a drug treatments for ebola with weak or absolutely no clinical data are better than no treatment at all. This was not a case of "making stuff up". The various experimental therapies had good results in lab animals that had been deliberately infected with Ebola and had passed the "Phase 1" trials (that's where you give it to healthy volunteers and see what the best tolerated dose it) successfully. The other therapy - transfusing plasma from people who have had Ebola and recovered - has a long history of actually working against a wide variety of diseases. Tetanus, diphtheria, and rabies treatments currently use a refined version of immunoglobulin therapy. The problem with the essential oils, the probiotics, etc is that they have had absolutely ZERO testing for a protective effect against anything in lab animals ... against anything. There may be a study or two showing they work in a petri dish, but it's a long way from there to working in live animals.

I disagree with Talus' broad statement. It depends very much on what brand appliances you are looking to buy. Some brands, such as Subzero and Wolf, have prices subject to UMRP, and there will be no price discount regardless of where you are shopping for them. Often stores selling UMRP brands will offer non-cash items to encourage the sale such as free delivery and installation, extended warranty, or a larger discount on another brand appliance you might also be buying. For those brands not under UMRP, the discount will vary depending on your region, the popularity of the appliance, whether the appliance is the most recent model or last year's, the incentives provided by the manufacturer on that given month, and the general sales goals and volume of a particular store. My advice to you is to make a list of the appliances you want, specifying brand and model number, and shop them around. See where you get the best deal, and sometimes that deal may involve non-cash incentives which are worthwhile. Also, don't go for a package of all one brand. It'll be tempting, but is not a good strategy. I'll link a recent thread on that topic. Here is a link that might be useful: Thread about Appliance Packages

" I've always gone in spurts with my reading." Me, too, although there is always an undercurrent of at least one book going on. My Biggest Reading Year was 2009. I read 147 books In the last seven months of that year. Part of that mania was getting my first kindle and being able to get books at any moment. I downloaded books in the middle of the night, just because I could. I was like a drug addict in a full police evidence room. Part of it also is that I was taking classes at Oxford that summer and had to read like a maniac just to keep up. For every sentence spoken in a class, you could tell there had been at least five books read on the subject....that's why I quit my book club for awhile afterwards, I could not bear to hear anyone say pettishly, "Well, I just didn't like it, that's all, no reason I can put my finger on really." That frenetic pace slowed down in 2010 when I went back to work full time (and more). This year I am reading even less as we can finally connect our movie screen directly to Netflix and I am catching up on 20 years of BBC and ITV episodes and shows---Foyle's War, Inspector Lewis (which they filmed at the Randolph when I was in Oxford), Spooks, even Pie in the Sky (hanging head here). We havent had tv since 1998 and never had cable so this is all new to me :-)

norar-I love Louise Penny too-the books are so lyrical, and her blog is great. She just writes it like an email to a friend, typos and all. This morning she wrote about winning the Nero Award last night with Bury Your Dead and she is so excited! It is cute. yoyo-Jacqueline Winspear is a favorite of mine as well. When you say "the last" one-is she ending the series? sigh. I seem to find and fall in love with authors who wrote a while ago, and so their books are often OOP-consequently abebooks.com and I are getting to be great buddies. Fortunately, when I made my "no new full-price book purchases for a year" I specifically excluded used books. Elizabeth Daly is an author whose books I was compelled to track down, acquire, and read in order. Reading a series out of order makes me twitchy. Here is a link that might be useful: Louise Penny's blog