Psyber

I'm concerned about the number of today's young people who depend entirely on spell-checkers and calculators, and don't seem to know when their software has installed "English US" by default instead of "English AU" or "English UK" which is relevant here, and can't tell when the calculator has given bizarre results because its battery is nearly flat. This is not a function of IQ but of education, or perhaps the IQ of those who design curricula?

Living somewhere where you get food fresh rather than food that has ben stored for months. Recently, here in Oz, there was a study of apples supplied by a major super-market chain. They looked OK on the outside, but had been stored in controlled atmosphere an average of 6 months and had about 30% of the vitamin levels of fresh produce. Meat is now being looked at. This is an issue of city living - the longer the transport chain the longer products are stored so there are reserve supplies.

Commonly, if people don't expect it to work they don't take it - compliance becomes an issue, but it always is. I remember reading an article years ago that suggested that only 54% of prescribed medication was ever taken as prescribed, for as long as prescribed. That recent study by a couple of Psychologists suggesting antidepressants don't work hinged on uncritical acceptance of the DSM-IV definition of depressive illness. The classification works from symptoms, with inadequate consideration of aetiological factors in the presentation. As someone here suggested - it is like calling everyone who comes into a doctor's office struggling for breath "Asthmatic" and then giving them anti-asthmatic medication and proving it doesn't work.

Once the growth plates in the long bones have fused growth hormone stimulates growth only in other bone types like the jaw. You finish up with a prognathic jaw, heavier eyebrow ridges, and big hands and feet.

Immanuel Velikovsky's version of global patterns, and world change, make as much sense as anybody else's. 30 years ago the mass of scientific opinion suggested we were facing another ice age in the near future. Now the opposite view is popular and equally PC. Both positions are about as proven as the Phlogiston theory was.

The invasion of Iraq, if it was going to happen at all, should have happened after the first Gulf War when there was an Arab nation that had been attacked by Saddam, whose government may have agreed to, and been able to, run the peace-keeping force and occupation. Any occupation of a Muslim country by an even nominally Christian force is going to have a negative effect, more so the longer it goes on. The "Coalition of the Willing" should have united to push the UN into action with a moderate Muslim administration ready to go in afterwards, not just charged in themselves. Now there is no easy way out.

If I have translated you correctly, I tend to agree with you. Those with a good grip on reality can distinguish between fantasy games and the real world, but there are those who just don't grasp the difference and tend to see what they experience in the games as normal responses in real life too. Those people tend to become desensitised to violence. The same happens about sexual mores, as was predicted by Hans Eysenck in his book, "Sex, Violence, and the Media." Mind you that was so long ago he was talking about TV and films - he'd have been really worried if computer games had been around then.

It may be a behavioural issue as discussed above, but there are also genetic predispositions they can [rarely] show up in quite young children. It occurs to me that someone should check whether there is a familial predisposition to Bipolar Spectrum Disorder in a case such as this, as the severity of the behaviour seems disproportionate to the situation as described. A history of psych disorder in parents, grand-parents, aunts, uncles, cousins should be looked for. Of course there may be more potent psychological factors involved as well.

Agreed, torture anyone enough they will say whatever they think you want to hear so you will stop - but of course if you like torturing people you won't stop anyway.

A light sabre is a cute toy, but if Luke had been packing a good old fashioned Glock 9mm Darth Vader would have been dead a lot sooner. Yes, there are problems about projectile weapons in space vessels, so you have to be careful where you point them.

There seem to be a few around. My point was raising the Velikovsky viewpoint and broadening the scope for consideration here beyond just man's impact and Earth's long-term cycles, to a larger scale, including planetary accidents, in case anybody here had not come across his speculations. And before you go off about that - since you show form for liking to pick fights here - I said Velikovsky was interesting not that his views were proven fact!

Typical US government arrogance - the US is above International law and conventions. [in Oz I am a member of the party John Howard led into the "Coalition of the Willing", but I disagreed with him over accepting an Oz citizen being held in Guantanamo Bay without trial or proper fully independent representation for 5 years!]

Have you heard any "Direct to disk" vinyls? Recorded mechanically with no tape processing.

Sometimes what time you take your medication can make a difference - for example if you take it at 8pm and can't get to sleep till 2am may be taking it at 5pm will help - just watch the ones that must be taken with food if you are on any of them. Sometimes sleeping excessive hours is driven by sedation from medication, and sometimes by boredom - having nothing worth getting up for. In that case a ritual of making yourself get up earlier and go for a walk then shower will kick-start your day, and get you back into a normal diurnal rhythm - it tends to drift if you don't do that. Sometimes mixing two or even three different medications willl work - a non-sedating one in the morning and a sedative one in the evening. Keep talking to your doctor and get them to co-operate in making small adjustments, one step at a time.

All those who think climate change is new and attributable only to man should read Immanuel Velikovsky about changes that occurred in about 1500 BC. I am not saying he is entirely correct as I have not read his original sources, but it is another perspective.