Posts Tagged ‘Asia’

About the Hospital

Tuesday, June 8th, 2010

When it comes to helping your child to live a happy, healthy life, yearly checkups are crucial. Unfortunately, many parents avoid taking their children to the doctor if they aren’t sick, which actually causes problems in the long run. Bringing your child in for regular exams helps doctors to understand what is normal for your child, so that illnesses can be diagnosed easily. Here is an explanation of what to expect during your child’s next well check, why these appointments are important, and when to schedule your kid’s next exam. Check out the Best semen volume pills.

your child’s yearly checkup explained

Although some parents assume that well checks aren’t really necessary, the fact of the matter is that well checks are designed to keep your child healthy. Here is what to expect when you bring your child in for a well check.

  • Vital signs:
    Before you and your child visit with the doctor, a nurse or medical assistant will collect your child’s vital signs. They will wear a small, painless plastic device on their finger to measure their oxygen level, and their heart rate and temperature will be checked. Vital signs are taken to determine whether or not the child is well, and to help the doctor to diagnose issues during the appointment.
  • Measurements:
    Your child will also be weighed and measured during the appointment to determine their body mass index (BMI). These measurements are used to determine if your child is a healthy height and weight, and to see if they are following a normal growth curve. During your child’s appointment, you will be given percentile information for their height, weight, and head circumference to show you how your child’s size compares with their peers.
  • Discussion:
    Your child’s health is a team effort between parents and their doctors, which is why the first thing your child’s pediatrician will do is talk with you about your concerns. Doctors will ask if you have any questions about their growth or concerns about their health.
  • Head-To-Toe Physical Examination:
    Next, your child’s pediatrician will conduct a thorough head to toe examination of your child. Your child’s ears, heart, lungs, skin, and eyes will be checked during their well exam. If you have raised concerns about their health, the doctor will carefully evaluate those areas of your child’s body to check for problems.
  • Immunizations:
    One of the most crucial things that will happen during your child’s well check is immunizations. Immunizations are essential for safeguarding your child from a long list of serious childhood diseases, including mumps, measles, polio, rotavirus, and many others. If you have questions about vaccinations, we encourage you to discuss them with your child’s pediatrician in Layton.

Well checks are not only essential for your child’s health, but they also give your kid the chance to interact with doctors and nurses when they aren’t feeling sick. For this reason, parents who bring children in for well checks often report a happier, healthier child who isn’t nervous around doctors and nurses.  Check out the latest best appetite suppressant.

the benefits of annual checkups

Yearly checkups offer a wide range of benefits, including protecting your child from illnesses, spotting developmental problems early, and tracking your child’s growth. During well checks, parents will also have the opportunity to talk with their child’s doctor about eating and sleeping patterns, so that they can get tips that could improve their child’s daily routine. Annual checkups are essential preventive medical care appointments that parents should make a point never to miss

recommended checkup schedule for kids

To make scheduling well checks easier, The American Academy of Pediatrics offers an easy-to-follow schedule for kid’s general health exams. Babies should be seen 3-5 days after birth, and then at 1,2,4,6,9, and 12 months. After that, toddlers should be seen at 15,18,24 and 30 months. By the time your child is 3 years old, they should come in once a year for a well check. These are the latest tea burn reviews.

Regular dental visits are incredibly important for maintaining good oral health. Unfortunately, many people only visit the dentist when they have a dental emergency or something like a toothache. It is far better to make these appointments on a regular basis to ensure that problems are prevented. This is more economical and allows for better health.

The need for ongoing dental care

Without ongoing dental care, it is more likely that a person will suffer from cavities, gum disease and oral infections. Regular brushing and flossing at home are not sufficient for removing all of the plaque from on top of or between the teeth. While it is critically important and helpful in preventing things like dental decay, it is not enough without also visiting the dentist for a professional cleaning, I fully suggest working with dr homan omaha ne.

While here, we can thoroughly clean and polish the teeth, while also removing plaque and tartar. We can also floss the teeth to remove any plaque that builds up between the gums and the tooth.

Benefits of regular dental visits

During dental visits, we also thoroughly examine the teeth to allow us to notice signs of dental decay. Typically, decay manifests as soft spots in the actual tooth structure. When we see a patient twice a year, we are able to identify the key while it is still relatively small. In fact, it is possible for us to identify it prior to a patient ever experiencing a toothache. Also, by removing the decayed portion of the tooth early on, it reduces the likelihood of a dental infection and a more significant procedure being necessary, like a root canal. Prevent most tooth decay conditions easily with java burn.

At these appointments, we will also work to prevent gum disease by removing plaque and tartar. If we notice that gums are inflamed or swollen, we may also recommend that a patient has a deep cleaning. A deep cleaning is necessary for removing plaque and tartar from the area of the tooth that is not visible. Since this plaque is what leads to gum disease, it is critical to perform a deep cleaning as soon as possible. Essentially, these regular visits can:

  • Prevent oral health problems through preventative care (dental cleanings)
  • Identify issues early on
  • Prevent discomfort and save a patient money

Risks of not receiving regular dental care

The risk of not having regular dental visits is high. Those who do not may suffer from oral health problems that can lead to incredible amounts of discomfort and even tooth loss. It is possible for dental pain to make it difficult to bite down and eat, speak clearly or even go about normal activities without discomfort.

When this then leads to tooth loss, these problems are further exasperated and can become permanent. To treat the significant conditions, patients often spend thousands of dollars, so it is certainly far more beneficial to schedule regular preventive appointments. To do so, call our office today.

About Music as a Utility, The Vision of Ger Leonard

Tuesday, April 15th, 2008

The Utility as a concept is hot. Many visionaries predict “something” will be sold and consumed like “Water, Gas or Electricity”. It will flow through the Internet directly into our User-Interface (Mobile Phone, Television, ..) and we will pay a “flat fee” for every thing.

Like all “hot issues”, hypes and trends there is something wrong and something right. Finding out “what’s wrong” gives us an idea about the reality of the vision.

I want to concentrate this blog on the future of Music or Music 2.0, a free downloadable book of visionair Gerd Leonard. In his book he has formulated eight trends.

1. Music Like Water: Music is no longer a product but a service. Music became a product with the advent of recording (records, tapes, CDs) and the formation of an industry that quickly fig­ured out that selling the bottle can make a lot more money than only selling the wine. For the future, think of a “record label” as a “music utility company.”

2. A Bigger Pie, but Cheaper Slices: Today’s music pricing schemes will be completely eroded by digital music services (legal and, mostly, otherwise) and by stiff competition from other entertainment products. A “liquid” pricing system will emerge, involving subscriptions, bundles of various content types, multi-channel/multi-access charges, and countless add­ed-value services.

3. Diverse and Ubiquitous: A wide range of music will be eve­rywhere, and music will be part of everything that used to be “images only”: from rich media advertising to interactive slide­shows to car software to MMS and digital cameras, to advertis­ing in magazines (!), the audiovisual use of music will soar, and the licensing revenues will explode along with it.

4. Access to Music will Replace Ownership: Soon, consumers will have access to “their” music anytime, anywhere, and the physical possession of it will in fact be more of a handicap, or a knack of collectors. Music will feel (and act) like water.

5. Multi-point Access to Music will be the Default Environ­ment, allowing consumers to fill up their music devices at air­ports, train stations, and in coffee shops and bars, using all kinds of wireless connections as well as other on-demand and ad-hoc networking technologies.

6. Go Direct: Major artists will increasingly rely on their own “brandability” and – via their managers – go direct to the con­sumers, using their own in-house marketing, branding, and promotion teams.

7. The Software Pro: The (performing) rights organizations (PROs) as we know them will likely fade away. Complete tech­nology solutions comprised of watermarking and fingerprint­ing, so-called DRM and (better) CRM components, monitor­ing, admin/accounting, and instant payment solutions will do the job quicker, cheaper, and, of course, with complete trans­parency.

8. Mobile Mania: Cell phones and other wireless devices will eventually utilize and suck up more “content” than any Inter­net service or P2P client ever has. Real-music ringtone offer­ings, Multi-Media SMS (MMS), Java-based games, wireless streaming audio and video, i-Mode type applications, and other cell-phone based offerings will proliferate very quickly, at first in Europe and Asia, followed by the U.S.

What wrong with his predictions?

His vision is based on the fact that we are able to digitize something (music) and transport this something through a pipeline (a broadband network) and re-digitize it with a specialized device.

The first thing that is special in his vision is that there is really nothing that relates to Music.

It is applicable to Anything that is Digitizable. Let’s call them Dthings. Dthings are the Inputs for our Senses. The Dthing-model is a highly used model. It supposes that the Human Being is a Computer (or perhaps better a Robot).

What everybody forgets are aspects of Human Beings like Emotions, Imagination and Context. These aspects have to be balanced. Emotions (or Mood, Taste) play a special role in Music. Music triggers the Emotional part of the Human. The emotions are highly context-dependent. Classical Music in a Beat Environment doesn’t fit.

Music is not confined to the Ears. The whole body is capable of listening. An Ear-plug gives only a part of the sensation music can give you.

Does an extended model of the Human Being prohibit something in the Vision of Gerd Leonard?

Yes and No.

It must be possible to expand the Devices into a complete Music-environment (A Digital Theatre). Digital Theatres are already on the market. It will only block his 8th part of his vision, Mobile Mania.

Digital Theatres are unable to replace a Real Performance of an Artist. In a real performance not only the music, the musicians and the environment but also the public plays an important role. The right combination of all of them generates Spirit (Enthusiasm). The need to experience the “real thing” will rise when “Music as Water” will be available.

The next thing that will cause a lot of trouble is Indexing. It will be impossible to categorize all the Dthings in the Musical Jukebox Leonard will create. Even worse, indexing will start the “Google-effect”. Artist (or their representing companies) will have to pay to get attention.

Is there something “on the market” that will replace “Music like Water”?

Yes.

Let’s call it “Instant Mood”.

Many people take drugs (Alcohol, Pills) to enhance the Experience of Music.

The connection between the device and the body will be improved. In the end there will be a direct connection between the brain and the outside. People will take a simple neural plug-in that will connect them to a Mood-Simulator.

If people want to Get into a Mood why will they need Music if the connector is able to generate every mood they want?

This development is called Mind Control and Mind Control is “On Its Way”. It is already used in the Army and it will find its way into business soon.

Many problems I have mentioned are gone. We don’t need Artists anymore. The Amount of Choice will reduce dramatically so a Classification System is not needed.

Instant Mood will really Flow like the Waves of Emotion.

There is only one little problem.

Mind Control can be used to manipulate Every Body into Every State. So if Instant Mood is operational we have to Prevent this to Happen.

Imagine.

Every body will be Happy all the Time.

We are finally in Paradise.

The Wordwide Carnival: A Short Introduction into the World of Mikhail Bakhtin

Sunday, September 2nd, 2007

The work of Bakhtin was disclosed to me by Will McWhinney. He used Bahktin in one of the many versions of his never published book Grammars of Engagement.

The discovery of Bahktin started with a book about Bahktin by Saul Morson & Caryl Emerson. Later I also read many other books and articles like “The dialogical imagination”, “Towards a philosophy of the act”, “Discourse in the Novel”, “Rabelais and His World”, “Problems of Dostoevsky’s Poetics” and “Speech Genres and Other Late Essays”.

Bahktin invented the term Chronotope, “The place where the knots of narrative are tied” or “the intrinsic connectedness of temporal and spatial relationships that are artistically expressed in literature“. Currently we use the term Content or Media for Literature.

A Chronotope is a Topological Concept

knotSpace (Place, Location) and Time (the narrative) are connected by a Knot. A knot is a complicated twist in a rope. The twist is needed when you want to close a system in itself. The simplest topological structure that visualizes twisted space/time is the Moebius Ring.

The Chronotope is the Centre out of which every narrative that we are able to tell is enfolding and unfolding. It produces narratives and absorbs narratives. Bahktin places Folk-Lore, Myth, the Language of the People, in the Centre.

Every narrative contains a twist, a moment where the expansion of the beginning turns to the contraction of the end. It is the moment where the narrative is balanced. The reader holds his breath. It is also the moment where the narrative is aware of itself. It observes the whole.

Sometimes the twist is in the end. You know “who done it”. Sometimes the narrative starts with the twist. There are even narratives without a twist. You know all the time what will happen.

Scientists don’t realize that a scientific article is also a narrative. They use citation to prove they are telling a true story. Funny enough scientific citation has created the Internet. A hypertext is nothing but a citation-structure.

Old narratives produce new narratives. This is always accomplished by Citation. “The word in language is half someone else’s. It becomes “one’s own” only when the speaker populates it with his own intention, his own accent, when he appropriates the word, adapting it to his own semantic and expressive intention. Prior to this moment of appropriation, the word does not exist in a neutral and impersonal language. . . but rather it exists in other people’s mouths, in other people’s contexts, serving other people’s intentions: it is from there that one must take the word, and make it one’s own“”. The cursive sentence between brackets is a citation of Bahktin.

New narratives also oppose old narratives. They are Dialogic. “The entire life of language, in any area of its use . . . is permeated with dialogic relationships“.

Dialogues are converging (Socratic dialogue), diverging and conflicting (Menippian Dialogue) or one sided (the Magisterial Monologue). “Thus at any given moment of its historical existence, language is heteroglot from top to bottom: it represents the co-existence of socio-ideological contradictions between the present and the past, between differing epochs of the past, between different socio-ideological groups in the present, between tendencies, schools, circles and so forth

The Centre generates new narratives all the time. They are a mix of the old and the new. The centre is the Centrifugal Force and this force is powered by Contradiction.

Roller_CoasterThe Institutions, the Ruling Power, are constantly trying to standardize (the Centripetal force). They formulate rules and try to transform the dialogue into a monologue.

The centripetal and the centrifugal force create a huge tension. This tension moves the Wheel of Creation. The wheel always moves through the stages of Order and Chaos. In the middle of the Tornado of Creation is the Centre, the Chronotope. In the centre you will always find rest and inspiration.

The monologue (the magisterial dialogue) is the dialogue of the Magister, the scientist, the manager, the judge, the physician and the teacher. They use science, the law, books or other Magisters to enforce their power. By formulating rules they try to destroy the creative centre (the context).

A context is potentially unfinalized; a code must be finalized. A code is only a technical means of transmitting information; it does not have cognitive, creative significance. Code is deliberately killed context“.

At this moment the Centripetal force is implemented in the Search Engine. Narratives are found by typing codes. This makes it very difficult to find a context. Companies like Google are manipulating the coding. They are paid by the Centripetal Force of the Commercial Companies.

The centrifugal force is never at rest. It always generates new alternatives. The creation of new literature is not bounded by rules. Every time a new structure is defined the Centre starts to play with the rules and generates a new combination. The Centre is not only combining rules it even invents new rules. The Centre is the inventor of new Games to Play.

Producing literature is a process of spiralling out. It follows a cycle but at a certain point in time a new Centre appears and the Cycle starts a new process of Folk-lore. The new centre is always connected to the old Centre. New myths and new fairy tales are created that are a representation of the Spirit of the Time.

Every cycle is governed by a Clock. The periodicity of the Clocks is determinated by the number five. It runs at a frequency of 1250, 250, 50, 10 or 2 years. There are frequencies that are moving faster (the Atom) and much slower (the Universe).

Bahktin has developed a very interesting theory about the development of the Chronotopes in history.

I will tell the Tale of the Chronotopes of Bahktin on the level of the Cycle of Culture (1250 years, 250 years per stage).

HunsBetween 450 and 700 the Roman Empire is destroyed by the Huns. It is the time of the Great Deportations. People out of Asia move to the West. They are the ancestors of the Ostrogotes, the Visigotes, the Franks, the Gauls, the Germans and the Celts. 1250 years later they are integrated in what we now call Europe. Between 700 and 2000 the Europeans explore and conquer the World.

Around 1200 the new powers have created many Kingdoms and have organized the Crusades to conquer the Holy Land. To show their power they build the Cathedrals. The Cathedrals are the instrument of the Education of the Masses. The old folk-lore is transformed to the new of the Christian Faith. The old-folklore is not destroyed. Many symbols and important events are preserved. They are cited. The transition of the Sun in Winter is transformed in Christmas. The new apostles are connected to the old animals of the old Wheel of Fortune.

Tristan IsoldeBetween 1200 and 1450 the Chronotope of the Greek Romance (Tristan and Isolde, Arthur and The Grail) appears. It is the Chronotope of Being and Destiny. “There are a lot of suddenly’s”. Everything happens. The actor in this Chronotope is without identity. He is tested by destiny. When he has passed the test he is not changed. There is no time and space. Time (“adventure-time”) is reversible. The actors are public figures and space is public space. In the narratives we are able to see and hear everything.

We are in the Middle Ages. In the outside world destiny is also playing its evil game. Western Civilization is almost destroyed by the plague, feminine and wars between the Kingdoms. Even the Christian Empire of Rome is divided by a schism (Byzantium). At the end only a few Kingdoms survive. These Kings become Emperors. They represent God on Earth.

copernicusThis (1450-1700) is the time of the Chronotope of the Adventure. It is the Chronotope of Becoming. The identity of the actor is transforming. He is responsible for his own actions. Life is full of turning points (twists). The actor wants to take control of the outside world. Space becomes “private space”.

To give the reader insight in what is happening the Observer is introduced. He is a voyeur, a prostitute, a rambler, a rover, a tramp, a spy, a servant or an animal. The observer is not influencing the story at all. He is just watching. Objectivity is also introduced in space (court).

In the outside world we are in the Time of Renaissance (the Era of Discovery). It is the time of new inventions in Science (Copernicus), Art (Leonard Da Vinci) and Religion (Reformation, Luther, Calvin). The Bible is translated in the language of the people. It is also the time of the Great Explorations (Columbus) of the world outside the West. Western Culture starts his quest to control Nature and eventually the World.

munchThe next Chronotope is the Biography (1700-1950), the praise of a public figure who has accomplished something in life. We are moving from the outside world to the inside world of the actor.

Inner space is closed. “This offers a new relationship to one’s own self, one’s own particular “I”- with no witnesses, without any concessions to the voice of a “third person“.

Outside events affect the inner world. The actor is not showing this. In the outside world the actor is judged by his actions and not by his inner space (his essence). “The essence of man is realized not by his condition but by his activity“.

To give the reader a view on the inner space the outsider is introduced. His outside actions are governed by a distorted inner space. The outsider (the fool, the eccentric) acts as a reference.

The actor is a pretender. He is constantly in doubt, grumbling, cynical and sarcastic. He is also passive. He is watching from a distance. Everything is Relative (Bahktin was a fan of Einstein). The only time when the actor is able to show himself is at the carnival. During this short period he is allowed to choose his own mask.

This is the time of the Industrial Revolution. It is the era of mechanization. It starts with the invention of the Mill and the Factory. It ends with the mechanized Consumer watching Television.

star warsStarting in 1950 we are again in the phase of Folk-lore. Western Civilization is moving to a new Centre, Earth.

New myths and legends will be created. They have to be based on all the tales, myths and legends that are available on Earth. Some of them will be a citation. Others will be an opposition.

All kinds of dialogues will take and have to take place. We will experience many conflicts (Mennipian Dialogue). We will also have to listen and ask questions to understand the other cultures (Socratic Dialogue). We have to stop our Western Magisterial Monologue.

In the beginning it will be a Heteroglossia (a many voicedness), a very complicated Knot we have to untie. When we have found the tread we will be able to weave a new web of narratives that will start the phase of the Greek Romance again.

Between now and 2100 “We must make the new by our own effort”.“We have to face problems of reality and human potential, problems of freedom and necessity, and the problem of creative initiative“. We have to become persons “who emerge along with the world and reflect the historical emergence of the world itself”.

In order to understand, it is immensely important for the person who understands to be located outside the object of his or her creative understanding — in time, in space, in culture. . . . Our real exterior can be seen and understood only by other people, because they are located outside us in space and because they are others

We have to write our own Novel. “There is no causality in novels, no genesis, no explanations based on the past, on the influences of the environment or of upbringing and so forth. Every act a character commits is in the present, and in this sense is not predetermined”.

We have to act without hesitation and leave history behind. There is no experience we can reuse. The future is unfinalized (open).

The Magisters are not able to tell us what to do. They are out of tricks. We have to put off our own masks and take responsibility for what we are doing. “There is no alibi for being”. We have to stop pretending and use citations of others to prove we are right.

carnival of fools

We are now part of the Worldwide Carnival of Fools. Choose your mask out of the many masks that are available all over the world. Listen to the stories of other cultures and be surprised about the beauty and the experience they are containing. Give the Fools and the Eccentrics, the Outsiders, a chance to help you.

Laugh.

It will be fun.

I want to close with a citation of Paul Feyerabend (Killing Time (1995)): “People, intellectuals especially, seem unable to be content with a little more freedom, a little more happiness, a little more light. Perceiving a small advantage, they seize it, circumscribe it, nail it down, and in this way prepare a New Age of ignorance, darkness and slavery. It is rather surprising that there are still people who want to help others for personal reasons, because they are kindhearted and because they have not been intimidated by principles. It is even more surprising that some of the people can work in institutions despite the greed, the incompetence, the power struggles that seem to surround the noblest cause.”

Do you want to know more about Feyerabend read The Act of Creation: About Fusion and Con-fusion

LINKS

About the Cathedrals

About the Fool in African Myths

About Fools, Pyramids and Bubbles

Why Fools always Lose

About Very Long Cycles

About the Cycle of Culture