This
is my blog, where I record interesting and useful
things I have
learned in life. I spent the first ⅓ of my life in Europe (in
Switzerland, to be exact) obtaining an education, the next ⅓ in the
United States (Seattle and New York) building a scientific career, and
now plan to spend another ⅓ (well, perhaps not quite) in Asia (Beijing).For those of you who need to set up a Palm Treo
750v with a
China Mobile SIM card, here are the steps you need to take: Click on Start, then Settings.
On the Connections tab,
click on Connections.
Under My ISP,
click on Add a new modem connection.
Enter a
convenient name such as ChinaMobile and choose Cellular
Line (GPRS, 3G). Cick on Next,
then
under Access point name
enter cmnet. Click on Next
and leave everything else blank. That's it. It's really very easy, now
that I know how to do it, but it took me quite a while to find all the
relevant information. After clicking on Connections,
under My Work Network,
you may click on Set up my proxy server
and enter 10.0.0.172 as its
internet address but in my experience this is not even necessary.
(1
Sep 2006) Language
can teach us much about
differences and
communalities between populations. For example, a list of numbers of
individuals surviving given age groups (survival analysis) is called a life-table
.
In German, however, the same thing is known as a Sterbetafel (=
death table
).
It's like a glass being half full or half empty. On the other hand,
many things are similar in otherwise different populations. For
example, consider the little man called Rumpelstilzchen in
the Grimm
brothers' fairy tales ("Ach, wie gut, daß niemand weiß,
daß ich Rumpelstilzchen heiß"). As soon as the miller's
daughter knows his name, his power over her is lost. Compare this with
current American usage of words. Race
has often been used to marginalize people, so we are not to use this
word any longer -- it has now been replaced by ethnicity (bad
behavior disappears
if the name connected with it disappears!). Similarly, conservative
America no longer likes the word sex
to identify whether an individual is male or female, so it's been
replaced by gender.
Nomen est omen!
If
you are allergic to
one of the commercial shampoos, here is
a way of preparing your own completely natural and mild shampoo.
Prostate.
In most men past a
certain age, benign prostate enlargement
occurs. Nowadays this is not life-theatening but in earlier times it
led to death when the urinary tract was completely blocked (Casanova
died this way). While there seem to be various medications available
for this condition, a natural and very effective treatment exists: Tea
made from the Small-Flowered
Willow
herb (Kleinblütiges
Weideröschen in German), Epilobium
parviflorum. Well-known in Europe, this
plant has been collected for a long time (Treben 1988) for its use
against prostate enlargement and even prostate cancer (Treben 1980); it
is also beneficial in cases of urinary infections in men and women. My
mother used to collect many plants in the fall. They grow wild on
borders of meadows and along paths in the forest. The plant is a
perennial growing to 60 cm. It is in flower from summer through autumn.
The flowers are hermaphrodites (have both male and female organs) and
are pollinated by bees and hoverflies. Flower diameter is approx. 6-9
mm and leaves are 3-7 cm long.
The whole plant may be collected
although the leaves seem to be what's most useful. Be sure to collect
the small-flowered variety. Dried leaves or whole plants are available
from many herb farms. Note: This information is based on the cited
literature and personal experience and experience from people I know;
it is not based on "approved" medical knowledge. My doctor sports a
strange smile on his face when I tell him about this herb but it works
nonetheless.
