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Another case of memningococcal disease reported by the SMH.

On Thursday night Jehan became unwell with vomiting, diarrhoea and a high fever. Her father said ambulance officers who were called in the early hours of Friday morning advised that she stay at home and take paracetamol.

Three hours later she had lost her vision and her body was blackened by the purple rash that is the hallmark of the disease. She was rushed to Bankstown Hospital but, by 9am, she was dead.

There have been 63 cases of meningococcal disease in NSW since January 1, down from 81 at the same time last year. Four have died. Peak season is winter and early spring, when people have low immune systems from flus and colds.

Money itself doesn't bring happiness... but having it better than having no money at all :)

The more money you earn, the more time you are likely to spend working, commuting and doing other compulsory activities that bring little pleasure, according to an article in the June 30 issue of Science that provides a novel explanation for why money doesn’t bring happiness.

For the article, titled "Would you be happier if you were richer? A focusing illusion," Princeton University psychologist Daniel Kahneman and colleagues, including University of Michigan psychologist Norbert Schwarz, analyzed the link between money and happiness, presenting new evidence showing that what they call "the focusing illusion" affects how people respond when asked how happy or how satisfied they are with their lives.

Citing evidence from a nationwide survey of a representative sample of people they conducted recently, they noted that people with greater income tend to devote relatively more time to work, compulsory non-work activities (such as shopping and childcare) and active leisure (such as exercise) and less time to passive leisure (such as watching TV and just relaxing).

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Submitted by Marco on Fri, 14/07/2006 - 9:41pm.

I watched an interesting documentary last light on SBS about Epigenetics. It is an important discovery as it effectively links "hereditary diseases" that were previously impossible to explain using simple genetics. Epigenetics puts a new layer on top of the conventional genes with switches that allow traits to be passed between parent to offspring. This effectively means that whatever you do to your own life will affect your family's health in future generations. The program notes that there are critical "sensitive times" at which the genes to be passed could be passed on: for women, it is when the eggs are created in the womb and for men it is just before puberty.

They experimented on mice, exposing them with environmental toxins during these sensitive times. What they found was astounding. Their offspring and their offsprings' offspring had diseases that resulted from the exposure.

Towards the conclusion of the program, the scientist who discovered a correlation in a human population in Northern Europe and famine and the resulting disease diabetes to appear in the ancestors made an interesting statement. He said that this graph showing the correlation, somewhat proving the theory is like seeing the picture of the earth for the first time. It was at that time that organisations to "save the world" popped up since the picture revealed how delicate and vulnerable our world was. The graph showing a statistical correlation basically shows us that we cannot be selfish with our lives since what we do to your bodies now have potential consequences with our children and out childrens' children.

Following the blog entry about Internet Addiction... Here are ten signs that you are tech obsessed.

1. You forget basic bodily functions

In internet-obsessed South Korea, hardcore gamers have been pushing themselves to their mortal limits in their quest for points. A man dropped dead at his screen in December after playing continuously for a marathon 10 days. That eclipsed the stamina of the previous victim, who died after two days in the chair in August last year. Another South Korean died in 2002 after 86 hours of non-stop playing.

2. You collect ridiculous accessories
3. You check your email on Sunday ... at 3am
4. You know your mates by their online 'handles' rather than their real names
5. Your favourite song goes "beep"
6. Instead of laughing, you say 'LOL'
7. You answer your mobile phone when you're on a date
8. You change their 'outfits' depending on their 'mood'
9. You own a BlackBerry
10. You speak in a secret language

People are using the Internet at an ever increasing rate. The Internet is becoming an addictive tool for some... and Diane Wieland, a professor of nursing at LaSalle University says that some surfers may be addicted to the Internet. v

Ever open up your Web browser to check on a news item, and suddenly an hour has gone by and you're still online?

Ever log on to research a hotel for a trip and find yourself Googling the names of people you went to junior high with? In between, hours, and dozens of Web sites, may have passed by.

There's even a 20-question Internet addiction test in her piece. It includes questions like, "How often do you find that you stay online longer than you intended?" and "How often does your job performance or productivity suffer because of the Internet?"

Addicted to the Internet? It's possible : article

In a related article: Sydney workers are increasingly using email to communicate...

MANY Sydney workers are so obsessed with their inbox they are devoting the equivalent of a day of their own time each fortnight to answering work emails.

One in five businesses say they have staff who spend four hours a week, or more, sending and replying to job-related messages out of normal office hours, a survey by the Sydney Chamber of Commerce has revealed. More than half the businesses polled said employees spent at least some time outside normal hours on work emails

In this article from Slate, they explore whether or not a psychiatrist can really tell what's wrong with you. (If you don't know, here's the difference between a psychiatrist and a psychologist)

But unlike psychiatrists, they (doctors in other specialities) usually have a molecular definition of disease to go on and biological tests to administer. The current lack of molecular knowledge in psychiatry is no fault of psychiatrists; the human brain is complex and difficult to experiment on. But it cannot be denied that the DSM is not a collection of diseases so much as syndromes—groupings of symptoms that may have many different molecular causes. Because the molecular causes are largely unknown, biological tests don't exist, and a psychiatrist making a diagnosis is left without the lab results that in other areas of medicine help correct doctors' subjective impressions.

The Sun-Herald City2Surf is Australia's largest fun run and will take to streets of Sydney again this year on the second Sunday in August: 9.30am on Sunday, August 13! You can have a look at my previous photos of the City to Surf for 2005. You can enter online today to join over 60,000 people take the 14km journey through the city's eastern suburbs to the finish line at Bondi Beach.

I'm still deciding whether or not I should enter this year... Should enter soon though, or else I'd be stuck in the back of the pack again...

15 Ways to Live Longer was a list published by Forbes recently. Full Article. The list recommends you quit smoking, not to oversleep, to be optimistic and have a laugh, have more sex, get a pet, get a VAP test (cholesterol), chill out, eat antioxidants, be rich, marry well (choose your genes for the next generation), exercise, lose weight, manage stress and meditate. Live well, live long and prosper.

Heart surgery patients who relaxed their breathing, received MIT: soothing touches and listened to music before surgery were more likely to be alive 6 months after the procedure, whereas patients who were prayed for offsite (unbeknownst to them) received no benefit. Patients receiving MIT may feel more cared for when they receive extra attention from the music, touching and imagery, and that may help in their recovery, says Krucoff (The Study author).

Those who received MIT (Music, Imagery and Touch) were 65 percent less likely to die within the following 6 months than people who did not receive the intervention. According to Krucoff MIT-users also experienced a "profound" decrease in emotional distress before the procedure, compared to non-MIT-users.