The third installment of the University of Southern California’s Body Computing Conference was held at USC on October 9, 2009, hosted by Leslie Saxon, chief of the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine at the Keck School of Medicine of USC.
In his keynote address, physician-scientist Daniel Kraft discussed his revolutionary stem cell research at Stanford University, his exposure to next-gen biotech and his vision of the future of healthcare as the Internet, wearable computing and health informatics converge. To give a taste of where body computing might be in 10 years, he shared an innovative medical animation created by David Bolinsky that utilizes body computing devices in the DARPA soldier project. iology
“I used to examine for the medical finals at Cambridge University. About 10 per cent of the candidates were so poor you wondered how they had ever got so far and whether they could ever become doctors. Eighty-five per cent were competent and grey. They had the right answers but nothing more. Only about 5 per cent showed some spark of originality or even thinking. Perhaps that is the nature of medicine as a subject – competence is all.” – Edward de Bono
My Twitter account: http://twitter.com/gambottoburke
I saw a patient recently, we’ll call her Anne. She is a 8 yr old little girl who suddenly developed headaches about two weeks ago. The headaches aren’t severe enough to have caused her Mom to take her to the ER or for Anne to have missed school, but they have been fairly constant and obviously concerning to her and her Mom. She came in and saw us after about a week of the headaches and we recommended Ibuprofen, a typical first-line treatment for migraine-like headaches (which we see fairly often in kids). She tried that but the headaches persisted and the medicine didn’t really help at all, so they came back to see me. I recommended a CT scan . The insurance company is now denying the pre-certification for the scan (meaning they won’t pay if she has it) so I spent a great deal of time yesterday on the phone in a “peer-to-peer” review with one of the insurance company doctors trying to convince them that the CT scan is necessary.
I could try to explain all my reasons for wanting to do the scan and try to explain why the insurance company is saying no, but that would be a long and fairly boring post to anyone who isn’t in medicine. The bottom line is that I don’t have any of the reasons on the insurance company’s checklist for “reasons why you should do a CT scan for headaches” . Seriously, the doctor was reading me the checklist, they really have one.
I knew when I called that I didn’t, and so I knew that it is unlikely that I would be able to convince them to pay for it. However, what I know is my patient. That this little girl is one who doesn’t complain much. The mother isn’t one who brings her kids in very often. My gut feeling is telling me that it’s weird that she suddenly has constant headaches even if there aren’t any “red flags” from the checklist present. In the insurance company’s defence they don’t know if I’m just the kind of doctor who orders a lot of tests and is practicing “cover my but” medicine. Statistically, the insurance company has the odds in its favor. Most likely, the headaches are migraines or stress related. The chance that they are due to a tumor or aneurysm or some other more serious structural problem is pretty unlikely.They are willing to make that bet. I’m not.
The problem I have though as a doctor is that I’m being told what I should do (and doctors really don’t like being told what to do) by someone who hasn’t seen my patient. Who is playing a game of the odds using a checklist. Who last saw real patients, who knows how long ago. I don’t like having my judgment questioned by someone who is sitting at a desk with the luxury of not having to look the patient in the eye when they say “No”. It makes me mad.
I don’t disagree that health care reform is necessary and I realize that this anecdote is more about the current failures of the system than about reform. But my concern is that much of the talk centered around reform is about finding “best-care practices” and “reducing unnecessary tests”. I don’t have an answer to the problem. But I worry that it will only get worse.
Alman resmi gazetesinde 06.07.1988 tarihinde yayınlanarak (Heftnummer:122, ATC-Code:A15) modern tıbbi tedavide kullanılmaya başlanmıştır.
Diğer isimleri: Küçük kantaron, Kantarion, Kırmızı kantaron.
Bitki: Anadolu ve Avrupa’da yaygın olarak yetişir. 10-100 cm yüksekliğinde bir veya iki yıllık otsu bir bitkidir. Açık renk kökü dikine büyür. Dip yaprakları saplıdır, rozet şeklinde dizilmiştir, tüysüzdür, kenarları düzgündür. Üst yaprakları sapsız, çapraz karşılıklı dizilmiş, mat yeşil renkli, yumurta veya uzun-oval biçimli, çok hafif tüylü ve 6 cm uzunluğundadır. Temmuz-ekim ayları arasında açan çiçekleri yan dalların ucunda şemsiye şeklinde dizilmiştir, pembe veya kırmızı renklidir, 4-5 yapraklıdır. Meyvesi 3 mm uzunluğunda yumurta biçimli, kahve renklidir , üzerinde açık renk, ince çizgiler bulunur.
İlaç etkili kısmı:: Çiçeklenme döneminde toplanıp kurutulmuş toprak üstü kısımları kullanılır. Bileşiminde: Seceiridoidglikosid (Swertiamarin, swerosid, gentiopikrosid, gentioflavosid vb.) yapısında acı madde flavonoid, fenolkarboksilik asitler bulunur.
Etkisi: Mide salgısını artırır.
Kullanıldığı yerler: İştahsızlık ve hazımsızlık (Gaz, şişkinlik vb.) sorunlarında kullanılır.
Kullanılmaması gereken haller: Yok.
İstenmeyen Etkileri: Yok.
İlaçlarla uyumsuzluğu: Yok.
Kullanım miktarı: Günlük ortalama kullanım miktarı 6 gr ot.
Kullanım şekli: İnce kıyılmış 1-2 çay kaşığı ot bir fincana konur, üzerine 150 ml kaynar su ilave edilir, 10 dakika demlenir, süzülerek içilir. Günde 2-3 defa çayı hazırlanarak iştahsızlıkta yemeklerden 30 dakika önce, hazımsızlıkta yemeklerden sonra içilir.
Forget about becoming an actuary or an engineer, a career in Robotics is the new age trend……….
Not so long ago everyone would have told you that the best career to choose was in accountancy, medicine or even becoming a pilot! There emerged different disciplines of engineering a while ago and we spotted a turning point. However, very little did the world predict there would be a career known as robotics. Even up to this day some people are not aware of the existence of robotics engineering. So, what exactly does this engineering discipline entails? Let us break it down:
What is Robotics?
Robotics is the engineering science and technology…
Read more http://www.sevafrica.com/modules/education/article.php?news_id=67
Anemia is a medical condition in which the red blood cell count or hemoglobin is less than normal. The normal level of hemoglobin is generally different in males and females. For men, anemia is typically defined as hemoglobin level of less than 13.5 gram/100ml and in women as hemoglobin of less than 12.0 gram/100ml. These definitions may vary slightly depending on the source and the laboratory reference used.
Ayurveda (Herbal) Medicine
Lohasavam
Drakshadi Leham
Loha Sindooram
Panchakarma Treatment
Abhyangam
Diet
Adopt a well-balanced diet rich in iron, sesame seeds, almonds, dairy products, animal protein, vegetables as beet, lettuce, spinach, soybean, radish, carrots, tomatoes and fresh fruits as banana, black berries, strawberries, apple, amla and plum.
Lifestyle
Avail sunlight as it stimulates the production of red blood cells.
Yoga
If you’ve ever wondered why blood tubes (vacutainers) have different colors, or the reason for the sequence in which they’re taken, take a look at this:
___________________________________
The meaning of the different colors are standardized across manufacturers.
The order of draw refers to the sequence in which these tubes should be filled. The needle which pierces the tubes can carry additives from one tube into the next, and so the sequence is standardized so that any cross-contamination of additives will not affect laboratory results.
Containers containing coagulants
Gold or ‘Tiger’ Red/Black top: Clot activator and gel for serum separation
Red top PLASTIC tubes: Contains a clot activator and is used when serum is needed
Orange or Grey/Yellow ‘Tiger’ Top: Contain Thrombin, a rapid clot activator, for STAT serum testing
Containers containing anticoagulants
Green - Contains Sodium Heparin or Lithium Heparin used for plasma determinations
Light Green or Green/Gray ‘Tiger’: For plasma determinations in chemistry
Purple or lavender – contains EDTA (the potassium salt, or K2EDTA). This is a strong anticoagulant and these tubes are usually used for full blood counts (CBC) and blood films. Lavender top tubes are generally used when whole blood is needed for analysis. Can also be used for some blood bank procedures such as blood type and screen, but other blood bank procedures, such as crossmatches must be in a pink tube in most facilities.
Grey – These tubes contain fluoride and oxalate. Fluoride prevents enzymes in the blood from working, so a substrate such as glucose will not be gradually used up during storage. Oxalate is an anticoagulant.
Light blue – Contain a measured amount of citrate. Citrate is a reversible anticoagulant, and these tubes are used for coagulation assays. Because the liquid citrate dilutes the blood, it is important the tube is full so the dilution is properly accounted for.
Dark Blue – Contains sodium heparin, an anticoagulant. Also can contain EDTA as an additive or have no additive. These tubes are used for trace metal analysis.
Pink – Similar to purple tubes (both contain EDTA) these are used for blood banking.
Other
Red (glass)- Contains no additives. Tests for antibodies and drugs often require these.
Light yellow – Contains sodium polyanethol sulfonate (SPS). Used for blood culture specimens or acid-citrate-dextrose (ACD), used for blood bank studies, HLA phenotyping, and parental testing.
Tan (glass or plastic) – Contains either sodium heparin (glass) or K2EDTA (plastic). Used for lead determinations. These tubes are certified to contain no lead.
The Doctors Without Borders was founded in 1971 and received the 1999 Nobel Peace Prize. They have a special role when humanitarian catastrophes occur. Just like now in Haiti, they have to provide doctors with the facilities required for providing sufficient healthcare services. David Walkley from this prestigious organization describes how they use plug-and-play hospitals.
Is some sun exposure good for me? Will moderate and daily alcohol consumption actually extend my life? Is the risk of breast, ovarian, and uterine cancer in women reduced by minimizing the frequency of menses? With the barrage of health claims that come at us on a daily basis, it can sometimes be impossible to distinguish fiction from fact. Doctors, being simply human, fall into this trap as well – eager to sound cutting-edge and knowledgeable to patients, many are willing to base medical advice on interpretations of research that are either immature or only partially informed. Scientists, eager for a headline and desperately needed funding, may drop a quote to a journalist that is overly extrapolative, leading to confusion between evidence and best guess. We are certainly all capable of hyperbole when describing something fascinating or full of potential. It is forgivable. What seems far more insidious is financial exploitation under the guise of good science, that is, taking this otherwise innocuous human flaw to the marketplace wholesale. One of the most widespread examples of this abuse is proudly labeled on products contained in most refrigerators in the US: the beneficial effects of antioxidants.
This one is pretty entrenched. ”Antioxidant Rich!” has become the advertising slogan of so many foods that are considered healthy, that the confirmation bias is near insurmountable. So what is an antioxidant anyway? When something gets burned, it oxidizes, and part of that process produces oxidants, some of which are highly reactive atoms and ions called free radicals. This happens around a campfire in a very similar way to how it occurs in our bodies. The food we eat is slowly heated during the digestive process and exposed to oxygen delivered by red blood cells. During the oxidation process, the free radicals let loose in our cells are like tiny bullets, damaging tissue and knocking proteins out from within DNA molecules. Free radicals may be associated with neurological and nervous system diseases like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and schizophrenia, and there is a clear link between them and the formation of some cancers. Despite this, free radicals are critical to living a healthy life. They are one of the body’s most capable weapons, employed by white blood cells to safeguard the bloodstream from unwanted bacteria and viruses. By oxidizing the invaders, the immune system effectively destroys them through the use of free radicals. To curb the widespread damage that occurs from these cellular-sized Uzis, the body synthesizes antioxidants like vitamins A, C, and E as well as selenium and melatonin. While these all serve other important roles within the body, one of their chief duties is to neutralize excess free radicals.
It’s at this point that our original problem took hold. Leaping to conclusions, many adopted the free radical theory of aging, and determined that taking abnormally high doses of supplements rich in antioxidants would greatly slow the aging process and drastically reduce incidences of cancer and many other diseases. The berry and bean growers out there, as well as their secondary and tertiary markets, could now trumpet anti-aging and anti-cancer benefits on their product labels – which they promptly did. A couple of nightly newscasts and a season of Oprah later, and everyone was on board with antioxidants as a source of life extension and general wellness. The problem is that there wasn’t much good science regarding whether the average person benefited from supplementing their antioxidant intake.
Over the years, the findings of more and more research surface. One large study geared towards determining whether beta-carotene supplements decreased the risk of lung cancer in patients was stopped after the returning data indicated that subjects were developing lung cancer at a significantly increased rate. Then in 2007, the Journal of the American Medical Association published this exhaustive and utterly damning meta analysis of all available studies on the effectiveness of antioxidant supplements. They examined 68 reliably conducted scientific trials (some with low-bias risk others with high) that covered 232, 606 participants. What they discovered is best summed in quote:
“We did not find convincing evidence that antioxidant supplementshave beneficial effects on mortality. Even more, beta carotene,vitamin A, and vitamin E seem to increase the risk of death.Further randomized trials are needed to establish the effectsof vitamin C and selenium.”
The particulars of the survey methodology are interesting and make for a good read, and they inspire confidence in the reliability of the results. I also tend to trust the American Medical Association over Welch’s when it comes to my health.
Not that I’m saying that antioxidants are bad or that free radicals are good, but rather that they work best in their natural balance. A normal diet, or even a crappy fast food and prepackaged meals diet, gives the body all of the antioxidants it needs. That’s also not to say that fruits and vegetables aren’t really important for other reasons as well. The great botanist and writer, Michael Pollan has said, “Eat food. Mostly plants. Not too much.” I think that sums it up best.
Oh – didn’t want anybody left wondering:
Is some sun exposure good for me (absolutely, don’t get too much if you’re really pastey)?
Will moderate and daily alcohol consumption actually extend my life? (yep by 10-15% on average - unless you drink more than two beers a day or the equivalent)?
Is the risk of breast, ovarian, and uterine cancer in women reduced by minimizing the frequency of menses (yes, considerably)?
Friday’s multi-network “Hope for Haiti Now: A Global Benefit for Earthquake Relief” telethon will feature Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, Clint Eastwood, Denzel Washington, Halle Berry, Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jon Stewart, Matt Damon, Morgan Freeman, Nicole Kidman, Samuel L. Jackson, Tom Hanks, Robert Pattinson, Will Smith, Julia Roberts, Meryl Streep, Muhammad Ali, former President Bill Clinton and more than 100 of the biggest names in film, television and music.
The telethon, will air commercial-free across MTV, VH1, ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, CNN, BET, the CW, HBO, CMT, PBS, TNT, Showtime, Comedy Central, Bravo, E! Entertainment Network, National Geographic Channel, Oxygen, G4, Centric, Current TV, Fuse, MLB Network, Epix, Palladia, SoapNet, Style, Discovery Health and Planet Green. Canada’s CTV, CBC Television, Global Television and MuchMusic also will air “Hope for Haiti,” as will BET International, CNN International, National Geographic and MTV Networks International, making the event available in 640 million homes worldwide.
Facebook and Twitter are the official social-media partners for the telethon. All donations will benefit Oxfam America, Partners in Health, Red Cross, UNICEF and Wyclef’s Yele Haiti foundation. The Clinton Bush Haiti Fund and United Nations World Food Programme will also benefit from the telethon’s efforts, as aid will be split evenly among each organization’s relief programs for the ravaged island.
A statement released Thursday detailed which musical artists would be featured from each location:
New York City, NY
Wyclef Jean, hosting
Madonna
Sting
Bruce Springsteen
Mary J. Blige
Jennifer Hudson
Shakira
Los Angeles, CA
George Clooney, hosting
Justin Timberlake
Christina Aguilera
Alicia Keys
Dave Matthews
John Legend
Stevie Wonder
Taylor Swift
Emeline Michel
Group performance by Keith Urban, Kid Rock and Sheryl Crow
London, England
Beyoncé
Coldplay
Group performance by Bono, The Edge, Jay-Z and Rihanna
Port au Prince, Haiti
Anderson Cooper, hosting
People can start donating even before the start of the 8 p.m. EST concert via phone and text.
The two-hour telethon will be shown on all the major networks and a host of other channels. It will be broadcast from New York, London, Los Angeles and Haiti.
“Hope for Haiti Now” will begin accepting donations at 12:00 p.m. ET/9:00 a.m. PT on Friday, January 22 via the following methods:
Online: www.hopeforhaitinow.org
Phone: 877-99-HAITI
Text: Text “GIVE” to 50555
Mail: Hope For Haiti Now Fund, Entertainment Industry Foundation, 1201 West 5th Street, Suite T-700, Los Angeles, CA 90017
Yesterday, Scott Brown virtually achieved the impossible, taking the vacant Senate seat in Massachusetts, the first Republican to hold a Senate seat in that State since 1972.
In what was basically a referendum on the direction the Country is being taken, Brown won 52% of the vote to the Democrats 47%. That percentage was fairly close to pre polling done in the day or two prior to the vote. It was said that early in the campaign, the Democrats had a 30 percentage point lead, so to blow something as huge as that, especially in a State that Democrats have had total dominance for the last ten years with all ten Congressmen and both Senators, must be a concern to Democrats, not only in Massachusetts, but across the whole Country.
Much has been already said that this Special Senate Election was a referendum especially on the ramifications of the Health Care Reform Bill. That may or may not be true, but what is interesting is those percentages that Brown did achieve.
That Health Care Bill is vastly unpopular across the length and breadth of the Country. Polling across the Country shows that the percentages of those for and against show that a larger percentage are against it. If the solidity of Democrats in Massachusetts is taken into account, with more in that State favouring a Democrat inspired Bill than would oppose it, then those percentage figures extrapolate out roughly close to the average for the whole of the U.S.
Even so, it would be hard to ignore the close relationship between what happened in Massachusetts and the feeling of the people when it comes to that Health Care Reform Bill, mainly because everybody is associating the two.
So when Nancy Pelosi comes out and says what she does in this short video, it is really disconcerting.
This video was posted to You Tube by Associated Press
She says, in respect of the Massachusetts vote, “we heard, we will heed, we will move forward with their considerations in mind.”
Then without even pausing for breath, she says, “but we will move forward for Health Care.”
This smacks of a classic case of listening to what the people have to say in a nice concerned way, wearing your ’serious face’, and then totally ignoring what was just said, almost as if to say that you are all wrong, and we know better than you what you really want.
This is plain, flat out arrogance, and there’s no other word for it.
Who cares what you think! We’ll do exactly what WE want to do.
So far the situation in Haiti centres around bringing aid to the good people of the capital, Port-au-Prince. I am no expert in matters of earth plates, and physics, and as you may know, have no way of knowing what happened there except through brainy scientists having studied the Earth’s movements and crusts.
One question that runs through my mind day after day since this horrendous event occurred concerns the area where the earthquake hit. According to many laboratory instruments that will tell us the magnitude of the quake, we are told that the epicentre was located southwest of the capital. If the Earth trembled there at more than 7.0 on the Richter scale that counts as maximum a 7.5 level, would it not be rational to assume that other communities outside of Port-au-Prince had been affected as well?
I am surprised at this date to hear skimpy reports of entire villages having been decimated outside of the capital such as places located south of the Island. No reports have come from the western part of the Dominican Republic either.
I am AGHAST at the inefficiency of the United States’ ability to bring adequate medicine, food and water to Haiti. Could these have been dropped from the sky days ago? I understand that disease and malnutrition are major concerns now.
Hello again…. yes the inactivity due to posting was due to schoolwork AND me getting sick. So today is my first day as a sick person in such a long time… me today
Me trying to keep the hiccups down later in the day and yes due to just sleeping 3.5 hours last night I got a big pimple on my forehead how fun! This shows how much you need your ‘beauty’ sleep.
During class times the slow depiction: => => =>
And then the cycle repeats itself… yeah, basically my day…
I ended up not doing much today… just hte Japanese reading assignment that we had to do for Weds. class.
The plan is to sleep early today but that probably isn’t going to happen as planned. >.< Anyways, today I get to try ColdFX. Yay! For those who don’t know what ColdFX is it is this:
It basically is medicine but it boosts up your immune system then anything else. If Don Cherry thinks that its good for atheletes then I think it would work for me too!! I will post a review of it tomorrow to let everyone know what it’s like… and the background behind it… seeing that it was developed in Canada…. hooray for Canadians!!
Well, bedtime now, I’m hoping to put up a haul photo thing soon. Those things are soo much fun to read and watch but I’ve never actually posted anything like that… it will be interesting…
I am currently working towards a nursing degree. I’m still in the early stages, taking only a few classes per semester due to the lack of funds — I am putting my daughter through college after all. I will eventually get my degree and become a full fledged nurse, ready to work in a hospital or clinic. I would be able to make a good wage and bring much wealth into my home. I could give my daughter and grand daughters much more than I have been able to as a factory worker and especially as an unemployed part-time student. There is one thing, however, I believe I should give them that will not require me to work for a higher wage.
I don’t want to simply give them a bright future replete of wealth, happiness and all bounties of that sort. I want to be a part of something beyond that: I want to help give them a better world. Granted, I can not simply change the world at will and turn it into a beautiful scenery of green grass, clear rivers and a sunflower sun, just like in the movies, but I can try to make the world they live in at least a little bit better. I’ve watched plenty of those horrible commercials of impoverished people in downtrodden countries who have little food and drinking water. Everyone has seen their share of that. Most people don’t donate to those organizations though and, I hate to say it, I have never been in a safe position to do so either. I hope people don’t donate for the same reason. One thing that people do even less is help people like that directly. Those who go to these impoverished nations and help them build their communities, lives and future are few and far in between. I don’t want to be a part of the many who don’t. I want to be there, helping in any way I can. I want to be a doctor or nurse who goes to an impoverished country and help people in great need. I want to build a school in the Middle East. I want to be in Haiti, right now, mending broken bones and saving people’s lives even as I lose many who can not be saved. The broken heart I would suffer knowing I have failed in many instances would be worth suffering knowing I had helped someone, anyone, from dying and suffering the unknown beyond this life of misery they’ve been left to.
This world is filled with suffering, danger and hatred because we don’t have enough people going to these impoverished countries to help them build their lives. Capitalist desire strips the earth of the sustenance it provides these people and it leaves them behind to fend for what’s left. The people of Afghanistan have been embattled throughout millennia by invaders and dictators, despots and oppressors. Their country is a country with little education and rights for women and the people in general. At the same time, the country has a spark for education, even for women, that is hidden from the naked eyes of the rest of the country. They need medical help and education. If they had those things and felt safer — and safe from outside oppressors — their society would be a much better one. People from a better Afghanistan would be more resistant to extremism, making the world for my daughter and grand children safer, brighter, better — maybe even as bright as one with a sunflower sun, just like in the movies.
That’s what I want to do. My family, my progeny, deserves better than the smallest gesture I can do for them. Their world is not just a corner of it — this entire world is theirs. I wouldn’t want to leave the greatest gift I can give them in the worst shape it can possibly be. I want it to be beautiful, just like them.
I kept Aidan home from school yesterday and from the sitter’s so that he could start getting better. We all have this monster cold thing.
Thursday night before bed, the boys got some cold medicine, I made sure their heat was up and tucked them in all snugly and warm. I took a muscle relaxer before I went to bed because I’ve had muscle aches for weeks now and being sick has made them worse. We all slept good that night.
I think we got out of bed about 9 am, had breakfast, watched some TV and took a nap at 11. About 1pm, I showered and we headed into the office where they just sat around watching a movie for a bit while I worked.
When we came home, they took another nap for about an hour. Then we had dinner while watching TV. About 7:30 they went to bed. Shortly after I fell asleep on the couch and got up and went into bed about 10. I think we got up about 8 this morning and the kids at least are starting to look a bit better. The plan is to go to bed early again tonight too.
My muscles are still achy and I have a sore throat still. But I feel more with it mentally. I was in quite the fog this past week. Today I have accomplished more at home than I did all week! The dishes are finally washed, the laundry done, and now the floors just have to be cleaned.
I hope you all had a better week than me!
Don’t forget, you have until Sunday night at midnight to enter my giveaway!!!
ClipArtGallery.com
Get graphics and clipart for such things as your Web page, your flyer or your PowerPoint presentation.
Jupiter Images
Your ultimate design resource.
Cool Archive
Free archive of fonts, clipart, symbols, animated gifs and more.
GIFArt.com
New clip art, wallpaper and graphics.
Image-Catcher.com
Free screen savers, wallpaper, and pictures.
GoGraph.com
Searchable directory of icons, animated gifs, photographs and clip art.
ClipartGuide.com
A complete guide to online clipart, icons, photos, scans, and web graphics.
Icon BAZAAR
Collection includes alphabets, flags, road signs, cars, cartoons, molecules and more.
Animation Factory
Thousands of free animated gifs, free clipart, free graphics, original 3D animations, icons, buttons, and images.
#1 Free Clipart
Over 10,000 clip art images in over 300 categories.
Barry’s Clipart Server
Large collection of free clip art for all your homepage creation needs. Art, links and more!
2Cool Animations
More than 3,000 animated gifs, graphic tutorials and more.
Shawn’s Clipart and Webateria
Unique webart, icons and cartoons for personal and non-profit sites.
Andrew’s GraphXKingdom
The Graphxkingdom is home to thousands of clipart, icons, backgrounds, bars, interfaces, and other cool, free graphics.
Free-Clip-Art
Offers clipart images and web elements.
Clipart Connection
Free clipart images and animations.
Absolutely Free Clipart
Offers alphabetically listed categories including animals, holidays and theater.
Clipart Site
10,000 free images.
ScreamDesign
Free animated gifs, images and other enhancements for your web page.
Animation Central
Free 3D animations.
Celtic Clipart
Celtic clip art and more.
Animated Clipart
Clipart links.
All Free ClipArt
Free graphic images here.
Holiday Graphics
Holiday-related graphics, gifs and more.
Free Graphics
Large collection of free clipart.
Free Graduation Clip Art
Free clip art site focusing on the graduation event.
Free Wedding Clip Art
Free clip art site focusing on wedding material.
Free Holiday Midi Sound Files
Excellent source for holiday and special occasion clip art.
Grandmother’s Trunk
A clip art collection home page.
FreeFever Graphics
Clipart, animations, fonts and desktop themes.
Leo’s Icon Archive
Archive of over 5,000 images, buttons and other tools.
Drawshop
Global online store for humorous clipart images and graphics.
CoolText.com
Free font and image generator.
About.com: Guide to Web Clip Art
A source for finding out trends in Internet clip art.
Animal Clipart
Choose your favourite animated animal from this great clipart site.
SuperClipart.com
Thousands of clipart images available.
Awesome Clipart for Kids
Kid and family-friendly clipart for all occasions.
Ron’s Clipart
Some clip art available here relating to the Navy.
Celine’s Original .GIFS
Includes lines, arrows, menubar icons and more.
Clipart.com
Comprehensive source for clip art on the web.
Best Clipart Graphics
Clipart collection and resources for locating clipart elsewhere.
All Clip Art Site
1000’s of clipart, animations, images, web graphics and more.
Baltimore Horse Country
Clip art from Baltimore Horse Creations.
Free Environment and Nature Clip Art
Source for graphics relation to nature and the environment.
Foto Clipart
All original, high quality animal clipart available for download.
Clipart.com
Thousands of images, a speedy search engine, lots of helpful info, a great links page, free electronic postcards, and a message board.
Free Clip Art Island
Free original clip art.
Claudia’s Clip Art
Clip art by Claudia.
Rad Graphics
Get your free website graphics here.
Sports Clipart
Cool illustrations and clipart.
4Free Graphics
Huge database of clipart links.
Classroom Clipart
Lots of free clipart.
Mike Shaikun’s Free Animated GIFS
Gateway to over 1,400 free animated Gifs and other items.
Kids Clip Art
Free clip art and other free Internet offers.
Dave Whitlock Clip Art Gallery 2
An excellent gallery of clip art.
Jans Attic
Clip art and more from JansAttic.
Noetic Art
Great collection of very well-designed clip art.
Original Free Clip Art
Free clipart in a variety of categories.
Ahmet’s World
Clip art and more at Ahmet’s World.
Clips Ahoy!
A free clipart island.
Zitelli Design
Free web graphics, clip art and 3D images.
Bestclipart.com
Listing of top free clipart sites on the internet.
Clipart Castle
Thousands of free graphics, including sci-fi and spiritual categories.
The Background Sampler
Some HTML backgrounds for your use.
BIRDNET
Bird clip art.
Multimedia and Clip Art
Clip art, sounds and more.
The Graphics Ring
Excellent resource for finding free web graphics.
Karate 1
Listings of Dojo’s in the US and worldwide with clip art available.
Kid’s Domain
Stuffed animal clip art.
Free Clip Art
Excellent, free clip art.
Birthday Clip Art
Images and clip art for the birthday.
Mom’s Day Clip Art
Great clip art for Mother’s Day.
Spring Clip Art
Clip art for Spring.
Kid’s Domain Christmas Clipart
Clip art for the Christmas season.
Internet Clipart.com
Free photo graphics for web site development.
All Free Icons
Categories include animals, cartoons and sports
Little Men Studio
Download clip art and images for a cost.
Inki’s Clipart
Free clipart catalogs.
Maori Clip Art
Index of Maori clip art.
Live Pencil
100% original graphics.
Yet Another Graphic & Clip Art Site
The title says it all.
Free Backgrounds
Excellent source for backgrounds and more.
PCFonts.com
Premiere site for your PC font needs.
Science Clips
Find clipart relating to science and technology.
NVTech
Clip art collection by Task Force ImageGallery.
Clip Art Universe
Feel free to use any of this site’s clip art on your own home page.
Paul’s Clipart Jumplist
Good source for clip art online.
Synth Art Exhibition
Fractal-based art and clip art available.
Scouts Canada Clip Art Library
Excellent source of clip art.
RealEstateClipart.com
Clip art for the online real estate community.
Beaver Clip Art
Amusing clip art featuring busy beavers.
Cub Clip Art
Clip art online available for retrieval.
ColorClipart.com
Free clipart, animations and backgrounds.
Proteus Image Search
Search tool for clip art and more.
My All Fish
A place to find graphics fast and easy.
MacFonts.com
Font and clipart resource for Mac users.
Skyzer’s Free Clipart
Clip art online, with a food theme.
Clip Art Review
Guide to good clip art sources.
Clip Art Searcher
Find exactly the clip art you’re looking for.
Web Spice
Web graphics, clipart, icons, buttons and more.
Via KurzweilAI.net — Nanotechnology continues to be a major player in treating cancer.
Nanoparticle Cocktail Targets and Kills Tumors
PhysOrg.com, Jan. 13, 2010
Researchers at the National Cancer Institute’s Centers of Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence have developed a “cocktail” of two different nanometer-sized particles that work in concert within the bloodstream to locate, adhere to and kill cancerous tumors.
One nanomaterial was designed to find and adhere to tumors in mice and then sensitize tumor cells for the second nanoparticle, which kills the tumors.
I do not know Dr. Horng personally and I have never had him as a doctor. I only know from what I hear, mostly from the paper. Personally, I would not use a doctor who practices general medicine to work on my teeth. And, If I was not getting the medical treatment I think I should have, I would go to someone else. Do you think the $1.9 million lawsuit is a way for someone trying to “cash in” on someone’s misfortune or is it justifiable? Why would someone continue to see a doctor if they were unhappy with the results? Page County already lost a few doctors, we almost lost the hospital a few times, and now, we are losing the dialysis center in Stanley in March 2010.
Researchers have discovered how influenza vaccines can be produced faster than through the traditional method of egg-based production, revealing a new strategy for the fight against influenza pandemics. (Credit: iStockphoto)
Scientists in Vienna have developed a new technique for producing vaccines for H1N1 — so-called swine flu — based on insect cells. The research, published in the Biotechnology Journal, reveals how influenza vaccines can be produced faster than through the traditional method of egg-based production, revealing a new strategy for the fight against influenza pandemics.
“Recent outbreaks of influenza highlight the importance of a rapid and sufficient vaccine supply for pandemic and inter pandemic strains,” said co-author Florian Krammer from the University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Science in Vienna. “However, classical manufacturing methods for vaccines fail to satisfy this demand.”
Traditional influenza vaccines, which are produced in embryonated chicken eggs, can be manufactured in the quantities needed for seasonal strains of influenza. Yet because of limited egg supply this method may be insufficient in a pandemic scenario, such as the current H1N1 ’swine flu’ pandemic.
The team’s new method turns to insect cell based technology to create recombinant influenza virus-like particles (VLPs), which resemble virus particles but lack the viral nucleic acid, so they are not infectious.
The Austrian team took just ten weeks to produce swine-origin pandemic H1N1 influenza VLPs for immunological study in mice. This shows that production of a mock-up vaccine is feasible in this time range, outcompeting conventional production methods which take months.
Using insect cells also bypasses the disadvantages of egg-based production, such as limited production capacity, allergic reactions to egg proteins and biosafety issues.
“Our work demonstrates that recombinant influenza virus-like particles are a very fast, safe and efficient alternative to conventional influenza vaccines and represents a significant new approach for newly emerging influenza strains like swine-origin H1N1 or H5N1,” concluded Krammer.
“Virus-like particles will be one solution to tackle the biological variability of influenza pandemics,” said journal editor Professor Alois Jungbauer. “Mutated strains can be quickly engineered. So in this respect the teams’ work is an extremely valuable contribution to modern vaccine production.”
Story Source:
Adapted from materials provided by Wiley-Blackwell, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.
AH, the thorny and seemingly never-ending topic of employee error and corporate misconduct: How does your company handle it? Deny and defend? Disclose and apologize?
With the recent bombing attempt on a flight to Detroit and the deadly bombing attack on American intelligence agents in Afghanistan, the question of how to publicly account for system failure is, of course, playing out in government.
But major industries also have their share of breakdowns to account for. Consider health care. Does working for a hospital or a drug maker mean never having to say you’re sorry?
Even a decade ago, according to physicians, it was standard practice for many doctors andhospitals not to inform patients about medical errors. Now an increasing number of leading medical centers are taking a different tack and encouraging doctors to apologize to patients for mistakes and to explain what went wrong.
Doctors say that such accountability can help patients feel more cared for and empowered, as well as enhance the reputation of the doctor and medical center as honest brokers. Although one might assume that apologizing exposes hospitals to increased litigation, a few medical centers, including the University of Michigan Health System, have reported that the approach has reduced malpractice suits.
Apologizing isn’t popular among drug makers, however. And in our litigious country, C.E.O.’s are understandably gun-shy about teeing up a costly lawsuit by issuing an apology that a court might later construe as an admission of guilt.
So even though two leading drug makers last year paid massive fines to settle charges that they had illegally marketed certain drugs for unapproved uses, they did not use the word “apologize” in their public statements.
Last January, the drug maker Eli Lilly pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor and paid $1.41 billion to settle criminal and civil charges that it improperly marketed an antipsychotic drug for elderly patients with dementia, potentially putting them at risk. In September,Pfizer paid $2.3 billion to settle criminal and civil charges that it had illegally marketed an anti-inflammatory drug and other products. One of its subsidiaires, the Pharmacia & Upjohn Company, pleaded guilty to a felony related to the anti-inflammatory drug.
After its settlement, Lilly issued a press release saying, “We deeply regret the past actions covered by the misdemeanor plea.” (In response to a reporter’s query, Marni Lemons, a spokeswoman for Lilly, said, “We think that is an apology.”)
Similarly, Pfizer’s statement said, “We regret certain actions taken in the past.” (Christopher Loder, a Pfizer spokesman, said last week, “We have publicly acknowledged our conduct and taken full responsibility.”)
Each drug maker also said it maintained comprehensive corporate compliance policies and had instituted additional measures as part of corporate integrity agreements with the government.
If we lived in a litigation-free world, it might be easier for drug makers to go further than this. (On the other hand, without the threat of legal penalties, they might also consider themselves less accountable.) But putting litigation aside for the moment, what about a company that finds the strength to directly apologize to physicians and patients whose ethics or well-being may have been undermined by questionable marketing or potentially risky drugs?
The difference between apologizing and simply offering a “regret” may seem semantic. Yet some ethicists and analysts say that different words do, in fact, reflect divergent approaches to accountability.
A company that openly apologizes does more than merely take public responsibility for its actions — it also signals to its own employees that certain practices are unacceptable, analysts say. And, they add, a company expressing regret may not be accepting blame. After all, you can regret an event, like an earthquake or a hurricane, in which you played no role.
“Companies use ‘regret’ as a way of avoiding accountability,” said Dr. Carl Elliott, a professor at the Center for Bioethics at the University of Minnesota. “You regret something that happened, not something that you did.”
In one of the few pharmaceutical mea culpas of last year, the chief executive of Genzymein Cambridge, Mass., wrote a letter to patients with two rare genetic conditions, apologizing for a medication shortage that occurred after the company shut down a manufacturing facility because of viral contamination. The letter acknowledged that the company hadn’t maintained a sufficient inventory of the drugs.
“We certainly failed to meet the needs of these communities,” says Jamie Manganello, Genzyme’s associate director of global patient advocacy. “I don’t think there was a choice not to apologize.”
Indeed, in light of a Harris poll last month that reported that Americans trust drug makers only slightly more than they trust tobacco or oil companies, contrition still could have a public relations upside for drug makers.
The poll was published at the end of a year in which a series of government investigations and lawsuits showed how some drug makers paid leading physicians and patient advocacy groups, engaged in misleading marketing, supported ghostwritten articles in medical journals and tried to squelch doctors’ concerns about drug safety.
Although the industry has recently changed its approach to some of these practices, industry watchers say drug makers could advance their cause by also apologizing.
“The companies should be saying, ‘We did lousy; we did not put our best foot forward,’” says Doug Wojcieszak, the founder of the Sorry Works! Coalition, a consultant group in Glen Carbon, Ill., that trains medical professionals in the art of apologizing.
OPENLY apologizing also has the potential to turn a problem into a teachable moment for employees, thereby preventing a repeat occurrence, says Paul Levy, the chief executive of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.
In 2008, a surgeon at his hospital mistakenly operated on the wrong side of a patient. The doctor and other hospital personnel apologized. And Mr. Levy publicly dissected the event on his blog, called “Running a Hospital.”
The medical profession, he says, was initially hesitant to embrace contrition. But, he says, “as in any field, once you have a few leaders do it and the world doesn’t end and, in fact, is made better, then people tend to follow.”
It’s important to figure out what causes stress for you as an individual, because everyone feels and responds to stress differently.
Keeping a stress journal may help you identify what causes you to be stress, what level of stress you feel and help you remember how you dealt with stress, and how you could have handled it better.
As it is virtually impossible to eliminate stress completely from our live, the next best thing is to learn how to reduce it.
Meet the Beltway bloodsuckers. They convene in the dead of night, when most ordinary mortals have left work and let their guard down or are lying asleep in bed. Pale-faced and insatiable, the nocturnal thieves do their nefarious business in backrooms and secret chambers. Their primary victims? Taxpayers, the free market and deliberative democracy.
Democratic leaders have been promising the most ethical, transparent, open and engaged administration for years. Instead, they have delivered a bleak and creepy legislative environment that could double as a “Twilight” movie set.
Skulking Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid rammed the government health care takeover package through under the cover of darkness before Thanksgiving and Christmas. House Democratic leaders forbade debate on all but one amendment not authored by themselves. The Senate Finance Committee killed a GOP amendment that would have required Demcare to be available online for 72 hours before the committee voted. Reid and his Volterra-style henchmen cut last-minute cash-for-cloture deals behind closed doors.
And now House and Senate Democratic leaders are reportedly preparing to cut dissenters out of the reconciliation process by bypassing the formal conference committee.
In Hill parlance, this legislative shortcut is called “ping-ponging.” A better game analogy: dodgeball. With mounting opposition from both conservative Republicans and progressive Democrats, President Obama’s water-carriers must use every trick in the book to speed the final merging and passage of the bill before the end of the month.
The hypocrisy reeks stronger than rotting garlic. In 2006, House Democrats asserted that “House-Senate conferences are a critical part of the deliberative process because they produce the final legislative product that will become the law of the land.” That same year, Reid railed on the Senate floor against informal deal-making that circumvented the conference committee process — and he attacked the use of manager’s amendments to avoid public scrutiny:
“Of course, nobody can see the manager’s amendment. It is composed of over 40 amendments. How could anyone vote for a piece of legislation such as that — a manager’s amendment with 42 separate amendments? Now, these amendments were not put in a conference committee. People complain about that. But at least in a conference committee, you have people working together, sticking things in. … Here, you have one person making a decision as to what is going to be in the manager’s amendment. There is no way to know what is in it.”
But four years later, it was Reid who snuck his 383-page manager’s amendment — stuffed with payoffs, special breaks and concessions on health care — into the Senate hopper on the Saturday before Christmas break. Four years later, it is Reid stifling the open, collaborative conference committee process he so fiercely championed.
Where’s Barack Obama? As a candidate, he promised repeatedly to broadcast legislative negotiations on C-SPAN “so that the American people can see what the choices are” and “so that the public will be part of the conversation and will see the choices that are being made.” But the most transparent presidential administration ever is shrugging its shoulders. On Tuesday, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs pooh-poohed C-SPAN’s request to allow electronic media coverage of the Demcare negotiations.
Instead, Gibbs thinks Americans should be grateful for what they got last month: “The Senate did a lot of their voting at 1:00 and 2:00 in the morning on C-SPAN. … And I think if you watched that debate — I don’t know — I wasn’t up at 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning for a lot of those votes, but I think if the American public had watched … you’d have seen quite a bit of public hearing and public airing.” And if you missed the middle-of-the-night broadcasts, tough noogies.
Team Obama’s contempt for meaningful transparency has been on display from Day One. A year ago this month, Obama broke his vaunted open government pledge with the very first bill he signed into law. On Jan. 29, 2009, the White House boasted that the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act had been posted online for review. Except: Obama had already signed it — in violation of his “sunlight before signing” pledge to post legislation for public comment on the White House website five days before he sealed any deal.
From the stimulus to the health care takeover to holiday bailouts for bankrupt financial behemoths Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, it’s been all backrooms and blackouts ever since. The Prince of Darkness at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. is perfectly happy with his Vampire Congress. Wraiths of a sunshine-evading feather flock together.
FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Michelle Malkin is the author of Culture of Corruption: Obama and his Team of Tax Cheats, Crooks & Cronies (Regnery 2009).
Read more excellent articles from Family Security Matters
Historiann is wondering if there’s solid evidence that Mary Daly actually was transphobic. After a food-fight erupted in comments on Shakesville’s post, “RIP Mary Daly,” Historiann asks:
Did any of the very opinionated commenters [at Shakesville] who were so very concerned about Daly’s transphobia offer quotations, or, you know, any actual evidence of her grave sins against humanity? (I mean, aside from citing Wikipedia?) Did anyone do what Mary Daly herself did her whole life–commit scholarship by citing evidence, chapter and verse?
(More here.)
Now, I wasn’t involved in that pile-on because I’m generally uncomfortable with how the laudable idea of safe space sometimes becomes a silencing mechanism at Shakesville, and so I never comment there. I fully agree with Historiann: the snap judgments in that comment thread epitomize a real problem in feminist blogdonia – a tendency to assume bad faith and judge quickly and harshly.
But yeah, Daly did write some nasty things in Gyn/Ecology. I spent some time today digging through it (the relevant passages can all be found online, though you have to cobble them together from Amazon and Google Books). I didn’t find the term “Frankensteinian” applied verbatim to transsexuals, so technically Wikipedia may be incorrect in imputing it to her (or maybe I just didn’t find it). But only technically. I’ll get to the Frankenstein thing in a moment.
First, some context. Saying that radical feminists/hags must find their own selves, Daly cautions against being “swallowed up in male-centered (Dionysian) confusion. Hags find our own boundaries, our own definitions.” So far, so good. What’s not to like about defining one’s own boundaries? It’s smart and healthy, both personally and politically. But then Daly starts crossing my boundaries:
The Dionysian solution for women, which is violation of our own Hag-ocratic boundaries, is The Final Solution. To succumb to this seductive invitation is to become incorporated into the Mystical Body of Maledom, that is, to become ‘living’ dead women, forever pumping our own blood into the Heavenly Head, giving head to the Holy Host, losing our heads.
This is an example of Daly’s language-play leading her into incoherence. Meaning disintegrates: what does it mean to give head to the Holy Host? Last I knew, you chew on the host, which is sort of the opposite of what men appear to enjoy in fellatio – or have I been missing out on something important? There’s no substance in that metaphor, only a drive-by condemnation of blow jobs.
But that’s a frivolous point. What made me flinch here – and we haven’t gotten to the transphobia yet – was her appropriation of the Holocaust. It’s legitimate to look at genocide in comparative history. It’s not okay to use it as a metaphor for women identifying with men.
This notion of a Dionysian Final Solution forms the launching pad for Daly’s attack on trans people:
Dionysus sometimes assumed a girl-like form. The phenomenon of the drag queen dramatically demonstrates such boundary violation. Like whites playing “black face,” he incorporates the oppressed role without being incorporated in it. In the phenomenon of transsexualism, the incorporation/confusion is deeper. As ethicist Janice Raymond has pointed out, the majority of transsexuals are “male to female,” while transsexed females basically function as tokens, and are used by the rulers of the transsexual empire to hide the real nature of the game. In transsexualism, males put on “female” bodies (which are in fact pseudofemale).
(This and previous quotations are from Gyn/Ecology: The Metaethics of Radical Feminism, 67-8)
Here, Daly uncritically appropriates Raymond’s notion of a transsexual empire – a sort of conspiracy by men to invade and colonize women’s bodies and the feminist movement. She expresses no skepticism, only approval. I don’t see any way to redeem this. It’s transphobic through and through.
Two pages later, the next section is titled “Boundary Violation and the Frankenstein Phenomenon.” Daly positions Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein as “prophetic,” claiming it foretold “the technological fathers’ fusion of male mother-miming and necrophilia in a boundary violation that ultimately points toward the total elimination of women.” (70)
So Daly’s appropriation of the “Final Solution” is no accident. She literally warns against a genocide that would wipe out all women.
How would this occur?
Today the Frankenstein phenomenon is omnipresent not only in religious myth, but in its offspring, phallocratic technology. The insane desire for power, the madness of boundary violation, is the mark of necrophiliacs who sense the lack of soul/spirit/life-loving principle with themselves and therefore try to invade and kill off all spirit, substituting conglomerates of corpses. This necrophilic invasion/elimination takes a variety of forms. Transsexualism is an example of male surgical siring which invades the female world with substitutes.”
(Gyn/Ecology, 70-71)
Other “manifestations of phallotechnic boundary violations” include “male-created genetic engineering” and cyborgs along with behavioral psychology and “other Master Mothers, such as physicians and surgeons (especially in gynecology/obstetrics and in neurosurgery), psychiatrists, therapists, and counselors of all kinds.” (71)
Not to make any excuses for the history of gynecology, which is absolutely rife with human rights abuses, but “transphobic” almost seems like to weak a word. The most charitable reading of this passage positions MTF transsexuals as the unwitting dupes of evil surgeons. Alternatively, MTF transsexuals are themselves agents intent on destroying the female world.
So no, I didn’t catch the word “Frankensteinian” in the midst of all this, but that doesn’t make it any prettier. Transsexuals are at least associated – and possibly identified – with necrophiliacs and power-mad men. They are described as modern-day, real-world Frankensteins. This is defamatory. This is hate speech.
Daly returns to transsexuals in her flights of fantasy at the end of Gyn/Ecology. While describing an “Amazonian Dissembly,” she imagines a group she calls “the Obsessors” who are purveyors of women’s sexualization, bearing items such as cosmetics, Penthouse, and the Pill:
It is also noted that among this faction there are some who appear to be eunuchs. One is carrying a placard which reads: “I am a lesbian-feminist male-to-female transsexual. Take me in.” As they begin to file off the platform two Harpies swoop down into their midst, causing them to stumble and stagger in all directions.” (420)
It’s clear that Daly denies trans people the basic respect of acknowledging their own identity. Even more, she calls them “eunuchs,” implying they are sexless. And in the end, she gleefully imagines them being driven off from the gathering of women.
Except, of course, this scene didn’t only occur in Daly’s imagination. Self-identified radical feminists have often excluded trans women in real life. They just haven’t had the aid of flying Harpies.
But that’s only the end of Gyn/Ecology; it’s not the end of Daly’s career. (In my head, I’m channelling Paul Harvey: “And now you know … the rest of the story.) In comments to my previous post, Xochitl – a young woman who worked personally with Daly – states that Daly renounced such transphobic views later in life:
I got to know Mary in the last few years of her life – and of course I had to speak up for my trans friends – I’ll gladly report that Mary no longer held the same trans-phobic views that Jan Raymond expressed in her dissertation decades ago. I cannot report changes about Raymond’s thoughts only because I have not followed up on how her ideas developed. But I can attest that Mary’s own thoughts and perspective on this definitely changed – which only makes sense considering that for her to live is to change and move and grow with the movement of Ultimate Intimate Reality – Goddess is Verb for Mary Daly – there is no way she would have maintained static ideas.
One day I will write more on this – I do not want future generations of feminists, trans friends included, thinking of Mary Daly as their enemy.
She really is an ally. Of course this is not to diminish the harm and effect that any trans-phobic expressions will continue to have. That’s the risk any of us take when we put something in writing – it seems so permanently true. But in reality, all texts simply capture one moment – it is only a reflection of that one moment in ones developing thoughts and theories…
I have no reason to doubt Xochitl and pretty good cause to believe her. Judging from her blog, she strikes me as smart and principled. She describes herself as queer and Christian in an unorthodox way (if I’ve read it right). Yes, she’s got some personal loyalties, but her political and religious commitments are her own, not Daly’s.
It would have been wonderful if Mary Daly had publicly renounced those transphobic passages from Gyn/Ecology. I’m not aware of her having done so – but if anyone knows better, please correct me. (I’m not so interested in static ideas, myself, especially if they’re wrong!) Daly could have sent a signal to the younger generations of women who’ve embraced radical-cultural feminism and its attendant idea that the mere existence of trans people poses a danger to “real” (cis) women. Whatever one’s feelings about the content of her work, Daly lived a remarkable life. Disowning her transphobia would have been a generous gesture that might have influenced younger generations. It might even have opened up her legacy to the trans people and their allies who know her only as the philosopher who called them power-mad, necrophiliac monsters in the shadow of Frankenstein.
I was flipping through the channels last night and happened upon the Joy Behar Show. I decided to watch it for a minute, as Dr. Oz was on, and I have found that he tends to give some good medical advice – the segment was focusing on dieting.
He said, and I quote, “Coffee is the number one source of antioxidants in America.”
Not only is that quite an amazing fact by itself, it proves to me that the formulators of JavaFit know exactly what they are talking about!
I wanted to see if there was any further information on coffee from Dr. Oz, and I found this quote at his website:
“Coffee is a stimulant that contains caffeine. It can help you stay awake but also boost energy expenditure and speed up metabolism. So don’t be afraid to drink a cup of Joe. “
To see more about what coffee can do for you…CLICK HERE!
To hear the corporate “tools” of Big Floss tell it, we need to use their products not simply every day, but many times a day. They’ve created a seemingly limitless array of products that they are forcing, literally, down our throats. Toothbrushes, toothpaste, floss, mouth wash! There appears to be no end to the number and type of products they insist we must buy to fuel their corporate ambitions.
No other body of medical knowledge comes as close to a complete understanding of the multidimensional human being as does Ayurveda. The understanding that we are more than flesh and bones, that we exist in several spheres simultaneously (emotional, mental, spiritual, physical) — this is the forte of Ayurveda when we compare it to other systems of medicine. Today the knowledge of ourselves and our connection to one another is sorely needed. We are not healthy in isolation. As long as there is suffering in the world, as long as there is anguish in the psyche of millions we will all be confronted with “health” issues. What other medical science makes this fact readily apparent?
Today, I listened to an amazing NPR RadioLab episode titled “Numbers.”
In one of the stories in this episode, Jad and Robert Krulwich educated me on an interesting mathematical phenomenon called Benford’s Law. Simply stated, Benford’s Law states that in lists of numbers from many (but not all) real-life sources of data, the leading digit is distributed in a specific, non-uniform way. According to this law, the first digit of a number is “1″ almost one third of the time, and larger digits occur as the leading digit with lower and lower frequencies, to the point where 9 as a first digit occurs less than one time in twenty. This is completely contrary to the expectation that the number 9 or 8 should occur equally as frequently as 1 or 2.
(From “The First-Digit Phenomenon” by T. P. Hill, American Scientist, July-August 1998)
But get this… This law holds true whether talking about random samples from a day’s stock quotations, a tournament’s tennis scores, the numbers on the front page of The New York Times, the populations of towns, electricity bills in the Solomon Islands, the molecular weights of compounds, the half-lives of radioactive atoms, and much more.
It seems to me that if the universal natural state of order follows Benford’s Law… I wonder whether it also holds true for the human body…
I did a pubmed search and it seems that there have been a few researchers who had the same idea, most applied only to basic biological processes:
- Biologic kinetic rate parameters follow Benford’s Law (abstract)
- mRNA transcription data from a wide range of organisms and measured with a range of experimental platforms show close agreement with Benford’s law (abstract)
- Different states of anesthesia can be detected by Benford’s Law (link)
Just for giggles and kicks, I looked up normal bloodwork values for a human being. This website nicely listed the most common normal values. I than jotted down the frequencies of the first integer of all the lab values listed and here’s what I came up with:
The most common side effect of taking isotretinoin is dry lips. It’s something I’ve experienced in varying degrees dependent on what dose of medication I’ve been taking, but it has been a constant. As soon as I’ve been on anything over 30mg I’ve had to pay close attention to keeping my lips moisturised or they’ve simply peeled off, cracked and bled. I woke up in the middle of the night a couple of days ago because my top lip had cracked – the pain woke me! I’ve also woken on a few different occasions to find streaks of blood on my lower lip.
So, what have I tried to keep them moist, and what has worked best?
Neutrogena Immediate Repair Lip Balm is in a little tub. It takes a little bit of use for it to soften up so it feels like you’re getting a decent amount on your finger tip to rub on your lips, but once it has I found it pretty effective. It certainly does offer immediate relief and it improves the appearance of extremely dry lips as well as making them feel more comfortable.
Carmex SPF 15 Cherry Lip Balm is another one which I’ve got in a tub, though it’s also available in a stick and a squeezy tube. I actually bought this because I’d lost my Neutrogena and the branch of Boots I was in didn’t have any… so I punted on Carmex (I chose cherry because I like the smell, but they have a plain version too). For a start, this stuff smells delicious – my boyfriend loves it! I have to say this one is an absolute winner. I need to use it about half as often as the Neutrogena to keep my lips feeling moist and supple, and they look so much healthier since I’ve started using it!
Blistex Intensive Moisturiser wasn’t too bad, but it drove me a little bit batty to be honest. It’s easy to squirt far too much out, and even if you don’t, it’s easy to end up with very visible smears of white goo all over your lips. It feels quite greasy, and feels as if it’s just sitting on top of your lips rather than actually absorbing in. It did the job well enough if I couldn’t lay my hands on either of the above, but I wouldn’t really recommend it.
Blistex Lip Splash is rubbish, to be quite blunt. It smells a bit strange and leaves lips feeling wet and unpleasant. When your lips are peeling off in chunks, the roller ball can get caught on the dry bits and rip them off, which is not a nice experience at all.
Vaseline Lip Therapy is a must for anyone taking isotretinoin. It isn’t so good for moisturising your lips, but it’s great at protecting them. I’ve been trying to remember to slick some on at night to prevent my lips cracking while I’m asleep. I’ve also got a pot of the rosy tinted version, which is great for girls! I find that having to put lip balm on 8-10 times a day kind of renders lipstick pointless, so a tinted vaseline can come in very handy.
Chapstick is okay, but it’s not really up to the challenge of isotretinoin lips! I find it sometimes makes mine feel a bit drier, in fact.
I’d love to hear about your experiences with any other brands of lip balms and moisturisers!
Forget about becoming an actuary or an engineer, a career in Robotics is the new age trend……….
Image via Wikipedia
Haiti Relief Coverage Main Page
Me trying to keep the hiccups down later in the day and yes due to just sleeping 3.5 hours last night I got a big pimple on my forehead how fun! This shows how much you need your ‘beauty’ sleep.
=> 
=>
=> 
Source: http://www.canadiansportcentre.com/Communications/SportPerformanceWeekly/2004%20SPW%20Images/Cold_FX_Don_Cherry.jpg
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=5eff81c6-eb9f-4627-9343-e84291454079)
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=2d13c42d-955a-405c-8c4e-0d6a14ab9b28)
Researchers have discovered how influenza vaccines can be produced faster than through the traditional method of egg-based production, revealing a new strategy for the fight against influenza pandemics. (Credit: iStockphoto)
AH, the thorny and seemingly never-ending topic of employee error and corporate misconduct: How does your company handle it? Deny and defend? Disclose and apologize?
By Michelle Malkin
, 67-8)
