Tom's Weekly Tips, Links and Tidbits Newsletter

Wednesday 16th November 2011





G'day,

I trust this finds you fit and well.

I know I include a lot of data in my newsletters and sometimes you don't get through it all. This week, even if you are too busy to scratch yourself, which I am at present, I would ask you to go to the health section and read the item titled

Compulsory Drugging and Banned Natural Therapies?

and do something about, even if it's only forwarding it on.

We will save lives by defeating this.




Contents

Basic Computer User | Advanced Computer User | Health | Humour | Other




Basic Computer User


Archer sues Sage for 'dropping' MYOB

Former MYOB majority shareholder Archer Capital has filed suit against British software company Sage for allegedly backing out of a proposed buyout of MYOB. http://www.itnews.com.au/News/280054,archer-sues-sage-for-dropping-myob.aspx



Apple recalls overheating iPod

Apple has recalled its first generation iPod nanos due to "very rare cases" of overheating batteries. http://www.itnews.com.au/News/280053,apple-recalls-overheating-ipod.aspx



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Advanced Computer User


Ditch Adobe Reader Advises Security Guru

"They are almost always attacks that start with an email ... coming from a trusted sender, from someone the recipient knows and it speaks about normal things - work issues, projects, plans, meetings - stuff that's actually happening." The emails also come with an attachment, "almost always a document file" such as a PDF, Word, Excel or PowerPoint file. "These attacks are not against PDF - these attacks are against Adobe Reader," he said. "You open this files in any other reader than Adobe Reader and there is no exploit." http://www.itnews.com.au/News/279623,fear-of-china-masks-the-work-of-other-web-spies.aspx



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Health


If You Are In the USA

Don’t miss the upcoming episode of CNN’s “Perry’s Principles” featuring an interview with AbleChild co-founders Sheila Matthews and Patricia Weathers!

In the two-part episode “Quick to Medicate,” airing December 3 and 10 from 7 – 8PM EST, AbleChild co-founders offer their perspective on the right to informed consent and the dangers of drugging children. The episode features interviews with a family using behavioral drug therapy and Dr. Andrew Adesman, chief of developmental and behavioral pediatrics at the Steven & Alexandra Cohen Children's Medical Center of New York of the North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System in New Hyde Park.

Find out the two key pieces of advice AbleChild offers parents and see pictures from the interview. Check our blog for updates and information about other upcoming media coverage!



Compulsory Drugging and Banned Natural Therapies?

New Australian Clinical Practice Points for ADHD Could see Children Removed from Their Parents if they Refuse to Treat their Child’s ADHD Please do a submission to protect our children and express your objections by 28th November 2011.

By the end of 2010 there were already more than 52,000 children aged between 2 and 16 on ADHD drugs in Australia. The stimulants and antidepressants used to “treat” ADHD are known to cause hallucinations, delusions, heart problems, high blood pressure and suicidal reactions.

A new and additional document has just been drafted by the panel responsible for ADHD Guidelines titled, Clinical Practice Points on Attention Deficit Hyperactivity in Children and Adolescents (CPPs). These have been written to “complement” (not replace) the ADHD Guidelines and will also be an interim measure while the panel verify the validity of the current Draft ADHD Guidelines. The Draft ADHD Guidelines were pulled earlier this year due to conflicts of interest of psychiatrist Joseph Biederman whose work was heavily citied in the Draft ADHD Guidelines. Biederman was sanctioned after allegedly failing to report $1.6 million in consulting fees he received from drug companies.

These CPP’s are yet another attempt to “clarify best practice diagnosis” while at the same time denying there is any evidence that many proven, workable and non-harmful alternatives work and help our children. The CPPs will remain in use once the ADHD Guidelines are completed.

Major areas of concern in the CPPs for ADHD include:

* The CCP’s could see a child be removed from their parents if they don’t medicate: An extremely concerning statement in the CPPs indicates that Australia could now be following the US model where children can be removed from their parents if they refuse to give their child ADHD drugs. On page 15 of the CPPs it states, “As with any medical intervention, the inability of the parents to implement strategies may raise child protection concerns.” Parents are the natural guardians of their child and should always have the right to consent to or refuse psychiatric treatment for their child. [1]

* Pre-school children and ADHD drugs: The CPPs say pre-schoolers can be given stimulants despite the fact that both the drug companies (who manufacture the main ADHD drugs, Ritalin and Concerta) and the Federal Government, say they should not be used in children under 6 because their safety and efficacy have not been established.

* What do the CPPs say ADHD is and how should it be treated? Whilst the CPPs states there is no known cause of ADHD, that ADHD is a description rather than an explanation and there are no specific cures for ADHD; the CPPs recommend potentially dangerous stimulants as the first line treatment when pharmacological treatment is considered. [2] The CPPs say, “A holistic and multidisciplinary approach is recommended in the management of ADHD and this may include medication, psychosocial management and where appropriate education interventions. The CPPs do not recommend the many other alternatives which are non-harmful and many times have been proven effective in helping a child with unwanted behaviour issues. [3]

* Complementary and alternative treatments are not recommended: The CPP’s state, “There is insufficient evidence to support the management of ADHD in children and adolescents using: Elimination and restriction diets, diet supplementation with essential fatty acids, chiropractic treatment, homeopathy, massage, acupuncture or physical activity.” Many children have in fact been helped with complementary treatments. Please let the panel know of the children you have seen helped, or helped yourself with these alternatives in your submission. Please also send them any studies you have that show these alternatives can help children. [4]

Conflicts of Interest:

* Chair of the CPPs Panel, Child and Adolescent psychiatrist Professor Bruce Tonge is currently the Chief Investigator of a $534,782 Melbourne clinical trial which includes giving antidepressants to children who refuse to go to school. [5] While there are well meaning experts on the new Committee, CCHR is concerned as Professor Tonge could already be biased as he is giving drugs to children aged between 11 and 15 for not going to school. Antidepressants have warnings for the increased risk of suicide and self harm. Truancy is not a mental illness.

* Committee member Professor Michael Khon, in 2010 said he was a member of the ADHD drug Strattera (atomoxetine) Advisory Board for Eli Lilly and has been part of an Eli Lilly study on atomoxetine. Strattera has the strongest Australian government warning, alerting on the risk of suicidality in children. In addition he has received financial support from Janssen-Cilag (makers of Concerta the most commonly prescribed ADHD drug in Australia) to attend a conference and was paid by them to prepare teaching and training material. [6]

* Committee member Ms Margaret Vikingur, is the president of Learning and Attentional Disorders Society who have received unrestricted grants from Eli Lilly, Novartis and Janssen-Cilag, the makers of Strattera, Ritalin and Concerta respectively. [7]

* The conflicts of interest of the Peer Reviewers of these CPPs will not be published until AFTER this public consultation. [8]

To Make a Submission

The correct Submission Form (coversheet) MUST be used or your submission will not be accepted.

Online: Log onto the National Health and Medical Research Website at: http://consultations.nhmrc.gov.au/open_public_consultations/a-d-h-d to read the CPPS for ADHD and make a submission. You can obtain a submission form (coversheet) which you will need no matter how you lodge your submission on the same link. See near the bottom of the page.

Email: adhdcpps@nhmrc.gov.au

Mail: Project Officer – Draft ADHD CPPs, Strategic Partnership Section, NHMRC, GPO Box 1421, Canberra ACT 2601.

Fax: (02) 6217 9035

For further information you can also contact CCHR at national@cchr.org.au

CCHR was established in 1969 by the Church of Scientology and Professor of Psychiatry Dr Thomas Szasz to investigate and expose psychiatric violations of human rights.

[1] DRAFT Clinical Practice Points on Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in Children and Adolescents, NHMRC, October, page 15.

[2] DRAFT Clinical Practice Points on Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in Children and Adolescents, NHMRC, October, pages 7, 12.

[3] DRAFT Clinical Practice Points on Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in Children and Adolescents, NHMRC, October, page 4.

[4] DRAFT Clinical Practice Points on Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in Children and Adolescents, NHMRC, October, page 16.

[5] http://www.med.monash.edu.au/spppm/research/devpsych/srp.html

[6] http://www.nhmrc.gov.au/guidelines/adhd-conflicts-interest

[7] http://www.nhmrc.gov.au/guidelines/adhd-conflicts-interest

[8] DRAFT Clinical Practice Points on Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in Children and Adolescents, NHMRC, October, page 20.



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Humour


At The Grave Side

The graveside service just barely finished, when there was massive clap of thunder, followed by a tremendous bolt of lightning, accompanied by even more thunder rumbling in the distance.

The little old man looked at the pastor and calmly said, 'Wow! She's there already!'



Post Op

A man is in the recovery room when the Surgical Nurse appears and asks him how he is feeling.

'I'm O. K. But I didn't like the four letter-words the surgeon used.'

'Mr Mason? Really? He's one of our top specialist. Why what did he say,' asks the nurse.

'Oops!'



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Other


Google Earth Reveals...

Some people studying Google Earth came across some very weird patterns in the Chinese desert. The patterns look like they were etched or dug into the landscape. Some of the lines appear to be made from a silver/white material. http://www.slashgear.com/massive-networks-of-stripes-appear-in-chinese-desert-14194983/



The Great Global Warming Swindle (Full Movie)

The film, made by British television producer Martin Durkin, presents scientists, economists, politicians, writers, and others who dispute the scientific consensus regarding anthropogenic global warming.

The film's basic premise is that the current scientific opinion on the anthropogenic causes of global warming has numerous scientific flaws, and that vested monetary interests in the scientific establishment and the media discourage the public and the scientific community from acknowledging or even debating this. The film asserts that the publicised scientific consensus is the product of a "global warming activist industry" driven by a desire for research funding. Other culprits, according to the film, are Western environmentalists promoting expensive solar and wind power over cheap fossil fuels in Africa, resulting in African countries being held back from industrialising. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ov0WwtPcALE



Ban Cluster Bombs

I've just signed an important Avaaz petition against cluster bombs. The US is pushing governments to reinstate the use of cluster bombs, allowing weapons that are responsible for killing thousands of innocent children. But we can stop this if we raise our voices together. Join me in this campaign here: http://www.avaaz.org/en/cluster_bombs_ii_b/?sbc



Book Wisdom

You can read books on how to make a difference. You probably heard teachers, pastors, and speakers exhorting their listeners to "make a difference".

The fact is that everybody is already making a difference every day. The key question is, What kind of difference is each of us making?

To make a difference means to affect another person, group, or situation. It is nearly impossible to remain neutral as you travel through each day. Paying attention to others, giving them the respect they deserve, and politely serving them makes a positive difference.

In contrast, neglecting, criticizing, and belittling others, whether intentionally or not, produces a negative difference.

The key is to pay attention to the kinds of differences you are making. As my friend and motorcycle-riding buddy Jim Cathcart says, "To know more, notice more."

You shouldn't be asking, "Did I make a difference today?" Of course you did! You undoubtedly affected somebody, maybe slightly, maybe significantly.

The more important question to ask yourself is, What kind of difference did I make?

Written by Mark Sanborn from the book, The Fred Factor.



Who Is Spending My Money?

Stephane has done some research and arithmetic to validate getting the government to stop subsidies of corporations. After all, the government are just redistributing our wealth and I prefer to have that choice myself over where it goes.

There is no free lunch, and the cheap ones are not that cheap, either by Stephane Beaudin

What is the cost of a burger flipping drone? The minimal, bare survival amount a human needs? I’ve calculated this for the US, statistics are easier and faster to find, and almost all the numbers I use are from US government sources (plus, I guess a lot of the people who are going to read this will be from the US, and all the others will understand the references more easily than Canadian ones). I am calculating that this drone works 40 hours per week (which makes me an effeminate socialist to some, too bad) 50 weeks per year (what, 2 weeks of unpaid vacation per year, are you trying to destroy the economy?) and never misses a single day’s work, not even to give birth to their average 1.025 children. This drone lives all it’s life sharing a one bedroom apartment with a burger flipping spouse, except for the 20 year period where the couple raises their future burger flipping kids when they will live in a 2 bedroom apartment. This apartment’s rent will be 20% under the national average. They all eat from the USDA thrifty food plan, a bland serving of a meager 2000 daily calories based on the unhealthy food pyramid, they never get even once to taste one of the burgers they flip. They have the basic utilities, electricity, heat, at 20% under the national average. They don’t ride the bus, they have to walk everywhere they go. Our drone will however reach the average expected age of 78.7 years.

In it’s life, this drone will work 94000 hours over 47 years, from 18 to 65. It will require an average of $316600.00 in healthcare for itself and his 1.025 kids, and these kids will cost $123564.00 to educate in the public system, I am not counting daycare costs in this. Thus, what we need to figure out is how much such a drone actually costs per hour, that includes salary, some sort of pension plan, but just the payable part of it, some form of health insurance, and again, only the payable part of it, administration costs and plan provider’s profit cannot be counted in this. And paying taxes for the kid’s education, his public service footprint is actually larger than that, so this cost I am calculating is actually quite a bit low.

And the total? $9.30 per hour.

that is actually an extreme lowball estimate, I have already mentioned some of the items I am not accounting for, others include clothing, furniture and appliances, diapers for the babies and dental care, just off the top of my head.

When salary plus benefits (payable portion of benefits, remember) are under this amount, the employer is paying under the bare minimum survival cost of the resource. This means that the US federal minimum wage of $7.25 has our drone dying of starvation, homeless, but still at his grill at the age of 63. How can employers get away with that? Simple, the job is subsidized with public programs like Medicare-Medicaid and Social Security. What does that mean? If you are among the 53% of American citizens who pay taxes, the government comes to take the difference at gunpoint from your income. You are subsidizing that burger, even if you don’t eat it. Corporations use the government to steal from you so they can offer “lower costs” to you, the corporation gets to be the good guy who sells you affordable meals, but a large chunk of the cost of these meals are hidden in your taxes. On top of the labor costs they are subsidized for (that is a hidden subsidy), there are plenty of overt subsidies, notably agricultural ones that all displace the cost of the food from the price sticker to your tax form. Government gets to be the bad guy who steals your money to feed the 47% who don’t pay taxes, and this is true of almost all industries, not just food. When we know the level of efficiency of the government, you can bet the difference between what the corporation pays and the actual cost will get multiplied if they have to manage it, and that multiplied difference is going to get slapped on just one half of the population, those who pay taxes.

Next time you hear people whining minimum wage kills jobs, remember the alternative is for the government to take the difference out of your pockets. There is no free lunch, somebody has to pay, and when corporations buy resources under cost, that sucker is you.



Awesome Cinematography

I'll let this speak for itself. http://www.youtube.com/v/xHkq1edcbk4?version=3



11 shocking things you now realize to be true

We are living through a time of great awakening. The people of our world are beginning to open their eyes and realize the stunning depth of the scams and collusion taking place all around them. These scams that steal their wealth, poison them with chemicals, enslave them with financial trickery and control their minds with propaganda. These scams are the very fabric of modern government, the mainstream media, universities and so-called "science" institutions. http://www.naturalnews.com/034126_awakening_beliefs.html



Irony Alert

The US Congress is holding hearings on sweeping Internet censorship legislation this week -- and it's censoring the opposition! The bill is backed by Hollywood, Big Pharma, and the Chamber of Commerce. As if you need a reminder: This is the most offensive Internet legislation we've seen in years. It will give the government and corporations new powers to block Americans' access to sites that are accused of copyright infringement, force sites like YouTube to go to new lengths to police users' contributions, and put people in prison for streaming certain content online.

This sham of a hearing represents everything that's broken about our political system. Will you click here to demand that opponents of the Blacklist Bill be allowed to testify this week? Please click here to demand that they let us censorship opponents testify too: http://act.demandprogress.org/sign/sopa_testimony/?page=154&referring_akid=1018.647010.QbFdT4&source=mailto



$433-Million Bogus Smallpox Drug Deal for Large Democratic Party Contributor

Over the last year, the Obama administration has aggressively pushed a $433-million plan to buy an experimental smallpox drug, despite uncertainty over whether it is needed or will work. Is there no end to the corruption? Seems not when there is money involved. http://cryptogon.com/?p=25942



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Until next time,
dream big dreams,
read widely,
think well of your fellow man,
eat food that's good for you
and do the important things
that make a difference -
they are rarely the urgent ones!

Tom

How To Live The Healthiest Life


Tom Grimshaw creates software, healthy snacks and
is also an optimum wellness researcher/writer who
enjoys bringing you the oldest and newest tips to
improve each of your 12 pillars of Optimal Health.

Check out the special report he has compiled here
How to Live The Healthiest Life




Copyright 2011 by Tom Grimshaw - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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