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a culture of service...
April, 2012
© 2012, Hardy Diagnostics,
all rights reserved
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For long term storage...
CryoSavers
Do you freeze organisms for long term storage? Hardy has the ideal product for you. CryoSavers feature:
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Color coded caps
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Color coded cap inserts
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Brucella or Skim Milk formulations
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With or without beads
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Moisture-proof ID card included
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Hinged lid container included
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Many accessories offered
Learn more
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Craving your comments...
How are we doing?
Are you a Hardy customer? If so, we need your help in assessing our performance.
At Hardy Diagnostics, we are fanatics about implementing Continuous Improvement. Would you please take a moment to answer two questions?
It should only take a minute or two and would be an immense help to us in honing our skills.
Provide some feedback...
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Do the entire test in 5 minutes!
Rapid
MRSA Testing
Did you know that there are now more deaths in America due to MRSA than HIV/AIDS?
Now there's a five minute test for MRSA that does not require any heating or sample prep.
The Alere PBP2a, offered by Hardy, is a rapid lateral flow test for MRSA that is even simpler to use than latex agglutination. A perfect method when you need to know right away.
See
the brochure
See
the Hardy catalog listing
Request
a price quote
If a chromogenic method on plated media is desired, Hardy also offers the
HardyCHROM MRSA plate
.
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Brainteasers
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Phraseology
"
Son of a Gun
"
Do guns have sons?
Here is where this odd phrase came from: in the 1800s, British sailors at times took women with them on extended voyages.
When babies were born at sea, the mothers delivered them in a partitioned section of the gundeck.
Because no one could be sure who the true fathers were, each of these "gunnery" babies was jokingly called a "son of a gun."
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Think about it...
* Health nuts are going to feel stupid someday, lying in a hospital, dying of nothing.
* How is it that we put man on the moon before we figured out it would be a good idea to put wheels on luggage?
* Why is it that people say they "slept like a baby" when babies wake up like every two hours?
* If a deaf person has to go to court, is it still called a hearing?
* Why are you IN a movie, but you're ON TV?
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Wisdom to ponder...
Mikhail Gorbachev
"America must be the teacher of democracy, not the advertiser of the consumer society."
"What the 21st century will be like depends on whether we learn the lessons of the 20th century and avoid repeating its worst mistakes."
"It will not be enough to rely on experts. Ordinary citizens must become experts too."
"It will take public opinion on a wide scale to ensure that world leaders act."
"I believe in the cosmos. All of us are linked to the cosmos. Look at the sun. If there is no sun, then we cannot exist. So nature is my god. To me, nature is sacred. Trees are my temples and forests are my cathedrals."
"Why not? "
(when asked by a reporter in 1989 if the Berlin wall should come down)
"What we need is Star Peace and not Star Wars."
"If not me, who? And if not now, when?"
"If what you have done yesterday still looks big to you, you haven't done much today."
"Surely, God on high has not refused to give us enough wisdom to find ways to bring us an improvement in relations between the two great nations on earth."
"The market is not an invention of capitalism. It has existed for centuries.
It is an invention of civilization."
"The soviet people want full-blooded and unconditional democracy."
"My life's work has been accomplished. I did all that I could."
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QUICK LINKS...
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Want to receive the MicroBytes
Newsletter
at home?
CLICK HERE
Want to review past issues
of MicroBytes?
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Did you know?
Hardy Diagnostics...
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Is celebrating its 32nd year of serving microbiologists.
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Maintains eight distribution centers in the U.S. for faster turn around time to your lab.
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Is
ISO 13485
certified for the manufacture of medical devices to give you confidence in our products.
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Offers you its technical manual,
HUGO
, which contains over 4,500 pages of information regarding microbiology.
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Maintains a worldwide network of over 40
distributors.
Send a
message to the president
.
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Micro Musings..
The Uncultured Masses
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A Case History
Name That Pathogen
A female infant born in New Mexico was delivered vaginally at full term.
She had been fed powdered infant formula since birth. At four weeks old, a family member noted that she had a fever of 100.9 deg. F., and consequently was taken to the emergency room. She was observed then discharged without treatment, but returned to the ER again after becoming fussier, vomiting, and exhibiting seizure-like activity.
This time, she was found to have a bulging fontanel, severe neck stiffness, and dehydration. Cerebrospinal fluid revealed a bacterial infection, but the blood cultures were negative. After 11 weeks of hospitalization and receiving extensive antibiotic therapy, the infant was discharged with severe brain injury.
What would be your best guess as to the cause of this serious infection?
See if you are right
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Attention Food Microbiologists...
EZ Environmental testing for Salmonella
Now there's an easy and reliable test for Salmonella that can be read out in 24 hours. Simply collect your specimen with the Enviroswab, inoculate the tube, incubate, and look for a yellow color change.
Learn more...
See the catalog listing...
Also available for
Listeria
...
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Coming in 2013
...
A New Tax
on Petri Plates?
Next year there will be a new tax on all medical devices sold in America.
In 2010, Congress passed the Affordable Healthcare Act, sometimes referred to as "Obamacare," which calls for a new 2.3% tax on medical devices. This will have an affect on clinical microbiology, since all culture media intended for diagnostic use is considered by the FDA to be a medical device.
This 2.3% tax comes off the "top line," i.e. from the gross receipts of the provider, not the net profit. It is predicted that many companies will owe more in taxes than they generate in profits from operations.
The Medical Device Manufacturer's Association (MDMA) claims that this new tax will stifle innovation, ultimately harm patient care, and eliminate jobs. In addition, it will cause American manufacturers to be less competitive in the global marketplace, jeopardizing an industry in which American companies have traditionally dominated due to superior innovation.
Undoubtedly, the prices for culture media will have to be increased. The MDMA is actively pushing to have this portion of the Healthcare Act repealed.
The 2.3% tax is a little known feature of the new healthcare legislation. The bill consists of 2,700 pages, of which few have taken the time to read. The bill's authors claim that this 2.3% tax will generate about $20 billion in additional revenue for the federal government over the next 10 years. This tax is one of 24 new taxes that will fund the new healthcare legislation.
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Take the Challenge!
Connect all nine dots
with no more than four straight lines,
without lifting your pen from the paper.
Hint: you may have to "think outside the box."
See the answer.
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"Believe half of what you see
and none of what you hear."
~ Marvin Gaye
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The MicroBytes Survey
In what state is your favorite vacation place?
Take our survey
and tell your fellow MicroBytes readers where you like to vacation.
Results will be published next month.
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See the survey results from last month...
Should the Government fund High-speed Rail?
The proposed bullet train from Southern California to Las Vegas.
On March 14th, the US Senate passed a bill that will provide $109 billion to improve rail transit infrastructure, which includes funding for high-speed rail. California is embarking on a $68 billion project to provide high-speed (220 mph) rail service from Anaheim to San Francisco. In addition, a $6.5 billion project is planned to take gamblers from Southern California to Las Vegas on a 150 mph train. Congress is being heavily lobbied to help fund these projects. Is this a good use of taxpayer dollars?
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"The income tax has made more liars
out of the American people
than golf has."
Will Rogers
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"Drink is the curse of the land.
It makes you fight with your neighbor.
It makes you shoot at your landlord and
it makes you miss him."
Irish Proverb
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We're giving away one
free kindle
every month to those who "like us"!
Answer to giraffe illusion:
Look on the neck of the giraffe for the word "giraffe."
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