations.
According to leading research scientists flavanol - rich foods such as specific cocoas
could provide health benefits in the m
Doctors aren’t bovver’d!
The July edition of the International Journal of Clinical Practice reports on research carried out at Birmingham University and Lund University in Sweden. 750 doctors from Belgium, Brazil, Denmark, Finland, France, Mexico, Portugal, Singapore, South Korea and the U.K. took part in a 'From the Heart' study.
61% of doctors felt it was acceptable for only 47% of their patients reaching their cholesterol goals. “Although doctors appear to appreciate the risks associated
Imhotep “Father of Medicine” (2980 B.C.)
We have been misled to believe that ancient Greeks, particularly Hippocrates, were the fathers of medicine . A research team from the KNH Centre for Biomedical Egyptology at Manchester University now say from evidence in medical papyri written in 1,500 BC - some 1,000 years before Hippocrates was born, that Imhotep is the true Father of Medicine.
Imhotep lived during the Third Dynasty at the court of King Djoser. He was a scribe, chi
As statins are commonly prescribed and are useful in preventing strokes, heart attacks I thought this recent review published in the Lancet would be of interest. Any problems of course should be referred to your doctor as soon as possible. Other measures apart from statin use should be pursued including life style changes - more exercise, dietary changes, cutting down alcohol consumption, reducing weight are normally recommended either before considering statin treatment or as well as statin u
Research shows that however green we are in the home, most of us leave our eco-habits behind when we clock in for the nine to five. For those of you who can see what needs to be done in your office, but don't know how to go about doing it, here's an eight-point guide put together by the Low Carbon Innovation Network.
Step 1: From tiny acorns...
If staff are pretty good at switching off lights but always leave their computers on, just focus on changing one issue at a time.
'One notew
Anita Roddick has pointed me to this website - World on Fire:
www.worldonfire.ca
where singer/songwriter Sarah McLachlan compares the
the production costs of making a music video to the needs of global poverty.
It’s worth a visit.
If you are like me in that your night vision is not as good as it should be, you may be interested in recent American research which suggests chlorophyll derivate chlorine e6 enhances eye sensitivity to red light. So eating your greens rather than carrots could be the key to good night-time vision.
In sight, light activates a visual pigment that sends an electrical signal to the brain. This process happens in the retina in cone and rod cells. Rod cells are insensitive to colour and the c
Scratch no more: Gene for itch sensation discovered: Itching for a better anti-itch remedy? Your wish may soon be granted now that scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have identified the first gene for the itch sensation in the central nervous system. The discovery could rapidly lead to new treatments directly targeting itchiness and providing relief for chronic and severe itching. The "itch gene" is GRPR (gastrin-releasing peptide receptor), which codes for a rec
You may think that poverty means you have a poorer diet and this in turn causes obesity. This view is challenged.
A recent study from the Food Standards Agency seems to contradict the commonly held view that poor diet and poor health generally are caused by poverty (see for example a 2005 report from the Faculty of Public Health, Food Poverty and Health).
Both studies in reality paint a more complex picture. For example, the FSA say that whilst there may be no evidence of a link between
As there is a fair amount of interst in evolution on this Forum I thought I would look into some of the recent research. As a pharmacist, the chemical processes interest me. Some of the most pioneering research is being carried out in California. This is one current report explaining that before life emerged on earth, either a primitive kind of metabolism or an RNA-like duplicating machinery must have set the stage. But what preceded these pre-life steps?
A pair of University of Californi
For those of you who wonder what the meaning of some of the directions may be on your prescription I thought I would help. This is not comprehensive but I hope it is illuminating for some of those obscure acronyms of Latin origin.
p.o. - per os - taken by mouth
i.p. - intraperitoneal - injected into the peritoneal cavity
i.v. - intravenous - injected in a vein.
s.c. -sub-cutaneously - injected under/into the skin
i.m. - intramuscular
q.i.d. - quad in diem - four times a
If you think that the idea of a morning person or an evening person is nonsense, then postgraduate student Martin Sale and his colleagues from the University of Adelaide have news for you.
They have found that the time of day influences your brain's ability to learn - and the human brain learns more effectively in the evening.
And by identifying at what point in the day the brain is best able to operate, rehabilitation therapy can be targeted to that time, when recovery is maximised.
