Alexa Update 31 Oct 05

Well it appears that Alexa is back on its regular schedule and since I was running a bit behind with my last update report, this one seems to have come around quite quickly. That's the way the cookie crumbles I suppose, so let's just get on with it.

Here are the results for today.

www.The-Health-Gazette.com moved up from: 68,273 to: 66,020

www.Healthy-Vitamin-Choice.com moved up from: 76,485 to: 76,137

www.Herb-Health-Guide.com moved up from: 80,440 to: 78,462

www.Education4Skills.com moved down from: 165,527 to: 166,371

www.HealthProductsSite.com moved up from: 195,697 to: 185,465

www.HealthArticleBank.com moved up from: 312,624 to: 290,358

Once again, there are small but quite pleasing incremental improvements in all but the oldest site (education4skills.com) that generally oscillates within a consolidation band.

I really must find some time to market these existing sites. Spending time developing new sites tends to detract from this important effort. This would appear to be yet another instance where balance is the wisest way forward.

I must confess that I am growing a little bored with these updates. I am in a bit of a bind though since the great improvement has been well documented and I was quite happy to report that progress. It might seem as though I was being a bit one-sided if I stopped my traditional reports now, just as the sites enter a consolidation phase.

It would also look pretty poor if I was not reporting on the updates in the event, heaven forbid, that the rankings actually significantly declined. So, at least for now, it appears that unlike my clever pussy cats who can start and stop traditions at whim, I am somewhat stuck with this tradition.

Thus these reports will continue for the time being. That said, I can only hope that the news remains positive. Stay tuned and you too will see.

Surprise Alexa Update

This is just a quick update. Alexa surprised me the other day with an update on Friday following the one reported on last Wednesday. Anyway, here are the results.

www.The-Health-Gazette.com moved up from: 69,390 to: 68,273

www.Healthy-Vitamin-Choice.com moved up from: 76,612 to: 76,485

www.Herb-Health-Guide.com moved up from: 81,688 to: 81,440

www.Education4Skills.com moved down from: 164,751 to: 165,527

www.HealthProductsSite.com moved up from: 203,836 to: 195,697

www.HealthArticleBank.com moved down from: 312,269 to: 312,624

As you can see, there's not much in it. This looks like some consolidation developing.

Alexa Update 26 Oct 05

Here we go again. Happily this is a tradition that still helps me feel good about my web efforts. The results remain generally quite positive.

Here are the details.

www.The-Health-Gazette.com moved up from: 74,856 to: 69,390

www.Healthy-Vitamin-Choice.com moved up from: 78,058 to: 76,612

www.Herb-Health-Guide.com moved up from: 89,294 to: 81,688

www.Education4Skills.com moved up from: 167,506 to: 164,751

www.HealthProductsSite.com moved up from: 251,514 to: 203,836

www.HealthArticleBank.com moved up from: 374,690 to: 312,269

I am very pleased, and actually quite amazed, to see the changes in our HealthProductsSite and the HealthArticleBank site. They were quite unexpected.

The Herb-Health-Guide improvement is very pleasing too. I think the Vitamin site's improvement is, as I have already suggested, more in the order of a consolidation, but even small incremental improvements are welcome.

This update came at an unusual time. Normally, when we are being updated (remember, there was a period of some weeks where everything stood still) it occurs on Fridays and Mondays. This one came, after missing the previous Friday and Monday, on a Wednesday.

Anyway, the tradition of posting details of our progress, or regress, in the Alexa site rankings is upheld. I shall continue it for some time to come I think, as it gives me something to look back over to see our track record.

I would like to see a lot more traffic yet so I'll have to set to work on promoting these sites. Oh well, there's always more work to do isn't there...

Bird Flu Profiteering Alive and Well

Can you believe all the hype surrounding so-called "bird flu"? It is quite a phenomenon. In a while it will be studied ad nauseam. Just imagine, people will probably get PhDs with such titles as "Media without bounds: An alalysis of the bird flu hype of 2005" or worse, "Bird flu hype: A postmodern analysis" or even "Bird Flu: A feminist perspective".

Yuk! I've had enough already.

The level of hype and plainly ridiculous speculation is astonishing. Make no mistake, we are witnessing a global phenomenon. It has little to do with avian influenza however. It is about money and power, but mainly money.

The vast sums of money being ripped from other needs to fund the retirements of drug company executives and their stock holders is amazing, and probably just beginning. This "bird flu" thing has done so well, it will be milked for a lot more yet. No doubt we will next see the sequel: Bird Flu 2.

What disgusts me though, is all the hangers on who are profiteering from this mess. We have the doomsday, chicken-little-sky-is-falling crowd feverishly running blogs and publishers frantically rushing utter rubbish to press.

Then there's all the people writing blogs and web pages so they can cash in on the profusion of Google adsense advertisements. And of course, every one of those ads reflects someone else attempting to profiteer from the pending disaster.

The only good thing about this is that at least some people seem to be able to recognize the over-hyped bird flu nonsense for what it is. Otherwise, why try to squeeze a fortune from the situation, if the flu is going to kill you anyway?

Time to wake up people. Birds may be facing an avian influenza pandemic but humans certainly are not.

Signs of Life in Google Page Rank

Well, I must admit, I had all but given up hope that my sites would ever obtain any of the highly prized Google PR. My view had become, c'est la vie, too bad so sad, move on. Secretly, I wondered if my server had been banned for the transgressions of others I must be sharing it with.

However, it would appear that all hope is not lost. Four of my sites suddenly developed some PR yesterday. I didn't mention it then because I wondered if I was dreaming. Perhaps, I thought, it will all be gone again tomorrow.

But no, it appears to be hanging around. My newest site has PR on just the index page. My other three have some PR on several pages each, though none yet seems to have penetrated to level 3 pages (that is, those two clicks from the index page) and one still has none showing on its index page, which seems a bit odd.

Now that I know PR can reach my sites [;-) I can comment on the values. From what I have determined by reading on the net, at least some of my pages should indeed have higher values than they presently do. However, I think it best not to second guess Google, so I'm certainly not going to lose any sleep over this.

Maybe by the next round of updates I will score better. Who knows?

The fact is, I've learnt my lesson when it comes to Google page rank. It's this: don't concentrate on it or give it much thought. If sites are built intelligently and linked within the net based on honest meaningfulness, Google will eventually catch up and may sort its algorithms out. If not, well, there's not really a whole lot that can be done about it, so it's best not to be too bothered by it all.

The people who get very het up about this are the so-called and self-appointed SEO "experts" and everyone they can whip up into worrying about it (so they can part them from their money to "improve" their page rank). Frankly, I think that's a mug's game. It's certainly not one I want to play.

Aging Myths

Are you interested in aging? Perhaps you prefer to spell it as ageing. In any case, are you interested? Most people would probably prefer to say they are interested in not aging!

Well, if this interests you, go and take a look at the Myths of Aging series at The Health Gazette. No, I'm not going to add a hyperlink, you can just click the link that should be found in the list of links to the right of your screen.

I'm not being difficult, it's just that the series is spread over a few weeks so the best thing to do is to go to the site and use the search tool to find all of the relevant pages. It is just a short and sweet series of 6 parts, so it won't take all day. Just type in "Aging Myths" and you should see them all listed.

Be warned, if you are seeking the magic bullet, the secret single youth pill, or some other fabled fountain of youth, you'll be disappointed. No such thing exists. Sorry. Should we talk about Santa and the Tooth Fairy now?

If you want to dispell some of the myths of aging though, it is quite a useful little series. And yes, it actually provides a genuine, workable prescription for anti-aging. Oh... now you're interested. OK, fine, go and take a look.

Australian ISP Choice is Made

After some pretty exhaustive, not to mention exhausting, searching the choice is made. And the winner is... (c'mon, drum roll please) iiNet. Yep, that's the one, iiNet.

Now if you want to check them out remember the .au on the domain name. They can be found at http://www.iinet.com.au and if you leave of the .au you'll end up at the wrong place.

One attraction is certainly the fact that I can give the flick (oh, that's Aussie slang for get rid of or be done with or sack, etc) to Telstra, the monstrous telco. That will feel pretty good actually since they have ripped me off quite a lot over the years.

The new ISP bundles phone company services, including my physical line rental, all calls (local, long distance and international), with internet access and adds a second VoIP line for free . The internet access uses standard ADSL, since my exchange isn't equipped for ADSL2 yet. The speed will be 1500/256 which will be quite fast compared to my current 256/64. And a far cry from the performance of my little 28.8 modem that was in service just over 12 months ago!

One perk is that all VoIP calls between iiNet customers are free. This will be handy since my daughter and her husband will also be switching to iiNet. The VoIP service from iiNet is at the top end, providing consistent CD quality sound (or so they claim, I obviously haven't tried it yet).

All in all I am quite pleased with the decision. I won't implement it until later next month, to coincide with my billing cycle with my current ISP and to allow the necessary lead time for the changeover. I have to get that right or I would be without internet access.

Alexa Update Report

Wow, here we are again and I've been so busy nothing has been posted between Alexa update reports.

Here are the details.

www.The-Health-Gazette.com moved up from: 76,061 to: 74,856

www.Healthy-Vitamin-Choice.com moved up from: 76,061 to: 78,058

www.Herb-Health-Guide.com moved up from: 91,928 to: 89,294

www.Education4Skills.com moved up from: 172,745 to: 167,506

www.HealthProductsSite.com moved up from: 278,894 to: 251,514

www.HealthArticleBank.com moved up from: 408,407 to: 374,690

This is more or less the same performance picture as last time; signs of consolidation with minor incremental improvement in the sub 100,000 zone and better improvements elsewhere except for Education4Skills which has long been in its own consolidation zone.

I'm happy with this picture for now.

Alexa Rankings Mainly Consolidating

Here is just a quick update on my traditional posts following the Alexa site rankings for some of the sites in the Tylee Health Education Network.

The basic story is the same as last time - consodidation is occurring.

Here are the details.

www.The-Health-Gazette.com moved up from: 77,628 to: 76,061

www.Healthy-Vitamin-Choice.com moved up from: 81,585 to: 79,375

www.Herb-Health-Guide.com moved up from: 99,376 to: 91,928

www.Education4Skills.com moved up from: 175,003 to: 172,745

www.HealthProductsSite.com moved up from: 356,836 to: 278,894

www.HealthArticleBank.com moved up from: 492,584 to: 408,407

Obviously the sites in the very competitive top 100,000 are consolidating for the time being. That's understandable I suppose, but I hope to see further movement there over time.

The particularly pleasing result is our Health Products Site.

The time must be approaching when a touch of gravity will pull one or more sites down, but I'm happy defying that law for now!

Bird Flu is for the Birds

My goodness there has certainly been a lot of hype about bird flu hasn't there? I wonder how long it will take for people to see through the lies. Quite some time I expect, and then most people never will.

Is there a risk from so-called bird flu? Is it likely that a virus will jump the species barrier to humans? Could such a virus be capable of killing 76% of people exposed to it? Is it likely that this virus will kill at least 50 million people worldwide? Does the government ever deliberately lie to people for political purposes?

Now, where would you like to start? Is there a risk from this "bird-flu" that so captivates the world's media? Yes. And this answers the second question too, since there would be no risk to humans unless the species leap could indeed happen.

Could it be capable of killing 76% of cases? Well, maybe, but why not 96% or 33% or ... well, pick a number. The suggestions of likely mortality rates are part worst case possibility from computer modelling (having been programmed by people remember), part beat up by the media, part deliberate misinformation campaign by people with vested interest in frightening as many people as possible. In reality, it is a ridiculous number and one you can safely dismiss.

Much the same can be said for the predicted 50 million deaths worldwide. Simply ridiculous. This is part of a loosley, but reasonably effectively, orchestrated plan of scaremongering.

How easily people can be frightened into believing whatever an authority figure wants. When the media reports "scientists" claims or those of some "government official" it suddenly becomes gospel.

What do frightened people do? Well, strangely enough, pretty predictable things actually. For example, no matter how much they want safer roads, more teachers and smaller class sizes, reduced taxes and a host of other things, they will happily understand and think positively about a government that diverts funds instead into the pharmaceutical companies coffers, to develop vaccines.

So who are the big winners? Politicians who look like saviours, drug company executives and other stock holders, that's who. The media are like putty in the manipulative hands of such people and since both political parties and drug companies spend a lot of money on advertising with the media, it's a pretty comfortable arrangement and not one where the media will become too critical or investigative.

It is always easy to find a few academics and career scientists to "find", "discover" or otherwise generally support something that gets the fear ball rolling. Frankly, they are a dime a dozen.

And if really pressed for absolute proof, well, maybe it sounds like a conspiracy story from Hollywood, but the government can always arrange for an outbreak of something lethal to establish its credibility. If you think that's a bit far fetched, then how come you fall for all the twaddle about this predicted pandemic? Perhaps your critical skills need some tweaking.

Take a Closer Look at Homocysteine

The health promoting community over the past many years has basically gone nuts over cholesterol. It has been painted up as the big bad killer from improper dietary habits. The basic message has been to keep your cholesteral levels low, or die!

Well, as with most very one-eyed views, this has been a significant distortion of reality. Yes, it is wise to maintain healthful levels of blood lipids (all the fats in your bloodstream) including an appropriate HDL to LDL ratio. (Just so we're clear, those abbreviations stand for high density lipoproteins and low density lipoproteins.) But eliminating cholesterol is both very unhealthy and ultimately impossible.

Why unhealthy and impossible? Simple: your body actually manufactures cholesterol in the liver, because it is needed. Eliminating it completely from the diet will generally lower your levels but you can't eliminate cholesterol completely, since you make it yourself.

It is this actual need for cholesterol that has always made me a bit suspicious about claims it was like poison and especially suspicious of the drugs pharmaceutical companies rolled out to destroy, eliminate or reduce cholesterol, called statins. The research evidence on statins is clear enough. In very basic terms, they:

• don't significantly reduce the risk of death from heart attacks,
• don't extend longevity in post heart attack patients, and
  
• do result in assorted unwanted side effects.

They do let doctors feel like they are doing something and they may allow some patients to also feel more comfortable with the thought that help is being provided. I reject these spurious benefits however, since they distract from doing more constructive risk reduction and ultimately breach the principle of "do no harm".

In any event, growing interest is being shown in homocysteine. This substance may actually be far more implicated in heart disease, and other disease, than cholesterol. It will take quite a while for the "machinery" to swing behind reducing homocysteine like it has cholesterol, but I predict it will indeed happen.

ISP Search

Yes, I've been a bit quieter than usual lately. You guessed it from the title didn't you? Yep, it's time to find another broadband ISP.

And just incidentally, while I have your attention, what's with the "yup" stuff from my north American friends? Huh? What's that all about actually? Yes can readily be sped up and toned down to a simple yep, but what on Earth is this yup business? There ain't no u in yes folks, so don't stick one in yep, ok.

Fine; glad to have gotten that off my chest. Now, where was I .... Oh yes, ISPs.

I have been happily running my connection to the www via an ADSL link at 256/64. That's just 256KB/sec download speed and a meager 64 upload. Now that is really pretty slow for something touted as b r o a d b a n d. However, I moved to that from a humble permanent dial-up connection via modem where the best I achieved was a pathetic 33kbps.

Now that broadband has hit the next level and more exchanges are being upgraded to what is called ADSL2, the faster of the ADSL speeds are becoming more commonplace and the bottom speeds of 256/64 again look slow.

So the hunt is on. At this time the telecommunications industry is undergoing quiet but significant change and the smart way to make this move will probably entail switching completely to a new telco - for everything. That will include:

• broadband internet access
• telephone line rental
• local phone calls
• long distance phone calls
• calls to mobiles
• international phone calls

Bundling all of these together results in the best deals and also means simplified billing, which is good for both provider and consumer.

This is the first stage I have ever encountered where I can actually leave the clutches of Telstra. Yippeeee!! You're right, there's no love lost between Telstra and moi.

The best contender is currently iiNet. Since my local exchange is still running ADSL equipment and not ADSL2, I will have to settle for 1500/256 speeds. I think I could manage that (I say, as a sense of excitement swells within). Once the exchange is upgraded, which will probably be quite some time since it was only switched to ADSL just over a year ago, I will be able to access quite awesome speeds, but I won't even mention them here.

Anyway, this all has taken a bit much of my precious time to sort through. Decision time within 48 hours or I'll have to put it off until my next monthly anniversary of my current plan. When I switch, guess which ISP I'll be leaving. Oh, you'll never guess, so I'll just tell you. It is called Dodo. Yep, that's the one, like the extinct bird. Who would choose a name like that?

Alexa Rankings Consolidating

Well here I am again already with another traditional update. The moves are pretty small where they count, so I guess it must be consolidation time.

Like I said weeks ago now, one can only defy the law of gravity for so long. Mind you, I would like it to be much longer than this, so consolidation with some hovering is far preferable to sinking significantly in the rankings.

So how did we fare? Not too badly really. The ranks have again moved higher, though as I said, the moves are really so small as to generally be consistent with some consolidation happening.

Here are the details.

www.The-Health-Gazette.com moved up from: 78,989 to: 77,628

www.Healthy-Vitamin-Choice.com moved up from: 83,320 to: 81,585

www.Herb-Health-Guide.com moved up from: 103,922 to: 99,376

www.Education4Skills.com moved up from: 176,803 to: 175,003

www.HealthProductsSite.com moved up from: 393,059 to: 356,836

www.HealthArticleBank.com moved up from: 536,194 to: 492,584

The move, small though it was, that is very pleasing is the one by Herb Health Guide. Why so? Simply because it has managed to crack the significant top 100,000 sites ranking.

As I surf about the net I am sometimes amazed to see how poorly some pretty useful sites actually rank and how well some pretty dreadful sites manage to rank. In any event, since Alexa are confident that the top 100,000 reflect pretty accurate data, it is good to be in that group.

Oh well, back tot the grindstone. More publishing to do ...

Alexa Ranking Performance

Alexa again seems to be running updates twice per week. Hey, if you've got the technology, why not use it? Still absolutely zip from Google in the page rank department, but dems da breaks.

So how have we fared in the Alexa rankings this time? Well, as you can see below, most are doing fine. Just the one site slipped and I do acknowledge that it has fallen. Like last time though, it seems to be oscillating around or within a consolidation zone so I'm not concerned with this downturn.

Here are the details.

www.The-Health-Gazette.com moved up from: 80,386 to: 78,989

www.Healthy-Vitamin-Choice.com moved up from: 86,384 to: 83,320

www.Herb-Health-Guide.com moved up from: 111,558 to: 103,922

www.Education4Skills.com moved down from: 172,722 to: 176,803

www.HealthProductsSite.com moved up from: 543,507 to: 393,059

www.HealthArticleBank.com moved up from: 791,034 to: 536,194

The surprising one is the HealthProductsSite result. That's one that I'd love to see having much more traffic. The herb site is moving in on the coveted 100k level. Will it manage to leap that hurdle? We shall see in time I guess.

Some of the rankings are moving in quite small increments. Since they're generally moving in the right direction, that is really perfectly fine. At some point they will of course begin to consolidate like Education4Skills. At least by following them and tracking the results here, that time will be pretty obvious.

Has Ken Evoy Lost the Plot?

Now I think we all owe Ken Evoy a huge debt of gratitude for the work he has contributed to the internet community. True, it hasn't been humanitarian, or even cyberitarian (hey, you read this first here, ok? What's the use of web publishing if one can't neologize occasionally!). No, Ken's work is definitely about making money.

That's what Ken does best: he makes money. Now that's not some insider comment on his practice of medicine, suggesting it is second rate or something. No, indeed Ken's practice, whether good, bad or indifferent is at least in one of the very few areas of medicine where I believe orthodoxy still has something to offer. (He's an emergency physician, for those who don't already know.)

It is just a statement of fact, as best I am able to ascertain. You see Ken claims to have first "made his fortune" by inventing some games. Than he developed a little penny stock selecting computer program and made some excellent returns with that. At least, he did by selling the program, I'm not so sure about returns from his stock picks. Then he wrote some net-changing ebooks and made that another bonanza.

Ken became so captivated by the net he went on to build Sitesell.com into quite a significant enterprise online. It is arguably one of the most significant online in the English speaking world in terms of the impact it has had on other online ventures; or is that venturers, or even adventurers? Anyway, it has done very well for Ken.

Now the internet is fast-paced and while businesses in the so-called dirt-world come and go pretty quickly, those online can vanish quicker than a cat shown a pet-bath. But Ken's business just keeps on keeping on. Check out his Alexa ranking and you'll see what I mean.

So what exactly does he do? Well, he makes money online by helping other people make money online. Even as I type that it just sounds corny. But in Ken Evoy's case, it's true. And he does it very well, so he clearly has a few clues. He has his head screwed on right, as we used to say.

Why the title to this post then? Well, something Ken wrote today just struck me as very odd. Ken isn't one to be out of touch with reality and he doesn't need to tell fibs like so many marketers do. What is it he said? Well OK, I'll tell you since you ask.

Ken Evoy announced yet another development in his SBI! web hosting platform. Now his developments just keep coming but sometimes I do get the feeling he is playing catch-up. For example, this launch is about what he calls RSS It! (yes, all of his "things" have that irritating exclamation mark appended, which can be a little annoying).

The fact is RSS was already hitting the big time before Ken seemed to recognize it was no mere fad or flash-in-the-pan development. Frankly, I think he was very slow to move on this and his SBI! platform strikes me as pretty unweildy when it comes to feature development, although I must admit it has an aweful lot of them, and they do keep comimg.

But being slow is one thing, to ask if he has lost the plot implies something else. What I mean is that Ken claims his RSS feature offers "Site-Blogging" which he claims is "A unique-to-the-Net concept". Now that's where I think he's lost the plot. The fact is whole site blogging, as he calls it, is not new and certainly isn't unique. It has been around outside of SBI! for quite some time and yes, it works very effectively.

So what is he on about? Beats me. I think this time Keny Evoy may just be having a little bit of trouble coming to terms with internet reality. Still, it's an affliction he can afford I suppose.

Smokers' Self-Delusions

According to a study by Dr. Robin J. Mermelstein, a clinical psychologist and director of the Center for Health Behavior Research at the University of Illinois at Chicago, who specializes in smoking cessation counseling, 'light smokers' are exposed to the same serious health risks as heavier smokers, breaking a common myth that 'social smoking' is somehow safe.

The new research looked at health behaviors and outcomes in over 42,000 people followed for more than 25 years and was published in the latest issue of Tobacco Control. It shows those who smoke between one to four cigarettes a day are tripling their risk of dying of heart disease and lung cancer.

Interestingly, according to Dr. Mermelstein, who has studied more than 2,000 smokers in both her counseling and clinical studies, the real myth lies in how easily these people can quit.

Many light smokers habitually look for planned opportunities to 'slip.' Often, the few cigarettes they smoke each day are more precious and more engaging, and the act of smoking is a main highlight of their day. This means quitting can often be more complex for light smokers than it is for heavier smokers.

Indeed it is time to dispell some other common smoking myths. While the statistics about lung cancer and its leading cause are well-known, many smokers have misperceptions about dodging the health risks associated with the deadly habit. Aside from the myth mentioned above, recent studies expose other common smoker misperceptions:

A vitamin a day keeps lung cancer at bay - Three out of ten (28 percent) smokers mistakenly believe that if they take vitamins they can counteract most or all of the ill effects of smoking
Run off those cigarettes - More than half (52 percent) of smokers wrongly believe that exercise can reverse most of the effects of smoking
It's in the genes - More than one-third (36 percent) of smokers incorrectly believe lung cancer depends more on genes than anything else
Stop-smoking products with nicotine are just as harmful as cigarettes - More than one-quarter (26 percent) of smokers mistakenly believe that nicotine replacement therapy products are as harmful as cigarettes

I periodically comment in various places that people have a propensity to hear or believe what they want to, and a marked disinclination to listen to anything that runs counter to their views. This is unfortunately a human failing, and not merely restricted to those without a higher education (where ideally minds are broadened and critical thinking skills are acquired).

Smokers seem to have a special talent in this regard, for though they are repeatedly exposed to sound health advice telling, showing how and even assisting them in various ways, to quit, they persist in their delusions that nothing bad will happen to them. If they claim to not have such a delusion, yet continue to smoke, then they are displaying dangerous intentional self-harm and are in need of special psychological support.

At Healthy-Vitamin-Choice we provide vital information for smokers. Go and read it. You'll notice that we give the very best recommendation anyone can possibly give to smokers. That is to quit. Plain and simple, stop smoking.

Yes, we also then go on to explain what nutritional support they must have in order to minimize the damage caused by their smoking, but nothing on Earth can provide adequate protection from the harm of smoking. Stopping is the smartest thing any smoker can do.

The trouble is, smokers are real losers. Every way you look at them, they're losers. Yes, it's time to stop pandering to their sensitivities and treating them with gentleness they do not deserve. They must agree surely, look at the grave harm they inflict on themselves. Come to think of it, these losers are hell bent on taking everyone with them it seems, because they do plenty of damage, directly and indirectly, to non-smokers too.

Guillain Barre Syndrome Everyone?

I have not merely woffled elsewhere, but actively lectured and campaigned against the excessive use, or abuse, of immunization. This runs counter to the orthodox view where the clanging symbols are in favor of massive promotion of immunization programs.

I am frankly astonished at the large number of well qualified and highly educated medical practitioners and researchers (no, not the ordinary GPs and the like, they are pretty clueless and just do and parrot what they are told) who strongly advocate the use of immunization en masse.

Can you say monkey virus? How quickly people forget when authorities want them to. Tens of thousands of people were knowingly immunized with contaminated materials decades ago and the fallout will largely be covered up.

Quite apart from the sledge hammer treatment of the immune system that immunization really is, and all the violent and unknown damage it causes, there is the ever present risk that the materials used are unsafe in other ways.

The case referred to above is a scandalous example from the past. Here is a good example of my point from today, courtesy of the FDA. Read the following very carefully and then do some serious thinking. If you are a proponent of immunization it may be a refreshing change.

FDA and CDC notified consumers and health care providers of five reports of Guillain Barre Syndrome following administration of Meningococcal Conjugate Vaccine A, C, Y, and W135 (trade name Menactra), manufactured by Sanofi Pasteur. It is not known yet whether these cases were caused by the vaccine or are coincidental. FDA and CDC are sharing this information with the public now and actively investigating the situation because of its potentially serious nature. Guillain Barre Syndrome (GBS) is a serious neurological disorder that can occur, often in healthy individuals, either spontaneously or after certain infections. GBS typically causes increasing weakness in the legs and arms that can be severe and require hospitalization. Because of the potentially serious nature of this matter, FDA and CDC are asking any persons with knowledge of any possible cases of GBS occurring after Menactra to report them to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System <https://secure.vaers.org/VaersDataEntryintro.htm> (VAERS) to help the agencies further evaluate the matter.

Please don't give me the ridiculous lines from low level utilitarion ethics about the greatest good for the greatest number. That ethics of convenience simply doesn't wash with me. Nor, I suggest, will it be much comfort to those who contract GBS.

Traditional Alexa Post

Well here we are again and it seems Alexa are still working hard. It was just three days ago that our rankings were updated and now they have been updated again.

Happily, they are all still moving in the right direction. Amazing...wonderful, but amazing.

So where are we at? Voila!

www.The-Health-Gazette.com moved up from: 84,119 to: 80,386

www.Healthy-Vitamin-Choice.com moved up from: 88,782 to: 86,384

www.Herb-Health-Guide.com moved up from: 116,728 to: 111,558

www.Education4Skills.com moved up from: 175,051 to: 172,722

www.HealthProductsSite.com moved up from: 1,046,099 to: 543,507

www.HealthArticleBank.com moved up from: 885,581 to: 791,034

Notice that I have slipped an extra site into our regular observations. It is the article bank site I mentioned here a couple of days ago. It still has no article content and needs a lot of work, but since I did mention it I might as well be open enough to track its progress here along with the other sites.

I have slowed development on our next site to concentrate some attention on maintenance issues, so the above list won't be growing for a while. One thing I have noticed is that my server sometimes shows signs of strain, so I may have to also divert some attention to spreading the load across some additional hardware resources. We shall see. I can afford to simply monitor this for now.

Remember, at the end of the day, to coin a phrase, the site rankings, while reassureing, are not what its all about. The purpose is to maximize our reach with quality health messages. There are plenty of very slick, extremely rich and hence well funded, multinational corporations with veritable armies of highly skilled staff and contractors spreading "health" messages that are completely antithetical to achieving health and wellbeing.

Having dealt extensively with both their products and the results, it is time to begin to educate people about real health. So the more people who are empowered with real health knowledge, the more people can become freed from the clutches of the ignorant, the misguided and the malignant manipulators who merely wish to exploit them for their own gain.

Perhaps we can't achieve much in the Tylee Health Education Network against such odds, but we can sure try! Be well.

Health Article Site

I have been sitting on another Health Site for a few weeks because I simply haven't had time to get around to doing anything with it. There is a lot of work to be done just in setting it up.

The site is intended to be a venue for people with something to say in an article related to health. It is to be effectively a health article bank, where people can deposit and withdraw health related articles. It should therefore show some interest in health, to extend the "bank" analogy.

What should a health article bank site be called? Well, I thought it should be called:

www.HealthArticleBank.com

It seems reasonable to me. Anyway, just having the empty site sitting on the web for a little while with quite a few health related words (the potential "health" realted categories lists) exposed to the world has resulted in my Alexa ranking for the site spontaneously reaching 885,581. That seems pretty remarkable to me.

Just imagine what will happen when it has content and traffic. Actually I won't imagine anything; I'm content to wait and see what reality has to offer.

I haven't visited the site for weeks. It was plonked there and promptly forgotten about, given my schedule. However, since it is obviously getting some attention, from the spiders at least, perhaps I should try to get to it in a week or so, just to get the ball rolling properly.

If you by some miracle happen upon this post and have one or more health related articles you would like to post, feel free to visit and check out the site. It probably works now, but without policies explained you may not want to place anything there yet.

If you don't want to post to there now, which I totally understand, note the address and then prepare your articles and come back when we're both ready. It should prove to be an interesting place ;-)