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Comment Re:Pointing out the stark, bleeding obvious... (Score 1) 247

and forcing the survivors to live a pre-industrial lifestyle.

Yep! My ancestors were horse archers. They made a huge mistake allying themselves with the Franks. Within 100 years, they lost their Parthian tactics consequently adopting Frankish heavy armour in battle. Soon, their brethren Mongols slew them down. So yes. Let's get back to those times. It takes a good few months to make a bow from sinew, bone and wood. The shafts have to be long, straight and the points sharp to pierce deep. Oh and don't forget the stirrups that allow us to use both hands when we aim and fire! Let me join the hoard now as I'm ready for vengeance! We need more land along the river banks to settle our tribe, to hunt with dogs and share our food. Destroy those Christians who want to take away our beliefs and runes. Let our shamans record our glory and we will bury our heroes in all their finery, with weapons at hand for the battles to come!
The Khazars are with us! Let's ride!

Comment Re:Why bother with Windows? Or a PC at all? (Score 2) 253

QNAP is my choice for a nice NAS. A 4 bay one will give you 12TB + 4TB raid that you don't have to touch for a long, long time. Comes with all the software you'll need as well. Cheaper NAS would be the Netgear range. 2nd hand ones are good, but if you want a HTPC function and if you don't have Smart TVs then make sure it has an HDMI port. The HP microserver (G7) is ideal. 2nd hand ones are good too as you can populate them with 4 HDDs and run a SSD for the OS of your choice. If you need a TV card (with HDMI output) then it also has a spare slot.
These solutions are cheaper than building a small server and are purpose built for your requirements.
As for crawlspaces? I ran a complete system in mine (Win 2000) for a few years with no issues. It was off the ground on a wooden plinth (a piece of mdf on an old pallet). My crawspace is sealed from wind and light, but not waterproof as the arsehole that built the house stuck it on top of an underground spring.

Comment Damn it (Score 1) 110

It doesn't really help me. I've been contracted to build a high level gaming system with no stutter/jitter etc. I've been delaying the build looking for Nvidia's answer to the AMD 295x2. The Titan X is good, but the vram is ridiculous. I'll need 2x 980's or 970's to beat the performance of the 295x2 and I don't want to go SLI until the game developers write better code (never) and Nvidia sort out their drivers (improbable). Even the 295x2 has minor stutter issues. I just can't wait for the AMD Fiji chip which should have been out by now.

Comment Re:What about Symptomology? (Score 1) 447

First my disclaimer. I've paid for my coursework including many volumes of references and all the remedies I purchased. I've only charged for the cost of the remedies and worked pro-bono but gladly accepted donations when given. I've never been in any NHS or state funded/private insurance as a practitioner. I can't comment on that aspect although I can see the public frustration in supporting an alternative form of treatment that has no apparent repeatable result in double blind tests, consequently labelled as placebo. I'd probably join you on the picket march with that.
That's where comparisons between scientific methodology and homeopathy come acropper. Scientific methodology is too simplistic. Here's an example:
You get 200 random individuals, 100 per set and give them an experimental drug to relieve psorasis (eczema), the other set gets the placebo. The drug wins and the 10% of placebo results is as expected. No problems with any of that. It gets published in a peer review journal.
Another 200 split into 2 sets, one gets given homeopathic sulphur (treats specific forms of eczema). Both sets report similar results as if they took a placebo. Therefore homeopathy is proven to be as effective as a placebo lactose pill.
We all go away happily convinced.
The homeopath looks at these results and quickly realizes that it's not testing 100 rash ridden people at all as each of those 100 are individual cases can have a possible 100 different remedies based on physical type, left side, right side, extremities, mind, skin, eyes, nose, throat (tongue), worse for night, worse for day and so on. So the sample in this case cannot represent a fair test. Now if someone collected 100 'fair, fat and flabby' females and given 8 primary remedies in an extended trial then I'll sit up and take notice.
The other aspect of homeopathy I want to state is that it began as a form of treatment by medical doctors. They knew their patients very well and would treat a broken limb with splints, operate when necessary, use herbal tinctures for disinfectants, prescribe opioids for pain, depression and so on. When they came up against a topical rash, they prescribed coal tar because pretty much everyone was affected by coal dust. Coal tar soap is still used today for eczema. It doesn't cure it, but it relieves the symptoms for a while. Why use calamine lotion on chicken pox pustules? Because it works, temporarily. Now some doctors adopted Hahnemann's approach and instead of hiding the symptoms or 'driving it back into the body', used the homeopathic concept to drive the disease 'from inward to outward'. So they mixed up the active ingredient of coal tar and gave it internally in weak doses (they didn't want to poison their patients). For some, this worked! These cures were recorded, collated by like minded, cutting edge pharmacology and eventually published in a materia medica. The Materia Medica - the primary resource for homeopaths is a collection of case files over a hundred years, matched with those drugs/herbs/poisons/elements that cause similar symptoms and was proven to work in individual cases.
It was a solution when there wasn't an alternative. It became a specialty in time, but it was always had a medical (not snake oil) basis. Medicine has advanced over the last 75 years and homeopathy has become orphaned, abandoned by doctors.
Here is a sample page of a simplistic materia medica: http://www.homeoint.org/books/...
Just by reading that in a historical perspective will give you a feel of what the patient was like.
Homeopathy has changed over the last 30 years with certain schools promoting 'mixtures' and trying to keep up with tech or extending it into forms of radionics where the vibratory state of a remedy is captured, made into a slide and the projected light from it infused into some blank pills or sterile water. If you want to equate this with placebo then go for it. I just don't believe it myself until proven, and I haven't seen any proof.

Comment What about Symptomology? (Score 1) 447

True homeopaths (properly trained ones) don't just give you pills and expect a cure. It doesn't work that way. The patient undergoes extensive interviews and if properly done, interviews with close family/acquaintances until a picture emerges of the patient's symptomology. This includes the mental state as well as well defined physical internal and external bodily locations places, times and processes. This picture is compared with thousands of possible remedies until the closest match is found. The progression of a cure isn't a 1 pill treatment but can be over a period of months using different remedies.
The prescribed regimen of taking a selected pill, it's concentration and form is complex as well. There are certain foods that can't be taken because they will negate the effects of the remedy.
The other aspects are also significant being:
A 'proven' homeopathic remedy is just what it says. It's been known to work. Many remedies (especially from manufacturers) aren't proven and consequently you will find that homeopaths make their own if mother tinctures or specific sources can be found and used. Some manufacturers are very good at making certain types of remedies but weak with others.
A true homeopathic practitioner has documented successes and will continue to practice. Others I have known have given up because their methodology was poor, took shortcuts and failed or didn't have enough successful treatments.
Hahnemann http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S... is worth a read if you can get a copy of his original work.
In the end, he has a point and that is under the right conditions, the action of 'like cures like' does work. Not for everything though but when it does work it is miraculous in speed and effect.
I don't particularly care what modern allopathic http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A... doctors and/or researchers come to conclusions about homeopathy because I've experienced cures on myself (whilst under training) and treated patients who had given up. To say it is a placebo becomes a bit nonsensical as there is little to distinguish that from a homeopathic cure. In other words "Hey I'm cured! I don't give a crap if you think it's placebo."
Homeopathic remedies are extremely weak and can lose their strength totally if exposed incorrectly.
Homeopathy has been run down consistently since the advent of Sulfa drugs and anti-biotics.
Homeopathy is very popular in 3rd world countries because they are cheap to produce.
If you go to a naturopath who also practices homeopathy, then my first thoughts is to just accept their naturopathic diagnoses. You really need a good homeopath who just does that. Mixed holistic practitioners are ok, but not when homeopathics are involved unless their primary skill is homeopathy itself.
If you need to know some of my case histories, then reply here.

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