A FOOTBALLER'S LIES ALMOST CREATED AN INTERNATIONAL INCIDENT BETWEEN NEW ZEALAND AND FRANCE...


A footballer's lies almost created an international incident between NZ and France...
You wouldn't believe it, but a French rugby player's lies after the recent rugby test in Wellington nearly created another international incident between NZ and France. The first was in the 1980's when French frogmen blew up the Greenpeace "Rainbow Warrior" vessel in Auckland, with the loss of one life:

France apologises for Bastareaud:

PM Key receives letter from French PM Fillon apologising for Mathieu Bastareaud who claimed he had been attacked in Wellington.

French Prime Minister Francois Fillon has apologised to John Key over the Mathieu Bastareaud affair.

In a letter to the Prime Minister he condemns the lies of the rugby player, who claimed he had been attacked in Wellington. Mr Fillon went on to say rugby has always helped the two nations develop mutual respect and he hopes the incident does not damage that.

"The French team's tour of New Zealand was marked by the unjustifiable behaviour of one its players. Through his false statements, as a result of which you had to intervene publicly, he seriously tainted the image of your country and its people.

"You may be assured that I deplore this incident. Our two countries share the culture of rugby. This sport has always enabled our two nations to come together and share a mutual respect. I hope that these sentiments will prevail after this regrettable affair.

"Like all rugby fans, I am delighted that your country is organising the next World Cup in 2011."

Paris correspondent Catherine Field says Mr Fillon's move is highly unusual.

"It might be quite normal in New Zealand for a prime minister to have to know a lot about rugby and to have to talk off the bat about it, but for France to actually intervene like this, is extraordinary."

Bastareaud claimed he had been attacked by up to five men outside the team's hotel in Wellington after France was defeated 14-10 in the second Test against the All Blacks. However, when police found evidence that he had suffered the facial injuries after returning to his hotel in the early hours of June 21, the centre changed his version of events and said he had hit his head on a bedside table after drinking too much. He said he invented the story about being attacked because he was scared of being taken off the French team.

His club said Bastareaud was on holiday in the French West Indies but he was admitted to hospital after trying to take his life by jumping into the Seine.

Amazing but its true!

Lying Basteraud

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL INTRODUCES AN OPEN LETTER TO IRANIAN AUTHORITIES...



I support this open letter to Iranian authorities in the name of humanity:



To the Ruling Regime of Iran.

Dear Sirs,

I was born in Kerman, a pretty city by the ancient city of Bam. I was happy and loved by my parents, and by the entire family. I had a very happy childhood. A childhood full of playing, climbing trees, and laughing. At age 7, I was told that I had to cover my hair and wear a uniform and trousers to go to school. I was told that this is the law and a good girl will cover up like a pearl in a shell. It was not long until I noticed boys my age freely walked around without covering their hairs and my questions started at a very young age. I concluded that it will be good to be a boy! Maybe I can shave my head or cut my hair very short like a boy and go out! I bet no one would recognise I was a girl! I used to dream of biking bare headed in the streets without being worried I was going to be arrested...
I grew up! I watched you day after day! I watched what you said about women, I listened carefully! You said we were equal to men, but how come:

• You took the freedom of choice from me? How come I could not decide not to wear my scarf but men could?
• You never arrested the random hungry men, whom you created through compulsory covering up of women, who abused me in the streets?
• You censored all foreign TV programmes which had women in them by zooming on their faces so that the rest of their bodies does not show?
• Women on TV first wore colourful uniforms and scarves and gradually started wearing black chadors?
• You forced me to wear a black chador at the university even if you kept saying a uniform and scarf was adequate hijab?
• Your male followers would look at the floor when I talked to them –it made me feel I did not exist- and they did not look straight in my eyes?
• I could not freely talk to my male friends and I always needed to hide any simple friendships for the fear of being arrested and whipped by the morality police (called Komiteh)?
• You always told me that I was the main source of provoking men to commit sins?
• You started arresting women who biked because you said their body shapes when biking will provoke men to commit sins?
• How come you stopped my childhood friend who was the nationwide champion in some type of sport to compete against other countries because her sport needed her not to wear hijab therefore prevented her from possibly winning in the Olympics?
• Why did you stop Shirin Ebadi the first female judge of Iran and the noble peace prize winner to continue working as a judge and said women can’t make good judges and are emotional?
• How come you attacked all women’s gatherings for women’s rights?
• How come you blocked the word “woman” or “women” from all the search engines in the internet?
• Why should always a father or a husband give a written permission for a woman to obtain a passport? Otherwise they are not allowed to leave the country.

There are hundreds of these questions that I can go on and on, it will take me tens of pages just to write down the obstacles that are in front of women for instance to obtain divorce, custody of children, equal rights to inheritance, equal rights to be counted as a witness to a crime at the court, rights not to be stoned, not to be sentenced to death for self defence, help and protection not to lose reputation for being raped etc.

You know all the above and you have always told me Islam is the best way for women. I am going to be very blunt with you, I am a skilled Chartered Accountant who could have helped Iran to flourish and become what it really deserves to be in the world. You made me leave my country by constantly telling me what I should not be doing and that I should be happy with the rules and obstacles you have put in my way to flourish. Not only you lost me and my skills but you have also destroyed what Islam did 1400 years ago for women. You keep telling me that the rules which brought unseen freedom to the women of Saudi Arabia 1400 years ago still apply to me but let me tell you something I am not the woman of 1400 years ago. Either open your eyes and see me as what I am today with all my beauty, talents, and struggle to find equality or leave the power. I know you are a puppet of power, money and oil. Your old tricks of using Islam and western power interference are not working anymore.
Stop your violence against Iranian women and the youth. Persia [name of the country was changed to Iran by Reza Shah in 1935] has survived tyranny for millenniums and will still survive.

A Persian Woman

Acknowledgements: Amnesty International, New Zealand.





.

IRANIAN PROTESTERS SHOULD BE RELEASED NOW - SAYS WIFE OF OPPOSITION LEADER, MOUSAVI...

The wife of Iranian opposition leader and defeated presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi has called for the release of people arrested following the June 12 election.

"I regret that a large number of people among the political elite and others have been arrested, and I ask for their release," Zahra Rahnavard said in remarks published on her husband's campaign website.

"I have not been arrested. I continue my work at the university, but at the same time, alongside others, I protest" the result of the election, which put Mousavi a distant second after victorious incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

"Nationalism and the blood of the martyrs demand that I be on the scene, always protesting against the result of the election and defending people's rights within the framework of the law."

She said the regime should not act as if Iran were in a "state of siege."

Since the election, whose outcome is disputed by Mousavi, Tehran and other parts of the country have been the scene of often violent protests.

Hundreds of protesters have been arrested, as well as politicians and journalists.

Rahnavard, 64, a sculptor and academic, broke the mould of Iranian politics by campaigning openly alongside her husband ahead of the vote.

US president Barack Obama has done the right thing by criticising the arrests - its up to the Iranians and world protest now.

NOSTRADAMUS: THE BLACK PRESIDENT AND THE END OF THE WORLD IN 2012...



Nostradamus: The Black President and the End of the world in 2012.


"There are circulating on the world wide web some (allegedly)idiotic but also possibly dangerous rumours, featuring Nostradamus, Barack Obama, the Antichrist 111 and the End of the World (2012. The theories are (reportedly) extremely silly, undoubtedly. But they get quite dangerous too when you think of the idiots who might be taking some action, just because of the rumours.They create "Osama Obama Shotgun Pool" in Maine, because they just KNOW Obama is the anti-chtist." - Patrick Bernauw, in Offbeat. Read more

MAYAN END TIMES PROPHECY 12-21-2012...


1277 days, 9 hours,43 minutes,16 seconds left for Age of Transition to begin!


"The Hopi and Mayan elders do not prophecise that everything will come to an end. Rather, this is a time of transition from one World Age into another. The message they gave concerns our making a choice of how we enter the future ahead. Our moving through with either resistance or acceptance will determine whether the transition will happen with cataclysmic changes or gradual peace and tranquility.The same can be found in the prophecies of many other Native American visionaries from Black Elk to Sun Bear" - Joseph Robert Jochmans. What will our choice be I wonder?
Read here

HE SUED THE INTERNET GIANT, GOOGLE, AND WON...




I have had my own personal problems with Google after my Adsense account was arbitarily disabled and the company has persistently refused to reply to my many messages. I don't live in the US and therefore can't have a face to face with the company. In my book, Google still owes me US$40.00, and I want my account re-abled for business,

"Why I Sued Google (and Won)"
Huffington Post - April 18, 2009
Aaron Greenspan
Founder, Think Computer Corporation
Posted March 6, 2009 | 01:37 (EST):

"Like most Americans, I use Google's search engine several times a day without so much as a second thought. It was only in 2007 that my company's relationship with Google, Inc. temporarily escalated to that of a full-fledged customer, when Think Computer Corporation became yet another a Google AdWords advertiser. (AdWords advertisements appear on the right side of the main Google search results.) Sadly, the several ad campaigns we tried during this brief experiment failed miserably to bring in any new revenue, and so I personally went back to being just another user of Google's search service -- at least until March, 2008. That's when my company signed up for the flip side of Google's advertising juggernaut: AdSense. In anticipation of a new product, Think had acquired a brand new domain name that was unexpectedly receiving a high volume of internet traffic. Instead of paying Google for Think's ads, I thought it might make more sense for Think to get paid for displaying Google's.

Everything went according to plan until 11:00 A.M. on December 9, 2008. With a single click, a faceless Google employee decided that Think Computer Corporation's membership in the AdSense program "posed a significant risk to our AdWords advertisers," and the account was disabled with no warning. Trying to sign into the AdSense management site brought not the familiar user interface, with its limited account payment records and reports (including what Google currently owed Think, which amounted to approximately $721.00), but the following unhelpful statement, and nothing more:

Your AdSense account for this login is currently disabled. We recommend checking your email inboxes for any messages we may have sent you regarding your account status. Sometimes our messages can be caught by email filters, so please be sure to check the Bulk/Spam folders of your email accounts as well.
If your account was disabled for invalid click activity, please visit our Disabled Account FAQ for more information.
Return to AdSense home.

Knowing only that I was somehow posing "a significant risk" to advertisers, I e-mailed Google to ask about exactly what had happened. An errant automated response told me that my records could not be found. Going back and using the on-line appeal form on the AdSense web site similarly yielded no result; not even a confirmation that the appeal had been received. In the appeal I offered to send Google hundreds of pages of log files to prove that no fraud had taken place, but no one replied.

More than once, I tried calling Google at its corporate offices in Mountain View. Invariably the person on the other end of the line sounded like they were approximately my age, and there's a chance I might have even gone to college with some of them, but despite all of those similarities the difference in bureaucratic flexibility could not have been more vast. While I was capable of authorizing any action on behalf of my company, Google's overachieving receptionists were not even permitted to transfer my phone call to AdSense customer service. There was no AdSense customer service. Even if there had been, it would not have mattered much. I also couldn't be transferred to any of the engineers who worked on AdSense. Or product managers. Or executives. It made no difference that I was also a paying AdWords customer.

Trying a more aggressive approach, I tried instead to be transferred to the legal department. That, too, was not an option. Despite the clear existence of the legal department, I was told again and again that I was not allowed to speak with anyone in it. For the time being, I gave up.

Two days after the account was disabled, on December 11, 2008, Google's AdSense team posted a message on its blog introducing a new system called "AdSense for Domains." Unlike normal AdSense ("for Content," as it was then re-branded), AdSense for Domains was designed to be used by web sites that were effectively blank. When I had tried to sign up for it previously, given that my domain name needed exactly such a service, it had been "closed"--code for "available to a limited number of companies with large numbers of domain names." Now, I was once again enraged since Google could have easily allowed me to switch over to their new service if they had merely waited two days.

Another flurry of phone calls to the AdSense employees who had written on the corporate blog got me nowhere. I left voicemails about my disabled account diligently, to no avail. I even called AdWords customer support, intentionally asking for the wrong department to see if a real human being could help. These efforts netted a relatively quick e-mail rejection of my appeal form, and fairly unbelievable recordings of telephone calls with Google employee Adam C. When questioned, "Can I just ask in general why you guys have a support team for AdWords, but not AdSense?", the knowledgeable Mr C. replied, "I do not know." When asked, "Is there a project manager," he replied, "There's no one I'd be able to transfer you to." I was able to get an e-mail address for the legal department, so I e-mailed legal@google.com--and never received a reply. In the meantime, I tried to figure out what to do with my web site since I couldn't use AdSense anymore.

I found Sedo, a European company that had a contract with none other than--you guessed it--Google AdSense--to display advertisements on placeholder web sites. By signing up with Sedo, I could once again use AdSense, but with one small catch. Since Sedo was the middleman, my effective rate of payment per click was somewhere between 1/5,000th and 1/10,000th of what it had been previously. Despite all of its well-meaning claims about its Terms and Conditions, it appeared that Google was willing to pay for my web site traffic after all--so long as it wasn't me receiving the money.

I'd already posted once on the AdSense Forums, where thousands of AdSense partners regularly asked questions and voiced gripes about the program, so I thought it wouldn't hurt to post again, hoping someone from the Google legal team might see my concern. Again, there was no reply.

I looked up the profiles for the "AdSense Experts" who answered questions in their official roles as forum moderators. Each expert had a different crayon stick-figure picture, and (useless) information about their favorite food or town, but no contact information--not even an e-mail address. With undoubtedly hundreds of employees working on advertising alone, all of them completely unreachable except in heavily scripted contexts, Google's amazing money machine was starting to look a bit more like the type of Potemkin Village the parents of the company's founders had fled decades before.

I spoke with Adam C. of AdWords once more on the phone. After pointing out that in the United States of America, the accused are generally given the right to know both the crimes they are being accused of, and the identities of their accusers, Mr. C. responded by saying that such thinking did not apply to Google's terms of service. Effectively, Google's position was that it was above the law, and if not any law in particular, then at least the spirit of the law. Irked, I decided to find out if such a position was tenable.

On January 15, 2009, I walked over to the Santa Clara County courthouse in Palo Alto, which conveniently fell within the same county lines as Google's home of Mountain View, and filed a civil small claims lawsuit for $721.00--the amount Google owed Think when it disabled the account--using form SC-100. For a total of $40.00 in court fees, I arranged for Google, Inc. to be served by certified mail. The hearing was scheduled for March 2, 2009.

Since lawyers are not permitted in small claims court, Google instead sent Stephanie Milani, a Litigation Paralegal. During the short last-ditch-resolution period before the hearings on the afternoon schedule began, Ms. Milani argued that I must have done something wrong to deserve my fate. When I asked her what, she didn't know. The AdSense engineers had not told her.

"Google can terminate your account for any reason," she told me.

"Not any reason," I said. "Not because I have blue eyes. Or brown eyes." After being told to quiet down by the courtroom guard, we decided that we had reached an impasse, exchanged documents, and went back into the court room.

Arguing before that day's pro tempore judge, I pointed out that my company had done nothing wrong to deserve termination of the contract, that Google could not prove any wrongdoing, that Google's fraud detection algorithm was imperfect by definition (since one cannot intuit moral intent through mathematical analysis), that advertisers must already agree to bear risk as part of the AdWords terms and conditions (clause 5), and that Google had gone to great lengths (including eliminating the ability to view account records) to make it difficult to dispute anything--all while owing Think money. In fact, terminating accounts for "posing significant risk" just when they started to earn significant amounts of money seemed like a great way for Google to cut accounting liabilities in a difficult economic climate. After my explanation, the judge had a question.

"What was the reason Google gave you for disabling your account?"

"Beyond, 'posing a signficicant risk to advertisers,' they didn't give a reason." I said. "I don't know."

Google's Ms. Milani didn't know either. She argued that advertisers had already been refunded my $721.00, even if they hadn't asked for a refund. She claimed that Google could terminate accounts for any or no reason, and that I had agreed to such terms by signing up for AdSense in the first place. She even said that I'd admitted to violating the terms of service when I sent in my appeal form, because I had mentioned that my new domain name was only a placeholder site.

In fact, clause 6 of the AdSense for Content Terms and Conditions does not allow Google to terminate accounts for "no" reason--only "any" reason. Much to my amusement, the judge interrupted her to make a point that sounded familiar.

"But you couldn't terminate my account because of the color of my eyes, could you? I have brown eyes. You couldn't terminate my account because of that."

Ms. Milani reiterated her previous arguments, but the judge didn't buy them. "I don't think I have the power here in Palo Alto small claims court to make you reinstate his account, but I think you owe this young man $721," he said finally. "I think there might be money in Google's treasury for that."

In the end, printed on a baby blue sheet of paper by the clerk's aging dot matrix printer, the judgment was actually entered for $761.00 total, due to the $40.00 court costs. I couldn't help but to smile in front of the judge.

"But it's not fair!" Google's paralegal protested. "What if everyone whose account was canceled sued Google?"

It's a valid question. Yet until Google changes its policies to become more transparent, which might also reassure skeptics that AdWords and AdSense, which have oddly limited reporting capabilities, aren't just two sides of the same ponzi scheme (for why else would one want to terminate legitimate accounts with high monthly liabilities when they're supposed to be making money for Google on each click?)--I will give this answer:

Maybe everyone whose account was canceled, should."

Aaron Greenspan is President & CEO of Think Computer Corporation and the author of Authoritas: One Student's Harvard Admissions and the Founding of the Facebook Era.


Acknowledgement: The Huffington Post

SWINE FLU SURVIVAL TIPS YOU NEED TO KNOW...


If you’re like most of us, you know more than you ever wanted to about swine flu, or under the more scientific name the World Health Organization (WHO) has been using: Influenza A(H1N1).

The name change is an effort to limit the confusion over any connection to pigs or pig products. Besides the unfortunate name, swine flu has no connection to pigs other than having some swine flu genetic sequences.

As of 12 May 2009, 30 countries have reported 5,251 cases of influenza A(H1N1). Mexico reports 2,059 lab confirmed human cases of infection, including 56 deaths. The United States reports 2,600 laboratory confirmed human cases, with three deaths. Canada reports 330 laboratory confirmed human cases and one death. Costa Rica reports eight laboratory confirmed human cases and one death.

Not surprisingly mixed messages on the risks of travel using mass transit have only added to the confusion and fear.

Still the World Health Organization continues to make no restriction on travel of any kind, or suggest the closing of borders.

Interesting that Continental Airlines, the largest U.S. air carrier to Mexico, is cutting back flights by 40%, but will still serve all 29 Mexican destinations.

The good news seems to be that the strain, while spreading widely. may not be as severe as first feared. Experts already know that this flu does not contain some of the genes that made the 1918 Spanish flu so deadly.

However, in 1918 the first wave of sickness was relatively mild, the second was the dangerous, deadly one. No one can say that won’t happen this time as well.

Experts are convinced they will be able to create a vaccine for A(H1N1) and work is already underway.

The trouble is, vaccine making and distributing isn’t an exact science or a quick process, not to mention the calculated risk scientists take every year in choosing which strains of flu to protect against.

The earliest we’re likely to see any type of A(H1N1) vaccine is four to six months, this fall perhaps.

In the meantime, what can you do to keep yourself healthy?

Here are some common sense suggestions from the experts.

1. Wash your hands as much as possible.

This is the best thing you can do to stay healthy. Wash your hands with soap and water frequently, as the A(H1N1) flu is spread by the droplets from coughing or sneezing that are released into the air. When these get on your hands, everything you touch becomes a potential source of infection.

How you wash is key - most of us aren’t washing well enough or long enough - you’ll need to use the warmest water you can, lather up with soap and rub you fingers, palms, and even under your nails and up to your wrists for two choruses of “Happy Birthday”.

If you’re without soap and water, hand sanitizers serve very well and come in a variety of sizes.

When you wash is also super important.

Be sure to wash up before you eat or prepare food for others, after using the bathroom, or after using a tissue or your hands to cover up a sneeze or cough.

The virus droplets don’t seem to float in the air, but rather settle on objects you touch everyday smooth objects more than rough or porous ones.

It’s the common things we all handle like coins and bills, hand rails, door knobs and other household objects, as well as those essentials around the office like pens, staplers and phones that can harbor all manner of germs.

When taking care of someone who is ill, it’s a good idea to wash your hands more often, especially after direct contact with them or things they’ve used, including laundry.

2. Cover up when you cough or sneeze.

By using your shoulder, or the crook of your elbow to capture the droplets that come form a cough or sneeze you contain the infectious droplets. Wash your hands right away.

A surgical face mask can be an option that helps to keep your respiratory droplets to yourself. Still this isn’t a better option than washing your hands, and used improperly can do you more harm than good. Masks must be used according to the instructions and only for the length of time suggested by the manufacturer.

Face masks can be helpful if you are caring for another person who is ill.

3. If you’re sick, stay home.

Sure it’s hard to give in to feeling sick, especially in our got-to-be-everywhere, do-everything world, but this is exactly what experts suggest you do.

If you start developing flu-like symptoms - aches, fatigue, fever, coughing or sneezing - don’t push yourself to go to work.

Don’t try to tough it out either, as there are some treatments that can shorten the length and severity of your illness.

Call your doctor for advice or an appointment, especially if you’ve traveled to Mexico recently or have an underlying health condition.

You’ll also want to wash you hands often, dispose of tissues right away, and sleep alone.

Once you recover, air out your sleeping space and change your bedding, washing sheets, towels and pajamas in the hottest water possible.

4. Don’t touch your face.

This is the survival tip that’s the hardest to do as it’s such a natural impulse. Sometimes being aware of a need not to touch makes it even more difficult. Still, it’s super important to try to keep your hands away from these mucous membranes - eyes, nose and mouth - all direct routes to the bloodstream.

When you bring germs to your face you bypass the natural protective barrier, this route inside is direct and undefended.

While it’s not easy, by keeping your hands away from your face, you do yourself a big favor. By keeping your hands super clean, you’re likely to deliver as little infectious material as possible to this area when you do give into the impulse (or need) to touch your face

5. Stay away from sick people.

Also, not easy to do, especially if you’re a parent (or spouse) of someone struggling with A(H1N1) flu, or you have a coworker who simply refuses to call in sick, even when they are.

Limit your time with this person as much as possible. Up your hand washing after whatever contact you do have. Use a face mask if you must be very close or the person is coughing or sneezing quite a bit.

Of course, common sense should tell you not to drink from this person’s cups, share utensils or use the phone of anyone with flu-like symptoms, a cough, fever or sneezing.

Encourage co-workers to go home (or stay home) if they aren’t feeling well. Remember that you can be contagious for a day before you feel ill… and up to seven days once the coughing, sneezing, fever and feeling miserable come on.

With such a rapidly changing situation, your best defense against A(H1N1) flu is to say informed - using Word Health Organization or Centers for Disease Control resources.



Swine Flu Survival Tips You Need To Know. Doesn't have much to do with pigs,either!

If you’re like most of us, you know more than you ever wanted to about swine flu, or under the more scientific name the World Health Organization (WHO) has been using: Influenza A(H1N1).

The name change is an effort to limit the confusion over any connection to pigs or pig products. Besides the unfortunate name, swine flu has no connection to pigs other than having some swine flu genetic sequences.

As of 12 May 2009, 30 countries have reported 5,251 cases of influenza A(H1N1). Mexico reports 2,059 lab confirmed human cases of infection, including 56 deaths. The United States reports 2,600 laboratory confirmed human cases, with three deaths. Canada reports 330 laboratory confirmed human cases and one death. Costa Rica reports eight laboratory confirmed human cases and one death.

Not surprisingly mixed messages on the risks of travel using mass transit have only added to the confusion and fear.

Still the World Health Organization continues to make no restriction on travel of any kind, or suggest the closing of borders.

Interesting that Continental Airlines, the largest U.S. air carrier to Mexico, is cutting back flights by 40%, but will still serve all 29 Mexican destinations.

The good news seems to be that the strain, while spreading widely. may not be as severe as first feared. Experts already know that this flu does not contain some of the genes that made the 1918 Spanish flu so deadly.

However, in 1918 the first wave of sickness was relatively mild, the second was the dangerous, deadly one. No one can say that won’t happen this time as well.

Experts are convinced they will be able to create a vaccine for A(H1N1) and work is already underway.

The trouble is, vaccine making and distributing isn’t an exact science or a quick process, not to mention the calculated risk scientists take every year in choosing which strains of flu to protect against.

The earliest we’re likely to see any type of A(H1N1) vaccine is four to six months, this fall perhaps.

In the meantime, what can you do to keep yourself healthy?

Here are some common sense suggestions from the experts.

1. Wash your hands as much as possible.

This is the best thing you can do to stay healthy. Wash your hands with soap and water frequently, as the A(H1N1) flu is spread by the droplets from coughing or sneezing that are released into the air. When these get on your hands, everything you touch becomes a potential source of infection.

How you wash is key - most of us aren’t washing well enough or long enough - you’ll need to use the warmest water you can, lather up with soap and rub you fingers, palms, and even under your nails and up to your wrists for two choruses of “Happy Birthday”.

If you’re without soap and water, hand sanitizers serve very well and come in a variety of sizes.

When you wash is also super important.

Be sure to wash up before you eat or prepare food for others, after using the bathroom, or after using a tissue or your hands to cover up a sneeze or cough.

The virus droplets don’t seem to float in the air, but rather settle on objects you touch everyday smooth objects more than rough or porous ones.

It’s the common things we all handle like coins and bills, hand rails, door knobs and other household objects, as well as those essentials around the office like pens, staplers and phones that can harbor all manner of germs.

When taking care of someone who is ill, it’s a good idea to wash your hands more often, especially after direct contact with them or things they’ve used, including laundry.

2. Cover up when you cough or sneeze.

By using your shoulder, or the crook of your elbow to capture the droplets that come form a cough or sneeze you contain the infectious droplets. Wash your hands right away.

A surgical face mask can be an option that helps to keep your respiratory droplets to yourself. Still this isn’t a better option than washing your hands, and used improperly can do you more harm than good. Masks must be used according to the instructions and only for the length of time suggested by the manufacturer.

Face masks can be helpful if you are caring for another person who is ill.

3. If you’re sick, stay home.

Sure it’s hard to give in to feeling sick, especially in our got-to-be-everywhere, do-everything world, but this is exactly what experts suggest you do.

If you start developing flu-like symptoms - aches, fatigue, fever, coughing or sneezing - don’t push yourself to go to work.

Don’t try to tough it out either, as there are some treatments that can shorten the length and severity of your illness.

Call your doctor for advice or an appointment, especially if you’ve traveled to Mexico recently or have an underlying health condition.

You’ll also want to wash you hands often, dispose of tissues right away, and sleep alone.

Once you recover, air out your sleeping space and change your bedding, washing sheets, towels and pajamas in the hottest water possible.

4. Don’t touch your face.

This is the survival tip that’s the hardest to do as it’s such a natural impulse. Sometimes being aware of a need not to touch makes it even more difficult. Still, it’s super important to try to keep your hands away from these mucous membranes - eyes, nose and mouth - all direct routes to the bloodstream.

When you bring germs to your face you bypass the natural protective barrier, this route inside is direct and undefended.

While it’s not easy, by keeping your hands away from your face, you do yourself a big favor. By keeping your hands super clean, you’re likely to deliver as little infectious material as possible to this area when you do give into the impulse (or need) to touch your face

5. Stay away from sick people.

Also, not easy to do, especially if you’re a parent (or spouse) of someone struggling with A(H1N1) flu, or you have a coworker who simply refuses to call in sick, even when they are.

Limit your time with this person as much as possible. Up your hand washing after whatever contact you do have. Use a face mask if you must be very close or the person is coughing or sneezing quite a bit.

Of course, common sense should tell you not to drink from this person’s cups, share utensils or use the phone of anyone with flu-like symptoms, a cough, fever or sneezing.

Encourage co-workers to go home (or stay home) if they aren’t feeling well. Remember that you can be contagious for a day before you feel ill… and up to seven days once the coughing, sneezing, fever and feeling miserable come on.

With such a rapidly changing situation, your best defense against A(H1N1) flu is to say informed - using Word Health Organization or Centers for Disease Control resources.

Of course it’s scary to think that a microscopic organism can move at will across the world and send so many of us healthy, far-more-advanced creatures to our beds. It’s hard to imagine something so small can really be that powerful. But it can.

Acknowledgements:

Kirsten Whittaker,
Daily Health Bulletin Editor

Sources:

Original article:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20090430/sc_
livescience/5essentialswineflusurvivaltips

Reuters story on hog industry and swine flu:
http://uk.reuters.com/article/healthNewsMolt/idUKTRE54060J20090501

Vice President Joe Biden’s ill-advised mass transit comments:
http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2009/05/01/2009-05-01_well_shut_his_mouth.html

LiveScience Info on face mask:
http://www.livescience.com/health/090126-flu-mask.html

World Health Organization (WHO) info on A(H1N1):
http://www.who.int/csr/disease/swineflu/en/index.html

Centers for Disease Control (CDC) swine flu info:
http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/


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