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LOL we don't keep secrets here, emilybh! Share you must...
My uncle was in the hospital dying from a massive kidney infection. This was before antibiotics were widely available. The doctors had told the family to prepare for the worst. So grandma and his brothers brought in - malt liquor. Not beer- malt liquor. They made him drink six, then six more, than six more. By the time he'd drunk 24, the infection was gone and my uncle walked out of the hospital. He lived 26 more years until he was killed in a mining accident...
People didn't live long lives back then; infections took many off quickly because treatments were either unknown or administered too late. Gangrene was a serious problem, especially rurally; where if you didn't lose a limb you lost your life. Diabetics usually didn't make it out of childhood, and childhood diseases we got shots for in our youth are now supposed to be "eradicated" but are actually lying dormant; not just here but in 3rd world countries, traveling in the blood of illegal immigrants who don't get shots when they flee their home countries. A good friend of mine lives in braces because he was the last rural kid to get polio in his area; most who got it where he lived didn't survive.
Don't fool yourself into thinking that 'our forefathers lived so much happier and better because they had herbal medicine!' - they didn't always. 150-year-old family graveyards are full of children who didn't make it into their teens, and mothers who died in childbirth. That said, herbal medicines do have their uses - IF they are available and IF you know how to use them, process them, and decoct them. A comprehensive plan that takes into account ALL medications, herbal and natural as well as things like antibiotics and decongestants, and the training to know what to use when, is more reliable and practical for longevity.
Contagion as it is being used in the news media regarding the financial crisis, refers to the spreading of bankruptcy, default, and systemic risk within the banking system and within sovereign debt of countries and states, as in the Eurozone and the states within the US.
Example: German banks hold the sovereign bonds of Greece, Spain, Portugal, and Italy. If Greece defaults, the German banks take a haircut, but not too big of a one, as Greece is just a small country. But if Italy looks at what's happening, and decides to follow Greece's example by defaulting on its sovereign debt, the German (and US) banks take a much bigger hit, perhaps becoming insolvent themselves, and this is called "contagion".
The bad news: This is what's about to happen. Will be better than any movie, ever.
Except the US taxpayer is going to be on the hook for bailing out Eurobanks in US dollars. See cartoon attachment below.
In regard to disease: SCG you are correct, life before antibiotics was no great thing when they were needed. Neither will life be after antibiotics. Reaserchers predict we will reach that point within 8-10 years. Unbelievable!
MRSA is becoming one of the greatest dangers to anyone visiting a hospital or physicians office. It has become so common that those who work in such places should be considering themselves "carriers", even those who take in therapy animals as it has been shown they (the therapy animal) can carry and transmit MRSA.
Last edited by lifelongMOgal; 09-17-2011 at 02:53 PM..
There was an article recently about how vampire movies go up when republicans are in office (anti-democrat, individual parasite analogy) and zombie movies go up when democrats are in office (anti-republican, mindless consuming conformist horde analogy). Wonder if disease movies have such an obvious political trend? I personally think that disease and weather/natural disaster movies are so successful because uncontrollable Nature scares the crap out of most people. And monster/paranormal movies are so successful because "magic" and the supernatural scares the crap out of most people.
No wonder "28 Days Later" was such a hit: a man-made virus (anti-conspiracy, anti-science) that mutates and becomes highly contagious (uncontrollable Nature) which turns people into raging killers (mindless consuming hordes) that only clever and viciously practical people (somewhat paranormal in our current society) can survive.
Now, I loved The Stand. It was a most excellent book in all it's many iterations. But seriously, am I the only one who thought that hanging with Randall and Floyd instead of Stu and Fran would greatly improve my chances of survival? Forget "good" and "evil" -- let's just talk practicality!!
Naw - too many rules, no free will in Randall's world. If I go to Vegas, I want to paaaarty, not be oppressed.
Living in Nebraska as I do now, let me hasten to assure everyone that I WILL NOT be the nice granny lady in everyone's dreams, either, though. 1) The only thing I know how to play on the git fiddle is "Stairway to Heaven". 2) I don't grow that much corn. 3) Usually in my dreams, I'm naked. While I'm fine with that, somehow I don't think all of you 'viewers' out there would appreciate it.
Nope, I'll pretty much be one of those people who dream of both the 'evil' and the 'good' - but who stay put, hidden as much as possible, away from not only "Mr Tripps" but those wanderers looking for salvation at someone else's hands. Stephen didn't talk much about those folks, but I guarantee that would be a whole 'nother side story.
3) Usually in my dreams, I'm naked. While I'm fine with that, somehow I don't think all of you 'viewers' out there would appreciate it.
"My eyes, my eyes!"
[Just gotta give ya a bit of a hard time, ya know... ]
I'm 65, and I'm still in shape -- pear is a shape, right? I'm losing hair in places I need it, and growing hair in places I don't need it. There's nothing wrong with my memory, its just that my recaller has so much more data to sift through.
With all that said, my eyes still work (after a fashion) and my body still works (kinda). I can still shoot the ears off a prairie dog at 500+ yards.
In other words, SCGranny, welcome to the real world...
-- Nighteyes (who feels older 'n dirt sometimes...)
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See cartoon attachment below.
Stephen didn't talk much about those folks, but I guarantee that would be a whole 'nother side story. 
