Welcome to the Pebble

thePEBBLE - 12/15/06 - Around The Net

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

DO IT NOW WHEN IT'S FRESH IN YOUR MIND

The Saga Of Pinehill Book II
Money, Marriage And The Way
is now published and available.
Buy direct from:

http://www.publishamerica.com
(enter the name Saga of Pinehill in
the search box)

If you enjoyed the first book, you
won't be able to put
this one down until you've finished
it. Enjoy.

DO IT NOW WHEN IT'S FRESH IN YOUR MIND

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>


TODAY'S TRIVIA - - -
-----------------------


How did Bugs Bunny get his name?

What is "Chinese ink"?


--------------
ANSWERS TO YESTERDAY'S TRIVIA - - - -
--------------


What is a Welsh rabbit?

Welsh rabbit (also called Welsh rarebit) is not an animal at
all. It's melted cheese on toast or crackers. 

So why is melted cheese on toast called Welsh rabbit then?

So peasants could imagine themselves eating real rabbit --
or at least make fun of the fact that they couldn't. The
name originated in an era when only the Welsh nobility could
hunt rabbits. The poor peasants had to melt cheese on toast
and simply call it "rabbit." 



<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>


I'LL SEE IT WHEN I BELIEVE IT!

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>


There are a lot of ways to become a failure,
but never taking a chance is the most successful.


<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>


thePEBBLE CONTENTS:


1. STRANGE BITS AND PIECES!

------------------
2. COVER STORY
------------------------------------


Around The Net

-------------------
3. MEDICAL COLUMN with Karin Henderson

Your Immune System: Delicate Yet Critical
How It Serves You And Why You Need To Keep It Healthy
Why a carrot is good and a chocolate bar is not...
PART 8 of 9


-------------------
4. PERCEPTIONS by Ken Darby

Marching Orders - - - All Lemmings To The Sea!

-------------------
5. WHY DO WE SAY IT?

-------------------

6. THINK ABOUT THIS TODAY!
7. HA! HA!HA!
8. CONTACT INFO
9. THE LAST LINE - - - - -


DO IT NOW WHEN IT'S FRESH IN YOUR MIND

The Saga Of Pinehill Book II
Money, Marriage And The Way
is now published and available. Buy direct from:

http://www.publishamerica.com
(enter the name Saga of Pinehill in the search box)

If you enjoyed the first book, you won't be able to put
this one down until you're finished it. Enjoy.

DO IT NOW WHEN IT'S FRESH IN YOUR MIND


<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>


STRANGE BITS AND PIECES!


Canadians eat more Kraft Dinner (Macaroni and Cheese) per
capita than any other country in the world.



<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

COVER STORY
------------------------------------


Around The Net


H.I.V. Risk Halved by Circumcision, U.S. Agency Finds
By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.

Circumcision appears to reduce a man’s risk of contracting
AIDS from heterosexual sex by half, United States government
health officials said yesterday, and the directors of the
two largest funds for fighting the disease said they would
consider paying for circumcisions in high-risk countries.

The announcement was made by officials of the National
Institutes of Health as they halted two clinical trials, in
Kenya and Uganda, on the ground that not offering
circumcision to all the men taking part would be unethical.
The success of the trials confirmed a study done last year
in South Africa.

AIDS experts immediately hailed the finding. “This is very
exciting news,” said Daniel Halperin, an H.I.V. specialist
at the Harvard Center for Population and Development, who
has argued that circumcision slows the spread of AIDS in the
parts of Africa where it is common.

In an interview from Zimbabwe, he added, “I have no doubt
that as word of this gets around, millions of African men
will want to get circumcised, and that will save many
lives.”

Uncircumcised men are thought to be more susceptible because
the underside of the foreskin is rich in Langerhans cells,
sentinel cells of the immune system, which attach easily to
the human immunodeficiency virus, which causes AIDS. The
foreskin also often suffers small tears during intercourse.

But experts also cautioned that circumcision is no cure-all.
It only lessens the chances that a man will catch the virus;
it is expensive compared to condoms, abstinence or other
methods; and the surgery has serious risks if performed by
folk healers using dirty blades, as often happens in rural
Africa.

Circumcision is “not a magic bullet, but a potentially
important intervention,” said Dr. Kevin M. De Cock, director
of H.I.V./AIDS for the World Health Organization.

Sex education messages for young men need to make it clear
that “this does not mean that you have an absolute
protection,” said Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, an AIDS researcher
and director of the National Institute of Allergy and
Infectious Diseases.

Circumcision should be used with other prevention methods,
he said, and it does nothing to prevent spread by anal sex
or drug injection, ways in which the virus commonly spreads
in the United States.

The two trials, conducted by researchers from universities
in Illinois, Maryland, Canada, Uganda and Kenya, involved
nearly 3,000 heterosexual men in Kisumu, Kenya, and nearly
5,000 in Rakai, Uganda. None were infected with H.I.V. They
were divided into circumcised and uncircumcised groups,
given safe sex advice (although many presumably did not take
it), and retested regularly.

The trials were stopped this week by the N.I.H. Data Safety
and Monitoring Board after data showed that the Kenyan men
had a 53 percent reduction in new H.I.V. infection.
Twenty-two of the 1,393 circumcised men in that study caught
the disease, compared with 47 of the 1,391 uncircumcised
men.

In Uganda, the reduction was 48 percent.
Those results echo the finding of a trial completed last
year in Orange Farm, a township in South Africa, financed by
the French government, which demonstrated a reduction of 60
percent among circumcised men.

The two largest agencies dedicated to fighting AIDS said
they would now be willing to pay for circumcisions, which
they have not before because there was too little evidence
that it worked.

Dr. Richard G. A. Feachem, executive director of the Global
Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, which has
almost $5 billion in pledges, said in a television interview
that if a country submitted plans to conduct sterile
circumcisions, “I think it’s very likely that our technical
panel would approve it.”

Dr. Mark Dybul, executive director of President Bush’s $15
billion Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, said in a statement
that his agency “will support implementation of safe medical
male circumcision for H.I.V./AIDS prevention” if world
health agencies recommend it.

He also warned that it was only one new weapon in the fight,
adding, “Prevention efforts must reinforce the A.B.C.
approach — abstain, be faithful, and correct and consistent
use of condoms.”

Researchers have long noted that parts of Africa where
circumcision is common — particularly the Muslim countries
of West Africa — have much lower AIDS rates, while those in
southern Africa, where circumcision is rare, have the
highest.

But drawing conclusions was always confounded by other
regional factors, like strict Shariah law in some Muslim
areas, rape and genocide in East Africa, polygamy, rites
that require widows to have sex with a relative, patronage
of prostitutes by miners, and men’s insistence on dangerous
“dry sex” — with the woman’s vaginal walls robbed of
secretions with desiccating herbs.

Outside Muslim regions, circumcision is spotty. In South
Africa, for example, the Xhosa people circumcise teenage
boys, while Zulus do not. AIDS is common in both tribes.
Nelson Mandela’s autobiography, “Long Walk to Freedom,”
contains an unnerving but hilarious account of his own Xhosa
circumcision, by spear blade, as a teenager. Although he was
supposed to shout, “I am a man!” he grimaced in pain, he
wrote.

But not all initiation ceremonies are laughing matters.
Every year, some South African teenagers die from
infections, and the use of one blade on many young men may
help spread AIDS.

In recent years, as word has spread that circumcision might
be protective, many southern African men have sought it out.
A Zambian hospital offered $3 circumcisions last year, and
Swaziland trained 60 doctors to do them for $40 after
waiting lists at its national hospital grew.

“Private practitioners also do it,” Dr. Halperin said. “In
some places, it’s $20; in others, much more. Lots of the
wealthy elite have already done it. It prevents S.T.D.’s,
it’s seen as cleaner, sex is better, women like it. I
predict that a lot of men who can’t afford private clinics
will start clamoring for it.” (S.T.D.’s are sexually
transmitted diseases.)

Male circumcision also benefits women. For example, a study
of the medical records of 300 Ugandan couples last year
estimated that circumcised men infected with H.I.V. were
about 30 percent less likely to transmit it to their female
partners.

Earlier studies on Western men have shown that circumcision
significantly reduces the rate at which men infect women
with the virus that causes cervical cancer. A study
published in 2002 in The New England Journal of Medicine
found that uncircumcised men were about three times as
likely as circumcised ones with a similar number of sexual
partners to carry the human papillomavirus.

The suspected mechanism was the same — cells on the inside
of the foreskin were also more susceptible to that virus,
which is not closely related to H.I.V.


<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>




Failure is your Makers way of letting you know you
are making progress. Because you fail, does not mean
you quit. Keep on keepin' on.
---- Ken Darby



<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

MEDICAL COLUMN - - - - with Karin Henderson


Your Immune System: Delicate Yet Critical
How It Serves You And Why You Need To Keep It Healthy
Why a carrot is good and a chocolate bar is not...
PART 8 of 9


A majority of the illnesses that afflict us are related to
negative nutritional factors such as inadequate amounts of the
correct nutrients and the unavailability of a complete and
balanced lifestyle in a "friendly" environment. A diet high in
animal fat and cholesterol and low in fiber is unsuitable.
Tobacco/ smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, excessive
exercise, and factors such as chemical carcinogens, ozone
depletion, air pollution, industrial toxins, also contribute to
this negative environment. They result in oxidative stress.
Again, these, in our very simplistic terms for ease of
understanding, are "free radicals". And without getting too
technical, oxidative stress relates to the number of free
radicals and the inadequate amount of antioxidants to neutralize
them. In other words, the free radicals have outnumbered the
antioxidants.

All these are part of this overload. More "free radicals". But
you have to live... So want can you do? I often mention the JAMA
report on the use of nutritional supplementation.
Send a blank email to - mailto:jama2@rr-email.com
If such a conservative "institution" is supporting the use of
nutritional supplements to reverse and or prevent degenerative
conditions, it really pays to listen.


What can you do to help insure that your immune system can
provide you with health and energy? The answer has many parts,
but it can be described simply. Essentially you will want to
reduce the intake or exposure to anything that creates free
radicals or toxins, and increase whatever nutrients your body
needs to "empower" the Immune System. It's not quite so simple
as many things contribute to both the positive and the negative
side. You can't realistically sit in your garden and eat lots of
carrots, as your body needs all the elements of a nutritionally
balanced diet. (One of my fondest memories is sitting in a
strawberry patch on Cape Cod as a teenager, eating all the
strawberries I wanted. Instead of getting healthier, I broke out
in a rash! I guess my body was sending a message of
"unhealthiness". Maybe moderation should have been part of my
decision.) Start looking carefully at what you eat and make sure
it is helpful and supportive in your new search for health.

A healthy Immune System is supplied with a constant and adequate
flow of anti-oxidants (along with many other elements.) These
are received through a well balanced, complete, nutrient-rich
diet.


-------------------------------------------
Karin Henderson is a registered nurse and is thePEBBLE's
columnist for our MEDICAL COLUMN.
We appreciate her input very much. Thanks Karin.
You can send Karin questions at
mailto:kflh@shaw.ca

Health Information Newsletter.
http://www.prescotts-inc.com

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>


Any Acne problems in your house?
Teens find skin irritations embarrassing?
Try this link and have a look

4 Click here. This is worth a try

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

PERCEPTIONS . . . by Ken Darby

-----------------------DISCLAIMER

Some around me think I am an opinionated old goat.
Whether that be true or not I will sometimes, in this column,
talk about things people don't like to talk about - or don't want
out in the open. Take it all with a grain of salt.

Do your own thinking, and don't accept the things I say as
gospel. They are only mental meanderings from a simple soul.

-----------------------END DISCLAIMER

Marching Orders - - - All Lemmings To The Sea!

A couple topics today. First, it has been discovered that
male circumcision reduces a man’s risk of catching HIV by
half. That’s a big percentage. I would hope men all over the
world would see to that condition quickly. Of course there
will still be those who do not care.

On another front I see some companies and private citizens
are taking up the carbon challenge. That is to say they are
attempting to reduce carbon emissions - by themsleves.

While I believe any amount of this is good under any
circumstances it bothers me it appears to be done for ego
purposes and for the purpose of attracting more customers,
hence make more money. One thing that is clear by way of the
presentations on the subject is that it is not being done to
help save the world, but rather to make money.

There is still that “thing” out there that this global
warming thing will all blow over and it will have proven to
be a big hoax. It is pretty clear only a few people are
doing any kind of honest reading on the issue and fewer yet
who have analyzed the matter and come up with their own
understanding.

It is clear most think it will disappear and will not bother
them in any way so get back to earning money and better yet,
if you can use this new found fear to get more money then
milk it for all it is worth.

Boy! You want to see lemmings rush into the sea this is it.

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

Marriage doesn't have to be a battleground. This
can bring back that "old feeling" in both of you.

4 Click here. Try this before you split

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

WHY DO WE SAY IT?


Fall Guy: Why do we call a dupe a "fall guy"?

The word "fall" not only means to "stumble" but also to be
"lured" or "entrapped". And so we call a person a "fall guy"
who is entrapped and left to suffer the punishment while the
one who did the actual mischief escapes.




<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>




DO IT NOW WHEN IT'S FRESH IN YOUR MIND

The Saga Of Pinehill Book II
Money, Marriage And The Way
is now published and available. Buy direct from:

http://www.publishamerica.com
(enter the name Saga of Pinehill in the search box)

If you enjoyed the first book, you won't be able to put
this one down until you've finished it. Enjoy.

DO IT NOW WHEN IT'S FRESH IN YOUR MIND



<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>





Are you a stay-at-home Mom? Here is a product in which you might
be interested. This is an ebook written by a stay-at-home Mom. She
has found a way to earn money right from home. She emphasizes the
point that these are real jobs she can do from the house and that they
are available to anyone. She says no money has to be paid to do these
jobs, for example, they are not internet sales promotion type jobs, but
instead real jobs. Click on this link and see for yourself.

4 This looks real interesting and worth a click

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

THINK ABOUT THIS TODAY!


One is not rich by what one owns, but more by what one
is able to do without with dignity.
Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) 




<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

HA! HA! HA!


Mr. Greenberg was an illiterate immigrant, but he worked
hard, saved his pennies, and started a small business. It
did well, and soon he had enough money to send for the wife
and children. The work kept him very busy, so he never had
time to learn to write, but the bank was happy to do
business with him, even though his signature consisted of
two X's.

He prospered, he opened more stores, the kids were
transferred to private schools, the family moved into a
fancy house (with one staircase going nowhere just for
show)...you get the idea. One day his banker, Mr. Smith,
asked him to drop by.

"So vat's the problem?" Greenberg asked, a bit anxiously.

Smith waved a bunch of checks at him. "Perhaps nothing," he
said, "but I wanted to be on the safe side. These recent
checks of yours are all signed with 3 X's, but your
signature of record has just 2."

Greenberg looked embarrassed. "I'm sorry about making
trouble," he said, "but my vife said that since I'm now such
a high class rich guy, I should have a middle name!"



<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

CONTACT INFORMATION:

Complete Contact info on web site
http://www.the-pebble.com

To submit articles to thePEBBLE send a blank email to -
mailto:article.submission@emailsystemscentral.com

To subscribe to thePEBBLE just send any email to
mailto:pebble@rr-email.com

PEBBLE RELATED SITES OF INTEREST AND VALUE:

http://www.the-pebble.com
http://www.spiritual-underground.com
http://www.thenewsshop.com
http://www.thenewsshop.com/oursalespeople.html

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

THE LAST LINE - - - - -

Man should not consider his material possessions his
own, but common to all, so as to share them without
hesitation when others are in need.
Thomas Aquinas (1224-1274)


 
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

REMEMBER! - IF YOU SEE IT IN thePEBBLE - IT IS SO!


When you know your Maker, inside you, it is impossible
to be alone or lonely.
---- Ken Darby


---------------------

theNEWSSHOP newsletter service will soon have your
business growing.

4 Click here. Start your newsletter now

--------------------

© 1995 - 2006 thePEBBLE PUBLICATIONS
http://www.the-pebble.com

thePEBBLE Publications
pebble@emailsystemscentral.com
Box 6, Site 270, R.R.2
Carvel, Alberta T0E 0H0 Canada
1-780-968-3847