Do on-line computer game sites help your brain?

Might be fun or relaxing, but so far, the proof isn’t there.  Exercise is probably better.

“In addition to remaining intellectually active, older adults concerned about maintaining their cognition must protect their cardiovascular health. The brain contains multitudes of blood vessels, and lack of physical activity seems to affect the brain negatively, just as it does the heart. Stroke carries its own risks of cognitive impairment and dementia, independent of diseases like AD. The American Heart Association recommends that older adults get at least 150 of moderate-intensity physical activity minutes per week. Time spent playing computer-based brain games might be better spent, when possible, taking a walk.

In summary, brain games have not yet fulfilled their promises of improved brain fitness. This does not mean that computer-based cognitive training will never be able to improve cognitive function, but it does not appear that training with the right amount of intensity and duration is yet available. If such games are enjoyable for their consumers, there is no compelling reason to stop playing, but for those hoping to avoid dementia, a focus on improving cardiovascular health and seeking broader opportunities for mental stimulation may prove more beneficial.
http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/42522/title/Opinion--Can-the-Brain-Be-Trained-/

Gray Matters, vol. 2

It’s difficult for me to put the word ethics and President Obama in the same sentence—he lied about his support for gay marriage in 2008 in order to get elected and then lied again  in 2012 and said his view “evolved;” he lied about Obamacare in order to get support from Catholic politicians;  he lied about insured Americans being able to keep their plan or doctor when he knew it wasn’t true; he believes  abortion is a woman’s health issue and gives our tax money to Planned Parenthood, allowing killing the unborn for any reason, even gender and disability, at any point in the pregnancy; he’s inserted himself into “race conversations” when he didn’t have the facts, like the Boston police incident with Professor Gates and the Trayvon Martin case in Florida; he pulled out the troops prematurely from Iraq ignoring his military advisors allowing ISIS to swarm so he could meet a campaign promise, and then claimed victory; he touts Bowe Bergdahl’s release in the Rose Garden while calling Ft. Hood workplace violence denying the injured special medical benefits; and on and on.  No, ethical is not a word that comes to mind.

But here is it: “Commission Releases Gray Matters, Vol. 2 – final response to President Obama’s BRAIN Initiative related request Commission focuses on three controversial issues that must be addressed if neuroscience is to progress and be applied ethically”

 See more at: http://bioethics.gov/node/4715#sthash.Q6kR6TQ2.dpuf

The origins of modern medicine

“Dr. Stanley Burns is an ophthalmologist, surgeon and historian who lives right near Grand Central Station in Manhattan. His three story home - is nondescript from the outside. There's a tiny sign on the door that says Burns Archive but inside is one of the largest and most important photographic archives of early medical history in the world.

Currently Dr. Burns serves as the medical and historical adviser to The Knick, a hit HBO series.”

You can listen to an interview.

http://burnsarchive.com/Explore/Medical/

http://www.burnsarchive.com/SHOPPE/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burns_Archive

The interview also includes discussion with the author of The Good Doctor, the story of Dr. Philip Lerner.

http://drbarronlerner.com/the-good-doctor/

Long lost purple heart will be reunited with family of recipient

Ten years ago Smuckers the dog dug a hole in the lawn and when his owner Steve Jankousky went to fill it up, he found something shiny—a Purple Heart.  For 10 years Jankousky has been looking for the man whose name was engraved on it--Cpl. Richmond Litman.  Finally, he found a step-daughter, and will soon be in touch with Litman’s family.  The Korean War soldier died in the 1990s.

http://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/as-it-happens-thursday-edition-1.3010341/dog-finds-long-lost-purple-heart-returns-it-to-veteran-s-family-1.3010605

And Smuckers is still alive to help with the reunion.  Neat story.

Do you need to be present at your wedding?

Although this “Ask a Librarian” question primarily concerns Islamic law in The Gambia where proxy marriages and divorces are allowed, there was a time (WWII) when proxy marriages were more common in the U.S. and is still legal in four states,

“In the United States, proxy marriages were apparently common during World War II; today, four states (California, Colorado, Montana and Texas) still recognize this form of marriage with certain restrictions.”

Maybe it’s just me because I was a librarian, but the Library of Congress  Law librarians blog is fascinating, and I could spend a day or two just wandering through.

Ebola vaccine coming along

“A Phase 1 trial in China has demonstrated the safety of a new Ebola vaccine and hinted at its efficacy, according to a study published today (March 25) in The Lancet. The vaccine candidate is the first to incorporate immunogens from the strain of Ebola that has terrorized West Africa for nearly a year; all other tested Ebola vaccines have been based on the strain that caused an outbreak in Zaire in 1976, according to a press release.”

The Scientist

Life expectancy

Drug Enforcement Agency employees get hand slap for sex parties

Agents from the federal Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) attended wild sex parties in Colombia with prostitutes procured and paid for by local drug cartels, a shocking report from the Justice Department's Office of the Inspector General (OIG) states.

Politico reports that seven agents admitted attending the parties, were punished only with suspensions of between two and 10 days, and supervisors often failed to report the violations up the chain of command.

The explosive 139-page report is the result of an OIG investigation into allegations of sexual improprieties and harassment within the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), and the U.S. Marshals Service.

Read http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/DEA-prostitutes-parties-Colombia/2015/03/26/

http://www.politico.com/story/2015/03/dea-sex-parties-colombia-report-116413.html#ixzz3VVOve3Qu

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/report-dea-agents-had-sex-parties-with-prostitutes-hired-by-drug-cartels/2015/03/26/

http://www.justice.gov/oig/reports/2015/e1504.pdf#page=1

Based on the 8 recommendations, Hillary isn’t the only government official that has a technology problem.

Sarah Palin was right—you can see Russia from Alaska

Prayer in the Senate, March 25

Congressional Record, v. 161, no. 50

What’s your gender?

A survey published in 2008 had a question about gender—and choices were male/man (26%), female/woman (41%), part time one or the other (20%), or fill in the blank with responders own term.  The fill in choice got 860 possibilities including genderqueer, hybrid, third gender, twidget, birl and pangender. 

I guess I’m not shocked that the researchers were shocked to find employment discrimination.

And I suppose that makes most of us anti-trany if we can’t figure it out.

“A gender not listed here,” The Williams Institute, UCLA, 2012

No one notices on my exercycle

Big talkers

http://www.talkers.com/heavy-hundred/

I’ve listened to #1, 5, 10, and 23.  Can no longer get Laura Ingraham in our market.  Not many women in the top 25.  I do listen to Teresa Tomeo and Johnette Benkovic on Catholic Radio.  They always have interesting guests and topics.

A perfect cycling lecture—Sir Martin Gilbert on Churchill

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hArErdaiOW0

I consider him the best writer of the 20th century.  One volume of his history of the 20th century is on my bedside table—still unread.

http://collectingmythoughts.blogspot.com/2015/01/gilberts-history-of-twentieth-century-v.html

This speech was given in 2001.   Sir Martin Gilbert died February 3 at age 79.

Alzheimer's Culprit—could be tau?

This information is appearing in difficult to understand science journals, but here’s a fairly easy to understand “translation.”

Abnormal tau protein collecting in the brain may be the main cause of Alzheimer's disease, a new study claims.

Another protein called amyloid accumulates as Alzheimer's progresses, but is not the primary culprit behind the devastating memory loss that is the hallmark of the disease, Mayo Clinic researchers report.

They said their findings suggest that targeting tau should be the new focus of efforts to find treatments for Alzheimer's.

http://www.webmd.com/alzheimers/news/20150324/researchers-pinpoint-possible-protein-culprit-behind-alzheimers

http://newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org/discussion/mayo-clinic-study-of-thousands-of-brains-reveals-tau-as-driver-of-alzheimers-disease/

Afghan civilian casualties

“The U.N. now reports that more than 17,700 innocent Afghans have died in the past five years of fighting, the majority of them killed by the Taliban or other groups fighting the Afghan government and coalition forces.”

Condolence payments from the military

“According to the data we received, in fiscal years 2011 through 2013, the military made 953 condolence payments totaling $2.7 million. $1.8 million of those were for deaths, and the average payment for a death was $3,426. Payments for injuries averaged $1,557.”

“The total for Iraq that year [2009] was over $18 million; overall, Afghanistan saw fewer and smaller claims than Iraq, because of remote geography and fewer U.S. troops deployed. Prices for replacement goods or lost wages were generally lower, Dribben said.”

Where was Jeb Bush in the fight against Obamacare?

Making money from it.

One part of Bush's business was a lucrative seat on the board of directors of the hospital giant Tenet Healthcare. Bush joined the company after leaving the governor's office and was paid more than $2 million for his services between 2007 and last year, when he resigned to run for president. Tenet strongly supported the passage of Obamacare and has profited enormously from it. http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/what-did-jeb-bush-do-to-fight-obamacare/article/2561928?

30 Lessons for Loving, book review by guest blogger Adrienne Zahniser

Dr. Karl Pillemer, a gerontologist and Professor of Human Development at Cornell University, has provided an intriguing look at love and marriage from the viewpoint of over 700 married adults, 65 and older, representing a total of 25,000 years of married life.  His five-chapter book, neatly divided into six lessons per chapter, is the result of a carefully designed in-depth interview study named the Marriage Advice Project, which he outlines in the Appendix.  Here he details the need of such a study, his research methods, ways he found a diverse and appropriate sample of interviewees, how he determined the questions and conducted the interviews, and how he analyzed the enormous amount of data collected.  His goal was to ask these older experts, married 30 years or more, “directly and in detail about the kinds of advice they would offer younger people about getting and staying married in a complex and difficult world.”

Though the study was quite academic in nature, the book itself is written for a popular audience—more personal, few end notes, no index or bibliography—with many quotes.  Excerpts from the many interviews are used freely and engagingly; a reader senses that both men and women responded thoughtfully, even eagerly to the questions for which they had much experience and definite ideas.  Some of these persons were widowed, some divorced, some had multiple marriages, some were same-sex, but the overwhelming cohort was 70-90 year-old couples in traditional one-time marriages.

The elders agreed on a number of important issues:  love is necessary in marrying, but so is common sense.  Sharing similar core values and interests, especially in such areas as money, religion, child rearing, careers, sex, friends is essential.  Additional values, often repeatedly mentioned, were sense of humor, honesty, trust, ability to listen and communicate, courtesy and respect, being good friends—a team, accepting partners as they are without trying to change them, and making time for each other.  The final lesson from all these experts:  “treat marriage, at every stage, as a lifelong commitment.”  Marriage then is a discipline, “a path where you get better at something by mindfully attending to it and by continual practice.” 

Most of these ideas are found in the multitude of advice books available to readers today.  This one, however, is unique because of the large sample group of older adults with views from the end of life; their experiences, both positive and negative, represent the full gamut of joys and problems inherent in love, relationships, and marriage.  They have earned a right to be heard, and the author has provided an amazing amount of useful information by listening to these many “grandparents,” then arranging their responses in a pleasing format.  This is a book you will enjoy reading and recommending to your friends and relatives! 

30 Lessons for Loving: Advice from the Wisest Americans on Love, Relationships, and Marriage by Karl Pillemer, Hudson Street Press, 2015. ISBN 978-1-59463-154-2, $25.95.     For more information, visit http://marriagelegacy.org. Dr. Pillemer blogs at Huffington Post and has been interviewed by a number of news sources and media outlets. He has also written 30 lessons for Living, and is thinking about his next book which may be about finding one’s purpose in life, also based on the advice of older people. (I think he likes us!)

Would I go to Canoga Park for a Spudnut?

Yes.  You’ve read about them at this blog.  Although I don’t recognize any of the crazy toppings, I have fond memories of the little shop in Urbana, Illinois when I was at the University of Illinois in the 1950s and 1960s.

In January I wrote

In 2008 I wrote

In 2007 I wrote

In 2006 I wrote

In 2005 I wrote

Spudnuts Donuts
8225 Topanga Canyon Blvd
Canoga Park, CA 91304
818.348.5054
www.spudnutsdonuts.com

“Made with real potato flour, Spudnuts are lighter and fluffier than normally raised donuts. You won’t be disappointed with the flour change and will most likely make this your new donut shop. Order up their crazy Cronut, their famous pastry that keeps people coming back for more.” http://localemagazine.com/best-donuts-los-angeles/

It’s Spring, but . . .

As I recall one of the worst storms we had in Columbus was April 4, 1987—we got over 12 inches and we were at a wedding.  The pastor couldn’t get there; someone else had to stand in. But they are still married. We’ve also had March blizzards—one of the worst in 2008.