Vaccine: The Controversial Story of Medicine’s Greatest Lifesaver
Topic: Health and Wellness
10:50 pm EST, Feb 4, 2007
This ought to stir things up; the thing is, I'm not really interested.
Allen is sympathetic to parental fears regarding the dangers of various vaccines, though he remains skeptical that scientific studies of these dangers, no matter how rigorous, will open many minds. At this point, he writes, much of the “antivaccinist” leadership is composed of countercultural types who view life through the prism of conspiracy theory: the government lies, the drug companies are evil, the medical profession is corrupt; trust the Internet instead. A fair number oppose traditional medicine in favor of homeopathy, believing that vaccines weaken the immune system and that sickness is a natural part of life. “We treat our children like machines that are never supposed to slow down or let us miss a day of work,” a mother told Allen. “We never allow them the soulfulness of being ill.”
To a large extent, says Allen, this antivaccination impulse is fueled by an ignorance of the past. Vaccines have done their job so well that most parents today are blissfully unaware of the diseases their children are being inoculated against. The end result is a culture that has become increasingly risk-averse regarding vaccination because people have greater trouble grasping the reward.
Taken at face value, this is almost a meta-question; if a minor disagreement on this point is going to stress the marriage, then clearly the verdict should be to not get married.
At the end of last week, former Republican Congressman Bob Barr roiled the political waters with the announcement that he had left the Republican Party and become a life member of the Libertarian Party.
"Putting some over the hill" is what they say around the Project Operations Control Center when they want to indicate that they are pumping Aqueduct water from the floor of the San Joaquin Valley up and over the Tehachapi Mountains. "Pulling it down" is what they say when they want to indicate that they are lowering a water level somewhere in the system.
From the prophets I've been hearin' I would say the end is hearin' For I see familiar landmarks all along By the dreams that I've been dreamin' There will come a great redeemin' And over the next hill, we'll be home
Back to marriage:
We're emotional illiterates. We've been taught about anatomy and farming methods in Africa. We've learned mathematical formulas by heart. But we haven't been taught a thing about our souls. We're tremendously ignorant about what makes people tick.
Having said all that, there may be something to this:
As regular readers of my blog know, I lost my voice about 18 months ago. Permanently. It’s something exotic called Spasmodic Dysphonia. Essentially a part of the brain that controls speech just shuts down in some people, usually after you strain your voice during a bout with allergies (in my case) or some other sort of normal laryngitis. It happens to people in my age bracket.
What percentage of the human body is water, and how is this determined?
Topic: Health and Wellness
12:03 pm EDT, Aug 10, 2006
An average adult body is 50 to 65 percent water -- that's roughly 45 quarts. Men are more watery than women. A man's body is 60 to 65 percent water, compared to 50 to 60 percent for a woman. In infants, the figure is a whopping 70 percent.
Water content differs throughout the body. Blood is made up of 83 percent water, bones are 22 percent water, and muscle is 75 percent water.
Within single cells water content ranges between 70 and 85%. The percent water in the entire body by weight varies with age, sex, and physical conditioning. Heart and lung contain the most water, about 80%. Fat (about 20%) and bone (about 43%) are among the lowest. Therefore, the total body is an average of all organs, blood, and extracellular fluids.
Sleep Pattern Differences Strongly Associated with Demographic Factors
Topic: Health and Wellness
4:32 pm EDT, Jul 28, 2006
The lead researcher of the study said that people with higher incomes and more demanding jobs may spend fewer hours in bed but they make more efficient use of that time sleeping.
Interesting. College apparently trains you for something, after all ...
After a tortured debate, Parliament voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday for a total ban on smoking in indoor public places in England — a move that seemed certain to end the time-hallowed traditions of the smoky British pub, where a pint of ale and a cigarette once defined the downtime of generations.
Perhaps it's no surprise that as the product-information revolution plays out, the net effect of the vast array of opinions (from experts, from advertisements, from online reviews, from other consumers) means that sometimes we are simply unsure whom to trust. If you feel the air around you is unclean, and a gizmo comes along that says it will help, maybe you go with the recommendation that seems most hopeful.
Perhaps my blog would be more widely read if I made an effort to be hopeful.
As Asher notes, Consumer Reports's medical consultants say most people do not need any of these devices. "So," he says, "the bigger issue could be, why are people buying air cleaners at all?" At a time when consumer choice may be more confusing than ever, the magazine can give people an assessment that has no commercial bias, he concludes, "but we can't make their decisions for them."
"The times have changed so much, with women in control," Ms. Fleiss, 40, said in a telephone interview from Nevada on Thursday. "Women make more money. They are more powerful. And it's a lonely world. People are tired of Internet dating. It's easier to go to a place where you know you'll have your dream man."
Ms. F says: F Myspace! Or, more directly: Don't F around with Myspace losers; come F my dream guys!
