Men's Fashion Rules are Confusing

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Hola fashionistas! As you probably know I’m not the most fashionable guy. Sometimes I think that I should up my game a bit and wear fancier clothes but then I think why bother? Actually, I guess should because going with the modern homeless look doesn’t exactly impress the babes. <o:p></o:p><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">What has brought this on you ask? Lately I’ve noticed this trend of men wearing jackets but no tie along with a dress shirt that is unbuttoned at the top.  That putz Chris Hayes is dressing this way for his new show on MSNBC and then some dude named Dave Briggs doing the same opposite the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=589378177747462&set=a.158774970807787.33506.158398094178808&type=1&relevant_count=1" target="_blank">OH SO GOOD-LOOKING Thomas Roberts</a> Wed morning. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">When did this become a thing? Has it always been okay to do this? It seems a bit too casual to me. I doubt anyone wants their lawyer looking all kicked back and casual like that. Like maybe he was already done for the day at the 8 am trial or something. Same goes for your financial adviser  Tie off means he’s already called it a day and isn’t worried that the market is going down faster than Jay Leno’s ratings. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Maybe Hayes and the rest in the media are going for the “Hey, I’m just a regular guy like you” look? Best of luck with that y’all. You’re not a regular working stiff and you don’t relate to, or care about people in flyover country. I say go back to the more formal and trustworthy look of the tie and jacket. Would Walter Cronkite or Tom Brokaw go jacket and no tie? Hell no! Edward R Murrow was damn good at the loosened tie, unbuttoned shirt, no jacket look though. That totally worked for him and was an indication of how hard he went every day. Kind of like the Tony Bennett bow tie is off shirt is unbuttoned singing “I Left My Heart in San Francisco” at the end of the show look. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9cxmzn5UAf2eQjx5NoHgnpg5_o0wJkkwkpjArH3BQ3dQiNnF_VIrxTWXjm5pOthqWHIsV7fPzQhrJc6o0Q-BemZO7uwStbxND76IMXiOxZ02rxVweUOyXJyxr59hzH_92Z5vKh8NbU7c/s1600/Jay+Tie.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9cxmzn5UAf2eQjx5NoHgnpg5_o0wJkkwkpjArH3BQ3dQiNnF_VIrxTWXjm5pOthqWHIsV7fPzQhrJc6o0Q-BemZO7uwStbxND76IMXiOxZ02rxVweUOyXJyxr59hzH_92Z5vKh8NbU7c/s1600/Jay+Tie.jpg" /></a>It’s also my understanding that while “jacket, no tie” is acceptable, “tie, no jacket” isn’t. This kind of sucks <o:p></o:p></div>because that’s actually MY preferred look because the jacket is usually uncomfortable and makes me too warm. It seems like if you take the jacket off AND roll up the sleeves that should be perfectly acceptable, especially in the summer. <br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">I mean, I get that you have be careful not to do the white shirt, black tie, no jacket look. If you do that everyone will think you’re a Mormon and nobody will sit with you at lunch. So be sure to wear colors. Pink, yellow, blue, red and even lavender shirts will all reassure your coworkers and others that they can sit next to you without you trying to convert them. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Also, the <a href="http://www.thesilktiefactory.com/zipperties9.html" target="_blank">Zipper Tie</a> is perfectly acceptable right? Because if it isn’t I’ll have to reassess my position on the jacket, no tie situation. The only kind of tie I can wear is the Zipper Tie because tying a tie is like the hardest think in the history of the world. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="mailto:Jayman3768@gmail.com">Jayman3768@gmail.com</a><br /><a href="http://www.facebook.com/Jayman68" target="_blank">Facebook.com/Jayman68</a><br /><a href="http://www.twitter.com/jayman_iws" target="_blank">@Jayman_IWS </a><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div></div>

Men's Fashion Rules are Confusing

Hola fashionistas! As you probably know I’m not the most fashionable guy. Sometimes I think that I should up my game a bit and wear fancier clothes but then I think why bother? Actually, I guess should because going with the modern homeless look does…

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Cascade Ice Waters Review

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Ever feel like your water you drink is just dull and needs a little bit of a kick with some flavor?</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.cascadeicewater.com/">Cascade Ice</a> makes the most delicious flavored waters that I have ever tried!</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">They are lightly sweetened, refreshing, tons of great flavors and you can mix them into an alcohol imaginable.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">These amazing flavors such as lemonade and coconut remind me of sitting on the beach relaxing and hearing the waves crashing with the scent of suntan lotion, it's like summer in a bottle!</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When I came across their drinks online I just knew I had to try them!</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I love flavored waters especially coconut! </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPryjvvLU08DXmThjsfLopyzUqFI19xfjpCV-Ek7eG3EXkAO253tcMxA6GgPOICZkKTwU7GP5UdOc2VffiBE3Jx2kpugSKPZNYFuoeuZfc93rgJSgJrvg1ZGUaCFRLZ7uo0R2VaipINUM/s1600/Cascade+Ice+drinks.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPryjvvLU08DXmThjsfLopyzUqFI19xfjpCV-Ek7eG3EXkAO253tcMxA6GgPOICZkKTwU7GP5UdOc2VffiBE3Jx2kpugSKPZNYFuoeuZfc93rgJSgJrvg1ZGUaCFRLZ7uo0R2VaipINUM/s320/Cascade+Ice+drinks.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I was sent some flavors to try for review and was so excited when I saw the lemonade and coconut flavor!</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Love the bottles and the tags that were tied on them!</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A thought popped into my heard when I saw them!</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">They are the perfect baby shower/birthday gift for someone!</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Low in calories and a drink you can enjoy!</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Lemonade:</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So delicious and not to much of a lemon flavor where you have to pucker your lips because it's too sour.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Coconut:</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Yum, so delicious and refreshing! I was in absolute awe of how great this flavor tasted!</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Pink Grapefruit:</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Not bad! Delicious</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The drink mixes:</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Works really well in cocktails or mojitos </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">You can check them out online here:</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Face Book:</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/CascadeIceWaters">https://www.facebook.com/CascadeIceWaters</a></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Twitter:</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="https://twitter.com/cascadeicewater">https://twitter.com/cascadeicewater</a></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Pinterest:</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://pinterest.com/cascadeice/">http://pinterest.com/cascadeice/</a></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/CascadeIceWater"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">http://www.youtube.com/CascadeIceWater</span></a></div>

Cascade Ice Waters Review

Ever feel like your water you drink is just dull and needs a little bit of a kick with some flavor?Cascade Ice makes the most delicious flavored waters that I have ever tried!They are lightly sweetened, refreshing, tons of great flavors and you can m…

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Ola Granola Review

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Whether it's sprinkled on top of yogurt, layered in a parfait, on ice cream or in trail mix granola is by far my most favorite thing to eat!</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It's healthy, delicious, fruity, nutty and chocolaty!</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Yes, indeed some kinds aren't good for you but my gosh when it's all natural ,healthy and has got that crunch and touch of sweetness it's the perfect snack!</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">For breakfast practically every morning I make a parfait and add in fruit with sunflower seeds and works perfect with some coffee or juice!</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">With each brand of granola I've tried I've noticed that each one is different from the other whether it's crunchy, chewy, fruity,seedy, nutty,chocolaty, crumbly but most importantly healthy!</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">While browsing the net one night I came across <a href="http://www.olafoods.com/index.php">Ola Granola</a> and realized they make their granola by hand and also I saw that they had a Cranberry Orange Pecan Flavor and thought to myself I have got to try their granola's!</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I got a response immediately from an email I sent them asking them if I could review their products and was so excited when I got the go!</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I couldn't wait to try them!</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">For my review I was sent 2 travel sized packs of granola (vanilla almond and No nut vanilla)</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">(below photo)</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Also received three big bags of their Cranberry Orange Pecan, No Nut Vanilla and Vanilla Almond!</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgx207xeZUfyZgF5tIQVj7rVRknBA4DkJxfGKwR1MtJLFaSAvZXkdxzzUgK0zGNXwU1k_lkUGLiYrxluF1PYEXT23i_9ziRVs2WgUxgysLdpo5OwEhc-jSyhwWY-f4Myo2e9KZpprDhdJc/s1600/Ola+Granola+package.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgx207xeZUfyZgF5tIQVj7rVRknBA4DkJxfGKwR1MtJLFaSAvZXkdxzzUgK0zGNXwU1k_lkUGLiYrxluF1PYEXT23i_9ziRVs2WgUxgysLdpo5OwEhc-jSyhwWY-f4Myo2e9KZpprDhdJc/s320/Ola+Granola+package.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Couldn't stop thinking about the Cranberry Orange Pecan it was just calling out to me, try me!</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So I scooped out some yogurt and then sprinkled on sunflower seeds and the granola.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzPS2dwjrVbmWHLP6t26t8v5sgZosaf4qcsWg2EcxAf2XrrV6vKLBQ7s8xaC4VWqXJ1rwiQR_7GFb9VkUDZjx8Oq22raUJSI_6_Y6uxI1CgTLpzvztAS6m_L9BKskG3FDxoblRBDElPSM/s1600/Ola+Granola+Cranberry+orange+pecan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzPS2dwjrVbmWHLP6t26t8v5sgZosaf4qcsWg2EcxAf2XrrV6vKLBQ7s8xaC4VWqXJ1rwiQR_7GFb9VkUDZjx8Oq22raUJSI_6_Y6uxI1CgTLpzvztAS6m_L9BKskG3FDxoblRBDElPSM/s320/Ola+Granola+Cranberry+orange+pecan.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The granola was crunchy, delicious and not too over powering with cranberry orange taste like some products are.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Be sure to check them out online!</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />Also before I get to mention go their online website and order some, with this code here <span style="background-color: white; color: #1f497d; font-size: 15px; text-align: start;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1f497d; font-size: 15px; text-align: start;">KBW2013</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1f497d; font-size: 15px; text-align: start;">  </span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 15px; text-align: start;">you will receive free shipping on your order!</span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Thanks for reading, Enjoy!</span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Order products here:</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.olafoods.com/products-page/" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">http://www.olafoods.com/products-page/</a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Face Book:</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/olafoods">https://www.facebook.com/olafoods</a></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Twitter: </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="https://twitter.com/olafoods">https://twitter.com/olafoods</a></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Sold at:</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Whole Foods</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Stop & Shop</span></div>

Ola Granola Review

Whether it's sprinkled on top of yogurt, layered in a parfait, on ice cream or in trail mix granola is by far my most favorite thing to eat!It's healthy, delicious, fruity, nutty and chocolaty!Yes, indeed some kinds aren't good for you but my gosh wh…

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Wang Shu Lecture

Last night Wang Shu spoke in the Great Hall at The Cooper Union, in <a href="http://archleague.org/2013/04/wang-shu/">a lecture sponsored by the school and the Architectural League of New York</a>. His talk was titled "The Meaning of Time: An Alive Construction," and it focused on a few built projects ("<a href="http://www.world-architects.com/en/projects/35800_tiled_garden/">Times Garden</a>" and "Times Theatre," <a href="http://www.world-architects.com/en/projects/35792_ningbo_history_museum/">Ningbo History Museum</a>, and <a href="http://www.world-architects.com/en/projects/1759_china_art_academy_new_campus_of_xiangshan_school/">Xiangshan</a> <a href="http://www.world-architects.com/en/projects/35795_china_art_academy_new_campus_of_xiangshan_school_phase_ii/">Campus</a>) and a couple in-progress projects that are illustrated below. Beyond the actual projects that he and partner Lu Wenyu are executing as <a href="http://www.world-architects.com/amateur/">Amateur Architecture Studio</a>, he spoke a good deal about China's modernization and concomitant demolition—per Wang Shu, 90% of culture has been destroyed in the country's rush to be modern. I've been to the Great Hall many times, but this is the first time when the venue seemed appropriate to the crowd; about 600 people listened to Wang Shu speak for an hour, followed by 30 minutes of Q&A. <br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/archidose/8617145496/" title="Wang Shu Lecture by archidose, on Flickr"><img alt="Wang Shu Lecture" height="480" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8262/8617145496_ef528cb2ce_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br /><br />As the photo below shows, Wang Shu presented old Chinese paintings (left in the image, next to his Ningbo History Museum) as a means of interpreting the relationship between the artificial and the natural, between cities and countryside, between tradition and modernity. Yet, as the buildings of Wang Shu and Lu Wenyu indicate, looking at traditional sources for inspiration does not equate with building in a traditional manner—old materials, many of them reclaimed from demolished buildings, are used in unexpected ways. As he said, "I am not interested in the past and traditional things, but rather the difference between the past and the contemporary." The two projects that follow attest to this continued position, one that sets him apart from many of his contemporaries.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/archidose/8617145358/" title="Wang Shu Lecture by archidose, on Flickr"><img alt="Wang Shu Lecture" height="480" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8266/8617145358_caf0c8dc33_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br /><br />The "Shi Li Hong Zhuang" (Traditional Dowry) Museum in Ninghai, Ningbo, China, under construction and scheduled for completion next year:<br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/archidose/8617145574/" title="Wang Shu Lecture by archidose, on Flickr"><img alt="Wang Shu Lecture" height="526" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8251/8617145574_0ddc3ee46e_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/archidose/8617145656/" title="Wang Shu Lecture by archidose, on Flickr"><img alt="Wang Shu Lecture" height="524" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8528/8617145656_852aa33e7a_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/archidose/8617145764/" title="Wang Shu Lecture by archidose, on Flickr"><img alt="Wang Shu Lecture" height="526" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8114/8617145764_648075a9d4_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br /><br />The Guest House at Xiangshan Campus, nearing completion in Hangzhou, China:<br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/archidose/8616039993/" title="Wang Shu Lecture by archidose, on Flickr"><img alt="Wang Shu Lecture" height="486" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8117/8616039993_c342a20cc5_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/archidose/8616039973/" title="Wang Shu Lecture by archidose, on Flickr"><img alt="Wang Shu Lecture" height="429" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8103/8616039973_a95e632446_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/archidose/8617145474/" title="Wang Shu Lecture by archidose, on Flickr"><img alt="Wang Shu Lecture" height="428" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8242/8617145474_ee7842e6b4_z.jpg" width="640" /></a>

Wang Shu Lecture

Last night Wang Shu spoke in the Great Hall at The Cooper Union, in a lecture sponsored by the school and the Architectural League of New York. His talk was titled "The Meaning of Time: An Alive Construction," and it focused on a few built projects (…

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Mary Roach's "Gulp" reviewed by Bee Wilson | New Republic

It is one of the paradoxes of our culture that while food itself is an object of desire, the mechanics of eating—in the abstract, anyway—really gross us out. Chewing, salivating, and digesting, never mind excreting, are aspects of a meal we do our best to forget as we pore over photos of toast with ramp butter and quail's eggs or slow-braised veal shank. We are in collective denial about what ingesting a meal really entails.<br /><br><br /><br>To a certain extent, this has always been true. Peter Greenaway's 1989 film, The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover, played on the fact that the comfort of middle-class life depends on keeping the pleasures of dinner well apart from its inescapable upshot in the bathroom. Thinking about digestion is a nasty appetite killer. But we are arguably more coy about the stomach than any previous generation. Our grandparents openly spoke of foods being "indigestible" or making them "bilious" if they ate too much of them. Now, we tend talk of the consequences of food only in terms of whether it will make us fat, ignoring the more pressing business of digestion. Public health officials perkily try to sell children on eating more vegetables "because of the vitamins" rather than telling them what really happens when they don't eat their greens (around 30 percent of all American kids are constipated, going on estimates from dietetic pediatricians).<br /><br><br /><br>Mary Roach wants to redirect our attention away from the "clamor of cuisine" to the weird landscape of the alimentary canal. Her book is a bit like the old sci-fi classicFantastic Voyage, where a miniaturized submarine goes on a mission through the inside of a human body. Roach has a fine line in quirky science writing, having previously looked at cadavers in Stiff and sex in Bonk. Her starting point in Gulp is cheekily to invert many of the assumptions of modern food writing. Eating, we have been loftily told by other writers, is about so much more than its chemical components. It is about culture, about tradition, about meals. Roach wittily flips this around. "Yes, men and women eat meals. But they also ingest nutrients. They grind and sculpt them into a moistened bolus that is delivered. … into a self-kneading sack of hydrochloric acid and then dumped into a tubular leach field, where it is converted into the most powerful taboo in history."<br /><br><br /><br>Far from avoiding the grossness of digestion, Roach revels in it. Squeamish readers, be warned: There is TMI on every page. Roach leads us through the esophagus, the intestines, and the colon, giving us countless revolting but fascinating factoids along the way. You will discover that delicious food does not in fact make our mouths water (though nausea may) and that obese people surprisingly have the same stomach capacity as everyone else (they just eat more). Roach parses the "olfactory notes" of "noxious flatus," the technical term for gas. If a fart smells of rotten eggs, this indicates the presence of hydrogen sulfide; if of rotten vegetables, it's dimethyl sulfide. If you've ever wondered why some people complain of gassiness after beans, while others eat them with impunity, Roach has the answer. If you've never wondered, too bad; Roach is going to tell you anyway. Apparently, half of the population lack a certain enzyme in the colon that is needed to break down the complex carbohydrates in legumes. As a result, they are "troubled by beans." When the colon inflates, releasing gas, it is a "warning system": "Because stretching can be a prelude to bursting, your brain is highly motivated to let you know what's happening down there."<br /><br><br /><br>Roach, who is relentlessly fun to read—she even sees the humorous side in eating yourself to death—gives a graphic sense of what a brilliant and complex system human digestion really is. Take saliva. It is remarkable stuff, of which we generate two or three pints every day. Apart from its healing and cleaning properties—licking your wounds really is a good idea—saliva is part of the chemical engineering that enables us to eat. Spit dilutes acids, keeps the mouth clean and gets food into a state where we can swallow it. Roach speaks to a saliva expert, Erika Silletti, who marvels at the speed with which the brain tells the mouth to produce saliva when something is eaten. Because it contains amylase, an enzyme, saliva helps break down starches—such as bread—into digestible energy. "Add a drop of saliva to a spoonful of custard, and within seconds it pours like water."<br /><br><br /><br>It turns out that while all saliva is pretty cool, it varies in potency and quantity from person to person. Art conservators have found that saliva is a great cleaning product for fragile paintwork and gold leaf, but not just anyone's dribble will do. When Roach does a simple saliva test using a cotton wad, she is comic-dismayed to find that she is "a dried-up husk" in saliva terms. This theme of individual variation in our digestive powers recurs throughout the book. "The way you chew," for example, "is as unique and consistent as the way you walk or fold your shirts. There are fast chewers and slow chewers, long chewers and short chewers, right-chewed people and left-chewed people."<br /><br><br /><br>Maybe the ancients were on to something when they categorized human personality in terms of bodily fluids or "humours." Our health and happiness—and consequently our behavior—is largely a function of our intestinal microflora. "Depending on who's living in your gut," writes Roach, you "may or may not benefit from what you eat." Variation in colonic bacteria mean that some people derive goodness from the cancer-fighting properties of polyphenols—in some fruits and vegetables as well as coffee and red wine—while others do not. More dramatically, recent research—not mentioned in the book, perhaps because it is so new—indicates that the right gut microflora can protect against malnutrition. When given identical aid rations, one child flourishes and another starves.<br /><br><br /><br>Gulp's compelling final chapter looks at the new medical intervention of the "fecal transplant" to treat patients with chronic gastrointestinal problems, pioneered by Dr. Alexander Khoruts in Minnesota. This is exactly what it sounds like. The sick patient is pumped with vials of a healthy person's poop through a colonoscope. The procedure—unusual, as Roach notes, in being "effective, inexpensive and free of side effects"—has proved remarkably efficacious in curing severe cases of infection withClostridium difficile. Yet at present "no US insurance company formally recognizes the procedure." Roach suggests that this is partly because there are no pharmaceutical profits to be made from poop; but also the "ick factor."<br /><br><br /><br>Roach finds it strange that "most of us pass our lives never once laying eyes on our organs, the most precious and amazing things we own." But is it really so odd that we prefer to think of things other than colons? Gulp eloquently lays bare the secrets of the alimentary canal, but Roach's obsession with the lavatorial (Can constipation offer sexual pleasure? And did it kill Elvis?) often seems as if it is missing the bigger picture about the human relationship with food. She quotes Khoruts on the subject of the gorillas, whose life, like that of so many animals, is dominated by digestion: "He's processing leaves all day. ... There's no room for great thoughts." The great luxury of being a human being is that we have digestive systems so complex and efficient that most of the time we don't have to think about them. So long as you don't bring Gulp to the table, you are free to eat your dinner in a state of blissful denial.<br /><br><br /><br><a href="http://www.newrepublic.com/article/112639/mary-roachs-gulp-reviewed-bee-wilson">http://www.newrepublic.com/article/112639/mary-roachs-gulp-reviewed-bee-wilson</a>?

Mary Roach's "Gulp" reviewed by Bee Wilson | New Republic

It is one of the paradoxes of our culture that while food itself is an object of desire, the mechanics of eating—in the abstract, anyway—really gross us out. Chewing, salivating, and digesting, never mind excreting, are aspects of a meal we do our be…

Read more »

Obama to Unveil Initiative to Map the Human Brain - NYTimes.com

<base href="data:"><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; color: black; text-align: left; "><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; color: black; text-align: left; "><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; "><a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/o/barack_obama/index.html?inline=nyt-per" title="More articles about Barack Obama" class="meta-per" style="color: rgb(102, 102, 153); text-decoration: none; ">President Obama</a> on Tuesday will announce a broad new research initiative, starting with $100 million in 2014, to invent and refine new technologies to understand the human brain, senior administration officials said Monday.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">A senior administration scientist compared the new initiative to the Human Genome Project, in that it is directed at a problem that has seemed insoluble up to now: the recording and mapping of brain circuits in action in an effort to "show how millions of brain cells interact."</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">It is different, however, in that it has, as yet, no clearly defined goals or endpoint. Coming up with those goals will be up to the scientists involved and may take more than year.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">The effort will require the development of new tools not yet available to neuroscientists and, eventually, perhaps lead to progress in treating diseases like <a href="http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/disease/alzheimers-disease/overview.html?inline=nyt-classifier" title="In-depth reference and news articles about Alzheimer's Disease." class="meta-classifier" style="color: rgb(102, 102, 153); text-decoration: none; ">Alzheimer's</a> and <a href="http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/disease/epilepsy/overview.html?inline=nyt-classifier" title="In-depth reference and news articles about Epilepsy." class="meta-classifier" style="color: rgb(102, 102, 153); text-decoration: none; ">epilepsy</a> and traumatic<a href="http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/injury/head-injury/overview.html?inline=nyt-classifier" title="In-depth reference and news articles about Head injury." class="meta-classifier" style="color: rgb(102, 102, 153); text-decoration: none; ">brain injury</a>. It will involve both government agencies and private institutions.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">The initiative, which scientists involved in promoting the idea have been calling the Brain Activity Map project, will officially be known as Brain Research Through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies, or Brain for short; it has been designated a grand challenge of the 21st century by the Obama administration.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">Three government agencies will be involved: the <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/n/national_institutes_of_health/index.html?inline=nyt-org" title="More articles about National Institutes of Health, U.S." class="meta-org" style="color: rgb(102, 102, 153); text-decoration: none; ">National Institutes of Health</a>, the <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/d/defense_advanced_research_projects_agency/index.html?inline=nyt-org" title="More articles about the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency." class="meta-org" style="color: rgb(102, 102, 153); text-decoration: none; ">Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency</a> and the <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/n/national_science_foundation/index.html?inline=nyt-org" title="More articles about National Science Foundation, U.S." class="meta-org" style="color: rgb(102, 102, 153); text-decoration: none; ">National Science Foundation</a>. A working group at the N.I.H., described by the officials as a "dream team," and led by Cori Bargmann of Rockefeller University and William Newsome of Stanford University, will be charged with coming up with a plan, a time frame, specific goals and cost estimates for future budgets.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">The initiative exists as part of a vast landscape of neuroscience research supported by billions of dollars in federal money. But Dr. Newsome said that he thought a small amount of money applied in the right way could nudge neuroscience in a new direction.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">"The goal here is a whole new playing field, whole new ways of thinking," he said. "We are really out to catalyze a paradigm shift."</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">Brain researchers can now insert wires in the brain of animals, or sometimes human beings, to record the electrical activity of brain cells called neurons, as they communicate with each other. But, Dr. Newsome said, they can record at most hundreds at a time.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">New technology would need to be developed to record thousands or hundreds of thousands of neurons at once. And, Dr. Newsome said, new theoretical approaches, new mathematics and new computer science are all needed to deal with the amount of data that will be garnered.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">As part of the initiative, the president will require a study of the ethical implications of these sorts of advances in neuroscience.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">While news of the announcement has been greeted with enthusiasm by many researchers in fields as diverse as neuroscience, nanotechnology and computer science, there are skeptics.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">"The underlying assumptions about 'mapping the entire brain' are very controversial," said Donald Stein, a neuroscientist at Emory University in Atlanta. He said changes in brain chemistry were "not likely to be able to be imaged by the current technologies that these people are proposing."</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">Emphasizing the development of technologies first, he said, is not a good approach. "I think the monies could be better spent by first figuring out what needs to be measured and then figuring out the most appropriate means to measure them." he said. "In my mind, the technology ought to follow the concepts rather than the other way around."</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">However, supporters of the initiative argued that it could have a similar impact as the Sputnik satellite had in the 1950s, when the United States started a significant nationwide effort to invest in science and technology.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">"This is a different time," said Michael Roukes, a physicist at the California Institute of Technology. "It makes sense to have a brain activity map now because the maturation of an array of nanotechnologies can be brought to bear on the problem."</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">While the dollar amount committed by the Obama administration does not match the level of spending on the Human Genome Project, scientists said that whatever was spent on the brain initiative would have a significant multiplier effect. The Salk Institute in La Jolla, Calif., is contributing money, said Terrence J. Sejnowski, head of the institute's computational biology laboratory, adding that the project would have an impact at the neighboring University of California, San Diego, campus.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">"One concrete example is that the chancellor has gotten excited about this and has decided that it is a great thing to invest in," Dr. Sejnowski said. "That means hiring new faculty and creating new space."</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">The project grew out of an interdisciplinary meeting of neuroscientists and nanoscientists in London in September 2011. Miyoung Chun, a molecular biologist who is vice president of scientific programs at the Kavli Foundation, had organized the conference. Her foundation, she said, supports the idea that the next big scientific discoveries will come from interdisciplinary research.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">"Federal funding is scarce these days, and I realized we need inspiring projects that can awake everyone's imagination," she said. "It occurred to me that this is a very inspiring idea."</p><nyt_correction_bottom><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); display: inline !important; float: none; "></span><div class="articleCorrection" style="margin-bottom: 2.8em; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "></div></nyt_correction_bottom></div><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/02/science/obama-to-unveil-initiative-to-map-the-human-brain.html?_r=0&pagewanted=print">http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/02/science/obama-to-unveil-initiative-to-map-the-human-brain.html?_r=0&pagewanted=print</a><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; color: black; text-align: left; "><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div>

Obama to Unveil Initiative to Map the Human Brain - NYTimes.com

President Obama on Tuesday will announce a broad new research initiative, starting with $100 million in 2014, to invent and refine new technologies to understand the human brain, senior administration officials said Monday.A senior administration sci…

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The Battle We Didn't Choose - Angelo Merendino

<base href="data:"><div style="color: black; text-align: left; "><p class="text-align-center" style="line-height: 32px; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; text-align: center; color: rgb(13, 13, 13); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">The first time I saw Jennifer I knew. I knew she was the one. I knew, just like my dad when he sang to his sisters in the winter of 1951 after meeting my mom for the first time, "I found her."</p><p class="text-align-center" style="line-height: 32px; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; text-align: center; color: rgb(13, 13, 13); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">A month later Jen got a job in Manhattan and left Cleveland. I would go to the city – to see my brother, but really wanting to see Jen. At every visit my heart would scream at my brain, "tell her!!" but I couldn't work up the courage to tell Jen that I couldn't live without her. My heart finally prevailed and, like a schoolboy, I told Jen "I have a crush on you." To the relief of my pounding heart, Jen's beautiful eyes lit up and she said "Me too!"</p><p class="text-align-center" style="line-height: 32px; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; text-align: center; color: rgb(13, 13, 13); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Six months later I packed up my belongings and flew to New York with an engagement ring burning a hole in my pocket. That night, at our favorite Italian restaurant, I got down on my knee and asked Jen to marry me. Less than a year later we were married in Central Park, surrounded by our family and friends. Later that night, we danced our first dance as husband and wife, serenaded by my dad and his accordion – ♫ "I'm in the mood for love…"♫</p><p class="text-align-center" style="line-height: 32px; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; text-align: center; color: rgb(13, 13, 13); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Five months later Jen was diagnosed with breast cancer. I remember the exact moment…Jen's voice and the numb feeling that enveloped me. That feeling has never left. I'll also never forget how we looked into each other's eyes and held each other's hands. "We are together, we'll be ok."</p><p class="text-align-center" style="line-height: 32px; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; text-align: center; color: rgb(13, 13, 13); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">With each challenge we grew closer. Words became less important. One night Jen had just been admitted to the hospital, her pain was out of control. She grabbed my arm, her eyes watering, "You have to look in my eyes, that's the only way I can handle this pain." We loved each other with every bit of our souls.</p><p class="text-align-center" style="line-height: 32px; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; text-align: center; color: rgb(13, 13, 13); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Jen taught me to love, to listen, to give and to believe in others and myself. I've never been as happy as I was during this time.</p><p class="text-align-center" style="line-height: 32px; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; text-align: center; color: rgb(13, 13, 13); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Throughout our battle we were fortunate to have a strong support group but we still struggled to get people to understand our day-to-day life and the difficulties we faced. Jen was in chronic pain from the side effects of nearly 4 years of treatment and medications. At 39 Jen began to use a walker and was exhausted from being constantly aware of every bump and bruise. Hospital stays of 10-plus days were not uncommon. Frequent doctor visits led to battles with insurance companies. Fear, anxiety and worries were constant.<br style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; ">Sadly, most people do not want to hear these realities and at certain points we felt our support fading away. Other cancer survivors share this loss. People assume that treatment makes you better, that things become OK, that life goes back to "normal." However, there is no normal in cancer-land. Cancer survivors have to define a new sense of normal, often daily. And how can others understand what we had to live with everyday?</p><p class="text-align-center" style="line-height: 32px; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; text-align: center; color: rgb(13, 13, 13); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">My photographs show this daily life. They humanize the face of cancer, on the face of my wife. They show the challenge, difficulty, fear, sadness and loneliness that we faced, that Jennifer faced, as she battled this disease. Most important of all, they show our Love.  These photographs do not define us, but they are us.</p><p class="text-align-center" style="line-height: 32px; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; text-align: center; color: rgb(13, 13, 13); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Cancer is in the news daily, and maybe, through these photographs, the next time a cancer patient is asked how he or she is doing, along with listening, the answer will be met with more knowledge, empathy, deeper understanding, sincere caring and heartfelt concern.</p><p class="text-align-center" style="line-height: 32px; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; text-align: center; color: rgb(13, 13, 13); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; z-index: auto; ">"Love every morsel of the people in your life." – Jennifer Merendino</p></div><a href="http://mywifesfightwithbreastcancer.com/">http://mywifesfightwithbreastcancer.com/</a><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; color: black; text-align: left; "><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div>

The Battle We Didn't Choose - Angelo Merendino

The first time I saw Jennifer I knew. I knew she was the one. I knew, just like my dad when he sang to his sisters in the winter of 1951 after meeting my mom for the first time, "I found her."A month later Jen got a job in Manhattan and left Clevelan…

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Taking my good health for granted

Right now, I'm playing the waiting game. Waiting to hear if I have endometrial cancer. I keep telling myself I'm sure I don't have cancer. I don't "feel" like I have cancer. Yet there's that little voice in my head that keeps reviewing the statistics. Statistically, the odds are stacked against me. <br /><br />Ive been thinking about the obesity factor. <em>Obesity greater than 50 pounds over ideal body weight is 10 times more likely to develop endometrial cancer.</em> I don't think I've ever heard this statistic before. If I had, would it have made a difference in my weight? Sadly, probably not. Because like most people, I thought I was invincible. I've always been blessed with good health. I thought that it would last forever. I was wrong.<br /><br />Out of the higher risk factors for endometrial cancer, I have four of them: obesity, postmenopausal, lack of children and hypertension. I appear to be a textbook case for having endometrial cancer. Yet I still think this can't happen to me. I'm too healthy, things like this just don't happen to me, then I have the foot-stomping reaction...this just can't happen to me! Not now! I have too much to deal with, I can't take this on too! Honestly, God, what about that deal we have, where you will NOT give me more than I can handle? Then I calm down and tell myself I can handle whatever is thrown my way. My sister's stroke, my divorce, potential bankruptcy, cancer...it all seems to fit together. I got the bundle package of bad stuff that can happen to a person. I can only go up from here. <br /><br /><strong>At Significantly Higher Risk for Endometrial Cancer</strong> (from womenscancercenter.com)<br /><ol><li>Obesity greater than 50 pounds (23 kg) over ideal body weight (10 times as likely). </li><li>Postmenopausal women. </li><li>Menopause after age 52 (2.4 times as likely). </li><li>Lack of children (twice as likely). </li><li>Women with hypertension (twice as likely). </li><li>Diabetics (2.8 times). </li><li>Women who do not ovulate, those with polycystic ovaries (Stein-Leventhal syndrome). </li><li>Estrogen replacement therapy without supplemental progesterone (seven times as likely). </li><li>History of pelvic radiation therapy (eight times). </li></ol>Another sad fact for the obese woman, we can't even have laparscopic surgery if there's cancer, we have to have the old fashioned, slice open the abdomen surgery:<br /><br />Surgery<br />Most gynecologic oncologists recommend a midline abdominal incision to gain access to the upper abdomen. <span style="color: black;"><strong>However, laparoscopic surgery (minimal invasive surgery) including a hysterectomy, removal of both tubes and ovaries, removal of the pelvic and para-aortic lymph nodes can be performed in <u>non-obese</u> women,</strong></span> allowing a quicker release from the hospital, a quicker recovery, and where applicable, an earlier return to work. Complications of surgery include infection, bleeding and injury to the bladder, rectum or ureter causing a leak (rare). There may also be blood clots in the legs, occasionally dislodging and traveling to the lungs (pulmonary embolism). <br /><br />I should get the results of the biopsy today. My doctor told me I would hear from her in a day or two. The biopsy was on Monday. Now I just have to wait. <br /><br />I've changed my diet back to eating healthier and eating less. I haven't gone to the gym because I feel like my insides are going to fall out. I have intermittent stabbing pains that take my breath away. I don't have them all the time, sometimes I'll even go fifteen minutes without anything. I just don't have the desire to exercise right now. Funny how pain does that to a person. <br /><br />My gym membership expires this month. I think that's sort of funny. Perfect timing since I won't be able to go for a few weeks if I have a regular hysterectomy. Or several weeks if the gynecologic oncologist performs the hysterectomy. I'm pretty sure I'm just going to renew my membership anyway, regardless of cancer or no cancer. As soon as I'm feeling better, I want to get back exercising. <br /><br />I'll post as soon as I get the results of my biopsy. Maybe a cancer scare is just what I needed to wake up and take control of my health. It certainly has made me aware of what's important and just how much I love life.

Taking my good health for granted

Right now, I'm playing the waiting game. Waiting to hear if I have endometrial cancer. I keep telling myself I'm sure I don't have cancer. I don't "feel" like I have cancer. Yet there's that little voice in my head that keeps reviewing the statistics…

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Association for Patient Experience

The Association for Patient Experience is a nonprofit, 501(c)(3) organization established to support healthcare professionals, patients, and their families by improving the patient experience.<br /><br><br /><br> • Advancing the patient experience <br /><br> <br /><br> • Positively impacting the global delivery of patient-centered healthcare<br /><br> <br /><br><a href="http://www.patient-experience.org/Home.aspx">http://www.patient-experience.org/Home.aspx</a>

Association for Patient Experience

The Association for Patient Experience is a nonprofit, 501(c)(3) organization established to support healthcare professionals, patients, and their families by improving the patient experience. • Advancing the patient experience • Positively impact…

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National Palliative Care Research Center

<base href="data:">The mission of the National Palliative Care Research Center (NPCRC) is to improve care for patients with serious illness and the needs of their families by promoting palliative care research. In partnership with the Center toAdvance Palliative Care, the NPCRC will rapidly translate these findings into clinical practice. <br><br>Specifically, the NPCRC is providing a mechanism to:<br><br><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>• Establish priorities for palliative care research;<br><br><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>• Develop a new generation of researchers in palliative care;<br><br><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>• Coordinate and support studies focused on improving care for patients and families living with serious illness.<br><br><a href="http://www.npcrc.org">http://www.npcrc.org</a><br><br><b>Pain and Symptom Management</b><br><br>The following is a selection of tools for assessing pain and assessing and tracking the level of symptoms (some are patient reported).<br><br>http://www.npcrc.org/resources/resources_show.htm?doc_id=376168

National Palliative Care Research Center

The mission of the National Palliative Care Research Center (NPCRC) is to improve care for patients with serious illness and the needs of their families by promoting palliative care research. In partnership with the Center toAdvance Palliative Care, …

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Center to Advance Palliative Care

The Center to Advance Palliative Care (CAPC) provides health care professionals with the tools, training and technical assistance necessary to start and sustain successful palliative care programs in hospitals and other health care settings. CAPC is a national organization dedicated to increasing the availability of quality palliative care services for people facing serious illness.<br /><br><br /><br>As the nation's leading resource for palliative care program development, CAPC offers comprehensive training for palliative care programs at every stage - from strategic planning and funding to operations and sustainability. CAPC provides seminars, audio conferences, tools, reference materials, a robust website, and the Palliative Care Leadership Centers™ (PCLC) - a major training and mentoring initiative. It also <a href="http://sponsorswww.getpalliativecare.org">sponsorswww.getpalliativecare.org</a>, a website for patients and families.<br /><br><br /><br><a href="http://www.capc.org/">http://www.capc.org/</a>

Center to Advance Palliative Care

The Center to Advance Palliative Care (CAPC) provides health care professionals with the tools, training and technical assistance necessary to start and sustain successful palliative care programs in hospitals and other health care settings. CAPC is …

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Aiding the Doctor Who Feels Cancer's Toll - NYTimes.com

<div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: -webkit-left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">The woman was terminally ill with advanced cancer, and the oncologist who had been treating her for three years thought the next step might be to deliver chemotherapy directly to her brain. It was a risky treatment that he knew would not, could not, help her.</div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: -webkit-left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">When Dr. Diane E. Meier asked what he thought the futile therapy would accomplish, the oncologist replied, "I don't want Judy to think I'm abandoning her."</div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: -webkit-left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">In a recent interview, Dr. Meier said, "Most physicians have no other strategies, no other arrows in their quiver beyond administering tests and treatments."</div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: -webkit-left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">"To avoid feeling that they've abandoned their patients, doctors throw procedures at them," she said.</div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: -webkit-left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Dr. Meier, a renowned expert on palliative care at <a href="http://www.mountsinai.org/" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102); text-decoration: none;">Mount Sinai Medical Center</a> in New York, was the keynote speaker this month at the <a href="https://www.garrisoninstitute.org/contemplative-care/buddhist-contemplative-care-symposium" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102); text-decoration: none;">Buddhist Contemplative Care Symposium</a>, organized by the New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care and the Garrison Institute. She described contemplative care as "the discipline of being present, of listening before acting."</div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: -webkit-left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">"Counter to how the American medical system is structured, which pays for what gets done," she said, "its approach is, 'Don't just do something, stand there.' "</div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: -webkit-left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">But the idea is not to do just that. Rather, she said, the goal is to "restore the patient to the center of the enterprise."</div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: -webkit-left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Under the Affordable Care Act, she said, unnecessary procedures may decline as more doctors are reimbursed for doing what is best for their patients over time, not just for administering tests and treatments. But more could be done if physicians were able to step away from the misperception that everything that can be done should be done.</div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: -webkit-left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Dr. Meier's question prompted Judy's oncologist to realize that what his patient needed most at the end of her life was not more chemotherapy, but for him to sit down with her, to promise to do his best to keep her comfortable and to be there for the rest of her days.</div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: -webkit-left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><strong>Occupational Distress</strong></div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: -webkit-left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Patients and families may not realize it, but doctors who care for people with incurable illness, and especially the terminally ill, often suffer with their patients. Unable to cope with their own feelings of frustration, failure and helplessness, doctors may react with anger, abruptness and avoidance.</div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: -webkit-left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Visits may be reduced to a quick review of the medical chart, and phone calls may not be returned. Even though their doctors are still there, incurably ill patients may feel neglected and depressed, which can exacerbate illness and pain and even hasten death. Dr. Michael K. Kearney, a palliative care physician at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital, told the Contemplative Care conference that doctors, especially those who care for terminally ill patients, are subject to <a href="http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=183563" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102); text-decoration: none;">two serious forms of occupational stress: burnout and compassion fatigue</a>.</div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: -webkit-left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">He described burnout as "the end stage of stresses between the individual and the work environment" that can result in emotional and physical exhaustion, a sense of detachment and a feeling of never being able to achieve one's professional goals.</div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: -webkit-left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">He likened compassion fatigue to "secondary post-traumatic stress disorder, or vicarious traumatization — trauma suffered when someone close to you is suffering."</div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: -webkit-left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">A doctor with compassion fatigue may avoid thoughts and feelings associated with a patient's misery, become irritable and easily angered, and face physical and emotional distress when reminded of work with the dying. Compassion fatigue can lead to burnout.</div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: -webkit-left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">In one study of 18 oncologists, published in 2008 in The Journal of Palliative Medicine, those who saw their role as both biomedical and psychosocial <a href="http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/pdfplus/10.1089/jpm.2007.2480" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102); text-decoration: none;">found end-of-life care very satisfying</a>. But those "who described a primarily biomedical role reported a more distant relationship with the patient, a sense of failure at not being able to alter the course of the disease and an absence of collegial support," the authors noted.</div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: -webkit-left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><strong>Healing the Healer</strong></div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: -webkit-left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">For doctors at risk of becoming overwhelmed by the stresses of their jobs, Dr. Kearney recommends adopting the time-honored Buddhist practice of "mindfulness meditation," which involves cultivating mental techniques for stress reduction that are native to all of us but practiced by too few. He likened meditation to "learning to breathe underwater, or finding sources of renewal within work itself."</div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: -webkit-left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">To achieve it, a person sits quietly, paying attention to one's breathing and whenever a distracting thought intrudes, turning one's attention back to the sensation of breathing. This can help calm the mind and prepare it for a clearer perspective.</div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: -webkit-left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Dr. Kearney said this practice could help doctors "really pay attention and be tuned into their patients and what the patients are experiencing."</div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: -webkit-left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">"Patients, in turn," he said, "experience a doctor who's not just focused on a medical agenda but who really listens to them."</div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: -webkit-left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">He said mindfulness meditation helps doctors become more self-aware, empathetic and patient-focused, and to make fewer medical errors. It enables doctors to notice what is going on within themselves and to consider rational options instead of just reacting.</div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: -webkit-left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">"It's like pressing an internal pause button," Dr. Kearney said. "The doctor is able to recognize he's being stressed, and it prevents him from invoking the survival defense mechanisms of fight ('Let's do another course of chemotherapy'), flight ('There's nothing more I can do for you — I'll go get the chaplain') and freeze (the doctor goes blank and does nothing)." Such reactions can be highly distressing to a dying patient.</div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: -webkit-left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">When a patient asks for the impossible, like "Promise me I'm not going to die," the mindful doctor is more likely to step back and say, "I can promise you I'll do everything I can to help you. I'm going to continue to care for you and support you as best as I can. I'll be back to see you later today and again tomorrow," Dr. Kearney said.</div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: -webkit-left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Although Dr. Kearney does mindfulness meditation for 30 minutes every morning, he said as little as <a href="http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=184621" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102); text-decoration: none;">8 to 10 minutes a day has been shown helpful to practicing physicians</a>.</div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: -webkit-left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">In addition, doctors can factor moments of meditation into the course of the workday — say, while washing their hands, having a snack or coffee or pausing before entering the next patient room to focus on breathing.</div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: -webkit-left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">To deal with the emotional flood that can come after a traumatic event, he suggested taking a brief timeout or calling on a friend or colleague to go for a walk.</div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.7em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.375em; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: -webkit-left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; z-index: auto; "><em>This is the second of two columns about communication and cancer. Read the first: "<a href="http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/19/when-treating-cancer-is-not-an-option/" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102); text-decoration: none;">When Treating Cancer Is Not an Option"</a></em></div><br><a href="http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/26/aiding-the-doctor-who-feels-cancers-toll/?ref=dianeemeier&pagewanted=print">http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/26/aiding-the-doctor-who-feels-cancers-toll/?ref=dianeemeier&pagewanted=print</a>

Aiding the Doctor Who Feels Cancer's Toll - NYTimes.com

The woman was terminally ill with advanced cancer, and the oncologist who had been treating her for three years thought the next step might be to deliver chemotherapy directly to her brain. It was a risky treatment that he knew would not, could not, …

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Book Review: Zaha Hadid: Pierres Vives

<a href="http://www.rizzoliusa.com/book.php?isbn=9780847840137"><b><i>Zaha Hadid: Pierres Vives</i></b></a><br />Written by Zaha Hadid Architects, Edited by Stephane Hof, Photographed by Helene Binet<br />Skira Rizzoli, 2013<br />Hardcover, 108 pages<br /><br /><img alt="book-hadid-vives.jpg" src="http://www.archidose.org/Blog/book-hadid-vives.jpg" title="Book cover" /><br /><br />At its most general a book presenting a single building consists of three parts: text, photos, and drawings. Each area is aimed at giving readers a greater understanding of a place they may never experience firsthand. A book cannot replicate the body's movement through space or the ability to feel a surface's texture and temperature, but it can use writing and images to describe these and other qualities of a building. It goes without saying that one area—text, photos, or drawings—will outweigh the other in bulk and importance.<br /><br />With the ever-increasing reliance upon photos to share a building and its architect with others, it's no surprise that this book on <a href="http://www.zaha-hadid.com/architecture/pierrevives/">Zaha Hadid's Pierres Vives</a> building in Montpellier, France, is loaded with photos of the building, and many of <a href="http://www.helenebinet.com/">Hélène Binet</a>'s color and b/w photos are full-page and full-bleed. The photos account for about 95% of the book, since Hadid's text is only 2 pages and 8 pages of drawings are provided. But rather than serving to give readers an understanding of the building—in terms of orientation within the circulation and other spaces, for example—the uncaptioned photos serve to capture the spirit of Hadid's design as it permeates every part of the building, from the concrete-and-glass elevations to the undulating ceilings inside. They capture a building that Hadid describes in her text as "a light gray concrete futuristic ship softened by a network of colored glass grooves." <br /><br />At only 108 large (11"x11") pages, the book would be pretty slim, but triple-ply chip board covers pad the book, actually making up about half of the book's thickness. The pages are cut trim to the covers, making for a handsome book that also features gold cardstock for the first few pages at the front and back of the book. Unfortunately these pages are where the text and drawings are located, and the black-on-gold and gold-on-black information can be a strain on the eyes. But of course the focus is on the photos that sit in between, in an attempt to position the building alongside <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0847858006/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0847858006&linkCode=as2&tag=aweeklydoseof-20">other</a> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004I8V8KG/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B004I8V8KG&linkCode=as2&tag=aweeklydoseof-20">Hadid</a> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1568985363/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1568985363&linkCode=as2&tag=aweeklydoseof-20">buildings</a> given similar treatment.<br /><br /><b>US: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0847840131/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0847840131&linkCode=as2&tag=aweeklydoseof-20" target="_blank"><img alt="Buy from Amazon.com" border="0" src="http://www.archidose.org/books/buy-from-tan.gif" /></a> CA: <a href="http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/0847840131/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0847840131&linkCode=as2&tag=aweeklydoseof-20" target="_blank"><img alt="Buy from Amazon.ca" border="0" height="28" src="http://www.archidose.org/books/buy-from-tan-ca.gif" width="90" /></a> UK: <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0847840131/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0847840131&linkCode=as2&tag=aweeklydoseof-20" target="_blank"><img alt="Buy from Amazon.co.uk" border="0" height="28" src="http://www.archidose.org/books/buy-from-tan-uk.gif" width="90" /></a></b>

Book Review: Zaha Hadid: Pierres Vives

Zaha Hadid: Pierres VivesWritten by Zaha Hadid Architects, Edited by Stephane Hof, Photographed by Helene BinetSkira Rizzoli, 2013Hardcover, 108 pagesAt its most general a book presenting a single building consists of three parts: text, photos, and d…

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SBC Prez Luter Says Latest North Korean Aggression Might be God's Judgment Over Gay Marriage Issue

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2U23CDTamvKjRNY0tYex7t0u31rX7sFaOpB3w0GXapJUHXE3fBTqCjX-niUkefgH8UDywJf-XgifbrDOqCsMK6GqBW6ByTW-DMjXvfMuC-nps0t6nhHBjRQZU1tFBhE1cGH6LCrwfubpu/s1600/fred-luter.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="290" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2U23CDTamvKjRNY0tYex7t0u31rX7sFaOpB3w0GXapJUHXE3fBTqCjX-niUkefgH8UDywJf-XgifbrDOqCsMK6GqBW6ByTW-DMjXvfMuC-nps0t6nhHBjRQZU1tFBhE1cGH6LCrwfubpu/s400/fred-luter.png" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><b>"I would not be surprised that there's not a connection there....I would not be surprised that at a time when we are debating same sex marriage...I don't think its just a coincidence that there's a mad man in Asia who's saying some of the things he's saying."</b></i> Fred Luter, linking North Korea's aggressive military posture to the debate of same sex marriage.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">-----------------------</span></div>No, this is not the April Fool's post. I wish it were.<br /><br />Fred Luter, president of the SBC, said in an interview last week that perhaps one of the reasons North Korea is now ramping up their nuclear program is because God is judging America for the U.S. Supreme Court debating the issue of gay marriage.<br /><br />Listen to the radio interview excerpt below. It is shocking. Rick Wiles asks Luter if North Korea's renewed military aggression is God "unleashing" punishment on us. This is the level of nonsense that is driving young people away from Christianity, when they hear a prominent Christian leader like Fred Luter insinuate that God is judging the United States over the issue of gay marriage.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/vLT5624InrI" width="560"></iframe></div><br />There are plenty of reasons why a person might be in support of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Amendment. But to take two events that are completely separate and distinct and link them into a cause and effect relationship using the "judgment of God" hurts the right's cause.  And it is why non-Christians actually FEAR evangelicals - our "men of God" think we're so stupid as to believe God is judging us because this week our Supreme Court happens to be considering the issue of gay marriage. <br /><br />So come on, Christians - let's save America from North Korean aggression by opposing same-sex marriage - <a href="http://fbcjaxwatchdog.blogspot.com/2011/04/perry-noble-blames-homosexuality-on-non.html" target="_blank">and be sure to tithe this week to stop homosexuality from spreading</a>.<br /><br />And if the Supreme Court strikes down DOMA - everybody head for the bomb shelters.

SBC Prez Luter Says Latest North Korean Aggression Might be God's Judgment Over Gay Marriage Issue

"I would not be surprised that there's not a connection there....I would not be surprised that at a time when we are debating same sex marriage...I don't think its just a coincidence that there's a mad man in Asia who's saying some of the things he's…

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Breakfast

A low carb breakfast of 2 Egg Omelette with peppers, red onion and ham. <br/><br/><div class="separator"style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCe31F7XCaMZiS02rZrebNdh9UYGgwHidOIDHB4TZbFuLm8-p8HjVSD8YmkZggH5C33zaeJd3GyWtDabuhiUT-1kpCHqsMTdSxYSjG2d6w3YAEvq9k4FPR0cSwDqX9OzjbTv9wZykUM_rK/s640/blogger-image--1237177610.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCe31F7XCaMZiS02rZrebNdh9UYGgwHidOIDHB4TZbFuLm8-p8HjVSD8YmkZggH5C33zaeJd3GyWtDabuhiUT-1kpCHqsMTdSxYSjG2d6w3YAEvq9k4FPR0cSwDqX9OzjbTv9wZykUM_rK/s640/blogger-image--1237177610.jpg" /></a></div> <br/><br/><div class="separator"style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4qZ0JQIzoPmiFbWqDYJhHq1zMgZsrAFLNO5PxXSfs0OPnIvattHp6ntIF4Pj93L7GzAuEEL6hlmzGHWLil3wz43Kn8n6Fq9QO7UrRCHVvyDronZKrPa3T42pDP9OLMuUezmlrX58ubiDU/s640/blogger-image--331046089.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4qZ0JQIzoPmiFbWqDYJhHq1zMgZsrAFLNO5PxXSfs0OPnIvattHp6ntIF4Pj93L7GzAuEEL6hlmzGHWLil3wz43Kn8n6Fq9QO7UrRCHVvyDronZKrPa3T42pDP9OLMuUezmlrX58ubiDU/s640/blogger-image--331046089.jpg" /></a></div>

Breakfast

A low carb breakfast of 2 Egg Omelette with peppers, red onion and ham. …

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dirty little secret

I'm going to be doing some simple updates to our (one and only) <a href="http://news-these-days.blogspot.com/p/bathroom.html" target="_blank">bathroom</a> over the next few weeks and I've decided where I want to start.<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyN1KrKOxzfjrRuJ8DWH_MStg-Jd95pZnpdGEAvI5HwRvv-U5GVrzobBoba7CCAUvVAc1obLSFCzdOmYUgmJ2UfV-PASnLwxOdqNYvI4gwPIAJDWWJGA5a6SEWzRKmQMD9K5uPP0mvF7rE/s1600/80c3e6644732a6aa653d4f2f0ed81e58.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyN1KrKOxzfjrRuJ8DWH_MStg-Jd95pZnpdGEAvI5HwRvv-U5GVrzobBoba7CCAUvVAc1obLSFCzdOmYUgmJ2UfV-PASnLwxOdqNYvI4gwPIAJDWWJGA5a6SEWzRKmQMD9K5uPP0mvF7rE/s400/80c3e6644732a6aa653d4f2f0ed81e58.jpg" width="266" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://pinterest.com/pin/6896205651573394/" target="_blank">Grant K. Gibson</a></td></tr></tbody></table><br />Toilet paper is a big source of annoyance in my house. And just to show you that I'm not being a hard ass, this is what the toilet paper situation looks like at our house <strike>mos</strike>t all of the time.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXKsDEf9GUUMWJZU95btQCwGtuPDg1-jMY10Qizg063eelNzRpk7tjDsqKf0CDDYVqlhWi4tnf16XAGDuJfY4jyTRMr8F3AKmkfQ_lEXDAAdppL6y152oC6FrtQGNMxoV7GINeGAwq-xUo/s1600/emptytoiletpaper.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="343" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXKsDEf9GUUMWJZU95btQCwGtuPDg1-jMY10Qizg063eelNzRpk7tjDsqKf0CDDYVqlhWi4tnf16XAGDuJfY4jyTRMr8F3AKmkfQ_lEXDAAdppL6y152oC6FrtQGNMxoV7GINeGAwq-xUo/s400/emptytoiletpaper.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />Nice.<br /><br />Now I could put all the blame on the hubs for this one, but I am just as bad. I don't know what his excuse is but mine is very simple - my imaginary cleaning lady forgets to replace it each time she comes. I tell you, if she does it again I might have to pretend fire her.<br /><br />So I think it is time to call a spade a spade - we are not avid toilet paper re-fillers in this house. Everyone has their strengths but that is not one of ours. So I've been thinking of alternatives. Storage alternatives. Not alternatives to using TP. That's just...wrong.<br /><br />I'm thinking baskets.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkszJTo5muydx3aNNwrj61z6aqML8doEjbBTv1Vur31nfXKcTlVCazxBDJj8LZS5uMuc1in8S8_kzFkBY6EQGkAzIPKpNx8TudqP-qvHfZV8RFPUoPL_koF8YYtOGp_hrwkblELujJ2VTm/s1600/41c11c2a5d941bd5c1c2d7eda5cd77e1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkszJTo5muydx3aNNwrj61z6aqML8doEjbBTv1Vur31nfXKcTlVCazxBDJj8LZS5uMuc1in8S8_kzFkBY6EQGkAzIPKpNx8TudqP-qvHfZV8RFPUoPL_koF8YYtOGp_hrwkblELujJ2VTm/s640/41c11c2a5d941bd5c1c2d7eda5cd77e1.jpg" width="481" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih14ly-Wu90rpsNqVSxZddXy_dFrBK_NF32PZ1F5QHPERJrhsMBD_UOoXV7OnV0IICE4C82Bvjg_zIi4s_dhG-j8CKTQ4l0tdj3siLPeZxaIvUbGGX_iT89YQIVKFb4GK-3FhHZER0muB4/s1600/96758194222fe75c81761943a66eafd1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih14ly-Wu90rpsNqVSxZddXy_dFrBK_NF32PZ1F5QHPERJrhsMBD_UOoXV7OnV0IICE4C82Bvjg_zIi4s_dhG-j8CKTQ4l0tdj3siLPeZxaIvUbGGX_iT89YQIVKFb4GK-3FhHZER0muB4/s640/96758194222fe75c81761943a66eafd1.jpg" width="544" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhomCZzB45PY9uOO3jrNVF24cDppVplSvUnyKmLC1Z0DsB6-hVwQuk73iKlrrWu1iuUBMGgINChVsBUMcvhZZpNOkulXGZys7AG0dNYv9yW8ALVLbpJawRc62bD6nLnIimOIXdZw0z_xNwi/s1600/83b4b037e35311aa3176edfa922be4a5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhomCZzB45PY9uOO3jrNVF24cDppVplSvUnyKmLC1Z0DsB6-hVwQuk73iKlrrWu1iuUBMGgINChVsBUMcvhZZpNOkulXGZys7AG0dNYv9yW8ALVLbpJawRc62bD6nLnIimOIXdZw0z_xNwi/s640/83b4b037e35311aa3176edfa922be4a5.jpg" width="520" /></a></div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhf5BA7kIjTdjHAEV-XcG3zECuwuqqKepqBXvfsp5stLVssMBn-BHrBcXC3Rm57EsvOXdBVgQKaNXaZmwFtOJt_LiG1llYOc_6krRo6SUemKfqI7A7rFIvjfVe03BPY0TyMB_Lh0OFxNvI_/s1600/b72325de8567d3d86f972f7b833ee3a5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhf5BA7kIjTdjHAEV-XcG3zECuwuqqKepqBXvfsp5stLVssMBn-BHrBcXC3Rm57EsvOXdBVgQKaNXaZmwFtOJt_LiG1llYOc_6krRo6SUemKfqI7A7rFIvjfVe03BPY0TyMB_Lh0OFxNvI_/s640/b72325de8567d3d86f972f7b833ee3a5.jpg" width="424" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://pinterest.com/ladybaum/bathrooms/" target="_blank">all images via my Pinterest board</a></td></tr></tbody></table>I bring home a new package of toilet paper from Target, unwrap said package, throw it in the basket and voila. No worries about refilling the roll.<br /><br />Marital Bliss brought to you by the little black door. Consider this an early anniversary present hubs.<br /><br />What do you think? Do you have a household quirk? A task that never seems to get done in your house? Ever do a search for toilet paper display in Pinterest? Don't. It's scary.

dirty little secret

I'm going to be doing some simple updates to our (one and only) bathroom over the next few weeks and I've decided where I want to start.Grant K. GibsonToilet paper is a big source of annoyance in my house. And just to show you that I'm not being a ha…

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Daily Education and Technology News for Schools 04/03/2013

<ul class="diigo-linkroll"> <li> <p class="diigo-link"> <a href="http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/sharing-and-losing-control-of-an-online-persona/48027">Sharing and Losing Control of an Online Persona - ProfHacker - The Chronicle of Higher Education</a> </p> <p class="diigo-description">This story about a social media persona gone wrong is an excellent case study for educators. Personally, when I do fiction on Twitter (as in the case of a fictitious dialog between a student and teacher - I always start by disclosing it.) Secondly, I don't think it is smart to mess with people by making things up. People need to be able to trust you -- especially if you want to be a credible academic source. That said, read this so that when you see parody or fake accounts that you know they exist and you can also know that some people making things up for the fun of it.</p> <p class="diigo-tags"> <span>tags:</span> <a href="https://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/twitter">twitter</a> <a href="https://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news">news</a> <a href="https://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/digital_citizenship">digital_citizenship</a> <a href="https://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/tumblr">tumblr</a></p> </li> </ul><p class="diigo-ps">Posted from <a href='https://www.diigo.com'>Diigo</a>. The rest of my favorite links are <a href='https://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher'>here</a>.</p>

Daily Education and Technology News for Schools 04/03/2013

Sharing and Losing Control of an Online Persona - ProfHacker - The Chronicle of Higher Education This story about a social media persona gone wrong is an excellent case study for educators. Personally, when I do…

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Why not try using Tall Tweets for tweets longer than 140 characters?

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="87" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHkNP48c4KIW93Ke30YMfT49Bm4oN4skIGvDgeSv5-qSMQ4fM76coiUisfKylw8bFpGqO7q_l9titi3iEZWBvqgm1AowxAC0uDz5azIg8davAmlTu5f_zl2Du4yTP0MYK24W8EryISTAk/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-width: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="240" /></span></div><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Let’s be honest – there are <em>many</em> times one wishes one had more characters than the allocated 140 to compose a specific tweet. Well, have you heard of Tall Tweets? This is a phenomenal site! Tall Tweets (<a href="http://talltweets.com/" title="http://talltweets.com/">http://talltweets.com/</a>) is a Twitter app that will help you write tweets that are longer than 140 characters. It can also also publisher longer tweets as images. This exciting app was developed by <strong>Amit Agarwal </strong>of Digital Inspirations</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong><br /></strong></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="365" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvNkxSZYE37jrrxNwN-FPT-X7zNmVJRBIq3SjjNCjx34hZIBjLdcmT5JzMS_hS6vmy2HOdbT6mbpo7Wzil76NrqPbdUCBiUwkImOETntzQJRxv91XaKRXulkQeuBSVlkXgpQKvUxmRP_E/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="452" /></span></div><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><strong><br /></strong></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><strong>How does it work?</strong></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There are two things that Tall Tweets allows you to do in order to post longer tweets:  </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">a) Say you have quite a bit to say – much longer than 140 characters. Well, the tool will slice and publish your "long tweet" into smaller chunks of 140 characters or less. It then publishes them all to Twitter in a sequence. The tweets are numbered and are sent in a reverse arrangement such that they can be read from top-to-down inside any Twitter client. Sounds complicated, I know, but the main thing is that your Twitter followers can read your entire tweet as one tweet!</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">b) The site will allow you to publish the entire messages as an image. In this instance the entire text gets published in a single tweet and your twitter followers can once again read the whole tweet. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To summarise:</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKRP3SRK9AIK5W70WLuTu2aEa7XB0mKATG8pK-Ydtu9suhR0msjyAf9lk2tuoD6b0dbgjlGfP4WfkwCIzUbDwS672kLsztSMJfrZoKtXCY5tAggGYhDSgEDN3FrHjokk8dfqoAxYMemcQ/s1600-h/image%25255B14%25255D.png"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="336" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm-DnfaiijfApKLIbom9abN2LMSuctyALmoTQv1kR_-sdIKCmCaONnX1HIFjkVSkT4ykFz7zAIuNVD-g0wCprxJfhD8IBFcOcz877vUJEvdvN0cp9P8k0oz9DxWM7RmxSa66h5WG3yzO8/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="538" /></span></a><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><strong><br /></strong></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><strong>How do you get started?</strong></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To get started on composing a long tweet, sign-in to </span><a href="http://talltweets.com/" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" title="http://talltweets.com/">http://talltweets.com</a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> with your Twitter account, compose a tweet, decide if you want to send the long tweet as an image or text and and hit publish.</span><br /><h4><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;">If there are hyperlinks in your tweet, they’ll be automatically shortened using <a href="http://bit.ly/">bit.ly</a>. </span></h4><h4><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;">Watch this video demonstration from <strong>Amit Agarwal of </strong>Digital Inspiration who created the site. </span></h4><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/ZUwdxqqsIaM" width="420"></iframe></span><br /><br /><h4><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Further Reading</span></h4><h4><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">1) </span><a href="http://www.labnol.org/internet/tall-tweets/18068/" style="font-weight: normal;" target="_blank">Now Tweet more than 140 characters using Tall Tweets app</a></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;">2) <a href="http://www.retrify.com/now-tweet-more-than-140-characters-using-tall-tweets-app/" target="_blank">Introducing Tall Tweets v2.0</a></span></div></h4></div>

Twitter Why not try using Tall Tweets for tweets longer than 140 characters?

Let’s be honest – there are many times one wishes one had more characters than the allocated 140 to compose a specific tweet. Well, have you heard of Tall Tweets? This is a phenomenal site! Tall Tweets (http://talltweets.com/) is a Twitter app that w…

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