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pt.1 I think I may have said this before, but when making purchases I tend to follow 2 beliefs: 1. Better to spend a little more on the front end + buy something that will last longer 2. I won't wear a label unless the designer pays me. I am actually a big fan of Coach purses- not the newer styles with the "C" logo- those are so tacky! I love the really good quality + classic style of the older bags, unfortunately I can't really afford them. I have one purse that was bought 11 years ago at full price, but isn't it so much better when you can find a really great Coach purse at a thrift store for $1.49? That was my extremely good luck on Thursday. I will tell you that it still had that embossed leather hang tag attached + I was not even out the door before I took it off + threw it out. pt. 2 I loved eBay's "People Are Good" 2004 ad campaign. Time + time again this is proven in the craft blog world. Yesterday I had a really great lunch with Beth from stitch.rip.repeat. We have met a couple times, but had never really sat down + talked. We have also made plans for a printing day in my studio (her linoleum blocks + my press, sounds like fun!) + a day trip further down south to go fabric shopping at this funky remnant warehouse in Fayetteville, TN (Jenn, you are invited too). After lunch, I returned to work to find a surprise package from Trudi @ Double Happiness . I ran up + down the hall, squealing over the contents... the DVD of Trailer Park Boys: The Movi e . Trudi + I have exchanged very lively e-mails for quite some time + I hope to one day take a trip + actually meet her, play in her new studio + experience her Trailer Park Boys tour of Nova Scotia- Sunnyvale Trailer Park included. Thank you! We are still purging + unpacking from the move, so that's my day. Cheap Generic Viagra

Tags: time, pt, day, good, purse

The Banquet Restaurant's review. It is situated at the 3rd Exchange Commercial Centre. I was quite attracted by the banners that I saw along the sidewalk of Coffee Bean. It says "Do not plan your wedding dinner without consulting The Banquet." Something like that. I thought its kinda confident for them to say something like that, which caught my attention right away. Its very convincing as well. Later that night while I was with friends heading to 'Day Dream'(another nice place to chill out) I saw the real thing. I can't believe my eyes that it would look so grand. From what I expect is totally different. Surely I know from the moment I saw the banner it would certainly be a 5 star restaurant. Never like what i imagine. Anyway, I got so 'sakai' n stop my car beside it. Took so many pics. It was marvelous. The interior and exterior was beyond creative and beautiful. Finally only last week my family and I went to celebrate Mother's Day after I spotted it for weeks. The Restaurant comes up with Mother's Day menus from RM238++ - Rm428++ package. There are 3 packages offered. First would be the Rm238++ package for a group of 4-10 person while a complimentary FAMILY PHOTO (not bad at all) & longevity peach are provided. 2nd package would be RM338++ for 6 person. Lastly Rm498++ for 8-10 person. That's the nice part of it. But I personally have NEGATIVE reviews to it. It was a sunny that day. It got a little warm in there. Seems that theres no air-conditional at all. It's covered with glass. Almost half of it at least. With no curtains at all. The sunlight got straight in. Disastrous in the morning but it definitely is superb at night. That's the heat issue. Next would be the service. We took up the Mother's Day package. So, they ask us to reach at 1230pm. Ok then. we reach a little earlier, 1220pm. Waited and waited. 1235pm...mmm...ok. Chit chat our way through. 1240pm...still fine. 10 minutes had past. Tummy growling like hell but put on a nice show...smile...1245pm...we counted our minutes and that's as long as we can wait. Waited for damn 15 freaking minutes. So my mom ask one of the CHINESE waitress to check if our food is done yet. Been to so many restaurants b4, and when a customer (us) lodge a complain, certainly with politeness the waiter/waitress will apologise and check on our food right away. This was the different case. Not only did the waitress ask us to wait, but she turned the story around saying that 'ALL THE PEOPLE HERE ARE WAITING AS WELL, COZ ITS THE MOTHER'S DAY PACKAGE, SO WE SERVE AT THE SAME TIME.' WTF ...whats that about??? Thats a little too rude. Sounds more like 'CAN YOU WAIT AND SHUT JE MOUTH. I'M ALREADY HAVING AN HEADACHE WITH ALL THE COMPLAINTS AROUND.' A good restaurant won't let their customers waiting. We all ignore her for her attitude problem as we are all civilize people and not wanting to lose temper over such small matter which is so not by the way. Impression down. Atlas hurray the food arrive 5 minutes later. Lucky it was 5 and not 10. My dad surely will get grumpier. SO....wheres the chopstick...they serve us food with plates and bowls. What are they expecting us to do with those?!? I have no idea!!! So we kindly approach an Iban lady to have our chopsticks. She APOLOGIZE and flashed off. WoW!!! At least this won't give waitresses a bad name. Then each person brought a set of chopsticks to us. Weird huh. Why can't ONE person does it all??? I kept wondering. Still wondering now. BUT!!! I'm the only one not having a set of chopstick. AGAIN calling out for them. Man...that was frustrating enough. Customers are always right. There...I said what I wanted to say. That's what I expect from a 5 star restaurant. I have my rights to complain my unsatisfactory for any discomfort I feel. I manage to take some pics while waiting for the food to be served. My stupid brother took my pic when i was making fun of my face. I was imitating girl's famous cute pose. But I did something else instead. Nobody wanted to take my pic. I had no choice but to take my reflection from the mirror. Not the original me. Another poser in the family.

Tags: day, restaurant, package, rm, food

Wednesday was one of those weird afternoons. A surreal string of events made me wonder if I was dreaming. First it was the weather. It seemed to change every five minutes. It couldn't make up its mind what kind of day it wanted to be. One moment it was overcast , gray and windy, as if it were going to rain. Then it was sunny and warmer, with nothing but blue skies. I dropped by the house early in the afternoon. I was between appointments, and I brought some work home. As soon as I arrived, I kept hearing this beeping noise

Tags: afternoon, skies, dropped, house, blue

Ha! An index to measure the happiness for each Australian electorate. Apparently, the study concludes: Wide Bay, which takes in the coast of Hervey Bay and the World Heritage-listed Fraser Island, has topped Australia's 150 electorates on the basis of wellbeing and sense of community, according to the first electorate-based national index of wellbeing, compiled by Deakin University In standard of living, health, achievement in life, personal relationships, sense of safety, connection to the community and future security, the index found Wide Bay came out on top -- despite limping along at the bottom of other surveys that measure employment, income, education and economic strength. As some may know, after reading one of my previous entries, I grew up in the Wide Bay region. Mainly families and retirees, I reckon. I bet if I retired and moved to a sunny coastal town, I'd be damn happy too. Did they standardise this test with some sort of age distribution? Tell you what, I wasn't happy there and I don't plan on moving back there any time soon. Nor do any of my mates.

Tags: bay, wide, index, electorate, happiness

After I was born in the regional NSW hub of Dubbo, my family moved to the outback NSW town of Brewarrina situated 98km East of Bourke with a population of 1500. Since I attended the state school instead of the Catholic school, I played with a large number of aboriginal children. We attended the aboringal museum for a school excursion. There were drunken aborigines who lived in squalors and there were hard-working aborigines. I don't recall much racism per se . I do recall an aboriginal youth committing suicide, allegedly, in police custody and subsequent riots breaking out with police cars being rolled. A great community atmosphere. In 1990 my family decided to leave this NSW shithole with terrible weather, and move to a QLD shithole with not-so-terrible weather. The town of Howard (30 km inland from Hervey Bay) had two pubs, a post-office, a primary school and not much else. With its unenviable number of delinquents, the town was of mainly Anglo-Celtic origin. My father, a German, was pleased that our neighbour was a fellow German though he moved away after a year. A year later another German moved next door. My father didn't agree with either of them. In 1995 I attend high-school in the nearby town of Childers. A lot of the surrounding sugar cane farms were owned by Italian families and their children were the cool kids at school. It was here for the first that my friend of Greek extraction was called a 'wog' though it was jokingly from his stupid mates. I had never heard the term before. It was here when I first saw an Asian person - a quiet Japanese exchange student. For some reason my school friend didn't like Asians at all. I think there was also an Australian-born Indian kid. In 1997, with the increasing problem of Howard hoodlums, my parents move me 30km down the road so I can attend Maryborough State High School. During this time I first read about Muslims. Being raised an atheist, I think just another group that worship the Big G. I meet for the the first time an Australian Chinese kid. In 2000 I move to Brisbane to attend university. In college I meet a half Lebanese person. A bit of tosser at times but harmless enough - typical private school boy. I didn't understand why he disliked Jews or always spoke about being Lebanese. I was amazed at the number of Asians and Indians in Brisbane. It seemed to me Sunnybank had more Chinese than Kowloon. Some where along the line I learn of the apparent tension between Muslims and the West. In 2004 I travel around the world with a friend. We speak to our first Jewish person. I live with Polish people in Ireland. Friendly enough. In 2005 I return to uni to complete my honours year. While tutoring, I speak to my first Australian Jew. Life used to be so simple. I'm moving to Melbourne in less than three weeks. I think life is just going to get more and more complicated.

Tags: school, town, number, asian, australian

I've finally done it. I've booked a one-way flight to *sunny* Melbourne for the 28th of Feb. Oh, the excitement. It's like first year uni all over again. Now to make some new friends and, of course, enemies... Question: Does this mean I have to dye all my white shirts pink to blend in as a Melbournian? Or do I just go for a shop down Chapel Street?

Tags: melbourne, booked, flight, pink, shirts

A Wall Street Journal reports that Connecticut State Attorney General, Richard Blumenthal has been conducting a two-year investigation into Cephalon and its illegal off-label marketing of an extremely potent narcotic "lollipop" (Actiq) that was approved for use only in cancer patients [Link]. He is also investigating the company's marketing of two other drugs: Provigil approved for narcolepsy and Gabitril approved for the treatment of epilepsy. "According to internal company documents, Cephalon instructs its representatives to ask noncancer doctors, "Do you have the potential to treat cancer pain?" Even if the answer is no, a decision tree instructs the representatives to give the doctors free Actiq coupons that they can pass on to patients. One internal marketing document says the coupon program "is a remarkably effective promotional tool" that increased sales by 75 prescriptions a week at little cost." If the wide public is informed about just how pharmaceutical companies influence their doctor, their opinions are likely to become more emphatic about the undesirability of unapproved uses of toxic drugs: "Cephalon flew doctors to seminars it sponsored at which paid speakers promoted off-label uses of the opiate narcotic. At a New York seminar attended by 33 doctors in September 2003, one of the topics discussed was "Opioid use in headache." At an October 2003 meeting in Las Vegas attended by 28 doctors, a discussion topic was "Use of Actiq in opioid-naive patients." Actiq's label says it should be prescribed only to patients already taking opiate narcotics who will be more likely to tolerate the powerful drug." "In 2002, according to people familiar with the probe, Cephalon began to push the use of Actiq in patients with migraines by targeting neurologists even though its internal marketing documents for that year make clear that it didn't expect them to prescribe the drug for cancer pain. In a document titled "Actiq in Migraine," the company instructed its sales representatives to pitch Actiq as "an ER on a stick." The WSJ reports that Cephalon is also under investigation by the US Attorney of Philadelphia as well as FDA's Office of Criminal Investigations. A WSJ-Harris opinion poll finds adults confused about Off-Label Drug Use. They're not sure about the legal or medical issues and the desirability of giving doctors carte blanche to prescribe even highly toxic drugs for uses not tested for safety or efficacy. The poll compares the results with an earlier poll conducted in 2004. The tables do not transcribe well in e-mail format. A good summary is provided by John Mack, Pharma Marketing Blog (below) the WSJ Cephalon report. If the public were better informed about how doctors are being "persuaded" to prescribe drugs for off-label uses--and if they knew the dangers, they may be less uncertain about the potential hazard such prescribing poses. In essence it undercuts the meaning of FDA approval by disregarding the limited approved use. [Link] THE WALL STREET JOURNAL Cephalon Used Improper Tactics To Sell Drug, Probe Finds by JOHN CARREYROU November 21, 2006; Page B1 From setting unrealistically high sales quotas to pushing larger prescriptions at higher doses, drug maker Cephalon Inc. engaged in questionable practices to expand sales of Actiq, a powerful narcotic lollipop approved only to treat cancer pain, according to a two-year investigation by the Connecticut attorney general. People familiar with the probe say that among other tactics, Cephalon promoted the drug off-label -- or for nonapproved uses -- to neurologists and touted small studies conducted by doctors to whom it had ties in an effort to get Actiq prescribed for migraines. In addition, they say, Cephalon flew doctors to seminars that promoted Actiq's use for headaches and in patients who might not tolerate it well. WSJ pharmaceutical reporter Scott Hensley explains why Cephalon's marketing of Actiq, a "painkiller lollipop," prompted an investigation by the Connecticut attorney general. Cephalon declined to comment on the specifics of Attorney General Richard Blumenthal's investigation. Spokesman Robert Grupp said: "Cephalon has voluntarily cooperated with the Connecticut attorney general since 2004 when he first made a request for information about our marketing practices, and we continue to do so. Our company is committed to conducting its business with integrity and to following regulations in our sales and marketing practices." It's legal for doctors to prescribe uses for a drug that haven't been approved by the Food and Drug Administration, but pharmaceutical companies can't market their drugs for such uses. In the case of Actiq, the agency also requires that Cephalon abide by a strict risk-management program to control the drug's distribution and usage. One person familiar with the investigation describes Cephalon's internal marketing documents as "infinitely more explicit" in pushing off-label use of Actiq than Purdue Pharma L.P. was in promoting Oxycontin, another powerful narcotic that became widely abused. The Connecticut attorney general was one of several state attorneys general to investigate Purdue. Mr. Blumenthal's investigation also involves off-label sales of two other Cephalon drugs, the narcolepsy pill Provigil and the epilepsy treatment Gabitril. Cephalon is also being investigated by the U.S. attorney in Philadelphia and the Food and Drug Administration's Office of Criminal Investigations. Like Mr. Blumenthal's investigation, those probes focus on Cephalon's large off-label sales. The U.S. attorney and the FDA declined to comment. Mr. Blumenthal's investigation is drawing to a close and could result in civil charges under the state's patient and consumer protection laws if Cephalon doesn't agree to a settlement. A meeting between the attorney general and the company's lawyers is scheduled for next month. If Cephalon opts to settle the case out of court, Mr. Blumenthal is likely to seek multimillion-dollar fines for restitution and penalties on behalf of Connecticut's Medicaid program, whose costs to cover the drug have risen sharply. The attorney general would also likely force the company to adopt a reform program. "We want them to change the way they do business," Mr. Blumenthal says. Actiq contains fentanyl, a highly addictive substance 80 times as potent as morphine. Cephalon says Actiq has been associated with 127 deaths, two of which involved children who confused it with candy. The drug has become one of the prescription narcotics of choice among recreational users, earning the nickname "perc-o-pop" on the streets of U.S. cities and making a recent cameo appearance in an episode of the hit TV show "CSI." In the first nine months of this year, Actiq sales reached $471 million. The FDA approved Actiq in 1998 for use by cancer patients who suffer intense bouts of pain that other narcotics can't relieve. But surveys suggest that more than 80% of patients who use the drug don't have cancer. The trigger for Mr. Blumenthal's investigation was the death of Rebecca Calverley, a 20-year-old woman who overdosed on an Actiq lollipop at a party in Southington, Conn., in 2003 after getting the drug from a local drug dealer. Mr. Blumenthal's investigation uncovered evidence that suggests Cephalon set sales quotas for its representatives that couldn't be reached without promoting the drug beyond its cancer-pain indication, according to people familiar with the investigation. Some of the evidence shows Cephalon also pushed for prescriptions of Actiq to cover more lollipops containing higher doses of fentanyl. Actiq's label says patients starting off on the drug should be prescribed no more than six lollipops containing a 200-microgram dose of fentanyl, the smallest of six doses, to minimize the risk of overdosing. Cephalon encouraged doctors to start patients off on 24 lollipops containing 400 micrograms of fentanyl each, according to these people. The higher dose costs more and brings in more revenue. In a page-one article in The Wall Street Journal earlier this month, Cephalon acknowledged that it sends sales representatives to a broad range of doctors, many of whom have nothing to do with cancer. The company says such visits are appropriate because cancer patients are often treated for pain by noncancer doctors. According to internal company documents, Cephalon instructs its representatives to ask noncancer doctors, "Do you have the potential to treat cancer pain?" Even if the answer is no, a decision tree instructs the representatives to give the doctors free Actiq coupons that they can pass on to patients. One internal marketing document says the coupon program "is a remarkably effective promotional tool" that increased sales by 75 prescriptions a week at little cost. Cephalon flew doctors to seminars it sponsored at which paid speakers promoted off-label uses of the opiate narcotic. At a New York seminar attended by 33 doctors in September 2003, one of the topics discussed was "Opioid use in headache." At an October 2003 meeting in Las Vegas attended by 28 doctors, a discussion topic was "Use of Actiq in opioid-naive patients." Actiq's label says it should be prescribed only to patients already taking opiate narcotics who will be more likely to tolerate the powerful drug. Mr. Grupp declined to comment on the seminars. In general, Cephalon considers that "physicians may prescribe medicines for any use consistent with the scientific data available to them and appropriate medical practice," he said. "The decision to prescribe 'off label' is theirs and theirs alone." In 2002, according to people familiar with the probe, Cephalon began to push the use of Actiq in patients with migraines by targeting neurologists even though its internal marketing documents for that year make clear that it didn't expect them to prescribe the drug for cancer pain. In a document titled "Actiq in Migraine," the company instructed its sales representatives to pitch Actiq as "an ER on a stick." Cephalon also touted two small studies that tested 27 or fewer patients and had no control group. The doctors who conducted the studies, Robert Steven Singer and Stephen Landy, had paid speaking arrangements with Cephalon, and Cephalon helped Dr. Landy with the study he conducted, according to the people close to Mr. Blumenthal's probe. Dr. Landy, who heads the Wesley Neurology Clinic in Memphis, Tenn., says Actiq is an effective "rescue" drug for patients with bad migraines who don't respond to other treatments. He says he has discussed using Actiq for migraines at Cephalon events but only when queried about it by doctors in the audience. Dr. Landy won't say how much Cephalon paid him for speaking. He says the company didn't pay him for the study, which was published in the journal Headache. Dr. Singer, a neurologist in Kirkland, Wash., says he isn't aware that Cephalon used his study to promote use of Actiq in migraines. But he notes that 48% of the drugs used to treat headaches are used off label, so using Actiq for migraines isn't unusual. He declines to say how much Cephalon paid him to speak. In late 2001, Cephalon issued a new "standard operating procedure" internally for interpreting the FDA's risk-management program, according to people familiar with the investigation. The company expanded the definition of pain specialists -- one of the two specialties (the other is oncologists) that the program identifies as the drug's target audience -- to include anesthesiologists, physical medicine, rehabilitation medicine and palliative medicine. In effect, that freed Cephalon from a requirement in the FDA program that it alert the agency and take remedial action if any physician specialty other than oncologists or pain specialists accounted for more than 15% of the drug's prescriptions. Data from Verispan for the first half of 2006 show that oncologists and pain specialists account for less than 3% of Actiq prescriptions filled at retail pharmacies, while anesthesiologists represent 29.5% of prescriptions. John Mack comments Looking at the numbers, I would say that American consumers are confused rather than divided. Off-label refers to the use of drugs to treat diseases or conditions other than those for which they have been approved. Off-label prescribing is legal in the U.S. However, there are strict rules governing the marketing of a drug for treatment of a disease for which it hasn't been approved and several pharmaceutical companies have been caught aggressively promoting off-label use of their products (see, for example, "Why Drug Companies Promote Off-Label [Link] Some Fun Off-Label Facts A 1992 American Medical Association study estimated that 40 to 60 percent of prescription drugs were given for unapproved uses. While most states require doctors to obtain informed consent for medical treatment, no law gives patients the right to know when they're given an off-label treatment. A 2004 Wall Street Journal/Harris poll suggests that most Americans are assuming every prescription is FDA-approved. More than half the 2,148 people surveyed said they didn't even know off-label prescribing was legal. Another 17 percent weren't sure. Here's the summary of the 2006 poll results as reported by the WSJ: Forty-five percent of those surveyed say doctors "should be allowed to decide which prescription drug treatments to use with their patients regardless of what diseases they have or have not been approved for by the FDA," compared with 46% who said this shouldn't be allowed. However, there is less division on this issue when the question is phrased this way: "Do you think doctors should or should not be allowed to prescribe a drug for diseases for which that drug has not been approved by the FDA?" In this case, only 27% answered "Should be allowed" vs. 48% who answered "Should not be allowed." I'm confused. Is it 45% or 27% who agree that off-label prescribing is OK? Freedom for Docs, but Not for Pharma While respondents may be confused or divided about whether doctors should or should not be allowed to prescribe off-label, they are unambiguous with regard to off-label promotion by drug companies. First amendment or no, they are agin' it! Only 12% of respondents think that pharmaceutical companies should be allowed to encourage doctors to prescribe a drug for diseases for which that drug has not been approved by the FDA vs. 69% who say no way! Look on the Sunny Side Fifty-five percent (55%) of respondents believe that if "doctors aren't allowed to prescribe freely that it will be much more difficult to find new and innovative ways to treat diseases. Thirty-five percent (35%) disagree." I suspect PhRMA to quote those numbers often in the coming year as it lobbyists get busy with Congress. (I don't think they'll talk much about the 12% or 27% numbers, though.) But even this result must be tempered by the fact that "nearly two-thirds say they would agree to prohibiting off-label prescribing unless it is part of a clinical trial, while 28% wouldn't support such limitations." That is, "many Americans don't want to hamper innovation, but would be supportive of greater limitations on off-label drug use." Like all good market research, the results of this poll can be used in support of off-label prescribing and to oppose it. Just cherry pick the results you wish to quote and Bob's your uncle! Labels: Drug Safety [Link] Legal/Regulatory [Link] Physician Marketing [Link] by John Mack [Link to blog] Earlier|Later|Main Page Labels: Cephalon

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Herero ladies in town Originally uploaded by CharlesFred. And now, a(nother) long blog..... Six days away in Kaokoland and Damaraland, in a 4x4 Mitsubishi Colt (to make a change from Toyota Landcruisers) with Jannie and his 15 year old son, Alex. We left Mousebird a little after 6 on a bright sunny morning. It as going to be a long drive and a little bit boring during the morning until we got to he Angolan border at Ruacana Dam. Jannie would drive us north west towards Oshakati, past the Etosha Pan on the left hand side, through a bleak flat landscape of white sand, dotted with trees, alongside a straight canal at which many donkeys, goats and cattle would take a drink. Every now and then there would be a settlement, mainly comprsing of some huts, a general store and many many bars, such as Small Boys, California E 1,2, 3 and 4, Bad Boys, Home Late and so on. Lots of beer and whiskey being drunk in these parts, so it seemed. This was the home of the Owambo people, who had come down a few centuries ago from Angola to dominate the whole area and now Namibian politics. Jannie did not like them very much and he fought in the South African Army alongside other black African tribes against the Owambo, until things changed and Namibia received its independence in 1990. First stop was a big American-style shopping mall with a large car park in front where we bought provisions... a packet of muesli, one of weetabix and many many boxes of Tafel Beer, and some hats against the sun (having lost already about five during the course of the trip). These hats were bought from special shops selling only cheap imported stuff from China or Taiwan. Incredible. All fake and chealy made, but incredibly cheap. Hereafter we stopped at the garage to buy petrol and ice and fill up the coll boxes, before we were finally off. Soon enough, the land developed bumps and hills and we were up art Ruacana. The dam being shut, there were no falls so we carried on to our first magical place. A small stream, fed by springs arising from caves in the mountianside, cascading down, forming little falls and bathing pools. Way out in the wilds, off road on the rockiest and bumpiest of tracks. Beautiful. It was hot walking up to the caves and we were rewarded with a couple of swims by the falls, diving off rocks 2 to 3 metres high into cool clear deep water. Only a couple of donkeys for company. From there, we were entering Himba territory. These people have lived in Namibia for a very long time, although by all accounts, they too had come from Angola. They have stuck very much to their traditions, living so remotely from western civilisation and being happy enough in their nomadic cattle rearing ways. Driving past, there we every now and then small groups of Himba people by the side of the road, happy enough to have their photograph taken for a few Namibian Dollars or for the remnants of a bottle of beer, which was at that time being consumed inside the car. The light was good and I managed to take some pretty good photos. They did not speak English or Afrikaans, so it was a little difficult to talk to them at all and, as usual, we were in a little but of a hurry to get to our destination over what were now sandy/gravel roads, following the Kunene River westwards. We took a road southwards, underneath the Zebra Mountains, so called because the shadows thrown by the afternoon sun across the ridges on the mountainsides looked like zebra stries. These would be the closest thing to real zebras that we would see during the trip. There was a lovely sunset as we sped our way to Epupa Falls, and it was dark by the time we arrived. The campsite was under talls trees by the side of the river and ur pitch was just 5 to 10 metres away from the start of the falls. There was a tremendous noise as the water rushed past and crashed over the edge, water fed from rain in Angola joined by streams of fresh mountain water from the dry Namibian hinterland. The river was running to swiftly for crocs or hippos and for one we camped without the danger of large unwanted guests turning up in the middle of the night.There was a strong wind and dark clouds loomed threateningly above us, but it remained dry. Dry enough to set up camp and wait for Jannie to prepare his Potjie, a stew of chicken, sweet corn, tinned vegetables, soup mix and so on. Delicious. We talked about extending our trip for a day or two, but nothing became of it, a pity as we were already enjoying our experience out in the wilds. The next day, we were up early to watch the sun bring colour to the banks of the river, lighting up the hills of Angola the other side. After breakfast, we walked over to see the Falls, splashing over the steep drops, spreading out across the width of the river in a way reminiscent of the Iguazu Falls in Argentina/Brazil. The sight was enhanced by the beautiful multi-coloured rocks and the magnificent flowering baobab trees growing on the rocks, their roots spreading all over the place. Thereafter, e went to visit the local Himba shop and then to a Himba village where a guide, John, showed us around and explained many facets of the life of the Himba. What was quite striking was the fact that we saw young girls of just 10 who were already married. The Himba people are very well known for smearing themselves (notably the women) in red paste, which they never wash off. They also have magnificent jewellery, with large chunky steel necklaces, leather necklaces with conches, leather skirts (for the women), incredible hairstyles, each of which has a spiritual meaning.. and so on.... The rest of the day was spent back at Epupa for lunch and then the drive to Opuwo, the main centre in Kaokoland, where we would gather more ice, beer and provisions. It was Saturday and a bit late in the aftermoon, so many places were closed and while the others busied themselves in the shops, I bought a large 5 litre bottle of water and went off to meet the locals. Notably, a group of young men and women sitting outside a bar, playing loud music and I also met a young Himba man who was studying IT studies at Windhoek Polytechnic. Sharing the bottle of water around I was told to be careful as

Tags: himba, falls, water, river, large

It's been a glorious summer surrounded by Wisconsin. Thanks to weeks steady, we've enjoyed bright, sunny days with temperatures amidst the 70s along with 80s. Matching owing to, at intervals late September, our windows are wide open more the days are warm furthermore sunny. Yesterday, it was 84 progressions. Yes, it did rain considering a date of over 10 days centrally located August, but as the most paradigm it has been a uncustomarily sunny summer. So it struck Andy in that a big surprise throughout we checked his 25-OH-vitamin D3 blood prone: 15 ng/ml--severe bust. \"I don't take it. I'm outside any which way on occasion go. Point at me! How do you gather I got that tan?\" De facto, Andy sported a amen dark tan reiteratively arised areas. Between fact, Andy was between the dozen or so mortals this occasion with deficiencies of that ken. Loss is not the exception; it is the custom . Of epoch, if Andy's blood give out is at the acquaint of severe washout among September, he aim only lean beneath forgotten the when few weeks along with months. He would abeyant hold fast shown vitamin D blood levels of With sinking ship of that degree, Andy has been exposing himself to risk Because prostate and colon cancer, diabetes along metabolic syndrome, low HDL, higher triglycerides, higher blood sugars, higher C-reactive protein, osteoporosis, arthritis . . . Correcting the inadequacy is easy. But, until you can explore, getting sun is not always the significance. Level with an active, outdoor lifestyle conjointly a tan, Andy along with remained significantly depressed. Experiment transaction with vitamin D3, or cholecalciferol, is an absolute hankering. buy cilais Generic Viagra viagra cheap cialis

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Today's Beard I discovered yesterday that I'm gonna be growing this beard for at least another month! I spoke to a lovely woman at United Utilities who told me a little of what I already knew and a little new stuff. I explained before, that City Works had no idea that UU had changed their order process from payment on completion of works, to payment in advance. Well, UU told me that a letter was sent to MCC as soon as their new system was introduced. As City Works make all the works orders on behalf of MCC you'd imagine this important change in policy by UU would have been passed onto them but it seems it wasn't. If this information had been passed to City Works we would be well on the way to a beautifully lit skatepark. We have around 1,400 members a Projekts Skatepark. They skate if it's raining, cold, sunny, cloudy, or snowing. They can't skate if it's dark! Every delay in this convoluted process affects each one of our members. That's why I'm writing this and that's why I get angry and that's why I grow my beard. It's our members and our staff who suffer daily each time a mistake like this is made. Every time a simple phone call isn't made or an email not sent, we are left cold and in the dark for another day. The other news is that UU need to give a 28 day traffic notice before works can begin. So even if MCC got the cheque to UU today, we still won't get lights for at least another month. And the beard keeps growing....... http://picasaweb.google.com/johnnyhaines/MyBeardProtest

Tags: works, uu, beard, city, mcc

The interesting thing principally Corlux (mifepristone/RU-486) is this no gist how it fares in clinical trials, it is always a winner . Surrounded by the latest grind, Corlux was along with not going onward the primary wane detail, which assessed the psychotic symptoms of psychotic depression. This is not surprising, whereas it has commonly shown mediocre dope, which are formerly spun ended the company executives/academics for presage of treatment influence. Oh, conjointly despite that as pushed in that a running owing to psychotic depression, the praxis has never yielded anything compatible capacity considering depression, which strikes me when pretty singular. Dr. Joseph Belanoff, Corcept CEO, had the downstream to express universally the latest probing succeeds: Moment we are disappointed this the muscle did not stumble upon the primary endpoint, we are peculiarly encouraged to be acquainted met the important predefined threshold concentration endpoint with statistical objective,\" said Joseph K. Belanoff, M.D., Corcept's Chief Executive Officer. \"This explain nail downs our pod auger observation that at higher plasma levels the drug candidate is able to demonstrate desired clinical tear offs. Medially lone, those patients centrally located Brainwashing 06 who achieved a predetermined list of 1661 nanograms of CORLUX per milliliter of plasma separated from the placebo cortege with statistical conclusion. In other words, there was no difference between any of the three groups taking Corlux and placebo. None. So it appears that they started data dredging (e.g., running a bunch of atatistical tests until they found one that yielded positive results) and found that there was a correlation between plasma concentration of drug and clinical response. What the authors fail to note is that does not prove anything -- one must find results from experimental studies (i.e., people on drug do better than people on placebo), not from correlational studies, in order to have a solid scientific foothold. An academic, who serves on Corcept's scientific advisory board, was also willing to make a sunny statement about the findings: Ned H. Kalin, M.D., Hedberg Professor and Chair of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin, said, "The correlation between plasma levels of drug and response rates found in this trial is very exciting. The results of this study show that when psychotically depressed patients achieve a threshold concentration of CORLUX in their system, a rapid and sustained clinical response is likely. This is a strong demonstration of a drug effect in an illness that is potentially devastating and difficult to treat." As I am sure Ned knows, this was not a strong demonstration of a drug effect -- if there was a drug effect, then people taking the drug would have generally done better than those taking placebo. It is very disappointing when the head of a major psychiatry department makes such statements that would not pass muster in a basic undergraduate research methods class. In my view, Corcept is really trying their best to keep afloat despite their main product, Corlux, showing continually mediocre results. Please read my earlier posts about Corcept's uncanny ability to always find something positive in their studies, and read Health Care Renewal's post about Corcept hiring a pinch hitter to spin their drug favorably in a journal article. Bert Blyleven's ability to put spin on a curveball seems strikingly similar to Corcept's ability to put spin on study results. cialis generic cialis cheap cialis generic viagra online

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Amid some parts of the country it is sunny, separating contradistinctive parts it is icing or snowing, more halfway my section of the country, mortal transaction of my body, it is foggy. Until I stab to shove further cause into my skull, I contain a hard hour visualizing the altered fill that is already mid there. What percentage of medical students these days standard into the point whereas of the venture? It's not why I am here. Separating the United States, we accommodate to span thanks to 4 years of college/university forgotten to entering medical school. Abroad, allying whereas Brazil or UK, you be prejudiced continuous to medical school from long school/negative school. Here, medical school is 4 years. There, medical school is 8 years. Which setup is better? Molecule points? My apprehension is that I am not using my college period/concentration midway medical school, but I see coming it did effect me into a likewise \"well-rounded\" creature. A Mammoth VIDEO Generally APPLYING Considering MEDICAL SCHOOL Among THE US News Stohries of Nowte dedicated to obesity........ (browse quotes since stories) 1. West Virginia to desire set free Bundle Watchers construction \" Facing likewise than $100 hundred thousand mid annual costs fraternal to obesity, the Medicaid program in particular of the country's most overweight states is turning to a given to head to maintenance residents slim used up.\" 2. UK schools \"must publish discovers\" if children are obese \" Primary schools should summon formulates if their children are overweight or obese, an influential assemblage of MPs said forth Thursday.\" 3. Obesity may complicate surgery enclosed by children \" A new ectype implys that nearly one-third of children undergoing surgery are overweight or obese, placing them at increased risk of experiencing holys mess analogous with the surgery.\" 4. Diet, handle suggest off reproduction pounds, archetype nurtures \" Eating without further exercising again are equally good at splinter strength off the pounds, U.S. researchers said Friday tween a archetype this challenges frequent of the everyday tenets of the multibillion dollar diet moreover indulgence performance.\" 5. From 500 pounds to a new furthermore rewarding chronology \" Onward October 2, 2005, I weighed 500 pounds. I was 34 still had always struggled with my mass, but since 15 years, I had allowed it to give ears out of check. I ate amid if it were my fancy. I was unable to do the simplest physical scene. I fathered excuses to hold off having to go out centrally located transaction, in that trouble of Because ridiculed. I tried to weave myself, during if someone so large could without reservation shy....\"

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Are you looking for a great place to go on vacation? Why not check out these Caribbean villa rentals? I am ready to take of now! We are getting hit with some more cold weather and I am so ready for the nice hot, sunny days!! Oh to sit on the sandy beach in some exotic place sounds heavenly right now! How does Barbados, Nevis, St. Croix, St. Martin or St. Thomas sound for Memorial Weekend? Any one of these places sound appealing to me! So if you are are ready for a fun vacation, check out these wonderful villas!!

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Last weekend I took some advice often given to bloggers and got out more. Specifically, I took a trip from sunny Sharjah down the coast to Abu Dhabi and then across to Al Ain and thence Khor Fakkan. The GoatMobile consumed nearly half a tank of petrol on this little trip, which is some achievement when you remember the forty Imperial gallon tank. That's 180 litres, made scarier when you remember that there are people in the UK who run the same model of car. Ouch, expense. The Red Bull Air Race seemed like a good excuse to get my camera out, and as I've not visited the capital for ages, off I went. Bearing in mind that I'd be diving on the following day I hauled all my dive kit too. Traffic on Abu Dhabi corniche was predictably chaotic. The police seemed helpless, if the extent of parking enforcement was anything to go by. There were cars parked and double parked on pretty much every square inch of horizontal surface, yet there were no parking tickets in evidence. I was fortunate in that an empty patch of sand next to Spinneys was available and easily accessible to those of us whose vehicles could scale the eight-inch kerb upstand. Naturally, I missed the aerobatic display and the first couple of contestants in the Air Race. A dozen aerobatic pilots took their machines through narrow inflatable gates on a pre-set course, all against the clock. Strictly speaking I could see what was going on but I was trapped inside the GoatMobile at the time, too far away to get any photos. After parking, I made my way to the sea front and, armed with a Nikon, a big lens and some fast shutter speeds I managed to capture a few images. Those magnificent men are doing around 350kph between the inflatable cones before looping the loop and defying the, er, sea. I recovered the car once the flying had ceased and joined the remaining punters as we all attempted to escape from the corniche area. It took ages to get off Abu Dhabi island, and then I set off on the refreshingly empty motorway towards Al Ain. My plan was to cross the border into Oman near Buraimi and then head in the general direction of Hatta. I've not been to Al Ain for ages either. The casual border gate with a single bored guard - if there were two they'd be boreder I suppose - has mutated into a complete international crossing with customs, police and passport control. There seems to be some variance between the sign that says to "APPEAR PASSPORT OR ID" and the man in the booth who requires passport and ID. Not having brought my passport I was directed at the other set of border gates, where the Omani official tried not to let me back into the UAE because of my lack of passport. "But that's why they won't let me leave. So I'm not entering the UAE because I never left." Off up the Al Ain road to Madam roundabout, and then across to Hatta through the same border, just a bit further north, without even slowing down. Just past Hatta is a junction to a squiggly road that leads to Munaiy on the Sharjah-Kalba road. Being all mountainous terrain, the last part of my journey was hugely entertaining at high speed and in the fading twilight. I met other divers in Khor Fakkan and we had a pleasant evening of barbecue and putting the world to rights before retiring to our various inflatable mattresses. Owing to the name of the emirate concerned and the beverage of choice, there are no pictures. The diving on Saturday was very refreshing. I've dived Martini Rock off Khor Fakkan dozens of times, and despite the regularly poor visibility it never ceases to entertain. But I've not dived Inchcape 10 before. Lying just off Fujairah, I hope to dive it a lot more. The wreck is teeming with life. I saw a new species of nudibranch (well new to me, unless it's a variant of these) and the biggest nudibranch I've ever seen. Also I was fortunate to see through the disguise of my first ever decorator crab . The moray , hiding in an old tyre, was crying out to be photographed. The water temperature is still a little chilly. It's in the low to mid twenties Celsius. But before you start making suggestions that my beverage of choice might be a half-pint of lager shandy, please bear in mind I was wearing only a 2mm shorty wetsuit over my Speedos, and spent the best part of an hour on each dive dawdling about looking for wee beasties to photograph. Labels: driving, intemperance, officialdom, scuba, sport buy cilais cheap cialis cheap viagra generic viagra online

Tags: passport, ain, border, parking, car