Popping Pills With The Romans

http://ancientandmedievalmayhem.blogspot.com.au/2013/04/popping-pills-with-romans.html 

I was recently reading a book (the historical fiction, Conspiracies of Rome by Richard Blake if you were to wonder) and early on in the book there were a few references to pills. Of the medicinal kind. ‘Buying pills from the Apothecary’. ’ Pills rattling in a metal pill box’.

 

This got me to thinking about pills in Ancient Rome. I had not come across any reference to them in an early Roman setting before, not in non fiction and not in fiction.  That is not to say that there are none, just none that I have come across or remember. And, as is the way with me when I sense there is something new for me to learn about periods of history that interest me, my mind was awash with questions.

Prescription for Competition

by David D’Amato
http://c4ss.org/content/18046
Prescription for Competition

As part of his March 29 GPS (Global Public Square) feature for CNN, Fareed Zakaria demonstrates that he’s not really paying attention, arguing that “[t]he central debate between Democrats and Republicans is over whether the free market works well in health care.” Zakaria is not alone in his misunderstanding about what it is that politicians of either major party actually advocate. As much as I hate to spoil the ending, neither Democrats nor Republicans are interested in anything like a real free market.

Should There be a Minimum Price for Alcohol? by Sean Gabb

http://www.libertarian.co.uk/multimedia/2013-03-01-drink-sig.mp3

Sean Gabb, Director of the Libertarian Alliance, speaking on BBC Radio 5 on the 1st March 2013.

The background to this discussion was a report from the Alcohol Health Alliance, calling for a minimum price of 50p per unit for alcohol, and various restrictions on the advertising and sale of alcohol.

Sean argues these points:

The Dramatic Benefits of Minimally Invasive Dentistry

Note: Too late for my combination of ceramic crowns and stumps waiting to be crowned. If you happen to be in the same position, however, my advice is to insist on no anaesthetic for any dental work. Short term dental pain is easily blanked out, and dentists become less willing to recommend and undertake anything really invasive. Otherwise, if you live in Deal, Dr Laurens does a nice job of keeping the teeth in your head. I wish I’d gone to him years before I did. SIG

Another Blow For Minimum Pricing – Alcohol ‘Availability Theory’ Debunked

by Dick Puddlecote
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DickPuddlecote/~3/vE3HghJj818/another-blow-for-minimum-pricing.html

Another Blow For Minimum Pricing – Alcohol ‘Availability Theory’ DebunkedThis study, published last week, is very interesting. Investigating the effects of the Licensing Act 2003 – you know, the one where ’24 hour drinking’ was set to plunge Britain into a drunken version of Mad Max according to the more excitable press – the authors investigated Manchester Police records to see if the many popular myths about its link with drink-fuelled violence had any basis in fact (emphasis mine, it crops up later).

Minimum Alcohol Pricing Will Be Good For Pubs?

by Dick Puddlecote
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DickPuddlecote/~3/KfLtikwuawA/minimum-alcohol-pricing-will-be-good.html

Minimum Alcohol Pricing Will Be Good For Pubs? Well, this has been the claim by CAMRA anyway. But, you know, I don’t reckon they have fully thought through the inevitable consequences of such a concept being widely accepted.

The Sheffield University study which the whole charade is based upon – madcap fantasy such as it is – already has a clause designed to impose the same on the on-trade in due course. In fact, it is claimed that extending minimum pricing to pubs too is the best possible outcome.

Danse Macabre: The Black Death, Part 2

by Anna Raccoon
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AnnaRaccoon/~3/oBAvFoWKb4U/

Note: I’m not convinced by the claim that plague and bubonic plague are not the same. Differences in symptoms and mortality rates may not mean very much. The 14th century Black Death and the 17th century plagues wiped out virtually everyone who had no resistance. We are the descendants of the survivors, and have probably inherited some resistance to the infection. It’s the same with the rats. That in itself would explain slower transmission rates, and lower rates of infection and mortality.

Syphilis was much more virulent on its first appearance at the end of the 15th century. Infections comparatively harmless to Europeans and Asians appear to have wiped out over 90 per cent of the native populations in South America during the 16th century.

Of course, infections also change over time. A bacterium is unlikely to survive for very long when it kills its host before it can spread to another. Therefore, changes in the nature of the bacterium and growing resistance of its victims will, over time, transform catastrophic pandemics into endemic problems. SIG

Danse Macabre: The Black Death, Part I

by Gildas the Monk
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AnnaRaccoon/~3/ZAVzOV26iZM/

Consider a world in which over the next three months, between 30-50% of the people around you have died of a horrible disease, full of fever and boils, often vomiting blood. What would that be like?

As regular readers will know, from time to time I take a historical topic which I may have heard of, but only have a superficial knowledge, research it and lay the results of my researches before readers of this blog – with our learned editor’s permission. I do not know why. Sometimes I do it for relaxation when I am a bit stressed. Sometimes Raccoon Readers provide their own and learned additional insights.

POST APOCALYPSE RECOVERY PROJECT

POST APOCALYPSE RECOVERY PROJECT
James Roger Brown
Sociologist, Intelligence Collection and Analysis Methodologist
Director
P.O. Box 101
Worthington, KY 41183-0101
thesociologist
www.thesociologycenter.com
Last updated 09/22/2011

Check back frequently, I will be adding to and improving this page.

Suggestions for inclusion may be submitted to the above e-mail address. One high priority document has not been located. Between the end of WW II and 1950 Naval Intelligence created a classified archaeology report about prior civilizations on the North American Continent. Talk to your family members who served during WW II and Korea to determine the title and author of the document. I suspect it contains maps that we need.

Introduction

Activating this Post Apocalypse Recovery Project begins an effort which there is no documented evidence has ever been done before in all of human history. The purpose is to manage information, knowledge and resources to minimize the intentional disruption of social stability caused by the engineered collapse of civilization and minimize the recovery time to develop new stable social processes among the survivors. There will be survivors.

The Monster In The Living Room

by Dick Puddlecote
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DickPuddlecote/~3/7FkvGT7DK6w/the-monster-in-living-room.html

Yes, your kid will die!

No slippery slope here, obviously.

Syphilis and Theories of Contagion

http://www.kckcc.edu/ejournal/archives/march2009/article/syphilisAndTheoriesOfContagion.aspx

Note: This might have something to do with the libertarian argument – but search me what it is. However, it’s a fascinating article, and was most helpful to my friend Mr Blake when he was researching one of his novels. SIG

Syphilis and Theories of Contagion
V. Smith, Doctoral Candidate
of Biological Sciences
City Kansas Community College

Abstract

Syphilis provides a useful lens for peering into the history of early modern European medicine. Scholarly arguments about how diseases were transmitted long preceded certain scientific information about the etiology or cause of disease in the late 19th century. Compared to the acute and widely infectious nature of bubonic plague, which ravaged Europe in the mid-15th century, syphilis was characterized by the prolonged chronic suffering of many beginning in the early 16th century. This study reveals the historical anachronisms and the discontinuity of medical science focusing primarily on the role of Girolamo Fracastoro (1478-1553) and others who influenced contagion theory. Examination of contagion theory sheds light on perceptions about disease transmission and provides useful distinctions about descriptive symptoms and pathology.

Voices We Should Safely Ignore

by Dick Puddlecote
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DickPuddlecote/~3/cRT0yM7NG50/voices-we-should-safely-ignore.html

I’ve counted to ten so many times with this guy recently. Lord knows I’ve tried but, Jamie Oliver, please stop with this stuff already.

Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver has criticised sports stars David Beckham and Gary Lineker for promoting junk food.

The television presenter, who forced the Government to introduce nutrition rules in schools after highlighting the unhealthy meals served to pupils, has added his name to a letter which condemns the use of athletes in commercials.

Look, guys and gals, “television presenter” are the operative words here. Say it was “London Black Cab driver”, what would be your reaction? Shut your trap? Couldn’t agree with you more.

Especially since the country won’t even listen to them on the subject of transport in London, yes. Perish the thought, eh?

So why is anyone listening to someone who has such a loose link with his subject matter, and seriously believes that the young will die before their parents because of a few cans of coke or a Big Mac here and there. The man is quite insane, or at the very least a bit of an easily-conned dick.

Should the British State should do more to regulate drinking?

http://www.libertarian.co.uk/multimedia/2012-07-19-drink-sig.mp3

Sean Gabb on BBC Radio Bristol, on Thursday the 19th July 2012, to discuss whether the British State should do more to regulate drinking.

Sean says no for these reasons:

• The ruling class and its mainstream media specialise in fabricating “problems” which always require a bigger and more empowered state to solve them. We have seen this with the global warming scam and the campaign against “passive smoking.” There is no reason to believe any of the statistics put out over “alcohol abuse.”
• Even assuming there is a problem, this is an effect of earlier state intervention. When public drinking in England was in small, local pubs, the generations would drink together. This allowed the young to absorb the cultural restraints of their elders. If there was disorder, it was on a small scale. Now, measures like the smoking ban, which has closed thousands of small pubs across England, and the systematic privilege given to big chains have transformed public drinking. Thousands of young men come together in big, anonymous drinking barns in city centres. The licensing laws mean they are relased all at the same time onto the streets. It is not suprising there is trouble.
• So far as one exists, this is a problem caused by the State. The best response is for the State to stand back and let individuals and voluntary collectives of individuals sort it out.

 

Legal firm bottom feeders and the NHS

by D.J. Webb

Dear all, no time for a long post, but I was amazed, at a time of cuts, to read that clinical negligence payments by the NHS rose by £10bn over the past five years to total £16.6bn! [See http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/9353443/Comment-The-spiralling-cost-of-no-win-no-fee-lawyers.html%5D This is not a small amount of money.

Shhh … Alcohol Consumption Is Down Again

by Dick Puddlecote
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DickPuddlecote/~3/jeslOdn5Ukw/shhh-alcohol-consumption-is-down-again.html

Did you know that the latest NHS statistics on alcohol consumption were released just before the Jubilee?

You didn’t? Well, I suppose it’s an easy mistake to make because the BBC didn’t seem to notice it either. Perhaps it’s because they were all camped out around the Mall … or that the health section’s skeleton staff would have had to report on this little “key fact”.

Medieval England Twice as Well Off as Today’s Poorest Nations

ScienceDaily (Dec. 5, 2010) — New research led by economists at the University of Warwick reveals that medieval England was not only far more prosperous than previously believed, it also actually boasted an average income that would be more than double the average per capita income of the world’s poorest nations today.

Have a Heart?

by D.J. Webb I read today that Vice president Cheney of the US, 71 years of age, had had a heart transplant. I hope all those under 71 years of age were in the queue first. I don’t think people over 3 score years and ten should be anywhere near the front of the queue for such things.

Feeling racist? Blood pressure pill Propranolol may open hearts and minds

Article by Eric Pfeiffer.

[Note: If this is true - and it may not be - the ruling  class will be wetting itself with joy at the thought of  modifying behaviour through compulsory mass-medication. If  "racism" can be defined as the kind of sickness that  homosexuality used to be called, we can start with compulsory  treatment of those convicted of offences. We can then move  through compulsory vaccination, when the drug becomes available,  to the pharmacological eradication of every inclination found  inconvenient by the ruling class. SIG]

Contraception Debate Misses a Basic Question

by Daniel Worden
http://c4ss.org/?p=9700

There’s been plenty of argument over proposed federal regulations requiring employers to offer health plans covering contraception for women. But few people bring up the basic question: Why is it considered normal for your boss to determine your healthcare options in the first place?

Thoughts on Privatisation

by David Webb

Privatisation of services – which is basically what libertarians are calling for, along with an elimination of personal taxation – suffers from the key flaw that the bureaucratisation of our society extends to the private sector too: just because they are privatised, services do not have to be efficiently run, with lean management teams.