News for today's 2018

Jerusalem, My Happy Home: Part 4

9:02 AM Tukiyooo 0

<br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14.0pt;">It has been an exhausting and overwhelming day of seeing holy places associated with the birth of Jesus. After a lecture on the Magnificat and the Benedictus, we headed out by bus to the hill country.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14.0pt;">Somewhere in the hill country Mary and Elizabeth met, Elizabeth praised Mary, and Mary passed the praise on to God with the Magnificat, based on the Song of Hannah, praising God for the great reversal of fortunes in which the downtrodden would be raised up. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14.0pt;">There we visited two churches, not that far from each other. First we visited Ain Kerem, a church near a spring where Elizabeth might have gone to draw water. The church there commemorated the Visitation. Brother Mark, SSJE, led us in a reflection on the two women seeing God acting in each other and suggested the import of that story and the artistic representations of the Visitation convey a message that is profoundly ethical and political. The challenge is to watch for God at work, sometimes invisibly, always mysteriously, in each other.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14.0pt;">Did Mary and Elizabeth actually meet at this place? Maybe. No one knows. But they met somewhere like this, somewhere nearby. Not far away, we stopped at a Franciscan Church purporting to be the birthplace of John the Baptist. It would seem likely that the place of the Visitation and the place where John was born would both have been the house of Elizabeth and Zechariah. But both churches were in the same area. Each artistically expressed a different part of the story. A slight difference in space actually represented a three-month difference in chronology in the narrative. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14.0pt;">At the first church, we sang the Magnificat. At the second, we recited the Benedictus, both canticles from Luke, both believed to be based on songs of the anawim, the community of poor and powerless people who first welcomed the gospel. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14.0pt;">From there we drove to Beth Shakur, House of the Night Watch. There are three different locations around Beth Shakur purporting to be the field where lowly shepherds were the first to hear of the birth of Christ, the first to hear the evangelion (which can mean a birth announcement). One is Orthodox, one Franciscan, one Anglican. We went to the Anglican Shepherd’s Field. In the field was a cave as old as the time of Christ, much older really, but reinforced with pillars. In such caves the Shepherds would take shelter. In this cave we sang Angels We Have Heard On High. Brother Mark spoke of the meaning of the night in which God’s salvation is proclaimed. What does night mean for us spiritually? What does it mean in the context of a darkened world? In this town a few years ago, a tax resistance protest by Palestinian Christians was met with a forceful Israeli response that culminated in violence. There is a sense in which it is night here. It is into such nights that the gospel breaks, a light shining in the darkness, a light dawning on people who walk in deep darkness. Surge illuminare.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14.0pt;">This afternoon we went to Bethlehem to visit the Church of the Holy Nativity. This church dates from the 6<sup>th</sup> Century. It is a holy, ancient house of worship built over a group of caves. Was Jesus born here? Or was he born in a similar cave nearby? Does it matter? If so, not much. People have been coming here to reflect on the Incarnation and worship Christ for centuries. St. Jerome lived in one of these caves. He translated the Bible into Latin here, the exclusive translation used in Western Christianity for a thousand years. He is buried in one of these caves. We visited his tomb and the chapel dedicated to Jerome, his successor Eusebius, and the two women who helped him with his work – deservedly canonized as saints these women since Jerome was a decidedly unpleasant man and a misogynist. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14.0pt;">The Church of the Nativity is maintained by different brands of Christians. The Greeks and the Armenians are not friends. Again, the complexity and imperfection of the Church as a people of God. We are more visibly people, more mysteriously of God. The entrance was once large but to make it harder for Persian invaders to charge into the church on horses, the entrance was bricked up to make it very small. One now has to do a solemn bow to enter the church. We begin with humility. Frescoes once covered the walls but most of them have faded away. Others remain. Lamps hang from chains. To enter the cave where Jesus may have been born, one stands in a long jumbled line as throngs of people wait their turn to enter through a narrow door and descend narrow steps. As fate would have it, we were jammed in between a group of Russians and a group of Poles. Somehow that seemed fitting. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14.0pt;">Eventually we made it though the door into a narrow stone stairway covered with rich red tapestries. At the point in the cave that represents the birthplace of Jesus we kneel to kiss a 14 point star with a hole in the center, and emptiness, a mystery – the 14 points representing 14 generations from Abraham to David, 14 from David to the Exile, and 14 from the Exile to Jesus. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14.0pt;">It is an exhausting kind of learning we are doing. It is a sensate rather than conceptual learning. It is visual images, sounds, textures. It is an incarnate engagement with the story of incarnation. It will take some time to assimilate this day. I hope when I have sorted through it, I will find myself better able to see God at work in the lives of others, better able to shine gospel into someone’s night, and better attuned to God’s presence in this material world of ordinary life.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div>

Jerusalem, My Happy Home: Part 4

It has been an exhausting and overwhelming day of seeing holy places associated with the birth of Jesus. After a lecture on the Magnif...

Jerusalem, My Happy Home: Part 4

8:48 AM Tukiyooo 0

<br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14.0pt;">It has been an exhausting and overwhelming day of seeing holy places associated with the birth of Jesus. After a lecture on the Magnificat and the Benedictus, we headed out by bus to the hill country.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14.0pt;">Somewhere in the hill country Mary and Elizabeth met, Elizabeth praised Mary, and Mary passed the praise on to God with the Magnificat, based on the Song of Hannah, praising God for the great reversal of fortunes in which the downtrodden would be raised up. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14.0pt;">There we visited two churches, not that far from each other. First we visited Ain Kerem, a church near a spring where Elizabeth might have gone to draw water. The church there commemorated the Visitation. Brother Mark, SSJE, led us in a reflection on the two women seeing God acting in each other and suggested the import of that story and the artistic representations of the Visitation convey a message that is profoundly ethical and political. The challenge is to watch for God at work, sometimes invisibly, always mysteriously, in each other.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14.0pt;">Did Mary and Elizabeth actually meet at this place? Maybe. No one knows. But they met somewhere like this, somewhere nearby. Not far away, we stopped at a Franciscan Church purporting to be the birthplace of John the Baptist. It would seem likely that the place of the Visitation and the place where John was born would both have been the house of Elizabeth and Zechariah. But both churches were in the same area. Each artistically expressed a different part of the story. A slight difference in space actually represented a three-month difference in chronology in the narrative. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14.0pt;">At the first church, we sang the Magnificat. At the second, we recited the Benedictus, both canticles from Luke, both believed to be based on songs of the anawim, the community of poor and powerless people who first welcomed the gospel. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14.0pt;">From there we drove to Beth Shakur, House of the Night Watch. There are three different locations around Beth Shakur purporting to be the field where lowly shepherds were the first to hear of the birth of Christ, the first to hear the evangelion (which can mean a birth announcement). One is Orthodox, one Franciscan, one Anglican. We went to the Anglican Shepherd’s Field. In the field was a cave as old as the time of Christ, much older really, but reinforced with pillars. In such caves the Shepherds would take shelter. In this cave we sang Angels We Have Heard On High. Brother Mark spoke of the meaning of the night in which God’s salvation is proclaimed. What does night mean for us spiritually? What does it mean in the context of a darkened world? In this town a few years ago, a tax resistance protest by Palestinian Christians was met with a forceful Israeli response that culminated in violence. There is a sense in with it is night here. It is into such nights that the gospel breaks, a light shining in the darkness, a light dawning on people who walk in deep darkness. Surge illuminare.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14.0pt;">This afternoon we went to Bethlehem to visit the Church of the Holy Nativity. This Church dates from the 6<sup>th</sup> Century. It is a holy, ancient house of worship built over a group of caves. Was Jesus born here? Or was he born in a similar cave nearby? Doe it matter? If so, not much. People have been coming here to reflect on the Incarnation and worship Christ for centuries. St. Jerome lived in one of these caves. He translated the Bible into Latin here, the exclusive translation used in Western Christianity for a thousand years. He is buried in one of these caves. We visited his tomb and the chapel dedicated to Jerome, his successor Eusebius, and the two women who helped him with his work – deservedly canonized as saints these women since Jerome was a decidedly unpleasant man and a misogynist. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14.0pt;">The Church of the Nativity is maintained by different brands of Christians. The Greeks and the Armenians are not friends. Again, the complexity and imperfection of the Church as a people of God. We are more visibly people, more mysteriously of God. The entrance was once large but to make it harder for Persian invaders to charge into the church on horses, the entrance was bricked up to make it very small. One now has to do a solemn bow to enter the church. We begin with humility. Frescoes once covered the walls but most of them have faded away. Others remain. Lamps hang from chains. To enter the cave where Jesus may have been born, one stands in a long jumbled like as throngs of people wait their turn to enter through a narrow door and descend narrow steps. As fate would have it, we were jammed in between a group of Russians and a group of Poles. Somehow that seemed fitting. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14.0pt;">Eventually we made it though the door into a narrow stone stairway covered with rich red tapestries. At the point in the cave that represents the birthplace of Jesus we kneel to kiss a 14 point star with a hole in the center, and emptiness, a mystery – the 14 points representing 14 generations from Abraham to David, 14 from David to the Exile, and 14 from the Exile to Jesus. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14.0pt;">It is an exhausting kind of learning we are doing. It is a sensate rather than conceptual learning. It is visual images, sounds, textures. It is an incarnate engagement with the story of incarnation. It will take some time to assimilate this day. I hope when I have sorted through it, I will find myself better able to see God at work in the lives of others, better able to shine gospel into someone’s night, and better attuned to God’s presence in this material world of ordinary life.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div>

Jerusalem, My Happy Home: Part 4

It has been an exhausting and overwhelming day of seeing holy places associated with the birth of Jesus. After a lecture on the Magnif...

I'm an Ambassador!

6:50 AM Tukiyooo 0

<p>I've received my card for the <a href="http://www.guinness-storehouse.com/en/Index.aspx">Guinness Storehouse.</a>  Free admission for me  in to the Guinness Factory at St. James' Gate and 10% off for my companions.  <br>Guinness anyone?!</p><p>If you would like to be a Guinness Ambassador have a look <a href="http://www.guinness-storehouse.com/en/The-Gathering-Signup.aspx">here</a> for further info.</p><div class='separator' style='clear: both; text-align: center;'> <a href='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUWmvCFjPVluJk2eT4Bc_vALOzwrpJ7me2YkLMVhYdfn5pVVujN6-xgOEYWCM2aV8Q5vv3ZSwgsOxZbM3M-Ux3VgxSC0qJTajXT-Ghw1Iss1NnWG7-mZyahrXrHgTsnJuQ5ea_nKBIHIqu/s1600/20130301_144054.jpg' imageanchor='1' style='margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;'> <img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUWmvCFjPVluJk2eT4Bc_vALOzwrpJ7me2YkLMVhYdfn5pVVujN6-xgOEYWCM2aV8Q5vv3ZSwgsOxZbM3M-Ux3VgxSC0qJTajXT-Ghw1Iss1NnWG7-mZyahrXrHgTsnJuQ5ea_nKBIHIqu/s400/20130301_144054.jpg" /> </a> </div><div class='separator' style='clear: both; text-align: center;'> <a href='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDoYEQDyn0jpEoGddYeGHfG3g_xKhN5jJWWjzFzdrHYx02p9BaL3boDBabnGDgFbVBmqqimb6u6DelQ8UqIZhaSSJZ7GQa0EFNw6cpK3IshXBM1IJOKJQOs7PDD7PnAJU4V5WDvI2v7F_k/s1600/20130301_144156.jpg' imageanchor='1' style='margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;'> <img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDoYEQDyn0jpEoGddYeGHfG3g_xKhN5jJWWjzFzdrHYx02p9BaL3boDBabnGDgFbVBmqqimb6u6DelQ8UqIZhaSSJZ7GQa0EFNw6cpK3IshXBM1IJOKJQOs7PDD7PnAJU4V5WDvI2v7F_k/s400/20130301_144156.jpg" /> </a> </div><div class='separator' style='clear: both; text-align: center;'> <a href='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8qJIWutPN9KfgPBFezyOhop2ASGjH3lXAV32G8zO-TPMSx3AU5Eu_1imwaeP4U_KgBnzIwwt_waSOv6skHEFcZooyaY79w3exGJIfhxVXBUxbfji6erINejUUm_OHiyBxRhpuE25qls7y/s1600/20130301_144005.jpg' imageanchor='1' style='margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;'> <img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8qJIWutPN9KfgPBFezyOhop2ASGjH3lXAV32G8zO-TPMSx3AU5Eu_1imwaeP4U_KgBnzIwwt_waSOv6skHEFcZooyaY79w3exGJIfhxVXBUxbfji6erINejUUm_OHiyBxRhpuE25qls7y/s400/20130301_144005.jpg" /> </a> </div>

I'm an Ambassador!

I've received my card for the Guinness Storehouse. Free admission for me in to the Guinness Factory at St. James' Gate and 10% of...

What Housework Has to Do With Waistlines - NYTimes.com

6:37 AM Tukiyooo 0

<base href="data:"><div style="font-size: 14px; color: black; text-align: left; "><div id="well" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); 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; "><div align="left"><div class="entry-content"><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: medium; 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 class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'">One reason so many American women are overweight may be that we are vacuuming and doing laundry less often, according to a new study that, while scrupulously even-handed, is likely to stir controversy and emotions.</font></div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: medium; 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 class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'">The study, <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0056620" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102); text-decoration: none; ">published this month in PLoS One</a>, is a follow-up to <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0019657" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102); text-decoration: none; ">an influential 2011 report </a>which used data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics to determine that, during the past 50 years, most American workers began sitting down on the job. Physical activity at work, such as walking or lifting, almost vanished, according to the data, with workers now spending most of their time seated before a computer or talking on the phone. Consequently, the authors found, the average American worker was burning almost 150 fewer calories daily at work than his or her employed parents had, a change that had materially contributed to the rise in obesity during the same time frame, especially among men, the authors concluded.</font></div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: medium; 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 class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'">But that study, while fascinating, was narrow, focusing only on people with formal jobs. It overlooked a large segment of the population, namely a lot of women.</font></div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: medium; 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 class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'">"Fifty years ago, a majority of women did not work outside of the home," said Edward Archer, a research fellow with the Arnold School of Public Health at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, and lead author of the new study.</font></div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: medium; 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 class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'">So, in collaboration with many of the authors of the earlier study of occupational physical activity, Dr. Archer set out to find data about how women had once spent their hours at home and whether and how their patterns of movement had changed over the years.</font></div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: medium; 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 class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'">He found the information he needed in the American Heritage Time Use Study, a remarkable archive of "time-use diaries" provided by thousands of women beginning in 1965. Because Dr. Archer wished to examine how women in a variety of circumstances spent their time around the house, he gathered diaries from both working and non-employed women, starting with those in 1965 and extending through 2010.</font></div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: medium; 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 class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'">He and his colleagues then pulled data from the diaries about how many hours the women were spending in various activities, how many calories they likely were expending in each of those tasks, and how the activities and associated energy expenditures changed over the years.</font></div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: medium; 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 class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'">As it turned out, their findings broadly echoed those of the occupational time-use study. Women, they found, once had been quite physically active around the house, spending, in 1965, an average of 25.7 hours a week cleaning, cooking and doing laundry. Those activities, whatever their social freight, required the expenditure of considerable energy. (The authors did not include child care time in their calculations, since the women's diary entries related to child care were inconsistent and often overlapped those of other activities.) In general at that time, working women devoted somewhat fewer hours to housework, while those not employed outside the home spent more.</font></div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: medium; 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 class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'">Forty-five years later, in 2010, things had changed dramatically. By then, the time-use diaries showed, women were spending an average of 13.3 hours per week on housework.</font></div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: medium; 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 class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'">More striking, the diary entries showed, women at home were now spending far more hours sitting in front of a screen. In 1965, women typically had spent about eight hours a week sitting and watching television. (Home computers weren't invented yet.)</font></div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: medium; 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 class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'">By 2010, those hours had more than doubled, to 16.5 hours per week. In essence, women had exchanged time spent in active pursuits, like vacuuming, for time spent being sedentary.</font></div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: medium; 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 class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'">In the process, they had also greatly reduced the number of calories that they typically expended during their hours at home. According to the authors' calculations, American women not employed outside the home were burning about 360 fewer calories every day in 2010 than they had in 1965, with working women burning about 132 fewer calories at home each day in 2010 than in 1965.</font></div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: medium; 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 class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'">"Those are large reductions in energy expenditure," Dr. Archer said, and would result, over the years, in significant weight gain without reductions in caloric intake.</font></div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: medium; 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 class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'">What his study suggests, Dr. Archer continued, is that "we need to start finding ways to incorporate movement back into" the hours spent at home.</font></div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: medium; 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 class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'">This does not mean, he said, that women — or men — should be doing more housework. For one thing, the effort involved is such activities today is less than it once was. Using modern, gliding vacuum cleaners is less taxing than struggling with the clunky, heavy machines once available, and thank goodness for that.</font></div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: medium; 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 class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'">Nor is more time spent helping around the house a guarantee of more activity, over all. A <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22297804" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 102); text-decoration: none; ">telling 2012 study of television viewing habits</a> found that when men increased the number of hours they spent on housework, they also greatly increased the hours they spent sitting in front of the TV, presumably because it was there and beckoning.</font></div><div style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: medium; 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 class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'">Instead, Dr. Archer said, we should start consciously tracking what we do when we are at home and try to reduce the amount of time spent sitting. "Walk to the mailbox," he said. Chop vegetables in the kitchen. Play ball with your, or a neighbor's, dog. Chivvy your spouse into helping you fold sheets. "The data clearly shows," Dr. Archer said, that even at home, we need to be in motion.</font></div></div></div></div></div><a href="http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/27/what-housework-has-to-do-with-waistlines/?pagewanted=print"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Helvetica Neue'">http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/27/what-housework-has-to-do-with-waistlines/?pagewanted=print</font></a><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; color: black; text-align: left; "><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div>

What Housework Has to Do With Waistlines - NYTimes.com

One reason so many American women are overweight may be that we are vacuuming and doing laundry less often, according to a new study that, w...

Nintendo Wii Helped Budding Surgeons Move To Head Of The Class : Shots - Health News : NPR

6:35 AM Tukiyooo 0

How's this for a tough assignment?<br /><br><br /><br>A group of Italian researchers forced 21 surgical residents to play video games on a Nintendo Wii for an hour a day, five days a week, for four weeks. Whew!<br /><br><br /><br>Then the researchers had the residents perform a simulated keyhole surgery. They found that the gamers performed significantly better than another group of residents who didn't undergo this grueling video game training.<br /><br><br /><br>"We had a lot of fun," said Dr. Gregorio Patrizi, a professor at the University of Rome Medical School who worked on the study. "Research doesn't need to be boring."<br /><br><br /><br>Keyhole, or laparoscopic, surgery involves inserting tiny video cameras and instruments into your body so surgeons can operate without having to make a large incision. The approach reduces recovery times for patients, and the risk of infection goes down as well.<br /><br><br /><br>However, Patrizi said laparoscopy can be difficult for surgeons not used to staring at a video monitor during an operation. "You have to move in a three-dimensional space but you have a two-dimensional image on your screen," he said.<br /><br><br /><br>That's where the Wii comes in. Several earlier studies suggested that playing video games can boost laparoscopic skills, but those studies were largely based on surveys of surgeons' prior video gaming habits. Patrizi's study is one of the first randomized trials that had some surgeons undergo a structured game-playing routine and also maintained a separate control group.<br /><br><br /><br>Patrizi and his team had surgical residents play three Wii games — tennis, ping pong and one that involved shooting balloons from an aircraft. As the researchers write in their articlepublished online by PLOS ONE, they chose these games because they all required strong hand-eye coordination and three-dimensional visualization of a space.<br /><br><br /><br>Compared with the unlucky doctors in the control group, who didn't have an excuse to play video games for five hours a week, the residents who played the Wii games showed significantly more improvement on a laparoscopy simulator.<br /><br><br /><br>Though it might seem like this study was designed by Nintendo as an advertisement for the Wii, Patrizi said the video game maker had nothing to do with it. He said his team received no outside funding to conduct the experiment and didn't even notify Nintendo they were doing it.<br /><br><br /><br>In an email to Shots, a Nintendo spokeswoman said the company is "thrilled to hear" that the Wii might someday provide a benefit to medical science, even if that wasn't what its designers had in mind. "Did we think that the Wii would improve the performance of surgeons?" she writes. "No."<br /><br><br /><br>Patrizi said these results suggest that the Wii and other motion-sensing gaming consoles like Microsoft's Kinect could be used to supplement surgical training at a very low cost, especially when compared with expensive laparoscopy simulators.<br /><br><br /><br>To Dr. Brant Oelschlager, chief of the University of Washington's Center for Videoendoscopic Surgery, it makes sense that a video game would help a surgeon perform these procedures. "There's probably a lot of overlap in that bit of learning," he said. "Both are very unnatural environments to the novice."<br /><br><br /><br>But that doesn't mean hospitals should be putting Wii systems in the doctors lounge just yet. Oelschlager said video games would only be beneficial to inexperienced surgeons.<br /><br><br /><br>"I'm skeptical that at an advanced level that would help the surgeon become better," Oelschlager said. "At some point, it starts to have diminishing returns and you have to gain the rest of your skills in a real patient."<br /><br><br /><br><a href="http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/02/27/173076773/nintendo-wii-helped-budding-surgeons-move-to-head-of-the-class">http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/02/27/173076773/nintendo-wii-helped-budding-surgeons-move-to-head-of-the-class</a>

Nintendo Wii Helped Budding Surgeons Move To Head Of The Class : Shots - Health News : NPR

How's this for a tough assignment? A group of Italian researchers forced 21 surgical residents to play video games on a Nintendo Wii for...

Shots - Health News : NPR

6:35 AM Tukiyooo 0

Shots - Health News : NPR

Shots is the online channel for health stories from the NPR Science Desk. We report on news that can make a difference for your health and s...

Fwd: Medicare Needs Fixing, but Not Right Now - NYTimes.com

6:17 AM Tukiyooo 0

<br><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 24px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; 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); ">What's the rush? For all the white-knuckled wrangling over spending cuts set to start on Friday, the fundamental partisan argument over how to fix the government's finances is not about the immediate future. It is about the much longer term: how will the nation pay for the care of older Americans as the vast baby boom generation retires? Will the government keep <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/health/diseasesconditionsandhealthtopics/medicare/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier" title="Recent and archival health news about Medicare." class="meta-classifier" style="color: rgb(102, 102, 153); text-decoration: none;">Medicare</a> spending in check by asking older Americans to shoulder more costs? Should we raise taxes instead?</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 24px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; 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 might not be a good idea to try to resolve these questions quite so urgently. Partisan bickering under the threat of automatic budget cuts is unlikely to produce a calm, thoughtful deal.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 24px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; 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; ">"We don't have to solve this tomorrow; not even next year," said Jonathan Gruber, an economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who worked on the design of President Obama's <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/health/diseasesconditionsandhealthtopics/health_insurance_and_managed_care/health_care_reform/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier" title="Recent and archival news about healthcare reform." class="meta-classifier" style="color: rgb(102, 102, 153); text-decoration: none;">health care reform</a>.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 24px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; 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; ">More significantly perhaps, some economists point out that the problem may already be on the way toward largely fixing itself. The budget-busting rise in health care costs, it seems, is finally losing speed. While it would be foolhardy to assume that this alone will stabilize government's finances, the slowdown offers hope that the challenge may not be as daunting as the frenzied declarations from Washington make it seem.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 24px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; 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 growth of the nation's spending slowed sharply over the last four years. This year, it is expected to increase only 3.8 percent, <a title="Data on health care spending." href="https://www.cms.gov/Research-Statistics-Data-and-Systems/Statistics-Trends-and-Reports/NationalHealthExpendData/index.html" style="color: rgb(102, 102, 153); text-decoration: none;">according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services</a>, the slowest pace in four decades and slower than the rate of nominal economic growth.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 24px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; 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); ">Medicare spending is growing faster — stretched by baby boomers stepping out of the work force and into retirement. But its pace has slowed markedly, too. Earlier this month, <a title="Related C.B.O. report." href="http://www.cbo.gov/publication/43947" style="color: rgb(102, 102, 153); text-decoration: none;">the Congressional Budget Office said</a> that by 2020 Medicare spending would be $126 billion less than it predicted three years ago. Spending over the coming decade, it added, would be $143 billion less than it forecast just last August.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 24px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; 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); ">While economists acknowledge that the recession accounts for part of the decline, depressing incomes and consumption, something else also seems to be going on: insurers, doctors, hospitals and other providers are experimenting with new, cheaper and more efficient ways to deliver care.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 24px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; 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); ">Prodded by President Obama's Affordable Care Act, which offers providers a share of savings reaped by Medicare from any efficiency gains, many doctors are dropping the costly practice of charging a fee for each service regardless of its contribution to patients' health. Doctors are joining hundreds of so-called Accountable Care Organizations, which are paid to maintain patients in good health and are thus encouraged to seek the most effective treatments at the lowest possible cost.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 24px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; 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); ">This has kindled hope among some scholars that Medicare could achieve the needed savings just by cleaning out the health care system's waste.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 24px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; 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); ">Elliott Fisher, who directs <a title="Dartmouth Atlas." href="http://www.dartmouthatlas.org/" style="color: rgb(102, 102, 153); text-decoration: none;">Dartmouth's Atlas of Health Care</a>, which tracks disparities in medical practices and outcomes across the country, pointed out that Medicare spending per person varies widely regardless of quality — from $7,734 a year in Minneapolis to $11,646 in Chicago — even after correcting for the different age, sex and race profiles of their populations.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 24px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; 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 noted that if hospital stays by Medicare enrollees across the country fell to the length prevailing in Oregon and Washington, hospital use — one of the biggest drivers of costs — would fall by almost a third.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 24px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; 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); ">"Twenty to 30 percent of Medicare spending is pure waste," Dr. Fisher argues. "The challenge of getting those savings is nontrivial. But those kinds of savings are not out of the question."</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 24px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; 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); ">We could be disappointed, of course. Similar breakthroughs before have quickly fizzled. Just think back to that brief spell in the mid-1990s when health maintenance organizations seemed to beat health care inflation — until patients rebelled against being denied services and doctors dropped out of their networks rather than accept lower fees.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 24px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; 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 Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services already expects spending to rebound in coming years. Without tougher cost control devices, be it vouchers to limit government spending or direct government rationing, counting on savings of the scale needed to overcome the expected increase in Medicare rolls may be hoping for pie in the sky.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 24px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; 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 makes no sense," said Eugene Steuerle, an economist at the Urban Institute, to expect the government will reap vast Medicare savings without having an impact on the quality of care.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 24px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; 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 Affordable Care Act already contemplates fairly big cuts to Medicare. In its latest long-term projections published last year, <a title="C.B.O. long-term projections." href="http://www.cbo.gov/sites/default/files/cbofiles/attachments/06-05-Long-Term_Budget_Outlook_2.pdf" style="color: rgb(102, 102, 153); text-decoration: none;">the Congressional Budget Office estimated</a> that under current law, growth in spending per beneficiary over the coming decade would be about half a percentage point slower than the rate of economic growth per person.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 24px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; 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 understand how ambitious this is, consider that Medicare spending per beneficiary since 1985 has exceeded the growth of gross domestic product per person by about 1.5 percentage points per year. Slowing down that spending would require deep cuts in doctor reimbursements that, though written into law, Congress has never allowed to happen — repeatedly voting to cancel or postpone them.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 24px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; 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 a more realistic situation, the Budget Office projected that the growth of Medicare spending per capita over the next 10 years would be in fact 0.6 percentage points higher than under current law and accelerate further after that.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 24px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; 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); ">Yet despite the ambition of these targets, they would not be enough to stabilize future Medicare spending as a share of the economy. A report by three health care policy experts, Michael Chernew and Richard Frank of Harvard Medical School, together with Stephen Parente of the University of Minnesota, concluded that to do that would require limiting the growth of spending per beneficiary at 1.25 percentage points less than the growth of our gross domestic product per person.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 24px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; 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 Affordable Care Act places Medicare spending on a trajectory that is historically low," Mr. Chernew said, noting his opinion was not an official statement as vice chairman of Medicare's Payment Advisory Commission, which advises Congress on Medicare. "Could we do better? Of course. Will we? That requires a little more skepticism."</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 24px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; 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); ">Yet even if it is unrealistic to expect that newfound efficiencies will stabilize Medicare's finances, the slowdown in health care spending suggests that politicians in Washington calm down. It offers, at the very least, more breathing room to carefully consider reforms to the system to raise revenue or trim benefits in the least damaging way.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 24px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; 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 title="Policy proposals made at a Brookings Institution conference." href="http://www.hamiltonproject.org/papers/15_ways_to_rethink_the_federal_budget/" style="color: rgb(102, 102, 153); text-decoration: none;">There are many ideas out there</a> — from changing Medicare's premiums, deductibles and coinsurance to introducing a tax on carbon emissions to raise revenue. Some of them are not as good as others. Until recently, President Obama favored increasing the eligibility age for Medicare. Then <a title="The Kaiser study." href="http://www.kff.org/medicare/8169.cfm" style="color: rgb(102, 102, 153); text-decoration: none;">research by the Kaiser Family Foundation</a> concluded that raising the age would increase insurance premiums and cost businesses, beneficiaries and states more than the federal government would save. The nation would lose money in the deal.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 24px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; 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; ">"As we do this, there are smarter and dumber ways to do it," Mr. Gruber said. "It would be a problem if we were to do things in a panic mode that set us backward."</p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/27/business/medicare-needs-fixing-but-not-right-now.html?src=recg&pagewanted=print">http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/27/business/medicare-needs-fixing-but-not-right-now.html?src=recg&pagewanted=print</a>

Fwd: Medicare Needs Fixing, but Not Right Now - NYTimes.com

What's the rush? For all the white-knuckled wrangling over spending cuts set to start on Friday, the fundamental partisan argument over ...

Study Finds Genetic Risk Factors Shared by 5 Psychiatric Disorders - NYTimes.com

6:11 AM Tukiyooo 0

<base href="data:"><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; color: black; text-align: left; "><nyt_text 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; "><div id="articleBody"><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">The psychiatric illnesses seem very different — <a href="http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/disease/schizophrenia/overview.html" style="color: rgb(102, 102, 153); text-decoration: none; ">schizophrenia</a>, <a href="http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/disease/bipolar-disorder/overview.html" style="color: rgb(102, 102, 153); text-decoration: none; ">bipolar disorder</a>, <a href="http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/disease/autism/overview.html?inline=nyt-classifier" style="color: rgb(102, 102, 153); text-decoration: none; ">autism</a>, <a href="http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/symptoms/depression/overview.html" style="color: rgb(102, 102, 153); text-decoration: none; ">major depression</a> and <a href="http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/disease/attention-deficit-hyperactivity-disorder-adhd/overview.html" style="color: rgb(102, 102, 153); text-decoration: none; ">attention deficit hyperactivity disorder</a>. Yet they share several genetic glitches that can nudge the brain along a path to mental illness, researchers report. Which disease, if any, develops is thought to depend on other genetic or environmental factors.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">Their study, <a href="http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736%2812%2962129-1/fulltext" style="color: rgb(102, 102, 153); text-decoration: none; ">published online Wednesday</a> in the Lancet, was based on an examination of genetic data from more than 60,000 people worldwide. Its authors say it is the largest genetic study yet of psychiatric disorders. The findings strengthen an emerging view of mental illness that aims to make diagnoses based on the genetic aberrations underlying diseases instead of on the disease symptoms.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">Two of the aberrations discovered in the new study were in genes used in a major signaling system in the brain, giving clues to processes that might go awry and suggestions of how to treat the diseases.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">"What we identified here is probably just the tip of an iceberg," said Dr. Jordan Smoller, lead author of the paper and a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital. "As these studies grow we expect to find additional genes that might overlap."</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">The new study does not mean that the <a href="http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/specialtopic/genetics/overview.html?inline=nyt-classifier" title="In-depth reference and news articles about Genetics." class="meta-classifier" style="color: rgb(102, 102, 153); text-decoration: none; ">genetics</a> of psychiatric disorders are simple. Researchers say there seem to be hundreds of genes involved and the gene variations discovered in the new study confer only a small risk of psychiatric disease.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">Steven McCarroll, director of genetics for the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research at the Broad Institute of Harvard and M.I.T., said it was significant that the researchers had found common genetic factors that pointed to a specific signaling system.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">"It is very important that these were not just random hits on the dartboard of the genome," said Dr. McCarroll, who was not involved in the new study.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">The work began in 2007 when a large group of researchers began investigating genetic data generated by studies in 19 countries and including 33,332 people with psychiatric illnesses and 27,888 people free of the illnesses for comparison. The researchers studied scans of people's DNA, looking for variations in any of several million places along the long stretch of genetic material containing three billion DNA letters. The question: Did people with psychiatric illnesses tend to have a distinctive DNA pattern in any of those locations?</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">Researchers had already seen some clues of overlapping genetic effects in identical <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/health/diseasesconditionsandhealthtopics/twins/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier" title="Recent and archival health news about twins." class="meta-classifier" style="color: rgb(102, 102, 153); text-decoration: none; ">twins</a>. One twin might have schizophrenia while the other had bipolar disorder. About six years ago, around the time the new study began, researchers had examined the genes of a few rare families in which psychiatric disorders seemed especially prevalent. They found a few unusual disruptions of chromosomes that were linked to psychiatric illnesses. But what surprised them was that while one person with the aberration might get one disorder, a relative with the same mutation got a different one.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">Jonathan Sebat, chief of the Beyster Center for Molecular Genomics of Neuropsychiatric Diseases at the University of California, San Diego, and one of the discoverers of this effect, said that work on these rare genetic aberrations had opened his eyes. "Two different diagnoses can have the same genetic risk factor," he said.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">In fact, the new paper reports, distinguishing psychiatric diseases by their symptoms has long been difficult. Autism, for example, was once called childhood schizophrenia. It was not until the 1970s that autism was distinguished as a separate disorder.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">But Dr. Sebat, who did not work on the new study, said that until now it was not clear whether the rare families he and others had studied were an exception or whether they were pointing to a rule about multiple disorders arising from a single genetic glitch.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">"No one had systematically looked at the common variations," in DNA, he said. "We didn't know if this was particularly true for rare mutations or if it would be true for all genetic risk." The new study, he said, "shows all genetic risk is of this nature."</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">The new study found four DNA regions that conferred a small risk of psychiatric disorders. For two of them, it is not clear what genes are involved or what they do, Dr. Smoller said. The other two, though, involve genes that are part of <a href="http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/test/serum-calcium/overview.html?inline=nyt-classifier" title="In-depth reference and news articles about Serum calcium." class="meta-classifier" style="color: rgb(102, 102, 153); text-decoration: none; ">calcium</a> channels, which are used when neurons send signals in the brain.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">"The calcium channel findings suggest that perhaps — and this is a big if — treatments to affect calcium channel functioning might have effects across a range of disorders," Dr. Smoller said.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">There are drugs on the market that block calcium channels — they are used to treat <a href="http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/disease/hypertension/overview.html?inline=nyt-classifier" title="In-depth reference and news articles about Hypertension." class="meta-classifier" style="color: rgb(102, 102, 153); text-decoration: none; ">high blood pressure</a> — and researchers had already postulated that they might be useful for bipolar disorder even before the current findings.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">One investigator, Dr. Roy Perlis of Massachusetts General Hospital, just completed a small study of a calcium channel blocker in 10 people with bipolar disorder and is about to expand it to a large randomized clinical trial. He also wants to study the drug in people with schizophrenia, in light of the new findings. He cautions, though, that people should not rush out to take a calcium channel blocker on their own.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">"We need to be sure it is safe and we need to be sure it works," Dr. Perlis said.</p><nyt_correction_bottom><div class="articleCorrection" style="margin-bottom: 2.8em; "></div></nyt_correction_bottom><nyt_update_bottom></nyt_update_bottom></div></nyt_text><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><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/01/health/study-finds-genetic-risk-factors-shared-by-5-psychiatric-disorders.html?src=me&ref=general&pagewanted=print">http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/01/health/study-finds-genetic-risk-factors-shared-by-5-psychiatric-disorders.html?src=me&ref=general&pagewanted=print</a><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; color: black; text-align: left; "><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div>

Study Finds Genetic Risk Factors Shared by 5 Psychiatric Disorders - NYTimes.com

The psychiatric illnesses seem very different — schizophrenia , bipolar disorder , autism , major depression and attention deficit hyp...

28 in 28, Recap

6:00 AM Tukiyooo 0

<i>February was Book Month on A Daily Dose of Architecture. Below is a recap of the "<a href="http://archidose.blogspot.com/search/label/28%20in%2028">28 in 28</a>" series, which featured a different book every day of the month.</i><br /><ol><li> <a href="http://archidose.blogspot.com/2013/02/28-in-28-1-key-buildings-from.html"><b><i>Key Buildings from Prehistory to the Present: Plans, Sections and Elevations</i></b></a> by Andrew Ballantyne</li><li> <a href="http://archidose.blogspot.com/2013/02/28-in-28-2-guide-to-archigram-1961-74.html"><b><i>A Guide to Archigram 1961-74 </i></b></a> by Dennis Crompton</li><li> <a href="http://archidose.blogspot.com/2013/02/28-in-28-3-evidence.html"><b><i>Evidence: The Work of Robert A. M. Stern Architects</i></b></a> by Robert A.M. Stern</li><li> <a href="http://archidose.blogspot.com/2013/02/28-in-28-4-le-corbusier-redrawn.html"><b><i>Le Corbusier Redrawn: the Houses</i></b></a> by Steven Park</li><li> <a href="http://archidose.blogspot.com/2013/02/28-in-28-5-sourcebook-of-scandinavian.html"><b><i>Sourcebook of Scandinavian Furniture: Designs for the Twenty-First Century</i></b></a> by Judith Gura</li><li> <a href="http://archidose.blogspot.com/2013/02/28-in-28-6-west-coast-modern.html"><b><i>West Coast Modern</i></b></a> by Zahid Sardar with photographs by Matthew Millman</li><li> <a href="http://archidose.blogspot.com/2013/02/28-in-28-7-qualities-of-duration.html"><b><i>Qualities of Duration: The Architecture of Phillip Smith and Douglas Thompson</i></b></a> by Alastair Gordon</li><li> <a href="http://archidose.blogspot.com/2013/02/28-in-28-8-townhouses.html"><b><i>Construction and Design Manual: Townhouses</i></b></a> by Hans Stimmann</li><li> <a href="http://archidose.blogspot.com/2013/02/28-in-28-9-dutch-architecture-in-250.html"><b><i>Dutch Architecture in 250 Highlights</i></b></a> edited by Netherlands Architecture Institute</li><li> <a href="http://archidose.blogspot.com/2013/02/28-in-28-10-from-ground-up.html"><b><i>From the Ground Up: Innovative Green Homes </i></b></a> edited by Peggy Tully</li><li> <a href="http://archidose.blogspot.com/2013/02/28-in-28-11-understanding-architecture.html"><b><i>Understanding Architecture</i></b></a> by Juhani Pallasmaa and Robert McCarter</li><li> <a href="http://archidose.blogspot.com/2013/02/28-in-28-12-cycle-space.html"><b><i>Cycle Space: Architectural and Urban Design in the Age of the Bicycle</i></b></a> by Steven Fleming</li><li> <a href="http://archidose.blogspot.com/2013/02/28-in-28-13-best-highrises-201213.html"><b><i>Best Highrises 2012/13: The International Highrise Award 2012</i></b></a> edited by Michaela Busenkell and Peter Cachola Schmal </li><li> <a href="http://archidose.blogspot.com/2013/02/28-in-28-14-detail-in-contemporary.html"><b><i>Detail in Contemporary Concrete Architecture</i></b></a> by David Phillips and Megumi Yamashita</li><li><a href="http://archidose.blogspot.com/2013/02/28-in-28-15-modern-views.html"><b><i>Modern Views</i></b></a>, The Farnsworth House and the Philip Johnson Glass House </li><li> <a href="http://archidose.blogspot.com/2013/02/28-in-28-1617-two-dom-architectural.html"><b><i>Japan Architectural Guide</i></b></a> by Botond Bognar </li><li> <a href="http://archidose.blogspot.com/2013/02/28-in-28-1617-two-dom-architectural.html"><b><i>Taiwan Architectural Guide</i></b></a> by Ulf Meyer</li><li> <a href="http://archidose.blogspot.com/2013/02/28-in-28-18-everything-all-at-once.html"><b><i>Everything All at Once: The Software, Videos, and Architecture of MOS</i></b></a> by Michael Meredith and Hilary Sample</li><li> <a href="http://archidose.blogspot.com/2013/02/28-in-28-19-design-bureau-special.html"><b><i>Architecture: The People, Places, and Ideas Driving Contemporary Design</i></b></a>, Design Bureau Special Edition</li><li> <a href="http://archidose.blogspot.com/2013/02/28-in-28-20-intensities.html"><b><i>Lewis.Tsurumaki.Lewis: Intensities</i></b></a> by Paul Lewis, Mark Tsurumaki, David J. Lewis</li><li> <a href="http://archidose.blogspot.com/2013/02/28-in-28-21-bim-in-small-scale.html"><b><i>BIM in Small-Scale Sustainable Design</i></b></a> by  François Lévy</li><li> <a href="http://archidose.blogspot.com/2013/02/28-in-28-22-post-ductility.html"><b><i>Post-Ductility: Metals in Architecture and Engineering</i></b></a> edited by Michael Bell, Craig Buckley<b> </b></li><li> <a href="http://archidose.blogspot.com/2013/02/28-in-28-23-24-two-nyc-books.html"><b><i>New York Neon</i></b></a> by Thomas E. Rinaldi</li><li> <a href="http://archidose.blogspot.com/2013/02/28-in-28-23-24-two-nyc-books.html"><b><i>New York Nights</i></b></a> by James T. and Karla L. Murray<b></b></li><li> <a href="http://archidose.blogspot.com/2013/02/28-in-28-25-wiel-arets-autobiographical.html"><b><i>Wiel Arets: Autobiographical References</i></b></a> edited by Robert McCarter</li><li> <a href="http://archidose.blogspot.com/2013/02/28-in-28-26-beyond-zuccotti-park.html"><b><i>Beyond Zuccotti Park: Freedom of Assembly and the Occupation of Public Space</i></b></a> edited by Ron Shiffman, Rick Bell, Lance Jay Brown, and Lynne Elizabeth, with Anastassia Fisyak, and Anusha Venkataraman</li><li><a href="http://archidose.blogspot.com/2013/02/28-in-28-27-at-39-40.html"><b><i>a+t 39-40: Reclaim Remediate Reuse Recycle</i></b></a> edited by Aurora Fernandez Per and Javier Mozas</li><li><a href="http://archidose.blogspot.com/2013/02/28-in-28-28-architecture-concepts-red.html"><b><i>Architecture Concepts: Red Is Not a Color</i></b></a> by Bernard Tschumi</li></ol>

28 in 28, Recap

February was Book Month on A Daily Dose of Architecture. Below is a recap of the " 28 in 28 " series, which featured a different b...

Wandering Down Memory Lane

9:00 PM Tukiyooo 0

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /><div class="MsoNormal">Hola y’all! A week ago Matt-Man took a little <a href="http://news-these-days.blogspot.com/2013/02/grappling-with-nostalgia.html" target="_blank">stroll downmemory lane</a> and talked about some of the things he misses. Not family and friends who have passed away or drifted apart from, those are obvious, but some people places and things from his far and recent past that he misses for different reasons. So, I thought I would do the same this week. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_iHQVdcAEmBDXHVl956NyXbzudlwFA0Xelk11RJ6WX3EEX155eHM_YsIV3SuGUuH9_PswyRDxY8sAhLDv7ya66r7otsz1WRAgesGKmO305QDiaq7QX7dX2XhwrZKF4VBlH6KpSmEPHa8/s1600/Andy+and+Opie+fishing.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_iHQVdcAEmBDXHVl956NyXbzudlwFA0Xelk11RJ6WX3EEX155eHM_YsIV3SuGUuH9_PswyRDxY8sAhLDv7ya66r7otsz1WRAgesGKmO305QDiaq7QX7dX2XhwrZKF4VBlH6KpSmEPHa8/s320/Andy+and+Opie+fishing.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Fishing on the White River and Playing Golf:</b> Fishing for trout on the White River and playing golf are pretty much the only things I ever did with my dad when it was just the two of us. We weren’t close and didn’t talk to each other about our lives or anything like that. Mostly we talked politics and sports when we were together. I’ll never play golf again mostly because of my back and I sold all of my fishing gear after dad died 16 years ago. Maybe someday I’ll buy some more gear and go out there to the Fisherman’s Friend (assuming it’s still there) and fish from their banks again. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>The Rocket Restaurant: </b>The Rocket was your typical greasy spoon. They served cheeseburgers, grilled cheese sandwiches, chicken sandwiches and fries and onion rings and whatever else could be deep friend. But, their food wasn’t all that memorable. What I miss is their chocolate milkshakes. They were amazing! They used real, premium chocolate ice cream that didn’t taste like the usual chocolate ice cream you could get at the store pour in some Hershey’s Syrup. Then they would mix it for the perfect length of time to make it thick yet creamy and it was pure Heaven! <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>The Old HGTV shows.</b> I’ve said many times that I never and have possibly never will own a home, but I love home improvement and gardening/landscaping shows. HGTV had cool shows like “Help Around the House,” “Weekend Warriors,” “Gardening by the Yard” and “Designer’s Challenge” where they ALWAYS brought the inside out, and the outside in. They weren’t just real estate investment or house flipping shows, they actually taught us how to do things. Things like fixing door jams, replacing windows, patching hardwood floors and other small jobs that can be so annoying to do. Gardening by the Yard’s host was this goofy guy who lived over in Tulsa then moved to Nashville. He gave so much great advice on keeping your garden, shrubs, flowers and lawn in tip-top shape. Now all they do is build “water features.” <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>The old Bloggerhood.</b> Back in the day I just couldn’t wait to get on the computer and wander the Bloggerhood to see what people were up to. So many creative and funny people were blogging and we really did seem to build a community. We laughed and each other’s jokes and hilarious adventures. We got angry when someone was wronged in some way. And we cried when people lost family members or struggled with life. Then we all joined Facebook and that was that. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Glass Pepsi Bottles.</b> Pepsi (or any pop/soda/soft drink) is soooooo much better in a glass bottle than it is in the can or yucky plastic bottle. It gets colder in glass bottles and I think that’s what makes the taste better. The only place I can still find it in bottles is over at the Mexican Market in Green Forrest. Sometimes it’s worth the 20 minute drive over there just to enjoy Pepsi the way God meant it to be drunk. And maybe while I’m drinking that Pepsi I’ll sit there in the car and listen to good old 70’s and 80’s heavy metal music. <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.comjayman_iws/" target="_blank">@Jayman_IWS </a><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div></div>

Wandering Down Memory Lane

Hola y’all! A week ago Matt-Man took a little stroll downmemory lane and talked about some of the things he misses. Not family and friends ...

Alex Smith shows nice gius don't always finish last

8:41 PM Tukiyooo 0

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /><h3 class="byline" style="background-color: white; color: #58595b; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; line-height: 11px; margin: 0px 0px 3px; padding: 0px; text-transform: uppercase;">BY MATTHEW BARROWS</h3><h3 class="credit_line" style="background-color: white; color: #58595b; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; line-height: 11px; margin: 0px 0px 3px; padding: 0px; text-transform: uppercase;">THE SACRAMENTO BEE</h3><div class="entry-content" id="storyBodyContent" style="background-color: white; color: #1a2732; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 12px; padding: 0px;"><span class="dateline" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><img src="http://news.google.com/news/tbn/XuXVAL14HNwqwM/1.jpg" /></span></div><div style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 12px; padding: 0px;"><span class="dateline" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- </span>Two and a half years after 49ers fans chanted, "We want Carr!", the NFL was saying, "We want Alex!"</div><div style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 12px; padding: 0px;">How else to explain the richer-than-expected compensation the 49ers will receive for their backup quarterback?</div><div style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 12px; padding: 0px;">It wasn't just that the Chiefs were interested in Alex Smith, it was that they were more interested than the other squads that came calling. At least two other teams - Arizona likely was one of them - were in the running, and the competition increased the price tag.</div><div style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 12px; padding: 0px;">That speaks to an abnormally bad year for passers at the top of the draft and in free agency (Derek Anderson or Tyler Thigpen, anyone?).</div><div style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 12px; padding: 0px;">It also should be validation for a quarterback who has been kicked around at various times during his career but who has two rare qualities these days ï¿½ dignity and patience ï¿½ that have allowed him to rise above his circumstances.</div><div style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 12px; padding: 0px;">The last time Smith stepped onto the field in a 49ers uniform? It was for the coin toss at the Super Bowl, an image that underscores just how bizarre and aggravating and heartbreaking it was for Smith in his final season in San Francisco.</div><div style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 12px; padding: 0px;">Before the season, he was voted as a team captain by his peers. By its end he was relegated to a largely ceremonial role as Colin Kaepernick led the 49ers to their first Super Bowl in 18 years and captivated the nation along the way. (The Kaepernick love affair continues: On Thursday the Turlock, Calif., native was in Chicago alongside First Lady Michelle Obama and other athletes to promote exercise in schools.)</div><div style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 12px; padding: 0px;">Smith seethed at his situation. But he did so inwardly. Pouting or protesting would have damaged a 49ers locker room as the team prepared for the playoffs.</div><div style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 12px; padding: 0px;">He told reporters he was unhappy, and he said he felt the only thing he did to lose his job was get a concussion. But that tiny bit of frustration was all he let loose. Otherwise, he acted professionally, took on the role of the No. 2 quarterback, and the teammates who supported him took their cue and went about their business as well.</div><div style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 12px; padding: 0px;">Smith is very much the antithesis of a modern athlete: He's a quiet leader.</div><div style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 12px; padding: 0px;">He doesn't have a Facebook page or a Twitter account. He's been active in the community but doesn't call attention to the fact.</div><div style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 12px; padding: 0px;">His foundation to help foster kids was cited recently in study by the Bosto</div><h3 class="byline" style="color: #58595b; font-size: 10px; line-height: 11px; margin: 0px 0px 3px; padding: 0px; text-transform: uppercase;">BY MATTHEW BARROWS</h3><h3 class="credit_line" style="color: #58595b; font-size: 10px; line-height: 11px; margin: 0px 0px 3px; padding: 0px; text-transform: uppercase;">THE SACRAMENTO BEE</h3><div class="entry-content" id="storyBodyContent" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 12px; padding: 0px;"><span class="dateline" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- </span>Two and a half years after 49ers fans chanted, "We want Carr!", the NFL was saying, "We want Alex!"</div><div style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 12px; padding: 0px;">How else to explain the richer-than-expected compensation the 49ers will receive for their backup quarterback?</div><div style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 12px; padding: 0px;">It wasn't just that the Chiefs were interested in Alex Smith, it was that they were more interested than the other squads that came calling. At least two other teams - Arizona likely was one of them - were in the running, and the competition increased the price tag.</div><div style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 12px; padding: 0px;">That speaks to an abnormally bad year for passers at the top of the draft and in free agency (Derek Anderson or Tyler Thigpen, anyone?).</div><div style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 12px; padding: 0px;">It also should be validation for a quarterback who has been kicked around at various times during his career but who has two rare qualities these days ï¿½ dignity and patience ï¿½ that have allowed him to rise above his circumstances.</div><div style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 12px; padding: 0px;">The last time Smith stepped onto the field in a 49ers uniform? It was for the coin toss at the Super Bowl, an image that underscores just how bizarre and aggravating and heartbreaking it was for Smith in his final season in San Francisco.</div><div style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 12px; padding: 0px;">Before the season, he was voted as a team captain by his peers. By its end he was relegated to a largely ceremonial role as Colin Kaepernick led the 49ers to their first Super Bowl in 18 years and captivated the nation along the way. (The Kaepernick love affair continues: On Thursday the Turlock, Calif., native was in Chicago alongside First Lady Michelle Obama and other athletes to promote exercise in schools.)</div><div style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 12px; padding: 0px;">Smith seethed at his situation. But he did so inwardly. Pouting or protesting would have damaged a 49ers locker room as the team prepared for the playoffs.</div><div style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 12px; padding: 0px;">He told reporters he was unhappy, and he said he felt the only thing he did to lose his job was get a concussion. But that tiny bit of frustration was all he let loose. Otherwise, he acted professionally, took on the role of the No. 2 quarterback, and the teammates who supported him took their cue and went about their business as well.</div><div style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 12px; padding: 0px;">Smith is very much the antithesis of a modern athlete: He's a quiet leader.</div><div style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 12px; padding: 0px;">He doesn't have a Facebook page or a Twitter account. He's been active in the community but doesn't call attention to the fact.</div><div style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 12px; padding: 0px;">His foundation to help foster kids was cited recently in study by the Boston Globe as the paragon of athlete-run charities.</div><div style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 12px; padding: 0px;">When 15-year-old Sierra LaMar was missing last offseason in Morgan Hill, Smith showed up unannounced at a searching station and asked how he could help.</div><div style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 12px; padding: 0px;">During the lockout, Smith organized player workouts despite the fact that he wasn't under contract at the time. He even sprung for a plane ticket for one of the incoming rookies and let him drive his car ï¿½ OK, it was his wife's car ï¿½ when the rookie was in town.</div><div style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 12px; padding: 0px;">There's no question Smith would rather be the 49ers' starting quarterback, lead the team to a Super Bowl victory and complete the rags-to-riches story that began when the then-moribund franchise drafted him No.1 overall in 2005.</div><div style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 12px; padding: 0px;">But the new chapter isn't a bad one.</div><div style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 12px; padding: 0px;">He'll work in Kansas City under Andy Reid, an offensive-minded head coach who knows quarterbacks. He'll operate in a passer-friendly West Coast offense. The Chiefs have a good defense, an excellent running game and a No.1 pick they'll likely use on an offensive lineman to protect Smith. And they reside in perhaps the weakest division in the NFL, meaning the turnaround won't be as daunting as it was when he arrived in San Francisco.</div><div style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 12px; padding: 0px;">Just think, 21/2 years ago, Smith was booed in his home stadium. One year ago, he was dismissed as merely a game manager. Today he's a hot commodity.</div></div><div style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 12px; padding: 0px;">Nice guys might wind up in Kansas City, but they don't always finish last. n Globe as the paragon of athlete-run charities.</div><div style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 12px; padding: 0px;">When 15-year-old Sierra LaMar was missing last offseason in Morgan Hill, Smith showed up unannounced at a searching station and asked how he could help.</div><div style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 12px; padding: 0px;">During the lockout, Smith organized player workouts despite the fact that he wasn't under contract at the time. He even sprung for a plane ticket for one of the incoming rookies and let him drive his car ï¿½ OK, it was his wife's car ï¿½ when the rookie was in town.</div><div style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 12px; padding: 0px;">There's no question Smith would rather be the 49ers' starting quarterback, lead the team to a Super Bowl victory and complete the rags-to-riches story that began when the then-moribund franchise drafted him No.1 overall in 2005.</div><div style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 12px; padding: 0px;">But the new chapter isn't a bad one.</div><div style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 12px; padding: 0px;">He'll work in Kansas City under Andy Reid, an offensive-minded head coach who knows quarterbacks. He'll operate in a passer-friendly West Coast offense. The Chiefs have a good defense, an excellent running game and a No.1 pick they'll likely use on an offensive lineman to protect Smith. And they reside in perhaps the weakest division in the NFL, meaning the turnaround won't be as daunting as it was when he arrived in San Francisco.</div><div style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 12px; padding: 0px;">Just think, 21/2 years ago, Smith was booed in his home stadium. One year ago, he was dismissed as merely a game manager. Today he's a hot commodity.</div><div style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 12px; padding: 0px;">Nice guys might wind up in Kansas City, but they don't always finish last.</div><div style="color: black; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; height: 1px; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; width: 1px;"><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/02/28/3259813/alex-smith-shows-nice-gius-dont.html#storylink=cpy</div></div></div>

Alex Smith Alex Smith shows nice gius don't always finish last

BY MATTHEW BARROWS THE SACRAMENTO BEE SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- Two and a half years after 49ers fans chanted, "We want Carr!", the ...

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Alex Smith shows nice gius don't always finish last

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