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Maven is a Survivor.
“What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal.” Albert Pike
Tuesday, March 9, 2010 at 16:09 We’re having a great time bird watching here at Rancho Maven again, this winter. I’ve been putting out a lot of seed, but also more of the suet/seed bricks this year, since I adore the Flickers and Downey Woodpeckers.
Here’s a rundown of some of the more interesting birds this month:
There is currently a lovely pair of Downey Woodpeckers
Friday, March 5, 2010 at 17:57 Forget those drab grays and greens, dinosaurs might have been more colorful, according to a new study in Science. Yale graduate student Jakob Vinther and colleagues looked at the fossilized feathers of 150-million-year-old Anchiornis huxleyi and found melanosomes—the organelles that hold melanin. Vinther’s analysis suggests the dinosaur had surprisingly flashy plumage. En Español.
birds, dinosaur colors, dinosaurs, feathers, science friday in Did you know?, factoid Thursday, March 4, 2010 at 20:23 I usually find the ‘diet factss’ just as lame as the bullshit they replace. So, here’s my take on the debate as presented in Women’s Health:
Why it’s useless: Peeing every 20 minutes seriously interferes with life.
The real deal: Believe it or not, the eight-glass quota isn’t etched in stone. Yes, we need to be well-hydrated, but if your urine is clear or close to it, you’re probably getting enough fluids. If your No. 1 is neon yellow, lighten things up by adding one or two glasses a day. Once your body adjusts to getting more fluid (and you don’t have to run to the can every 10 minutes), add another, says Karen Benzinger, R.D., a dietary consultant in Chicago who specializes in health care. And don’t forget that all liquids—including tea, juice, even the tonic in your vodka drink—help keep your body sufficiently saturated.
Maven’s way: Yes, indeedy. Look at your pee.
calories, dessert, diet, diet facts, diet fiction, drinking, eating, eating out, maven's way in File under 'D' for 'Duh', diet, health Tuesday, March 2, 2010 at 21:15 Really, it did. Unfortunately, you and your boss aren’t likely to notice.
This, according to Huffington Post:
NEW YORK — Earth’s days may have gotten a little bit shorter since the massive earthquake in Chile, but don’t feel bad if you haven’t noticed.
The difference would be only about one-millionth of a second.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010 at 20:28 The very last thing my husband and I were worried about when I was diagnosed with Stage IIIa breast cancer was how we would deal with the costs. When you’ve suddenly had your own mortality crammed into your face, the bills aren’t at the top of the list.
As the year+ of treatment wore on, however, and we travelled again and again from Reno to Houston for the best care possible, the bills did add up. We finally ended up taking out an equity line of credit against the house to help ease the cash crunch.
Saturday, February 27, 2010 at 16:10 We live in earthquake country, here in Nevada. But earthquakes can and have occurred throughout much of the United States. Travelling to earthquake prone areas of the world can also leave you at risk, so it’s wise to have some earthquake awareness.
The difference in fatalities and overall destruction between the Haitian quake and the much larger (100 times bigger ) 8.8 earthquake in Chile boils down to much better construction standards in Chile in addition to a much higher earthquaker awareness among Chile’s citizens.
Even the day of the big quake, persons interviewed in Chile, while not exactly blase about it, are relatively calm even as many are being evacuated from unsafe areas.
As engineers like to say: “earthquakes don’t kill people. Falling buildings do.”
Friday, February 26, 2010 at 22:05 Normally, I don’t approve of snacking between meals. I mean, really, if your a normal, reasonably healthy person and you can’t get through three to four hours without feeding yourself …. get real. Snacking is usually a symptom of:
1- Being bored or thirsty.
2- Not having eaten a proper meal, such as a healthy breakfast or sat down and mindfully eaten your lunch or dinner. Scarfing faux food on the fly is one reason you’ll be driven to snacking on unhealthy, unsatisfying choices.
Snacking mindlessly, on unhealthy faux-foods, is where it really goes off the tracks and into the dietary ditch. So, why not arm yourself with the right snacks, if you’re snacking inclined?
candy, refined grains, snacks, sugar, whole grains in File under 'D' for 'Duh', diet, health, wellness Friday, February 26, 2010 at 21:41 I was reading about motion sickness the other day, and reflecting on my own experiences with it - largely as a part of flying low-level search and rescue in small airplanes in turbulent conditions around mountains. I’ve handed bag after bag to big, grownup men in the backseat of a Cessna 210. I’ve also had to deal with youngsters who go queasy in the backseat of a moving car.
The cause of motion sickness, according to WebMD:
“Motion sickness occurs when the inner ear, the eyes, and other areas of the body that detect motion send conflicting messages to the brain. One part of your balance-sensing system (your inner ear, vision, and sensory nerves that help you keep your balance) may indicate that your body is moving, while the other parts do not sense motion. For example, if you are in the cabin of a moving ship, your inner ear may sense the motion of big waves, but your eyes don’t see any movement. This leads to a conflict between the senses and results in motion sickness.”
The best cure for motion sickness is to prevent it.
airplanes, cars, motion sickness, nausea, queasy, travel sickness in Did you know?, factoid, health, wellness Tuesday, February 16, 2010 at 22:51 The fast food franchises are slugging it out in an attempt to out-huge each other, largely in response to Carl’s Jr. and its iconic jaw-dropping burgers. The Carl’s $6.00 Burger tips the calorie scale at 890 calories, before you even add the drink and fries.
The new McDonalds’ Angus Deluxe Burger is bigger than a Big Mac, and sets your diet back by 750 calories. By comparison the standard McDonald’s hamburger, that I grew up on, is 250 calories.
The McDonalds regular hamburger actually has fewer calories than any other menu item - less than their wrap sandwich offering even. In fact, most of the fast food salads start at more calories than the regular hamburger.
No wonder we weren’t all obese back in the day. A burger was also an occasional treat.
burger king, burgers, calories, carls jr, diet, mc donalds, ruby tuesday, veggie burger in diet, health, wellness Thursday, February 11, 2010 at 16:39 Mr. Maven came running into the other room, saying “Hey, come watch this thing about breast cancer. You might be interested.”
Yes, you could say so.
You see, Fox News reporter, Jennifer Griffin, was telling about her new battle beyond the war zones of the world - it was with Stage III, Triple Negative breast cancer. The deadliest kind.
That’s what I had.
Reporter battles deadliest breast cancer
I wish they had spent more time on what makes a breast cancer a Triple Negative, but perhaps that’s my job.
I was diagnosed in 2002, upon a second opinion examination at the University of Texas, M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. In Reno, where I live and first got the news about having cancer, they’d told me that they’d caught it early, and it was very small.
Hardly the correct picture, hence the critical need for a second opinion.
My tumor, upon biopsy and examination was huge, more than six centimeters across. The cells, upon microscopic examination, were negative for HER 2 protein Receptor, so the targeted therapy of Herceptin would not be available to me.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010 at 21:20 If you have a serious illness - such as cancer - you should start searching around your providers website like I did. Nobody at UnitedHealthcare ever told me that I was eligible for extended coverage at a National Center for Excellence ( like the University of Texas, M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in my case).
I found this benefit completely by accident, called and got enrolled. It pays for travel and lodging at UT, MDACC.
Here’s what the UHC website - separate from their regular site - says:
Specialized Networks
Enhancing care for patients with serious illness.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010 at 16:28 The following article is from The University of Texas, M. D. Anderson Cancer Center publication, OncoLog, January 2009, Vol. 55, No. 1 :
Choosing Treatment for a Common Group of Early, Confined Breast Cancers
Overview
By definition, ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) is a cancer arising from and pathologically confirmed to be confined to the terminal duct lobular units of the breast. It is therefore considered a noninvasive breast cancer. Each year in the United States, about 64,000 women are diagnosed with DCIS, representing 30% of women diagnosed with breast cancer.
Three decades ago, DCIS was found in patients relatively rarely, typically co-existing with invasive cancers in mastectomy specimens. In the even rarer instance in which a patient presented with clinically evident DCIS—a palpable mass or nipple discharge—she was treated with mastectomy.
Today, it is still unusual for DCIS to present symptomatically;
Tuesday, February 9, 2010 at 15:45 A couple items that I read today in the Johns Hopkins Medical Letter ‘Health After 50’ that were of interest to me:
Willingness to simply take part in a clinical trial - whether you actually do or not - seems to make a difference in your future good health. I found this interesting since, during my treatment for cancer at the University of Texas, M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, I participated in every clinical trial they offered. I was getting writers’ cramp. Not really, but you get the idea.
According to British researchers,when they studied over 2,000 heart patients who had been asked if they wished to participate in a clinical trial, after 55 months, those who said ‘yes’ were half as likely to have died as those who were not interested. They think this might be because those who express more of a willingness to try a trial might be more compliant regarding their doctors’ instructions in regard to treatment, and more accepting of their condition.
Having been there, done that. this sounds very plausible.
Monday, February 8, 2010 at 22:50 From alert reader, Bob N., who still has too much time on his hands….
454 cubic inch big block Chevrolet V8 produces 412 horsepower
If you’re tired of anemic, one-lung snowblowers with their slipping drive belts,
huge snowblower, snow, snowblower in technology Monday, February 8, 2010 at 22:43 Really, you can make your own Batman comic - and put anything you want in it !
batman, batman and robin, comic, comic generator in apps, technology Monday, February 8, 2010 at 22:25 From ever alert reader, Bob N.
Thanks!
This is perhaps one of the most amazing examples of ‘cross control’ I’ve ever seen… that’s when he’s got the tailwheel, one of the mains and the wingtip all on the ground at one time, going straight down the centerline.
Masterful.
Kyle Franklin is an airshow professional. He is the son of legendary airshow pilot Jimmy Franklin. Kyle has been performing in airshows for over 10 years has been around aviation his entire life.
Here he’s seen at an air show routine where he plays a supposedly drunk guy who can’t fly but steals an airplane and goes for a joyride.
aerobatics, air show, aviation, cross control, drunk, flying, kyle franklin, super cub in aviation Monday, February 8, 2010 at 22:21 Alan Becker’s brilliant animation from ABS.
This animation was made using a popular vector drawing and animation program called Flash. The program was made by Macromedia, and Macromedia is owned by now Adobe so new versions are called Adobe Flash. It’s for Windows or Mac.
alan becker, animatiaon, flash, flash animation in technology Monday, February 8, 2010 at 22:17 What do you want to bet that this guy doesn’t check his email much?
ferrari, model car, scale model in technology Wednesday, February 3, 2010 at 11:54 I just received the following from from the Executive Director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), Michael Jacobson.
How would you feel if you had to pay $8.50 a gallon for gasoline?*
Then why on Earth would you pay that much for water and high-fructose corn syrup?
That’s how much Coke costs in those new 7.5-ounce, 90-calorie cans. Calorie-counters may appreciate the small size (90 calories) but dollar-counters beware: We did a little math and it turns out that Coke in the new can costs between 50- and 140-percent more than Coke in the old 12-ounce cans. Basically, Coke is charging two or three cents more per ounce for Coke in a smaller can—and this from a company that throws temper tantrums when lawmakers propose a one-cent-per-ounce tax on soda!
I think time might be running out for Coca-Cola, as parents, public health officials, and others are beginning to work together to reduce consumption of disease-promoting soft drinks. That’s the topic of my latest column in The Huffington Post. Please feel free to weigh in on this topic in the comments section, which I’ll be checking throughout the afternoon and tomorrow.
Sincerely,
Michael F. Jacobson
Executive Director
Center for Science in the Public InterestP.S. Also, we haven’t launched it formally yet, but you can now keep up with CSPI’s activities by becoming a fan on our Facebook page. (And later this month, we’ll be relaunching our redesigned homepage. Stay tuned!)
(*Okay, maybe we should pay a little more for gasoline. But you get my point.)
Hmmm. It’s certainly worthy of some thought.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010 at 21:01 Wow, I wish I’d known about this when I was undergoing treatment! What an outstanding idea: housecleaning services around the country donating time to help cancer patients.
Cleaning for A Reason should be commended - and supported. Here’s what their website says:
Fighting cancer is difficult enough, but living with it is even tougher - and that’s where the Cleaning for A Reason Foundation steps in. This newly formed nonprofit offers free professional housecleaning, and maid services to improve the lives of women undergoing treatment for cancer - any type of cancer.
Hey, if you know a woman with cancer - any type of cancer - do something really big for her. Give her the gift of a clean house.
