2036 My librarian's hat

Let me pause here to put on my librarian's hat. If you want to check further than internet rehash of the story on paternal age and genetic diseases (my blog 2034), or any medical story for that matter, there are a number of medical journals that have free text online, where you can get the whole story plus the references. This story, for instance goes all the way back to the 1950s when they first suspected the sperm and age of the father were involved in defects.

However, you might see this:

Only to click on it and see this: This item is restricted. Subscribers have full text access and guests have some free access. SIGN IN or see below for access options.

Well, be sure to scroll down to look at your options. JAMA and all its other journal archives are free AFTER a year. So it is worth your while to register so you can take advantage. I can go on-line at Ohio State as faculty emeritus, however, this option actually is easier with a "remember me" option. You may not have access to a university or large public library that carries this, but now you can look at them anyway.

Some journal registrations are a pain in the rear, but JAMA's wasn't too bad.

2035 Republicans may disagree

but I think it is time to get the TV cameras out of the judicial hearing rooms. Yes, I know you love to see Democrats making fools of themselves, but it is an embarrassment for all of us. That Kennedy/Biden dog and pony show. Yuk. Would any of that have happened without the opportunity for camera face time? Supporters of the candidate (of either party) posture and preen and try to make him/her look like God's gift to our Constitution, and the opposition refuses to look at his/her record and instead drone on about the nanny's grandmother's history and high school fraternities. Somewhere I read that only 14% of the nation watched--I think that is a stretch unless you're counting click throughs.

Peggy Noonan actually found Biden endearing! "The great thing about Joe Biden during the Alito hearings, the reason he is, to me, actually endearing, is that as he speaks, as he goes on and on and spins his long statements, hypotheticals, and free associations--as he demonstrates yet again, as he did in the Roberts hearings and even the Thomas hearings, that he is incapable of staying on the river of a thought, and is constantly lured down tributaries from which he can never quite work his way back--you can see him batting the little paddles of his mind against the weeds, trying desperately to return to the river but not remembering where it is, or where it was going. I love him. He's human, like a garrulous uncle after a drink."

Sounds like she's looking for a paddle on the same river of thought.

2034 Society won't want to hear this

For years we've known the dangers of older women and pregnancy, and now it appears the older father presents it's own set of problems--genetic.

"There are now approximately 20 different disorders that are correlated with paternal age. . . The risk of having a child who later develops schizophrenia is about 1 in 110 when a father is age 40--similar to a 40 year old woman's risk of having a child with Down's Syndrome." JAMA v.291,no.14(2004):1683-1685

An interview with Dr. Dolores Malaspina who has done extensive research on paternal genetic birth defects in Medscape.com. In the US, the age of the father is often not even recorded, but Israel, where she has done her research, has more detailed information in birth registries.

schizophrenia

2033 Win a prize from Cordelya

Cordelya's blog turned up on the new member list of Homespun bloggers this week, so I took a look. She likes to pose questions. This week she is talking about "lifehacks," or those techniques that reduce life's problems or chaos. Here's her proposal.

What is your best lifehack? Blog about it, tell me about it, and pass it on, and you might be the lucky person to receive a $15 iTunes e-certificate. Here's what you do:

Write a blog/journal entry about your best lifehack
Include the following little snippet of code in your entry:
Cordelya wants to know your best lifehack, and she's giving away a $15 iTunes e-certificate to a random contributor. Find out how to enter here.

Connect your entry to this entry by trackback if you have that capability, or post a comment on this entry with a link back to your entry so I can go read it.

So rather than make a separate entry (I don't even know what an iTune is so doubt that I need the certificate), I'll just pass along my tip (lifehack) for budgeting your way out of a financial mess: tithe your income to your church or synagogue. I don't know anyone who does that who can't make the month meet the bills. I don't know if it is a spiritual principle, or if it is you just have nothing left over for foolishness and thus develop good spending habits, but it works.

However, I did read in the WSJ the other day about a program called "Individual Development Accounts" which have helped the poor buy homes, start businesses and save for college. In two of the examples, the poor people in the program found money to invest by--are you ready for this--giving up cable TV, manicures, and cell phone. I love it. Only in America!

2032 Serves Twelve--or two if you're lucky

The weather has turned cold again in Ohio after several days of balmy 60s. Yesterday the wind blowing across the sipping hole in my Caribou cup played the Buckeye Fight Song.

So it is time to think about comfort food--Bread Pudding. Here's my blog about my search for the perfect recipe from last January. I'm going to go check the frig and pantry and see if I have the ingredients.

bread pudding

2031 Would more aid change things?

"Under President George W. Bush, America has dou­bled its development assistance to $19 billion in 2004, including tripling its assistance to sub-Saharan Africa since 2000. It has expanded access to the U.S. market through the African Growth and Opportuni­ties Act. The U.S. is the world’s largest humanitarian aid donor, providing $3.3 billion in 2003. The U.S. is the world’s largest source of bilateral and multilateral support to combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other infectious diseases, including $2.4 billion in interna­tional HIV/AIDS programs.[2]

Yet the U.S. is often criticized for not providing enough resources for development. The basis for this criticism is the theory that if only aid flows increased, developing countries would achieve economic growth and development. Economic analysis and the histori­cal record do not support this reasoning."

Calls for a new "Marshall Plan" over look the fact that sub-Saharan Africa has received a Marshall Plan several times over. Some third of the countries receiving regular aid since the 1960s have actually gone backward. "To put this in perspective, if all of the aid spent over those four decades were gathered together in today’s dollars and simply handed out to the 719 million people of sub-Saharan Africa, per capita GDP would increase by over $756— more than doubling its current per capita GDP."

Read this for the history of development aid, and the new proposal for a challenge account.

2030 Marine says they're winning

There’s an interview at Blackfive with a proud Marine, Capt B, you’ll not want to miss. Not only does he think his job is great, he’s got some heart touching stories about the work he does, like sharing a Pepsi with a little Iraqi girl. But the closer is the best:

What message, ignored or downplayed by the MSM, about our role in Iraq do you think it is most important for the American people to hear?

WOW, well its actually very simple but is the focus point for both the supporters and anti supporters of the war. We are winning and doing a just thing here. We are so close to this thing taking off on its own and the Iraqi people taking the reins. I wouldn’t be surprised if it didn’t happen in the next year. For example the other day in Ramadi, a suicide vest attacker blew himself up in the crowed and although wounding and killing numerous Iraqi’s and Coalition service members, they simply got back in line to be accepted in the service. That wouldn’t have happened a year ago. They would have fled and we would be back to the drawing board. You got to war a chance and with the kick butt support I’ve seen from the American people we will wrap this thing up and get the hell outa dodge, but only when its time to.

2029 Daniel Henninger the Wordsmith

He's a male Ann Coulter. I swear. "Reasonable people can disagree on the views of these conservative jurists, but first we need reasonable people." The word list for the hearings:

Kennedy: Grand hulk, ranting, tilting his Princeton windmill

Biden: magical mystery tours of his life

Feinstein: reciting staff written questions she didn't understand

Schumer: going no where with a mother-in-law story

Graham: puckish

Democrats: exhausted and befuddled, flat-lined, hostage taking, scorched earth politics, laugh track, incoherent

tactics: borking, ranting, smears, moral punctiliousness

hearings: Roman circus, judicial filabuster with the nuclear option, contest with propaganda, same swamp (as the Rehnquist confirmation hearings)

left wing opposition groups: frustrated

Alito: largest presence, mental firepower, thoughtful remarks, discussing law which puts Democrats on unfamiliar ground.

Alito hearings

$38.00 per gallon

for coffee makes gasoline look cheap.

This is from Blogger Boy at HIStalk, a blog about health care information technology. In this guest article, the writer is talking about the expenses of a vendor at a health information convention, in this case, the HIMSS Annual Conference, Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society. Even though not going first class, this vendor’s booth cost almost $190,000, and he gives a fairly close break-out of the expenses, like $2500 for coffee and cookies and $565 for a keg of beer plus the cost of people to serve these items. He goes on to explain about the cookies and coffee:.

“In order to give the Otis Spunkmeyer cookies away in your booth, you have to rent the machine from the convention center. There is a $500 charge for the machine and a $100 delivery fee. In addition you must have a certified cookie attendant at $80 an hour for a 4 hour minimum. No, making your own cookies for years and years does NOT qualify you to be a certified cookie attendant. For that price you receive 275 cookies. I’ll do the math for you: that comes out to be $3.35 per cookie. You can get additional cases of cookies (160 in each case) for $200 ($1.25 each). Now I like cookies as much as the next person but that seems a bit high. The coffee that just seems to go hand-in-hand with the cookies is $38 a gallon with a 3 gallon minimum. I don’t know what that would work out to be a cup but I can guarantee you it is a touch more than Starbucks.”

I suppose after you’ve paid over $100,000 to get the booth and rent the space, you don’t sweat the cookies. During my years as a medical librarian, I munched my way through a lot of freebies in Boston, Chicago, Seattle, San Antonio and Kansas City while looking at software, books, new journals and bibliographies. We Vet librarians would compare notes with each other on where to get the best book bags and t-shirts and who offered the yummiest breakfasts. I knew these giant hotel exhibit areas cost the vendors, and that the chocolate party we had at the top of the John Hancock Building in Chicago must have cost somebody a pretty penny, but I was still thinking “free,” instead of “add this to the cost” I’ll pay for any health related product and service I buy--to say nothing of never learning about the small companies that couldn't pay that.

Government benefits are like that too, aren’t they? Free, until you do the math.
Full article here.

2027 The Friday Paint Along

Although it isn't exactly a New Year's Resolution, I do want to get back to my painting. After all, that's why we did the massive move, repacking and reorganization in December, so my drawing table could have north light. Now I'd better make good on it. My husband continues the reorganization as he is cataloging his slides--going back to the 60s.

So here I am, all ready for art class. The apron is a heavy white canvas fabric (100% cotton made in Canada) with black cats, a gift from my sister. I put this on about an hour before so I don't forget or lose my nerve. There's my red bag bought at the Port Clinton Wal-Mart for $3 a few years ago--love that store. Inside are all sorts of goodies, like my favorite brushes in side the cardboard tube of a Reynoldswrap box, with small straight edge and erasers. And smallish pieces of good quality watercolor paper--I like 300 lb., but will use 140 if that's all I have tucked inside a tablet so they won't bend. Also a file folder of reference stuff, mostly pulled from magazines--but just for practice. And I have a small clear plastic zippered make-up kit, also purchased at Wal-Mart that holds a little color pan, watercolor pencils, color chart, and itsy-bitsy pieces of w.c. paper--postcard size. I use the small plastic bottles that came with it for water, and the soap dish for the w.c. tubes. Not that I ever paint on location, but with this I could. Inside that I also have reference photos and small sketches.

So if is off to paint with my friends and take a break from blogging.

2026 As best I can

I'll avoid all the Friday the Thirteenth references as best I can, but Nathan Bierma, whose column on language I enjoy on subscription and in the Trib, says that phrase "as best as is either a grammatical error or an exception to a firm rule of English syntax."

"As best as" is striking, because "best" is the superlative form of "well," and English doesn't use any other superlative in this phrase. We say "as much as" but not "as most as"; "as red as" but not "as reddest as." The phrase "as best as I can" may be a mix-up of "as well as I can" and "the best that I can."

After talking to a few experts about this, who agreed it isn't standard, but isn't a serious problem, he went high tech and googled the expression finding some form of it going all the way back to 1377. Standard or not, it's got a bit of age.

Bierma's column here.

2024 Ted Kennedy's dog

Someone e-mailed me today after reading my Ted Kennedy scum bag post that he had a dog named Splash, and wasn't that really an odd name--you know, considering his history.

I thought it must be an urban legend, but looked it up. Of course, you still never know--this is after all the internet we're talking about--where a dog might be posting and you'd have no way to know. But here's the story at Anchoress.

2023 United Way

Although I retired five years ago, the Office of Human Resources at the university keeps my name label current--they send me notices about health care programs for which I'm not eligible, and "Bucks for Charity" (a United Way Campaign for the university community) booklets. Before I toss the booklet for 2005 (why is it coming in 2006?), I browse a bit through what I'm not going to support. Inside I find the campaign was Oct. 10-Dec. 2 (lost in the Christmas rush?), and that it includes eleven local federations of charities.

One of the eleven is COSMO, Community Share of Mid Ohio and its figure is 10%--and I think that is 10% of the total charity. Then within that, other agencies get a percentage of that 10% (this is a guess, because I can't find the explanation--although the figure could be the percentage of their total budget for each group). Within this acronym is

the ACLU mid-Ohio chapter, 18.8%;

BRAVO, which works to eliminate violence perpetrated on the basis of sexual orientation and gender, 31%;

Kaleidoscope for gay, lesbian, bixexual, transgendered and questioning youth, 14.8%;

NARAL Pro-Choice (formerly known as National Abortion Rights Action League, then the National Abortion & Reproductive Rights Action League, but it still kills babies);

Coalition on sexual assault;

domestic violence network, 5.7%;

NOW education and Legal Fund, 12% (recently changed its name to Legal Momentum apparently to hide its connection to NOW);

Open Hand for AIDS, 15%;

Stonewall (gay rights), 19.1%;

a variety of environmental, disability, animal rights, and arts groups;

Camp Fire, 28%; Cat Welfare 1%; and Habitat for Humanity, 4.9%.

Why Cat Welfare and Habitat are included with ACLU and gay advocacy, and Camp Fire isn't with Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts over in the Central Ohio group, I have no idea, but if I were going to donate, this lump sum would turn me off big time, and I support both of them privately. My sweet kitty is a Cat Welfare graduate.

Then there is also in the booklet a United Way of Central Ohio with 67 agencies, and a Black United Fund of Ohio, which "supports projects serving critical human service needs of Ohioans." It includes 12 members agencies, but not one description says the agency is for blacks. Can you imagine the uproar if there were a whites-only category in United Way?

I think I blogged about this last year--can't find it--but about 20 years ago I was invited to a big party because I was in the top category of donors for the campus campaign. It was sponsored by a beer company. I never donated again.

2022 More storage

In December we were pitching things out and rearranging and repacking things (we've been here 4 years). Today at Meijer's I saw a very pretty set of nesting boxes--three--on sale for $10. The largest one is big enough to hold some of my watercolor tablets and odd size paper; the mid-size can hold some rolled up things and odd frame sizes; the smallest is empty for the moment, but will probably end up holding negatives, since those seem to be all over the place yearning for a spot to call home. If you've ever seen those storage shows on cable, they find the cutest boxes to put things in.



That isn't my painting. It's one of my husband's of a barn near Westerville, OH--although I'm not sure it is still there. But tomorrow I'm going back to my painting group--I've done nothing to speak of since the summer. Too much blogation.

I'm adjusting the time on this so I can keep the Thursday Thirteen on top.

storage
watercolor

2021 Why Mrs. Alito cried

Imagine having a gas-bag, womanizer, alcoholic, bantam rooster-brained killer, still living on his father's ill-gotten wealth, who never worked a day in his life, questioning your husband about his character.

Alito hearings
Senator Ted Kennedy

2020 Was thinking the same thing

Beth and I are on the same wave length today about Teddy. "I can't hear him speak, especially in such a condescending and morally superior manner that I don't think about Chappaquiddick Island." Blue Star Chronicles

2019 Couldn't figure out why

the Dems were peeing in their pants with excitement about the Abramoff scandal. According to Don Surber, who usually has things pretty straight, "He steered $1.5 million to Democrats in Congress and $2.9 million to Republicans in recent years." All campaign finance reform did for us was make it possible only for rich guys with lots of personal wealth to run for office, and increase the power of the lobbyists.

(Pause for a group sing-a-long)
Step up, step up, step up
and take some blame,
John McCain, McCain, McCain.

Surber's comment with dollars and sense, here.

2018 Please write to me, I’m a locked up bad guy

Have you ever seen one of these cyber prison sites, where inmates plead for pen pals and tell how lonely they are? “It’s really lonely here at Christmas. I haven’t had a visitor in 15 years.”

Why are we giving criminals access to the internet? Why do they have e-mail accounts? Who is paying for the phone lines and broadband and dsl lines? Who is providing the computers? Do they have printers? Do the prison staff and legislators think these guys will get jobs using computers if and when they finish their sentence (for murder, rape, robbery, fraud, etc.).

If librarians want to worry about their records getting into the hands of the wrong people (the FBI), maybe they should check to see if these guys can hack their library websites and get the patron records. The photo and house plan of your home and street are on your county web site. Think they haven’t got oodles of time to figure out how to use that information?

I just picked a name at random from one of these lists, and looked up his crime with Google. Seems he’s recently been up for parole. I don’t think he got it, but could the next time. Do you really want him out looking for you, or your bleeding heart teen-ager who thought it might be kind to “visit someone in prison.”

“Last week, the board heard requests by STUV and WXYZ, both convicted in FFFFF County.

STUV was sentenced to death for the [month and year] murders of xxxxxxx, a 48-year-old farmer, and xxxxxxx, 18.”

So I looked up STUV’s appeal. It was a brutal crime--like the ones you see on The Closer or Law and Order reruns. The 18 year old apparently just walked in on it. Seems there was supporting testimony during the trial on his behalf that he had a terrible childhood, was abused, had a long juvenile record before turning to adult crime, and had an alcohol and drug problem. I don’t know how much you know about the criminal justice system, but prison isn’t the place to go to get help for a life time of wretchedness.

Tookie found the only solution for his sin, and it wasn’t a computer.

2017 Daring to find our names

Although it's possible that gay cowboys have been in the closet until the recent much heralded movie Brokeback Mountain, gay and lesbian librarians sure haven't been. That's why I was a bit surprised when browsing my honorary's website (Beta Phi Mu) to find that a book had been published, "Daring to find our names" which chronicles their gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender/queer history and careers (their words, not mine). Not that I pried into people's private lives, but I always knew my profession was heavily homosexual. I didn't know much about transgender until one of my staff members changed sexes and thus was part of a legally married female couple, although neither one were lesbians. I knew who the guys' partners were, who had died of AIDS--even went to the memorials and funerals, and who was being unfaithful to whom. My very favorite boss of all times, Jay Ladd, was a very popular librarian at Ohio State. He was a "company man," but knew how to treat his own staff fairly. His research field was a gay writer, and his partner was a gay artist. No big deal. So where's the daring?

Although I wasn't aware of it for a number of years, I worked for several women librarians who not only were lesbians, but were abusive to each other. I never suspected, because of their antipathy, that they were anything but old maid housemates. But I also knew lesbian secretary/professor couples. Hey, we weren't THAT protected in the 1950s and 1960s in academe.

The problem today is not sexism, homophobia, and discrimination, but a sluggish, overarching, stuck-in-the-70s liberal bureaucracy, particularly in ALA, that can't get down to library business. And a coming out book that costs $106.00 for 272 pages.

2016 Don't walk and talk on your cell phone

The Illinois Alumni magazine arrived yesterday, and when I opened it I saw a small article that the family of a student killed when hit by a bus has sued the Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District. But when I read a little further I just shook my head. It's not that I don't sympathize with her parents. . . but the 18 year old was talking on her cell phone crossing the street at Sixth and Chalmers. I used to work and live in that area and I suppose they could have created curb cuts in the last 40 years, but I'm surprised a bus can even navigate that area. We always, always had to use all five senses to avoid the bicyclists and mopeds. But what phone call is so critical that you need to talk while walking--anywhere, let alone in the street shared with cars, bikes and buses. Yet how often have we seen people doing just that--not paying attention to other pedestrians, or uneveness in the pavement, or not watching for bikers, and certainly not paying attention to cars as they cross the street.

The article says the university has launched an investigation into traffic and pedestrian safety and is improving safety programs that are already in place. A stop sign has been added and speed limits lowered. Students held a candlelight vigil and cried.

But has anyone instructed the students in how to use cell phones and be safe?

cell phone safety
University of Illinois