"Neither citizens nor companies will be able to pay in foreign currency"
Russia is now exclusively a ruble country — RT Business News
Wednesday, March 2
Scott Ritter: "Russia is overrunning Ukraine as we speak."
Scott Ritter knows what he's talking about. Latest interview approx. 4 AM Eastern Time today.
NATO Too Weak to Face Russia Scott Ritter on Russian Offensive - YouTube
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More on Russian operations today, plus all Indians evacuated from Kiev
See also SF's earlier detailed report:
From Sputnik:
Indian Embassy in Kiev Closed, Diplomats Relocating to Western Ukraine, Report Says
The Indian Embassy in Kiev has been closed, with diplomats and staff members relocating to the western Ukrainian city of Lvov, according to Indian broadcaster NDTV's sources.
On Tuesday, all Indian nationals, including students, were advised to leave Kiev urgently by train or by any other available means. Within hours, Indian Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla announced that all Indian nationals had left Kiev. [...]
On Tuesday, all Indian nationals, including students, were advised to leave Kiev urgently by train or by any other available means. Within hours, Indian Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla announced that all Indian nationals had left Kiev. [...]
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Russian military makes its move
SouthFront has done a great job of reporting on Russia's complex military actions in Ukraine but has been very vocal for days about what the staff perceived as repeated Russian military screw-ups. Whether Russian tactics up until March 1 were indeed filled with mistakes or just careful to a fault given Russian objectives, South Front is now reporting in detail that the military did a sudden about-face and is acting with unerring efficiency.
Here is the link to the lengthy report, which includes several videos that are generally 20 seconds or less in length:
War In Ukraine Day 6: Russia Changed Tactics And Succeeded. Huge Casualties And Humanitarian Disaster (Video 18+)South Front published today.
The "humanitarian disaster" is mostly directly due to the Ukrainian government's actions, which SouthFront details but which have been obvious for days. As to the number of casualties -- "huge" is relative.
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Thursday, February 24
Monday, January 24
The U.S. Forest Service's Gordian Knot isn't limited to forestry
The John Batchelor Show / Fix America’s Forests: Reforms to Restore National Forests and Tackle the Wildfire Crisis (Audioboom podcast featuring Holly Fretwell, pictured above.)
From Holly's discussion with John Batchelor for CBS Eye on the World:
"...there so many layered regulations that overlap each other that make it really difficult to get anything done on the ground. We have the NEPA [National Environmental Policy Act], the Clean Air Act, the Endangered Species Act, the National Forest Act, the National Wilderness Act -- the [Forest Service] has to abide by all these different laws. By the time you get done trying to work your way through that, you're kind of tied into a Gordian Knot ..."
So that's how the Forest Service came to use the term Gordian Knot, which is closely related to Analysis Paralysis, which Holly and her co-author Jonathan Wood explain in their report for PERC (Property and Environment Research Center), Fix America's Forests: Reforms to Restore National Forests and Tackle the Wildfire Crisis (perc.org). See the report for details, but this passage from it will get you in the ballpark fast:
The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), for instance, requires federal agencies to document and analyze the expected environmental impacts of their actions. The extent of analysis required can vary based on the degree of anticipated impacts. But for any project, NEPA compliance adds costs and can be a source of significant delay. For the most complicated category of projects, which includes large-scale forest restoration projects, NEPA paperwork takes an average of nearly three years to prepare.
Then what survives Analysis Paralysis is woven into the Gordian Knot, which is to say it's a wonder anything gets done to fix America's forests.
Now everyone is recognizing that a great deal must be done and quickly because the wildfires in America are at a crisis level. The federal government is overwhelmed by the task of curing what are very sick forests.
Holly and her co-author detail practical recommendations for restoring forest health that are summarized in John's discussion with her. They cut through the Gordian Knot and get around the worst of Analysis Paralysis. Holly's can-do attitude gives hope that bureaucracy and special interests will implement the recommendations.
Of course, the Forest Service's Gordian Knot is not limited to forest management. Lawmaking in America's giant society has proliferated to the point where many laws overturn or block others from implementation, even when a new law is meant to fix an outdated one.
So, we are now less a republic built on laws as one that generates Gordian Knots.
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Tuesday, January 18
Sorting out the truth
[...]
Smil thinks there are major gains in efficiency which can be had, over and above the enormous gains so far. He points to water use as an example: in 2015, the US only used about 4% more water than it did in 1965, but in the meantime, its population had gone up by two thirds actual per capita water use has dropped by 40%, even while the country has got richer and better fed. Perhaps similar efficiencies can be found with energy and carbon.
[...]
The quote is from How long can humans survive? - at UnHerd published January 17. Without stating it outright the author, Tom Chivers, makes it clear that many popular arguments about the threat of overpopulation are uninformed. His quotes from Czech-Canadian scientist and policy analyst Vaclav Smil in Smil's new book, How the World Really Works, underscore the point.
[...]
For Smil, our discussions about climate and energy are hamstrung, because so few people actually understand how the world really works.
[...]
Smil explains that one of the four key building blocks of modern society is ammonia, of all things:
[...]
In the beginning of the 20th century, a German chemist called Fritz Haber invented a process for getting nitrogen out of the air by making ammonia. It requires huge amounts of energy, and hydrogen, usually taken from natural gas. We now spread hundreds of millions of tons of ammonia on our fields — about 50% of the total nitrogen going into food production comes from it. Smil quotes an author, writing in 1971: “industrial man no longer eats potatoes made from solar energy; now he eats potatoes partly made of oil.”
This means the world is able to eat. The share of the global population that is underfed has plummeted, even as the actual population has ballooned – about 65% of people could not get enough to eat in 1950, compared to about 9% in 2019. So, “in 1950 the world was able to supply adequate food to about 890 million people,” as Smil puts it: “but by 2019 that had risen to just over 7 billion”. That is not entirely down to ammonia, but ammonia is a large part of the story. If fertiliser were removed, perhaps half the world’s population would starve.
[...]
Calls for radical reduction in carbon fuel use don't factor in ammonia production. They don't factor in a great many other crucial points, as Chivers makes clear.
Books such as Vaclav Smil's can help us sort of the truth of matters, but not if government funding, propaganda, and fads in published 'authoritative' opinions promote solutions ignorant of the truth.
So how to sort out the truth? Science survives on disagreements; if too many scientists are in lockstep about a broad and complex issue, I take that as a warning to keep an open mind about the conclusions.
Keeping one's news sources varied is also some help. I learned about the article by Chivers and about Smils from a headline link at DRUDGE REPORT 2022®. Drudge's news aggregator team(s) cast a wide net. The John Batchelor Show for CBS Eye on the World radio/podcasts is another news source that casts a wide net.
Another tactic is to avoid accepting sweeping generalizations. And to always ask if an idea sounds true just because it's attractive to you, because it 'makes sense.'
You can't make sense out of the invisible, which is what the truth can be when it reflects facts that are unknown to you.
In this era we're trying to know everything about everything. Here, incrementalism is a big help.
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Saturday, January 15
Friday, January 14
WSJ: How TikTok's algorithm figures you out UPDATED 6:00 PM
The Chinese company that owns the 'addictive' social media site TikTok didn't want to reveal their secret algorithm. So, the Wall Street Journal formed a team of investigative journalists to figure out the algorithm and how it works to hook viewers. What the team discovered makes for one of the most important and disturbing investigative reports of this century.
In addition to the following Wall Street Journal 13-minute video explainer see How TikTok Serves Up Sex and Drug Videos to Minors - WSJ, September 8 report. But it's much more than sex and drugs. The TikTok algorithm is a kind of blueprint for controlling billions of people without the use of secret police and messy mass executions. It is a totalitarian government's dream come true. From the September 8 report:
[...]
The addiction machine
An earlier video investigation by the Journal found that TikTok only needs one important piece of information to figure out what a user wants: the amount of time you linger over a piece of content. Every second you hesitate or re-watch, the app tracks you.
Through that one powerful signal, TikTok can learn your most hidden interests and emotions, and drive users of any age deep into rabbit holes of content—in which feeds are heavily dominated by videos about a specific topic or theme. It’s an experience that other social-media companies like YouTube have struggled to stop.
“All the problems we have seen on YouTube are due to engagement-based algorithms, and on TikTok it’s exactly the same—but it’s worse,” said Guillaume Chaslot, a former YouTube engineer who worked on that site’s algorithm and is now an advocate for transparency in how companies use those tools. “TikTok’s algorithm can learn much faster.”
[...]
So what is to be done, beyond attempts to hound TikTok brass and the millions of contributors to the site to more closely monitor content posted on the site?
First, learn from the WSJ video how the algorithm works. Second, realize that the algorithm is an inevitable progression in the abuse of technology to stealthily manipulate behavior.
There is no getting the genie back in the bottle; it's too useful to too many individuals and organizations. However, this particular genie has an inherent weakness; it depends entirely on the user; don't use and the genie vanishes.
There is also a way to flummox the genie, which is what the WSJ team did to probe TikTok's secret. Actually, there would be several ways to screw with the algorithm, and you may trust that hackers are already at work on strategies.
But this doesn't deal with the fact that millions of people want the kind of feedback TikTok use provides. Even when warned of the dangers, they'll keep coming back for more.
There might be at least a partial solution to the problem. I'll discuss my idea in the next post. Speaking of outfoxing the system, see Remote workers are using this viral ‘mouse movers’ hack on the job (nypost.com) Yes indeed, where there's a will there's a way. [smiling]
Friday, December 31
Sunday, December 12
Sunday, September 5
"Resistance Forces in Afghanistan Regain Control of Highlands in Panjshir"
KABUL (Sputnik) - The Spokesman for the Panjshir Resistance in Afghanistan, Fahim Dashti, said that the resistance forces had regained control of the Paryan highlands in the eastern part of the province.
"The Paryan district of the Panjshir province was completely cleared of the Taliban [a terrorist group banned in Russia]. At least 1,000 terrorists were blocked. All militants were killed, surrounded or captured by resistance forces during attempts to escape and retreat. Most of the prisoners are foreigners, mostly Pakistanis," Dashti wrote on Twitter.
[...]
Saturday, September 4
Panjshir Reports
FDD Long War Journal's Bill Roggio talked about the Panjshir situation on the John Batchelor Show for CBS last night. They emphasized the importance of the terrain for defense. Podcast:
See also this September 2 report at LWJ by Bill and Andrew Tobin, National Resistance Front repels multi-day Taliban assault on Panjshir | FDD's Long War Journal. The second video in the report, showing what are obviously Al Qaeda fighters in a pickup truck headed for Panjshir, is the one Bill mentioned during his talk with John.
Also, today Sputnik reported on developments including these two items:
Posted at 14:42
Taliban Offensive in Panjshir Reportedly Slowed Down by Land Mines
The offensive of the Taliban (terrorist group, banned in Russia) against the capital of Afghanistan's northeastern province of Panjshir has been slowed down by land mines, Al Jazeera reported on Saturday, citing a source in the radical movement.
Landmines are said to be placed on the road to the capital city of Bazarak as well as the provincial governor's residence.
According to the broadcaster's source, the offensive and demining are being conducted at the same time.
Panjshir is the stronghold of the National Resistance Front, led by Ahmad Massoud, the son of late ex-Afghan guerrilla commander Ahmad Shah Massoud, and ex-Vice President Amrullah Saleh, who declared himself caretaker president. Massoud pledged to step down in case the group forms an inclusive government and guarantees equal rights for all Afghans.
and
Posted at 17:29
Panjshir Resistance Forces Say About 600 Taliban Militants Eliminated
Roughly 600 militants from the Taliban (terrorist movement, outlawed in Russia) were eliminated in Afghanistan's northeastern province of Panjshir on Saturday, the Afghan resistance forces said.
"About 600 Taliban terrorists have been liquidated in various districts of Panjshir since morning. More than 1,000 Taliban militants have been captured or surrendered themselves," the resistance forces' spokesman Fahim Dashti tweeted.
The spokesman added that the Taliban had problems with getting supplies from other Afghan provinces. [...]
There are more updates in the report.
Re the mine clearing, one of Amrullah Saleh's posts to his Twitter page on Sept 3:
Talibs have blocked humanitarian access to Panjshir, do racial profile of travelers, use military age men of Panjhsir as mine clearance tools walking them on mine fields, have shut phone, electricity & not allow medicine either. People can only carry small amount of cash.
Amrullah Saleh (@AmrullahSaleh2) / Twitter
At seems some of the electricity was knocked out by Taliban shelling during fighting, at least according to the power company spox. From an earlier Sputnik report:
08:07 GMT 03.09.2021 Sputnik live updates on Panjshir resistance
10:00 update:Afghanistan’s northern province of Panjshir and parts of Kapisa province were left without electricity after at least two electricity pylons were destroyed in a shelling during the continuing clashes, local power utility company DABS said on Friday.
“As clashes continue on the Panjshir road, two electricity pylons were destroyed … as they were hit by an artillery shell. which resulted in power outage in the province,” DABS said in a statement, adding that some districts across Kapisa were also affected.
DABS staffers are ready to begin technical effort to restore electricity as soon as “suitable conditions are in place,” the company added.
Related news
TTG, at Col. Lang's Turcopolier site, features news about a PBS Frontline documentary, What Is the Fatemiyoun Brigade and Why Does It Make the Taliban Nervous?
What Is the Fatemiyoun & Why Does It Make the Taliban Nervous? (pbs.org)
The Hazara and the Liwa Fatemiyoun - TTG - TurcopolierTurcopolier
Also, this report published August 29
... Speaking on Afghanistan, [Defense Minister] Singh said, "The changing equation in Afghanistan is a challenge for us... These situations have forced our country to rethink its strategy. We are changing our strategy and the formation of QUAD underlines this strategy."Singh said the Centre is considering forming Integrated Battle Groups, which will facilitate faster decision making and increase the number of integrated fighting units. ...
India is in a difficult position, as this tough-minded analysis explains:
India Poised to Lose Influence in Afghanistan – The Diplomat
We'll see whether Singh can pull a rabbit out of a hat.
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Monday, August 30
Latest AP summary of current conditions in New Orleans after Ida exits
No evidence yet of feared catastrophic flooding in New Orleans and at this it looks as if the levees held for the most part, especially the federally built one. Only one fatality recorded as yet, although officials warn the count could rise.
The rest is is wall-to-wall bad news.
Hurricane Ida traps Louisianans, leaves the grid a shambles (apnews.com)
AP report filed 25 minutes ago.
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Sunday, August 29
Edward Snowden explains what Apple is up to
... "Apple’s proposal to make their phones inform on and betray their owners marks the dawn of a dark future, one to be written in the blood of the political opposition of a hundred countries that will exploit this system to the hilt. See, the day after this system goes live, it will no longer matter whether or not Apple ever enables end-to-end encryption, because our iPhones will be reporting their contents before our keys are even used." ...
Quote from -
Looks like the only solution is to stop using the iPhone. If the government orders people to use iPhones or makes life impossible for other 'smartphone' companies, this would be a problem.
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Massive wildfire keeps inching toward Lake Tahoe
Lake Tahoe threatened by massive fire, more ordered to flee (apnews.com)
AP posted the report an hour ago.
Ida UPDATED 8:25 PM ET, 10:50 PM ET
Update 11:50 PM
Another report, maybe from AP, said there has been flooding in New Orleans, although how much and where was unclear. We'll know more in the morning.
Update 8:25 PM
Storm downgraded to Cat 3 about 50 minutes ago. Still very dangerous storm that has already done tremendous damage across a wide swath. From this CNN report updated 8:09 PM the storm will make its closest pass to New Orleans within the next two hours.
Live updates: Hurricane Ida path, Louisiana landfall and news coverage (cnn.com)
END UPDATE
10 MINUTES AGO
At 11:55 a.m. CDT Sunday, the eye of Hurricane Ida plowed into the coast of Louisiana over Port Fourchon. It was rated as a powerful Category 4 storm with maximum sustained winds of 150 mph, just 7 mph shy of Category 5 status. However, winds gusts were estimated to be over 180 mph in the worst part of the monstrous storm. The worst of the storm is far from over despite landfall with dangerous, tornado-like winds and substantial rainfall expected.
Live reports -- lots more information in their earlier reports
LIVE: Ida nears Cat 5 strength as it bears down on Louisiana Coast | AccuWeather
Friday, August 13
"It’s hard to see cause and effect when we’re chasing dopamine"
Many thanks to Dr Lembke and the Wall Street Journal for publishing this critically important information. As the author makes clear, this is not just about video gaming addiction. This is about a world of hurt we're blindly and needlessly inflicting on ourselves. Below, her entire essay for WSJ.
Digital Addictions Are Drowning Us in Dopamine
Rising rates of depression and anxiety in wealthy countries like the U.S. may be a result of our brains getting hooked on the neurotransmitter associated with pleasure.
By
Over the course of my career as a psychiatrist, I have seen more and more patients who suffer from depression and anxiety, including otherwise healthy young people with loving families, elite education and relative wealth. Their problem isn’t trauma, social dislocation or poverty. It’s too much dopamine, a chemical produced in the brain that functions as a neurotransmitter, associated with feelings of pleasure and reward.
When we do something we enjoy—like playing videogames, for my patient—the brain releases a little bit of dopamine and we feel good. But one of the most important discoveries in the field of neuroscience in the past 75 years is that pleasure and pain are processed in the same parts of the brain and that the brain tries hard to keep them in balance. Whenever it tips in one direction it will try hard to restore the balance, which neuroscientists call homeostasis, by tipping in the other.
As soon as dopamine is released, the brain adapts to it by reducing or “downregulating” the number of dopamine receptors that are stimulated. This causes the brain to level out by tipping to the side of pain, which is why pleasure is usually followed by a feeling of hangover or comedown. If we can wait long enough, that feeling passes and neutrality is restored. But there’s a natural tendency to counteract it by going back to the source of pleasure for another dose.
If we keep up this pattern for hours every day, over weeks or months, the brain’s set-point for pleasure changes. Now we need to keep playing games, not to feel pleasure but just to feel normal. As soon as we stop, we experience the universal symptoms of withdrawal from any addictive substance: anxiety, irritability, insomnia, dysphoria and mental preoccupation with using, otherwise known as craving.
Our brains evolved this fine-tuned balance over millions of years in which pleasures were scarce and dangers ever-present. The problem today is that we no longer live in that world. Instead, we now live in a world of overwhelming abundance. The quantity, variety and potency of highly reinforcing drugs and behaviors has never been greater.
In addition to addictive substances like sugar and opioids, there is also a whole new class of electronic addictions that didn’t exist until about 20 years ago: texting, tweeting, surfing the web, online shopping and gambling. These digital products are engineered to be addictive, using flashing lights, celebratory sounds and “likes” to promise ever-greater rewards just a click away.
Yet despite increased access to all of these feel-good drugs, we’re more miserable than ever before. Rates of depression, anxiety, physical pain and suicide are increasing all over the world, especially in rich nations.
According to the World Happiness Report, which ranks 156 countries by how happy their citizens perceive themselves to be, Americans reported being less happy in 2018 than they were in 2008. Other wealthy countries saw similar decreases in self-reported happiness scores, including Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Japan, New Zealand and Italy. The Global Burden of Disease study found that the number of new cases of depression worldwide increased 50% between 1990 and 2017, with the highest increases in regions with the highest income, especially North America.
It’s hard to see cause and effect when we’re chasing dopamine. It’s only after we’ve taken a break from our drug of choice that we’re able to see the true impact of our consumption on our lives. That’s why I asked my patient to give up videogames for a month, enough time to allow his brain to reset its dopamine balance. It wasn’t easy, but he was motivated by the counterintuitive idea that abstaining from the thing that made him feel good in the short-term might actually make him feel better in the long-term.
To his surprise, he did feel better than he had in years, with less anxiety and less depression. He was even able to return to playing videogames without negative effects, by strictly limiting his playing time to no more than two days a week, for two hours a day. That way he left enough time in between sessions for the brain’s dopamine balance to be restored.
He avoided videogames that were too potent, the ones that he couldn’t stop playing once he started. He designated one laptop for gaming and a different one for school, to keep gaming and classwork physically separated. Finally, he committed to playing only with friends, never with strangers, so that gaming strengthened his social connections. Human connection itself is a potent and adaptive source of dopamine.
Not everyone plays videogames, but just about all of us have a digital drug of choice, and it probably involves using a smartphone—the equivalent of the hypodermic needle for a wired generation. Reducing phone use is notoriously difficult, because at first it causes the brain’s pleasure-pain balance to tilt to the side of pain, making us feel restless and cranky. But if we can keep it up long enough, the benefits of a healthier dopamine balance are worth it. Our minds are less preoccupied with craving, we are more able to be present in the moment, and life’s little unexpected joys are rewarding again.
[END ESSAY]
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Wednesday, August 4
Information that can save your life UPDATED
I've updated the post to correct link problems with the articles I reference, and also revised the post to show updated remarks about kale and juicing.
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This post is to share links (and my comments) to online articles about some important health issues. Although the articles report on scientific research they are written for the public. I think I've already published here a number of the reports, going back years. But we could all stand for a review. All the websites I link to are 'safe.'
Most of the articles relate to research about sleep. It turns out the body has a red line where sleep is concerned. But because we don't immediately drop dead when we cross the line, we've assumed that we could get away with chronic loss of sleep. The scientists have been learning that instead of killing us outright the body finds workarounds to keep going that over time are devastating to mental and physical health. Just how devastating is a horror story, well told in the articles I'm sharing.
If you read nothing else on the list, I hope you'll read the first one -- or listen to it; there's a video. What the sleep expert has to say will get you in the ballpark fast:
(What is "enough" sleep? A minimum of seven hours.)
"Those with diabetes, [and/or] frequent sleep problems were 87% more likely to die in the following 9 years."
I'd ignore the "six hour" minimum mentioned as "universally accepted" in the above report. The six hours is probably based on old research. Again, seven hours is the minimum. See Here’s What Happens When You Don’t Get Enough Sleep (And How Much You Really Need a Night) – Cleveland Clinic for a list of how much sleep is needed for each age group.
The first article on the list explains why I'm including the one on early-onset dementia.
Of course they're stressed if they don't get enough sleep. I don't recall that the article mentions the age of the study participants but from the type of people in the study, I'd guess most if not all were in their early 20s. From this article and others, it's looking as if early-onset dementia is an even bigger problem in the United States than the research on dementia shows at this time.
"Cassia can contain relatively high concentrations of coumarin, a plant compound that can damage the liver. "
Please take special note of the advice in the article about research in general into spices and herbs for health benefits.
I recall the story of the woman who'd heard a little nutmeg was good for health so she decided that more would even better for her. She almost died.
Spices and herbs and essential oils, no matter how 'natural,' must be taken with caution if they're used for therapeutic reasons. The article on cinnamon pounds home the point. Whether natural or made in a lab, they're all chemicals.
Naomi Campbell, the supermodel, takes lavender pills for anxiety. But she would have the money to hire a nutritionist/herbalist to advise her.
Speaking of overdosing on a good thing:
"Four-and-a-half cups of chopped kale – the amount in 8 ounces of juice for a “cleanse” – can be lethal if your kidneys are weak."
The above sentence was deleted from the updated (2021) version of the article, which had been on the internet for years. The article now reads, under point #3 ("You Can Damage Your Kidneys for those who have Kidney Disease")
Fruits and vegetables are naturally wealthy causes of potassium, which is generally a good factor – the mineral plays a vital role in bloodstream pressure regulation, based on the American Heart Association. Your kidneys perform the important job of excreting excess potassium. For those who have chronic kidney disease (CKD), that function doesn’t act as well, and potassium can take shape in your bloodstream. As a result, you’ll need to limit your potassium intake, as a lot of mineral may cause harmful negative effects, including an irregular heartbeat or cardiac arrest, based on the National Kidney Foundation (NKF).
So the updated edited version is scaled back from those with "weak" kidneys to those with chronic kidney disease.
This said, it's important to pay attention to your kidneys' needs. Here is a 2016 list from the National Kidney Foundation: 10 Common Habits That May Harm Your Kidneys | National Kidney Foundation. Sedentary people might want to take special note of Point 10
Sitting for long periods of time has now been linked to the development of kidney disease. Although researchers don’t know yet why or how sedentary time or physical activity directly impact kidney health, it is known that greater physical activity is associated with improved blood pressure and glucose metabolism, both important factors in kidney health.
And the takeaway from the article about juicing remains the same: Best to eat fruits and vegetables instead of drinking them.
It was news to me that there are 'good' bacteria in the mouth along with bad bacteria. So I wish the dentist who wrote the article had focused first on just getting across that the mouth has good bacteria. Even so, I found the article an important read, and a very surprising one.
The big question is whether the 'good' mouth bacteria are killed by antibacterial preparations that kill bad bacteria. Clearly the dentist who wrote the article thinks the answer is yes, and warns to stop using antibacterial mouthwashes. I assume his advice would also apply to antibacterial toothpaste and dental floss coated with antibacterial preparations.
I note the maker of Listerine mouthwash has published an article that mentions there is both good and bad mouth bacteria -- but doesn't address whether its product kills good bacteria along with the bad stuff. (I've misplaced the link to the article.)
Anyhow, I learned from the dentist's article that protecting the good mouth bacteria is very important to health for a number of reasons that he details. I wish the dental and medical professions, as a whole, would emphasize this. No dentist or doctor ever told me that I have mouth bacteria I shouldn't kill.
That's enough articles for now. More on the way soon.
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Tuesday, July 20
When?
Not sure. Watching, waiting for signs. One thing is certain.
"Whatever comes out of these gates, we've got a better chance of survival if we work together. Do you understand? We stay together, we survive."
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