MEDSCIL - healthyLiving...

Where did the waistline go?

2011-01-21T22:12:00.000+01:00

Newer and newer research cumulatively seem to show up the old health and fitness yardsticks. "No pain, no gain": new research points out that what is lost in exercise can be gained back in compensatory feeding - like rewarding yourself with more food for doing those punishing jogging runs every other day.

What about the expense involved in getting kitted out to jog or play outdoors in various sports? Not to mention the medication and doctor's visits to correct ankle twists and bruising?

Eat dinner early before 7 p.m. and watch your waistline flatten as the food has enough time to digest. Big tummies take note....ha-ha....

Going nuts and bananas

2010-12-05T11:49:00.001+01:00

Sounds crazy, I know, but it can be good for you, especially if you are on a diet or going somewhere by road on a long journey.

Yes, fruits are quite healthy to eat, not just because of their antioxidants, vitamins, and invigoratingly filling.

They are also misunderstood - like a friend of ours who claims that her children have a thicket of bushy hair because she gives them 'lots of fruits'.

That is clearly not true because I am sure that there should be quite a few fruit-noshing mothers who begat bald-headed babies and that there are also some fruit-averse mothers who did not beget bald-headed bundles of joy!

Anyway, I found out a few things about fruits when I went out of town on holidays recently. I started the long road trip before dawn without breakfast and ate a lot of shelled groundnuts early in the journey well before noon.

At a mid-day stop-over place, I bought a liter of "Ribena" fruit juice and finished it within two hours or so.

Later on in the afternoon, I made a monkey out of myself by eating lots and lots of bananas!

The end result was that I wee-ed or pee-ed just once before dusk and poo-poo-ed cleanly/neatly that night without that often lingering feeling of sitting and waiting because surely something-more-still-has-to-come-forth.

Yeah.... cheers. By the way, mangoes have the most Vitamin A, guavas have the most fiber, tangerines have the most Vitamin C, cashew nuts give the most energy, watermelons are the most filling, and paw-paws/carica papaya have the most quantity of the recommended doses of most vitamins!

Update for Monday, December 20, 2010:

I just read this "Weight Watchers" article today - the revised calorie-points system seems to support my own experience in the blog post above.

Coming round from a lull

2010-09-15T04:11:00.000+01:00

I have been quite busy lately with work and family. My contract boss is abroad on holiday with his family and I am left to mind my own business twenty-four hours, seven days per week.

My son will be four months old soon. We had to correct a little protrusion of his navel - due to an inexplicable inability of the doctors and nurses to tie an umbilical knot close to the abdomen again! Unbelievable.

Yes, again unbelievable, because his big sister had the same problem from the same hospital - only this time his bulge was smaller than hers.

So, we repeated our earlier procedure for correcting a bulging protuberance on the abdomen of a baby, generally called a big navel.

Simply put, we placed a piece of plastic over the navel everyday - removed at bath-time daily and replaced in the morning afterwards - and held the belly button and plastic in place with a strip of plaster.

This worked perfectly and was continued for just less than three weeks. Now the navel is flush with his belly, as was his sister's about four years ago today.

There are a few caveats though: the piece of plastic must be of the hard polypropylene type and sterilized daily - and must be roughly the same size as the bulging navel to be suppressed.

Secondly, the plastic and plaster combination must be removed daily to allow the skin to breathe and be cleaned with an antiseptic solution during the morning bath - and to avoid necrosis of the skin around the belly button.

Lastly, this little 'magic' must be performed as soon as the bulging protuberance is observed - usually best as from the second moth of birth.

By the way, a little, kind nurse gave us the hint about the procedure over four years ago. She had heard about it from a lady patient.

Now, my wife has passed on the remedy to another woman whose child had a humongous belly button at the children's immunization day undressing rituals. She was ever so grateful! Now the baton has been handed to you here today on this blog.

Finally, I hope that Google and Blogger will not delete this blog for my repetition of this remedy, which I wrote about and detailed in another blog that was unfortunately, devilishly (too strong?), and rather unjustly summarily deleted as "SPAM" about four and a half years ago - and confirmed in writing via e-mail just this year as the 'reason' for scrapping that beautiful - if I may say so myself - blog at the time.

Cheerio and use the newly acquired knowledge wisely...

A few medical facts about some things

2010-08-11T16:05:00.000+01:00

I have been busy lately with work and business and family. All is well right now despite the hectic life all round.

My new son is now over two months old and just started getting used to his new feeding bottle - thanks to the 'bottle' manufacturer's successful imitation of "natural breast feeding" without the attendant colic.

I think that there can not be enough praise for the benefits of a portable electric automatic steam sterilizing machine when it comes to a baby's feeding bottle. After washing the feeding bottle and other related utensils, we place everything in the sterilizer and the piping-hot process is completed after just ten minutes. Wonderful stuff.

Did you know that a shrimp's heart is in its head? Talk about your heart in your mouth moments! I have also learnt that a crocodile cannot stick out its tongue - no wonder crocodile attack survivors usually give it a noisy raspberry from a long distance when its back is turned. No, not at all funny!

During my absence from this blog, I have been reminded of two things. Firstly, that a great value for your BMI or body mass index (height to weight ratio) may be less important than the size of the bulge in your midriff - yes, a bulging stomach may be more dangerous to your health than what your heavy weight tips on the bathroom scale.

I understand that a waistline of less than forty (40) inches for men and thirty-five (35) inches for women is generally ideal, depending on your height and shape - and that sit-ups are useless.for correcting a bulging waistline when compared to walking, bicycling and aerobics. From experience, I agree - sit-ups tend to wear you out and give you a pain where you don't need it at all.

Secondly, the most healthy salad is the leafy one with the fat-free French dressing without the croûton! I guess those creamy salad dressings really clog up the works inside you, in spite of their 'delicious' ingredients!

Lastly, still on reducing that "hugening" (hulking body frame caused by unwary sampling of the goodies in life brought on by a bulging pay packet) waistline, it appears that parking the car somewhere and taking one of the public transit services is hard to beat.

Personally, I prefer the public mini-bus services - believe me, the bending at entry and exit, the shifting and squatting to sit comfortably or to allow another passenger to exit are all good exercise.

Vacation cancelled: it's a boy!

2010-06-11T22:07:00.002+01:00

Yes, I have a boy again as a son. He was born on May 26, 2010 at about 12:45 PM after 'the show' began in the morning for my wife.

The entire thing happened right before my very own eyes - I had never been in the same room during the birth of my other two children.

My first boy was delivered in the next room adjoining my wife's hospital 'bedroom' - I had dropped her off in the morning when her 'water' broke, along with her elder sister for company, went to work, returned to find that she had been medically induced, and a few minutes before 8:00 PM had been led into the next room for delivery.

My next child was born premature by a whole two (2) months. Believe me, it is true what they say about premature children growing up very fast and big!

For this latest entry to our family, many miracles happened. The doctors had originally earmarked his delivery for 27th of May but the D-date was extended to 31st of May later on - for some unknown reason - after the second and final ultrasound reading had been taken.

The day before his birth, I had attended the Service of Songs for the passing away of the father of an old High School friend of mine. His father was 92 years old and had been updating the list of his published books even right up to just last year!

I never cry without cause at public functions; however, I found myself weeping 'like a baby' - as my four-year old daughter would say - as a hymn was sung: Great is thy faithfulness, Lord unto me...

I was crying for gratitude, for myself, for what God had done for me in my life so far....People around me and in the choir noticed - very embarrassing. I learned something new that day: you are liable to be very emotional when you are sitting down while singing such a personal and touching prayerful song of praise.

How did I know? I felt less like a cry baby when the observant Pastor asked everyone to get up from their seats and sing the rest of the hymn standing up! It worked! suddenly, the sniffles stopped, the words in the hymn book became more focused as the flow of tears abated. Thank God!

Anyway, I was to learn more things on the delivery day proper. My wife was not induced this time but a drip was attached to the back of her hand by a nurse, who had earlier on used her midwifery skills to make her 'water' to break - my wife said something about feeling something "hot" inside herself.

Before I could say, "What's up, babe?" My wife belted out a screaming yelp? Yes, an oxymoron for the kind of loud sound that I never knew she was capable of. She did this twice more, louder each time, calling out for the nurse on duty.

When the nurses came over, things happened very fast and almost furiously. There and then, I saw what the olive oil is used for. I had thought that it had to be taken orally. Now I know better! It is for lubrication for smoothly bringing out the baby's head!

In a jiffy, my son's head was out and my wife pushed him out in one go. Nobody had to smack my new guy's upside-down bottom to hear his voice: he let out a low cry. "What sex is your baby?," asked the matron in charge of my wife before he was taken away for "washing".

The next miracle? I had assumed that both mother and son would rest in hospital for the next three to five days, especially since there had been tears on my wife which had been stitched with dissolving stitches.

No way! They were discharged in the morning and i had to pay the hefty bill pretty quickly. However, an angel had beaten me to the bat!

Till now, I have no idea who had deposited some money on my behalf for part of the bill - the hospital staff in charge of the bill preparation swore that I must have deposited it sometime previously!

Scary but nice feeling though....Vacation canceled: no bachelor food for me and no hospital food for my wife - she loves to cook!

The announcement of a birth is quite a euphoric thing! Cigars can be handed out to complete strangers, you can find yourself shaking the hands of unknown passersby....

I sent out text messages and e-mails - even the network administrator whose system had initially prevented me from sending in an e-mail years before to his British publishing firm also got one!

Ha-ha.... He was so surprised when he remembered that he sent me a congratulatory e-mail... Friends are made that way....

Since then, my baby boy has lost his umbilical cord and has been circumcised - the plastic ring-and-thread dropped last Tuesday. For these two steps to have happened without a hitch, warm bath water, Gentian Violet, methylated spirit and TCP were simply indispensable....

Interestingly, my boy yawned last week and - surprise! - I sneaked a peak at one white patch of pre-molar tooth set flush with his gum on either side of his lower jaw! Is this a tiger or what? It is not an oddity, God is always wonderful in His ways!

A little word about rabies

2010-04-21T19:02:00.000+01:00

Foaming in the mouth - that comes readily to everyone's mind. However, that is not a unique symptom of rabies.

When the owner of a law chamber died recently, his relatives found him dead with cardiac arrest from too much work and worry with some foaming around the mouth. His scared daughter refused to re-open the legal offices for fear that she too would go the way of her father. Quite sad really.

So, what is rabies? Well, it's a viral zoonotic disease of the human nervous system caused by the bite of a feral animal transferring the virus to a human being, who literally becomes stark raving mad.

I understand that this truly unsettling condition can be lessened if we all keep tightly closed the lid on our refuse or waste bins left outside the house or office so that remnants of food inside cannot be shared between various sets of domestic and infected wild animals, which could pass on the rabies virus to their much tamer kindred.

This pattern simple could repeat within a few weeks until neighboring counties also get a rash of rabid animals biting people outdoors minding their own business.

Have you seen a rabid dog before? Even unprovoked, it just snarls at anything going by with maddeningly starry eyes.

If a dog or cat or raccoon (does anybody own one?) bites you for any reason - wrong place, wrong time of day - go immediately for a medical checkup, even if the owner tells you the that the dog had just had its anti-rabies shots!

You must note that rabies can be fatal if the human victim does not get medical attention within less than a week or a pet victim does not get attention within ten days - and those probably are most likely to be overstated maximums too!

And now for some rabies trivia... Rabies has been known by humans for over 4,000 years on Earth - that's forty centuries or four hundred decades!

Finally, when going out at night in Missouri, get your rabies shots first because the virus occurs naturally there mainly in bats and skunks...!

Ha-ha.... but there is really no need to go all batty about that last piece of news because the last reported cases of rabies in Missouri occurred only in 2008 and 1959!

However, please note that even cattle and horses can get the drinking water-averse and opposite behavior-inducing disease....and September 28, 2010 is World Rabies Day!

Belated new baby update

2010-04-03T17:59:00.008+01:00

It's a boy! So said the scan results... A very handsome boy - so said the radiographer operating the scanner-to-computer-image equipment.

And, surprise, surprise. My US-based cousin was quite surprised that such sex-predicting machinery was now available over 'here.'

Yes, those scanners have been around for years in the developing world, especially for those who could afford to patronize the, usually, expensive private-hospital installations - or for those who had to bear the cost in order to solve a complication observed prior to child delivery.

My boy should be due in late May but they also said that my daughter and I would share the same birthday but she decided to come out premature... Ha-ha....

So, all things being equal, and God willing, he will be an exciting May Tiger! Is there a new name in there somewhere? ;D

By the way, it is true that a new baby uses the last two months in the womb to basically stabilize his/her God-given natural body proportions.

Maybe that's also why premature children seem to get so big as they grow older, as if making up for lost time - or should that have been 'making the best use of time gained'?

I am praying for a safe delivery for both wife and son. Will you pray along with me - even though some prominent Christian pastors have preached that too many people praying on your behalf would cause God not to hear your prayer for the noise?

Makes you to really wonder again where we are all actually headed when we claim to belong to a particular worship group, doesn't it?

UPDATE - Sunday, April 11, 2010:

I forgot something at the time of posting: my son has stopped the gurgling sounds that he used to make starting from about the sixth month after conception.

When I placed my ear lightly against his mother's belly, it sounded more like a low but drawn out 'growl' - like the one you would get when you were really hungry and were feeling the pangs of hunger - and was often followed by soft and light, almost feather-like buffeting of hands and feet against my cheek.

Ha-ha, I used to use those occasions as a conversation piece and actually 'speak' with my unborn baby...

It was quite interesting then, now he's growing into a big boy and has stopped that for the most part - readying to be let out into the world we know.

Can your heart stand a little sports betting?

2010-03-20T21:54:00.000+01:00

Once upon a time, I used to be a sports zealot. I even had a sports team for practically evry sporting activity to cheer about.

The Los Angeles Lakers and the Chicago Bulls made my list of favorites for basketball, the Baltimore Orioles and New York Yankees were my favorite in baseball, Manchester United and Chelsea were among my favorite soccer teams, and the New York Giants stood in for a while as my favorite American football team.

All those sports attracted me because of the quality of the players and the rush of adrenalin that just happens when you see the best moves playing out before your eyes on a sports field or pitch. These kind of world-beating teams were certainly a sure bet for victory and one could really not be blamed for falling easily into a confident habit and then dabbling a little bit into some regular sports betting.

And so, with money and ego on the line, it could be quite disheartening to see your team trounced squarely and becoming the butt of all the jokes the following day at the office.

I am patriotic but after seeing my national soccer team thrashed so often on television by certain opponents, like Brazil and Argentina, I gave up watching live matches and settled instead for Saturday afternoon replays of the matches in the preceding week.

To be honest, since then, my heartbeat has become very regular and my hypertensive nature during such live shows have simply vanished because I already know the score for the replayed match in question and my money saved over time has been able to buy my family enough popcorn and juice to last the whole ninety-plus minutes of any soccer game.

Hurrah for good and stable health!

Cellphone health risks not worth the bother and other good news to bother about?

2010-03-20T20:46:00.000+01:00

Who does not have or use a cellphone of some kind these days - iPhone, smartphone, Blackberry, and so on.

Who cares about the electromagnetic radiation involved in the operation of those electronic gadgets?

Apparently, nobody is listening but many people are busy trying to find out if anybody should pay attention to the negative aspects of this modern development in instant. real-time communication.

To make matters worse, the available research results into the cancer-causing aspects of cellphone usage is so conflicting that it has lulled everyone into complacency.

Meanwhile, others are going further to literally tattoo their bodies with cellphone reception technology and projection of information.

Yes, very soon, you may be able to literally tap into your hands to get a touchscreen image effect or just simply sign onto the Web with your own body standing up or sitting down with broadband access thrown into the bargain.

The latter 300-micrometer (three human hairs wide) skin transmitter wireless development also saves up to ninety percent in energy costs, which would otherwise have gone to buying new batteries.

Talk about being left breathless from the intra-body energy sapping wireless transmission session or from the power drawn by embedded skin-safe intra-body low-frequency transmitters for opening doors by touch alone!

There is more good news.Philips, the light bulbs and playback electronic product maker which gave up that line of business for healthcare products, has announced the existence of LifeLine with AutoAlert.

The $13-plus new product is literally a life saver for the elderly, who are prone to fall accidentally without the ability to recover quickly from such incidents.

When a fall is detected at home via the victim's rate of fall and relative position with regard to the vertical position, the device simply dials for help automatically!

However, I can just imagine why it would have problems working outdoors: falls alarms could result from bending to enter a car, stumbling or tripping on a kerbside, stooping to pick up a ball, even dancing a fast jig, and so on.

Seeing the world around you through glasses

2010-03-04T09:53:00.000+01:00

I wear glasses sometimes to keep the wind off my eyes while driving but not for reading. Whenever I am watching a marathon of movies on television or computing online for a long while, I can be seen wearing my eye shades or 'bones' to keep out at least fifty percent of the glare from the screen.

Once I walked into my High School classmate's law offices and saw him wearing spectacles behind his desk.

Something must have made him to realize that I was staring at him as if he were a spectacle because he removed it, smiled, and asked, "Do you use one of these yet?"

Of course, I instinctively replied, "No." Some decades ago, wearing glasses used to be equivalent to asking your peers to call you generally derogatory names like "four eyes" and so on.

However, glasses are very practical in reality. Why squint while reading a book or newspaper article, pitifully asking for help from a stranger in order to understand written words in small type, or unwittingly rendering yourself incapacitated that way?

Just go out and see an Ophthalmologist - the proverbial 'Eye Doctor' - to know exactly what is wrong with your eyes; or go to an Optometrist - or a vision care specialist - to test your eyes and know exactly what kind of vision problem you have; or, finally, see an Optician - or eye fashion accessories provider - to get the prescribed eye glasses, get kitted out with some individualistic or unique eye wear and other related accessories.

Sending cheap invitations to your wedding party

2010-03-02T11:59:00.000+01:00

Nothing probably spoils a wedding more than the absence if invited guests - save, of course, someone voicing an objection to the planned marital union!

It definitely usually is the happiest day in the bride's life, one of the most responsible times in the groom's life, a day of pride for the very proud parents, and a memorable event for the invited guests witnessing the occasion.

So, how does a couple lessen the costs associated with their day of joy? Well, short of a radio announcement for a week just preceding the wedding day (W-Day), the best alternative is to have sent out on your behalf some cheap wedding invitations.

That certainly would put a huge return on investment per cent on any wedding arrangement, in terms of the gifts received in cash or in kind, from just getting all your well-wishers, friends, families, colleagues, and acquaintances to come to be a witness on your big day.

Do you remember your wedding day and what people said about it afterward? I have heard some people complain about not being invited to my wedding and would not be placated even after explaining that I had run out of invitation cards!

Not to be immodest, I must confess that all the invited guests acknowledged being fed and wined, and entertained by the relatively short wedding service and reception.

I think that just about covers a majority of the usual complaints most people have about attending weddings.

Online medical email hosting

2010-02-26T21:29:00.004+01:00

I used to get a lot of junk literary stuff in my post office mailbox about a decade ago. People selling books, newsletters, competitions, and other commercial items that I had no use for nor had any idea how they got my name or post office mailbox number.

I would save envelopes that had postage stamps stuck on it but would generally toss away the other shiny materials that had mechanically metered stamps.

Yes, philately or stamp collecting can be a healthy, educative, and inspiring hobby. Unfortunately, as someone remarked recently in a newspaper article, it has gone with the wind because nobody goes to the post office any more in order to transact any meaningful business or commercial activity and also for the fact that information technology has improved so much that the world has become a truly global village.

And then came the Internet to make mass mailing of junk mail easier and less costly. Now I have my e-mail filtered automatically with the useful messages in my in-box and the others from unrecognizable senders thrown into my junk mail or spam box.

That's the new face of e-Commerce online and these modern mass mailers now either use the best web hosting services or a very good email host to get to their marketing target and to ensure that their mailings go out as scheduled and uninterrupted.

These days, I get e-mails from medical directory sellers, online 'viagra' hawkers, and a plethora of other drugs and medication that you and I probably never heard of before.

Most of these online businesses have no fixed addresses or physical shop outlets but manage medical websites and payments can be made online without national borders being a limiting factor.

In fact, currently surgeries can be conducted in one country and observed in real time in another country across the globe. That was such a big dream just a decade ago or less. Now a group called 'Orbis' has an entire airliner equipped and manned for eye surgery, flying from one country to another in search of the helpless poor on which to carry out free eye examinations and quick corrective surgeries and other related medical healing.

Soon, I believe, there will be other medical teams in one country advertising their skills and conducting surgery online in real time in another nation across the globe. 'Doctors Without Borders' will really have a new meaning online then.

UPDATE - Monday, March 01, 2010:

I want to share the following two related links; they are from the authoritative technical online resource called 'New Scientist':

The changing image of spam

{Five snapshots of the spam lexicon that illustrate spammers' changing tactics....(11-19 November 2008)...."Email" appears in offers to take electronic orders for probably fake pharmaceuticals....} - courtesy of the anti-spam team at BitDefender.

Spamdemic: Tracking the plague of junk mail

From Monty Python to mass-mailing misery, *New Scientist* charts the unstoppable rise of spam....

Currently many nonsensical medical and other sad trends

2010-02-21T21:53:00.030+01:00

Do some medical conditions really exist or are they merely psychological mental constructs? Of course, many drawing-board plans do become concrete reality; however, some can be dismissed often as just too unreal ailments.

For example, what is sex addiction? Tiger Woods just confessed to "irresponsible and selfish" behavior after having his way post-maritally with about a dozen ladies, excluding his wife. In the same vein, he admitted having undergone treatment for his "condition"!

What treatment? Tips and advice about doing everything imaginable sexually with his wife only and every time?

In England, Chelsea Football Club's reliable defender John Terry lost his nation's captain's arm band because of publicity regarding his "inappropriate" two-ships-passing-in-the-night relationship with an ex-girlfriend of an ex-colleague.

FIFA President Sepp Blatter probably put it best into the right perspective when he said inter alia that John Terry would have been a hero if he had been from a 'Latin' - romantic and passionate - country like Spain or France, instead of being reviled by the often hypocritical staid 'Anglo' disposition.

As if to challenge such strictly and overtly staid attitudes, even South African President Zuma has invited - or challenged - his countrymen to a debate about whether or not his having about a score or so children from various women is a political problem for someone in his type of high national or social status.

As a matter of fact, I do not recall the Pope Benedict XVI de-robing the homosexual Irish priests who scandalously sodomized altar, choir, and other church boys - when PBXVI met with them recently, did he call them sex addicts or recommend any form of parochial school 'treatment'?

There was a time when a stud was a kind of 'superman'. Now he has been reduced to being called a sex addict or simply a 'pervert'. Is frigidity okay now among women? Ha-ha...Just checking...

And then there was the recent case of the Florida woman who wanted Moore from a $31-million lottery-winning wannabe Shakespeare, who never knew that she just wanted to prepare him for a shakedown murder rather than turn him into a writer. So sad....she just ran over and buried him in the driveway....

Anyway, on a more serious note, is a 'sex addict' incapable of providing good leadership and other managing other ethical or moral codes?

Which of the 'character-situations' portrayed in this post would you readily describe as being perverted today? Why? Honestly, I would really love to find out ....

UPDATE - Saturday, February 27, 2010:

I saw the following related NYT article and thought I should share the link with you:

[

An Apology With Echoes of 12 Steps

By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.

Sex addiction is not yet recognized as a psychiatric disorder, but doctors have long realized that some patients ruin their lives because of sex.

Q&A: Sex Addiction ]

The link below is from the famous Well blog of the venerable New York Times:

How Sex Addiction Is Treated

UPDATE - Tuesday, March 02, 2010:

The following related excerpt comes from NEWSWEEK's Jennie Yabroff, quoted here:

[....Stendhal syndrome isn't included in the draft version of the new Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, released last month, but with proposed additions including "apathy syndrome" and Internet addiction, it's probably only a matter of time. The affliction takes its name from the 19th-century French writer, who was overcome after visiting Florence's Basilica di Santa Croce. In 1989 an Italian psychiatrist named Graziella Magherini published La Sindrome di Stendhal, describing more than 100 tourists who suffered dizziness and heart palpitations (some requiring hospitalization) after seeing the Florentine sights. According to Magherini, great art can make you sick.....]

UPDATE - Saturday, March 27, 2010:

Just saw the following links, about PBXVI knowing about the sex scandals in the church while he was still Cardinal Ratzinger and other pertinent information, that I thought was relevant to this post:

Top Vatican cardinal defends pope amid scandal.

Pope's shame and remorse over Irish child sex abuse

Pope apology for Irish sex abuse

Pope says 'sorry' for Irish church abuse

Pope fails to calm anger over Irish abuses

Tiger's return: Too soon?

Tiger Woods smart to pick Masters for return

Tiger Woods Will Play At Masters Tournament

Woods To Return To Golf At The Masters

Tiger to Play Augusta in April

Tiger Woods returning for Masters

Fans react to Tiger Woods' return

Tiger Woods announces he'll return to golf at the Masters

Medical jokes, anyone?

2010-02-06T16:56:00.048+01:00

First off, let me wish you a prosperous and very healthy new year in 2010 and beyond. Secondly, since laughter can often be the best medicine under a good disposition, hopefully this post has a rib cracker or two to keep you away from depression....

I overheard a mass marketer of herbal medicament advertising his ware on a public bus. He was explaining why his drugs would cure the listener of high blood pressure and other ailments that tended to make a person look ill or appear 'dried up' from not taking blood building medication - and then blame the condition on vampires and other blood sucking leeches and perceived 'enemies' in the home village.

He asked, "Why have vampires retired and stopped sucking blood in the 21st century?" Answer: they retired when AIDS came to town. Yeah, who wants that headache on top of all the other heartaches?

However, as always, there will be some misconceptions. First of all, contrary to that joke above by the medicine man - haha... over-the-counter medicine seller - vampires are still a roaring rage with many people. In the movies anyway.

In fact ""DayBreakers" is a vampire movie featuring Ethan Hawke and Willem Defoe at the two extremes of the blood sucking world but collaborating in the plot, just released already entering 2010!

The same Australian brothers also paired to direct the "Undead" in 2003 but "Daybreakers" is definitely a different stroke from the fantastic "Avatar".

Speaking of "Avatar", it seems that it may have influenced the postponement of the upcoming vampire movie starring Paul Bettany entitled "Priest", the Scott Stewart-directed movie which is getting the 3D treatment and will now be released Jan. 14, 2011 instead of August 20, 2010.

So, just like Vlad The Impaler inspired the making of Dracula and the vampire movie genre, there has never been a "Twilight" (series) for bloodsucking characters on the big screen and the small tube.

The following is a mix of past and future (TBA means that the actual movie release date is To Be Announced later) vampire movie releases:

Being Human (2009) (UK TV series) TRAILER
Bled (2009) (DVD) The Bleeding (2009) Blood (2009) Blood: The Last Vampire (2009) TRAILER
Bram Stoker's Vampire Diaries Renfield (2009) Carmilla (2009) The Coffin (2009) The Dead Matter (2009) TRAILER
Dead of Night (2009) The Death of Alice Blue (2009) Doomsday County (2009) The Eternal (2009) Hello Darkness (2009) High Midnight (2009) The Informers (2009) Kiss of the Vampire (2009) (DVD) TRAILER
Lesbian Vampire Killers (2009) TRAILER
Let the Right One In (2009--Italy, France, & UK) TRAILER
New Moon (2009) Live Girls (2009) Patient X (2009) PCP... A VanGuard Chronicle (2009) The Revenant (2009) Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Undead (2009) TRAILER
Shadowland (2009) Sodium Babies (2009) TRAILER
Suck (2009) TRAILER
The Teeth of the Night (2009) Thirst (2009) TRAILER
Transylmania (2009) TRAILER
True Blood, Season 2 (HBO TV series, June 2009) Twilight (2009--various countries) TRAILER
Twilight Watch (2009) Underworld: Rise of the Lycans (2009) TRAILER
Valemont (MTV web series) (2009) The Vampire Diaries (TV series, 2009) TRAILER
Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl (2009) Vampire in Vegas (2009) The Vampire's Assistant (formerly Cirque du Freak)(2009) PHOTO TRAILER
The Vampires of Bloody Island (2009)
30 Days of Night: Dark Days (2010) Baltimore, or The Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire (2010) Bite (web series) (2010) TRAILER
Daybreakers (2010) TRAILER
Dead Sucks (2010) TRAILER
Dracula: The Undead (2010) Eclipse (2010) The Fixer (TV series) (2010) TRAILER
The Historian (2010) The Knights Templar (2010) Last Blood (2010) Let Me In (Let the Right One In U.S. Remake) (2010) Lost Boys 3 (2010) Love at Second Bite (2010) Priest (2010) Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell (2010) Soulstice (2010) Stake Land (2010) The Un-Dead (2010)
Bubba Nosferatu and the Curse of the She-Vampires (2011) Breaking Dawn (2011) Castlevania (2011) Dark Shadows (2011) Dracula (2011) Dracula Year Zero (2011) Hotel Transylvania (2011) House of Night (Untitled Project) (2011) The Night Projectionist (2011) Virulents (2011)
Blood Brothers (date TBA) Blood Type (TV series, date TBA) Damned Friday (date TBA) Damn Nation (date TBA) Dear Dracula (date TBA) The Hunger (date TBA) The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (date TBA) Pangs (date TBA) Vampire Tales (date TBA) Vamps (date TBA)

Let me refresh your mind about other vampire movies. The list is quite long but I am sure that the hair on your arm may not stand on end for all of them.

To mention just a few....Queen of the Damned, Fright Night, Lifeforce, Interview with the Vampire From Dusk Till Dawn, Vampyros Lesbos, Vampyres, Rabid, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Blacula and Jesus Chris Vampire Hunter.

2009 gave us “True Blood”, “The Vampire Diaries”, and “30 Days of Night,” while Alex Proyas will soon be directing Sam Worthington in "Dracula: Year Zero", an expectedly exaggerated remake of the original Vlad The Impaler story - made famous in the 1897 Bram Stoker novel Dracula.

In addition to all those monster movies were the following, listed in order of preference by Snarkerati.com:

Bordello of Blood (1996), Vampire in Brooklyn (1995),Dracula 2000 (2000), Queen of the Damned (2002), The Forsaken (2001)...

Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992)

The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1974)

Blacula (1972)

Van Helsing (2004)

Fright Night Part 2 (1988)

Vamp (1986)

Blade: Trinity (2004)

Underworld: Evolution (2006)

Lifeforce (1985)

The Night Flier (1997)

John Carpenter’s Vampires (1998)

Vampyros Lesbos (1970)

Innocent Blood (1992)

Ganja & Hess (1973)

Subspecies (1991)

Underworld (2003)

The Vampire Lovers (1970)

The Hunger (1983)

The Wisdom of Crocodiles (1998)

Blood for Dracula (1974) AKA Andy Warhol’s Dracula

The Return of the Vampire (1944)

Son of Dracula (1943)

Frostbitten (2006)

BioHunter (1995)

Vampire’s Kiss (1989)

Rabid (1977)

Love at First Bite (1979)

Nadja (1994)

Blood and Donuts (1995)

Blood: The Last Vampire (2000)

Vampire Effect (2003) AKA The Twins Effect

The Addiction (1995)

John Badham’s Dracula (1979)

Night Watch (2004) AKA Nochnoy Dozor

Blade II (2002)

Blade (1998)

Vampire Hunter D (1985)

Brides of Dracula (1960)

Dracula’s Daughter (1936)

Vampyres (1974)

House of Dracula (1945)

Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter (2001)

The Monster Squad (1987)

Salem’s Lot (1979)

The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967)

The Last Man on Earth (1964)

From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)

The Lost Boys (1987)

Day Watch (2006) AKA Dnevnoy Dozor

Sundown: The Vampire In Retreat (1991)

Interview with the Vampire (1994)

Shadow of the Vampire (2000)

Fright Night (1985)

The Night Stalker (1972)

Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992)

Cronos (1993)

Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust (2000)

Dracula: Pages from a Virgin’s Diary (2002)

Near Dark (1987)

Horror of Dracula (1958)

Martin (1977)

Black Sunday (1960)

Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979)

Dracula (1931)

Nosferatu (1922)

Ultraviolet (1998)

Hellsing (2006)

I hope that really revamped list has not left you breathless or something? Well, take care and watch out for more vampire movies in the future - most people seem to get a big bite of entertainment and just lap up all the gory details in droves.

Well, I hope you will still sleep with one eye cocked open, seeing above that the bloodsucking monsters have apparently not retired just yet.

Medical achievements advance human health

2009-12-13T18:12:00.000+01:00

I recall hearing the protracted wailing, while on a hospital visit for some minor ailment or the other, of a pre-teen girl who had accidentally been a victim of hot water scalding.

I also recall not being able to pull my eyes away from the hairy patch on the bridge of the nose of my former company chairman - I had also noticed a similar hairy patch on the elbow area of a departmental head as he leaned forward to get something.

I was to learn later on that the odd hairiness was a result of a skin graft taken from the shin of each man after a serious accident that had left a large gouge.

All those images flashed back when I read last week about a French development of a fast way of growing skin grafts from stem cells - those magical cells that can easily differentiate into any other, depending on the intended use of the final result expected.

Can you imagine a hospital ordering a square meter of graftable skin on-demand from a therapeutic tool factory? Simply amazing, IMHO.

Ironically, had it happened in France instead of the UK's Merseyside/Liverpool, people who are bitten by a dangerous dog breed, like the illegal and notorious pit-bull terrier, bite would probably stand a much better chance of survival.

Finally, if you are a man out there still searching for a suitable lady to share your life with and raise a family, you'd better hurry!

No, I am not an advocate for a shotgun wedding. No. I just want to point out that new research indicates that older men are more prone to testicular tumors, which apparently have been linked to defective sperm cells, which create dysfunctional genes in subsequent offspring.

Nothing was said about the eggs from an older woman - but it would naturally be assumed that a spinster at fifty is not really interested in having babies outside in-vitrio, if you know what I mean.

So, if you believe that a patient man will get the right woman sooner or later, you may need to have a rethink - whatever money you think you may be saving now as a bachelor could end up costing you plenty of money and emotional anguish later on....

What is good meat and delicious this holiday season?

2009-12-12T22:01:00.000+01:00

Once I attended a buffet lunch at the office featuring a mixed group of teetotalers, drunkards, vegetarians, herbivores, gourmets, and everything in between.

So I walk up to a table to sample a little of each dish on display. At a point someone beside me said, "Uh-uh, that one is for vegetarians."

Of course, I was surprised to hear that - not at my acquaintance's words but because of the fact that we humans are supposed to be omnivores, like me.

I can eat any edible plant, whole, fresh, cooked, guacamole-d, baked, basted, broiled, or in whatever mold, mound, or presentation - if I want to.

The same goes for meat. However, I learned something new about the five healthiest meats to eat recently.

The top dogs - hee-hee, please forgive me - are as follows. Among the red meats, bison is healthier than beef - I bet my bottom dollar that those cattle rearers will soon bring down their prices when they also hear that even white-meat pork is better than steak!

Now, take a look at the following 2006 data from Sacha Tarkovsky, so that you, too, can watch your figure, while choosing your slabbed or sliced meaty 'poison' carefully: ".....

Beef Per 100g 136 calories 5.1g fat.......
Pork Per100g 123 calories 4g fat.......
Lamb Per 100g 156 calories 8.3g fat.......
Ham Per 100g 107 calories 3.3g of fat........
Venison Per 100g 120 calories 2.4g of fat........
Bacon Per 100g 215 calories 16.5g of fat .......
Chicken Per 100g 116 calories 3.2 fat minus skin.......
Turkey Per 100g 119 calories 1g fat.......
Duck Per 100g 11.2 fat......."

Did you know that, among the white meats, turkey is king of the heap - better than chicken - but can make you feel a bit sleepy?

Here is a relevant excerpt: ".... one 4.9 oz (140 g) serving of skinless roasted turkey contains about 0.25 oz (7 g) of fat......"

That cold turkey surprise just reminded me of Tiger Woods current predicament with Elin. It has been asked what exactly happened after midnight when he crashed his car and his lovely wife offered to "....help him out...." with a golf club or two in his rear window.

Perhaps, quite unlike the Nigerian Itshekiri woman, who was said to have laced her husband's favorite meal of cassava 'starch' with oily sleep-inducing 'banga' soup whenever she wished to spend a few hours away from home with her lover....

Anyway, small fattier fish such as salmon and tuna are definitely in as the white meat of choice for those hoping to avoid colon cancer - unless the fish had a mercurial growth rate aided by mercury-laden waters.

So, after all, it may be just better to eat a little of the tasty stuff that you really like along with all the healthier stuff.

At least, that way, as a philosopher once said, you would really know what you were suffering from while reposing on your hospital bed....Ha-ha....

Why Coca-Cola is bad for you and other health cornucopia

2009-11-25T04:34:00.000+01:00

I was just reading up about water purification systems when I learned that Jessica Hamzelou says that many clean water systems designed for the poor do not work at all because their benefits may be overstated.

The relevant excerpt listing such water purification systems is as follows. "....Most of these systems work either by disinfecting the water – using chlorine tablets or by allowing the ultraviolet radiation in sunlight to purify stored water – or by passing it through ceramic or sand filters to remove microorganisms......"

A below second excerpt emphasizes the fact that the root cause of human diarrhea lies in food-borne bacteria and not in the water-borne variety.

"....Meanwhile Cairncross says the spread of diarrhoea-causing bacteria through water shouldn't be the main focus of research. "Food is a more important carrier of bacteria than water," he says. "Faecal bacteria are in heaven in cooked food – they can multiply very easily, which doesn't happen in water." Funding should be diverted towards this cause of diarrhoea, he says....."

Now, about that Coca-Cola and similar pop or sugared drinks.... In discussing the potability of Martian and lunar water, Daniel Engber reveals that any drink with a pH level or reading below 5.5 will eat away your teeth in the long run.

The most relevant excerpt is as follows. ".....That's not the only reason to think the space water would be unpalatable. Mineral specimens collected by the Mars rovers (on other parts of the planet) have turned up significant quantities of jarosite, a salt deposit that tends to form only in very acidic solutions. Researchers guess that the jarosite precipitated from a liquid with a pH of between 0 and 4. For comparison, a human can handle an acidic beverage like Coca-Cola, which has a pH of about 2.4, but more concentrated acids will cause mucosal injuries to the esophagus, stomach, and intestines......"

Did you know that teeth grinding is called bruxism? I can really guess that Jesus Christ gave the Pharisees a good dose of that as his preaching gave them many anxious moments of gnashing of the teeth. Ha-ha...

Anyway, according to this BBC article about Grindcare, a biofeedback device made in Denmark and currently being tested in Britain, small electric shocks are sent out to the sleeping patient at the onset of tense moments and tensed muscles.

What are the benefits? Well, apart from not having to wear plastic dental covers at night and the absence of "....headaches and stiff necks, as well as [not] irritating a sleeping partner.....", the main advantage is that the possibility of using an overdose of painkillers is eliminated.

Very soon, all things being equal, Fred will get you out of any emergency situation at the touch of a button.

Who's FRED? Paul Marks says that FRED is a hand-held satellite-radio which uses several technologies to get out a distress call or to help you dial for help.

The most relevant excerpt about the European Fast Response Emergency Device is as follows. "....Using 3G, GSM and Iridium phone technology, alongside GPS and Galileo satnav receivers, FRED will do its utmost to alert a rescue centre of your plight...."

According to this Washington Post article by David Brown, the major difference between the death toll from seasonal flu and swine flu is that swine flu attacks younger people below 18 years of age, while seasonal flu affects mainly older people above 65 years of age.

However, those figures are not cast in stone, as revealed in the excerpt below. "....

The total number of people who have been hospitalized is 98,000, with 36,000 of them age 17 and younger. The vast majority of deaths -- about 2,920 -- have been in people age 18 to 64.

In an average flu season, the seasonal virus contributes to the deaths of about 36,000 people -- 90 percent of whom are 65 or older. Many are close to death, with flu being only one factor leading to their demise. That is not the case with H1N1's victims, most of whom are much younger, and about 20 to 30 percent of whom were healthy before contracting the virus.

All of the estimates come with substantial uncertainty. For example, total H1N1 cases in the United States range from 14 million to 34 million, and total deaths from 2,500 to 6,100.

The CDC had previously said 129 people younger than 18 had died from H1N1 flu. That is compared with 88 deaths from seasonal flu in 2007-08 and 78 deaths in 2006-07 -- the most recent two flu seasons before the H1N1 strain emerged.

The new estimate includes deaths that occurred outside hospitals, patients who tested negative for H1N1 but almost certainly had it, and other overlooked cases....."

Finally, before I end this post, I must mention that Christopher Shay has raised an alarm about a rogue strain of malaria that may render artemisinin impotent in treating the viral disease caused by Plasmodium falciparum - the deadly strain that affects the brain of sufferers.

The major relevant excerpts are as follows. "....Globally, only 3% of malaria patients receive the proper artemisinin combination therapy....It's not random that dangerous new strains of malaria continue to crop up on the Thai-Cambodian border. In addition to having longer years of exposure to the miracle drug, residents like the gem-mine workers rely on an unregulated, informal health sector, rife with cheap counterfeits and improper treatments. ..... Even for experts, it can be impossible to tell the difference between the fakes and the real article just by looking at them. What's so important about this is that when you have thousands of people taking improper or low dosages, the malaria parasite develops resistance more quickly......Modeling by the Mahidol-Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit published in the Malaria Journal in February predicts that if nothing is done in the next two decades, "resistance to artemisinins will be approaching 100%." And if that happens, it won't be long until the resistant strain spreads from Cambodia's precious gem mines to Africa, putting half the world's population at risk of catching what would be an untreatable, deadly disease......."

Well, I say that climate change should have been factored into that vaunted model. Mosquitoes cannot survive in cold environments; so, perhaps, if the tropics became more temperate in weather, malarial parasites would have to find a new home or just lay down and die....

Cheers, to that hopeful future!

Healthy cornucopia

2009-11-21T22:15:00.000+01:00

It's really amazing how a little gift and a little adjustment in attitude can bring out a grin from an otherwise bored disposition.

Not that my father's birthday today was boring. I had wondered whether to give a card and a gift or just a card - I had been trying to think up what to give him that he didn't already have.

My wife had advised that a gift is a gift and the receiver would still appreciate it - even if he already had more than one of a similar item.

To cut to the chase, my dear over-seventy year-old father loved his new steel wine opener with the corkscrew and plastic ring around the stainless steel rim. We all had a great time...

And then it was time to leave. I handed out bubble gum packs to everyone to clean out the palate.

To my surprise, my sister said she doesn't buy chewing gum for her kids, even though they accepted my gift readily.

So, I had to tell her the benefits of chewing gum, including teeth whitening, plaque removal, breath freshener, savings on toothpick purchases, aids digestion as saliva is swallowed periodically as a recycled fluid, exercising the facial and jaw muscles, and teeth strengthening - quite different from the general negative impression of a gum chewer resembling a goat chewing the cord in most places in my country today.

One more thing: she immediately asked for some for herself. And their smiles broadened as they drove off when I drummed a little ditty on the cover of the large gum container and yelled out, "Chew gum!"

How's your attitude to health? These nine Jodi Helmer diet tips state that you should include in your diet whole grains, eat at home to control the ingredients used in the recipe, vary your diet to prevent the temptation of going AWOL - or on the lam - on a boring diet, avoiding alcohol and other calorie-uppers like sugary or caffeinated drinks, and exercise to avoid getting fat.

Donna Freeman lists twelve cheap healthful foods that can actually keep you and your foor budget slimmer - grains, fruits, vegetables, and proteins that can be found at supermarkets, "....drugstores, grocery outlets, big-box stores and dollar stores.....", ethnic and other specialty food stores.

Do you want soft and callous-free feet? Then throw out the pumice stone and the foot file, and make room for the very effective ped egg foot softener.

Let me stop right here for now - more tips in my next post....

Quirky angles to health issues

2009-11-15T20:25:00.000+01:00

I have had a busy weekend - recovering from the past week, putting in some time publishing posts, and working out indoors.

In the course of all that, I noticed two articles that I thought that I should respond to. One had the simple question: Should Football Players Ditch the Helmets?

My contribution here is just this. It does not really matter whether helmets are allowed or not - accidents will always happen and injuries sustained.

American football is, to me, a much safer version of rugby union. Have you seen the result of one of those rugby headbutts?

Believe me, it's all really bloody sometimes for the nose and faces involved. And yet, those headbutts and body slams form part of the defensive strategies to frustrate opponents.

If you ask me, helmet manufacturers should put in more reinforcement and cushioning pads, as well as use more high tech materials to make their product lighter and stronger.

After all, chain mail armor did foil a few ripostes during the Crusades...

Now, did you know this: RNC Insurance Plan Covered Abortion, Until Thursday? Yes, since 1991, the Republican National Convention, or the Republican Party of the US, never opted out of insurance coverage for medical procedures that included D & C!

Can you imagine how embarrassing that is? In that time ex-President Bush denied funding for stem cell research on ethical grounds and the Republican Congressmen generally are seen as anti-abortion and voting against pro-abortion.

Oh well, that's life. You never know what skeletons are lurking in the closet until the cupboard door is held or yanked ajar...

Medical updates

2009-11-15T09:59:00.000+01:00

"Don't take it personal...Take the bitter with the sweet...Good things come to an end..." Those Jermaine Jackson lyrics are so predictive!

There will be days like this, when the bitter-sweet will have to co-exist, unfortunately. No, I am not going anywhere.

In fact, I like it just fine here right now. Have you noticed the change from medscil.blogspot.com to medskil.com? Yes, I have come quite a long way, haven't I? Hurray! Ha-ha.

However, there is nothing funny about this little five-year old girl's condition. Her name is Lillie, not Crystal, but her rare kidney disease condition, if left untreated, could turn her to biblical pillar of salt.

the whole thing kind of reminds me of the comic book and movie superhero The Iceman - a rather more immobile and terminal version though. Most victims are said to live only up to age nine.

Yes, she has cystinosis, which turns cells in all her organs into crystalline cystine, an amino acid. Here's a relevant excerpt about the condition: ".....The condition is so rare, it is estimated that only about 2,000 people worldwide suffer from it, although the numbers are unclear because the conditions is often undiagnosed or misdiagnosed....."

According to this news item, the US FDA is looking into the safety inherent in imbibing a cocktail comprising caffeine and alcohol.

The famous song with the lyrics, "Should I stay or should I go....Oh baby, won't you let me know...." comes to mind when I think of the conflicting actions of these two ingredients in one drink.

In my humble opinion, that highball energy drink is as ineffective as tea or coffee loaded with full cream milk and sugar to a dieter.

In fact, according to an old episode of the Hawaiian detective movie starring Joe Penny - Jake and the Fatman, I believe - a person who creams his or her tea can be indicative of a spendthrift capable of pinching a penny or two when the pennies begin to pinch.

The swine flu pandemic is easing off in the colder northern climes, according to this report from the World Health Organization - ostensibly because of the early onset of winter this year.

Yes, the first case in tropical Nigeria was reported a week or two ago in Lagos, I think, on the local television news.

The H1N1 score card so far, from the WHO, is as follows:

"....The pandemic virus has now spread to 206 countries, with the latest reported laboratory-confirmed cases in Somalia, Nigeria and Burundi. There have been more than 6,250 deaths to date, mostly in the Americas region, according to the WHO toll....."

A closer look at waistlines

2009-11-15T00:33:00.009+01:00

My waist size is 36 but I prefer 38 to 40 inches for freedom of movement, depending on the clothing designer or label, of course.

One would have thought that by now the world textile and design groupings would have come together to agree on sizes globally - instead of XXL in the US being the same as XL in Britain and something else generally on the European continent.

Anyway, I was a bit taken aback when I saw this advice from a president to his people in Venezuela: Chavez Urges Venezuelans to Trim Their Waistlines.

Ah! Do Venezuelans have a problem with obesity? I never knew that till today. More advice from the politician?

Well, apart from doing sit ups, only this: "...Chavez suggested rice pasta instead of spaghetti made from wheat, and recommended drinking soy milk, saying soy products help fight aging...."

Anyway, perhaps, the president should have read this report that says specifically: "....The recommended daily intake of calories could be increased by up to 16%, a draft report by the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition said....."

that's roughly 2,500 calories for women and 3,000 calories for men per day - with exercise, of course!

Just ask about how important that regimen is for a certain unique American multiple Olympic and world record holder in swimming at the last Olympics in Beijing.

We all really do learn something new everyday. I remember learning from a BBC report some years ago that Argentinians do a lot of kissing - from parents to uncles and friends and acquaintances!

.

We are expecting and expectant

2009-11-07T21:57:00.000+01:00

Strange, isn't it, how some words trigger only one meaning? Yes, 'expecting' after a verb usually implies pregnancy, while 'expectant' is mere English for a hopeful feeling.

My wife is expecting! Praise God! As the doctor said after the test confirmed it, "you can start celebrating now".

For scoring a touchdown or hitting a home run? After two issues already, I jokingly replied that I would celebrate even more if we would get twins this time around.

Ha-ha. He asked if there was a history of twin births in my family. Hee-hee. I was in my most teasing frame of mind last week...

So, I said, 'Not really.' And I then reminded him that Adam never had any twins. Twins must have come from somewhere after Adam's time.

Twin births are evolutionary and not hereditary? Makes sense to me... After all, Esau and Jacob were the first set of twins reported in the Bible. What do you think?

Where are those filthy rats?

2009-11-02T18:50:00.000+01:00

Someone can be born in the year of The Rat, and yet not necessarily become a rat later on in life, according to Chinese Astrology.

Ha-ha... Yes, being called a rat is usually quite derogatory in any language or tongue. That's just how low we humans regard rats, in general - the rodents, I mean.

A stool is usually quite a handy perch for most ladies screaming out their lungs at the sight of one or more of these home bred critters.

As would be expected, old settlements, towns, cities, and 'untidy' - that is, poorly built or kept or maintained - homes are usually the most likely hideouts for rats.

There is some corroboration. In the USA, the rodent risk report has the following as the top twenty rat infested cities:

01 New York, NY
02 Atlanta, GA
03 Houston, TX
04 Louisville, KY
05 Philadelphia, PA

06 Chicago, IL
07 Boston, MA
08 San Antonio, TX
09 Milwaukee, WI
10 Detroit, MI

11 Columbus, OH
12 Baltimore, MD
13 Oklahoma City, OK
14 Memphis, TN
15 Portland, OR

16 El Paso, TX
17 Nashville, TN
18 Ft. Worth, TX
19 Jacksonville, FL
20 Dallas, TX

Yuck! By the way, my neighborhood has rats, too. You know what they say about rats being more abundant in places where there is a lot of dirty open gutters or drains, uncleared garbage or refuse, wasted or overflowing wealth, or putrefying or uncovered food.

Ha-ha... These days, even the poor church rats are not poor any longer - in fact, some have become fat cats in their own right!

Why not decode the swine flu gene?

2009-10-17T21:14:00.003+01:00

Sometimes, the most obvious answer is usually the right one but it usually eludes even the experts in the field mostly because they are still thinking within the system box - unlike someone like me, who is deft at observing trends and finding a new solution quickly, if I may say so myself.

I was reading this - Canadian medical scientists have decoded all the three billion letters in the DNA sequence of the breast cancer gene - the other day and wondered why the same procedure could not be used for this pesky and mutating swine of a flu!

Surely, in my humble opinion, that should put a stop to all the controversy surrounding the possible side effect any mandatory but hurriedly produced and untested swine flu - or any other kind of preventive cancer - vaccinations.

What kind of controversies? Well, see for yourself below:

Pregnant Teenager Dies After Contracting H1N1
US, Mexico face shortage of H1N1 flu vaccine
Feds approve new HPV vaccine

Hundreds make strides against cancer
3 pigs at State Fair may have had H1N1, tests by the U, CDC show
Overwhelming demand, crowded clinics turn some flu shot-seekers away
FDA warns against fake online H1N1 remedy claims

Swine Flu Hits Early, Claims 11 More U.S. Kids

Flu, Me? Public Remains Wary Of H1N1 Vaccine

UPDATE - Sunday, October 25, 2009:

Well, things appear to be really moving now in the fight against the swine flu confupandemic - yes, the reaction to it is so confusing that some, who should know better, seem to be suggesting that a hand wash with 'Dettol' will do the magic by putting up an impregnable barrier against the swine flu.

Anyway, I have included below a glossary of some of the latest developments since this post was published.

Flu scare is highly contagious
Obama: Swine flu a national emergency
Obama declares H1N1 emergency

Old System Hampers Rush to Produce H1N1 Vaccine
1 in 5 U.S. Kids Had Flu-Like Symptoms This Month
Parents infuriated over wait for swine flu vaccine
H1N1, Emergency in US, Is Still Spreading Globally
FDA Warns of Bogus Swine Flu Products
Get H1N1 vaccine: health minister

H1N1 Flu Risks Spread To The Internet

Obama Declares Swine Flu A National Emergency
Invited To A Swine Flu Party? CDC Says Don't Go

U.S. declares H1N1 emergency

Obama: Swine flu a national emergency

Why should you worry about climate change?

2009-10-15T00:01:00.007+01:00

justA famous American guitar-ballad musician, George Benson, once sang a hit song about hindsight being in twenty-twenty vision - yes, 'had I known...' always comes after the realization of a mistake or misstep.

So, this post is for your information, so that, in being forewarned, you would become fore armed with greater awareness, so to speak - a word is enough for the wise.

Ha-ha... Now that the theatrics are done and out of the way, we can get down to the business of talking about the potential health problems from climate change phenomena.

Simply put, climate change can result in global warming from a combination of such factors as the emission of greenhouse gases, environmental pollution, and so on.

The resulting atmospheric heating effect leads to strange weather phenomena, melting of the polar ice caps, flooding and other devastating natural disasters.

In order to mitigate some of these possibilities, some people have invented very innovative ways to detect illegal toxic waste pollution sites and increasing the chances of apprehending the perpetrators of such heinous environmental crimes.

In other scientific developments, this is a warning about the unknown possible effects of nanomaterials - materials with a size on the same scale as the width of a human hair divided ten thousand times - on the users of such products like sunscreens and industrial adhesives.

The basic lesson from the above is: ".....Little is known about whether substances engineered at the nano scale persist and accumulate in the environment in unusual and potentially harmful ways.....people to avoid sunscreens containing nano-forms of zinc oxide....."

Now, if you think that is nothing to worry about, you can just think again. Take this, for example, did you know that a sprinkling of carbon nanotubes on synthetic soil makes tomato plants sprout and grow faster?

Sounds wonderful, right? Unfortunately, some scientists warn that such carbon nanotubes may have a similar effect in our bodies - from eating such food - as asbestos fibers would, while others think that the fast growth of plants in natube growth media is quite abnormal.

The latest source of worry, in my humble opinion, is the fact that NASA has bombed the moon in order to find out the stuff of which its hidden south pole is made of - ostensibly in order to drill for water to quench the thirst of its future colonizers from Earth.

Preliminary results show that there was a flash after the first of the two serial hits - both faster than twice the speed of a bullet - and there was no upshot of debris into the sunlight as expected.

What have they done now? Since there was a flash - and not a splash - after the first bombing of the remote lunar surface, it means that the hydrogen detected was not in the form of water, I think. Drink at your own peril...

Honestly, I am surprised that recently Greenpeace only stormed the roof of the bastion of British democracy - the House of Parliament - to protest about the need to shout from the roof tops for more attention to be paid to climate change.

Now, I am protesting about the potential climate change on the moon from this exploratory but reconnaissance bombing mission - yes, the use of planes at the destroyed World Trade Center in New York City on 9/11 proved conclusively, if infamously, that flying craft are potential bombs.

What if other national space agencies followed suit - what will be the ultimate fallout on Earth? Is there a probable reason why everyone is hitting on the moon now?

What if there is no water anymore but only lunar hydrogen in a yet-unknown form - better suited as rocket fuel?

Since the ocean tides ebb and flow with the moon, what if there is a relationship between the store of expectantly frozen hydrogen on the moon and the availability of water on Earth?

Anyway, let's just wait and see how it shall go with the United Nations and climate change this year at Copenhagen in December...

UPDATE - Saturday, October 17, 2009:

More upshoots regarding the nearly $80 million 2-tonne bombing of the moon. Some interesting facts were thrown up as follows:

The moon belongs to no one – yet

Was moon-smashing mission doomed from the start?

Hunting for water on the moon: a brief but splashy history