Monday, 31 October 2011
Sunday, 30 October 2011
Links of the day 10/30/2011
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Symptom fluctuations and daily physical activity in patients with CFS
"The more patients with CFS are sedentary and the better activity is dispersed, the fewer symptoms and variations they experience on the same and next day. Inversely, more symptoms and variability is experienced when patients were more active that day or the previous day. "
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New study adds nothing to the world whatsoever
"The work, undertaken by a six-man team at a university, used new techniques and innovatively low sample sizes in order to draw dubious conclusions from fundamentally flawed research and is expected to be of no benefit whatsoever to anybody other than desperate science journalists trying to fill empty column inches."
Ha ha, we see loads of these!tags: cosmos
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Scheduling Difficulties With Fibromyalgia & Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
"We can't count on our brains to hold onto that information until it's convenient to write it down. We can't even take a reminder card and count on remembering that we have it."
tags: fibromyalgia me_cfs cosmos
Friday, 28 October 2011
Links of the day 10/28/2011
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Don’t Fear The Greek Default: It’s A False Alarm
"There are real economic problems out there to do with the eurozone but Greek default just isn’t one of them."
tags: cosmos
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Why it’s ludicrous that making it easier to fire people will create jobs
"In the context of the most severe economic crisis of living memory it is absurd to believe our employment problems will be solved by this proposal. It is irrelevant. "
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Private rented sector statistics
"... it is worrying that the private rented sector, which is becoming so important for housing poor and vulnerable people in our society, is largely owned by part time amateur landlords who have little or no relevant experience or qualifications."
Thursday, 27 October 2011
Links of the day 10/27/2011
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Top five reasons why you can’t protest (according to the right)
"Maybe it is time to stop attacking the protesters for silly side-issues, and start dealing with their concerns. Hundreds of people are camping in London to express legitimate grievances with the state of global capitalism today; maybe it is time we started listening to them."
Wednesday, 26 October 2011
Links of the day 10/26/2011
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Is your world awash with germs?
"Only one in 10 of us wash our hands after going to the toilet"
Ewww. Britain, still a nation of soap dodgers! -
Arthritis Care : SCOPE report: PIP eligibility assessment 'flawed'
"Arthritis Care is particularly concerned by this danger, as the Government’s own figures show that people with musculoskeletal conditions are the least likely of any type of medical condition to pass the WCA"
tags: uk benefits arthritis fibromyalgia cosmos
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"dedicated Online community for people with Physical, Mental, Cognitive, Developmental, Emotional & Sensory Disabilities. Find and ask questions, offer advice & information about health, work, benefits & disability insurance issues."
tags: cosmos disability
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Diary of a Benefit Scrounger: The Invisibility Cloak
"In a year or two, stories like the one's I write for this blog will be news. But by then it will be because people see the effects of these changes all around them, every day. Because they see people dying, or see them going hungry or left in their own filth for days at a time unable to get the care they need."
Tuesday, 25 October 2011
Links of the day 10/25/2011
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Morning Symptoms & Fibromyalgia
"How did you feel this morning? If you have fibromyalgia, odds are you had a hard time waking up, didn't feel refreshed, and were stiff and achy. You may also have had puffy hands, feet and eyes. Right?"
tags: cosmos fibromyalgia
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Reduce the cost of disability – end pointless reassessments…
"bloody-mindedly reassessing people who are never going to recover, or are only ever going to get worse as time goes by, must cost millions"
Monday, 24 October 2011
Links of the day 10/24/2011
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Immune system defect may cause ME
"Mr Fluge said: "I think the fact that patients responded to treatment, improved cognitive function, fatigue and pain makes us believe we're touching one of the central mechanisms."
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Money woes hit cancer patients, says charity
"Financial problems affect more than two-thirds of cancer patients, with some going without food because money is so tight, a charity has claimed."
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Wow, there are some sick puppies out there....
"Course the word to describe these bullies is actually "Nazi" as it was people acting in collusion with a disgusting, disablist agenda in the 30s that allowed sick and disabled people to be the first to be sent to the gas chambers. "
tags: cosmos
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Norway's Directorate of Health Apologises for BAD Treatment of ME Patients
"A statement from the Norwegian Directorate of Health has been received where they apologise for not having provided the necessary and proper health services to persons with ME.
Such a public apology from a governmental health agency has never occurred before."
Sunday, 23 October 2011
Links of the day 10/23/2011
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Cold homes will kill up to 200 older people a day, warns Age UK
""And the fact that other, colder countries have lower excess winter deaths means that there is no reason that they are not preventable.""
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10 Reasons You’ll Actually Be Happier In a Smaller Home
"Less time spent cleaning. And that should be reason enough…"
tags: cosmos
Saturday, 22 October 2011
Links of the day 10/22/2011
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Fibromyalgia: The value of diagnosis
"Most of all, they tend to be relieved that they aren’t crazy."
tags: fibromyalgia cosmos
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MTHFR Gene: The missing link for Depression, Fibromyalgia, IBS and more.
tags: fibromyalgia cosmos depression me_cfs
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Disability groups fear further benefit cuts after miscalculation
"Disabled people face harsher cuts to their benefits than first envisaged after figures released by the government showed that savings generated by a proposed reduction in payments would be £1bn less than expected."
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Why Greece wont leave the euro
"... this is not about rescuing Greece. It is about rescuing stupid, greedy banks that lent money that they never should have lent in the first place."
tags: cosmos
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The importance of knowing a little economics
"... more of us would shout “bollocks” every time a politician tells us that “there is no alternative“."
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2m disabled people risk losing welfare support in 'tick-box medical test'
"Disability charity Scope fears flawed assessment for Personal Independence Payment will repeat 'fitness to work' chaos"
tags: cosmos disability benefits
Friday, 21 October 2011
Links of the day 10/21/2011
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Daily Mail down to just 2,376,251 potential causes of cancer
"“It’s investigative journalism like this that keeps the Daily Mail in the thoughts of panic-stricken morons everywhere.”"
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Scope says disabled people 'could lose vital benefits'
"A new medical assessment has been drawn up that will be carried out on disabled people of working age, of whom there are about two million. But, according to Scope, that assessment "doesn't take into consideration all the barriers that disabled people face in daily life"."
tags: cosmos disability benefits
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Conventional medicine ignores root causes of fibromyalgia
"Jump start the healing process by eliminating "excitotoxins," or poisons, from the diet. Many chemical food agents and additives lead to neurotoxicity when used in excess, especially when consumed on an empty stomach. Neurotoxicity is an umbrella term which covers nearly every single symptom listed under Fibromyalgia."
tags: cosmos fibromyalgia
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"Although there is no scientific data to support the use of fenugreek for treating fibromyalgia, the herb’s ability to reduce pain in laboratory animals is intriguing. In particular, fenugreek’s apparent effects on serotonin activity may partially mimic the actions of two medications – Cymbalta and Savella – that have been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for treating fibromyalgia. These drugs increase serotonin and norepinephrine levels in your central nervous system, which alters your perception of painful stimuli."
tags: cosmos fibromyalgia
Thursday, 20 October 2011
Links of the day 10/20/2011
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"The Bank of England has instead opted to print money as it recently announced another £75 billion of electronic money printing that the fractional reserve banking system would eventually leverage to over £1 trillion, for the primary objective for the monetization of government debt, i.e. the same policy that the Weimar republic had been engaged in on its path towards hyperinflation. "
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Let's end the myths of Britain's imperial past
"David Cameron would have us look back to the days of the British empire with pride. But there is little in the brutal oppression and naked greed with which it was built that deserves our respect"
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First the disabled, now the travellers – who’s next?
"if you think that could never happen here, just consider the Cameron government’s persecution, demonisation and criminalisation of the chronically sick and disabled, turning us into a class of officially sanctioned hate figures, and making us targets for every passing Daily Mail reading psycho, as evidenced by the rise in violence against disabled people. Our position, right now – and I know I’ve said this before, repeating it doesn’t make it any less true – is analogous to that of the Jews in mid thirties Germany."
Tuesday, 18 October 2011
Links of the day 10/18/2011
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Harassing people on benefits degrades us all
"The repugnant moral rhetoric about benefit claimants echoes Victorian prejudices about the 'undeserving poor', writes Peter Beresford"
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85 year-old Windsor woman remains unconcerned about heating bill
"“You have to remember, having people who lead a privileged lifestyle at the taxpayers expense while some people have to decide between eating or staying warm is something that that makes us the envy of the world.”"
Monday, 17 October 2011
Links of the day 10/17/2011
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Will has fuck all to do with getting better
"... that’s not how it works. Whether you will yourself to get better or not, your body has an immune system, and either it does its job or it doesn’t."
tags: cosmos
Sunday, 16 October 2011
Links of the day 10/16/2011
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Missing Doctors' Appointments With Fibromyalgia & Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
"Have you ever been too sick to go to the doctor? It might sound strange to a healthy person, but those of us with fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome can either imagine it or have been in exactly that situation."
tags: cosmos fibromyalgia me_cfs
Saturday, 15 October 2011
Links of the day 10/15/2011
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Kangastu's WTF is it guide to Fibromyalgia: Imagine...
"Now, imagine how you'd feel if no-one believed that you felt all those things and told you it was all in your head. Imaging if, even if they believed you, there was no treatment or cure, and in all likelihood it was going to get worse. Imagine if you still had 30, 40, or even 60 years to live. How depressed would you be?"
tags: cosmos fibromyalgia
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Here is a pretty extensive list of common Fibromyalgia symptoms
"It’s good to look at longer and different lists of Fibromyalgia symptoms. It’s all part of getting to know your Fibromyalgia. You may be having symptoms that you didn’t even know had a connection to Fibro"
tags: cosmos fibromyalgia
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Study using cycle ergometers shows that exercise exacerbates ME/CFS
"individuals with CFS will exacerbate symptoms associated with PEM
simply by completing normal daily activities."
Friday, 14 October 2011
The 30-Day Challenge
At the risk of being accused of being lazy (again), I might have a go at this!
Although, all joking aside, it’s a whole different matter when this is enforced: i.e. that this is the extent of the level of activity that one is restricted to by one’s illness or disability. Then it stops seeming funny and starts seeming like a relentless prison sentence with no reprieve.
Links of the day 10/14/2011
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Government ‘considering’ changing expat voting rules
"Expats are being encouraged to pressure the Government to remove the time limit on their right to vote, after a cabinet minister said that the issue was being looked at. "
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Arthritis Care : Taking care of joints
"When you have arthritis it is important to look after yourself to reduce further damage to your joints. This might mean learning new ways of carrying out everyday tasks to reduce the stress on your joints. To protect your joints you should:"
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"Treatment of shin splints includes rest, ice, and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS). Rest is the best way to treat shin splints as this gives the shins the full time necessary to heal. This can be a couple of weeks in mild cases up to about three months for severe cases. "
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"The Equality Act sets out the different ways in which it is unlawful to treat someone, such as direct and indirect discrimination, harassment, victimisation and failing to make a reasonable adjustment for a disabled person."
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"Often, while attempting to navigate the medical system, and seeking social services, I have felt like my diagnosis may as well be “hysteria” at times. “Chronic Fatigue Syndrome” is a heavy weight around my neck, practically begging for stigma and ignorant attitudes. There is a noticeable percentage of people I meet who tiptoe around me like I have a severe mental illness, rather than a legitimate physical disease. And I admit, sometimes I begin to feel hysterical when I am not being taken seriously. I have been bullied, refused public accommodation, laughed at, and turned away because of this disease."
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"The onset of narcolepsy appears to follow seasonal patterns of H1N1 and other upper airway infections, according to a new study of patients in China that was led by Stanford University School of Medicine narcolepsy expert Emmanuel Mignot, MD."
With sleep disorders being characteristic of fibromyalgia and ME and the viral onset of at least the latter of those conditions, this research may well be relevant.tags: cosmos me_cfs fibromyalgia
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Diary of a Benefit Scrounger: We're all Cheats Now
"In the last two years or so in our leg-tatorship, anyone who doesn't conform to this political definition of disability feels that they simply mustn't have any kind of life at all. I regularly get messages or comments from people who are too scared to leave their homes at all. I am constantly horrified by people who know that anything they try to do may be caught on camera and used against them. We live in a culture of fear that is just so sad. "
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Disparities of Pain and Its Treatment in Women
"According to Beth D. Darnall, PhD, writing in the publication MDNG Pain Management [PDF here], women are not only more likely than men to acquire a chronic pain condition in their lifetime but women’s pain occurs more frequently, is more intense, and lasts for a longer duration of time. Women are more likely than men to seek medical attention for their pain conditions, but this does not always translate into better or appropriate care."
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Headache/Migraine in Fibromyalgia & Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
"New research published in The Journal of Headache and Pain even suggests that people with chronic migraines and chronic tension headaches who also have anxiety, sleep disturbance, and pericranial tenderness (pain on the outside of the head) are especially likely to develop fibromyalgia."
tags: cosmos fibromyalgia me_cfs
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Patients Say Fibromyalgia Drugs Make Things Worse, Rest is Best
"The treatments that help most, in the top right corner of the chart, are simple lifestyle changes: rest, heat, sleep, stress reduction."
tags: cosmos fibromyalgia
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British quality of life 'the worst in Europe'?
"A new poll puts Britain at the bottom of the league in terms of quality of life compared to its European neighbours. "
As I've been saying for years. -
More Britons can't afford to get the hell out of here
"Officials confirmed a 21 per cent rise in the difference between the number of people arriving and the number of people who have scraped together just enough money not to have to put up with this relentless torrent of raw, over-priced sewage for a minute longer than they have to."
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Did you know this about your ESA50 form?
"... it will be opened first in a royal mail sorting office, bundled into relevant piles and only then sent on to the correct department."
So much for privacy, eh?
Today's Bargains
- CHROM 9 Dartpfeile mit 100 Ersatzspitzen (42 t.co/SBUDBhWe
- EMPIRE-DARTPFEILE mit ZUBEHÖR (Anzahl wählbar) (500) t.co/q6N0tuzt
- Various Artists - Christmas Crooners [Union Square 2... t.co/CEeOrS1O
- Russell Watson - The Platinum Collection (CD 2010) t.co/4WyaDLoc
- Collins Thesaurus A-Z t.co/NdnFFaC1
- Encyclopedia of Flower Arranging by Judith Blacklock... t.co/dfzI5Hs1
- London Transport in the 1920s by Michael Baker (Hard... t.co/qoLdIot4
- Amazing Grace by Danielle Steel (Paperback, 2008) t.co/QDdcyfNv
- The Ghost by Danielle Steel (Paperback, 1998) t.co/uDKKR2Ir
- The Duchess (DVD) t.co/nN5cjJ2M
- Louis Armstrong - Satchmo's Greatest (CD 1993) t.co/ef4Mu5vF
Wednesday, 12 October 2011
Links of the day 10/12/2011
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UK stagnation is home grown & down to government
"Domestic demand began to contract as soon as the current government took office. Evidently, the stalling of British economy has not been caused by the turmoil in the Eurozone."
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Open Rights Group | Censorware or child protection?
"Today's news that Internet Service Providers are going to offer to "block" pornography may be an extreme example of "spin", designed to satisfy morally outraged MPs: but it could still pose significant dangers. "
Tuesday, 11 October 2011
Links of the day 10/11/2011
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Many mysterious disorders involve the brain and nervous system
"In a summary of the agency's work thus far, published Thursday, leaders of the Bethesda, Md.,-based program said more than half of the cases they have accepted involve undiagnosed symptoms of the brain and central nervous system. Undiagnosed disorders involving pain, psychiatric symptoms and the gastrointestinal and immune systems also cropped up more frequently. Another common category of mystery cases ended up being diagnosed as fibromyalgia or chronic fatigue syndrome."
tags: cosmos fibromyalgia me_cfs
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Seasonal Depression and Fibromyalgia - Seasonal Depression and Fibromyalgia
"The winter months are approaching and with them comes daylight savings time and less and less sunny days. In a lot of you, this will lead to seasonal depression. Lack of sunlight causes melatonin to drop in the body. This drop in melatonin changes the chemicals in your brain causing less serotonin and norepinephrine to be produced."
tags: cosmos fibromyalgia depression
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Dear Anonymous Assholes who Tell People to Lose Weight
"Most of all, I’m sad that people still come up to tell me how to miraculously cure my illness that has baffled doctors at the top research hospital I go to. And my weight has nothing to do with why I’m ill. "
tags: cosmos
Today's Bargains
- DVD Half Moon Street - Michael Caine, Sigourney Weaver t.co/XOCcp7fS
- A Sudden Change of Heart by Barbara Taylor Bradford ... t.co/ki8qBWkY
- Dark Angel by Geoffrey Archer (Paperback, 2005) t.co/UuwVV4WS
- DVD Martha, Meet Frank, Daniel & Laurence t.co/gYMl9RSP
- Ransom by Danielle Steel (Paperback, 2005) t.co/qoHofkg5
- Heart and Soul by Maeve Binchy (Paperback, 2009) t.co/e0WA8ABA
- Mixed Blessings by Danielle Steel (Paperback, 1993) t.co/cISgj9Wv
- The Ravenscar Dynasty by Barbara Taylor Bradford (Pa... t.co/cwXT1gEB
- Echoes by Danielle Steel (Paperback, 2005) t.co/p4AU4DGN
- The Trouble with Single Women by Yvonne Roberts (Pap... t.co/OpwRh5IN
Sunday, 9 October 2011
Saturday, 8 October 2011
Links of the day 10/08/2011
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The Jobbing Doctor: The slow march of private medicine
"This does not feel like a civilised and moral country to me. "
Friday, 7 October 2011
Links of the day 10/07/2011
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Ignore your debts, and save the economy
"The thing is, it doesn’t matter much whether Cameron was telling people to pay off their debts or just saying that they are paying off their debts, because I’m pretty sure he’s wrong either way."
Thursday, 6 October 2011
Links of the day 10/06/2011
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"While people were handed sentences of up to four years in prison for`inciting riots' on facebook during the recent unrest, this pinstriped suited Conservative idiot and his smiling mate will get away with it, we're sure. Unless, of course, David Cameron, the police and the courts prove themselves not to be hypocrites…"
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Where's the Benefit?: Bns Jane Campbell wants our views on PIP
"If the government want to continue encouraging us take responsibility over our lives, then they must give us the right to make our own decisions as to how DLA money should be spent.
It must not be measured by able-bodied people's assumptions as to what it is to be independent." -
The anti-human rights obsession of Theresa and the Tories
"That our blessed Home Secretary can be applauded for proclaiming that human rights won’t let us deport a pet owner shows the Tories’ amazing gullibility to myths about foreigners. Xenophobia is deep in the Tory heart, fuelling their anti-human rights obsession."
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Car fumes 'raise heart attack risk for six-hour window'
"repeated exposure is still bad for health, they say, substantially shortening life expectancy, and so the advice to people remains the same - avoid as far as is possible. "
Er, like how, live in an insulated bubble? -
Older people likely to face poorer health because of cuts, finds report
"WRVS is now calling on ministers to review the funding levels given to adult social care and introduce close monitoring of older peoples' health care outcomes in every locality and warns that the cuts to preventative services that are now taking place could be one of the biggest false economies Britain has ever made.
" -
The evidence is growing that the cuts are savagely targeting disabled people
"Some 74% of those surveyed said they would be unable to afford basic living costs if their DLA were reduced or withdrawn, and 63% said this reduction would make them more dependent. The three main areas people said they would have to reduce spending on were food, utility bills and specialist transport."
tags: uk benefits cosmos disability
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Benefits tourism – an EU/UK dust-up
"The British residence test apparently offends this provision because it does not apply to British citizens so they can apply for non-means tested benefits even if they have resided abroad. "
But only if they've kept up NI contributions. -
Government continues not being greenest ever
"Blaming environmentalism for the faults of our energy supply, ignoring the growth potential of the green economy, slashing transport efficiency for short term populism – if this is the government trying to be the greenest ever, I dread to think what they’ll be like if they stop."
tags: cosmos uk politics environment
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23 Things They Don’t Tell You About Capitalism, by Ha-Joon Chang
"Of the 23 ‘things’ here, my personal favourite is the chapter entitled ‘People in poor countries are more entrepreneurial than people in rich countries’. It’s counter-intuitive only if you’ve never been to a developing country and seen the street sellers, shoe-shine boys, rickshaw drivers, and all the other creative professions that crowd the pavements."
tags: cosmos
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Tories whitewash the many set to lose from welfare reform
"Duncan-Smith actually started his speech by pointing out that it has taken his wife Betsy three years to recover sufficiently from cancer to attend this year’s conference, yet seemingly cannot relate this to the 7,000 cancer sufferers who received letters from his department last week, informing them that their ESA will end after just one year. No three years of support for the masses."
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David Cameron – in need of a reality check?
"However, to describe a party doing its level best, under his leadership, to push many thousands of people into poverty, homelessness, and virtual slavery as compassionate simply beggars belief. In what bloody universe is that compassionate?"
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What "Any Qualified Provider" means for the NHS
"These companies will mostly be for-profit, although some will be not-for-profit. None of these companies will have the long term commitment to the community that the NHS has. Private for-profit companies are driven by the need for short-term profit making rather than a long term commitment to patient care. "
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NAME-US.org Ramsay Definition for Myalgic Encephalomyelitis
"The Ramsay Definition for Myalgic Encephalomyelitis
(1986)
“A syndrome initiated by a virus infection, commonly in the form of a respiratory or gastrointestinal illness with significant headache, malaise and dizziness sometimes accompanied by lymphadenopathy or rash. Insidious or more dramatic onsets following neurological, cardiac or endocrine disability are also recognised. Characteristic features include:
(1) A multisystem disease, primarily neurological with variable involvement of liver, cardiac and skeletal muscle, lymphoid and endocrine organs.
(2) Neurological disturbance – an unpredictable state of central nervous system exhaustion following mental or physical exertion which may be delayed and require several days for recovery; an unique neuro-endocrine profile which differs from depression in that the hypothalamic/pituitary/adrenal response to stress is deficient; dysfunction of the autonomic and sensory nervous systems; cognitive problems.
(3) Musculo-skeletal dysfunction in a proportion of patients (related to sensory disturbance or to the late metabolic and auto immune effects of infection)
(4) A characteristically chronic relapsing course."" -
"Anybody who knows anything about ME knows that GET equals torture for people with ME. "
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"This year, Blog Action Day will be held on October 16, which coincides with World Food Day, so naturally our 2011 theme is FOOD"
tags: cosmos
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"IDS captured the entire speech in his closing line – he said he was undertaking ‘More than welfare reform , but social reform leading to social recovery’. No mention of economic recovery with higher employment – but ‘social recovery’, instilling correct moral behaviour through reduced benefits."
Wednesday, 5 October 2011
Links of the day 10/05/2011
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A message of support from George Monbiot
"The government's assault on the NHS has just one purpose: to grant corporations greater access to public funds. To this end, it is prepared to destroy the greatest achievement in universal provision in the history of the United Kingdom, and one of the greatest worldwide. The US system, in which the rich are over-treated while the poor are left to rot, should serve as a grisly warning of where we could end up if these "reforms" go ahead.
We must stop this vandalism through a massive and sustained public mobilisation. As ever, UK Uncut are leading the way, with an inspiring campaign which I dearly hope will wake this country from its slumber."
Tuesday, 4 October 2011
Links of the day 10/04/2011
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'Back of a fag packet' housing policy continues
"Clearly, the policy is a pre-conference gimmick, built on a shoddy evidence base. It will make no significant in-roads into ballooning waiting lists, rising homelessness, record low rates of residential construction or unemployment in the building trade. Let’s hope it follows ‘houseboats for the homeless’ as a policy hastily constructed and even more speedily dropped."
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Does Big Society come with fries, UK’s starving ask Cameron
"The government has hit back at suggestions that the Big Society is just a meaningless gimmick.
“The Big Society isn’t just about charities doing the work that it already does, but with less funding,” insisted a government spokesperson.
“It’s also about making public sector workers redundant and getting someone to do their jobs for free.”
“It’s about the Prime Minister taking off his tie, rolling up his sleeves and telling other people to get their hands dirty.”" -
Tories, Tesco, vino and the presumption in favour of development
"The supermarket’s lobbying campaign continues at this week’s Conservative party conference, where last night it was the sole sponsor of the Conservative Councillors’ Association reception. "
Another reason not to shop there. -
100 groups urge BMJ & RCN to drop ATOS support
"Over one hundred organisations, doctors, nurses and prominent campaigners have signed a letter to the British Medical Journal Group, calling on them to end all business relationships with the conteroversial disability and health testing firm Atos Healthcare. "
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Five ways train fares could be reduced for ordinary people
"Transport Secretary Philip Hammond even admitted to fares being “eye-wateringly expensive” and the railways as being a rich man’s (sic) toy, as if this had nothing to do with him."
tags: cosmos environment
Monday, 3 October 2011
Links of the day 10/03/2011
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Green Party | Greens urge government u-turn over shocking planning proposals
""This new planning policy is likely to prove about as popular as the Government's ill-conceived plans to sell off the forests - and we need Cameron do a similar U-turn as fast as possible." "
tags: cosmos green environment
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The squatters debate – the Minister, the MP and the sheep …
"Sinister implications of the proposed squatter laws
The thing which worries me about the whole squatting debate is not the points raised by Mr Weatherby. It is the prospect of a new law which
1. Will make criminals of homeless people just trying to find a bit of shelter and get off the streets, and
2. Will make criminals of people using the time honoured procedure of occupying land to make a political protest (see here and here).
And the fact that these points are never mentioned by the (Tory) politicians." -
"This muddying of the cohorts often results in findings that are meaningless."
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Some UK rail stations add airport-style body-scanners
"Britain, the land that "sleepwalking into the surveillance state" was coined for, continues its somnambulistic randomwalk into a privacy-free zone. Recently, without any public discussion or debate, some rail stations have started adding airport-style body-scanners: "
tags: uk cosmos policestate
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David Cameron, Human Rights and the Daily Mail
"... a prime example of how the privatised system is a constant drain on public resources."
Sunday, 2 October 2011
Links of the day 10/02/2011
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Poverty-stricken families join a lengthening queue for food handouts
"Charities and voluntary groups are sounding alarm bells at the number of people going hungry as benefits fall and prices rise"
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Govt to extend length of time employers can get away with treating workers like shit
"By reducing the risk of tribunals for unfair dismissals the government hopes bosses will feel more confident about sacking people just because they can."
Saturday, 1 October 2011
OMG The bestest carrot cake in the history of forever!
They aren’t kidding about the yummy, scrummy and light parts: this cake is possibly the best cake I’ve ever cooked. No, really, I’m sure it is.
Now for the battle to resist eating it all in one sitting!
Links of the day 10/01/2011
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Why Hippy Communes Die Out: The Unequal Societies Just Kill Them Off
"Oh and that second point as well: when there’s the hard times in an unequal society the poor die"
tags: cosmos
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Sense of Entitlement: I had a brew on YOUR tax today
"Being on benefits seems to make you into public property. Suddenly, people feel that they are personally funding your every hot beverage and newspaper, and so resent you for having it. Every good day is marked down in thier heads as evidence that you must be swinging the lead. Every time they see you do anything productive, even leaving the house, they think you could be working."
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Channel 4 and Disability campaigning today
"Probably the most interesting part of the day was canvassing the opinions of the two taxi drivers. Both utterly supported their tax money going to sick and disabled people. Emphatically in fact. One had a mother on DLA, the other a mother with bi-polar. (Note to politicians 1 : Everyone knows someone who is genuinely sick or disabled too!)"
tags: uk benefits cosmos disability
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Diary of a Benefit Scrounger: Sickness and Disability campaigners didn't appear overnight....
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THE FIBRO TRAVELLING SIDE SHOW
"It seems that everyone has an opinion on what causes Fibromyalgia. It's almost as if they want to pin it on anything and everything but a neurological malfunction. Heaven forbid there would actually be something wrong with us. Some of the opinions are, in my mind, just absurd. "
tags: cosmos fibromyalgia
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Why EU migrants are unlikely to come to the UK for benefits
"People who know anything about UK social security have known for decades that one of its characteristic features is its relative lack of generosity."
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Giardia Linked to Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, IBS
"A recent study suggests that the intestinal parasite giardia may be linked to chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)."
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Quality of Life Index places the UK last: The lunatics are truly in control of the asylum.
"For the overwhelming majority of those who live in the UK, it will come as no surprise their, class prejudiced little nation has been named in a recent survey as the worst place to live in Europe for quality of life. "
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No right to die without a “Living will”
"The message underlying this ruling is clear: if you want to avoid the risk of spending years of your life subject to aggressive medical intervention whilst imprisoned in a cage of bare-consciousness, make a living will. "
tags: cosmos
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Miliband quizzed on disability reforms, apologises for omission from speech
"... fair point, that you’ve got to defend people who are with disability, ill health, and say that they shouldn’t be under attack"
tags: cosmos disability uk benefits
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Sick As A pig – the menace of MRSA linked to industrial pig farming
"Another strain of MRSA is emerging from the factory farms of Northern Europe, and it is linked to the insatiable demand for cheap meat on our plates. "
tags: food health environment cosmos
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"The current consensus is that chronic fatigue syndrome is probably caused by a disturbance to the immune system. In ways that are not entirely clear, this disturbance upsets the immune system for a prolonged period of time and leads the body to become hyper-responsive and produce a large outpouring of toxic substances, which then cause the fatigue, muscle aches, headaches and mental confusion associated with the disease."
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It’s time to end ‘wingnut welfare’ as we know it
"... writers of such shoddy reports should get to experience what would happen to others if their policies were put into practice."