Monday, January 31, 2005

Paper dolls.

December 11th " steel iron ninja girl connected tongue of 2004 it is it is " papercraft

" The steel iron pumpkin girl lanthanum it is it is " trial manufacture 3 machine " stealth attack type model LT03 "


Translated link...

you cut out the print out and then assemble the paper doll...original Japanese page here

We report, you decide...

Fashion statement

With your Red Dress, you should wear an orange scarf and show your purple finger...

The white plague take two

Few American docs have seen TB...but it is making a comeback due to HIV and homelessness.

However, in rural areas, we don't see a lot. Some of the IHS (Indian Health Service) docs see it, as do those working with Mexican and Asian immigrants.

My husband's father died of TB during the depression. My husband had tb as a lowgrade chronic infection while in medical school, so he treated himself with black market Streptomycin shots...and was "cured" , i.e. went into an inactive state.

The bad news is that Streptomycin affected his hearing, and so he can barely hear without a strong hearing aid.

The TB germ is a slow infection. When you first get it, it takes a couple weeks to build up your immune system. The body activates WBC to wall it off and destroy it. Until those cells get "sensitized", the infection is easy to overlook--a typical "primary" TB is pneumonia with effusion. And primary TB may spread to other organs-- one terrible form is tb meningitis, or tb of the bones, a slow painful killer.

In poor countries, they "vaccinate" for TB with BCG vaccine, that makes the sensitive wbc 's...such a person still may get "secondary" type tb, but it saves hundreds of children from meningitis etc.

Typical tb is a slow chest infection. You get a chronic cough, low fever, fatigue, and can last for years. It is quite infectious to those in the same home or room---which is why a foodhandler with tb might infect hundreds ( about 20 years ago, this occured in the US Congress cafeteria).

On X ray, you see cavities in the upper lung field, where the wbc's walled off the infection unsuccessfully, and you get "tubercles"-- think of them as pus pockets full of cheesy foul pus. If one breaks open, you can get pneumonia in the lower lungs where the pus spread. And, of course, coughing hard can break the fragile blood vessles in the walls of the tubercle, killing by hemoptysis.

One terrible story was at an Indian clinic where I worked 30 years ago...the tribe was demonstrating in front of a hospital against the doctor in charge. It seems that one of the elders was hospitalized and they missed it was TB...instead of tranferring to a larger center for bronchosopy to discover if cancer or tb was causing his pneumonia, they just treated him routinely...(the head doctor was under pressure not to transfer because of lack of funding). As a result, he started spitting up massive blood (hemoptysis)...and they flew him out...in the local air ambulance, which at the time was the Cessna owned by the local funeral director...the unpressurized airplane flight made things worse, and he essentially exanguinated and died in the plane...

Thank God we don't see such things any more...and the IHS, despite chronic underfunding, now has much more local input (and even tribal adminstration) running their hospitals...which now have to meet national standards. They still serve a need-- you still need docs specialized in TB, Diabetes, and cross cultural sensitivity---but their standards are no longer second class...

Ben Nighthorse Campbell, call your office....

Sunday, January 30, 2005

The White Plague

Multidrug resistent TB is a potential time bomb...

Hmong refugees often have to be treated before they enter the US.

Luckily, most "positive cases" are positive skin tests or scarring on x rays without active disease...

But one active case could spread it.

Few younger American docs have seen active TB-- I saw a lot in Africa, and still recognize cases.

My last diagnosed case was a Native American lady who had a history of TB and her sputum looked suspicious, and the x rays of her old scars seemed to show the walls of her scars were thicker than her last hospital visit...six weeks later her sputum was positive, and staff went into a panic, since she wasn't isolated at first (once we took sputums, we started treatment, and usually you aren't infectious after two weeks of treatment).

Ironically, they were more mad at me than the patient...like it was my fault she had tb.

Go figure

New Red State?

New Red State

Thumbs up from the voters....

CNN reports 72% Turnout...

Scrappleface has his own opinion:

(2005-01-30) -- News reports of terrorist bombings in Iraq were marred Sunday by shocking graphic images of Iraqi "insurgents" voting by the millions in their first free democratic election.

Teddy Kennedy, call your office...

My honey...when he still had hair... Posted by Hello
And how are YOU feeling today? Posted by Hello
Haloscan commenting and trackback have been added to this blog.

Slow news day take two

Whoops...the photo for an article about Brazil's growing problem with obesity showed...European tourists...

And he's not the only photographer in trouble for faking photographs...(via Instapundit) ObsidianOrderBlog discusses why a vivid photo of a car bomb was probably staged....

As for really serious news: Did you know "trout pout" surgery can cause mad cow disease?

But the good news (via DaveBarryBlog) is that Beer can save your life...

And how is YOUR day?

Saturday, January 29, 2005

Your tax dollars at work

National Wear Red Day

Ah, but your red dress clashes with your pink ribbon and your blue and yellow bracelets. And make sure it matches your Kabbalah string bracelet...

No wonder one of the sponsors is Macy's...(scroll down on the right)...

and, of course, another sponsor is a drug company who sells anti cholesterol medicines...

When I read of such non sequitor movements, I am reminded of Allen Sherman's story of why he was fat...

"Hail to thee, fat person, you kept us out of war"

(but you look lousy in that red dress)...

Manna from heaven

Wonder how soon you can buy this on ebay?


Bats in the Belfry

Global warming is the reason we have this

It's all Bush's fault...

Friday, January 28, 2005

BMJ apologize

Nope, the big bad drug company didn't destroy records of prozac side effects...

Even sportswriters should be aware that you check your sources before printing potentially explosive accustions...after all, who do you think you are, CBS?

Here is an example of other scholarly articles by this esteemed editor....

It's a long list of pop science, starting with the first article: Viagra rationed...and ending with the article Butchers and gropers, media coverage of medical malpractice

The problem is not that he is slick (for example, one can imagine the headline: alpha feto protein level variations in in sick Sikhs: a population study...)

But having an editor who specializes in slick interviews and reporting on policy conferences is okay, but medical journals are supposed to report experiments and hard data...not make up stuff...

Dan Rather, call your office...


Want to speak in Clicks?

Phonetic alphabet hmmm...

Clicks found here...




Religious persecution....

I believe this report, because my Filippina cousin says that when she worked there as a nurse, she was forced to throw her rosary away before they let her enter the country...





Thursday, January 27, 2005

America...F....Yeah

Oliver Stone laments: 'You can't be controversial on TV, you'd get killed in America'

It's terrible to see an aging hippie no longer be aware of the cutting edge, but still thinks he is hip.




Kenny, call your office...




Gift Idea

A "Hello Kitty" MP3 player...

slow news day.

I am slow in posting medicine today, because all the headlines are nonsense: Obvious stuff like "the sky is blue", not news.

80% of doctors see mistakes
....Duh. I have seen 30+ patients a day, five to seven days a week, for 40 years. That comes to 360,ooo patient encounters...now, if I said I never made a mistake I'd be lying---and if you include things missed by honest error, and the untoward side effects of treatment, you have a lot of "errors"...If I were sued for every one, I'd be living in the courts.

The problem is that the "cure" is usually to "document" better. But the more time you spend documenting trivia, the less time you have to spend talking to the patient about what is really important to them (and often discovering the reason behind their illnesses, for example, that meth induced their heart attack, or the spousal abuse behind their fibromyalgia)...

Then we have:

Drinking water can cause problems
Yup. That's why they invented Gatoraide. Does the reporter own stock in that company?

Half of Premies disabled
... not the 4 pound premies, but the tiny little ones at 26 weeks...But another way of writing the headline would be "Half of very early prematures saved have no major medical problems"...

Caring for these tiny ones is one reason our health care costs are so high...so make the headline negative, and you imply two PC things: One, don't waste money treating these tiny babies, they're only going to be retards. Two: you imply partial birth abortion is okay, because if you delivered the kid, the kid would be a gook anyway...and better off dead.

Then there is "Seattle fittest, Houston fattest"....This is, of course, implies redstaters are lazy...but I suspect the real reason is that Seattle has a lot of fitness loving yuppies who imigrated there, and Houston has a lot of poor Hispanic immigrants, and the dirty little secret is that Hispanics, like American Indians, have a high rate of metabolic syndrome, associated with obesity and Diabetes...

And the ultimate slow news day headline: the TV show I just KNOW you want to watch...Katie Couric talks sex
Thank GOD for animal planet...






Foghorn Leghorn alert

The World slasher cup video is now out...

Few Americans realize that the sport of cockfighting is popular in many countries, including the Philippines....and an entire industry has grown up around this "sport"...

Here in Oklahoma, people finally got around to outlawing this bloody sport in 2002...but some want to revive a safer version of the $100 million dollar business...

by placing tiny boxing gloves and safety vests on the little creatures...

Henny Penny call your office, the sky is NOT falling




AHHGGGH FLU

Flu hit today. The radio said the local public health department is reporting only sporadic cases, but we had three cases today....

How to diagnose flu? You walk in the room and see a young person with a heavy jacket on, or a blanket, usually lying flat on a very uncomfortable examination table and often with the mom/grandmom/cousin sitting in the chair (i.e. they needed someone to drive them to the doctor).

This is Oklahoma, so most cases have been sick a couple days--people here rarely run to the doctor early for fevers etc.--and so had secondary infections--ear, sinus, bronchitis. No pneumonia, although two were sick enough for me to do x rays.

I only had the flu once, and it made me a believer in flu shots. I have had walking pneumonia and bronchitis with status asthmaticus, but the week I took off with the flu is a blur, don't remember a thing except sleeping coughing and feeling sick.

Wednesday, January 26, 2005

Attention bearded men

Watch out for Fluffy....

(via Improbable research)

Robert Bork, call your office...

Superbugs

MRSA is a major problem in hospitals. It is sometimes called a "superbug".

The problem is not new.

So they developed Methicillin (and later Cephalosporins) and it "went away"...

But now we have MRSA, and so are having the problem again.

Here in Oklahoma, we don't see a lot of MRSA, but when I worked in rural Minnesota, we had a lot of cases at one of our smaller clinics.

It seems that some of the elders went to the University of Minnesota hospital for Cardiac bypass or for healing of longstanding diabetic foot ulcers, and got the germ.

Soon we were seeing kids with impetigo and boils that didn't go away with the usual antibiotics (keflex or augmentin). I was astonished when I had a young mother with a breast abcess which ended up resistant to everything but Bactrim and Vancomycin. Luckily, she wasn't allergic to sulfonamides, and the abcess cleared with old fashioned "I&D (drain and pack the wound and let the body heal it) and Bactrim.

But you need higher levels of antibiotics to heal longstanding Diabetic foot wounds where the bones were infected...And the diabetic wounds now needed 4-6 weeks of IV Vancomycin (which needs closer monitoring of liver and kidney) rather than the fairly innocuous Roceophin or Ancef.

And so what we really worried about was Vancomycin resistance...the REAL superbug...because then we would have nothing.

Alexander Fleming, call your office...

Attention Londoners

When you go to hospital, don't forget your soap and Pinesol...


Attention felons

Don't forget that your gun is a deductible expense ...

Firefox

I have been using the Firefox browser for several months.

What I didn't know is that the inventor is a teenager....




Green snow shovel

Treehugger suggests you use this instead of a snow blower...
(via Gizmodo).

I bought my husband a snowblower one year, and by coincidence, that was the year we had 120 inches of snow in an area that averages 60 inches.

The snowblower wore out by February. Possibly because every time we cleared the sidewalk, the snowplow would come up the street and plow snow back on our sidewalk. Without a clear sidewalk, they wouldn't deliver mail, so that meant going to the Post Office to get our mail.

Since then, we have followed the advice given by Treehugger:

One: Move south

Two: Hire a teenager to clear your snow.

Works for us...

Psst...you want a flu shot?

remember all that bruhaha about no flu shots? Well, now we have plenty and can't give it away...just as I predicted...same thing happened six years ago...
Don't you love election year? It's true they lost some bad vaccines, but now they found more and there's not yet a lot of flu around yet, so no one wants it...

The main thing right now I'm spending a lot of my time is getting funding for Procrit/Epogen...

In the old days, we just transfused...or let the blood count go down. Now we give shots, which take a month to work, but cut the need of transfusions. Bad news? It only costs a couple hundred dollars each shot...

So we have to try to find payments for those without insurance...or grants from the drug company.

There are ways to have it paid for, but you have to do the paper work.....

DEPRESSED?

Scientific studies prove today is the most depressing day of the year...

(via davebarryblog)

Well, at least you know why you're depressed...of course, if you are really depressed and bored, you could always try this...

Tuesday, January 25, 2005

Attention collectors

Have you overlooked the fun of collecting airline napkins?

(via Dave BarryBlog)

My problem is that the word napkin is British for this: and I doubt anyone wants to make a collection of Pampers...see the Nappy Lady for advice on the matter...

You are what you eat...

The Mediterranean diet cuts cancer rates...

Red wine cuts cancer rates and heart attacks...
Olive oil cuts the rate of Breast cancer...
An apple a day cuts the rate of colon cancer...
And (my favorite) cabbage and Brussel sprouts cut the rate of Cervical cancer....

What is not discussed: Promiscuity causes HPV infections, the cause of Cervical cancer. Breast cancer is probably increased by hormones like Progesterone (AKA Depo Provera), and increases if you have few children and don't breast feed them, and are chubby...and of course, no one discusses the problem of hormones in the environment ...not to mention chemical pollution...

When I worked in Africa, we had no cancer of the large bowel...because of high fiber diet. We had lung cancer mainly in asbestos miners. We did have a lot of esophogeal cancer, however, and the most common cancer was liver cancer, which is felt to be due to carcinogens in mold contamination of grain and ground nuts due to traditional storage techniques...and for some reason, we saw a lot of sarcomas. We had some Cervical cancer, but I only saw one case of breast cancer in four yers...in my practice here we pick up about five a year...

Japanese don't get ASCVD...or high cholesterol. They do get cancer of the stomach and hypertension...

Yes, eat a healthy diet...if you can....even Hippocrates knew that. But forget the fads.....too often they are proven wrong...

Nope, nothing here, folks, just keep moving

Again, no press bias...just a routine demonstration that occurs every year...

It's only "thousands" of nuts, right wing fundamentalists, and it's not as if they were large enough to cause problems, except for the need to divert traffic...

First they came for the fetuses, then they came for the brain damaged ....

We all know the reason this is not covered: Women who abort children usually do it under severe duress, and it leaves a tender mark of anguish on their souls...

In Japan, they have temple rites for women to mourn their abortions...perhaps we need shrines so women here also can mourn the decision and find peace...








Nanotechnology

The BBC explains Nanotechnology in plain English...

Alas, too much written about this new science is gibberish...for example:
Effervescence -- in medical nanorobotics, bubble formation by a gaseous solute that is offloaded by nanorobot sorting rotors at a concentration that exceeds the solvation capacity of the surrounding solvent.

Right. Is that clear?

And I thought cell physiology and biochemistry was difficult...

This explanation of Buckyballs is a bit easier...you know what a Buckyball is, don't you?

Buckyballs are members of a class of all-carbon, cage-shaped molecules now known as fullerenes.
The Nobel prize was awarded in 1996 to their discoverers, who had formally named the molecule buckminsterfullerene for its resemblance to the geodesic domes of architect R. Buckminster Fuller.

a1926_182.jpg

BUCKY DRUG. Model of a fullerene-based HIV protease inhibitor recently designed by Simon Friedman.
Friedman

More than a decade after Friedman and others first pondered the idea, research toward medical uses for buckyballs continues trekking forward. Buckyballs are members of a class of all-carbon, cage-shaped molecules now known as fullerenes. In recent months, for example, daylong sessions at national meetings of both the American Chemical Society and the Electrochemical Society were devoted to the topic, and at least three companies are working toward medical uses of fullerenes.

Friedman notes that fullerenes' unique qualities have promise for certain types of drug design. Their small size, spherical shape, and hollow interior all provide therapeutic opportunities. Moreover, a cage of 60 carbon atoms has 60 places at which to attach chemical groups in almost any configuration. Such opportunity has led to the development of not only drug candidates for treating diseases including HIV, cancer, and neurological conditions, but also new diagnostic tools. Among these are contrast agents for X-ray and magnetic resonance imaging (see box, below).

Molecular pincushion

One of the best ways to use fullerenes' unique structures is as scaffolding for building drug molecules, says Friedman, now at the University of Missouri in Kansas City. "You can think of the fullerene as a molecular pincushion," agrees Uri Sagman of C Sixty, a small, Toronto company specializing in developing fullerenes for biomedical uses.

Ah, Molecular pincushion. That's easier to understand...


Attention terrorists

If you get hungry shining lasers into pilot's eyes, or teasing your cat , you can always try this....


(via Engadget)

Sore feet?

Don't use one of these...

How Nerdy are you?

TEST YOURSELF

(from St.Salmagundi)

Monday, January 24, 2005

All the news that's fit to print

HMMM

how to make mice happy

A Johns Hopkins team told Nature how they found it effectively treats enlarged hearts - a common feature of heart failure - in mice.

Cardiologists said it was reasonable to presume it would have such an effect.

Viagra was initially designed to be heart drug until scientists found a useful spin off effect on the blood vessels of the penis.

It works by expanding blood vessels to improve blood flow, similar to other angina drugs.

Good news for Mickey and other aging rodents...

Inventing life

According to Wired, the geeks are building life de novo...

In MIT's synthetic biology lab, the basic building

block is a "biobrick," a modular snippet of DNA

that performs a simple function. Many biobricks are

analogous to electronic components, such as logic

gates, switches, and clocks.

Nope. I don't understand this or nanotechnology, too old I Guess..

Glenn Reynolds, call your office...

Attention nature lovers

You can buy the mating call of the Southern Toad for only 99 cents...

(DaveBarryBlog)

WHY WE SERVE TAKE TWO or let's rock...

My mother became a missionary at age 60....and one of these days I'll post that story.

However, other middle aged housewives take the less traveled road...

Heads up from DaveBarryBlog

Extremist protest in San Francisco

Wild eyed protesters take to the streets...

The natives are not amused...

"We couldn't believe that they had the nerve to come to San Francisco," said Dian Harrison, .... "They've been so emboldened that they believe that their message would be tolerated here. Sure, they can come here, but San Francisco will be ready to show them that they don't believe in their message."

Sunday, January 23, 2005

Although the press usually say that the Netherlands is discussing infanticide, the story is subtly different. The doctors are already getting away with such killings. What is now different is that the Netherlands government is asking doctors to report when they killed babies, and promises not to prosecute them...

Most cases involved Spina Bifida.

About thirty years ago, in medical school, we debated whether or not to treat these patients. In Africa, we did not treat them, and the result was that most died in infancy.

Treating them requires treatment first to close the hole in the spine, then physical therapy and braces to help them walk, then surgery to drain the bladder, and in many cases surgery to drain the secondary hydroceophalus.

Most of those involved, however, are not retarded. They are often on the lower end of normal intelligence but able to function despite their disabilities. But there is a lot of strain on families, so often doctors encourage abortion if it is discovered on routine ultrasound...

Indeed, although most "partial birth abortions" are for social reasons, spina Bifida is probably the most common "medical" reason for late term abortions of viable babies...parents are frightened by the bleak picture painted by counsellers, and often agree to abortion of severe cases...the same severe cases that the Dutch are killing...

And if they are missed and not aborted, then many are willing to kill them indirectly even in the best hospitals in this country...

Here is an classsic example about "non treatment" decisions in the heartland for these children, a classic paper that got little publicity at the time...

Frieda Smith, who gave birth to Stonewall Jackson Smith in 1979, remembers being confronted by a doctor just days after a difficult birth, before she had time to come to terms with her baby's birth impairment.

"He (the doctor) told me that I would always have to take care of him, that he would be blind, that he would never know me, that he was more like some kind of animal than a human being," she says. "He never really sat down with me and explained what the operation would do for Stoney." Ms. Smith was never told that the failure rate for spina bifida treatments is very low, nor did she understand that the operation would reduce the degree of sensory, mobility and intellectual impairment that her son experienced. "He made it sound like Stoney would live longer, but he wouldn't ever get any better."

Ms. Smith signed a consent form agreeing that Stonewall would be fed and given minimal "supportive care," but no antibiotics or surgery. Later, when she had questions about her baby's treatment, the doctor refused to make himself available to answer them. Ms. Smith also says that she did not know that she could have taken her son to another hospital, where he would have been treated at once.

During the five years of the study, 69 babies with spina bifida were born in the Children's Hospital of Oklahoma (now known as Oklahoma Children's Hospital), a teaching hospital affiliated with the University of Oklahoma. Thirty-three babies were recommended for "supportive care" without treatment; eight of them were eventually treated anyway, either because their parents insisted or because their parents or guardians eventually obtained more accurate information. All of the 24 babies whose parents consented to the "supportive care" regimen died. ( a twenty-fifth baby in the "supportive care" regimen was moved out of state by his parents and lost to the study. Two of the eight babies that were eventually treated also died, possibly because the treatments came too late.) Most of the babies who were deprived of treatment were born to women in the welfare system, who were paying for their care with Medicaid benefits. None of the 36 babies that were given antibiotics and surgery died from the effects of spina bifida. (One did in an accident.)

In addition to being poor, many of the families of the children that were chosen to die were poorly educated. Frieda Smith felt that she was manipulated by a doctor who took advantage of her medical ignorance. Her experiences, and the experiences of other mothers whose babies died, raised serious questions about whether they truly gave "informed consent" when they signed the forms agreeing to the "supportive care" regimen. Indeed, some parents came away from their meeting with the doctor under the false impression that the hospital was not required to treat babies who did not meet the "criteria for treatment" (i.e., the formula)

What eventually broke the story was when a Black Congressman noticed that most of the "non treatment" babies were poor and black or Native American...

Here is an example of the bleak life lived by one Okie who did get treated for his Spina Bifida...

Whether killing by partial birth abortion or by infanticide or by merely killing by "non treatment decisions", The dirty little secret, however, is that "quality of life" does not depend on the level of the sac on the back, nor on the hydrocephalus.

Americans have rights given by the Creator, and if the saints are correct, that same creator sees us all of equal worth...Our worth does not depend on the wealth of the parents involved, nor even if that person is welcomed by those parents. After all, if it is true that rights come from the creator, it is true that the creator insists on responsibility for the most vulnerable as part of our duties in life.

And, as one right wing fundamentalist wacko pointed out,
In America's ideal of freedom, the exercise of rights is ennobled by service, and mercy, and a heart for the weak. Liberty for all does not mean independence from one another. Our nation relies on men and women who look after a neighbor and surround the lost with love. Americans, at our best, value the life we see in one another, and must always remember that even the unwanted have worth.

Repair of Spina bifida in utero

Frieda Smith, who gave birth to Stonewall Jackson Smith in 1979, remembers being confronted by a doctor just days after a difficult birth, before she had time to come to terms with her baby's birth impairment.

"He (the doctor) told me that I would always have to take care of him, that he would be blind, that he would never know me, that he was more like some kind of animal than a human being," she says. "He never really sat down with me and explained what the operation would do for Stoney." Ms. Smith was never told that the failure rate for spina bifida treatments is very low, nor did she understand that the operation would reduce the degree of sensory, mobility and intellectual impairment that her son experienced. "He made it sound like Stoney would live longer, but he wouldn't ever get any better." (for link see previous post).

The good news is that now such defects can be closed in the womb.

Fetal Surgery Followup
Samuel Survived

Samuel's story is quite well known, thanks to his famous picture.

Here is Anna's story, with links from the local paper. Gives a lot of links to put into perspective the entire struggle to save Anna's life and give her early treatment to prevent major disability.

Matt Drudge, call your office....

Killing Babies

It may be a coincidence, but there are several items in the British press about infanticide on the weekend that the press ignores the March for Life protesting Roe v Wade...I'd give a link for that, but I can find only links to small town church newspapers stating folks are leaving for the march, or "red state" local protests...

Does the great NYTimes ignore it? Nope. Their Friday headline was on page A14, and is already in the "archive", i.e. you have to pay for it...
Here is the NYT abstract of the article:

Words of Support From Bush at Anti-Abortion Rally
ABSTRACT - Thousands of opponents of abortion gather at Mall in Washington (DC) for annual March for Life rally; Pres Bush addresses crowd by telephone from Roswell, NM, his voice amplified through large speakers; thanks them for their devotion to 'noble cause' and vows to press ahead with efforts to protect life at all stages; advocates of abortion rights are also digging in, holding rally to commemorate Roe v Wade decision; Sen Barbara Boxer introduces measure to prohibit government from interfering with reproductive rights; same bill was introduced in House by Rep Jerrold Nadler; photo (M)

Emphasis mine, of course...notice the language. Those who support abortion are in favour of "rights" (abortion rights, but later corrected to "reproductive right", a more kindly euphenism)...

But those who oppose killing the most vulnerable are "anti abortion".
Equal time to each side, and no mention of numbers. Guess the fact that ordinary people, the type who rarely come out for any protest, who nevertheless come down in a snowstorm--500 from Conneticut , for example, or groups from Greensburg PA or "anti abortion activists" from Delaware (although the article is actually quite good, they use the PC language in the headline)... or 53 who came in from Michigan or isn't really news.

News is reporting the demonstrations from professional protesters, who always get noted on the front page.

Citizen Smash
, call your office...

Luke...always moving unless he's on the computer... Posted by Hello
Dane  Posted by Hello
Madeline Posted by Hello
family photo Posted by Hello
Robin and Dane Posted by Hello

party time

more photos of the grandkids...some too dark to see much, so I apologize.

Saturday, January 22, 2005

Why we serve

Scrappleface reminds us that by muzzling faith based aid groups, you are stopping them from giving hope.

When one is in despair, the news that there is a God who loves you, who is there for you, who has suffered like you, and that at the end he will wipe all our tears away is indeed good news.
However, there is a time and place for everything, and in the midst of a massive disaster, just being there is a powerful witness.

You don't preach to someone who is shellshocked from losing everything. You comfort and help. Later, when the time comes, if they ask, you share. And the sharing is not just words, because your deeds showed that the words were based on reality, not a fantasy..

Ironically, in Africa, foreign missionaries preached for 100 years and got few converts. Once colonialism left, however, and people saw how they could be truly African (not an Oreo) and that Christianity was indeed an extension of the best of their own culture, and improved the lives of their Christian neighbors, the conversions became a flood...

First you till the soil, then you plant the seed. The harvest may never come-- some seeds are in shallow soil, some in rocky soil, and some stolen away-- but the good seeds in the good hearts will bring a harvest.

The faith based aid workers are the tillers, not the harvest. And what they do shines in the light of eternity.

Good news

Scappleface (of all people) has the final word on the political restraints on faith based aid workers...

However, those who bring aid only to preach are wrong.

You send aid because God has given you so much, and your heart overflows with thanks... so you give back out of a grateful heart. Some care for families and give back this way, some run businesses, and some have the privelege of giving back by missionary service.

However, when feeding and caring for those who are shellshocked and mourning, you don't go around shoving religion down their throats (and most aid groups don't do this, you know). Conditional aid mocks those you are helping as "objects" to be manipulated, not brothers to be loved.

But when, in the midst of sorrow, someone asks "why" this happens, or why you are there, there is often a quiet time to give hope: God cares, God loves us so much he sent his son to show us how to live, and when we come ten thousand miles to help, it is because we love both him and others...and you are our brother, who needed help, so we came...

The short term conversions under stress may or may not hold. What is actually happening is tilling the soil, preparing hearts. In the long run, it is the local churches, who show how God's good news fits into our daily lives, and into our own culture, which will water and harvest the seeds sown by compassion.

You know, for 100 years, missionaries in Africa taught, treated the sick, and preached. Few converts were made. But after colonialism ceased, and the churces began to be run by locals, and when people saw how Christianity gave hope and human dignity into daily life, that conversions became widespread.

And now they are sending us missionaries to remind those in Europe and in the USA the good news of God...

The real cause of environmental destruction

No, it's not Bush...nor is it global warming...nor even the hated SUV...

It's THIS


Carnival of the recipes take 23

YUM

In alphabetical order no less...

Nascar helicopters?

One of the problems with flying helicopters in the desert is that dust tends to sandblast the windshields.
So two Virginia soldiers suggested they copy Nascar and place mylar plastic on the windshields to protect the glass.
The witty Freepers suggest that the army could also make a profit if they allowed Nascar advertising also...
Dale Earnhart Jr. call your office...

Friday, January 21, 2005

Walking into moror

No, Mordor..with a d
Don't bother me Madeline, I'm busy watching Legolas kick butt... Posted by Hello
well, don't wave the camera in my face...I'm busy reprogramming grandmom's computer Posted by Hello
yup. here's the button to take pictures Posted by Hello
I think the camera is working Posted by Hello

How to cure third world poverty

The NYTimes claim that the UN has plans to eliminate poverty...More than 500 million people can escape abject poverty, 250 million people will no longer go to bed hungry and 30 million children can be saved if rich countries double development aid over the next 10 years to $195 billion, a new U.N.-sponsored report said on Monday.

however, others point out that logically it's not true...

Ten Lies about eliminating poverty...

Hint: Giving money to aid poor people whose government is corrupt leads to rich government officials.

Scrapple face suggests this:

"This research shows that the root cause of poverty is the absence of money," said Mr. Annan. "Our experts tell us that if we give enough cash to poor people, then they become middle-income people. Naturally, the cash we give them should come from countries that now have too much cash."

Mr. Annan immediately proposed a plan to distribute cash to poor people, with the United Nations serving as middleman and retaining "only the usual processing fee of no more than 65 percent."

This is not as absurd as it sounds. From the NYTimes article

More than 500 million people can escape abject poverty, 250 million people will no longer go to bed hungry and 30 million children can be saved if rich countries double development aid over the next 10 years to $195 billion, a new U.N.-sponsored report said on Monday.

Now, if you calculate that out, it comes to $39,000 a year per person...heck, even I could live on that...

Your tax dollars at work

Fema Tsunami game for your kids

Hello, Washington, do you know what's on your website?

Thursday, January 20, 2005

Dark Winter take two

Or are such reports of mass casualties from smallpox bioterrorism merely "scare stories"?

When we had the first scare, I asked around, and in our town, only two physicians had ever seen smallpox, my husband (who is retired and saw it in the Philippines) and an elderly psychiatrist who saw the NYC outbreak (I didn't see smallpox when I worked in Africa)...



DARK WINTER

The original "Dark Winter" wargame was smallpox released at an Oklahoma truck stop...

Now they held a similar game involving Europe.


Attention Homeland security

Keep an eye out for tin whiskers...

slow death from lead poisoning, or the gradual collapse of the global communications infrastructure. Isn’t it fun when technology gives us such great options?

Why bugs bite

It's your smelly sweat socks

Diet tip

Beer, the elixir of life

Attention New Zealand artists

Only ewes have lambs

Wednesday, January 19, 2005

Attention travelers

the Japanese have different types of restrooms, even in the airport...where one has a choice of cubicles with the signs saying European or saying Japanese type....

Ironically, in Africa, our toilets, like the traditional Japanese toilet, were essentially holes in the ground also...over which one squatted. And I have seen similar toilets in rural Yugoslavia.

(This and the previous link are from DaveBarryBlog)






Attention Jacque Chirac

If you can't go to the Fellsmere Frog Leg Festival to buy your favorite food, you can always buy them from here

Bon Appetit!

Hint to Homeland security

Watch out for

Rotten mackerel Bombs



CPR

The NYTimes and JAMA report that people don't do CPR perfectly....

DUH....It doesn't help that they changed how to do CPR at least five times in the last 15 years...and that if you do it too vigourously you break ribs (especially in little old ladies)...but here is the real reason I am suspicious of the report:

Both studies used an experimental monitor that assesses CPR quality, and both received financing from Laerdal Medical, a Norwegian company that developed the monitor with Philips Medical Systems, a subsidiary of Royal Philips Electronics of Amsterdam.

Duh...you think they are trying to sell their machines so we can use them to check we're doing it right?



Grandkids are here, the realtor is coming tomorrow to show the house (TWICE), and it is Diabetic Clinic day (i.e. very very Busy)...

Hmm....maybe a nice cup of Chamolile tea...the latest fad for everything that ails you...

Tuesday, January 18, 2005

Malaria to the forefront

It's the DDT stupid
One advantage of the tsunami, now that people didn't starve thanks to food drops from the Anglosphere (including India) and now that people didn't die of dysentary thanks to water purification and bottled water again thanks to the Anglosphere, the UN is now spotlighting malaria...

Monday, January 17, 2005

Tick, tick, Tick

via DaveBarryBlog:

The Heeney Tick Festival
has been cancalled....

However, you can still visit the Fellsmere Frog Leg Festival.

Or the Norman Chocolate Festival

Or the Beaver Cowchip throwing contest



And remember when you drive threw scenic Choctaw Oklahoma, the Caboose museum is still closed.
David in church Posted by Hello
Kris, David's wife, and friends Posted by Hello
O'Connor cousins Posted by Hello
cousins Posted by Hello
photos from the funeral Posted by Hello
and how are you feeling today? Posted by Hello

moving day

I'm moving my stuff from AOL.
We're moving to the Philippines next month, so won't be rich for awhile...and there is no AOL near us there.
I will try to post regularly here in the near future.