HEADLINES [click on headline to view story]:

Your Health & Happiness

The Doctor's Consultation 

Agony Column

Camera Class by Snapshot

Dogs - Man’s best friend

Money Matters

Life in the Laugh Lane

Your Health & Happiness: Experts ponder on reasons for suicide

North has three times national average

Preeyanoot Jittawong

On June 8, the Department of Mental Health, along with Suan Prung Psychiatric Hospital, Chiang Mai, held a seminar concerning suicide prevention at Lotus Pang Suan Kaew Hotel, gathering experts from every sector to consult and exchange opinions on how to reduce suicides.

(From left) Dr. Apichai Mongkol, Department of Mental Health deputy director general; HE Anutin Charnvirakul, public health deputy minister; Dr. ML Somchai Jakrapan, director general of the Department of Mental Health and Dr. Wachira Pengjan, deputy director general of the Department of Mental Health.

With the increasing numbers, suicide is being regarded as one of the most serious problems that the Public Health Office has to face. WHO reports that seven persons out of a hundred thousand in Thailand commit suicide. The Northern region has the highest suicide rate, especially in Chiang Mai and Lamphun, which has three times higher figures than the average.

Chronic physical sickness, amputations and mental problems are the leading causes of suicide, and it appears that men are more prone to suicide than women. This has made the Ministry of Public Health develop a strategy for the 2005 “Healthy Thailand” to gather all experts to find a method to reduce suicides.

Residents in the northern region who are faced with problems or are under pressure can call for advice to the 24/7 hotline at the Suan Prung Psychiatric Hospital, Chiang Mai, 0 53 27 6750.

The Doctor's Consultation: Mischief down in the Carpal Tunnel

by Dr. Iain Corness

Do you get a feeling of numbness or tingling in your hands, especially at night? Do you find that your grip is becoming clumsy or weaker? Have you noticed that the flesh at the base of your thumb is becoming less? Maybe you are getting the Carpal Tunnel syndrome.

The symptoms from this very common condition are caused by pressure on the medial nerve, which runs into your hand, on the palm side of the wrist. The median nerve goes through a “tunnel” at the wrist, where the bottom and sides of the tunnel are formed by the wrist bones and the palm side of the tunnel, the roof, is covered by a strong band of ligamentous tissue.

This tunnel also contains the nine tendons that connect the muscles in your forearms to your fingers, to curl your fingers and thumb. These tendons are covered with a lubricating membrane called synovium which may enlarge and swell under some circumstances. If the swelling is sufficient, it may cause the median nerve to be pressed up against this strong ligament on the roof of the tunnel, resulting in the numbness, tingling in your hand, clumsiness or pain.

Some common causes and other conditions that can present this way include: repetitive and forceful grasping with the hands, repetitive bending of the wrist, broken or dislocated bones in the wrist which produce swelling, arthritis especially the rheumatoid type, thyroid gland imbalance, diabetes, hormonal changes associated with menopause and even pregnancy itself.

Now that we know what can cause the symptoms, just how do we go about securing the diagnosis? This is generally done by clinical examination, particularly if the orthopaedic surgeon can produce the symptoms by tapping over the course of the median nerve at the wrist, or by holding your wrists in a bent down position for one minute. However, the symptoms alone of decreased feeling in your thumb, index, and middle fingers, an electric shock or tingling feelings, and it all being worse at night almost clinches the diagnosis.

In some cases your doctor may recommend a special test called a nerve conduction study. This test, done by a specialist, determines the severity of the pressure on the median nerve and may aid your orthopaedic surgeon in making the diagnosis and forming a treatment plan.

Treatment can be ‘conservative’ (no operation), such as applying a brace or splint which is usually worn at night and keeps your wrist from bending. Resting your wrist allows the swollen and inflamed synovial membranes to shrink; relieving the pressure on the nerve. The usual medications also include short courses of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs).

In more severe cases, your doctor may advise a cortisone injection into the carpal tunnel itself. This injection spreads around the swollen synovial membranes, surrounding the tendons and shrinks them, and, in turn, relieves the pressure on the median nerve.

Whether or not the conservative treatment works will depend upon how quickly you seek help. Early diagnosis and treatment lessens the chances of your needing operative intervention.

If surgery is necessary, the surgeon divides the roof of the carpal tunnel to take the pressure off the median nerve. After surgery, your symptoms may be relieved immediately or shortly after. Numbness may remain for a period of time, particularly in older people or in more severe cases that have been ignored. It may also be several weeks before the patient can return to normal levels of physical activities, especially if the patient is a manual labourer.

The best course of action is rapid diagnosis and treatment.

Agony Column

Camera Class: Turn off your flash!

by Harry Flashman

One of the most usual reasons for washed out photographs is the all-pervading use of electronic flash. As soon as the most popular types of cameras arrived on the scene with built-in flash units, the world became pictured as a stark white place with dark, sharp-edged shadows. Unfortunately for the flash addicts, the world is actually a very colourful place with some shadows showing graduations in form and texture. Your on-camera flash does not know this. But you do!

Since photography is almost by definition, “Painting with Light”, it stands to reason that the different light you use can produce a different picture. The great celestial lighting technician that supplies the sunlight is not the only form of illumination these days.

The weird thing about light sources is that they all impart a different colour to your photographs. This colour shift or colour bias is not necessarily obvious to the naked eye - but the film sees it and records it. After all, the camera never lies, does it?

The first and most obvious difference is in the early morning and late afternoon lighting. The morning light has a certain “coldness” to it and imparts a blue tinge to the overall photograph. The late afternoon we call a “warmer” light and gives a warm almost “orange” glow to any item in the shot receiving the sun’s rays. This why late afternoon shots are so pleasing.

Another very common light source is the standard house type light bulb. This is again another very “warm” light and any photographs taken under incandescent (tungsten) bulbs will have a warm orange cast through them. This is particularly noticeable with colour slide film. With the modern photo-processors, the machine attempts to filter out the orange or green, but this is usually done at the expense of human skin tones. So if you end up looking a little blue, that’s probably the reason - the machine was trying to get rid of the red face you had before!

Of course, you the photographer can try to filter out the colour cast as well. You can either put a filter in front of the lens like the 81A that I use on the front of all my lenses to slightly “warm” the skin tones, all the way through to using blue gels in front of incandescent bulbs to counteract the orange from the tungsten type light source.

Another wild light source is Infra-red light. This section of the normal sun’s rays can be split off by a special infra-red sensitive film. This gives you a black and white print, but items that are normally green will often turn out white and blue sky ends up dark grey or black.

Unhappily, the photograph with this week’s column is in black and white newsprint (but if you go to the web version of the newspaper, you will get it in colour). Two different light sources were used, and in the colour prints, there is no doubt about which is the better. The upper shot was taken with no flash at night, just the ambient lighting in the restaurant foyer. In the lower shot, the flash was used as the light source.

In the upper one, there is that warm tungsten glow. The banister is a warm red colour and the steps reflect a warm russet colour. You can also see that the sweeping staircase actually goes somewhere. Now look at the lower one - stark washed out white, with a dark hole above the staircase. Even the steps are white. A bleak and uninviting shot. (If you are having problems imagining this, then please go to the web version of the paper.)

Of course, trial and error is one of the most important parts of photography. Getting ‘record’ shots is not difficult these days with auto-everything cameras, but great (or even just pleasing) shots do take skill, initiative, practice and knowledge - which in turn just comes from having tried it before.

This weekend, be a little daring and try a different light source - but do turn the flash off - it is pure “white” light and no fun at all!

Dogs - Man’s best friend: Pointing Dogs – Breed group nr.7

Nienke Parma

Breed group 7 also consists of hunting dog breeds. The difference with group 6 breeds is in the role they play during the hunt. In the early days, when the field guns were still slow-loading, the hunter needed a special hunting dog. The Pointer and the Setter were the result.

A German Rough-haired Pointer with the name Haarlo.

A pointer, such as the English and German Pointer Vizla and Weimaraner, will stand stock still as soon as the scent of the quarry is localized with one foreleg raised, head held high and tail held out stiffly behind, with the whole of its rigid body pointing precisely at the spot where the quarry is hiding. A setter (e.g. Irish and English Setter) also points, but then it will crouch down (i.e. to set). Once the hunter is in the right position for the shoot, the dog is allowed to flush the quarry from its hiding place. Most dogs were used for the hunt mainly for birds, especially water birds, resulting in the dogs’ enormous passion for water and swimming.

The more all-round breeds, next to the pointing or setting and flushing, also retrieve the prey. Some of the breeds had as secondary task to guard house and property, making that some of them may act neutral or assume an attitude of expectation toward strangers (e.g. the Dutch Stabyhoun). However, none of them are real watch dogs.

In general the dogs of this breed group are friendly natured, patient, stable, and attached to their family. Due to their very lively and energetic nature with huge stamina they need a lot of exercise, although they are quite adaptable to a bit less for a short while. However, when proper exercise really starts lacking, then these dogs can easily develop over-active and nervous behavior, especially the long-haired varieties are prone this.

Pretty much all breeds are playful, curious, very alert in their environment and easy to motivate. Many breeds are owner-oriented, meaning they eagerly work with their owner. Nevertheless, these dogs need a strong and consistent approach. It is when the owner does not pay enough attention to them then these somewhat self-willed dogs will make up their own minds and will find their own ways to entertain themselves. Especially once outside, these dogs rather follow their nose instead of their owner. In order to control this hunting passion these dogs need a considerable amount of training.

For more information on dog-issues, boarding,-training or behavior please contact LuckyDogs: 09 99 78 146 or look at our website: www. luckydogs.info

Money Matters: US Liquidity Bubble - Will it get bigger or burst?

Alan Hall
MBMG International Ltd.

For some time now, we’ve been of the view that the liquidity bubble in the US is unsustainable because it has created a whole raft of artificial and unsustainable investment conditions. As we highlighted recently some analysts are bullish on US corporates because they see healthy balance sheets and lean operations - operating conditions that might be expected to be positive.

However, most US business leaders seem reluctant to commit capital and have even been doing record amounts of stock selling and stock option exercising. What do they know that the talking heads on CNBC don’t? Probably nothing, with absolute certainty. But they probably do share our general unease at the gap between perceptions based on artificial assumptions and the reality that looks like it’s going to bite soon.

When you build on sand you don’t know when your castle will topple over; you just know that sooner or later it will. Belkin has continually, and with considerable justification, blamed Greenspan and the Fed for pursuing policies over the last few years that have had the effect of widening this reality gap when austerity measures were need to bridge it. More and more articles seem to be coming out now recognising that all is not well and that interest rates are a symptom of whatever the disease may be. Jonathan Fuerbringer’s recent article in the NYT “When Greenspan Is Stumped, Investors Should Play It Safe” could be the first of many warning calls.

He starts by asking what is an investor to do when Alan Greenspan says he cannot explain why longer-term interest rates are so low. He then highlights a number of money managers who feel that the time has now come to take cover, as they have the same problem as Mr. Greenspan. They also cannot understand the decline of longer-term rates despite six increases in short-term rates by Fed policy makers since June.

In mid-February, Mr. Greenspan said in testimony to Congress, “This development contrasts with most experience, other things being equal, increasing short-term interest rates are normally accompanied by a rise in longer-term yields.”

Instead, the yield on the Treasury’s 10-year note has fallen to 4.26 percent from 4.69 percent at the end of June 2004, despite a climb of 1.5 percentage points in the central bank’s short-term rate benchmark, to 2.5 percent.

While Mr. Greenspan cited many possible reasons for this unusual happening, he ultimately concluded that “it remains a conundrum.”

That’s enough to make Paul A. McCulley, portfolio manager and economist at Pimco, cautious. “When the Fed chairman says he’s scratching his dome, you should be scratching yours. You should always be wary when the central bank says an asset price is aberrant.”

Thomas H. Atteberry, a manager of the New Income Fund at First Pacific Advisors in Los Angeles, agrees, adding of Mr. Greenspan, “He’s the guy who is supposed to have all the information and he is telling me he doesn’t know why. Why commit capital to a long-term investment when you don’t understand why it’s valued that way?”

Both McCulley and Atteberry believe longer-term rates will rise. Pimco has reduced its exposure to the Treasury market, and Mr. Atteberry said he was staying away from it. McCulley said Pimco had not participated in a popular Treasury trade in which shorter-term securities are sold and longer-term ones are bought. This is called a flattening trade - a bet that the yield on longer-term securities will fall, or at least rise more slowly, than the yield on shorter-term securities. It has proved profitable with the unexpected decline in longer-term yields.

Atteberry has 40 percent of his money as far from Treasuries as possible without stuffing it into a mattress. It is in money market funds. Most of the rest is in mortgage and agency securities, which he said would fare better than Treasury securities in a rising rate environment. McCulley argues that longer-term rates will rise partly because one factor now holding them down may soon vanish. Unlike other explanations, including the buying of Treasuries by foreign central banks and a general preference among investors worldwide for putting their excess savings into American bonds, this one is obscure. But Wall Street has not overlooked it.

Basically, this involves plans announced on Jan. 10 by the Labour Department to shore up the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, the federal agency that insures pension funds. On Wall Street, McCulley said, the announcement was viewed as a step toward advocating that pension funds invest more in long-term notes and bonds.

McCulley says he believes that hedge funds, eager to be ahead of the game, have increased their purchases of longer-term securities since the announcement. One sign of this could be the sharp decline in the spread, or difference in the yields, of the Treasury’s so-called 30-year bond, which matures in 2031, and the current 10-year note. That spread was 0.38 percent on Friday, smaller than the 0.57 percent just before the announcement.

The change means that 30-year bonds have been in much greater demand than 10-year notes. McCulley expects this run to exhaust itself as soon as speculators see that the change for pension funds will come very slowly; this reversal in demand should cause 30-year bond yields to rise, ending what Alan Greenspan identified as “a short-term aberration.” In other words, the normal upward tilt of longer-term rates could return. How long the economy can stand these higher rates then becomes the very next question.

The above data and research was compiled from sources believed to be reliable. However, neither MBMG International Ltd nor its officers can accept any liability for any errors or omissions in the above article nor bear any responsibility for any losses achieved as a result of any actions taken or not taken as a consequence of reading the above article. For more information please contact Alan Hall on alan@mbmg-international.com

Life in the Laugh Lane: Nap Attack

by Scott Jones

Thais know how to nap … at anytime, on anything, anywhere. Even at work, if a nap attack hits, they’re gone. Like Thai dogs asleep on the line in the middle of the road, the nappers appear to have been dropped into their spots from a helicopter. Photo 1: Perfect time for a bargain. Shake her, hand her some coins and leave before she’s coherent. If a manager found her sleeping on the merchandise in the USA, her next nap would be in an unemployment line. Photo 2: I wanted to buy a CD player but I thought he might be dead. If he was, no one would have noticed anything unusual for days. Photo 3: Scary. Did she slash her wrists with the scissors? To sleep in her guest house, I had to wake her up.

Officially, NAP stands for “Not Available, Period.” Or “Nowhere At Present.” Or “Nearly A Potato” depending on the country, situation or how much you believe what I write in this column. Mankind has benefited remarkably from famous nappers. If the apple hadn’t fallen from the tree onto dozing Newton, he may not have defined gravity as the force preventing folks from hurtling into space. (Before this event, people thought they stuck to the earth because the world sucks.) Inventor of the light bulb, record player, etcetera, etcetera, Edison got inspiration from that elusive state between sleep and consciousness. He’d nap in his chair while holding a rock in his hand. As he drifted away, he’d drop the rock. Awakened by the noise, he’d create reality from his dreams. (Near the end of his career, he invented thick shag carpeting and couldn’t hear the rock.)

The late Ronald Reagan was a phenomenal Nap Star, spending seven of his eight presidential years living in the Land of Nod. Fortunately or unfortunately, he could still talk, act and invade tiny islands in the Caribbean while asleep. (Someone mentioned Grenada, but he heard “a grenade” and sent several branches of the armed forces to take it away from them. To keep the military awake, America routinely tests its nuclear strength on nations armed with coconuts and empty rum bottles.)

In spite of this Model Governmental Somnambulist, napping in America is not politically correct, except at home on Sunday afternoons after football games. (I preferred during.) Phone someone and ask: “Sorry, did I wake you?” Reply: “No, no, I never sleep. I’ve just started three companies while taking my kids to ballet class before doing my taxes while I jog.” Actually catch them napping in person: “Oh, not a nap. I’m meditating with the Nepalese Occult Neurological System Employing Nonexistent Subatomic Energy.” (NONSENSE)

My grandfather used his daily afternoon siesta as a vehicle into his next life. In his favorite armchair, with his pipe in his lap, he peacefully drifted away to Grandfatherland. When my friend Warren heard my song about it, he said: “That’s very similar to my grandpa. He quietly passed away in his sleep, unlike the people screaming in the back seat of the car he was driving.”

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