Nice people thread part 7 - a thread in its prime

LydiaJ

misskool wrote: »

i'm also craving biscuits, fox'x crunch oh dear.

misskool wrote: »

i'm absolutely craving pumpkin pie. not sure i'd want to roast a whole pumpkin to make the filling but no idea where to get canned pumpkin. boo

You seem to be craving various things ATM, missk. Anything you want to tell us about....????

Spirit wrote: »

For the non scientists amongst the NP

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=_M9khs87xQ8

It is dogs teaching chemistry.

Why only for the non-scientists? I loved it.

Thanks for the comments about DS, everyone. Lots to think about there, so I'm thinking. I'll be interested to hear Sue's take on the question, too.

michaels

Lydia I spend my whole time explaining to my kids how great it would be if they can be understanding of others and empathise - they don't really get it but it makes me feel better as I wish I had been the one who saw the big picture and stood up to the bullies and teasers on behalf of the bullied and teased (sort of like River Pheonix in 'Stand by me')

michaels

Ms K / Nikki / Lydia I find the stories of anti-biotic resistant bacteria quite worrying.

The way I see it naturally pathogens will be self limiting - if they are too deadly they will kill of their hosts too quickly and not spread widely...except that modern transportation means people and thus bugs can move much more quickly than the situation in which bacteria and our immune systems evolved. Thus if we give them the chance to become resistant to antibiotics (probably through the misuse of Antibiotics in middle income countries) then we will have no other defences when really nasty bugs come along.

silvercar

michaels wrote:

(Our fridge was an ebay bargain but the filter is not a common one so it is cheapest to buy generic filters for it from the USA, you can get super-generics that go on the pipe into the fridge but this is not easy to access.)

Our filters fit behind the fridge, which means the whole thing has to be moved out to access. Most stupid design ever.

zagubov

michaels wrote: »

Ms K / Nikki / Lydia I find the stories of anti-biotic resistant bacteria quite worrying.

The way I see it naturally pathogens will be self limiting - if they are too deadly they will kill of their hosts too quickly and not spread widely...except that modern transportation means people and thus bugs can move much more quickly than the situation in which bacteria and our immune systems evolved. Thus if we give them the chance to become resistant to antibiotics (probably through the misuse of Antibiotics in middle income countries) then we will have no other defences when really nasty bugs come along.

This could really go "bang" soon.:(
When I worked in a hospital path lab back in the early 80s (NHS, yes I know , but I don't believe a government where private medicine is necessary has earned its power) we were always checking first-rank and second-rank antibiotics to use against infections.

One day a Penicillin-sensitive bacterium was isolated and the whole lab came round to look at it as it was regarded as a real freak of nature -this was about 40 years after penicillin was discovered, but already it was like a dinosaur had just been delivered to a modern zoo.:D

Another worying point is I now teach about first rank antibiotics which were second-rank (reserve) ones thirty years ago.

If they don't start locking these drugs away and only releasing them when they're needed, we're going to be in trouble deep.

michaels

Thanks Zag and apologies for not including you in the original 'askees' list.

I have just been looking at the PCC results and it is really good to see the number of independent candidates elected. I must admit the frequent comments that 'politicians' shouldn't be running the police quite scary - surely the first sign of a totalitarian state is one where the police are not accountable to the electorate.

vivatifosi

michaels wrote: »

Ms K / Nikki / Lydia I find the stories of anti-biotic resistant bacteria quite worrying.

The way I see it naturally pathogens will be self limiting - if they are too deadly they will kill of their hosts too quickly and not spread widely...except that modern transportation means people and thus bugs can move much more quickly than the situation in which bacteria and our immune systems evolved. Thus if we give them the chance to become resistant to antibiotics (probably through the misuse of Antibiotics in middle income countries) then we will have no other defences when really nasty bugs come along.

I'm glad I'm not in my early 20s again. The thought of drug-resistant gonnorhea (not sure that's spelt correct but I'm not going to look it up either) is chilling. Though when I was in my early 20s those icebergs were pretty scary too.

In terms of the antibiotic resistant TB, is it a strain that isn't picked up by vaccination? If not, can we vaccinate it out instead?

zagubov

vivatifosi wrote: »

I'm glad I'm not in my early 20s again. The thought of drug-resistant gonnorhea (not sure that's spelt correct but I'm not going to look it up either) is chilling. Though when I was in my early 20s those icebergs were pretty scary too.

In terms of the antibiotic resistant TB, is it a strain that isn't picked up by vaccination? If not, can we vaccinate it out instead?

That strain led to experiments in multi-drug treatments whiich might become common in the future (makes it more likely for new resistent strains to emerge).

The vaccine is far from perfect, but AFAIK it's equally effective against all strains including the drug-resistent strains.

Parents grew up in an era where they lost siblings to childhood TB.

If we were smart we'd be using antibiotics really sparingly until we develope really good vaccination systems.

Lir, did you manage to solve that vaccination question you had?

SingleSue

silvercar wrote: »

I tried the "be nice its not his fault" when my youngest had one in his class. His response was to ask whether that makes it OK for him to push people and thump them? General feeling was that he was a bully and his parents were using any excuse not to deal with him. AIUI even if the cause is ASD the behaviour needs dealing with. Of course the methods of dealing with it may be different and the it may take longer to change behaviour patterns, but other kids have a right not to be bullied.

That sounds harsh and its not meant to be, but when a 6 year old was physically attacking your child and it wasn't being dealt with, it was frustrating.

I find it is always better to explain that the wiring is a little different BUT really horrible behaviour is still not acceptable and needs to be modified.

Unfortunately, there are some parents of autistic children who use the ASD excuse all the time to excuse all the behaviour a child is displaying but what the seem blind to, is that autism is an extra to their personality, their child will still go through the changes that 'normal' kids will go through.

So a child who is a natural bully would still be a natural bully but with an ASD and without behaviour modification, will continue to be a bully.

I do get annoyed with some of the other parents, "My child can't do this because they are autistic, so we are not going to do it", "Oh we can't do that because my child is autistic" blah blah.....I work more along the lines of "Ok, that may be a little stressful as **** is autistic but if you give me a little prep time and understand he may want to make a quiet space for himself at times away from the crowd, I am sure we can do it"

I always tell my boys that autism is only a barrier if you make it one, they are to see it as a challenge to find a way around, or to defeat but not to give in to. Ok it might be hard when they initially try something out of their comfort zone but I have given them coping mechanisms to deal with that..it might not go completely to plan initially but eventually, with determination and stubborness, they can then usually take part in things just like a non ASD child.

Don't think I have done too badly, middle son went from being an unteachable, violent child to being one of the stars of the school educationally, mentally and musically and youngest was predicted to never be able to attend a mainstream high school or be able to learn sufficiently to take GCSEs but he is there (ok not without problems mainly because his support network and coping mechanisms has been erm, decimated) and doing a full GCSE programme.

So explaining to a child why the child may be doing something is good but they also need to know that the bullying is still wrong.

vivatifosi

zagubov wrote: »

Parents grew up in an era where they lost siblings to childhood TB.

I'm old enough to remember talking to my nan about the TB - or consumption as she called it - that she had when she was young. She was away in a sanitorium for ages. I find it really amazing that it is coming back but immunisation is not more widespread. Immunisation across a lot of people is expensive, but the cost of treating TB in a single individual must be huge due to its nature.