tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6016363827616660391.comments2023-08-09T11:08:00.102-07:00Integral ReflectionsVincent Di Stefanohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09559307846832090756noreply@blogger.comBlogger15125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6016363827616660391.post-11763125742323551942021-02-13T11:00:23.854-08:002021-02-13T11:00:23.854-08:00One of the more important understandings to emerge...One of the more important understandings to emerge from this collection of essays is that the young and idealistic students who gathered in the name of democratic reform were united in their calls for an end to corruption in government. They also called for the establishment of an independent press capable of reporting impartially on all aspects of Chinese life, the creation of an independent judiciary able to reign in government excesses, and the universal protection of both academic freedoms and the right to exercise critical thought.<br /><br /><br />This is remarkable to consider, especially in light of the piece on the Hopkins poem, given the strong "currents" among practitioners in media, law and education, many, many of whom were not even yet babes in their mothers' wombs when the pyre was doused. Wondering if the ten thousand also "saw one thing...?"Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6016363827616660391.post-24927040714156406962016-04-20T01:28:01.981-07:002016-04-20T01:28:01.981-07:00Dear Toshio
Thank you so much for translating my ...Dear Toshio<br /><br />Thank you so much for translating my recent reflection on the present situation at Fukushima. It is a great honour for me to know that you have been touched by the article and have put in the work of translation to make it available to our brothers and sisters in Japan. It is especially gratifying knowing that you are yourself a resident of Fukushima prefecture and know the living reality of the consequences of Fukushima in ways that people outside of Japan can barely conceive of.<br /><br />And I love the title of your own blog, “Nuclear Power Plants are Children of Atomic Bombs” which states a truth that very few people understand.<br /><br />I wish you strength and energy in your own continuing good work.<br /><br />vincentVincent Di Stefanohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09559307846832090756noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6016363827616660391.post-54708112509237046282016-04-19T05:34:59.933-07:002016-04-19T05:34:59.933-07:00I am a resident of Kohriyama, Fukushima, and moved...I am a resident of Kohriyama, Fukushima, and moved by your fine article, which I have Japanese-translated and posted at my blog, 原子力発電、原爆の子 or Nuclear Power Plants are Children of Atomic Bombs; http://besobernow-yuima.blogspot.jp/2016/04/blog-post_19.html.<br />I humbly beg your kind retrospective approval. Thank you. 井上利男https://www.blogger.com/profile/02087634136315082033noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6016363827616660391.post-15194965841268662222016-03-14T07:42:31.428-07:002016-03-14T07:42:31.428-07:00HorrificHorrificCarey at McCrackenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09803788909213029490noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6016363827616660391.post-9356140005021286452016-03-13T14:04:41.826-07:002016-03-13T14:04:41.826-07:00Yes, it is painfully disturbing in many ways. In t...Yes, it is painfully disturbing in many ways. In the recklessness with which powerful governments overturn the lives of entire nations. In their blindness to the inevitable consequence of such actions in the unleashing of further violence. And most poignantly, in the grief inflicted on the lives of so many innocent ones. Yet for me, there was a greater power, a greater courage, and a greater force made manifest in the life and the death of the Coptic martyrs. Thanks Carey.Vincent Di Stefanohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09559307846832090756noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6016363827616660391.post-62238501593696208882016-03-13T05:52:45.059-07:002016-03-13T05:52:45.059-07:00This is painfully disturbing, but brilliantly pres...This is painfully disturbing, but brilliantly presented. Thank you Vince.<br />Carey at McCrackenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09803788909213029490noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6016363827616660391.post-38892824387546092202012-07-18T22:30:40.360-07:002012-07-18T22:30:40.360-07:00Wendell Berry has long been mindful of the fact th...Wendell Berry has long been mindful of the fact that we live in a time of decay, and despite his "profoundly sombre sense" that things are steadily deteriorating, his vision has always been directed towards regeneration, as reflected in this short poem written in 1968:<br /><br />"In the dark of the moon, in flying snow, in the dead of winter,<br />war spreading, families dying, the world in danger,<br />I walk the rocky hillside, sowing clover."<br /><br />Similar to the work of musicians and healers perhaps?<br /><br />Thanks Davidvincenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6016363827616660391.post-76145490508468289972012-07-18T05:58:27.117-07:002012-07-18T05:58:27.117-07:00Thanks again Vince. Whilst I don't share his C...Thanks again Vince. Whilst I don't share his Christian perspective, the rest of his beliefs,writings and exemplary way of life ring with a profoundly sombre sense of impending reality.... Great work, have facebook posted..<br />Take careDavid Chttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07880571032081972063noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6016363827616660391.post-44007125650163452332012-03-13T21:42:30.883-07:002012-03-13T21:42:30.883-07:00Vince
Great work. With carbon levels published tod...Vince<br />Great work. With carbon levels published today as being the highest since man arrived on the planet, small may be pushed onto us sooner than we think.<br />ianbAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6016363827616660391.post-31583337149419388402012-02-21T02:09:34.468-08:002012-02-21T02:09:34.468-08:00What a beautiful moving pieceWhat a beautiful moving pieceJane Matthewsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6016363827616660391.post-34584172137755081602011-05-24T03:42:05.948-07:002011-05-24T03:42:05.948-07:00Beautifully expressed Vince; great to be reminded ...Beautifully expressed Vince; great to be reminded of the power of subtlety.<br /><br />Jenie SAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6016363827616660391.post-80339199683464289152011-05-22T05:41:38.036-07:002011-05-22T05:41:38.036-07:00Dear Vince,
interesting. Probably much to learn f...Dear Vince, <br />interesting. Probably much to learn from the "first Australians" regarding medicinal properties of indigenous plants. <br />Eating freshly picked home grown vegies is certainly more healthful and flavoursome than eating the dead ones in cans and supermarkets.<br />Keep up your research Vince.<br />Cheers, <br />Paul RAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6016363827616660391.post-43583116908254533612011-05-22T03:34:15.496-07:002011-05-22T03:34:15.496-07:00Removing the Past
Samuel Pepys noted in his diary...Removing the Past<br /><br />Samuel Pepys noted in his diary in 1644 that he was feeling in especiaally good health and wondered why. Was it because he’d been wearing a hare’s foot around his neck on his doctor’s recommendation? Or perhaps it was the pill of turpentine he swallowed every morning?<br /><br />In theory we no longer have to wonder about such things. There is a vast clinical trials industry designed to test and prove the efficacy (or otherwise) of pharmaceutical cures for our illnesses. Establishing an evidence base is now central to practicing medicine. <br /><br />But the relentless application of any big idea can have destructive secondary consequences, particularly if it’s politically driven. As Vincent di Stefano has quite correctly illustrated in his paper, the past few years have seen increasingly vociferous attacks on non-drug remedies, usually lumped together as CAM (complementary and alternative medicine), on the grounds that they lack a proper evidence base. Nobody can disagree on the principal weeding out ineffective treatments, but the assault on CAM (particularly homeopathy and herbal medicines) by the new puritans of evidence-based medicine has become a dangerous distraction from a much more serious problem: the failings in the regulation of drug-based medicine. <br /><br />This was highlighted when two reports were published in February 2009. One, from the Commons Science and Technology Committee, concluded that: “using money on homoeopathy’s highly diluted remedies could not be justified.” The other came from the finance committee of the US senate and followed a two-year investigation of the drug company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), makers of Avandia, a drug used to treat diabetes. It, too, reached a damning conclusion—not only about the drug’s safety, but the lengths the company had gone to conceal evidence that the drug raised the risk of heart disease. “GSK executives,” it said, “had attempted to intimidate independent physicians, and focused on strategies to minimise or misrepresent findings.” <br /><br />Yet while the homeopathy ruling made news across Britain, the Avandia story did not—despite the fact that over 550,000 prescriptions were written for it in England alone last year. There is also the matter of prescriptions of Off-Label medicines. What are they? They’re involved in the practice of prescribing pharmaceutical for an unapproved indication, unapproved age group, unapproved dosage or form of administartion. In short off-label drugs have no evidence base, yet this practice is widespread amongst doctors, and prescribing pharmacists. <br /><br />Off-label use of medications is common. Generic drugs generally have no sponsor as their indications and use expands, and incentives are limited to initiate new clinical trials to generate additional data for approval agencies to expand indications of proprietary drugs. Up to one-fifth of all drugs are prescribed off label and amongst psychiatric drugs, off-label use rises to 31 % (Radley, 2006). New drugs are often not tested for safety and efficacy specifically in children and even when they are tested, the results of these trials may not be disseminated to hospital-based doctors and GP’s. A 2009 study found that 62% of U.S. pediatric office visits included off-label prescribing, with younger children at higher risk of receiving off-label prescriptions. Specialist physicians also prescribed off-label more frequently than general pediatricians (Bazzano et al., 2009)<br /><br />A 2006 study found that off-label use was the most common in cardiac medications and anticonvulsants. This study also found that 73% of off-label use had little or no scientific support (Radley, 2006).<br /><br />References<br /><br />Alicia Bazzano, Rita Mangione-Smith, Matthias Schonlau, Marika Suttorp, Robert Brook (2009). "Off-label prescribing to children in the United States outpatient setting.". Ambulatory Pediatrics 9: 81–8.<br />David C. Radley; Stan N. Finkelstein; Randall S. Stafford (2006). "Off-label Prescribing Among Office-Based Physicians". Archives of Internal Medicine 166 (9): 1021–1026.Donald Scotthttp://www.osteopathscotland.co.uknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6016363827616660391.post-76213310479411357482011-05-21T22:56:46.020-07:002011-05-21T22:56:46.020-07:00Dear Vincent,
Thank you - a great read.
keep u...Dear Vincent,<br /><br /> Thank you - a great read.<br /> keep up your excellent work.<br /><br /> Best Wishes,<br /> Bernie. L.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6016363827616660391.post-45691616544953487292011-03-03T03:50:00.711-08:002011-03-03T03:50:00.711-08:00Bravo. Worth the wait.Bravo. Worth the wait.Carey at McCrackenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09803788909213029490noreply@blogger.com