The U.S.A. is serving exceedingly slow Internet speeds to all of its customers. SpeedMatters.org is a campaign to change this at the national level. How does your Internet connection speed compare with the rest of the world? Uses "last mile" testing.
The 10 Most Expensive Health Conditions
The nation’s 10 most expensive medical conditions cost about $500 billion to treat in 2005, according to the latest News and Numbers from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. The money paid for visits to doctor's offices, clinics and emergency departments, hospital stays, home health care and prescription medicines.
Estimated spending for the 10 most expensive conditions:
Heart conditions $76 billion
Trauma disorders $72 billion
Cancer $70 billion
Mental disorders, including depression $56.0 billion
Asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease $54 billion
High blood pressure $42 billion
Type 2 diabetes $34 billion
Osteoarthritis and other joint diseases $34 billion
Back problems $32 billion
Normal childbirth $32 billion
AHRQ, which is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, works to enhance the quality, safety, efficiency, and effectiveness of health care in the United States. The data in this AHRQ News and Numbers summary are taken from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, a detailed source of information on the health services used by Americans, the frequency with which they are used, the cost of those services, and how they are paid.
The Simple Truth about Feral Cats and Trap, Neuter, and Return
• What are feral cats?
• What is Trap, Neuter, and Return?
• How can you help?
The "First Time Visitor" page at Alley Cat Allies is the best resource for a quick introduction to this topic.
View or download this PDF to learn more: All About Feral Cats
Free download version of Adobe Acrobat Reader to read PDF files is available here
Thanks to Alley Cat Allies, you can download the free video The Humane Solution: Reducing Feral Cat Populations with Trap-Neuter-Returnhere.
And the free video Trap-Neuter-Return: A Humane Approach to Feral Cat Control is available here.
Links to both videos and more informational videos for purchase are available from this page on the Alley Cat Allies web site.
The Truth About Feral Cats
A stray cat is not a feral cat.
A stray is a cat who has been abandoned or who has strayed from home and become lost. Stray cats can usually be re-socialized and adopted.
A feral cat is an unsocialized cat.
Either he was born outside and never lived with humans, or he is a house cat who has strayed from home and over time has become unsocialized to humans.
Feral cats should not be taken to local shelters to be adopted.
Feral cats are not pet cats, and they will be killed at most shelters. Because they’re unadoptable, they sometimes don’t even make it to the shelter, but are killed in the animal control truck. Even no-kill shelters are not able to place feral cats in homes.
Feral kittens can be adopted.
Feral kittens can often be adopted into homes, but they must be socialized at an early age. This is a critical window and if they aren’t handled in time, they will remain feral and therefore unadoptable.
Feral cats can have the same lifespan as pet cats.
And they contract diseases at about the same low rate. The incidence of disease in feral cat colonies is no higher than among owned cats.
Feral cats are not the cause of wildlife depletion.
Studies show that the overwhelming cause of wildlife depletion is destruction of natural habitat due to man-made structures, chemical pollution, pesticides, and drought — not feral cats.
Trap and remove doesn’t work.
Not only would you have to continue to remove cats, this process is extremely costly. Other cats simply move in to take advantage of the available resources and they breed prolifically, quickly forming a new colony. This “vacuum effect” is well documented.
Trap-Neuter-Return does work.
No more kittens. Their numbers gradually go down. The behaviors associated with mating, such as yowling or fighting, stop. The cats are vaccinated and they are fed on a regular schedule. This ongoing care creates a safety net for both the cats and the community.
Don't enlist, don't re-enlist, get out ASAP
Morgellons Disease This is an unusual disease, and while there are some unusual thoughts about where it comes from, the Bacterial hypothesis seems to be the most logical and promising.
As discussed and referenced on Wikipedia.org:
Three members of the Morgellons Research Foundation, including Raphael Stricker, Director and former President of the International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society (ILADS), and Ginger Savely, also an ILADS member, authored an article about Morgellons published by the American Journal of Clinical Dermatology in early 2006. The authors wrote that "Morgellons disease may be linked to an undefined infectious process," and reported that many patients with Morgellons disease have positive Western blots for Borrelia burgdorferi, the causative agent of Lyme disease, and treatment with anti-bacterials appropriate for Lyme disease leads to remission of Morgellons symptoms in most patients. Dr. Harvey, another member of ILADS, has also stated there is serological evidence of bacterial pathogens in Morgellons patients, but did not provide any such evidence.
Stricker, along with Citovsky, MRF board member from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and a researcher on plant pathogens, reported in January, 2007, that Morgellons skin fibers appear to contain cellulose, and PCR screening of samples from two Morgellons patients produced evidence of DNA from Agrobacterium, a plant-infecting organism known to induce cellulose fibers at infected sites within plant tissues. They stated that if confirmed, Agrobacterium could be the first instance of plant infecting bacteria involvement in human disease. However, Agrobacterium is already known to be responsible for opportunistic infections in humans with weakened immune systems, but has not been shown to be a primary pathogen in otherwise healthy individuals.
Humor: The Ultimate Collectable
Proudly Anti-Queer
We support The People of the United States of America
anyway
Proudly Anti-Queer
We support The People of Iraq anyway
Proudly Anti-Queer
We support The People of Afghanistan anyway
Proudly Anti-Queer
We do not support The People of Florida
Proudly Anti-Queer
We support The People of Saudi Arabia anyway
Proudly Anti-Queer
We support The People of Poland anyway
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