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    I am not worthy

    According to Australia

    Apparently, my skills aren’t as valuable as say, a chiropractor. Or an acupuncturist.

    I shouldn’t be upset though. Nor are Geologists, Chemists, Meteorologists, Cartographers, Biomedical Engineers....

    #2
    I am not worthy

    Pish tosh. A short-sighted way of handling immigration. Come, hobbes, take a test on the Canada Immigration Points Calculator . Score a 67 and mi casa es su casa.

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      #3
      I am not worthy

      Thanks for that link, Hobbes. Though I think it means I'll be able to rule myself out of emigration to either Canada or New Zealand.

      :-(

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        #4
        I am not worthy

        Well, maybe not literally. But you'd be welcome to my spare football tickets, anyway.

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          #5
          I am not worthy

          To be fair, computing professional does show up in the Migration Occupations on Demand list, unlike chiropractor or acupuncturist. Or journalist. But like pastry cook and hairdresser!

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            #6
            I am not worthy

            My job (support person) is worth 40 points. Hairdresser is 60.
            There is no justice...

            AG, surely to get a Visa for Canada I only have to be able to end a sentence without saying "eh?"

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              #7
              I am not worthy

              I'll be happy to provide you with a non-accredited acupuncture degree.

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                #8
                I am not worthy

                I'm worth 50 points! Which is not bad, seeing as I delegated all my work to other people months ago, and don't really do anything now. Still, Australis wants me, and I get a nice warm glow from feeling wanted.

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                  #9
                  I am not worthy

                  Hey AG, I scored 89!

                  (What does that mean? And do they take homosexuality into consideration?)

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                    #10
                    I am not worthy

                    hobbes wrote:
                    My job (support person) is worth 40 points. Hairdresser is 60
                    Havent you SEEN South Park?

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                      #11
                      I am not worthy

                      What's the deal with accupuncture, anyway? Is it a sham/psychosomatic or is there anything scientific to it?

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                        #12
                        I am not worthy

                        From what I've read, acupuncture does show some positive results, however it's thought to be placebo as in a controlled study they stuck some people in acupuncture points and some randomly and there wasn't any notable difference between the two.

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                          #13
                          I am not worthy

                          An 89 means you are welcome to immigrate and put up with our shitty weather more or less any time you like, provided you can come up with the 5 grand to get a lawyer to do the paper work.

                          Homosexuality is neither a plus nor a minus, but Toronto is the gay marriage capital of the entire world, according to the wholly unbiased source "torontogayweddings.com"

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                            #14
                            I am not worthy

                            What's the deal with accupuncture, anyway? Is it a sham/psychosomatic or is there anything scientific to it?
                            A lot of people who visit acupuncturists have an expectation of feeling better following acupuncture; as a result their symptoms improve.

                            However, there have been several blind tests where they've compared the likes of:

                            * Acupuncture needles in acupuncture points
                            * Acupuncture needles in non-acupuncture points
                            * Using hollow needles that feel like acupuncture needles ('sham acupuncture')
                            * Prodding people with toothpicks

                            The upshot is, there's never any difference between any of the methods

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                              #15
                              I am not worthy

                              Right - it's not exactly a sham, because it does something, which seems to extend beyond the placebo effect (although this is hard to determine, owing to the fact that people tend to notice whether or not there's a needle sticking in them). Sham acupuncture works as well as "proper" acupuncture, but they both work a bit.

                              Since application of needles does have a measurable effect - e.g. you can stick an acupuncture needle into a spasming muscle, and it will stop spasming - one possible answer is that it works as a kind of glorified massage, soothing muscle tension and so on.

                              What's 100% certain, though, is that acupuncturists' own explanations for how it works (unblocking the flow of mystical "energies" that cannot be measured or shown to exist, by mapping out a series of meridians which also cannot be shown to exist and happen to contradict everything we know about human anatomy, and inserting the needles in specific places) is one great big bowl of bollocks. As are their exaggerated claims about what acupuncture can and cannot achieve.

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                                #16
                                I am not worthy

                                Okay, so pretty much what I thought. Sounds like - from a scientific standpoint - it's as useful as prayer for curing minor aches and pains.

                                I get fairly frequent migraines in the spring when there are dramatic weather changes. Mrs WOM suggested I try going to the acupunturist that her friends goes to for back pain. I think going into it thinking it's a sham is going to negate any possible benefits.

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                                  #17
                                  I am not worthy

                                  Right - it's not exactly a sham, because it does something, which seems to extend beyond the placebo effect (although this is hard to determine, owing to the fact that people tend to notice whether or not there's a needle sticking in them). Sham acupuncture works as well as "proper" acupuncture, but they both work a bit.
                                  I have to disagree -- the sham is the control in this experiment and the 'genuine' acupuncture shows no effect over and above the control. You can't infer from that that acupuncture works. (In fact, this is the tactic the acupuncture lobby use to try and justify their treatment.)

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                                    #18
                                    I am not worthy

                                    I always thought it was like scratching an itch - when one of your nerves is sending messages to the brain, it hurts. So you scratch it, all the surrounding nerves send messages to the brain; brain gives up and ignores all the nerves; itch goes away. Only with more science involved.

                                    Doesn't acupuncture run along similar lines?

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                                      #19
                                      I am not worthy

                                      I was always under the impression that there were fairly valid explanations for how acupuncture worked for some things - alleviation of muscle pain, for example, by overstimulating nerves in certain very localised areas it reduced the nerve action elsewhere. And, again in terms of muscle pain, as Taylor says it can stop spasming for example.

                                      There's no reason to think it shouldn't work in some ways for muscle pain and muscle problems.

                                      As Taylor says, though, the explanations of flow lines and energies and the vital acupuncture points in, say, your toe, are dribbling nonsense. Even worse is the bollocks that's often spouted about how acupuncture can cure other things like depression, or cancer, or heart problems, or whatever. If it helps, it helps because you're lying still in a calm atmosphere with one person tending to you over that time, and giving you all kinds of other (often) useful advice on your lifestyle.

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                                        #20
                                        I am not worthy

                                        I was always under the impression that there were fairly valid explanations for how acupuncture worked for some things - alleviation of muscle pain, for example,
                                        Well yes--if you expect the pain in your muscles to decrease following acupuncture, it will. Pain is a very subjective thing.

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                                          #21
                                          I am not worthy

                                          Stumpy Pepys wrote:
                                          I have to disagree -- the sham is the control in this experiment and the 'genuine' acupuncture shows no effect over and above the control. You can't infer from that that acupuncture works. (In fact, this is the tactic the acupuncture lobby use to try and justify their treatment.)
                                          Yeah, I didn't explain that too well. What I was trying to say is that it's a bit of a fuzzy situation re. placebo, because there's no "sugar pill" equivalent - you have to actually poke people with something. So you don't get to check whether telling someone they've been poked with something would produce equivalent benefits to actual poking.

                                          What you do get to check, of course, is whether acupuncture has any benefits over and above this random poking, which it clearly does not.

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                                            #22
                                            I am not worthy

                                            Stumpy Pepys wrote:
                                            if you expect the pain in your muscles to decrease following acupuncture, it will. Pain is a very subjective thing.
                                            That's another theory for why this stuff "works", isn't it - something to do with the gate control theory?

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                                              #23
                                              I am not worthy

                                              I'd be interested to hear Spangles' thoughts on this. She does hypnobirthing, which (I'd imagine) is largely about controlling the pain messages that accompany childbirth.

                                              Now, having done hypnotherapy for my agoraphobia (and having believed in it going into it) perhaps there's a way of controlling migraine pain in a similar way. Which, um, might be the same principle as acupunture...which I don't believe in.

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                                                #24
                                                I am not worthy

                                                It's Callie who does hypnobirthing.

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                                                  #25
                                                  I am not worthy

                                                  Damn. I paused for a few seconds, too, thinking I'd gotten it wrong.

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