Cure for HIV?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/20...kthrough-seems

Breakthrough made by accident. A child that was born to a mother with HIV showed that the child had contracted the virus as doctors to failed to pick up on it. A plan B was implemented and the child was given what I can only presume to be a cocktail of prophylaxis of the drugs which eliminated the active part of the virus from the childs immune system . Working in health and safety I know how much that prophylaxis is important. After exposure, the first 24-48 hours are crucial as this is when the virus can take hold but prophylaxis can eliminate the viral count and stop it taking hold.

Sex workers in Africa were also shown to be immune t o the virus

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2003/nov/23/kenya.aids

Are we looking in the wrong places for a cure?

Mother Teresa - Potential Fraud

http://scienceblog.com/60730/mother-...g-but-a-saint/

New evidence has come to light which may just paint a picture that Mother Teresa was not the beautiful saint that we had been lead to believe but may have been in fact a complete psychopath. Studies of documents from researchers in Montreal looked at evidence at the claims that Mother Teresa was caring and found quite the opposite. Hospitals and places for the 'dying' she had set up were found to be in squalor and there was poor hygeine, not much food and no painkillers despite Mother Teresa raising hundreds of millions for her foundation. Her road to beatification was only done due to a slick PR job from the media and the Vatican waving the five year process after the death of a person for beatification as she had done some dubious miracles

Accent and Class Stus

http://www.redpepper.org.uk/scouse-a-class-accent/

Red Pepper is carrying an interview with Tony Crowley who wrote a novel on the Scouse accent and its place in society. The scouse accent for a while society viewed it as being an accent with which it carried steretypes that most notably of class and your ethnicity. Post Famine Immigration into Liverpool in the aftermath of the Irish famine had a huge impact on the development of the Scouse accent in contrast to that of the surrounding areas where the accents developed very differently.As the Scouse accent developed (surprisingly the article says only from the mid half of the twentieth century) that other accents gained a lot of privelege over that of the Scouse accent as it was then associated with crime ridden areas and other social issues. Did anything similar happen in Ireland?

The Dating Scene!

Ha thought might give this a light note seen as Im back on the dating scene.

Been single for three weeks now (I move quickly and no Im not on the rebound) but got interested in the new dating apps! One caught my eye called growlr...

Do you know how hard it is just to meet someone for a beer! So far they are all either

-Attached
-Striaght and married
-Closeted
-Have some fetish
-Are just too camp for my liking
-Lying
-Chasing their cuir isteach! (I dont mind the latter but they need to be more upfront!)

I was asked by one lad to send a picture of me wearing a watch (and just a watch!!) and another wearing farming gear!!!


LOL!!! So much for meeting an average lad for a pint , chat and whatever .....!!!

Ryan Dolan Wins Eurosong...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNQNdHV279w
Ryan Dolan was a deserved winner in what was a poor field. A lot of the songs sounded off key but this can be attributed to the poxy accoustics they use on the Late Late Show. Ryan is from Strabane in Northern Ireland and will perform "Only Love Survives" in the Eurovision in Malmo in May. The song is reminiscent of what Sweden won with last year,'Euphoria' tore up dance floors all over Europe and firmly became a favourite on many a playlist I had and friends had. The competition in Eurovision is very weak this year, Ireland I feel has to avoid Germany in the final and needs to get a good vocal performance. I would have dropped the backing singers, they dont add much to the song as Ryans voice soars amazingly high. This is definitely going to finish in the top ten, can feel it in my bones. Its also become one tune that just really puts me in a good mood!

Ryan For Eurovision!

Religion as a Tool for Social Control

Man's mind is irrational at times and while we are rational in how respond to fear the response to the fear of alienation was the irrational with the manifestation in the mind of man of religion. You are stung by a wasp and what do you do? You swat it with a paper or you avoid it for a few minutes, you do not come after the wasp with a flame thrower and seek to smash the hive and set it on fire. Religion is a lot like that, our fears of alienation played on our minds and the response was to invent religion - the flame thrower on the wasp hive. That is not to say the religion does not have a role to play in society, it can act as a glue to bind those whom are being oppressed. Bedouins being a nomadic people were those often living in the desert and were often people of a modest disposition in contrast to towns people whom would trade and live off the profits they made from trading. Under a prophet the Bedouins were united in their fight against oppression and as such there becomes a vicious cycle with a correlation between religion and economic gain.

Past History however has shown that religion grew too big for its boots and inevitably became a focus for past rulers to seal their rule with an iron fist. An unruly people require great resources in order to be ruled so man power is not exactly available but the next best thing is that of dieties, the rules of the gods that browbeat society into a particular way of thinking and seek out a malleable populace to conform to their way of thinking and via cognitive dissonasance then other people follow likewise influencing others via their peers or their family. Hammurabi of Sumer was the first ancient king to realise the value of religion from researching this topic. Through his codes he ruled with people never questioning his authority lest they be judged by the gods whom they believed in



Anu and Bel called by name me, Hammurabi, the exalted prince, who feared God, to bring about the rule of righteousness in the land, to destroy the wicked and the evil-doers; so that the strong should not harm the weak; so that I should rule over the black-headed people like Shamash, and enlighten the land, to further the well-being of mankind.


Modern day Ireland is getting used to the last vestiges of the RCC looking to obtain control via proxy organisations and others acting in the name of god. Recent calls for abortion were met with a reaction from 15,000 pro lifers bussed down by parish churches and money spent by religious organisations to ensure that they are still on control of the country. Having seen their definition of the family undermined by the potential legalisation of same sex marriage, the Iona institute launched a campaign to keep the definition of the famiy as per Bunreacht na h-Eireann arguing that such a change would inevitably impact on the development of the child. The extent of religious control does not extend just to that of social policy and research has touched upon it as a tool for the control of wealth to benefit the bourgoise in society where the vast majority of wealth lays.

Frederick Solt from the University of Illinois looked at the use of religion as a tool to keep the poor as exactly as they are, poor. His research took into account the correlation between religiosity of those whom were rich and those whom were poor. They labelled this theory as the 'Relative Power Theory'. Their conclusions were that religion takes the place of materialism in their lives and the priveleges of the rich are kept intact. Which brings us back to the whole vicious circile that we mentioned earlier in the post.

Research by Pippa Norris, at Harvard University, and Ronald Ingelhart, at the University of Michigan looked at modernisation and its affects and they came to a conclusion which some people will agree with. The less people have the more likely they are to turn to religion as they see financial security as the replacement for this and are turning their backs on religion. Europe has a low level of believers in place of the USA where there is no welfare model as we have in Europe so people will not believe in a god in Ireland but are more likely in America.

Not a comforting thought, you are either financially secure or are more than likely religious but its rare we find both and the poorer you are the more religious you may become, a cog in the machine of that religion . Doing as you are told for fear of ending up in hell which is if you are poor, where you may very well be......
http://www.isj.org.uk/?id=456

http://epiphenom.fieldofscience.com/...p-poor-in.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/dna/place-lanc.../plain/A933914

http://newhumanist.org.uk/2220/who-needs-god
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Vatican and Mussolinis Millions

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013...pire-mussolini

This report floated on by me today so why not share

Mussolini gave the Vatican a couple of million in return for them recognisiing his fascist regime. Knowing full well that there would be a lot of malcontent from the catholics in Italy if he didnt have them by his side, he poured millions into getting them to recognise his government in 1929. The value of the little project has grown to about £500m and now the Vatican owns property in London, Paris and Switzerland thanks to their investments. The Guardian queried who some of the people were pulling the strings but had doors shut in their face...