The trouble with speaking a foreign language …

Is that you go to Google and get daft messages like this:

The information you've requested isn't currently available in your language, but you can select from the list below to view this help topic in another language or download Google Toolbar, which can instantly translate websites in 42 languages.

• English (US)‎

Yeah, the *foreign* language I speak (well loosely), is UK English, of course and, stupidly, I’d just selected that option on the Google+ site. (And, no I can’t download Google Toolbar, ‘coz it’s not compatible with Firefox 5.0)

Links of the day 06/30/2011

• Elderly Australian man satisfied with purchase

  "AN Australian pensioner today declared the British government to be excellent value for money."

  tags: cosmos

• Setting Up Google Plus With Your Google Account: Beginners Guide

  tags: cosmos tucats

• Capitalism and the social oppression of people with impairments | Collective Resistance

  tags: disability uk politics cosmos

• 15 Immunological Terms Everyone With Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Should Know

  "The immune system is complex, and research can be hard to understand. To help you get a better handle on what some of the terminology means, here are definitions of 15 immunological terms related to chronic fatigue syndrome:"

  tags: me_cfs cosmos

• Nature Digital: Modern Slavery

  "Earlier this afternoon, the ruling majority of the so called “Socialist” party voted and passed the new measures in the House of Parliament.
  They put around the necks of all those who were living bellow poverty limits, the rope to be hanged.
  When they are going to kick the stall under their feet, away, is only a matter of time.
  The people of Greece will be living in a new age of slavery to the strong from now on.
  We are awaiting to see which country and which people are going to be next."

  tags: Greece politics cosmos

• BPS Research Digest: The dark side of swearing - it may deter emotional support from others

  "A new study suggests that swear words have a dark side. Megan Robbins and her team recorded snippets of speech from middle-aged women with rheumatoid arthritis, and others with breast cancer, and found those who swore more in the company of other people also experienced increased depression and a perceived loss of social support. "
  
  Well, fuck that! Folks should try living our lives before they judge.

  tags: cosmos health

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Links of the day 06/29/2011

• European Commission fails to clarify EU herbals issue

  "The millions of European Union (EU) citizens eagerly awaiting much-needed clarification from the European Commission over the Traditional Herbal Medicinal Products Directive (THMPD) had high hopes for a meeting in the European Parliament on Tuesday, 21st June 2011 (you can access an archived video stream of the event here). Unfortunately, despite a meeting format ideally designed to tease out answers, the assembled representatives of the European Commission (EC) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA) failed spectacularly to dispel the widespread confusion."

  tags: cosmos

• Supreme court judge warns legal aid cuts will hit poorest

  ""A cut-price, DIY justice system, which will actually end up costing more money, rather than saving it, is in no one's interests.""

  tags: uk cosmos

• Strikes can stop Tory pension thieves

  tags: uk politics cosmos

• Things You Can Do from the Bed

  "Little did I know ten years ago, that my bedroom would become my home. On some days, I'm able to go out or visit with people in the front of the house. But, due to illness, most of my day is spent on the bed."

  tags: cosmos

• Informed Compassion

  "... is created to challenge the values, assumptions and competence of Incapacity Benefit reform by this Government and the last."

  tags: uk benefits cosmos

• Poor and sick paying the heaviest price for Osborne's deficit reduction

  "there is no basis for claiming people should cease to receive a benefit when they still meet the criteria for it – or to justify the claim by referring to a political intention or expectation which is in conflict with key wording in the primary legislation."

  tags: uk health benefits politics cosmos

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

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Links of Interest 06/28/2011

• Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome

  "Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS) is a life altering and debilitating chronic health condition. The simple act of standing can be a challenge for people with POTS, affecting the body’s ability to appropriately adjust to the pull of gravity when upright. POTS is characterised by symptoms of orthostatic intolerance such as headaches, fatigue, palpitations, sweating, nausea, fainting and dizziness associated with an increase in heart rate from the supine to upright position of greater than 30 beats per minute, or a heart rate of greater than 120 beats per minute within 10 minutes of standing (1). "

  tags: pots me_cfs cosmos

• How gravity can knock you sideways

  "Her GP dismissed the faint as post-viral, but Sophie knew something else was wrong. Nearly three years after her first fainting fit in 2007, she was diagnosed with a condition that makes it hugely difficult to go from sitting to standing without fainting or feel dizzy. Postural tachycardia syndrome (PoTS) was discovered only 15 years ago, and few doctors have heard of it, let alone know how to diagnose and treat it. "

  tags: me_cfs pots cosmos

• The 48-Hour Recovery Period in Fibromyalgia & Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

  "We don't yet know why we need 2 days to recover from ... well, just about anything, but a lot of chronic fatigue syndrome research is focusing on post-exertional malaise -- the intensified fatigue and flare of other symptoms following exercise. Several research groups have identified genetic and blood abnormalities following exercise."

  tags: cosmos me_cfs fibromyalgia

• Diary of a Benefit Scrounger

  "There has only been one narrative for about 30 years - "How do we stop paying people who are sick?" This has been based on just one assumption - that we're all the man Ed Miliband met with a gammy leg who could be doing something else. Or we're dying of cancer. There's nothing in between.
  
  I don't exist in their ignorant model of disability - or many other people's, Compass taught me that - and should any of us get beyond our station and dare to fight them, dare to speak out and try to make people see, they can be pretty confident that the fight will kill us before anyone's really noticed. Lets not forget the thousands who are so profoundly disabled they don't even know what is being done in their name - they can't argue back can they? An easy target for welfare-psycopaths. (definition : "the inability to form human attachment[3] and an abnormal lack of empathy, masked by an ability to appear outwardly normal.")
  
  
  I am disgusted by my country - that's the truth of it. Disgusted at what passes for parliamentary research, disgusted that lives can be sacrificed on "assumptions", disgusted with the Machiavellian power struggles that dull even the brightest political stars, disgusted with the arrogance of politicians who never bother to respond, disgusted with a media who choose to look the other way."

  tags: uk benefits disability politics cosmos

• Isolated social worker says experience was life-changing.

  "She experienced increasing depression and physical pain from the exercises during her week pretending to be an isolated elderly person and as she admits she has a better insight into this sort of life. "

  tags: cosmos

• Why I write about climate change

  "The science behind the greenhouse effect is very basic and well established. The ‘greenhouse’ term itself was coined in 1827, demonstrating the heat-trapping effects of CO2 in a lab is 9th grade physical science. CO2 levels are 38% higher than the pre-industrial age."

  tags: environment cosmos

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

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Links of Interest 06/27/2011

• Two Girls, One Wheelchair & 21st Century "Accessible" London..

  "Just imagine trying to be fit enough to go to work every day when you're already sick and/or disabled...and then going through that kind of performance to get anywhere. It's what the Welfare Reforms are banking on us being able to do... "

  tags: uk disability cosmos

• The Biggest Legal High At Glastonbury Is Laughing At The Police

  "Why are there new drugs, Mr Bunt? Think… Why? Why? Think. Try to think."

  tags: cosmos

• Fibromyalgia Basics: What is Fibromyalgia?

  "Fibromyalgia is not a psychological condition. Sophisticated brain scans show that the pain we feel is very real. Research shows that we have multiple physiological abnormalities spanning the nervous system, endocrine system (hormones) and immune system."

  tags: fibromyalgia cosmos

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Links of Interest 06/26/2011

• Serotonin & Bone Health in Fibromyalgia & Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

  "Bone seems like a solid, stable thing, but actually our bodies continuously reabsorb old bone tissue while creating new. According to recent research, serotonin in the brain (as a neurotransmitter) helps build new bone, while serotonin in the rest of your body (as a hormone) helps break it down."

  tags: fibromyalgia me_cfs cosmos

• Treatment of Chronic Pain Remains Inadequate

  "According to the June 25, 2011 issue of Lancet, researchers found that chronic noncancer pain remains inadequately treated, even though pain is generally better understood and there are more treatment options. The noncancer pain referred to in the study included osteoarthritis, fibromyalgia, neuropathic pain, and low back pain."

  tags: arthritis fibromyalgia cosmos pain

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Links of Interest 06/25/2011

• Isolated social worker can't wait for the "desolate" week to end

  And just think, she's only doing it for a week. She still won't be able to fully grasp what it's like to have to cope with this 24/7/365, but she'll have a fair idea. This should be a compulsory part of training.

  tags: health disability cosmos

• Another reason to give up your car

  " If you weren’t running your own car, you could spend £50 a week on taxis and still come out better off."

  tags: environment cosmos

• The debate shouldn't be whether to resist, but how to resist, by Owen Jones.

  "we can't just sit around waiting for a Labour government to - hopefully - take office in four years time. We have to fight now to stop the Tories in their tracks. That's what the French people did to Alain Juppé's right-wing government in the mid-1990s when he launched attacks on the welfare state. They won. We can too."

  tags: uk politics cosmos

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

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Links of Interest 06/23/2011

• One in three would quit the UK to work abroad

  "The expat way of life is attracting more and more people as nearly a third of UK employees consider leaving the country in the next five years, according to a new study from currency broker Currencies.co.uk. "

  tags: uk expat cosmos

• Law to allow disabled people to keep services when they move

  tags: uk disability cosmos

• The fate of the sick and disabled hangs in the balance…

  "If there were to be just ONE qualifying condition for disability benefits, having a disabling AND incurable condition should be it. What the hell else can we do – except kill ourselves, but were we to do that Cameron would just claim that we’d been mentally ill after all. We simply cannot win as things stand.
  
  So ask yourselves, is Cameron actually insane, at least on the subject of disability or, behind that shiny, smug, exterior, is there the most evil individual this country has thrown up in centuries?"

  tags: uk benefits disability cosmos

• Is an Enzyme Called GAD Responsible for Fibromyalgia?

  "A recently published hypothesis raises the possibility that an enzyme involved in type-1 diabetes may also be an underlying cause of fibromyalgia (FMS)."

  tags: fibromyalgia cosmos

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Links of Interest 06/22/2011

• Against strikes? Actually, people support unions

  "We are told by newspaper commentators almost everyday that widespread union strikes would not have public support. Except, a poll by Populus this week has found the opposite. Bizarre that newspapers chose not to report on it."

  tags: uk cosmos

• Where's the Benefit?: Another case of the human cost of benefit cuts

  "33 year old Paul Willcoxson who had mental health problems killed himself because he was so worried about benefit cuts."

  tags: uk benefits cosmos

• We can win: 750,000 to strike in Britain

  "... despite the right wing media, workers everywhere are keen to see someone have a go at the government."

  tags: uk cosmos

• End to the expats problems when buying homes in EU?

  "EU parliament vice president Diana Wallis MEP has commended a pilot scheme that promises to end the probems experienced by expats when buying property in Spain,Tenerife and other EU countries.The scheme, set up by the European Land Registry Association and funded by the EU, allows for the purchasing procedure to be settled in the buyer’s home country and under the protective laws of that country. "

  tags: eu tenerife property cosmos

• Why do we have a Minister for Disabilities?

  "Maria Miller has not supported us, she has not consulted us, she has not replied to us and she does not speak for us. Not only that, but she misrepresents us! The very people she is elected and salaried to represent."

  tags: uk disability cosmos

• The Broken Of Britain: Unconsidered consequences

  "... when the government restricts the amount of space people can live in, they need to think of the unintended consequences of limiting people living on benefits to existing in one room."

  tags: uk benefits cosmos

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Links of Interest 06/21/2011

• Chronically sick and disabled? It’s time to fight back…

  "If we were Jews, Blacks, Muslims, Gypsies, Gays – pretty much any minority group you care to name, half the cabinet would be in jail by now for stirring up hatred against us. But we’re not any of those groups, who have the protection of the law – we’re perceived as an easy target, and that has to change, because what this government is doing to us, along with those scurrilous newspapers who lap up and recirculate their garbage, and the BBC, is hate crime by any definition."

  tags: uk cosmos

• Moving the goalposts on pensions is unfair and unjust

  tags: uk cosmos

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

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Links of Interest 06/19/2011

• Serotonin Series: IBS in Fibromyalgia & Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

  "Abnormal serotonin levels are typical in fibromyalgia (FMS) and chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), and they may also be behind some of the other conditions that are common in us -- including irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)."

  tags: fibromyalgia me_cfs ibs cosmos

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

A Kitty called Kitty in a Kitty bed …

Another of those remarkably rare occasions that a cat was found in a place actually intended for it … inside her pretty Hello Kitty bed.

Links of Interest 06/17/2011

• Guess the most popular organisations in the UK

  "a couple of details about Greenpeace’s scores. While they do particularly well among Labour (79% support) and Lib Dem voters (78%), they don’t score badly among Tory voters (59%). Equally, their scores are very high with Guardian (90%) and Indy readers (84%), but they’re perfectly respectable among Mail (63%) and Telegraph readers (60%) too. Intriguingly, one of the groups who seem least well disposed to them (‘just’ 57% support) are those who are the most positively inclined towards David Cameron. Make of that what you will.
  "

  tags: uk cosmos

• CAM Therapies for Fibromyalgia Reviewed

  "The June 2011 Clinical Digest from the U.S. National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) offers a review and assessment of research on Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) therapies for treating fibromyalgia syndrome. Much of the research on CAM for fibromyalgia is preliminary and evidence for the effectiveness of various modalities is for the most part limited."

  tags: fibromyalgia cosmos

• Do NOT participate: the DWP has passed the names of DLA claimants to a company for a study

  "We think that you would be best not to accept if you are approached about this. Here is some more information, which explains why. If you are contacted about this you will probably be told something to the effect that this is to help iron out potential problems in moving from the present system (DLA) to the new system (PIP), possibly implying that it will be helpful to claimants."

  tags: uk benefits cosmos

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Today's Bargains

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Links of Interest 06/16/2011

• NHS to be rebranded as ‘Britain’s Got Illness’

  "Health Minister Andrew Lansley has confirmed that the latest NHS reforms will require patients seeking treatment to be seen by a panel of three healthcare professionals, ‘sitting behind a desk with their hands on a buzzer with a light-up x attached’."

  tags: uk health cosmos

• The Great British passport scandal

  "The great British passport scam is indubitably an earner for the British State.With passports valid for 10 years there must be round about 4,000,000 of them issued every year. I am convinced that this is one reason (there are others) why the UK refuses to join the Schengen Agreement on passport-free travel."

  tags: uk cosmos

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Links of Interest 06/15/2011

• Expat politician in Spain accuses opposition of foul play

  "What she has experienced is just corruption by the PP in Spanish politics, nothing out of the norm. "

  tags: Spain politics cosmos

• Barclays, HSBC and RBS linked to 'dirty financing' for fossil fuels

  "With a bigger spotlight than ever on the role of banks in funding fossil fuel projects we report on unethical and environmentally damaging investments by Barclays, HSBC and Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS)"

  tags: environment politics cosmos

• Warning: extreme weather ahead

  "Tornados, wildfires, droughts and floods were once seen as freak conditions. But the environmental disasters now striking the world are shocking signs of 'global weirding'"

  tags: weather environment cosmos

• Mafia to pay compensation to protection racket victims

  "Mafia bosses have said they don’t know where they’re going to find the money to pay the compensation. Spokesman Luigi ‘the Hatchet’ Moreno said ‘Someone suggested we borrow it from Barclays – but I’m not dealing with those crooks.’"

  tags: humour cosmos

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Links of Interest 06/14/2011

• Life as we know it: What to Say to Someone Who’s Sick

  "the majority of people who say they're sending "thoughts and prayers" are just falling back on a mindless cliché."

  tags: cosmos

• Income disparity makes people unhappy

  "Many economists and sociologists have warned of the social dangers of a wide gap between the richest and everyone else. Now, a new study, which will be published in an upcoming issue of Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, adds a psychological reason to narrow the disparity"

  tags: cosmos

• Where did the council houses come from Cam?

  "West Oxfordshire Borough Council, in which Cameron’s consituency sits, got rid of its council housing in 2001."

  tags: ukn politics cosmos

• Further Evidence of Immune Dysfunction in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

  "A new study provides further evidence of distinct and significant immune dysfunction in chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) and may provide biomarkers sufficient for a diagnosing the illness."

  tags: me_cfs cosmos

• Caroline Lucas looks to decriminalising drugs

  "The Green party leader will make a speech to NHS healthcare professionals in Brighton this evening. She will echo the findings of the Global Commission on Drug Policy, which earlier this month called for a major review of drugs policy."

  tags: uk politics green cosmos

• Aggression is a fact of life for the disabled in London, as the tabloids continue to attack

  "In an atmosphere of right-wing media baiting, the disabled are finding themselves the object of a persecution in everyday life. Over half of disabled Londoners have experienced hostility, aggression and even violence from strangers, because of their disability, according to a new poll reported by the BBC."

  tags: uk disability cosmos

• Mitochondrial Dysfunction in ME/CFS

  tags: me_cfs cosmos

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

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Links of Interest 06/12/2011

• Side Effects of Serotonin-Affecting Drugs for Fibromyalgia & Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

  "Sometimes, the treatment is just as bad as the disease. When you're talking about serotonin-affecting drugs, which many of us take for fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome, that's a real possibility."

  tags: me_cfs fibromyalgia cosmos

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Links of Interest 06/11/2011

• Citizens' bus service provides a free ride

  "Described as the UK's first community-funded public transport project free at the point of use, FreeBus is run and supported by a group of 700 transport activists, environmentalists and ordinary citizens."

  tags: uk environment cosmos

• Expats say moving abroad was the right decision

  "Nine in 10 expats think they made the right choice in moving from the UK ..." and that's in the Torygraph!

  tags: uk expat cosmos

• Alert!: the American Psychiatric Association and CFS

  "The American Psychiatric Association is attempting to create a new illness/condition, Complex Somatic Symptom Disorder (CSSD), that many ME/CFS sufferers will be diagnosed."

  tags: me_cfs cosmos

• DLA, PIP, and, once again, the purging of the Chronically Sick and Disabled… « Ron's Rants…

  "This means that they know full well that they will be consigning 19.5% to penury and oblivion, and are quite happy to do so. And about 50% of the electorate is happy to let it happen – I really don’t need to draw the comparisons between the plight of the chronically sick and disabled and the Jews (not to mention gypsies, homosexuals and yes, the disabled), of Nazi Germany again do I?"

  tags: cosmos disability benefits uk

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Links of Interest 06/10/2011

• One billion people disabled, first global report finds

  "The proportion of disabled people is rising and now represents 1 billion people – 15% of the global population – according to the first official global report on disability.
  
  An ageing population and an increase in chronic health conditions, such as cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, mean the proportion has grown from an estimated 10% in the 1970s.
  
  But, despite a robust disability rights movement and a shift towards inclusion, disabled people remain second-class citizens, according to the report by the World Health Organisation and the World Bank. One in five experience "significant difficulties"."

  tags: disability cosmos

• Where's the Benefit?: Pontius Grayling has Spoken

  "So the DWP dug up the most extreme examples it could find, sent them only to the "key contacts" known to take the most outrageous stance possible, briefed them to take an extremely negative attitude towards people with long term spinal conditions, and yet Mr Grayling proclaims himself to be 'bemused'. Do you also proclaim yourself to be clueless, Mr Grayling? Or might your 'bemusement' relate to people actually having the audacity to try and hold you responsible for the hatred you are sowing?"

  tags: uk benefits cosmos

• Really? This passes for Parliamentary Research?

  "... the "assessment" the DWP did into Time Limiting ESA"

  tags: uk benefits cosmos

• New BBC poll: 84% against Tax Avoidance

  "A poll out today by Comres for the BBC finds an overwhelming majority of people against tax avoidance by businesses."

  tags: uk cosmos

• Sitting targets for the government's welfare reforms

  "This kind of situation strikes at the heart of the welfare reforms; they simply don't take account of the routine challenges and waiting times that sick and disabled people face for health and social care provision. The proposal to time limit employment and support allowance to 12 months for those in the work related activity group might sound sensible in the world of Westminster, where political pixies work their magic to make things happen, but out here in the real world the first rule that disabled and sick people learn is: "Hurry up and wait.""

  tags: uk disability benefits cosmos

• Why Fibromyalgia Has a Credibility Problem

  "On top of their daily struggle with pain, fibromyalgia patients are
  sometimes forced to fight another battle—convincing doctors, friends,
  coworkers, and others that their condition is real and that their pain
  is not all in their head."

  tags: fibromyalgia cosmos

• Life as we know it: Does it count if you're accomplishing things while in bed?

  "Yet, so many people couldn't make the connection that what I was doing for our own website was not proof that I could work for pay – I got plenty of accusations "if you can sit at a computer at home, why can't you sit at a computer in an office?" Ummmmm, because I'm not sitting. No office is going to give me a bed. "

  tags: cosmos

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Today's Bargains

• The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett dlvr.it/Vdj09

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Links of Interest 06/09/2011

• Adding insult to injury

  "Sky: RBS Bonuses 'Paid With Taxpayer Cash'
  
  This really p*sses me off.
  Bankers are wa**ers and barstewards!"

  tags: uk cosmos

• How Can We Look So Good But Feel So Bad with CFS & Fibromyalgia?

  "What is the one thing we hear as soon as someone finds out we are sick with ME/CFS and/or Fibromyalgia? “You don’t look sick”. When someone says that it is as if they are totally disregarding and disbelieving the fact that you are truly ill. Everything in life is not in black and white and these illnesses are definitely not easy to define. "

  tags: fibromyalgia me_cfs cosmos

• The Jobbing Doctor: No

  "Unfortunately for Mr Cameron, the real opposition is mustering, as fewer and fewer ordinary people are believing the public relations guff, and more are seeing the bill for what it is: a combination of rationing for the ill (and they expect me to do this), and profits for the rich as services are privatised by stealth."

  tags: uk health nhs cosmos

• John Bercow dismisses Daily Mail as a 'bigoted comic'

  "The Commons Speaker, John Bercow, has risked his political neutrality by describing the Daily Mail as a "sexist, racist, bigoted, comic cartoon strip"."
  
  And I think he was being rather kind.

  tags: cosmos dailywail

• DSM-5 Submission on behalf of The Young ME Sufferers

  "Any possibility that classic ME, already subsumed under CFS, could be mistakenly classified by default as a Complex Somatic Symptom Disorder would be nothing short of disastrous. It would also be a scientific error of some magnitude which would surely be best avoided for your own sakes as much as that of the patients."

  tags: me_cfs cosmos

• My Fibromyalgia Treatments: Myofascial Release

  Coincidentally, I'm going for my first try of Myofascial Release next week, so I'll try to report back on it.

  tags: fibromyalgia cosmos

• Middle class baffled at continued environmental crisis in spite of token recycling efforts

  Unfortunately, there's many a true word in this story.

  tags: cosmos

• Diary of a Benefit Scrounger: Benefit Claimants - Saints or Sinners?

  "The government would like us to believe that sickness and disability benefits are an easy option. That there are few controls or checks and that claimants can look forward to a life of ease once a claim is successful.
  
  This is absolute nonsense. "

  tags: uk benefits cosmos

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

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This is the TEST (some parts are faked) shipment you asked for

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Links of Interest (weekly)

• Response to the attack on DLA in today’s papers

  "The statements made in The Sun, The Telegraph, the Daily Mail and particularly in the Daily Express appear to be highly misleading. "

  tags: uk benefits cosmos

• Treating Low Serotonin in Fibromyalgia & Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

  tags: fibromyalgia me_cfs cosmos

• Happiest Nations Have Social Services

  "Nations with long-term economic strength can also afford to support employment, education, and make health care widely available. The happiest countries seem to be places where there is a good balance of work and leisure time." The United States, obviously, does not make an appearance on this list of Wealthy, Happy Countries. "

  tags: cosmos

• Dancing with the Sandman: 100 Best Sites for Fibromyalgia and CFS

  ""In honor of Fibromyalgia Awareness Week, we’ve scoured the web and compiled a list of 100 great websites for people who suffer from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), Fibromyalgia and other chronic pain disorders.""

  tags: fibromyalgia me_cfs cosmos

• How to Turn Twitter Into Your One-Stop Lifestream

  tags: twitter tools cosmos

• Revealed: the pamphlet underpinning Tory plans to privatise the NHS

  "Today we publish the paper for the first time online (a reader got hold of a copy and scanned it) because it offers the deepest insight yet into where health secretary Andrew Lansley wants to take the NHS, and how Conservatives regard this prized British institution.
  "

  tags: uk politics health cosmos

• 'Routine antibiotic use' linked to new MRSA strain found in UK dairy cows

  Am I ever glad I don't eat meat or dairy and once again certain that those are the right choices?

  tags: uk food health cosmos

• Potential biomarkers reported for CFS and FM

  "“post-exercise increases for four genes meet published criteria as an objective biomarker for CFS, and could be useful in guiding treatment selection for different subgroups.” "

  tags: me_cfs fibromyalgia cosmos

• RealClearScience - Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is Misunderstood

  "For most patients, CFS is a one-way ticket to hell. The affliction is acute and mostly incurable. Horrifically, it takes away even life's littlest pleasures.
  
  According to many interviews and hundreds of e-mails I have received since first covering the disease, sufferers are hit first with symptoms of what seems to be flu. Sometimes there is a short, deceptive remission -- sometimes two or three. Then the pattern emerges of collapse after every exertion, especially exercise. Finally, full onset occurs: There are no more normal days, only different degrees of weakness, pain and other symptoms. Doctors term the disease relapsing and remitting. That means you might have weeks, months or years of slightly better days, and then stretches -- often years, sometimes decades -- of almost total helplessness. It is goodbye to the life you have known; goodbye to work, to hobbies, to lovers and spouses, to everything short of hope."

  tags: me_cfs cosmos

• Falling prices mean selling your home may not be enough to fund care

  "In 2006/07 care costs could just about be funded from the proceeds of an average home, but in 2010/11 the economic trends are heavily stacked against you."

  tags: cosmos

• A bad apple? No, Southern Cross is the model for NHS privatisation

  " the gain is private and the cost is public.
  
  That’s banking all over again."

  tags: uk health cosmos

• Decriminalise possession of drugs, celebrities urge government

  "Dame Judi Dench, Sir Richard Branson, and Sting have joined an ex-drugs minister and three former chief constables in calling for the decriminalisation of the possession of all drugs."

  tags: cosmos

• Diary of a Benefit Scrounger: ESA assessments pushing mentally ill to suicide.

  "Isn't it an awful thing when you know all about something terrible, but at the same time you know you're at least a year or two ahead of general opinion?
  "

  tags: uk benefits cosmos

• Government urges welfare claimants to listen to Judas Priest albums backwards

  "The government has taken further steps to reduce the number of people claiming benefits by urging them to listen to Judas Priest albums backwards, in the hope that the subliminal messages contained within the tracks will prompt them to take their own lives."

  tags: uk benefits cosmos

• Renewed concern about Atos medical assessments

  "At an Atos medical assessment, a friend of mine was submitted to a homophobic rant from a doctor followed by a foot examination"

  tags: uk benefits cosmos

• America Gets Its One Millionth Legal Marijuana Patient: Why Is It Banned In The UK?

  "If the drug works, why not let people use it legally..?"

  tags: cosmos

• Gil Scott-Heron: Poet who weathered Winter in America

  tags: cosmos

• Supplements: who needs them? - A Behind the Headlines special report - NHS Choices

  "Over the past four years, Behind the Headlines has looked at a lot of press coverage on studies into dietary supplements. Our new special report aims to make sense of some of the issues surrounding them, and looks at a selection of the evidence for some of the most popular supplements in use today (PDF, 13MB)."

  tags: supplements cosmos

• Poll: everything more popular than Daily Mail

  "43% felt that Labour had the best approach to welfare, compared to only 30% who backed the Tories."

  tags: uk cosmos

• Treasure Islands, by Nicholas Shaxson

  "Shaxson argues that as Britain realised its empire was crumbling, it switched tactics so that while it lost the geographical territory, it kept the money. It built a spider’s web of tax havens across the Carribean or Hong Kong, an inner ring including Jersey and Guernsey, with London at the centre. As the book suggests, “colonialism left through the front door, and came back in through a side window.”"

  tags: cosmos

• Existing on benefits

  "A major flaw in public thinking, and in the Work Capability Assessment, is the idea that if a person can do something once, they can do it again. I can choose to do a task at the expense of a day, a week, or however long in bed. I couldn’t do that task every day. I certainly couldn’t do it all day every day. I can sign my name, but I can’t write a page of text. I can commute to work, once, but couldn’t get home again. I could set up a whole website in a couple of hours in the middle of the night, but I couldn’t do it all day every day for a living, or tell you when I could next do it. Other people with health problems might be able to mow their lawn, put up a shelf or paint a wall, but at a similar cost to their health along with the associated recovery time. Living on benefits, as many of these people do, they are poor. They can’t afford to pay someone to do these jobs necessary in everyday life, and so they do them themselves, and pay the health costs later. Yet neighbours and passers-by see them doing these tasks, and instead of asking “can I help?” they phone the DWP and report them as a benefit fraudster."

  tags: uk benefits cosmos

• Vitamin D Causing Joint Pain & Arthritis

  "The same study in "Pain Treatment Topics" makes the connection between vitamin D deficiency and arthritis, as well as other rheumatic conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis and fibromyalgia. The research shows that the addition of vitamin D supplements for individuals with these conditions can decrease the pain associated with them. The report indicates those with bone or muscle pain could benefit from a supplemental dose of 2,000 IU per day."

  tags: fibromyalgia arthritis cosmos

• The number of natural disasters is on the rise

  "If it feels like there are far more hurricanes and floods these days, then your instincts are correct. The number of weather related disasters has increased dramatically in the last 30 years."

  tags: environment cosmos

• The Emotional Business of Form-filling

  "... when people talk about the stress of form-filling, I don't think they've known stress in form-filling until they have tackled the monster Disability Living Allowance form."

  tags: uk benefits cosmos

• If you watch only one movie this year I highly recommend you make it Inside Job.

  "If you watch only one movie this year I highly recommend you make it Inside Job, a documentary film by Charles Ferguson who strips away the MSM nonsense as to what caused the current recession. Despite the biggest economic crises for decades, not a single financial institution or individual who was responsible for the crash has been prosecuted, and inexplicably to most of us, those responsible for the collapsed banks all walked away with their vast fortunes intact."

  tags: cosmos

• Diary of a Benefit Scrounger: Spoonie Revenge Party

  "Except we wouldn't do this would we? Not even for a year. Because despite their best efforts, we're still human. We wouldn't even make politicians live the way they expect us to. It would be cruel, callous, disgusting. It would reduce us to bitter, nasty, thoughtless people with no empathy or compassion."

  tags: cosmos uk benefits

• "Attentional Blink" & Cognitive Dysfunction in Fibromyalgia

  "A recent study sheds light on the cognitive dysfunction (fibro fog) that's prevalent in fibromyalgia. Some researchers have suggested that the underlying mechanism may be similar to that in ADD/ADHD, and this research appears to support that hypothesis."

  tags: fibromyalgia cosmos

• How To Make The Perfect Greek Galaktoboureko Dessert

  tags: food cosmos recipes

• RSS and Atom Feed Subscriptions For Your Amazon Kindle

  "Kindlefeeder is a service for Amazon Kindle owners that lets you aggregate your favorite feeds and have them delivered to your Kindle in a convenient, easy-to-navigate format. Kindlefeeder also lets you save individual webpages and have them delivered to your Kindle along with your feeds. "

  tags: kindle tools cosmos

• Cancer has shown me the injustice of disability cuts

  "For too long, both the major political parties have pandered to lazy, middle-England stereotypes of the dreaded "benefit scroungers" in order to win easy seats in swing constituencies. I hope I can have a small influence in making people reassess those preconceptions. My remaining time will be spent attempting to shame those in power into doing the right thing. I hope you will help me in this endeavour."

  tags: uk benefits cosmos

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

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Keynes, Crisis and Monopoly Capitalism

Link to video

Today's Bargains

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Today's Bargains

• The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett dlvr.it/Tm3CF

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