I'm just sittin' watching the wheels go round

I kind of have to laugh at some of the things I see by just sitting back and watching. I guess I have always been a bit of a people watcher. I used to like to sit and watch people during happy hour back in my younger days and when I drank. Today, with the internet though, there is so much more to see. One thing that I have really had a good skill of and that is to keep quiet and learn. You can learn so much by simply being observant. Just look at what works and what doesn't , the winners and the losers, what they did right or what they did wrong. People tell me I am a great cook and I do enjoy it. Everything I know about cooking has come from watching and doing. I suppose I have applied this simple technique to most of my life and it seems to work well for me. I am not really sure where or who the trait actually came from, but it had to be in the early years of my life.

Any way, I have been observing this one site for quite some time and just watching how the story unfolds. I find these people's behavior somewhat interesting only because of the way they have put their whole show together. The strange thing is that it is like watching a movie that you know how it will end because so many others have used the plot before. Then there is a second site that is involved and I will say that these two for some reason have a deep personality conflict. Again though the situation was so laid out that I could have bet on how each would have acted and won!

One of the sites is for the most part all original content in writing and style. The writer, who I have met and spent some time with is very sensible, cool, calm and collective. That is the usual case any way. It looks as though somehow these other people have found it easy to get under the guys skin. Now, the second site, the owners I do not know but through several emails, boast of being more than what they could hope to be by the way they do things. They never really write original content, except when they have an opinion. The claim to be the first (or real close) in putting a story out, yet most of their work is no more than copy and paste. I suppose if you copy some one's story and it was the first out, then you were close to being the first to print it??? And then they use the term I used to hear so much back when I was in the adult industry of "we are not in this for the money, we just enjoy it" "it is a labor of love". This statement is so rogue, especially when the site is covered with ads, pop-up and an area hidden to paying members only. They have said end of mention too many times to count only to bring the same issue up days later simply to ride out the traffic wave on a name. I suspect the other person has seen this too and this is what gets him going. I laughed hard at how this writer made mention of the others in a story back a couple of months ago. The dig was in words that only those who knew the background of the issue would know of whom he was speaking. To me, he showed class by this way of digging at them, where many readers were unaware of who he was talking about.

So now these two sites are in a word war ( I think this is the second or third) about stats and certain targeted keywords. Both sites are commercial, one is clear on that while the other claims not to be. One is well composed in design with relevant ads that blend is pretty well, while the other pages are constantly in error trying to cram as much advertising and plugins into one page as thay can. Both sites claim the other one have somehow inflated their stats or are not using the correct way and means to measure them. Why am I writing about this? Because I find it somewhat comical and in a way it intrigues me. I have never been a huge fan of stats myself other than where my readers and traffic come from. As far as how many? Well, you are reading this, you found it somehow and that is clear enough for me. This story is true and no names were mentioned intentionally because it happens all over the internet everyday.

Watch for the "play on words" links and advertisements

You really need to stop, look and read advertisement link, especially when the word "free" is involved. In most cases when the word "free" is used, you should avoid the link. However, there are many cases that the object truly is free and can be a useful item.



It simply requires a little more time and insight on what you are reading. Let's take in example one of the biggest uses of the "play on words" type of ad. "No credit application turned down" or "All credit applications will be accepted". Typically one might think that this means that your credit application will be approved. No! and time has taught most of us that this is not true. Read the words carefully. Both sentences mean the same thing. They will gladly take your credit application, but being approved is not mentioned.

This holds true in the computer software field as well. Many companies advertise "free download". Okay, fair enough the download is free, but then most every download is free. The question to the answer is, is the software free? or are you going to download a piece of software that can make system changes only to find that the software is a trial version. Before you click on the actual download for your "free download" take a look at the program, its functions and if the program is free, or just the download.

I am not saying there is anything wrong with trail software, in fact it can be good to try before you buy. It just kind of gets my goat to see tricks used to get a person to click on a ad. The honest company will provide you with the fact that the software is a trail version. Furthermore, they will provide you with a uninstall that will bring your computer back to the way it was before the trial software was installed. A good rule of thumb: if the software requires you to restart the computer, than it has made changes to your system files. The best way to protect yourself from problems when removing the trial software is to do make a restore point before you install any software.

Genes linked with lupus are revealed, giving hope for new treatments

Scientists have identified a number of genes involved in Lupus, a devastating autoimmune disease, in new research published today in the journal Nature Genetics.
In an international genetic study of more than 3,000 women, researchers found evidence of an association between Lupus (systemic lupus erythematosus or SLE) and mutations in several different genes.

The findings, by scientists from Imperial College London and institutions in the USA and Sweden, will enable researchers to investigate the specific pathways and precise molecular mechanisms involved in developing Lupus, potentially opening up options for new therapies. Lupus is a complex condition, mostly affecting women, which frequently causes skin rash, joint pains and malaise, and which can also lead to inflammation of the kidneys and other internal organs.

The scientists discovered the strongest associations with Lupus in three genes: ITGAM, PXK, and one mutation within a gene KIAA1542, a gene whose function is not definitely known.
The ITGAM gene provides code for a molecule involved in a system, known as the complement system, which forms part of the body's immune response. Complement is a series of proteins in the blood which is designed to stick to the surface of bacteria and bugs in order to enable them to be attacked by the immune system.

The discovery of variations in the ITGAM gene in people with Lupus supports the idea that abnormalities in the way complement and antibodies bind to immune cells play a key part in the disease. It is already known that people with Lupus often have low levels of complement in their blood.

The role of the molecules encoded by the PXK gene and KIAA1542 genes in Lupus is less easy to predict, and the discovery of their association is more surprising to the researchers, opening up new avenues of research into the disease.

Other genes, including LYN and BLK, also appear to be involved in Lupus. These genes affect the function of B cells, which play a key role in the production of antibodies. Autoantibodies, which attack the body's own proteins, contribute to the damage done to the body in Lupus.
The new research also confirms links identified in previous studies between Lupus, as well as other autoimmune diseases, and certain other genes.

Professor Timothy Vyse, a Wellcome Trust Senior Fellow from the Division of Medicine at Imperial College London, and one of the authors of the study, said: "Lupus is a complex disease, which is hard to diagnose, and it can cause many different and unpredictable problems for patients. Living with Lupus can be really tough. We currently can treat the disease by suppressing the immune system, but we urgently need to understand in much more detail what goes wrong with the immune system so that we can design better treatments. This study represents a milestone in progress towards unravelling the secrets of the disease.

"We are continuing to work on refining these genetic studies. Blood samples from patients with Lupus have helped us already and we are very grateful to those who have given us samples. We always need more samples and would like to hear from anyone with Lupus who would like to help us by giving blood samples for this important research," added Professor Vyse.
The researchers reached their conclusions after comparing the genetic makeup of 720 women of European descent with Lupus and 2,337 women without Lupus. They looked at mutations in the building blocks, called nucleotides, which make up DNA.

There are mutations in around one in every 600 nucleotides and the scientists examined over 317,000 how many of these mutations to find those specific to Lupus. These mutations are known as single-nucleotide polymorphisms.
The researchers confirmed their results by comparing another set of genetic data for 1,846 women with Lupus and 1,825 women without Lupus.

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The study was carried out by researchers in the International SLE consortium (SLEGEN), which includes scientists from the USA, Sweden and the UK. It was supported by the Alliance for Lupus Research and the National Institutes of Health.