29 Replies to “Reader Tips”

  2. Trevonnte Brown points his handgun at passengers’ heads as he walks around robbing them on a Seattle bus. But then…
    Note how the biggest, toughest looking guy, the one wearing the ball cap, flees the scene in the direction of the surveillance camera while smaller and older guys and a young *woman* take care of business.

  4. “A new CNN poll shows ObamaCare approval at an all-time low, and disapproval at an all-time high, with a 35/62 rating, thanks to an exodus of women from the ranks of supporters..”

  8. Peterj, thanks for that link which is probably the most devastating indictment of the N. American education system that I’ve seen to date. Explains a lot about why the future is going to lie with Asian countries while N. America is likely going to be a mere source of raw materials and “comfort girls” for the gender imbalanced young Chinese population.
    Right now, in Canada, the stupidest decision any parent can make is to send ones child to a “French immersion” school where they learn an absolutely useless language and get an inferior education. If there were Cantonese immersion classes with the same rigor of teaching mathematics and science that one has in Chinese schools, then I’d consider it worthwhile. The only advantage a “French immersion” education would have for a young woman in Canada would be the greater likelyhood that she would be chosen as a paid “sleeping dictionary” for a young, wealthy, Chinese male wishing to learn French.
    Of course the kneejerk response of “educators” in Canada; most of who are far inferior in knowledge to the average student of Chinese, Japanese and Korean education programs, is that objective standards are detrimental to the “self-esteem” of students and that one is testing rote knowledge. Much more important to students is the need to follow rote “zero-tolerance” brainless policies and believe in ones “special” status regardless of ones accomplishments and abilities.
    When it comes to creativity, I think that N. America still has an edge. The Asian countries that have a clear knowledge edge over N. America have population IQ’s that are about 10-15 points higher than N. America’s white population. However, the prevalence of bipolar disorder in the Asian populations is significantly lower than it is in N. America — the US has at least 5% of the population with clinical bipolar disorder. (Native Indian populations have a far higher prevalence of bipolarity which is very interesting and an under-appreciated aspect of Native Indian behavior).
    In Eysenck’s study of genius, he found that those individuals who were viewed as being genius’s in their respective fields had a combination of high psychoticism and high ego strength. Creativity is higher in individuals with bipolar disorder if the individual has the ego strength to determine when they’re going too high and utilize the down periods to rigorously wean out bad ideas created during the hypomanic phase.
    However, in order for an individual with non-pathologic bipolar disorder to be effectively creative they need a large knowledge base which the current educational system doesn’t provide. The interesting thing about bipolarity is that it seems to be an adaptation to extreme northern climes where the combination of a hypomanic state with markedly reduced need for sleep in the spring and summer months with a state of near hibernation in the winter months is ideal for surviving in a region with long harsh winters. This may be the reason why most scientific progress came from N. European countries. Also, individuals with bipolar disorder are the most likely to emigrate and hence the current prevalence of bipolarity in Europe is far lower than in N. America as most of the bipolars have left to come to the “bipolar magnet” of the USA. One has a 10x greater incidence of bipolarity in the US Irish population than one finds in the less dissatisfied individuals who chose to remain in Ireland and this was verified in a conversation with an Irish psychiatrist who, after practicing in Ireland for a while, came to Canada and was quite struck by the relatively very high incidence of bipolarity here.
    Bipolarity alone is not going to be an edge over the Asian higher educational standards and there’s only a very small temporal window to close the educational gap if one doesn’t want a Chinese dominated world. Unfortunately, all of the Asian economies who have far more educated populations also operate on a much more statist model; ie “the nail that sticks up gets hammered down”. For Libertarians, this is not a pleasant prospect.

  10. Loki, you mention Bipolarity which is now a 76 billion dollar annual bonus for big Pharma. One of my inlaws is a Psychiatrist (brilliant in a narrow beam but dumb as a stick on life in general)who states the disease does not exist and exercise plus a sun lamp does more good than any medicine. Your take ?
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIydrSMyNq0#t=11

  13. Jesus LOKI, this is off topic to your post but will you answer here on SDA?
    Can a “For profit” WORLD CLASS 24/7 KNEE & HIP REPLACEMENT HOSPITAL be established on British Columbian Chief Clarence Louie’s Osoyoos First Nations Band this year?
    “WORLD CLASS” !!!!
    Just wondering.
    OH LOKI, just in passing ………………
    PETITION TO THE HOUSE OF COMMONS
    IN PARLIAMENT ASSEMBLED
    We, the undersigned citizens of Canada draw the attention of the House to the following: THAT : as individual Citizens of Canada WE do NOT enjoy the protection of “PROPERTY RIGHTS” within the Constitution of Canada ! hence, THE LAW of Canada!
    THEREFORE: Your petitioners call upon Parliament to forthwith, incorporate and entrench FOREVER , individual “PROPERTY RIGHTS” INTO THE CONSTITUTION OF CANADA.
    I need small motor home domicile which my wife of 60 years can drive while I walk or ride a DONKEY across Canada with the above Petition in hand, getting Canadian signatures!!
    HEY SANTA, pay attention!

  14. Don’t forget Canada’s first carol with lyrics by Jean de Brebeuf (yes, the school where most of Quebec’s elite go is named after this priest who was eventually martyred by the Iroquois):
    The Huron Carol (‘Twas In The Moon of Winter Time)
    ‘Twas in the moon of wintertime when all the birds had fled
    That mighty Gitchi Manitou sent angel choirs instead;
    Before their light the stars grew dim and wondering hunters heard the hymn,
    Jesus your King is born, Jesus is born, in excelsis gloria.
    Within a lodge of broken bark the tender babe was found;
    A ragged robe of rabbit skin enwrapped his beauty round
    But as the hunter braves drew nigh the angel song rang loud and high
    Jesus your King is born, Jesus is born, in excelsis gloria.
    The earliest moon of wintertime is not so round and fair
    As was the ring of glory on the helpless infant there.
    The chiefs from far before him knelt with gifts of fox and beaver pelt.
    Jesus your King is born, Jesus is born, in excelsis gloria.
    O children of the forest free, O seed of Manitou
    The holy Child of earth and heaven is born today for you.
    Come kneel before the radiant boy who brings you beauty peace and joy.
    Jesus your King is born, Jesus is born, in excelsis gloria.
    Words: Jean de Brebeuf, ca. 1643; trans by Jesse Edgar Middleton, 1926
    Music: French Canadian melody (tune name: Jesous Ahatonhia)

  15. UK grants posthumous pardon to WWII code breaker Alan Turing
    –
    His breaking of the Enigma code shortened the war and saved many thousands of lives.
    Turing is also considered one of the fathers of computer science.
    In 1952, Turing admitted having a homosexual relationship to the police,
    Turing pleaded guilty to one count of gross indecency and accepted a treatment of chemical castration with female hormones to avoid imprisonment.
    http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/12/24/uk-grants-posthumous-pardon-to-wwii-codebreaker-alan-turing/?intcmp=latestnews
    –
    Chemical Castration?
    Poor bastard should have received a Nobel Peace Prize.
    Oh, Wait a minute!
    Those prizes went to Al Gore, and Obama,
    The fathers of modern computer health care web sites,
    and inventor of the internet.

  16. Merry Christmas Kate, Lance, EBD and the rest of the crew that keeps the lights on around here.
    And to all the commenters too! (yes,, in the spirit of Christmas I am being generous!)
    Many thanks for the company and enlightenment. (for the most part anyways)
    Last year Kate was gracious enough to post The Shepherd for which I was eternally grateful.
    For all the aviation buffs out there I would like to offer up a longer version of that classic in 5 parts. Read by Robert Powell, it narrates all the switch flipping and steam gauge commentary some might get off on.
    This is the unabridged version.
    The Shepherd – Fredrick Forsyth Read By Robert Powell Part 1
    Good night sir, and happy Christmas.

  18. Neo-AGW Progress Report.
    AGW Kills.
    …-
    “Defining CO2 As A Pollutant Is The Worst Kind Of Lie…We Really Don’t Have Much In The Atmosphere”
    “A Christmas message for alarmists
    By Ed Caryl
    I am constantly struck by the extremes that the alarmists will reach attempting to convince the rest of us that we should abandon our comfortable life-styles and live in fuel poverty, burning our corn in our cars, eschewing all use of fuels that have accumulated in the ground over the eons, reaching into the winds to catch a few watts from the occasional breezes at the cost of beating to death random vistas, bats and birds, and paving our deserts and rooftops with silicon to capture a few hours of sun on the off chance it shines.
    These efforts are awfully inefficient, and incredibly costly for the achieved results.”
    http://notrickszone.com/
    …-
    “Ontario man, 52, and his mother, 72, dead after carbon monoxide seeped into home from generator: police”
    “Police found a gas-powered generator, that was supplying electricity to help heat the home, running in the garage attached to the house.”
    http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/12/24/ontario-man-52-and-his-mother-72-dead-after-carbon-monoxide-seeped-into-home-from-generator-police/

  20. “Howard Pinsky
    10 hours ago – Google
    “Having lived in Toronto for most of my life, I don’t think I’ve seen an ice storm as bad as the one going on now.”
    …-
    “Bad ice storm? Yes. Great Ice Storm? Not even close”
    “The effects of last weekend’s storm, which stretched from Friday until Sunday, may be felt for up to a week. By contrast, 1998′s storm was actually a series of three major storms that comprised almost an entire week of near-continuous freezing rain from January 5 to January 10. The deluge led to 100 millimetres of accumulated ice in some areas, compared to just over 30 millimetres that fell on Ontario over the three-day span.”
    http://www2.macleans.ca/2013/12/23/ontarios-ice-storm-sparks-memories-of-1998/

  21. ” while I walk or ride a DONKEY across Canada with the above Petition in hand,”
    So Joe, how did you get JT to agree to this?
    Merry Christmas and a Great New Year to Kate, Lance, her little friends and to all who frequent here for a dose of some truth and basic reality.

  22. Ken, most Canadians do not understand that if the communistic NDP led by Thomas Mulcair ever gains governing power in Canada, the STATE will OWN EVERYTHING, therefore individual “PROPERTY RIGHTS” would only be a fairy tale, but never, never, a Canadian reality!
    Someone lend ME a DONKEY so I can get signatures on this Petition…….
    PETITION TO THE HOUSE OF COMMONS
    IN PARLIAMENT ASSEMBLED
    We, the undersigned citizens of Canada draw the attention of the House to the following: THAT : as individual Citizens of Canada WE do NOT enjoy the protection of “PROPERTY RIGHTS” within the Constitution of Canada ! hence, THE LAW of Canada!
    THEREFORE: Your petitioners call upon Parliament to forthwith, incorporate and entrench FOREVER , individual “PROPERTY RIGHTS” INTO THE CONSTITUTION OF CANADA.

  25. O’narcissist Watermelon.
    Green-Red-Red-Green.
    “The Obama administration handed environmentalists a significant victory Monday”.
    …-
    “Interior sides with environmentalists, denies road through Alaskan refuge
    The Obama administration handed environmentalists a significant victory Monday when the Interior Department decided against allowing a road to be built through the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, dashing the hopes of locals who said the route was critical for safety.”
    http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/dec/23/alaska-residents-upset-feds-side-with-environmenta/

  28. Peterj, thank you for that link. The video makes it look as if there are no tests for psychiatric conditions which is false. For example, 24 hour heart rate graphs demonstrate characteristic patterns in unipolar depression and psychosis. Repeating a Holter monitor when the patient is better demonstrates absence of the depressive or psychotic patterns. Actigraphy patterns vary with phase of bipolar illness. In the case of bipolar depression, prostaglandin levels are correlated with phase of the illness, and there is evidence that the “hibernation” phase in bipolarity can be treated with Celebrex. A dexamethasone suppression test can be used to diagnose unipolar depression but this is rarely used nowadays because it’s only about 80% sensitive.
    The video is misleading in its characterization of psychiatry operating without evidence of the disorders which are being treated; most of medicine operates this way. Physicians work with patterns of symptoms and findings and make diagnoses based on that. An individual who shows up at a physicians office with influenza doesn’t have a nasal swab taken for influenza virus culture which will come back in about a months time. The physician makes a clinical diagnosis and, if the presence of the presumed influenza is less than a day, an antiviral specific for influenza is prescribed. The proof one is dealing with influenza is the disappearance of symptoms following antiviral administration. Very similar to an individual with the constellation of symptoms that represent unipolar depression getting better following administration of an antidepressant.
    While the detection of disease patterns for diagnosis may seem unscientific to many individuals, it’s a skill that can be highly developed. For example, when one has the problem of classifying dogs, one doesn’t do a genetic test to determine whether an animal one is presented with is a great dane or a poodle. The classification based on clearcut morphologic features is “unscientific” to the authors of the youtube video but I doubt that only the ultra paranoid would demand genetic testing to sort out the dog identification problem.
    Szas is someone I now disagree with. I went into medicine having read his books and the notion that psychiatric illness was a myth disappeared when I encountered my first truly psychotic and severely depressed patients. Psychiatrists are part of the problem. Unfortunately, those medical students who aren’t as clinically knowledgeable as internists go into psychiatry; psychiatry is viewed as an “easy” specialty where one doesn’t have to solve complex physiologic problems and all that’s necessary is to memorize the DSM4. In Vancouver, I was shocked at how little medicine some long-practicing psychiatrists knew. The field of neuro-psychiatry is fascinating but it involves getting separate fellowships in both neurology and psychiatry and thus there are very few neuropsychiatrists around. That approach should be the norm as the artificial division between neurology and psychiatry results in neurologists who hate psychiatric conditions and, when nothing shows up on an MRI or EEG, they dump the patient in the psychiatrists lap citing “functional” symptoms. This is very similar to the gastroenterologist who, after finding nothing in the stomach of a patient with cyclic vomiting syndrome after performing a gastroscopy labels the patient as “functional”and sends them to a psychiatrist. There are very few neurogastroenterologists but many of the “functional” problems affecting the GI tract are now being solved using detailed motility studies as well as specific drugs affecting the enteric nervous system.
    The DSM is a classic example of an organization that operates by consensus. The big debate prior to the DSM5 was whether psychiatric diagnoses should be categorical or dimensional. The categorical individuals won. My personal preference is for a dimensional analysis where one can quantitate various traits and thus determine how depressed an individual happens to be or the degree of bipolarity an individual demonstrates. For example, the sleep pattern of terminal insomnia is pathognomonic for depression; that is if there exist additional clinical features consistent with depression. The same sleep pattern occurs in fibromyalgia and use of a low dose of a tricyclic antidepressant improves the sleep pattern and the symptoms. It may also be that a person as a “depressive” sleep pattern and experiences no symptoms in their daily life although my clinical experience has been that such people do eventually become symptomatic in some way. About 50% of people with obstructive sleep apnea are diagnosed with depression but the “depression” vanishes when one treats their sleep apnea with a CPAP machine.
    The video infers that unless one has an objective test to make a diagnosis then the diagnosis doesn’t exist; this denigrates the highly skilled wetware diagnostic routines which highly skilled individuals in a profession have created during the course of their training and clinical career. What physicians excel at is pattern matching of a multidimensional constellation of points representing the clinical findings to the closest defined disease hypervolume in that multidimensional space. I can diagnose an individual with Parkinson’s disease by clinical findings alone and have not had one Parkinsonian ask for me to arrange for an F19 fluorodopa PET scan to demonstrate to them a decrease in substantia nigra volume. In this sense 99.9% of individuals with Parkinson’s are diagnosed without a single instrumental diagnostic test being used.
    Before this gets too long, will say that the individual who made the youtube video hasn’t a clue how medicine works. Yes, overdiagnosis does take place and what is needed are objective tests for various psychiatric conditions. The problem with psychiatry is that one is dumping the most complex problems humans have onto a group of physicians which are likely the least cognitively prepared to deal with such complexity. There are damn good psychiatrists out there but until neurology and psychiatry again become a single discipline, the widespread distrust of psychiatry will continue, often for good reasons.

  29. Joe Molnar, I certainly hope so. I’ve dropped the idea lots of times suggesting that Native Indians use their special status to freely violate the Canada Health Act and, should this finally happen, we might see the end of the statist abomination known as “medicare”.
    The biggest problem I can see is going through the incredible bureaucratic BS that is involved in opening a new hospital. New hospitals are very rarely built in Canada and instead pre-existing hospitals are enlarged, and for good reason. Perhaps the reserve hospital could ignore the more inane bureaucratic crap by labeling it “racist”.

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