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Opioid Addiction Caused by Long Wait for Operation

The medical community has just noticed a fact that many have known for years - Waiting a long time for an operation can lead to opioid addiction. It is easy to get opiates from GPs just by telling them that you are in excruciating pain and an operation is a long way off. Shane Jackson president of the Tasmanian Pharmaceutical Society says money should be spent on more pain management specialist. This is a waste considering they only tell patients to take paracetamol that does not stop strong pain. Setting up a data base will only lead to patients being denied opiates so they experience more pain and suffering. Blame the patients has always been easy to do. A data base will stop people getting morphine derivatives from all GPs. This creates an added problem. The solution is more medical staff and facilities to do more operations. Reducing the risk of opiate addiction can be solved by denying patients access to such drugs, Though they may turn up in the hospital emergency departme

Bird Likes Real Cheddar Cheese

"Great, real Cheddar cheese?" http://vistacomputersolutions.blogspot.com/ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Funny Animal Photos

Synthetic Heart Repair Conduit

Treatment for heart disease is advancing at a rapid pace. Soon, a tiny piece of artery will be removed from a patient and a new heart conduit will be formed. This is for minor problems in the heart, less that 5mm wide. Conduits are also being made from synthetic materials. Toleration of foreign substances is not a problems because it degrades quickly. They are used to go over the outside of a graft to stop bleeding. The synthetic conduits are made of a fine poly-(glycerol sebacate) net coated with polycaprolactone and the anticoagulant heparin. Mesh holes are too small for blood to pass through. Nothing of the implant remains after three months. A new structure of endogenous cells with M2 macrophages (which reduces inflammation) remains. Though tests have only been done on rats, use in humans will probably be just as successful. Large grafts using the material will be done to see if this is feasible. This will be a welcome advance in medicine. A graft made of the body's

Individual, Selfish Behavior Makes Sheep Flock Together

Sheep are not entirely "group" animals. They can be selfish. Each sheep seeks to get to the middle of the pack. The center of the flock is safest from predators. Individual sheep do not care about those on the outside being taken by wolves, for example. Flock behavior has been analysed. The group moves forward as individuals move away from the sheepdog to the center of the group. Flocks are not homogeneous. Sheep continue to struggle to get to the center as the flock as a whole moves. It is now believed that many wild group animals behave in this way. Wildebeests moving away from lions probably act in a similar manner. Pigeons, crabs and seals have been observed acting selfishly. Now the theory is proved. GPS tracking devices were attached to 46 sheep. Then an Australian Kelpie sheep dog took control of the flock. By monitoring sheep movement every second, the belief became solid fact. Sheep either move in a line from the sheep dog to the center of the flock, sca

Water is the Problem not Oil

We are obsessed with the oil crisis. So much so that we fail to see other problems that face us in the near future. For example, what about fresh drinking water. If nothing is done soon, the world will be in crisis. Even countries with cold climates, in Europe, are facing a shortage of potable water because of the high population density. As people become Westernized they consume more water. They change from bathing when they can, to having showers every day. Production oil also impacts on the availability of water. it takes 2.5 liters of water to produce every liter of oil. Even growing bio fuels puts pressure on water, with a thousand liters of water needed to make a liter of bio fuel. The modern way of life is water "heavy": Wealthy people use 3,000 liters of water each day to live their lives. More drought in the world is putting prices of everything up. When water gets short it does so locally. Moving water from one place to another in bulk is problematical. In the shor

Times Get Tougher for Sole Mothers

There is little sympathy for sole mothers from others in society or government. Social security payments have been tightened up by the federal Government. If sole mothers do not work they must go back to school, probably learning something that is useless for their future. Not many full-time workers have brought up children as well without paying someone else to care for their babies and toddlers. Older children are consistently being left alone as mothers do some sort of part-time work. This is reality. Part-time jobs do not pay well enough to provide money for carers. When Single mothers come home they not only look after their children, they must do all the household chores as well as do repair work to the home. The government's new harsher policy comes into force next January. Welfare payments will fall. Even those working part-time will lose some of the part-payment they get from social security. Children will be the real losers as food and heating/cooling are reduce

Google Must Be Prosecuted For Charging Non-US Users of Google Voice

Google Gmail offers a new Internet phone service if you have a Gmail Account. There is one thing about running such a service on the Internet; that is it costs nothing for the company providing the service to run. Users pay a local telephone company for access to the Internet from their homes and on their mobile phones. The connection goes through each country via local telephone companies servicing the internet and phone lines. There is no charge for US Gmail users and a charge per call for those living in other countries. Though it is a small amount it is discriminatory. The Internet goes all around the world like a net. Access to this net is open to anyone. No country charges its population to access the net to other countries . The European furniture company Ikea has already been accused of cross-subsidization for charging different prices for the same products in different countries. The production and even distribution costs are much the same. Google's discriminatio