Most of us have heard about the dangers of taking antibiotics for every sniffle and scrape. But Norway just proved, on a countrywide scale, that not using antibiotics can save a nation. This is a must read:

BY MARTHA MENDOZA AND MARGIE MASON

OSLO, Norway — Aker University Hospital is a dingy place to heal. The floors are streaked and scratched. A light layer of dust coats the blood pressure monitors. A faint stench of urine and bleach wafts from a pile of soiled bedsheets dropped in a corner.Look closer, however, at a microscopic level, and this place is pristine. There is no sign of a dangerous and contagious staph infection that killed tens of thousands of patients in the most sophisticated hospitals of Europe, North America and Asia last year, soaring virtually unchecked.

The reason: Norwegians stopped taking so many drugs.

Twenty-five years ago, Norwegians were also losing their lives to this bacteria. But Norway’s public health system fought back with an aggressive program that made it the most infection-free country in the world. A key part of that program was cutting back severely on the use of antibiotics.

Now a spate of new studies from around the world prove that Norway’s model can be replicated with extraordinary success, and public health experts are saying these deaths — 19,000 in the U.S. each year alone, more than from AIDS — are unnecessary.

“It’s a very sad situation that in some places so many are dying from this, because we have shown here in Norway that Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus [MRSA] can be controlled, and with not too much effort,” said Jan Hendrik-Binder, Oslo’s MRSA medical advisor. “But you have to take it seriously, you have to give it attention and you must not give up.”

The World Health Organization says antibiotic resistance is one of the leading public health threats on the planet. A six-month investigation by The Associated Press found overuse and misuse of medicines has led to mutations in once curable diseases like tuberculosis and malaria, making them harder and in some cases impossible to treat.

Now, in Norway’s simple solution, there’s a glimmer of hope.

ANTIBIOTICS MISSING

Dr. John Birger Haug shuffles down Aker’s scuffed corridors, patting the pocket of his baggy white scrubs. “My bible,” the infectious disease specialist says, pulling out a little red Antibiotic Guide that details this country’s impressive MRSA solution.

It’s what’s missing from this book — an array of antibiotics — that makes it so remarkable.

“There are times I must show these golden rules to our doctors and tell them they cannot prescribe something, but our patients do not suffer more and our nation, as a result, is mostly infection free,” he says.

Norway’s model is surprisingly straightforward.

• Norwegian doctors prescribe fewer antibiotics than any other country, so people do not have a chance to develop resistance to them.

• Patients with MRSA are isolated and medical staff who test positive stay home.

• Doctors track each case of MRSA by its individual strain, interviewing patients about where they’ve been and who they’ve been with, testing anyone who has been in contact with them.

“We don’t throw antibiotics at every person with a fever,” says Haug. “We tell them to hang on, wait and see, and we give them a Tylenol to feel better.”

A close-up look at staph

Much has been said about Gabourey Sidibe’s weight. Being one of the heaviest women in Hollywood in a place to blatantly encourages thinness at all costs, it’s no surprise.

But Gabourey has maintained her positivity in the face of naysayers. And she has consistently kept her focus on her talent and positivity, not her weight.

While she lost the Best Actress award to Sandra Bullock, today we celebrate somebody in the media spotlight who is non-traditionally radiant and throws a wrench in what we consider “beautiful.”

That’s positive news!

“I used to get hurt so badly. Any bit of criticism, I would cry. But at some point I just realized, I count more than anyone else, or anybody’s opinion, because I’m living my life — I’m captain of this ship, without a first mate. And I really, really like who I am. I really, really dig me.”

- Gabourey Sidibe

Love endures. At least that’s how the saying goes. But this couple proved it beyond a shadow of a doubt. Not only does love endure, it heals and conquers and enters triathalons:

In 2007, Beth Kallok joined a Los Angeles area triathlon group for fun. Although she’d always been athletic, she soon realized it was more extreme than she’d expected: she’d been accustomed to staying out late at bars, but that was definitely not part of the training regime. And her coach, Lawrence Fong, let her know that such behavior wouldn’t be tolerated.

At first, Beth thought Lawrence was a pain. But before long, she grew to understand his rigorous training techniques, and started taking the practice seriously.

She realized there was a lot more to Lawrence than she’d initially realized, too: they began dating, and when Beth crossed the finish line of her first triathlon, Lawrence proposed. Despite her exhaustion from completing the 141-mile race, Beth was happier than she’d ever been in her life.

After the young couple got married in April 2007, they’d planned to compete in the Iron Man Triathlon in Hawaii together that fall. But life had other plans.

Two weeks before the race, Beth received a phone call from a friend. Her new husband had been at a restaurant when he’d collapsed on the floor and hit his head in the bathroom. He was bleeding profusely, and had been rushed to the hospital.

When Beth arrived, the situation was even worse than she’d expected. Although he was conscious, Lawrence didn’t recognize his own wife.

Soon, the doctors realized that Lawrence had a blood clot against his brain stem that would need to be removed. After the surgery was performed, Lawrence slipped into a coma. A doctor told Beth that Lawrence was brain-dead, and that she should think about removing his life support system.

But Beth didn’t believe the doctor. “I was scared, but deep down I always knew that this was not how our story would end,” she told the Los Angeles Times.

Beth visited Lawrence every day in the hospital, talking to him even though he wasn’t able to respond. She believed that he could hear her—and on Christmas Eve, she discovered that she had been right all along. When she asked him if he was cold, he nodded at her. She repeated the question; he nodded again.

In the two years since then, Lawrence’s progress has been slow, but steady. He has learned to speak again, to stand up, and to walk with support. Though he still needs to use a wheelchair, he has ambitions of racing again one day—but for now, he is content to support his wife. He has become her coach, cheering her on from his chair.

The experience has transformed Lawrence’s life. “He got to come back in the world we met in and we both thrived in,” said Beth.

Her husband’s love and support has helped her, too. Last fall, with Lawrence’s encouragement, Beth finally raced in the Ironman Competition, knowing that Lawrence was waiting for her at the finish line—believing in her, just as she’d believed in him.

Arizona Ironman finisher Beth Fong celebrates with her husband Lawrence after crossing the finish line last November, more than 14 hours after she started.

Source: Gimundo & Los Angeles Times

Global warming and greenhouse gas issues seem to be terms we hear on a daily basis anymore. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed. It seems as if the biggest players don’t do anything, then how can we can up with a universal answer? On top of that, we have a crew of naysayers who don’t believe the problem exists in the first place.

You may not be the size of China but there are things you can do today to reduce your carbon imprint, such as ditching water bottles and unplugging appliances and riding a bike instead of driving. Remember, we’re all in this one together - every step counts!

China has finally taken a step forward and considering they are some of the biggest producers of greenhouse gas, let’s hope they stick to their word. According to Reuters:

BEIJING (Reuters) - China said on Sunday it will spell out greenhouse gas emissions goals and monitoring rules for regions and sectors in its next five-year plan, with monitoring to show it is serious about curbing emissions.

The Chinese government said in November it would reduce the amount of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas from human activity, emitted to make each unit of national income by 40 to 45 percent by 2020, compared with 2005 levels.

That goal would let China’s greenhouse gas emissions keep rising, but more slowly than its rapid economic growth.

The policy was a cornerstone of Beijing’s position at the Copenhagen summit on climate change late last year when governments tried with limited success to agree on a new global treaty on fighting global warming.

The United States and other powers said China, the world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases from industry and other human activities, should have offered to do more to bring its domestic ‘carbon intensity’ goal into an international pact that would reassure other governments.

China said it and other poorer countries should not be obliged to take on internationally-binding emissions goals, and officials said Beijing would take steps to show the world it was serious about enforcing that goal.

Now the leading committee of China’s national parliament has gone some way to showing how the government plans, saying officials will carry out an ‘inventory’ of greenhouse gas emissions in 2005 and 2008, using that as a yardstick for setting emissions reductions goals across areas and sectors.

The Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, or parliament, said the government would put in place a ’statistical monitoring and assessment system to ensure greenhouse gas emissions goals are met,’ Xinhua reported.

Those goals will be made part of the country’s next five-year development plan, starting from 2011.

‘Relevant departments and regions will form action plans and medium- and long-term plans to cope with climate change and mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, based on the targets and requirements set out by the State Council’, or cabinet, the report said.

Scientists widely believe China has passed the United States as the world’s top greenhouse gas emitter, but Beijing does not release any recent official emissions data.

China’s most recent official inventory of emissions was submitted to a U.N. agency in 2004 and covered the year 1994.

(Reporting by Chris Buckley; Editing by David Fox)

I stumbled across this site today and couldn’t help but smile. Feel free to sprinkle your conversations with these random facts today. Will people be impressed? Perhaps not. But they’ll think you’re a wealth of strange knowledge!

1.  Rubberbands last longer when refrigerated.

2.  Peanuts are one of the ingredients of dynamite.

3.  There are 293 ways to make change for a dollar.

4.  The average person’s left hand does 56% of the typing.

5.  The shark is the only fish that can blink with both eyes.

6.  There are more chickens than people in the world.

7.  Two-thirds of the world’s eggplant is grown in New Jersey.

8.  The longest one-syllable word in the English language is
“screeched.”

10. All of the clocks in the movie “Pulp Fiction” are stuck
on 4:20.

11. No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver or purple.

12. “Dreamt” is the only English word that ends in the letters “mt”.

13. All 50 states are listed across the top of the Lincoln Memorial on the back of the $5 bill.

14. Almonds are a member of the peach family.

15. Winston Churchill was born in a ladies’ room during a dance.

16. Maine is the only US state whose name is just one syllable.

17. There are only four words in the English language which end in “dous” - tremendous, horrendous, stupendous and hazardous.

18. Los Angeles’ full name is “El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Angeles de Porciuncula”

19. A cat has 32 muscles in each ear.

20. An ostrich’s eye is bigger than its brain.

21. Tigers have striped skin, not just striped fur.

22. In most advertisements, the time displayed on a watch is 10:10

23. Al Capone’s business card said he was a used furniture dealer.

24. The Sesame Street characters Bert and Ernie were named after
Bert the cop and Ernie the taxi driver in Frank Capra’s “It’s
A Wonderful Life.”

25. Some dragonflies have a life span of 24 hours.

26. A goldfish has a memory span of three seconds.

27. A dime has 118 ridges around the edge.

28. It’s impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.

29. The giant squid has the largest eyes in the world.

30. In England, the Speaker of the House is not allowed to speak.

31. The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a
radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket.

32. Mr. Rogers is an ordained minister.

33. The average person falls asleep in seven minutes.

34. There are 336 dimples on a regulation golf ball.

35. “Stewardesses” is the longest word that is typed with only
the left hand.

Source: LinkyDinky

Hannah Mitchell is 8 years old and blogging about her first Olympic games. What makes this blog so special? Seeing something as colossal as the Olympics and the beautiful city of Vancouver from a child’s point of view is refreshing and fun. It removes all the hype and gives you the child-like essentials, such as:

Then, we were walking back to the hotel when we saw six guys with suits standing outside a building. A limo pulled up and a man walked out, surrounded by the six guys in suits. We didn’t know who he was, but we asked a person next to us and she said it was the Prime Minister, Stephen Harper. We looked his picture up on the Internet at the hotel, and it was really him.

Check out her blog when you get a chance. Get a child’s eye view of the Olympics and Vancouver!

There’s something comforting about quotes. It’s nice to know that people, since the beginning of time it seems, have experienced the deepest and most complex feelings, just like you. Not only have they experienced them, they’ve recovered. And that is our topic this week: RECOVERY

Courage consists in the power of self-recovery.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson Understanding is the first step to acceptance, and only with acceptance can there be recovery.” Joanne Kathleen Rowling “The hardest thing you can do is smile when you are ill, in pain, or depressed. But this no-cost remedy is a necessary first half-step if you are to start on the road to recovery.” Allen Klein “The goal of spiritual practice is full recovery, and the only thing you need to recover from is a fractured sense of self. ” Marianne Williamson “Love is a mutual self-giving which ends in self-recovery.” Fulton J. Sheen “A plane is a bad place for an all-out sleep, but a good place to begin rest and recovery from the trip to the faraway places you’ve been, a decompression chamber between Here and There. Though a plane is not the ideal place really to think, to reassess or reevaluate things, it is a great place to have the illusion of doing so, and often the illusion will suffice.” Shana Alexander “Remember how often you have postponed minding your interest, and let slip those opportunities the gods have given you. It is now high time to consider what sort of world you are part of, and from what kind of governor of it you are descended; that you have a set period assigned you to act in, and unless you improve it to brighten and compose your thoughts, it will quickly run off with you, and be lost beyond recovery.” Marcus Aurelius “It is when our budding hopes are nipped beyond recovery by some rough wind, that we are the most disposed to picture to ourselves what flowers they might have borne, if they had flourished . . .” Charles Dickens Marcus Aurelius

In a world still heavily reliant on fossil fuels, it’s refreshing to see Europe making such substantial changes. Take a look at these figures:

Wind and solar technology made up over half of Europe’s new electricity generating capacity in 2009, as the number of new coal and nuclear facilities fell.

More wind capacity was installed in Europe during 2009 than any other electricity-generating technology, according to statistics released today by the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA)

Wind accounted for 39 per cent of increased European energy capacity, ahead of gas (26 per cent) and solar (16 per cent). In contrast, the nuclear and coal power sectors decommissioned more megawatts of capacity than they installed in 2009, with a total of 1,393 MW of nuclear and 3,200 MW of coal decommissioned.

According to the EWEA report, €13 billion has been invested in wind farms across the EU in the last year, which are now capable of meeting 4.8 per cent of EU energy demands.

Spain is the country with the biggest share of new wind capacity (24 per cent), followed by Germany (19 per cent), Italy (19 per cent), France (11 per cent) and the UK (10 per cent).

The wind energy sector has grown by an average of 23 per cent over the last 15 years, with annual installations up from 472 MW in 1994 to 10,163 MW in 2009.

This week, we tackle a tough topic. With Valentine’s Day fast approaching, let’s talk about the flip side of love (or is it?) - heartbreak.

Here are some quotes for people who may be in love recovery mode this week. Remember, heartbreak is essentially positive. It means love stopped by for a visit.

It hurts to breathe because every breath I take proves I can’t live without you.
Anonymous

To fall in love is awfully simple, but to fall out of love is simply awful.
Bess Myerson

A life with love will have some thorns, but a life without love will have no roses.
Anonymous

Reject your sense of injury and the injury itself disappears.
Marcus Aurelius

Trying to forget someone you love is like trying to remember someone you never knew.
Anonymous

The stupidest mistake in life is thinking the one who hurt you the most, won’t hurt you again.
Anonymous

The way to love anything is to realize that it might be lost.
Anonymous

Love is unconditional, relationships are not.
Grant Gudmundson

For all sad words of tongue and pen, the saddest are these, It might have been.
John Greenleaf Whittier

My friend Ruby had some coping techniques for those without a significant other this Valentine’s Day. Here’s what she has to say:

First of all, Valentine’s Day is tough even if you do have a significant other. It can cause a lot of needless pressure. People feel the need to get it right.

Now, if you don’t have that special someone, there are ways to celebrate anyway - after all, it’s about love and love doesn’t just mean the romantic kind.

I like to celebrate the areas in which I do have love, whether it’s a friend or a family member, a pet…or even ways I’ve learned to love myself more over the years. Love is a blessing in its many forms and it deserves attention and celebration, too.

In the past, I’ve also used Valentine’s Day as a time to reflect on what I really want romantically, down to the smallest detail. I let my imagination run wild. Simply by dedicating some energy to what I’m looking for in a partner, I feel like I’m a step closer to that person already.

Listen - it’s easy to feel that Valentine’s Day is a drag when you don’t have that certain someone. It takes a little more effort to use it in a way that’s positive and productive.