North Korea Moves Missile to Coast, but Limited Threat Seen

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /><div class="articleBody" style="margin-bottom: 1.7em; margin-top: 1.5em;"><nyt_text><div data-key="SSKTdc" data-num="0" itemprop="articleBody" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em;">SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea’s defense chief said on Thursday that North Korea had moved to its east coast a missile with a “considerable” range, but that it was not capable of reaching the United States. The disclosure came as the Communist North’s military warned that it was ready to strike American military forces with “cutting-edge smaller, lighter and diversified nuclear strike means.”</div></nyt_text></div><div class="articleInline runaroundLeft" style="clear: left; display: inline; float: left; margin: 6px 15px 10px 0px !important; width: 190px;"><div class="inlineImage module" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 12px; width: 190px;"><div class="image" style="margin-bottom: 2px;"><div class="icon enlargeThis" style="background-position: 0% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; margin-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 16px; text-align: right;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8896966065785019252" style="background-image: url(http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/icons/multimedia/enlarge_icon.gif); background-position: 0% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; color: #666699; display: inline; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1em; padding-left: 15px; text-decoration: none;">Enlarge This Image</a></div><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8896966065785019252" style="color: #666699; display: block; text-decoration: none;"><span itemid="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2013/04/04/world/asia/04korea/04korea-articleInline.jpg" itemprop="associatedMedia" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject"><img alt="" height="131" itemprop="url" src="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2013/04/04/world/asia/04korea/04korea-articleInline.jpg" style="border: none;" width="190" /></span></a></div><h6 class="credit" style="color: #909090; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 0.9em; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.223em; margin: 0px 0px 3px; text-align: right;">Jung Yeon-Je/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images</h6><div class="caption" style="color: #666666; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1em; line-height: 1.2727em;">Trucks from South Korea were turned back after being banned from entering a jointly operated industrial park in Kaesong, North Korea, on Wednesday.</div></div><div class="columnGroup doubleRule" style="background-image: url(http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/global/borders/doubleRule.gif); background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; border-width: 0px !important; clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 7px; padding-top: 12px; width: auto !important;"></div></div><div class="articleInline runaroundLeft collectionHeader" style="clear: left; display: inline; float: left; margin: 6px 15px 10px 0px !important; width: 190px;"><h6 class="sectionHeader flushBottom" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1.4em; line-height: 1.2857em; margin-bottom: 0px !important; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Multimedia</h6></div><div class="articleInline runaroundLeft firstArticleInline" style="clear: left; display: inline; float: left; margin-bottom: 10px !important; margin-left: 0px !important; margin-right: 15px !important; margin-top: 0px; width: 190px;"><div class="story expandAssetContainer" style="clear: both; cursor: pointer; height: auto; margin-bottom: 0px; min-height: 126px; position: relative; width: auto; z-index: 1;"><div class="thumbnailContainer"><div class="wideThumb" style="margin-bottom: 4px; width: 190px;"><img alt="" border="0" height="126" src="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2013/04/03/world/video-tc-130403-nkorea-kaesong/video-tc-130403-nkorea-kaesong-thumbWide.jpg" style="display: block;" width="190" /><a class="playOverlay" href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8896966065785019252" style="background-image: url(http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/global/icons/Play_34.png); background-position: 0% 100%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; color: #666699; display: block; height: 31px; margin: 5px 0px -37px 10px; position: relative; text-decoration: none; top: -45px; width: 34px; z-index: 10;"></a></div><h6 style="font-size: 1.2em; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.25em; margin: 0px;"><a class="video" href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8896966065785019252" style="background-image: url(http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/icons/multimedia/video_icon.gif); background-position: 4px 4px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; color: #666699; padding: 4px 4px 3px 21px; text-decoration: none;">Inherited Tactics in North Korea</a></h6></div><div class="assetContainer" style="height: 0px; width: 190px; z-index: 1;"></div></div></div><div class="articleInline runaroundLeft lastArticleInline" style="clear: left; display: inline; float: left; margin-bottom: 10px !important; margin-left: 0px !important; margin-right: 15px !important; margin-top: 0px; width: 190px;"><div class="story" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px;"><div class="wideThumb" style="margin-bottom: 4px; width: 190px;"><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/02/05/world/asia/northkorea-timeline.html?ref=asia" style="color: #666699; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="" border="0" height="126" src="http://graphics8.nytimes.com//images/2013/02/05/world/asia/northkorea.jpg" style="border: none; display: block;" width="190" /><span class="mediaOverlay interactive" style="background-color: white; background-image: url(http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/icons/multimedia/interactive_icon.gif); background-position: 4px 4px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; color: black; cursor: pointer; display: block; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1em; line-height: 1.182em; margin-top: -20px; opacity: 0.8; padding: 3px 4px 4px 20px;">Multimedia Feature</span></a></div><h6 style="font-size: 1.2em; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.25em; margin: 0px;"><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/02/05/world/asia/northkorea-timeline.html?ref=asia" style="color: #666699; text-decoration: none;">Timeline on North Korea’s Nuclear Program</a></h6><h6 class="byline" style="color: grey; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1em; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.2em; margin: 2px 0px 0px;"></h6></div></div><div class="articleInline runaroundLeft" style="clear: left; display: inline; float: left; margin-bottom: 10px !important; margin-left: 0px !important; margin-right: 15px !important; margin-top: 0px; width: 190px;"><div class="articleInline runaroundLeft" style="clear: left; display: inline; float: left; margin: 6px 15px 10px 0px !important; width: 190px;"></div><div class="columnGroup singleRule" style="background-image: none !important; border-top-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; clear: both; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 7px; padding-top: 8px; width: auto !important;"><ul class="headlinesOnly multiline flush" style="list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px;"><li style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-size: 1.2em; line-height: 1.25em; margin-bottom: 0px; padding: 0px;"><h6 style="font-size: 1em; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.25em; margin: 0px;"><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/03/30/world/asia/estimated-range-of-north-korean-missiles.html?ref=asia" style="color: #666699; font-size: 1em; text-decoration: none;"><span class="media icon graphic" style="background-image: url(http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/icons/multimedia/graphic_icon.gif); background-position: 0% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 0.8em; padding-left: 16px; text-transform: uppercase;">GRAPHIC</span>: Estimated Range of North Korean Missiles</a></h6></li></ul></div><div class="columnGroup doubleRule" style="background-image: url(http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/global/borders/doubleRule.gif); background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; border-width: 0px !important; clear: both; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 7px; padding-top: 12px; width: auto !important;"><h3 class="sectionHeader" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1.4em; line-height: 1.2857em; margin: 0px 0px 8px;">Related</h3><ul class="headlinesOnly multiline flush" style="list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px;"><li style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-size: 1.2em; line-height: 1.25em; 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margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px;"><li style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-size: 1.2em; line-height: 1.25em; margin-bottom: 0px; padding: 0px;"><h6 style="font-size: 1em; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.25em; margin: 0px;"><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/04/opinion/its-north-korea-again.html?ref=asia" style="color: #666699; font-size: 1em; text-decoration: none;">Editorial: It’s North Korea, Again</a> (April 4, 2013)</h6></li></ul></div><div class="doubleRule" style="background-image: url(http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/global/borders/doubleRule.gif); background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; border-width: 0px !important; clear: both; margin-bottom: 12px; padding-top: 12px;"><div class="story" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px;"><div class="runaroundRight" style="clear: right; display: inline; float: right; margin: 2px 0px 6px 6px;"><a href="http://twitter.com/#!/nytimesworld" style="color: #666699; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="World Twitter Logo." height="75" src="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2012/04/26/world/nytimesworld-twitter-icon/nytimesworld-twitter-icon-thumbStandard.jpg" style="border: none;" width="75" /></a></div><h4 style="font-size: 1.4em; line-height: 1.1429em; margin: 0px;"><a href="http://twitter.com/#!/nytimesworld" style="color: #666699; text-decoration: none;">Connect With Us on Twitter</a></h4><div class="summary" style="font-size: 1.2em; line-height: 1.25em; margin-bottom: 5px;">Follow<a href="http://twitter.com/#!/nytimesworld" style="color: #666699; text-decoration: none;">@nytimesworld</a>for international breaking news and headlines.</div><div class="summary" style="font-size: 1.2em; line-height: 1.25em;"><a href="https://twitter.com/#!/nytimesworld/nyt-foreign-journalists/members" style="color: #666699; text-decoration: none;">Twitter List: Reporters and Editors</a></div></div></div><div class="inlineImage module" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 12px; width: 190px;"><div class="image" style="margin-bottom: 2px;"><div class="icon enlargeThis" style="background-position: 0% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; margin-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 16px; text-align: right;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8896966065785019252" style="background-image: url(http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/icons/multimedia/enlarge_icon.gif); background-position: 0% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; color: #666699; display: inline; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1em; padding-left: 15px; text-decoration: none;">Enlarge This Image</a></div><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8896966065785019252" style="color: #666699; display: block; text-decoration: none;"><span itemid="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2013/04/04/world/asia/04korea2/04korea2-articleInline.jpg" itemprop="associatedMedia" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject"><img alt="" height="127" itemprop="url" src="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2013/04/04/world/asia/04korea2/04korea2-articleInline.jpg" style="border: none;" width="190" /></span></a></div><h6 class="credit" style="color: #909090; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 0.9em; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.223em; margin: 0px 0px 3px; text-align: right;">Jeon Heon-Kyun/European Pressphoto Agency</h6><div class="caption" style="color: #666666; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1em; line-height: 1.2727em;"> South Korean soldiers with tanks prepared for a drill on Wednesday at the Mugeon-ri drill field near Paju, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea.</div></div></div><div class="articleBody" style="margin-bottom: 1.7em; margin-top: 1.5em;"><div data-key="NKhIil" data-num="1" itemprop="articleBody" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; margin-bottom: 1em;">North Korea has been issuing a blistering series of similar threats in recent weeks, citing as targets the American military installations in the Pacific islands of Hawaii and Guam, as well as the United States mainland. In its latest threat on Thursday, it did not name targets but said it was authorized to “take powerful, practical military counteractions” against the threats from B-2 bombers from the United States, B-52 bombers from Guam and F-22 Stealth jet fighters from United States bases in Japan that have recently run missions over the Korean Peninsula during joint military exercises with South Korea.</div><div data-key="Tmohbp" data-num="2" itemprop="articleBody" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; margin-bottom: 1em;">“The moment of explosion is approaching fast,” the general staff of the North Korean People’s Army said in a statement carried by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency. “The U.S. had better ponder over the prevailing grave situation.”</div><div data-key="MadSwt" data-num="3" itemprop="articleBody" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; margin-bottom: 1em;">Most analysts do not believe that North Korea has a missile powerful enough to deliver a nuclear warhead to the United States mainland or that it is reckless enough to strike the American military in the Pacific. Still, with the North’s bellicose postures showing no signs of letting up, the United States announced Wednesday that it was speeding the deployment of an advanced missile defense system to Guam in the next few weeks, two years ahead of schedule, in what the Pentagon said was a “precautionary move” to protect American naval and air forces from the threat of a North Korean missile attack.</div><div data-key="TbaTnm" data-num="4" itemprop="articleBody" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; margin-bottom: 1em;">Testifying before a parliamentary hearing, Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin of South Korea said the missile North Korea had moved to the east coast, possibly “for demonstration or for training,” appeared not to be a KN-08, which analysts say is the closest thing North Korea has to an intercontinental ballistic missile, though its exact range is not known. The new missile was unveiled during a military parade in the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, last April.</div><div data-key="SKmGin" data-num="5" itemprop="articleBody" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; margin-bottom: 1em;">South Korean media quoted unnamed military sources as saying that the missile was a Musudan. Deployed around 2007, the Musudan is a ballistic missile with a range of more than 1,900 miles, according to the South Korean Defense Ministry. Guam is nearly 2,200 miles from North Korea.</div><div data-key="WYaWYa" data-num="6" itemprop="articleBody" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; margin-bottom: 1em;">Wee Yong-sub, an army colonel and deputy spokesman for the Defense Ministry, would say only that the South Korean and American military have been closely monitoring the movements of all North Korean missiles, including the Musudan.</div><div data-key="CanBgt" data-num="7" itemprop="articleBody" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; margin-bottom: 1em;">“Chances are not high that they will lead to a full-scale war,” said Mr. Kim, the defense minister, referring to the North Korean threats. “But given the nature of the North Korean regime, it’s possible that they will launch a localized provocation.”</div><div data-key="OTfIaw" data-num="8" itemprop="articleBody" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; margin-bottom: 1em;">On Thursday, for a second straight day, North Korea blocked South Koreans from crossing the border to enter a jointly operated industrial park, threatening the future of the last remaining symbol of inter-Korean cooperation. It also warned that it would pull out more than 53,000 North Korean workers from the joint factory park, located in the North Korean city of Kaesong, if taunts from the South Korean news media continued.</div><div data-key="AtNAtN" data-num="9" itemprop="articleBody" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; margin-bottom: 1em;">After the North’s threat to close the industrial complex last week, some South Korean media reports said the North Korean leader, <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/k/kim_jongun/index.html?8qa" style="color: #666699;">Kim Jong-un</a>, would be all talk but no action when it came to the park because he did not want to risk one of his most precious sources of hard currency.</div><div data-key="AtUOTi" data-num="10" itemprop="articleBody" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; margin-bottom: 1em;">After the United Nations Security Council imposed <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/08/world/asia/north-korea-warns-of-pre-emptive-nuclear-attack.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0" style="color: #666699;">further sanctions</a> against the North for its launching of a three-stage rocket in December and its third nuclear test in February, North Korea has appeared to harden its stance considerably. It said it would never negotiate away its nuclear weapons arsenal, but would instead expand it. On Tuesday, it declared that it would restart a nuclear reactor that gave it a small stockpile of plutonium and would readjust its uranium-enrichment plant for weapons efforts.</div><div data-key="PpWOot" data-num="11" itemprop="articleBody" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; margin-bottom: 1em;">Photographs published Wednesday on the Web site <a href="http://38north.org/" style="color: #666699;">38 North</a>, which follows North Korean developments, show new construction at the aging reactor, dating back several weeks. Once operational, the reactor can produce one bomb’s worth of plutonium a year.</div><div data-key="TPdTPd" data-num="12" itemprop="articleBody" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; margin-bottom: 1em;">The Pentagon’s decision to deploy a new missile defense system to Guam now is the latest in a series of steps intended to deter the North from either military action or new missile tests.</div><div data-key="EtwTwg" data-num="13" itemprop="articleBody" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; margin-bottom: 1em;">Earlier this week, the Defense Department announced that two of the Navy’s Aegis-class missile defense warships were positioned in the Pacific to monitor North Korea. Installing the land-based missile system in Guam will free up the ships, which have radar and interceptor missiles, to be repositioned closer to the North Korean coast. That would give President Obama a wider range of options if the North Koreans fire their missiles in a test or at a target.</div><div data-key="WhmBww" data-num="14" itemprop="articleBody" style="font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; margin-bottom: 1em;">“We haven’t made any decisions,” a senior administration official said. “But we want as many options as possible.”</div><div><br /></div><nyt_author_id><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"></span><div class="authorIdentification" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 2.8em;"></div></nyt_author_id></div></div>

North Korea North Korea Moves Missile to Coast, but Limited Threat Seen

SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea’s defense chief said on Thursday that North Korea had moved to its east coast a missile with a “considerabl...

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Hokey Pokey

Hokey Pokey - all the way from New Zealand!<br /><br />'twas very nice - tasted a bit like Cadburys Crunchy pieces in chocolate. <br/><br/><div class="separator"style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfDBjPRBUWNKqsx1qxr4diXTXBKOSB4O9qPTNuqDrZwTc0sb5KKfL4XxZecUuQ4DPfJUyEIGvKEvRLLfTMvedIxkRSPQY1rFz7N0E-0D5xYGFITyqlB8GARq7iieGBUwDGM63MxENf41xT/s640/blogger-image-531761197.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfDBjPRBUWNKqsx1qxr4diXTXBKOSB4O9qPTNuqDrZwTc0sb5KKfL4XxZecUuQ4DPfJUyEIGvKEvRLLfTMvedIxkRSPQY1rFz7N0E-0D5xYGFITyqlB8GARq7iieGBUwDGM63MxENf41xT/s640/blogger-image-531761197.jpg" /></a></div> <br/><br/><div class="separator"style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghbMzcRlkKkWYVKPTrRVRXejW-JNxyLDdfgZAzAPuD3WIzS5mlWW_iDYhOXhJyHOcYostaFO_M9boz6LkcQjvUwMJJnm1rQcSvVSsE3HVcZsfCSPCFk_JPCg2RdluQ_97dokaaxo0echyphenhyphenO/s640/blogger-image-171652174.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghbMzcRlkKkWYVKPTrRVRXejW-JNxyLDdfgZAzAPuD3WIzS5mlWW_iDYhOXhJyHOcYostaFO_M9boz6LkcQjvUwMJJnm1rQcSvVSsE3HVcZsfCSPCFk_JPCg2RdluQ_97dokaaxo0echyphenhyphenO/s640/blogger-image-171652174.jpg" /></a></div> <br/><br/><div class="separator"style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-BNruLfcl5P1ayn65yUXXS7L7f2YXMkAtNk2W5PVD5KPyS5AtFKTmDUlCjXXKxGWGhDmmHnwClS31bePWLNBlTuElz_9TLcO5jrvTJS5EG0LRer-RIClZqRulqWJdLW1FVYzLq0ET5h9M/s640/blogger-image-1373153153.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-BNruLfcl5P1ayn65yUXXS7L7f2YXMkAtNk2W5PVD5KPyS5AtFKTmDUlCjXXKxGWGhDmmHnwClS31bePWLNBlTuElz_9TLcO5jrvTJS5EG0LRer-RIClZqRulqWJdLW1FVYzLq0ET5h9M/s640/blogger-image-1373153153.jpg" /></a></div>

Hokey Pokey

Hokey Pokey - all the way from New Zealand! 'twas very nice - tasted a bit like Cadburys Crunchy pieces in chocolate.

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The Nocebo Effect: How We Worry Ourselves Sick : The New Yorker

Many of us hope to find Wi-Fi wherever we go, preferably for free. But some people devote their lives to avoiding Wi-Fi altogether. Sufferers of Wi-Fi syndrome say that the radio waves used in mobile communication cause headaches, nausea, exhaustion, tingling, trouble concentrating, and gastrointestinal distress, among other symptoms. Some of the most afflicted take drastic action. According to the Agence France-Presse, one woman left her farmhouse in southeastern France after the arrival of mobile-phone masts (which, like Wi-Fi, use radio waves) and fled for a cave in the Alps. A handful of others have moved to homes within the United States National Radio Quiet Zone, a vast area of mountainous terrain on the Virginia-West Virginia border, where Wi-Fi, cell phones, and other technologies are severely limited to protect a nearby radio telescope. Scientists have given the syndrome a mouthful of a name: "idiopathic environmental intolerance attributed to electromagnetic fields," or I.E.I.-E.M.F. But no one has found any good evidence that we are at any risk.<br /><br><br /><br>Wi-Fi syndrome does, however, make sense in the context of a larger phenomenon: the "nocebo effect," the placebo effect's malevolent Mr. Hyde. With placebos ("I will please" in Latin), the mere expectation that treatment will help brings a diminution of symptoms, even if the patient is given a sugar pill. With nocebos ("I will harm"), dark expectations breed dark realities. In clinical drug trials, people often report the side effects they were warned about, even if they are taking a placebo. In research on fibromyalgia treatments, eleven per cent of the people taking the equivalent of sugar pills experienced such debilitating side effects that they dropped out.<br /><br><br /><br>The nocebo effect is not confined to clinical trials. After the 1995 Aum Shinrikyo sarin nerve-gas attack in Tokyo, for example, hospitals were flooded with patients suffering from the highly publicized potential symptoms, like nausea and dizziness, but who had not, it turned out, been exposed to the sarin. This is common in disasters where the agent is invisible, as with chemicals or radiation. At the extreme are the occasional outbreaks of mass symptoms with no discernable physical cause, such as a famous case at a Tennessee high school that was evacuated after a teacher reported a "gasoline-like" smell and feelings of dizziness. About a hundred students and staff were taken to the emergency room, and thirty-eight were kept overnight. An extensive investigation found no evidence of any chemical presence, and researchers have since concluded it was a "mass psychogenic illness."<br /><br><br /><br>As for Wi-Fi syndrome, a recent analysis of forty-six studies involving nearly twelve hundred volunteers concluded, similarly, that the signals do not cause the symptoms. In one experiment, researchers in Austria had people spend several nights sleeping in a cocoon of custom-engineered bed netting, but found it made no difference whether or not the netting stopped electromagnetic signals. One careful study of mobile-phone waves found a significant pattern of headaches, but it turned out the headache cluster fell in the control group—those who had not been exposed to signals. (There is also no convincing evidence of a link between cell phones and brain cancer, another common fear.)<br /><br><br /><br>I spoke recently with Michael Witthöft, a German scientist who has been looking into medically unexplained syndromes for more than a decade. The results of his latest inquiry, conducted with a colleague at Kings College London, should make any journalist cringe. Witthöft recruited volunteers, gave them a bevy of psychological tests, and then divided them into two groups. He showed one group a BBC broadcast about the "dangers" of Wi-Fi, featuring all the usual tropes of scare TV: ominous music, uncritical interviews, alarmist narration, and jarring cutaways to cell-phone towers. Witthöft showed the second group a program on mobile-phone security. Then each volunteer was brought into a small room, seated in front of a computer, and fitted with an ungainly headband holding a silver antenna described as a "Wi-Fi amplifier." They were told to push a button—a red Wi-Fi symbol flashed on the screen—and wait fifteen minutes.<br /><br><br /><br>There was, in fact, no Wi-Fi in operation, but Witthöft still observed dramatic effects. Sitting in the room with the (fake) Wi-Fi caused tingling in fingers, hands, and feet; pressure and tingling in the head; stomachaches; and trouble concentrating. Two of the subjects found the experience so unpleasant that they had to stop before their time was up. (Only the more anxious volunteers who saw the scare TV reacted badly.) Witthöft's work, and a similar experiment just published on wind-turbine complaints, draws a direct line between irresponsible journalism and health problems. Following a first scare, Witthöft told me, some people seem to get caught in cycles of negative reinforcement. They experience physical symptoms, leading them to pay closer attention to how their body feels. Hypervigilance leads them to notice more symptoms—is that a new tingle?—and become more alarmed. They then withdraw in an effort to avoid what ails them, which can lead to depression, which can itself aggravate the symptoms. In the worst case, they might head for the nearest cave.<br /><br><br /><br>"Placebo" has come to mean fake, but, as Michael Specter explained in a feature last year, that's not quite right. The effects are real—so real, in fact that some scientists argue that doctors should receive more training in using placebos, and make them a regular part of their practice. Patients given placebos experience biochemical changes that improve their condition. Placebo painkillers activate the body's natural analgesics. Parkinson's placebos prompt the brain to release dopamine; anxiety and depression placebos elicit changes in the areas of the brain that regulate emotion. One particularly remarkable study recruited patients with irritable-bowel syndrome and told them that their treatment would be "pills made of an inert substance, like sugar pills, that have been shown in clinical studies to produce significant improvement in I.B.S. symptoms through mind-body self-healing processes." Even though the treatment was a placebo, and even though the patients knew it was a placebo, they showed significant improvement.<br /><br><br /><br>With the recognition of the nocebo effect, though, some doctors now speak of an odd ethical dilemma: the Hippocratic Oath dictates "do no harm," but being honest with patients about potential side effects increases the odds that they will experience them. One suggestion is to adopt an ignorance protocol: ask patients for their permission not to tell them about minor drug side effects. A less fraught alternative is for doctors to speak more carefully, working hard to put the negatives into their proper place. If doctors say "the great majority of patients tolerate this treatment very well" before giving a flu shot, patients experience fewer "adverse events." The larger problem lies outside the clinic: the Internet has become a powerful—and, to some, irresistible—nocebo dosing machine. In another day, it took weeks or even months for a person to gather enough reading to become very, very afraid. Now one can achieve a state of dread in a few short hours, surrounded by the comforts of home.<br /><br><br /><br><a href="http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/elements/2013/04/the-nocebo-effect-how-we-worry-ourselves-sick.html?printable=true">http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/elements/2013/04/the-nocebo-effect-how-we-worry-ourselves-sick.html?printable=true</a>¤tPage=all

The Nocebo Effect: How We Worry Ourselves Sick : The New Yorker

Many of us hope to find Wi-Fi wherever we go, preferably for free. But some people devote their lives to avoiding Wi-Fi altogether. Sufferer...

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It's bright!

It is a lovely bright day in Dublin (but deceivingly cold). I snapped a pic of Christ Church as I drove to work. The sky is a gorgeous blue colour. <br/><br/><div class="separator"style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkq8Rl62pdq567hAKkbbNG6ZngoLY4EorovYlEZIcGN79kBDd8xhIfFimhIsVIFNoYLBnVUQdYpRX1lUBYOyQm0zB92STXZ7nv2K0-G8vOZVksfUPxw_hVngVXDLrrhViRgVVDDJmDZgYB/s640/blogger-image-2070955465.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkq8Rl62pdq567hAKkbbNG6ZngoLY4EorovYlEZIcGN79kBDd8xhIfFimhIsVIFNoYLBnVUQdYpRX1lUBYOyQm0zB92STXZ7nv2K0-G8vOZVksfUPxw_hVngVXDLrrhViRgVVDDJmDZgYB/s640/blogger-image-2070955465.jpg" /></a></div>

It's bright!

It is a lovely bright day in Dublin (but deceivingly cold). I snapped a pic of Christ Church as I drove to work. The sky is a gorgeous blue...

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Belgian Truffles

Have you ever tasted authentic Belgian Truffles? We are lucky to have a Leonidas Chocolate Shop in Dublin.<br /><br />My sister and I popped in for a sweet treat last week. We each had the delicious fresh cream coffee flavour "Manon"<br /><br />I told my sister about my trip to Belgium about a year ago and how just about every third shop is a chocolate truffle shop!! <br/><br/><div class="separator"style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiU4ac1IIJb_qindK3p6j-tW6enmfV2nAK-IEL9y4YOwHt02UhBpxJigMrnko7bSyPdS8LLOX0c65aVf_6nOFPj2Fon5T3dOnzsWXndwqYZmmMOC2KRRDNWUtyJpFQJEbTjo4nf8vACRqYc/s640/blogger-image--2020202524.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiU4ac1IIJb_qindK3p6j-tW6enmfV2nAK-IEL9y4YOwHt02UhBpxJigMrnko7bSyPdS8LLOX0c65aVf_6nOFPj2Fon5T3dOnzsWXndwqYZmmMOC2KRRDNWUtyJpFQJEbTjo4nf8vACRqYc/s640/blogger-image--2020202524.jpg" /></a></div> <br/><br/><div class="separator"style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBH-3lJQzOS5xcicL1zKSUt_ERWTIGP7loQiXd6VDgvgs4WfXTTUl-qD38nYgaSqC87zBxp1N6KERp7tbAKqZuuW0AvXB8NJKYbsNJdbeph66iaiXF8QCC-NCFxGHGDZB1IWQb8LGgn3pW/s640/blogger-image-49143096.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBH-3lJQzOS5xcicL1zKSUt_ERWTIGP7loQiXd6VDgvgs4WfXTTUl-qD38nYgaSqC87zBxp1N6KERp7tbAKqZuuW0AvXB8NJKYbsNJdbeph66iaiXF8QCC-NCFxGHGDZB1IWQb8LGgn3pW/s640/blogger-image-49143096.jpg" /></a></div> <br/><br/><div class="separator"style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB5t96_X-Qu0oY9wv9kl7v6iAr7q1WpkG-n6jozsVbm0CdxNLaoi4RMaD4oFcXKlqc0N_vQE6awdMjcU2LKWg0arBvIT7voDw3s_QDkeqpX8QNVKk5WeJaXLzowtjvYpaTFbRDbwIDfjUH/s640/blogger-image-840339248.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB5t96_X-Qu0oY9wv9kl7v6iAr7q1WpkG-n6jozsVbm0CdxNLaoi4RMaD4oFcXKlqc0N_vQE6awdMjcU2LKWg0arBvIT7voDw3s_QDkeqpX8QNVKk5WeJaXLzowtjvYpaTFbRDbwIDfjUH/s640/blogger-image-840339248.jpg" /></a></div> <br/><br/><div class="separator"style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSpFTiu5cb12BxYb2oX61il0LJWd7fJD8Z6q4j-HYjp8iXrpg5Hof3aA7oR6DIRyL_usnIjSD3qe3B9hIetncBNCZCWj84c9SVRR6ChgLBvjfTJ23hiT9Nb84DFBmYFbMT7X8p2c4VgVRs/s640/blogger-image-1701074035.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSpFTiu5cb12BxYb2oX61il0LJWd7fJD8Z6q4j-HYjp8iXrpg5Hof3aA7oR6DIRyL_usnIjSD3qe3B9hIetncBNCZCWj84c9SVRR6ChgLBvjfTJ23hiT9Nb84DFBmYFbMT7X8p2c4VgVRs/s640/blogger-image-1701074035.jpg" /></a></div> <br/><br/><div class="separator"style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZCn5GZ2a3A43prAHfEcRp0fVoetOIrjV4kznz3XJ7gpw-ARa8oH9DpykTN8L9hNJvUCVYszZ7vYiptIJYttA9A9XOY8RQZSyZS7BKKAbyHQ_FI1c_JTQewiNGwXNwu16-4q_-T3J2PDwZ/s640/blogger-image--1089419878.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZCn5GZ2a3A43prAHfEcRp0fVoetOIrjV4kznz3XJ7gpw-ARa8oH9DpykTN8L9hNJvUCVYszZ7vYiptIJYttA9A9XOY8RQZSyZS7BKKAbyHQ_FI1c_JTQewiNGwXNwu16-4q_-T3J2PDwZ/s640/blogger-image--1089419878.jpg" /></a></div> <br/><br/><div class="separator"style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipthCcv4eUdMVN0dcXpabk6erCuhrtIQYA3lnERjkoCssjgGQz3NAEhsKmBdEeseyoAw29xTHEEXUL1j6041Bt0c5rv-pUOPKzggbQ15uxom7ORpwO6ssKopYgIH_uERl5VEZG8BdroGG7/s640/blogger-image--1789715517.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipthCcv4eUdMVN0dcXpabk6erCuhrtIQYA3lnERjkoCssjgGQz3NAEhsKmBdEeseyoAw29xTHEEXUL1j6041Bt0c5rv-pUOPKzggbQ15uxom7ORpwO6ssKopYgIH_uERl5VEZG8BdroGG7/s640/blogger-image--1789715517.jpg" /></a></div>

Belgian Truffles

Have you ever tasted authentic Belgian Truffles? We are lucky to have a Leonidas Chocolate Shop in Dublin. My sister and I popped in for a ...

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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 ...

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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 fl...

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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 ...

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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 Yo...

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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—rea...

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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 tech...

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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 aft...

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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 ha...

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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...

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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 th...

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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 ...

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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 ...

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