Medical apps could hurt, not help - Sioux City Journal

<base href="data:"><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; color: black; text-align: left; "><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">When the iTunes Store began offering apps that used cellphone light to cure acne, federal investigators knew that hucksters had found a new spot in cyberspace.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">"We realized this could be a medium for mischief," said James Prunty, a Federal Trade Commission attorney who helped prosecute the government's only cases against health app developers last year, shutting down two acne apps.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Since then, the Food and Drug Administration has been mired in a debate over how to oversee these new high-tech products and government officials have not pursued any other app developers for making medically dubious claims. Now, both the iTunes Store and Google Play Store for Android users are riddled with health apps that experts say do not work and in some case could even endanger people.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">These apps offer quick fixes for everything from flabby abs to alcoholism, promising relief from pain, stress, stuttering and even ringing in the ears. Many of these apps do not follow established medical guidelines. Few have been tested through the sort of clinical research that is standard for less new-fangled treatments sold by other means, a probe by The New England Center for Investigative Reporting (NECIR) has found.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">While some apps are free, thousands must be purchased, ranging from 69 cents to $999. Nearly 247 million mobile phone users worldwide are expected to download health apps in 2012, according to Research2Guidance, a global market research firm.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">In an examination of 1,500 health apps that cost money and have been available since June 2011, the center found that more than one out of five claims to treat or cure medical problems -- exactly the sorts of apps that FDA-proposed guidelines suggest need regulation. Of the 331 therapeutic apps, 142 -- or 43 percent -- relied on cellphone sound for treatments. Another dozen used the light of the cellphone, and two others used phone vibrations. Scientists say none of these methods could possibly work for the conditions in question.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">"Virtually any app that claims it will cure someone of a disease, condition or mental health condition is bogus," says John Grohol, an online health technology expert, pointing out that the vast majority of available apps have not been scientifically tested. "Developers are just preying on people's vulnerabilities."</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Satish Misra, a physician and managing editor of the app review website iMedicalApps, adds: "They take some therapeutic method that is real -- and in some cases experimental -- and create a grossly simplified version of that therapy using the iPhone. Who knows? Maybe it works." But until testing shows otherwise, "my feeling would be that it doesn't."</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">There are many outstanding health apps, particularly those intended for doctors and hospitals, that are helping to revolutionize medical care, according to physicians and others. Among the most well-regarded apps for consumers: Lose It for weight loss, Azumio to measure heart rates and iTriage to check symptoms and locate the closest hospitals with the shortest emergency-room wait times.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">But consumers have almost no way of distinguishing great high-tech tools from what Prunty called the "snake oil." Without government oversight or independent testing of apps, people mainly rely on developers' advertisements and anonymous online reviews, many of which are positive but some, such as this one, are not: "Shame on Apple for even allowing this piece of crap on here. ... It preys on people with health issues."</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">When contacted, Apple declined to discuss anything about its apps. The company has issued lengthy guidelines for app developers, which say it will reject apps that crash, have bugs or do not perform as advertised.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">A Google spokeswoman also declined to discuss its apps or its rules for developers. Google's content guidelines also ban sexually explicit material, gratuitous violence or anything that may damage users' devices.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">The FDA is drafting regulations that outline what types of health apps will need government approval before they can be marketed in the United States. But the regulations have been bogged down by debates, hearings and legislative back and forth over whether government oversight would stifle innovation.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">"Applying a complex regulatory framework could inhibit future growth and innovation in this promising market," six Republican members of Congress wrote last spring to the heads of the FDA and the Federal Communications Commission, reflecting some of the concern.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">A few private groups are working to assess the quality of various apps. iMedicalApps gets health care professionals to review software applications that mainly interest physicians. Happtique, a subsidiary of the Greater New York Hospital Association, is about to launch the nation's first app certification service, which will evaluate apps for safety and effectiveness. It will award some apps the high-tech equivalent of the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval. "We truly believe people need a trusted source," said Ben Chodor, Happtique's CEO.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Misra, an internal medicine resident at Johns Hopkins Hospital, says he's most concerned about apps that claim to test or treat consumers for serious diseases. These apps can sometimes give inaccurate information or can lull people into ignoring symptoms that might need medical attention.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Cardiac Stress Test, for instance, says on Google Play (where it sells for $3.07) that it can determine "if you are ready for sports or if your heart is not in a healthy condition." A person takes his heart rate after performing 30 squats in less than 60 seconds and enters the number into the app's calculator, which then reports whether the user's heart is in shape for exercise.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">"It's hard not to imagine how this app could give folks a false sense of security," Misra says, noting that assessing someone's cardiac status is not just a matter of looking at heart rate.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Simon Bertrand, who developed the app for his own use, said it is designed to help healthy people monitor their heart, similar to apps that monitor weight or body mass. "If you are in poor health condition ... go to see a doctor," he said in an email.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Later, in an interview by phone from France, Bertrand said his app was being offered for sale on Google Play within minutes of submitting it to the company. "It's just a test. It's not an application that claims to cure."</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Apps that rely on cellphone light, meanwhile, cannot possibly have any therapeutic value, experts say. While light treatments can be used to relieve some medical problems, cellphone light is in the wrong spectrum and far too weak to make any impact at all, said the FTC's Prunty.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">"Using the light of the cellphone is automatically suspect," Prunty said, which is why the agency decided last year to file complaints against two developers who claimed cellphone light could cure acne.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">The FTC argued in its complaints that the developers' claims were "false or misleading." AcneApp, which sold for $1.99 on iTunes, claimed that blue light fought bacteria and red light helped heal skin. "Rest the iPhone against your skin's acne-prone areas for two minutes daily to improve skin health without prescription drugs," it said. The app was downloaded 11,600 times, according to the FTC complaint.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">A similar app for Android phones, Acne Pwner, was downloaded 3,300 times, the FTC said.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">AcneApp cited a study in the British Journal of Dermatology, which suggested that light therapy was almost twice as effective as over-the-the counter blemish treatments. But the FTC said in its complaint that the study "does not prove that blue and red light therapy" effectively treats acne.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">The two companies settled the complaints, without admitting any violation of the law, by paying fines of $14,294 in AcneApp's case, and $1,700 in Acne Pwner's case.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Gregory Pearson, the Houston dermatologist who helped create AcneApp, "was not making any claims of efficacy," said his attorney, Sesha Kalapatapu.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Cellphone lights are being marketing to treat other conditions too including seasonal affective disorder (SAD), a type of depression that occurs during the winter because of lack of sunlight. But SAD experts say even the most powerful cellphone lights are far too weak to treat depression.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">There's also little proof that apps relying on cellphone sounds can be effective, yet there are many such apps.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">AG Method, which sells for $9.99 on the iTunes Store, says that users can get relief for everything from insomnia to toothaches by listening to something that sounds like running water for 20 minutes. "Put the sound-source on the maximum pain," it says. All the while, "HEALING IN PROGRESS" flashes in big red letters on the iPhone screen.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">"There is no plausible, physiological way in which something like this would help," Misra said.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">But that may not stop people from buying it. "People in pain are very gullible. They would pay their last dollar for relief," said Penney Cowan, executive director of the American Chronic Pain Association.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Tiziana Formica, a spokesman for AG Method, said in and email: "AG Method is the result of 25 years of research and includes several technologies and methodologies developed and widely tested."</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Even health apps that seem more conventional often have fundamental flaws. Many don't conform to clinical practice guidelines.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">An app to help people with tinnitus, or ringing in the ears, was sold in both the iTunes and Google Play stores until early August and contained multiple medical misconceptions.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">"Ringing Relief Pro," which sold for $2.99, advertised itself as "an easy and inexpensive way to cure your tinnitus. ... Simply play the low frequency hum that sounds best to you for 90 seconds and your ears should ring no more!" It claimed that tinnitus occurs "when tiny hairs in your inner ear get stuck in the bent position and send false signals to the brain."</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">In fact, tinnitus is not caused by stuck ear hairs and can be a sign of many underlying medical conditions, including hearing loss, high blood pressure, allergies and anxiety, says Rhonda Ruby, an audiologist who has treated patients for 35 years at the West Newton Hearing Center in Massachusetts.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">"There is no cure for tinnitus," she says. "When you download these sorts of apps without consulting a medical professional, it's like putting a Band-Aid on something and not figuring out what is causing the problem."</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Ed Williams, the app's developer, withdrew the app from the market after being contacted by the New England Center for Investigative Reporting. A 28-year-old computer scientist, he said he developed the app after reading a newspaper article about researchers who discovered that a low-pitched sound could provide tinnitus relief.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">"I am not a medical expert, and I wouldn't want anyone using my app in lieu of medical treatment, but it does seem to work for some people," he said. Once he was told about the proposed FDA regulations, though, Williams said he wanted to submit the app for government approval.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; z-index: auto; ">His tinnitus app may not have done very well, but Williams also developed Fake-A-Call, which allows people to set up fake phone calls when they are in meetings or awkward social situations. He said it has been downloaded millions of time and earns him thousands of dollars every month.</p></div><a href="http://siouxcityjournal.com/medical-apps-could-hurt-not-help/article_3bb53399-b67b-5bbd-bb18-2dd32029ad18.html">http://siouxcityjournal.com/medical-apps-could-hurt-not-help/article_3bb53399-b67b-5bbd-bb18-2dd32029ad18.html</a><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; color: black; text-align: left; "><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div>

Medical apps could hurt, not help - Sioux City Journal

When the iTunes Store began offering apps that used cellphone light to cure acne, federal investigators knew that hucksters had found a new ...

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Itchiness is contagious, just like yawning - The Body Odd

<base href="data:"><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; color: black; text-align: left; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0.8em; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0.8em; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 25px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">For some people, hearing about a bug bite or a rash is enough to cause them to furiously dig at their own unaffected skin. Even some doctors who treat people with shingles report feeling itchy after witnessing their patients scratching. And we'd bet many of you readers are feeling itchy right this very second. </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0.8em; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0.8em; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 25px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">It seems humans commonly catch itches from one another, but scientists hadn't proven it—until now. Researchers found that itching is contagious much like yawning and laughing.</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0.8em; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0.8em; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 25px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">"With itching, there [was] only anecdotal evidence that watching [a person] itch induces itching," explains Henning Holle, a lecturer in the psychology department at the University of Hull in England. "We wanted to know whether contagious itch would effect everyone."</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0.8em; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0.8em; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 25px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Holle asked 51 adults to take a personality test that ranks the Big Five personality traits of openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness and neuroticism. Then using functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI (a technique that detects brain activity by monitoring blood flow in the brain), the subjects watched either a video where someone was scratching herself or tapping her arm or chest. The fMRI allowed the researchers to see the subjects' brain activity as they responded to the video images.</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0.8em; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0.8em; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 25px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Two-thirds of the people who saw the scratching video scratched themselves. This finding mirrors what experts know about other socially contagious behaviors such as yawning and laughing: most of us "catch" yawns and laughter. </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0.8em; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0.8em; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 25px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; z-index: auto; ">"Most people tend to experience contagious itch—some are more prone to it than others," Holle explains. "I was really surprised by the amount of people who spontaneously scratched."</div><div class="j_content_poll j_widget" data-poll-id="44646" data-align="right" data-editor="null" id="j_content_poll_1" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 25px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0.8em; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0.8em; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 25px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; z-index: auto; ">Watching an itch sparks activity in the anterior insular, primary somatosensory area, and the prefrontal and premotor cortices. These regions, part of the itch matrix, also activate when a person actually feels an itch, meaning that watching someone scratch makes the brain think it is experiencing an itch.</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0.8em; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0.8em; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 25px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">After establishing that itching spreads socially, Holle wondered what caused it. He suspected itch might spread because of empathy. There is some evidence that people feel pain empathetically: When someone sees a family member receive an electric shock, the observer also feels pain (as this is in a lab setting the people aren't actually receiving the shock). It turns out that people who exhibit more empathy do not scratch more than those who are less compassionate. But people who are more neurotic, those who experience the biggest mood swings and exhibit anxiety, depression, jealousy, and guilt, are more susceptible to contagious itch than others. The neural activity in the prefrontal cortex reinforces the self-reported data indicating that people with neurotic tendencies are more likely to catch an itch.  </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0.8em; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0.8em; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 25px; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; z-index: auto; ">"This introspective awareness might explain why people are more prone [to contagious itch]," he says.</div></div><a href="http://bodyodd.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/11/12/15115633-itchiness-is-contagious-just-like-yawning?lite">http://bodyodd.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/11/12/15115633-itchiness-is-contagious-just-like-yawning?lite</a><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; color: black; text-align: left; "><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div>

Itchiness is contagious, just like yawning - The Body Odd

For some people, hearing about a bug bite or a rash is enough to cause them to furiously dig at their own unaffected skin. Even some doctors...

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to send or not to send

...that is the question.<br /><br />Hey everybody! First off I want to thank you all for your sweet comments and emails about the living room. I'm so happy to have accomplished everything on my list. You'll notice that I didn't say the room is 'finished' as there is always more I want to do, but we won't go there today.<br /><br />We had a great time with family in Chicago over the Thanksgiving holiday and I also got a chance to visit with some very good friends whom I don't get to see often enough.<br /><br />Such a good time was had in fact, that it made me think about Christmas cards. Well, the visit and the fact that every other car we passed on Sunday had a christmas tree on the roof.<br /><br />Last year I didn't send out Christmas/holiday cards (gasp) and I have to tell you, if felt pretty damn good. It was on my list, but I simply just ran out of time. But after the initial guilt wore off, it was rather nice to have one less thing to feel obligated to during this crazy time of year.<br /><br />Big but though, I LOVE getting Christmas cards. I'm an enigma I know. I love seeing how much everyone's kids have grown (even though I see all of that already thru Facebook) and I'm thrilled to get something in the mail that isn't a bill or a solicitation. And, they are just so damn cute!<br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzvpvXgHPPUpokxxQfpXE3epgaOO2afbgyFvTGrwAbjS99X7g-Jj_Wfw3u34sAAxDNzvWhWIiVJF54OeyafHHa0RlGhGrnYUR29U0WqgLUTCrm80mC1OVWyAPsJqPO9Q-AHJakBhCz1TK0/s1600/flat_holiday_photo_cards_chic_colors.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzvpvXgHPPUpokxxQfpXE3epgaOO2afbgyFvTGrwAbjS99X7g-Jj_Wfw3u34sAAxDNzvWhWIiVJF54OeyafHHa0RlGhGrnYUR29U0WqgLUTCrm80mC1OVWyAPsJqPO9Q-AHJakBhCz1TK0/s320/flat_holiday_photo_cards_chic_colors.jpeg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.tinyprints.com/" target="_blank">Tiny Prints: Chic Colors</a></td></tr></tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjw7xOKl2NxQ8Rr-vitiW68f3C80Nhfx0L_C3Qi9PAZ4im5IpVa12-4Z4FKsDKcDiqNz30fh4lpwKjgN1fSzx1_Rl6zxQdzs4BauZW_mwjYM4spkX_pFrKBKNNE7p5a9WkV3lxe2p6SAblq/s1600/ornament_cards_gingham_grosgrain.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjw7xOKl2NxQ8Rr-vitiW68f3C80Nhfx0L_C3Qi9PAZ4im5IpVa12-4Z4FKsDKcDiqNz30fh4lpwKjgN1fSzx1_Rl6zxQdzs4BauZW_mwjYM4spkX_pFrKBKNNE7p5a9WkV3lxe2p6SAblq/s320/ornament_cards_gingham_grosgrain.jpeg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.tinyprints.com/" target="_blank">Tiny Prints: Gingham Grosgrain</a></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnwm_AAmrjO2vDOqRvzypE-YMyYB42R0d2trncJPkd8WKAj0AXlkqh1QhVXvJv8JU3e2aFdf2CcV8h4vJZQWmRY6IX8V7RsKJCd15M05MAE0o3vOCsuWQQlC-popKceXk4k5i4L0JEWox1/s1600/STATIONERYCARD_5x5-31050-5770-MERCHLARGE_FRONT-v1344029349000123654.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnwm_AAmrjO2vDOqRvzypE-YMyYB42R0d2trncJPkd8WKAj0AXlkqh1QhVXvJv8JU3e2aFdf2CcV8h4vJZQWmRY6IX8V7RsKJCd15M05MAE0o3vOCsuWQQlC-popKceXk4k5i4L0JEWox1/s320/STATIONERYCARD_5x5-31050-5770-MERCHLARGE_FRONT-v1344029349000123654.jpeg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/new-years-cards/new-years-cards" target="_blank">Shutterfly</a></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjonddYURU_5cxNVD266BuT6nc0ClXEcLTOxxiVF1gJlU3ruChMz4p9sTvsAH4Zu5z8E_29f5R-vNpMoySiF3W1f7cCW-jfVQEjzFENAALhNpmX5TgYFvp1yDF6RH9YlgA0c7ckvyuyvoeN/s1600/STATIONERYCARD_FOLDED_5x7-27107-6073-MERCHLARGE_FRONT-v134402796400090507.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="231" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjonddYURU_5cxNVD266BuT6nc0ClXEcLTOxxiVF1gJlU3ruChMz4p9sTvsAH4Zu5z8E_29f5R-vNpMoySiF3W1f7cCW-jfVQEjzFENAALhNpmX5TgYFvp1yDF6RH9YlgA0c7ckvyuyvoeN/s320/STATIONERYCARD_FOLDED_5x7-27107-6073-MERCHLARGE_FRONT-v134402796400090507.jpeg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-cards/joyful-and-bright-holiday-card" target="_blank">Shutterfly</a></td></tr></tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXZrlaYdGAB_axD8blBzb8IC73yHe9rbmcB0fh8Xkr_knS_t7tLG8BrfUTypdYErn0ReMTUImwXeXsfbijCX8UUzXM0SGSDJb9Q1AZMQSwxzx85MDfRWqYxPIA59bjd00lzLrXaBmXusUo/s1600/be-bright-christmas-card.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXZrlaYdGAB_axD8blBzb8IC73yHe9rbmcB0fh8Xkr_knS_t7tLG8BrfUTypdYErn0ReMTUImwXeXsfbijCX8UUzXM0SGSDJb9Q1AZMQSwxzx85MDfRWqYxPIA59bjd00lzLrXaBmXusUo/s320/be-bright-christmas-card.jpeg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-cards" target="_blank">Shutterfly</a></td></tr></tbody></table><br />So, what do you think? Are you sending out holiday cards this year? Are they necessary in our social media world where we know all of everyone's everything? Do you have a method or place to get them from that removes the stress? Do I need to save you a seat next to me in 'I didn't send out Christmas cards' hell?

to send or not to send

...that is the question. Hey everybody! First off I want to thank you all for your sweet comments and emails about the living room. I'm ...

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The patient I couldn’t heal - Salon.com

<base href="data:"><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; color: black; text-align: left; "><p style="margin: 15px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); list-style: none; line-height: 20px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">I take pride in closing surgical incisions. After a cold blade opens the skin and the internal work is done, the only thing the patient sees, or knows, is their incision. Maintaining symmetry, I use the finest threads and the gentlest instruments in an attempt to restore what once was. Some surgical residents leave the wound dressing to the operating room nurses; I personally dress the wound to reassure the patient that his tissues were handled with the utmost respect. For me, it is the last step of any operation.</p><p style="margin: 15px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); list-style: none; line-height: 20px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">But as I closed Mr. H's wound, others in the room looked at me as if I were crazy. After eight hours of surgery, why would I be so careful with something as trivial as the wound closure? The anesthesiologist became impatient, and the medical student stood by awkwardly. Undeterred, I carefully aligned the skin edges and neatly applied the dressing.</p><p style="margin: 15px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); list-style: none; line-height: 20px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">A grapefruit-size tumor in Mr. H's kidney had invaded the spleen and part of his intestine. It was covered with ominous blood vessels, trying to engulf the neighboring organs. The tumor was removed, along with the kidney, spleen and a six-inch segment of intestine. He was going to the intensive care unit with drainage tubes in his chest and abdomen. He needed a breathing tube in his throat while blood was still being poured into his veins.</p><p style="margin: 15px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); list-style: none; line-height: 20px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">The incision wrapped halfway around his body. The glistening yellow fat and the beefy red muscle came together layer by layer as we closed the gaping hole. The anesthesiologist peeked over the surgical drapes and insisted that I expedite the closure with staples instead of suture. I grudgingly agreed but still took great care to ensure Mr. H's skin closure would be perfect. I somehow believed that a nice scar would hide the ruin within.</p><p style="margin: 15px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); list-style: none; line-height: 20px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">My attempt at perfection unraveled a few days later. It started with a little redness at the corner of the incision. I probed the wound with a Q-tip and ensured the underlying fascia – the dense fibrous tissue encasing the abdomen – was intact. Removing the Q-tip, I saw the characteristic creamy pus of a wound infection. I could smell it. I removed one staple to allow adequate drainage and packed the small defect with a tiny strip of gauze.</p><div class="toggle-group target hideOnInit" data-toggle-group="story-13068369" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); list-style-type: none; list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Times; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 18px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; opacity: 1; position: static; z-index: auto; "><p style="margin: 15px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; list-style: none; line-height: 20px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">Mr. H's wife was distraught about her husband's complicated operation and poor prognosis.  And now his wound was infected. I explained to her that wounds can heal in different ways. When tissues are sewn together side-to-side, the fat joins to fat, muscle to muscle, and skin to skin. But when left open with gauze, the gap fills in with pink granulation tissue from the bottom up. Wounds have a remarkable ability to heal, I told her, but her skepticism was clear. We discussed that overall his recovery was coming along nicely. Only a few days after a big surgery, his remaining kidney was working, he was breathing on his own again, and it seemed that he was ready to come out of the ICU. We were all hoping for a speedy recovery.</p><p style="margin: 15px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; list-style: none; line-height: 20px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">But our optimism would quickly fade. The last three months of Mr. H's life were spent in intensive care; his hospitalization plagued by widespread infection and heart, lung and kidney failure.  Staple by staple, his incision unzipped in a matter of days. The wound looked as if I never closed it – three inches deep, four inches wide and nearly 2 feet long. The fascia was intact, a single layer of tissue keeping the outside from his ravaged insides. We reinserted the breathing tube, put drains into infected pockets of his belly, and administered strong antibiotics. Unable to eat, we gave him nutrition through his veins — this was what he had wanted.</p><p style="margin: 15px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; list-style: none; line-height: 20px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">Every morning and every evening I would gently remove a 12-foot strip of gauze from the ruined closure, tenderly wash and inspect the bed of the wound, and repack the defect with a fresh, moistened gauze. Weeks went by, and he regained enough strength to turn on his side to allow me to change the dressing – always nodding approval at my attentiveness. I would ask about his pain, examine him for pressure sores and offer a compassionate smile to his wife. I knew his chances of survival were poor and felt crippled by my inability to do anything about it. He was physically deconditioned and clearly depressed.</p><p style="margin: 15px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; list-style: none; line-height: 20px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">Day in and day out I tended to his wound with the same passion with which I closed it. And sure enough that massive incision began to close. My medical school textbook calls it "healing by secondary intention." Thousands upon thousands of cells at the base of the wound would lay down a matrix of tough collagen fibers and proteins. Microscopic blood vessels would creep in and deliver more healing cells that would break down the matrix and build it back up even stronger. Slowly but surely the rising scaffold would bridge the canyon and close the gap.</p><p style="margin: 15px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; list-style: none; line-height: 20px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">It took two and a half months for the final scar to form; there was nothing left to pack. By that time, Mr. H was breathing on his own but was so debilitated he could hardly speak – he didn't seem to have any desire. We arranged to get him home so he could die peacefully in his bed, surrounded by his family.</p><p style="margin: 15px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; list-style: none; line-height: 20px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">A couple weeks later, I received word from his home health nurse that he had died. She ensured me that his family was with him at the very end, and his pain was well controlled. His wound had healed completely.</p><p style="margin: 15px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; list-style: none; line-height: 20px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">As I read that email, I reflected back on the time I spent with Mr. H. I thought about my obsession with that wound, my painstaking focus on closing it perfectly. First with staples, and then with gauze. I wondered why, after a long and complicated surgery, I cared so much about bringing the skin edges together so evenly. I knew the prognosis was poor. I could have let his nurses pack the wound.</p><p style="margin: 15px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; list-style: none; line-height: 20px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">Mr. H brought me face to face with my own imperfections and limitations; every physician has a patient that does. As a surgeon, I realized there are some patients we just cannot save. As a resident, my role in making management decisions in Mr. H's care and taking out his tumor was limited. But whether removing a large tumor, changing wound dressings, or laying a hand on a dying man's shoulder, we do what we can do to the highest degree. Yes, wounds certainly do have a remarkable ability to heal.</p></div></div><a href="http://www.salon.com/2012/11/27/the_patient_i_couldnt_heal/">http://www.salon.com/2012/11/27/the_patient_i_couldnt_heal/</a><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; color: black; text-align: left; "><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div>

The patient I couldn’t heal - Salon.com

I take pride in closing surgical incisions. After a cold blade opens the skin and the internal work is done, the only thing the patient sees...

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Daily Education and Technology News for Schools 11/27/2012

<ul class="diigo-linkroll"> <li> <p class="diigo-link"> <a href="http://www.technologyreview.com/news/506366/questions-surround-software-that-adapts-to-students/">Can Knewton’s Adaptive Learning Software Personalize Education? | MIT Technology Review</a> </p> <p class="diigo-description">Advertising adapts, shouldn't our learning? The theory behind is great, but perhaps it isn't well implemented yet. I wrote a piece for the New York Times a while back on Adaptive Testing. This piece in the MIT technology review is worth a read. "By carefully logging students’ every action online, a company called Knewton says, it can personalize questions and lessons to help people learn faster. Skeptics say that’s not proven."</p> <p class="diigo-tags"> <span>tags:</span> <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education">education</a> <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news">news</a> <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/testing">testing</a> <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/adaptivelearning">adaptivelearning</a> <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/adaptivetesting">adaptivetesting</a> <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/tumblr">tumblr</a></p> </li> <li> <p class="diigo-link"> <a href="http://www.edgalaxy.com/journal/2012/11/24/evernote-for-schools.html">Evernote for Schools</a> </p> <p class="diigo-description">I love and use Evernote - with all of the apps that add into it, it is very useful. I do also know that many schools love Microsoft One Note -one of the best academic offerings of the company. Here's a website about Evernote for Schools with resources for you. Either way, schools moving to 1:1 initiatives need to upgrade their school's notebook to allow for group notetaking and simple sharing as afforded by both of these programs.</p> <p class="diigo-tags"> <span>tags:</span> <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education">education</a> <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news">news</a> <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/productivity">productivity</a> <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/tumblr">tumblr</a></p> </li> <li> <p class="diigo-link"> <a href="http://www.thecurriculumcentre.org/blog/2012/11/20/review-each-lesson-plan-in-terms-of-what-the-student-is-likely-to-think-about/">‘Review each lesson plan in terms of what the student is likely to think about.’ | The Curriculum Centre Blog</a> </p> <p class="diigo-description">Fascinating read about current cognitive research and lesson plans and information on education reform in the UK, which is being driven largely by the mentioned book in this quote. If you want to look at the research being discussed in the UK, I'd start with this article. "In Why Don’t Students Like School, Willingham says that ‘the most general and useful idea that cognitive psychology can offer teachers’ is to ‘review each lesson plan in terms of what the student is likely to think about’. I could not agree more. Last year I applied this idea to every single lesson I taught, and I apply it now to all the resources I design. It may sound obvious but it was not something I did before I read Willingham, and it absolutely was not something that my teacher training taught me to think about. Students are more likely to remember something they’ve had to think about – or, in another of Willingham’s phrases, memory is the residue of thought. So we need to make sure that students are thinking about the right thing for the whole lesson. That way there is a better chance they will remember it. This approach also eliminates dull rote-learning. If pupils are always thinking about the right thing and thinking about its meaning, then they are more likely to remember it, and to remember it meaningfully."</p> <p class="diigo-tags"> <span>tags:</span> <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education">education</a> <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/teaching">teaching</a> <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/research">research</a> <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/tumblr">tumblr</a> <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news">news</a> <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/cognition">cognition</a></p> </li> <li> <p class="diigo-link"> <a href="http://www.the-digital-reader.com/2012/11/20/heres-where-you-can-buy-kobo-ereaders-in-the-us/">Here’s Where You Can Buy the New Kobo eReaders in the US</a> </p> <p class="diigo-description">The Kobo is a new ebook reader on the block by indie book sellers and other small chain stores (I read this weekend that Family Christian Bookstores are going to be selling the device.) The shift to ebooks is going to happen everywhere - my husband and I were wondering just yesterday how long Lifeway is going to publish paper Sunday School books -- it makes more sense to release as a PDF, but then, you're looking at a significant mark up and a whole new model which I think many companies who sell such subscriptions (i.e. weekly reader, local newspapers selling smaller versions for students) aren't ready for.</p> <p class="diigo-tags"> <span>tags:</span> <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education">education</a> <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news">news</a> <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/ebook">ebook</a> <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/tumblr">tumblr</a></p> </li> <li> <p class="diigo-link"> <a href="http://readwrite.com/2012/11/26/ted-curator-chris-anderson-on-the-conferences-past-present-future">TED Curator Chris Anderson On The Conference's Past, Present & Future</a> </p> <p class="diigo-description">I found this interview of Chris Anderson an interesting read about the history of TED. It is hard to believe they started with just 6 videos in 2006. The flops, he acknowledges, are those who are full of ego - and I'd agree. I saw a TEDx where at least half were so full of the fact they were on stage, it made listening to the speeches a bit difficult. So, then, I guess humility would be part of a giving a good talk and I, as a rank and file teacher, find that refreshing.</p> <p class="diigo-tags"> <span>tags:</span> <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education">education</a> <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/ted">ted</a> <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/speaking">speaking</a> <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news">news</a> <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/tumblr">tumblr</a></p> </li> </ul><p class="diigo-ps">Posted from <a href='http://www.diigo.com'>Diigo</a>. The rest of my favorite links are <a href='http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher'>here</a>.</p>

Daily Education and Technology News for Schools 11/27/2012

Can Knewton’s Adaptive Learning Software Personalize Education? | MIT Technology Review Advertising ...

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sLAB Costa Rica, Part 2

Back in April I featured <a href="http://archidose.blogspot.com/2012/04/half-dose-103-slab-costa-rica.html">sLAB Costa Rica</a>, a design-build project of NYIT that aims to build a communal recycling center in Nosara on the country's Pacific coast. Their initial Kickstarter campaign was successful, allowing students to travel over the summer to help in the project's construction. But, as professor Tobias Holler states on their <a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/472474365/slab-costa-rica-building-the-nosara-recycling-cent">new Kickstarter page</a>, "the project is far from completed, and much work remains to be done before the building is ready to help with the local waste management problem." Holler and his students are hoping to return between semesters in January 2013 to continue volunteering on the construction site.<br /><br /><iframe frameborder="0" height="480" src="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/472474365/slab-costa-rica-building-the-nosara-recycling-cent/widget/video.html" width="640"> </iframe><br /><br />Check out the above video for more on the project, and please visit the <a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/472474365/slab-costa-rica-building-the-nosara-recycling-cent">sLAB Costa Rica Part 2 Kickstarter page</a> for even more information and to donate before the December 13 deadline for this worthy project.

sLAB Costa Rica, Part 2

Back in April I featured sLAB Costa Rica , a design-build project of NYIT that aims to build a communal recycling center in Nosara on the co...

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If You're Happy, I'm Happy

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Hola y’all! One of the things I tell people all the time is “If you’re happy, I’m happy.” I’m always amazed at how often people think I’m being a smart-ass or joking with them when I say that. It’s a little hurtful even to be honest with you. Why would people think I’m not being sincere? Why do people always think I’m joking when I’m being serious and think I’m being serious when I’m just joking? <br /><br />ANSWERS! I WANT ANSWERS! <br /><br />Actually I know the answer. It’s because most people are the opposite. They love it when others are miserable or when bad things happen to them and are themselves miserable when good things happen to their “friends.” I’ve never quite understood this attitude, but I see it play out all the time on social media sites. <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib9Bm47FEFZk0XtKoEaeAoRTsnc2rfGHtwhy4yVjju6KMKVu_sM301CIxF4zt-3JxaFDxMpg76q2QRkTf1IOdphsyVsVyn2oaKqZlpMhXcQREC_-Cvi2eC-czdC_ZFqfWEiZaQC9Q26BU/s1600/arkansas-cheerleader.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib9Bm47FEFZk0XtKoEaeAoRTsnc2rfGHtwhy4yVjju6KMKVu_sM301CIxF4zt-3JxaFDxMpg76q2QRkTf1IOdphsyVsVyn2oaKqZlpMhXcQREC_-Cvi2eC-czdC_ZFqfWEiZaQC9Q26BU/s320/arkansas-cheerleader.jpg" width="236" /></a></div>Anyhoodle, as you probably know, I’m a pretty good sports fan. I have a few teams that I’m a die-hard fan of. I’m a fan of the Arkansas Razorbacks, San Antonio Spurs, St. Louis Cardinals, New Orleans Saints, New York Knicks and the Houston Texans. <br /><br />I really on have a few teams that I dislike and never root for: Alabama, Auburn, Duke, THE Ohio State University, Los Angeles Lakers and the Chicago Cubs. For the most part this is because of their fans more than anything else. <br /><br />Generally the rest of the teams don’t mean much to me, unless I’m friends with someone who is a fan of a certain team. In that case, I generally root for my friend’s team to win because I want my friend to be happy.<span style="color: red;">* </span><br /><br />Hell, this weekend Arkansas lost to LSU in football, but I wasn’t that upset about it. That’s because my BFF, the lovely and talented Ms. <a href="https://twitter.com/warrior_kat" target="_blank">Warrior_Kat </a>is a HUGE LSU fan and I knew she would be happy that they one. And I like it when she’s happy, so that mitigated the disappointment in MY TEAM losing. (It also helped that Arkansas is a piece of shit football team and I already knew they would lose, but I was still happy that Kat was happy.)<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUohwHewS5sEqP5TMXv_D-lHGMo_jIdFhyMWic63-0v1PP4V-TPxwnOs2CNkJLdIq7QMgG5PcxuLbPxjMOfmVM6JPma6mPfHaEdDI18zXyKKYp8gtaVZ6Zdzl6X1hxJ_LLRhKeZ9YjXYM/s1600/Notre+Dame+Cheerleader.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUohwHewS5sEqP5TMXv_D-lHGMo_jIdFhyMWic63-0v1PP4V-TPxwnOs2CNkJLdIq7QMgG5PcxuLbPxjMOfmVM6JPma6mPfHaEdDI18zXyKKYp8gtaVZ6Zdzl6X1hxJ_LLRhKeZ9YjXYM/s320/Notre+Dame+Cheerleader.jpg" width="266" /></a></div>I used to hate Notre Dame. I ranked them right up there with Ohio State and Duke when it came to rude, obnoxious, condescending and generally insufferable fan bases. And, I have <strike>an irrational</strike> a perfectly legit and reasonable dislike of Lou Holtz. But, over the years as Notre Dame has struggled, I’ve found their fans to be far less delusional than fans of other schools and pro teams when their teams begin to suck. <br /><br />And, my good friend and <s>lover</s> partner in crime Matt-Man is a big Notre Dame fan. So, I’ve actually found myself rooting the Irish this season, which feels a little weird. If Matt wasn’t a big Notre Dame fan, I would have still watched them this season because they’re a good team and I would certainly be ready to root for them in the BCS Championship against Alabama! But, because he is a fan, I have actually rooted for them all season. <br /><br />I know people have the exact opposite attitude. Or even worse, they feel the need to refer to everyone other than their team as the enemy and find a reason to HATE them and their fans. I have a former friend who is a former friend because she took this to real extremes over … BASEBALL! Yes, the most insignificant of all sports and for her everyone her team played was full of horrible human beings and the fans of her team’s opponents were all scumbags and whatever other names she came up with to call them. I just don’t understand that shit. <br /><br />This “If you’re happy, I’m happy” attitude extends beyond sports too. That was just the best example I could come up with. I know a lot of people live pretty miserable lives and I guess that’s why they get so much pleasure out of bad things happening to others. I don’t understand why though, it’s not like it makes your life any less miserable for other people to suffer too. I guess getting pleasure out of other people’s misfortune is just a character flaw.<br /><br />Jayman<br /><a href="mailto:Jayman3768@gmail.com">Jayman3768@gmail.com</a><br /><a href="http://www.twitter.com/jayman_iws" target="_blank">@Jayman_IWS </a><br /><br /><span style="color: red;">*</span>This attitude doesn’t extend to politics though. While I feel bad for you if your team loses a big game and you’re down or sad, I can’t feel that way because you were hoping Mitt Romney would win. Sorry. <br /><br />In other news we had a “<a href="http://www.blogtalkradio.com/im-with-stupid/2012/11/26/cyber-monday-extravaganza" target="_blank">Cyber Monday Extravaganza</a>” on a special Monday edition of IWS. There was a minor technical glitch early on, but after we got past that, we had a pretty good time. So, check it out! <br /><br /><object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.adobe.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=9,0,0,0" height="105" id="143577" name="143577" width="210"><param name="movie" value="http://www.blogtalkradio.com/btrplayer.swf?file=http://www.blogtalkradio.com%2Fplaylist.aspx%3Fshow_id%3D4062873&autostart=false&bufferlength=5&volume=80&corner=rounded&callback=http://www.blogtalkradio.com/flashplayercallback.aspx" /><param name="quality" value="high" /><param name="wmode" value="transparent" /><param name="menu" value="false" /><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always" /><embed src="http://www.blogtalkradio.com/btrplayer.swf" flashvars="file=http://www.blogtalkradio.com%2Fplaylist.aspx%3Fshow_id%3D4062873&autostart=false&shuffle=false&callback=http://www.blogtalkradio.com/FlashPlayerCallback.aspx&width=210&height=105&volume=80&corner=rounded" width="210" height="105" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" quality="high" wmode="transparent" menu="false" name="143577" id="143577" allowScriptAccess="always"></embed></object><br /><div style="font-size: 10px; text-align: center; width: 220px;">Listen to <a href="http://www.blogtalkradio.com/">internet radio</a> with <a href="http://www.blogtalkradio.com/im-with-stupid">Im With Stupid</a> on Blog Talk Radio</div><br /><br /></div>

If You're Happy, I'm Happy

Hola y’all! One of the things I tell people all the time is “If you’re happy, I’m happy.” I’m always amazed at how often people think I’m be...

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font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} </style><![endif]--> <br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1PyV6LQFzjxP4FpYMpOlMSoL6ExNtAFpLU3lwCrxexgQWFSxaxNAlcTGEQr81_cefRUS-td_HqZBhLBbfS2P9IhgHb-mEvGqIwzLiBfDlgb3J5AmZzJoePGsGojTFb_Z5OB1rxb6A2gQj/s1600/gaza-israel-conflict-settlements.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1PyV6LQFzjxP4FpYMpOlMSoL6ExNtAFpLU3lwCrxexgQWFSxaxNAlcTGEQr81_cefRUS-td_HqZBhLBbfS2P9IhgHb-mEvGqIwzLiBfDlgb3J5AmZzJoePGsGojTFb_Z5OB1rxb6A2gQj/s400/gaza-israel-conflict-settlements.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="color: red;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">IS IT TIME FOR ACTIVE DETERRENCE? </span></b></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">By Anthony Rusonik via Geopoliticalmonitor </span></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">For those interested enough to dive deeper- beyond the tweets, the public relations campaigns, and the moral indignation that muddies the waters of clear analysis- there  are some lessons to be learned from the most recent round in the ISRAEL-Gaza  conflict.<br /><br />The first lesson, of course, is that this is indeed just the most recent round. The ceasefire <span> </span>is sure to be inconclusive and no political impasse will be broken. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">On the diplomatic level, Hamas remains in power, continues to reject ISRAEL’S right to exist, and retains significant –albeit not unlimited—support within the ARAB world, TURKEY and IRAN.  Regional dynamics are unchanged. International dynamics are unchanged, with the US and other Western powers committed to unenthusiastic but consistent expressions of ISRAEL’S right to self-defense. ISRAEL itself remains unchanged in its approach to the Palestinian question. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">At the simplest level, Jerusalem is eager to restore the status quo ante: no Gaza rockets, no ISRAELI retaliation. Questions of a greater détente with Gaza that might lead to an easing of the blockade are seldom raised, as Hamas rejectionism seems to make such considerations impossible from Jerusalem’s point-of-view.<br /><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><u><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Background Information</span></u></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">: See: <b><span style="color: red;">W</span></b></span><b><span style="color: red; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">ho is really besieging Gaza? </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><a href="http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2012/11/israel-and-gaza.html">http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2012/11/israel-and-gaza.html</a></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">WEST BANK PALESTINIANS, ALTHOUGH AGGRIEVED, DID NOT ENGAGE</span></b></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">If there are political notes to taken from this, then the first point of interest is that the West Bank Palestinians, although aggrieved, did not engage.  A second point is that Egypt is still the foundation for a stable Middle East. Despite his Muslim Brotherhood associations and the anti-Western and anti-ISRAEL sentiment of his people, President Morsi remains a clear-headed and pragmatic statesman for EGYPT. Both Hamas and ISRAEL turned to Morsi to broker a cease-fire, and EGYPT remains the sole party with influence on both combatants. TURKEY’S reckless rhetoric, on the other hand, put Prime Minister Erdogan on the outside, even though the TURKS and the ISRAELIS–despite Ravi Marmara– have natural shared interests in both a stable Gaza and, of course, containment of the conflict in SYRIA.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: blue;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">GREATER DIVIDE BETWEEN HAMAS AND FATAH?</span></b></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><br /><br />So, again, there is little reason to expect significant political or diplomatic change from the current conflict.  In the interim, at most we may see a greater divide between Hamas and Fatah, where the latter is determined to pursue its UN bid for Palestinian statehood, while the former wants no part of the recognition this would bestow upon ISRAEL. In turn, ISRAEL may at most offer a state with provisional borders, a move it had pondered even before the current round of hostilities.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: blue;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">VICTORY FOR ISRAEL ON A FRONT THAT MAY PROVE DECISIVE- AND DETERMINE FUTURE STRATEGIC DIRECTIONS- BY ISRAEL</span></b></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><br /><br />Despite all appearances of continued political deadlock, however, the present conflict is nonetheless a watershed. It represents a victory for ISRAEL on a front that may prove decisive- and determine future strategic directions- if the ISRAELIS opt to pursue it. This is of course the fact that the Iron Dome anti-missile system exceeded all expectations.  </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">ISRAEL’S AIR FORCE, THE KEY TO POLITICAL SUCCESS? </span></b></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBymm_eeJzXC83PdQ2jCzM3VngSkhf6qew1NbEiLYwnok7wrymecP0Ch3dlz2Xr9knD-i-6lkE-G9g-VzlHT-D_gnUtoNQx40IlF_ye9ZdUQbAQmJoYXmDrYIe3KNWAZWYxaNlmS9U__4x/s1600/729px-Israel_Air_Force_Flag.svg.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBymm_eeJzXC83PdQ2jCzM3VngSkhf6qew1NbEiLYwnok7wrymecP0Ch3dlz2Xr9knD-i-6lkE-G9g-VzlHT-D_gnUtoNQx40IlF_ye9ZdUQbAQmJoYXmDrYIe3KNWAZWYxaNlmS9U__4x/s320/729px-Israel_Air_Force_Flag.svg.png" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"></span></b></span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The six batteries deployed by the Air Force wing of the IDF (it is of some note perhaps that ground forces do not operate the systems) have scored a 90% success rate.</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">   This is impressive not just because of the short distance and limited interception window for the Raphael systems, but also because of the electronic brains of the unit that allow it to predict whether a missile is headed for a population centre or an empty field, in which case the system allows it to fall and saves the ammunition ($40,000 a shot) for the next attack.<br /><br />This tactical success has enormous strategic and thus diplomatic potential for ISRAEL in particular and for modern warfare in general. This saves ISRAEL battlefield casualties, reduces the prospect of innocent civilian deaths in Gaza as a result and, therefore, ensures that ISRAEL’S precarious diplomatic position is not further eroded.<br /><br /><span style="color: blue;"><b>IRON DOME SUCCESS: THE INITIATOR FOR IDF STRATEGIC AND DOCTRINAL SHIFT?</b></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgke7ZMNF81U0NEz7uPoCGog25RbK2KYmPK2v2nRbIe0Er2CXEP9Ii0kZF1oHETZIOl6hVOuGpNHx-ykw_nxkWvjUxZ201DP0X6yIigWBNSKtTybE7ZB5VpqaDM6pSfHMqfNFKw6r0AjJZX/s1600/$(KGrHqYOKi!E4YU8)(G(BOPuWOmYVQ~~0_35.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="198" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgke7ZMNF81U0NEz7uPoCGog25RbK2KYmPK2v2nRbIe0Er2CXEP9Ii0kZF1oHETZIOl6hVOuGpNHx-ykw_nxkWvjUxZ201DP0X6yIigWBNSKtTybE7ZB5VpqaDM6pSfHMqfNFKw6r0AjJZX/s200/$(KGrHqYOKi!E4YU8)(G(BOPuWOmYVQ~~0_35.JPG" width="200" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">This is just the immediate tactical benefit to ISRAEL. As argued in Haaretz (March 2011, February 2012) and Geopolitical Monitor (August 2012), Iron Dome is just the tactical piece in a comprehensive anti-ballistic missile blanket that offers ISRAEL the potential for a complete strategic and doctrinal shift from its traditional emphasis on pre-emption and air power to an “active deterrent” posture that befits a more established state and superior military vexed by diplomatic isolation.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><br />From the inception of the state in 1948 through the 1967 Six-Day-War and the 1973 Yom Kippur conflict, ISRAELI DEFENSE FORCE doctrine has trumpeted preemption as the means to reduce the disadvantage of the country’s small geographical size and leverage its superior air force.  ISRAEL’S defense establishment again argued for preemption in 1973, but was overruled by a political echelon that chose passive deterrence to win diplomatic favor with the UNITED STATES.  The cost to absorb the first blows from EGYPT and SYRIA was high for ISRAEL. The scale of initial losses led the cabinet to hint at a nuclear response that triggered an AMERICAN airlift of material and diplomatic engagement.<br /><br />The failure of “The Concept” in 1973 renewed ISRAEL’S determination to take the battle to the enemy’s home front and still prevails in ISRAELI military doctrine, rooted in the national psyche.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"></span></span></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzURT3QWhn9wSnvMojX2zF7BVaYZ27al5_D7Cj3DI1OgGmJbI6kFkIQgO7o-VJluvE5a0QRmZ9KhG2TyjeVxhR_N01KlEpvubD1XuzImT4BBvyVeDLXrfsU-1i-jzGayTFFOxtm3rQmvR1/s1600/280px-OsirakLocation.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzURT3QWhn9wSnvMojX2zF7BVaYZ27al5_D7Cj3DI1OgGmJbI6kFkIQgO7o-VJluvE5a0QRmZ9KhG2TyjeVxhR_N01KlEpvubD1XuzImT4BBvyVeDLXrfsU-1i-jzGayTFFOxtm3rQmvR1/s1600/280px-OsirakLocation.png" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Route taken by IAF during 1981 Iraqi Nuclear Reactor attack</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Hence, ISRAEL’S determination to hit IRAN before it acquires nuclear weapons. Hence, ISRAEL’S focus on F-35 fighter jets, bunker-buster bombs, aerial re-fueling capabilities, and frustrated attempts to gain tacit SAUDI or TURKISH approval for aerial attack routes.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Comment by Geopolitical Analysis and Monitoring</span></b><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">: Worthwhile to mention is that SAUDI ARABIA and ISRAEL, though not officially, do foster economic as well as political ties which are utilized when deemed necessary for either strategic or economic reasons. One example is the use of SAUDI airspace during the raid on IRAQ’S Nuclear reactor in 1981. Furthermore, in the unlikely event of a preemptive strike on IRAN, TURKEY would most probably heed to US demand, granting ISRAELI jets to transition TURKISH airspace.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><u><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Background Information</span></u></b><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">: See also: </span><b><span style="color: red; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">War Strategies</span></b><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">: <a href="http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2012/10/israel-azerbaijan-and-kazakhstan_6.html">http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2012/10/israel-azerbaijan-and-kazakhstan_6.html</a>and</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="color: red; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">For better or worst</span></b><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">  </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><a href="http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2012/06/syria-israel-iran-and-usa.html">http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2012/06/syria-israel-iran-and-usa.html</a></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">and </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><a href="http://lynch.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/02/08/the_saudi_israeli_handshake">http://lynch.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/02/08/the_saudi_israeli_handshake</a></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Even if ISRAEL succeeds at enormous financial cost with the prospect of heavy losses of its best pilots, the setback to IRAN’S program will be short-term at best. IRANIAN retaliation, perhaps supported by Hezbollah and even yet again Hamas, seems a realistic prospect. Diplomatic isolation is complete in this scenario.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Geopolitical Analysis and Monitoring</span></b><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">, on many occasions has stated that ISRAEL’S “determination” to strike IRAN is nothing more than tactics in order to obtain negotiation leverage over the USA on future weapons deals and geo strategic as well as geo political concessions. ISRAEL never has or will seriously consider conducting a preemptive strike on IRAN. All propaganda rhetoric’s by ISRAELI politicians, regarding such strike are cleverly designed to maintain the upper hand on <span style="font-size: large;">Geo</span> political strategies in the region. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><u><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><br /></span></u></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><u><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Background Information:</span></u></b><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> See: </span><b><span style="color: red; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Airstrike unlikely</span></b><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> <a href="http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2012/06/israel-iran-syria.html">http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2012/06/israel-iran-syria.html</a></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">RESTRUCTURE ITS STRATEGIC DOCTRINE, ALLOWING THE COUNTRY’S LEADERS TO BETTER PROTECT THE HOME FRONT BY REDUCING THE IMPERATIVE FOR PREEMPTION…………..</span></b></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Yet, this grim path is not inevitable.  Iron Dome is just the tactical layer of a comprehensive anti-ballistic defense system that is in fact premised on the Arrow-II program.  Developed in earnest after US Patriot systems provided  some protection from Saddam Hussein’s SCUDs in 1991, the Arrow system is designed to counter long-range threats posed by the Shahab missiles IRAN has developed with NORTH KOREAN support to replace the older SCUD technology.  David’s Sling is ISRAEL’S middle-tier ABM, designed to intercept mid-range projectiles form Hezbollah.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><br />Supported by ISRAEL’S own nuclear weapon arsenal, advanced Jericho delivery systems,  and assured second-strike capabilities provided by Dolphin  class submarines,  ISRAEL’S anti-ballistic systems add up to the potential for a powerful “active” deterrent.<br /><br />It is reasonable to consider that should ISRAEL restructure its strategic doctrine to leverage and prioritize its impressive ABM investments that the country’s leaders could better protect the home front, reduce the imperative for preemption, and thus provide ISRAEL with better regional and international diplomatic options as befits a more established state.<br /><br /><span style="color: blue;"><b>LEANER, BUT MORE ELITE IDF CORE</b></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="color: blue;"><b> </b></span> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">As with other WESTERN militaries, the country could then focus on a leaner yet more elite core of personnel and materiel, as opposed to the burden of reliance on reserves.  A few squadrons of F-35s configured for air defense, supported by ground forces and a navy re-positioned for equivalent roles might better prepare ISRAEL for the threats the states now faces  and in the diplomatic context in which it must maneuver.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><u><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Background Information</span></u></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">: See <b><span style="color: red;">L</span></b></span><b><span style="color: red; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">ong-range, largely clandestine and multi-service missions</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> <a href="http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2012/05/idf-israeli-defense-forces.html">http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2012/05/idf-israeli-defense-forces.html</a></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">There is no doubt that, if little else is gained by either party in the present conflict between ISRAEL and Gaza, that the ISRAELIS have scored a dramatic victory on the battlefield with Iron Dome. <b>The full potential of such a victory is at hand if the country’s statesmen and defense establishment can evolve the old doctrine– once so successful and now of dubious benefit– and embrace a new approach. </b></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div>

STRATEGIC FALLOUT FROM GAZA:

IS IT TIME FOR ACTIVE DETERRENCE? By Anthony Rusonik via Geopoliticalmonitor  For those interested enough to dive deeper- beyond the tweets...

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