Despite the fact that the project lacks key suppliers, the EU and Turkey are preparing to sign an intergovernmental agreement on Europe's flagship Nabucco gas pipeline on Monday. The 3,300-kilometer (2,000-mile) pipeline is expected to pump as much as 31 billion cubic meters from the Caspian Sea to Austria via Turkey and the Balkans, bypassing Russia, in what is seen as a bid by the EU to wean itself off its dependency on Moscow's supplies. Europe has suffered from almost annual spats between Russia and its transit countries, specifically Ukraine, which have left some EU countries with drastically reduced oil and gas supplies, sometimes in the depths of winter. The Nabucco line is expected to be the first move away from the Russian supply line and is seen as a rival to Russia's South Stream project. That project has been developed by Russian gas giant Gazprom and Italy's Eni, which will channel Russian gas through Bulgaria to Western Europe under the Black Sea.
The 3,300-kilometer (2,000-mile) pipeline is expected to pump as much as 31 billion cubic meters from the Caspian Sea to Austria via Turkey and the Balkans, bypassing Russia, in what is seen as a bid by the EU to wean itself off its dependency on Moscow's supplies.
Europe has suffered from almost annual spats between Russia and its transit countries, specifically Ukraine, which have left some EU countries with drastically reduced oil and gas supplies, sometimes in the depths of winter.
The Nabucco line is expected to be the first move away from the Russian supply line and is seen as a rival to Russia's South Stream project. That project has been developed by Russian gas giant Gazprom and Italy's Eni, which will channel Russian gas through Bulgaria to Western Europe under the Black Sea.
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The Nabucco project, designed to cut the dependence of energy-hungry Europe on Russian gas, will reach an important milestone later today (13 July) as EU governments and Turkey are set to sign a key transit pact. "The signature will show that we are determined to make the Nabucco pipeline a reality as quickly as possible," European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso said ahead of the signing ceremony, which would effectively end six months of intense negotiations on the use of the pipeline. Nabucco could supply up to 5-10% of the EU's gas demand, the European Commission says The 3,300-kilometer pipeline is expected to run between the Caspian Sea region and Austria, crossing Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary. Ankara, for its part, wanted to take 15 percent of the gas flowing through Nabucco at a discounted price for internal consumption or even for re-exportation, but was not granted this. The Nabucco's entire capacity amounts to 31 billion cubic metres of natural gas per year.
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The Nabucco project, designed to cut the dependence of energy-hungry Europe on Russian gas, will reach an important milestone later today (13 July) as EU governments and Turkey are set to sign a key transit pact.
"The signature will show that we are determined to make the Nabucco pipeline a reality as quickly as possible," European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso said ahead of the signing ceremony, which would effectively end six months of intense negotiations on the use of the pipeline.
Nabucco could supply up to 5-10% of the EU's gas demand, the European Commission says
The 3,300-kilometer pipeline is expected to run between the Caspian Sea region and Austria, crossing Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary.
Ankara, for its part, wanted to take 15 percent of the gas flowing through Nabucco at a discounted price for internal consumption or even for re-exportation, but was not granted this.
The Nabucco's entire capacity amounts to 31 billion cubic metres of natural gas per year.
designed to cut the dependence of energy-hungry Europe on Russian gas,
So many assumptions encapsulated in those few words.
Europe is here defined as "energy-hungry". Try writing "energy-thrifty Europe" instead. What happens to the Nabucco "design"?
Next, it's said that Europe is dependent on gas. How about reducing the proportion of gas in the energy mix? That means investing in renewables and smart networks, not in gas pipelines. What then happens to the Nabucco "design"?
And "Russian"? If Europe has to worry about specific dependence on Russia for gas supplies, the first two points apply. Use less energy, use less gas in the energy mix. And thirdly, don't invest in pipelines from unstable areas that are unlikely ever to supply the full volume... without a helping hand from Russia.
Some "design".
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - A new generation of MEPs will be trying to find their way around the famously labyrinth-like European Parliament building in Strasbourg this week as the constitutive session of the assembly gets under way. Almost half (49.8%) of the 736 deputies have been elected for the first time while women will represent just over a third of the assembly, which is also host to eight former prime ministers and boasts two octogenarians. The main buzz in the corridors will be one of deal-making as deputies divide up committee membership, firm up political alliances and formalise the political groups in parliament. There are 160 national groups represented within the parliament the vast majority of which are housed in the seven political groups ranging from the centre-right European People Party (265 MEPs) to the smallest, the newly-formed eurosceptic and right wing Europe of Freedom and Democracy (EFD) with 30 members. Just 28 MEPs are not non-attached, including the deputies from Britain's far-right BNP and the France's National Front.
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - A new generation of MEPs will be trying to find their way around the famously labyrinth-like European Parliament building in Strasbourg this week as the constitutive session of the assembly gets under way.
Almost half (49.8%) of the 736 deputies have been elected for the first time while women will represent just over a third of the assembly, which is also host to eight former prime ministers and boasts two octogenarians.
The main buzz in the corridors will be one of deal-making as deputies divide up committee membership, firm up political alliances and formalise the political groups in parliament.
There are 160 national groups represented within the parliament the vast majority of which are housed in the seven political groups ranging from the centre-right European People Party (265 MEPs) to the smallest, the newly-formed eurosceptic and right wing Europe of Freedom and Democracy (EFD) with 30 members.
Just 28 MEPs are not non-attached, including the deputies from Britain's far-right BNP and the France's National Front.
736 freshly elected members of the European Parliament will hold their first plenary session on Tuesday in Strasbourg. The assembly is expected to test its new political muscles by postponing the endorsement of the EU commission head. AFP - The freshly-elected European parliament meets Tuesday for its first plenary session, keen to test the new political muscle it will develop once the EU's new reform package enters force. In a short session, starting in earnest in Strasbourg, the 736-member assembly will elect its president, but not the head of the EU's executive arm, the European Commission. Despite pressure to vote this week on the return of Jose Manuel Barroso for a second five-year term as president of the commission, the lawmakers have taken a stand and postponed any endorsement until the autumn.
AFP - The freshly-elected European parliament meets Tuesday for its first plenary session, keen to test the new political muscle it will develop once the EU's new reform package enters force. In a short session, starting in earnest in Strasbourg, the 736-member assembly will elect its president, but not the head of the EU's executive arm, the European Commission. Despite pressure to vote this week on the return of Jose Manuel Barroso for a second five-year term as president of the commission, the lawmakers have taken a stand and postponed any endorsement until the autumn.
The Union for the Mediterranean, launched a year ago, was meant to revive cooperation between the EU and countries bordering on the Mediterranean. But little progress has been made on pressing issues in the region. For almost 14 years now, the member states of the European Union have been working with 16 partners across the Southern Mediterranean and the Middle East on regional projects. This network used to be known as the Barcelona Process, but in 2008, it was re-launched as the Union for the Mediterranean, or Euromed, by the ever-industrious French President, Nicolas Sarkozy at the time of his European presidency. Euromed is the only EU body in which both Israel and Arab states are represented, and if Sarkozy had prevailed, it would have only counted countries with a Mediterranean coastline among its members. But German Chancellor Angela Merkel protested against this exclusive "Club Med" and eventually, she got her way. Sarkozy opened his Mediterranean Union to all 27 EU member states. At a short summit in Paris on July 13, 2008, 43 members officially joined Euromed.
For almost 14 years now, the member states of the European Union have been working with 16 partners across the Southern Mediterranean and the Middle East on regional projects. This network used to be known as the Barcelona Process, but in 2008, it was re-launched as the Union for the Mediterranean, or Euromed, by the ever-industrious French President, Nicolas Sarkozy at the time of his European presidency.
Euromed is the only EU body in which both Israel and Arab states are represented, and if Sarkozy had prevailed, it would have only counted countries with a Mediterranean coastline among its members.
But German Chancellor Angela Merkel protested against this exclusive "Club Med" and eventually, she got her way. Sarkozy opened his Mediterranean Union to all 27 EU member states. At a short summit in Paris on July 13, 2008, 43 members officially joined Euromed.
Launched on 13 July 2008 in Paris, the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) is basically a remodelling of the Barcelona Process that Spain helped get off the ground back in 1995. There was really no need to go to all that trouble, but Nicolas Sarkozy originally had something very different in mind when he initiated this second phase. In February 2007, on the stump in Toulon, the then presidential candidate proposed setting up a union made up solely of countries on the Mediterranean coast to supersede the Barcelona Process, which had not made much headway in 12 years' time. Sarkozy's objectives were threefold: the immediate goal was to woo French voters of North African or Middle Eastern descent by announcing large-scale development projects on the southern coast of the Mediterranean. A more long-term goal was to re-establish French hegemony in the region. And the third, more surreptitious object, was to provide a way out for Turkey, seeing as France remained adamantly opposed to its full integration into the EU. From the outset, the project had to reckon with staunch opposition from Italy and Spain, and, even after a thoroughgoing overhaul, it was only saved by the intervention of Germany, which, though obviously not a Mediterranean country, is nonetheless heavily involved in the region by dint of its economic interests. So the UfM morphed into an EU 27 institution that was to press ahead with the Barcelona Process, which, in the words of Angela Merkel, "just needed to be revitalized". And when Spain succeeded in getting the permanent secretariat domiciled in Barcelona, it no longer raised any objections to the re-establishment of the UfM.
Launched on 13 July 2008 in Paris, the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) is basically a remodelling of the Barcelona Process that Spain helped get off the ground back in 1995. There was really no need to go to all that trouble, but Nicolas Sarkozy originally had something very different in mind when he initiated this second phase.
In February 2007, on the stump in Toulon, the then presidential candidate proposed setting up a union made up solely of countries on the Mediterranean coast to supersede the Barcelona Process, which had not made much headway in 12 years' time. Sarkozy's objectives were threefold: the immediate goal was to woo French voters of North African or Middle Eastern descent by announcing large-scale development projects on the southern coast of the Mediterranean. A more long-term goal was to re-establish French hegemony in the region. And the third, more surreptitious object, was to provide a way out for Turkey, seeing as France remained adamantly opposed to its full integration into the EU.
From the outset, the project had to reckon with staunch opposition from Italy and Spain, and, even after a thoroughgoing overhaul, it was only saved by the intervention of Germany, which, though obviously not a Mediterranean country, is nonetheless heavily involved in the region by dint of its economic interests. So the UfM morphed into an EU 27 institution that was to press ahead with the Barcelona Process, which, in the words of Angela Merkel, "just needed to be revitalized". And when Spain succeeded in getting the permanent secretariat domiciled in Barcelona, it no longer raised any objections to the re-establishment of the UfM.
Then, one year later, where's the beef?
If actions speak louder than words, well, our president is much quieter than you would believe... Europeans think a hundred miles is a long way. Americans think a hundred years is a long time.
In an off-the-cuff remark caught on camera, US President Barack Obama told German Chancellor Angela Merkel she was bound to win the September election. The forecast has annoyed Germany's Social Democrats. It's not easy for a German camera crew working at the White House to get a good spot for their camera. In terms of priority rankings, the German media are about as important as the Albanians. Which is why Heike Slansky, a correspondent for German public service channel ZDF had to be particularly persistent in her efforts for footage when Chancellor Angela Merkel came to visit President Barack Obama in America at the end of June. All smiles: Barack Obama is apparently confident that Angela Merkel will win re-election in September. "At first we were only allowed to film the Chancellor's arrival," the German journalist recalled. However shortly before the meeting, her television crew learned that they would also be able to film Obama and Merkel making their way from the Oval office to a press conference in the East Room of the White House. And as the leaders strode down the corridor, their respective press secretaries -- Robert Gibbs and Ulrich Wilhelm -- in tow, something happened that Slansky still doesn't quite understand. 'You've Already Won' Just as Obama and Merkel were walking past the camera, the German chancellor said: "We have to prepare our election campaign." Obama smiled, waved his left hand somewhat nonchalantly and said, "Ah, you've already won. I don't know what you always worry about."
In an off-the-cuff remark caught on camera, US President Barack Obama told German Chancellor Angela Merkel she was bound to win the September election. The forecast has annoyed Germany's Social Democrats.
It's not easy for a German camera crew working at the White House to get a good spot for their camera. In terms of priority rankings, the German media are about as important as the Albanians. Which is why Heike Slansky, a correspondent for German public service channel ZDF had to be particularly persistent in her efforts for footage when Chancellor Angela Merkel came to visit President Barack Obama in America at the end of June.
All smiles: Barack Obama is apparently confident that Angela Merkel will win re-election in September. "At first we were only allowed to film the Chancellor's arrival," the German journalist recalled. However shortly before the meeting, her television crew learned that they would also be able to film Obama and Merkel making their way from the Oval office to a press conference in the East Room of the White House. And as the leaders strode down the corridor, their respective press secretaries -- Robert Gibbs and Ulrich Wilhelm -- in tow, something happened that Slansky still doesn't quite understand.
'You've Already Won'
Just as Obama and Merkel were walking past the camera, the German chancellor said: "We have to prepare our election campaign." Obama smiled, waved his left hand somewhat nonchalantly and said, "Ah, you've already won. I don't know what you always worry about."
The French justice minister asked a prosecutor to appeal for longer prison terms against "gang of barbarians" members jailed last week for a gruesome anti-Semitic murder. The victim's sister said on FRANCE 24 that she was satisfied with the appeal. France's justice minister asked a prosecutor on Monday to appeal for increased jail terms against members of a gang imprisoned last week for kidnapping a young Jewish man, torturing him and leaving him to die. "We feel reassured that the minister heard us and reacted so quickly," said the victim's sister, Yael Halimi, during an interview with FRANCE 24. Referring to the gang members who lured Halimi into a trap and who held him hostage, she said: "The sentences handed over to the jailers and the bait were not in line with Ilan's ordeal."
France's justice minister asked a prosecutor on Monday to appeal for increased jail terms against members of a gang imprisoned last week for kidnapping a young Jewish man, torturing him and leaving him to die. "We feel reassured that the minister heard us and reacted so quickly," said the victim's sister, Yael Halimi, during an interview with FRANCE 24. Referring to the gang members who lured Halimi into a trap and who held him hostage, she said: "The sentences handed over to the jailers and the bait were not in line with Ilan's ordeal."
The concern expressed was that clemency would convey the message that, at the end of the day, the French state justice is much more clement than the "neighborhood justice" and one would be better off keeping silent and submitting to the gang leaders rule...
The other concern is that there were a lot of very public and very loud calls for the Ministry of Justice to file an appeal. An emotionally charged atmosphere that is decidedly not conducive to the serenity needed for an appropriate carriage of justice. Europeans think a hundred miles is a long way. Americans think a hundred years is a long time.
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Germany's debate on how much national say there should be over further EU integration is intensifying two weeks after the country's constitutional court handed down a significant judgement on the EU's Lisbon Treaty. The judgement was initially greeted with relief by the pro-integration camp as it did not say the EU treaty was incompatible with the German constitution. How much say should Germany's parliament have over EU decisions' But the 147-page ruling, now scoured by legal and constitutional experts, is causing strong discussion in political circles, just weeks before a new draft law incorporating the court's points is to be published. Only after this law has been approved by parliament, may final ratification of the Lisbon Treaty - the signature by the German president - be completed. The 30 June judgement said that parliament should have final say when the EU seeks to extend competences beyond what is foreseen in the Lisbon treaty.
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Germany's debate on how much national say there should be over further EU integration is intensifying two weeks after the country's constitutional court handed down a significant judgement on the EU's Lisbon Treaty.
The judgement was initially greeted with relief by the pro-integration camp as it did not say the EU treaty was incompatible with the German constitution.
How much say should Germany's parliament have over EU decisions'
But the 147-page ruling, now scoured by legal and constitutional experts, is causing strong discussion in political circles, just weeks before a new draft law incorporating the court's points is to be published.
Only after this law has been approved by parliament, may final ratification of the Lisbon Treaty - the signature by the German president - be completed.
The 30 June judgement said that parliament should have final say when the EU seeks to extend competences beyond what is foreseen in the Lisbon treaty.
German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrück was right to criticize a recent law guaranteeing pension levels in the long term, media commentators write. The government passed the law because it wanted to pander to 20 million elderly voters ahead of the September general election. German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrück, never one to mince his words, has angered his own party, the Social Democrats (SPD), by criticizing recent legislation guaranteeing that pensions won't be cut. Now his party comrades are urging him to take a long vacation to avoid damaging the party's already slender chances of winning the Sept. 27 general election. Straight talker: German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrück. The law, passed by the Bundestag lower house of parliament in June, was devised by SPD Labor Minister Olaf Scholz, and enshrines a long-term guarantee that pensions won't be cut, regardless of how badly the economy develops. "I have big doubts whether that's the right signal for following generations," straight-talking Steinbrück, who recently accused Britain of obstructing regulatory reforms of financial markets, told the Frankfurter Rundschau newspaper. He said today's pensioners were better off than ever before and that pensions were rising faster than they had been for years while people in work were afraid of losing their jobs in the economic crisis.
German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrück was right to criticize a recent law guaranteeing pension levels in the long term, media commentators write. The government passed the law because it wanted to pander to 20 million elderly voters ahead of the September general election.
German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrück, never one to mince his words, has angered his own party, the Social Democrats (SPD), by criticizing recent legislation guaranteeing that pensions won't be cut. Now his party comrades are urging him to take a long vacation to avoid damaging the party's already slender chances of winning the Sept. 27 general election.
Straight talker: German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrück. The law, passed by the Bundestag lower house of parliament in June, was devised by SPD Labor Minister Olaf Scholz, and enshrines a long-term guarantee that pensions won't be cut, regardless of how badly the economy develops.
"I have big doubts whether that's the right signal for following generations," straight-talking Steinbrück, who recently accused Britain of obstructing regulatory reforms of financial markets, told the Frankfurter Rundschau newspaper. He said today's pensioners were better off than ever before and that pensions were rising faster than they had been for years while people in work were afraid of losing their jobs in the economic crisis.
Utrecht city councillor Marka Spit says she is going to ignore Dutch Integration Minister Eberhard van der Laan's plan to abolish segregated integration courses as of January 2009. Various Dutch media report that the two politicians, both members of the Labour Party (PvdA), disagree on whether segregated integration classes benefit or undermine the emancipation of Muslim women in the Netherlands. Dutch law requires nearly all newcomers to the country, other than European immigrants, to take a combined Dutch language and integration course, either inside or outside the Netherlands. The requirement, however, also applies to immigrants who have already been living in the country for some time. The idea behind offering separate courses for men and women is to attract Muslim women who would otherwise not - be allowed to - attend because of their faith. Marka Spit says women should, at the very least, be offered the option of following the course in a single-sex setting.
Utrecht city councillor Marka Spit says she is going to ignore Dutch Integration Minister Eberhard van der Laan's plan to abolish segregated integration courses as of January 2009. Various Dutch media report that the two politicians, both members of the Labour Party (PvdA), disagree on whether segregated integration classes benefit or undermine the emancipation of Muslim women in the Netherlands.
Dutch law requires nearly all newcomers to the country, other than European immigrants, to take a combined Dutch language and integration course, either inside or outside the Netherlands. The requirement, however, also applies to immigrants who have already been living in the country for some time.
The idea behind offering separate courses for men and women is to attract Muslim women who would otherwise not - be allowed to - attend because of their faith. Marka Spit says women should, at the very least, be offered the option of following the course in a single-sex setting.
Dutch law requires nearly all newcomers to the country, other than European immigrants, to take a combined Dutch language and integration course
Muslim women who would otherwise not - be allowed to - attend
After a first reading, the Lithuanian parliament has passed amendments to the penal code criminalising the promotion of same-sex relationships. "If the amendments get through the two remaining readings, homosexuals will face penalties ranging from forced labour through to fines and detention," reports Polish daily Dziennik. Penalties for "gay agitation" would apply to both individuals and organisations. The opposition conservative and eurosceptic party Order and Justice (TiT) is agitating for a minimum fine set at €325, the maximum €1,750. A couple of months ago the Lithuanian right sought to push through parliament a bill that equated homosexuality with zoophilia and necrophilia, providing not only fines but also prison sentences for speaking favourably about gay tendencies.
Considerable lionising of the male physique? What's more gay than that? "Pretending that you already know the answer when you don't is not actually very helpful." ~Migeru.
But nevertheless, the Soviet era nationalist artwork did venerate a certain uber masculinity where that message could be seriously adopted, subverted and undermined by any acceptance of gayness. keep to the Fen Causeway
Street markets, long family lunches, strolls in the park . . . For the French, Sunday is a great tradition, a time to enjoy the finer things in life while other silly countries such as Britain keep working. So President Sarkozy's plan to "abolish Sunday" and let the shops open is running into a hail of criticism. Parliament is due to pass a Bill tomorrow to ease France's strict trading laws, but hostility to it is so widespread that some MPs in Mr Sarkozy's own centre-right camp predict that it could unravel before becoming law. The President's plan to abolir le dimanche is being resisted by an unlikely coalition of interests, including the centre and left-wing Opposition, the Roman Catholic Church, the trade unions and small shopkeepers who fear losing their existing Sunday business to supermarkets. Up to 60 per cent of the public, according to polls, are also against a scheme that will reverse the century-old right to a day of rest.
Street markets, long family lunches, strolls in the park . . . For the French, Sunday is a great tradition, a time to enjoy the finer things in life while other silly countries such as Britain keep working. So President Sarkozy's plan to "abolish Sunday" and let the shops open is running into a hail of criticism.
Parliament is due to pass a Bill tomorrow to ease France's strict trading laws, but hostility to it is so widespread that some MPs in Mr Sarkozy's own centre-right camp predict that it could unravel before becoming law.
The President's plan to abolir le dimanche is being resisted by an unlikely coalition of interests, including the centre and left-wing Opposition, the Roman Catholic Church, the trade unions and small shopkeepers who fear losing their existing Sunday business to supermarkets. Up to 60 per cent of the public, according to polls, are also against a scheme that will reverse the century-old right to a day of rest.
And defining who "wants" to work on a sunday is pretty hard. Not accepting that usually means being shown the door. Un roi sans divertissement est un homme plein de misères
The first full analysis of the H1N1 virus, published in Nature, shows it causes more lung damage in animals than seasonal flu. For two strains of virus tested, five times less was needed to cause the same damage as seasonal flu. Damage to the lungs increases the risk of pneumonia which is the commonest cause of complications, severe illness and death in flu epidemics.
I want to purchase this article: Katharine Sanderson,"Swine flu reaches into the lungs and gut", Nature News (2 July 2009) Price: US$8 In order to purchase this article you must be a registered user.
Price: US$8
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more revelations...
'Treatment Phase,' Course for 30M Brits | BBC | 2 July 2009
"Cases are doubling every week and on this trend we could see over 100,000 cases per day by the end of August." ...
The numbers are clear. Out of tens of thousands of infections in the UK, people are dying in their tens. Barely.
I suppose it's lucky we're descended from apes and not from obese ferrets, or we'd really be in trouble.
...we're descended from apes and not from obese ferrets...
Can we declare an official WHO Health Hysteria AlertTM yet?
No.
First, female employees must be sequestered;
Male model must be hired International Presenter™,
equipped with revised WHO script to acknowledge supreme leaders strep and CAP;
one 3m2 blackline anatomical drawing titled PNEUMONIA that illustrates
THERE IS NO DOOR BETWEEN NASAL CAVITY, MOUTH, AND LUNGS
and
WHERE LIVE MICRO-ORGANISMS DISPLACE AIR,
immune response also destroys "respiratory tissues";
and one 3m2 blackline technical drawing titled INTUBATION that illustrates
modern medicine,
THE ONGOING FAILURE TO INVENT RELIABLE CLINICAL TREATMENT OF ACUTE PNEUMONIAS,
increases probability of death
and professional panic. Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
Michael M. Patterson, PhD, "The Coming Influenza Pandemic: Lessons From the Past for the Future", JOMA. 2005
....In 1918, C.P. McConnell, DO,11 reported that the most effective treatment during the influenza pandemic was begun early in the onset of symptoms (within the first 24 hours) and consisted of carefully applied muscular relaxation and, most importantly, relaxation of the deep and extensive contractions of the deep spinal musculature and mobilization of the spine. These treatments would be repeated two or three times early in the course of the infection, along with traditional supportive measures such as hydration. During later influenza epidemics, such as the 1928-1929 and the 1936-1937 outbreaks, various lymphatic pump treatments and more attention to the cervical and upper thoracic regions were added to this recommended treatment protocol.12 These treatments, individualized to each patient's needs, were apparently the most commonly applied osteopathic medical procedures during the epidemics. It seems possible that the mechanisms of action of these treatments were to diminish somatic inputs from contracted muscles that had further stimulated the already overactive sympathetic system. This hyperreactivity exacerbated the counterproductive and deadly immune response. During the later phases of infection, osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT) likely enhanced lymphatic drainage and encouraged appropriate immune response. While we have no controlled data on the effects of OMT on the pandemic influenza, several studies have shown the effects of OMT on somewhat related diseases. For example, Noll et al13 demonstrated that OMT given to elderly patients with pneumonia decreases medication use and hospital stay. More recently, Knott et al14 showed in a canine model that lymphatic treatment greatly increases lymph flow in the thoracic duct....
It seems possible that the mechanisms of action of these treatments were to diminish somatic inputs from contracted muscles that had further stimulated the already overactive sympathetic system. This hyperreactivity exacerbated the counterproductive and deadly immune response. During the later phases of infection, osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT) likely enhanced lymphatic drainage and encouraged appropriate immune response.
While we have no controlled data on the effects of OMT on the pandemic influenza, several studies have shown the effects of OMT on somewhat related diseases. For example, Noll et al13 demonstrated that OMT given to elderly patients with pneumonia decreases medication use and hospital stay. More recently, Knott et al14 showed in a canine model that lymphatic treatment greatly increases lymph flow in the thoracic duct....
ht energyecon ;) Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
great news about lymph drainage, this is one really powerfully helpful therapy, invented in Austria.
good catch, MT! ~Government budget deficits are not nearly as dangerous as the deficits we have created in vital and complex natural systems.~ Naomi Klein.
then again, i'm sure he'd have been in a permanent, CNN-induced apoplectic state since March. Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
While waiting its dread mutation, look! CAP and Pneumonia severity index.
There are over a hundred microorganisms which can cause CAP. The most common types of microorganisms are different among different groups of people. Newborn infants, children, and adults are at risk for different spectrums of disease causing microorganisms. In addition, adults with chronic illnesses, who live in certain parts of the world, who reside in nursing homes, who have recently been treated with antibiotics, or who are alcoholics are at risk for unique infections. Even when aggressive measures are taken, a definite cause for pneumonia is only identified in half the cases.... Viruses cause 20% of CAP cases.
Viruses cause 20% of CAP cases.
knowing rummy is a part-owner of tamilflu does wonders for the immune system, lol! ~Government budget deficits are not nearly as dangerous as the deficits we have created in vital and complex natural systems.~ Naomi Klein.
Lawsuit puts flu-vaccine contract in doubt | Nature | 30 June 2009
A US office tasked with readying the country for influenza pandemics received an unpleasant surprise last week, when creditors filed a lawsuit intended to force one of its new grantees into bankruptcy. The lawsuit was filed the day before the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) in Washington DC announced it had awarded a US$35-million contract to Protein Sciences, a biotechnology company in Meriden, Connecticut.
The lawsuit was filed the day before the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) in Washington DC announced it had awarded a US$35-million contract to Protein Sciences, a biotechnology company in Meriden, Connecticut.
UK Financial Investments (UKFI) said in its annual report that its loss on the two stakes - 70pc of RBS and 43pc of Lloyds Banking Group - had reached £10.9bn at the end of June. The losses, which are not yet realised, have been wracked up since Gordon Brown was forced to inject billions into the troubled lenders in October. The investment, which amounts to more than £3,000 that each UK household, will not be quickly disposed of. The recession is continuing to hit both banks hard.
The losses, which are not yet realised, have been wracked up since Gordon Brown was forced to inject billions into the troubled lenders in October.
The investment, which amounts to more than £3,000 that each UK household, will not be quickly disposed of. The recession is continuing to hit both banks hard.
So having tried with the referendum, that was blocked in the Court of Cassation with the disappearance of a few thousand signatures, having tried with the popular initiative laws, at a standstill in Parliament Vizzini, the committee, you know everything, now he is trying, having tried with the Civic Lists, that anyway have given great results because they have infiltrated into many town and provincial assemblies at least one representative armed with a video camera and a vigilant eye, now he is trying out throwing a pebble into the pond of the Primaries. The interesting thing, still more interesting than Grillo's candidacy, is the reaction of the Democratic Party politburo, these indignant "parrucconi" {bewigged folk}. Shame. Grillo. Let's keep him out. A provocation. He has not got the credentials. He has attacked us and therefore he cannot come in. These moulds who are there encrusted to the night of Jurassic Park, do not realise these poor things, because by now you have to pity them, are bundles of bones, who the more they get angry, the more they make the game interesting . They do not realise that the more they get angry, and the more they show that they are afraid of Grillo, anyway as they are the holders of 26 and something per cent of the vote, it seems that they are losing a thousand votes a day, which means that they are really at the moment of the gas pipe. Why? Because there are two possibilities: either Grillo gets few votes at the Primaries and then they could say: see, it was a bluff, he's not liked by our voters, he made a mistake with the party and so why bother, - or otherwise Grillo gets loads of votes and then they would have to ask why, who is it that goes to the Primaries of the Democratic Party to vote for Beppe Grillo? Democratic Party voters who agree with what Grillo says. So perhaps rather than talking about Grillo, his language, his beard, his image, and facial characteristics, perhaps they would be better to ask why a part of the Democratic Party, even though Grillo has always been attacking the Democratic Party, perhaps they agree with what he is saying. Could it be that to hear talk of the environment, of the fight against nuclear and about zero refuse, you have to go to Grillo's blog? Is it that in order to hear talk of public water you have to go to Grillo's blog? That to hear about the Aldrovandi case, possibly before the verdict that convicted the police officers, you have to go to Grillo's blog or to participate in V-Day and to hear talk of the convicts in Parliament, you have to go to those places and to hear talk about so many other really important issues, thinking just of the whole topic of development, of the degrowth, of green cars, all topics that are at Obama's fingertips and that Grillo has been dealing with for years and that the Centre-Left is not dealing with, well then perhaps, if they want to defeat Grillo at the Primaries they should try and steal from him his job, they should start to talk about some of these things that are anything but "qualunquist" {populist} things or even comic. They are normal things for normal politics. But instead they get angry. They shriek. They prepare codicils to block his route. I believe that even if it only lasts a week, this candidacy has already given rise to its effects because it has already demonstrated which part of the Democratic Party is dead and buried and which part still has hope.
