More Sex and Violence

Tests for Mr. Pine

2011-03-07T14:48:00.000-08:00

There is some evidence that women are more predisposed to being affected by both depression and diabetes. This link between diabetes and depression, established in numerous studies over the last 10 years, got some sad reinforcement from a 10 year study that involved over 65000 subjects and a 10 year follow up period, according to a report in the November 22 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine.

The study, conducted with 65,381 women from the ages of 50 to 75, involved taking an initial questionnaire in 1996 and then taking follow up questionnaires for every two years afterward until 2006. The findings would seem to suggest that you were more likely to develop depression if you were diagnosed with diabetes than develop diabetes if you were depressed.

There are a number of stress factors involved with having diabetes that include, but are not limited to: the daily stress of diabetes management--numerous pin pricks, fretting over meals etc., and the physical symptoms that match or mirror depression such as lethargy or exhaustion. The disease of diabetes can seemingly resemble or drive the disease of depression and as the Harvard study shows the reverse can be true at least a quarter of the time.

An Pan, Ph.D., of the Harvard School of Public Health, recommended that future studies be done in order to figure out other differences in the diabetes/depression relationship in other population groups. Pan recommended that middle age groups focus on weight control and exercise to decrease the incidence of both diseases.

(253 words.)

(Mubarak has since resigned and the guy who replaced him has resigned! So I just put together some news articles of the day.)

Here's a roundup of the news from Egypt, continuously in flux (a nice way of saying we don't really know who's in charge) as of March 7th, 2011.

From Democracy Now: Egyptian Protesters Hail Selection of New Prime Minister

In news from Egypt, leaders of the pro-democracy movement are hailing the resignation of Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq. Shafiq was installed by President Hosni Mubarak a few days before he was forced out of office by a popular uprising. Former Transport Minister Essam Sharaf was tapped to replace him. Sharaf spent his first full day in office by visiting Tahrir Square to speak with protesters. The new prime minister was carried to and from the stage on the shoulders of people in the square. Sharaf vowed to join the protest movement if he is not able to institute their demands, which include an end to the longstanding emergency law and the release of political prisoners and other reforms.

From the Washington Post: Egyptian protesters storm torture centers and seize files. According to the story:

The protesters also said they found “the files of well-known Egyptian activists who faced torture,” Motaparthy reported, and demanded that “a representative from the public prosecutor’s office come and oversee safe transport of the documents.”The English-language Ahram Online newspaper added that the activists were “calling on whoever was detained or tortured there to join the protest and not leave before the military takes over.”

Here is a newsreel of news about what's happening in Egypt from Anti War:

	Clashes Reported in Cairo for First Time Since Mubarak Ousted
	Strife Continues Inside Egyptian State-Owned Media
	Answering the Public, Egypt Names a New Cabinet
	New Egypt Foreign Minister Likely to Be Tougher on Israel
	Egypt: A First Step Towards Prosecutions?
	Mubarak's Sons Got Fee From Israeli Gas Deal
	German Military Transports Hundreds of Refugees to Egyp

(307 words.)

Possible bad news for any politicians running for office in 2012: mortgage rates for housing is inching upward from their historic lows. Higher mortgage rates translate into decreased home building which leads to lower economic productivity. According to an article from the Associated Press, which is very picky about people excerpting or using segments of their articles: the average mortgage rate was at 5.05 percent, which is almost a full percentage point higher than in November when the rate hit a 40 year low.

The writers of the AP quote business observers that state that while the rates are higher this should not affect the still growing and infant recovery. Those observers said that the rates would have to go to about 6 percent in a very short period of time, like say gasoline prices, to have any effects on the nascent recovery.

Fortune writer Colin Barr wrote in agreement several weeks ago when he wrote an article titled: Don't sweat rising mortgage rates. He made this argument:

Yet houses are cheap enough that mortgage rates could even rise further without drastically damaging the affordability picture says Paul Dales of of Capital Economics in Toronto. He figures they could rise another point or two without really darkening the affordability picture, which for the past few years has been practically the only bright spot in the housing market. The recent increase in mortgage rates means buying the median house consumes 14% of median income – up from 13% at the October low. That's barely half of the 25% of income Americans were ill-advisely funneling into house purchases at the top of the housing bubble.He also expects low house prices to limit the fallout of higher costs that will result from the Obama administration's makeover of the deeply troubled U.S. mortgage finance system.

(300 words)

Vast Wasteland: I don't think the Oregon Vampire Rights Act is going to pass.

2010-08-19T22:23:00.000-07:00

ITEM: Let this mark the grand return of my Vast Wasteland TV Column. Last seen here.

I've been watching a lot of television lately, which is a good way to put off Ken Macleod books I should be finishing. Just short impressions:

True Blood: I don't think that the Oregon Vampire Rights Amendment is going to pass. I still think that our real world Just Say Now Marijuana legalization campaign has a shot, even though the Mormons and Barack Obama will probably be on the other side. I guess I should passively hope that a marijuana supporter won't fly into some Christian Broadcasting station and kill someone on camera by plunging a hand through the poor guy's chest and then snarl something about "eating your children". That wouldn't be helpful to the anti prohibition efforts I would think.

Rubicon: How does the lead character get his hair like that? I've seen characters with hair like that in anime but never real life. Its like some kind of arrow hat. Meanwhile, the side story of deciding to murder somebody with a UAV felt pretty realistic. Apparently, its always a go. I can believe that. No, really I can.

Burn Notice and Covert Affairs: I find these shows very entertaining. But, for the most part, we're the bad guys. We usually murder Democrats and replace them with Dictators. If you watch Burn Notice, then you'll understand why I think Simon would be the agent in good standing and Michael, who "helps" people, would be the one sent to some off the books black prison site. On the other hand, perhaps that's why Michael got burned: refused to assassinate Chavez. Related: Too poor for cable? I might be in that category myself soon. You can watch both of these shows online.

Related: Okay, you are too lazy to have read the Nation or the Progressive or Mother Jones for the last 28 years to know how evil our foreign policy is abroad. Can you watch a video? Try this one or this one or this one. I'll embed these over at Mirror Universe when I get a chance.

Oh, and one more thing: Jessica Centers is not credible.

And that Jessica Glynn Centers isn't credible either.

Let's be frank: Examiner.com editor Jessica Centers is not credible!

2010-08-10T16:59:00.000-07:00

Jessica Centers is simply not credible!

Best Free Online Sources of Television and Movies

2008-09-22T14:16:00.000-07:00

So I got the three in one cable deal a year or two back and I ended up paying about 100 dollars a month initially. Then when the reductions and rebates wore off that ballooned to about $150. So I got rid of most of my cable channels (I pay nine bucks a month for local channels, plus BET and the Golf channel, pretty much two of the most useless channels ever.) I kept my Internet service and my phone. It was actually cheaper to keep some cable channels as opposed to getting rid of it completely, although it looks like I may have been given some incorrect info from my helpful Comcast service provider.( An aside: I was originally told that if I got rid of all my remaining cable channels I would be paying about 110 a month for my two remaining services where if I kept some channels it would be 55 dollars a month for all three services. So I chose option two naively enough. I later found out that my bill would be closer to 80 bucks a month. Like I said: helpful, if you define "helpful" as a lack of accuracy or candor. Looking into Vonage as I type this...)

I have to admit I don't miss cable at all. The reason I don't miss cable at all is that I can pretty much watch all the television I want online. Here are some of the services I found and this is by no means a complete list.

Choose and Watch
Not the usual cable fare but over several hundred channels. Plus free porn. You shouldn't watch it because it repeats too often.

Online TV attempts VEOH and MIRO.
I haven't even attempted to check out their vast libraries yet.

Hulu
New attempt by Fox and NBC to put most of their television content online. There are shows here that I haven't seen in years and are especially cool to watch at night. Watching the Night Gallery right now.

Surf the Channel
Doesn't seem entirely legal. Should I be able to watch Jumper or American Gangster online... I'm just not sure.

Smashing Telly
A place to find online documentaries.

Better Humans TV
A great place to find bleeding edge science documentaries.

List of Online TV Stations from Zeropaid
Again, not totally legal I'm sure but it's hard to regulate those Asian Youtube stations.

The Acid Jazz Channel
The best music channel that I've ever made. I play mostly music at my music channel. Crazy huh?

And that's not even a complete list. I even found Farscape, one of my favorite science fiction shows. This week, two of the shows that I would have missed, Smallville and South Park (which puts all their shows online anyway.) I found online. Notice I haven't even had to use Bit Torrent yet. To be frank, you can get just about any show you want, including entire seasons from the Pirate Bay and other torrent sites. The legality of this seems to be in question. If you decide to break the law and use torrent to download shows, you might want to keep that to yourself and not mention that on your Facebook or Myspace page.

The Insurance Industry is Evil, but the Health Insurance Industry is Really Evil

2008-08-25T11:42:00.000-07:00

Here's a don't miss series by the Toledo Blade about the Health Care Industry. It's not pretty. This isn't exactly about, say, auto or car accidents, but the practice of "Deny, Delay and Deceive" seems to run across insurance families. Or as the story says: People with health insurance were harmed because insurers interfered.

Some Youtube vids.

Day One: Not what the doctor ordered.

Day Two:

Patient Peter Tsikns ordeal with Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield.

Study Finds Its Better to Settle in Most Cases

2008-08-25T11:04:00.000-07:00

As usual, you should consult your attorney. Just as a layman, I would imagine that there shouldn't be a large difference between a settlement and what you would get if a trial verdict goes your way. Full story here:

The vast majority of cases do settle — from 80 to 92 percent by some estimates, Mr. Kiser said — and there is no way to know whether either side in those cases could have done better at trial. But the findings, based on a study of 2,054 cases that went to trial from 2002 to 2005, raise provocative questions about how lawyers and clients make decisions, the quality of legal advice and lawyers’ motives.
Critics of the profession have long argued that lawyers have an incentive to try to collect fees that are contingent on winning in court or simply to bill for all the hours required to prepare and go to trial.
“What I would want them to look at was whether or not the lawyers had a strong financial incentive to go to trial,” said Cristina C. Arguedas, a criminal defense lawyer in Berkeley, Calif., when told of the study. “I’m not suggesting the answer, because I don’t know, but that would be my question.”
The study, which is to be published in the September issue of the Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, does not directly answer Ms. Arguedas, but it does find that the mistakes were made more often in cases in which lawyers are typically paid a share of whatever is won at trial.

How To Avoid Car Accidents

2008-08-25T10:41:00.000-07:00

This comes from the California and Insurance Blog about things you shouldn't do in your car:

Parents magazine has a list in its July, 2008 edition with "5 Totally Unsafe Car Moves." Their top 5:

Climbing into the backseat, while the car is moving;
Picking up your baby while the car is moving;
Traveling with pets loose in the car;
Packing the car to the gills; (My car doesn't have gills, does yours?)
Forgetting to double-check the car seat.

I have to tell you, other than #3 and maybe #4, none of these ever come up. After three kids, I can not count any times when anyone climbed into the backseat to be with the kids. The idea never even cross our minds. Nor did #2 or #5. I have traveled with an old dog to the vet with him sitting next to me. And once in a while, we put a lot of luggage in the car for a road trip. (Although, with gas prices being so high, the road trips are done for a while.)

Here are my 5 totally unsafe car moves:

Putting on makeup while driving;
Shaving while driving;
Text messaging while driving;
Changing your clothes while driving;
Passing things between cars while driving.

Share your totally unsafe car moves with me.

I think you would be better off if you just ignore kids and makeup entirely but that's just me.

Common Sense About Tattoo Removal

2008-08-16T10:48:00.000-07:00



Common sense should prevail when you ask yourself should I remove my authentic Mali face tattoo
before I interview for a job that I really want. Or if you're like most people: a job that you
really need.

While times have changed and most people won’t assume you’re an unsavory sailor or an
ex con or that really scary guy Robert De Niro played in Cape Fear that you could read then you
should still expect the worst from your employer. That goes double if you’re in any kind of entry
level job where at will work rules prevail. “At will”, by the way, means that your
employer can fire you go for any reason. Now, if you have actually done any work in the work
place, then you will run into people who are completely insane and will stretch that version of
“any reason” into pretty much any reason. He or she just might not like you. They
might not like the cut of your jib, whatever a “jib” happens to be. You might work in
a office with a dress code that requires a short shirt that shows off your flaming arm tats. Your
tattoo just gives them an excuse to show off their authority.

Or, worse than the psychopathic boss that I can promise that you’ll run into, your tattoos
could actually be a legitimate hindrance to your job. If you’re working with a clientele
that’s conservative or that doesn’t like people with tattoos then it’s your
job—if you want that job—to get rid of that tattoo. If you have a family to feed, or just
yourself, then you have to get rid of things that hinder you in the workplace. That’s what
grownups do anyway.

Now, for tattoos that are on parts of your body that aren’t visible—for example the Henry
Rollins tats on the back—then that’s a problem that can be easily solved. If you have
tattoos on your legs or your arms then you might make a disciplined decision to cover up both your
legs and your arms when you’re at work. You certainly would want to do that for any kind of
job interview that you’re serious about. Ditto for any kind of odd piercings that you would
even suspect would be a turn off. You might even want to continue that policy if you’re
company has a strict dress code and they’re a bit touchy about it.

Yet what about those tattoos that you can’t easily hide or on parts of your body that you
can’t conceal, such as your face or upper neck? This depends on the job of course, but if
you’re an adult and you act like an adult then you need to consider professional removal of
those tattoos. The technology has improved over the years and in this economy—whch looks like it
will get worse before it gets better—then your job is probably the most important thing that you
have.

You simply can’t afford to lose your job over a cosmetic decision that you made in your late
teens.

So grow up and make the make the right choice for you and your family, if you’re planning on
having a career that will allow you to support one. Have those job killing tattoos removed by a
professional.

What I Said Over At Booman's

2008-07-03T21:50:00.000-07:00

Re: Obama Responds on FISA (4.00 / 2)

One more thing: all that consultation with Jeff and Chris doesn't mean smack without the filibuster. The republicans, evil as they are, will fight tooth and nail for business interests. They use the filibuster so much I've lost count. And they do it because they represent evil and they believe in evil. The least good for the least in number is their mantra. Meanwhile, the dems reflect the old Richard Hofstadter argument in that the GOP appears more authentic because they really openly represent evil, where dems cave and mess around and flippity flop and in true Clintonian style usually end up supporting evil too. The Dems have become a business party that only pretends to give a fuck about the "common" people. It's also why the public sees them as vacillating and weak. Deservedly so I might add.

Here's a great opportunity for the dems to show their spine on one issue. Hard to see other issues they're showing spine on. And you think when we have 61 or 95 dems that would change with the current leadership? 39 Republicans and handful of dems will continue to do the devils work. It will the mich sens and Mary when real alt fuel and cafe standards are proposed. Insurance companies will put the lock on Chris when the overall Obama plan fails and the plan b medicaid for everyone option is floated. They'll get our guy bob casey and those awful southern dem senators on the social issues stuff...

One final thing: a very wise man, Nathan Newman, said that the dems should have used the fillibuster when they were in the minority and gladly let the republican majority strip it from them. Now that looks pretty good. But what happened is that DLC/AIPAC duopoly essentially preserved the right of the fillibuster for the republicans to use in case some wacko decided to try and pass a bill that would help the public...I'm not mad at anybody I intend to vote for Barry but this is the reality. No substantive change in our lives will come from this government. There's other things that can be done though...one or two of them anyway. Hope space exploration makes a singularity like leap and I'm off to Mars. I hear the soil is good for asparagus..

Philip Shropshire http://www.threeriversonline.com

They Shoot Palestinians Don't They?

2008-06-21T23:20:00.000-07:00

Found this over at Fred Lapides porn site, which is one of the better porn sites out there. Fred, though, oftentimes serves as an apologist for Israeli atrocities. You will see him cry over dead horses, but not murdered Palestinians. How American.

Test Post

2007-09-04T14:39:00.000-07:00

I really think that the solution to the gun problem isn't gun control (There are about 100 million guns in the streets. You would just create a black market. Criminals certainly would get theirs I might add.) but freely available bullet resistant materials such as shields, book bags, with possibly some nonlethal weaponry thrown in. So, last week was a good week for me when it comes to bullet proof backpacks for kids, knife resistant clothing (the company is called Bladerunner) and this kewl new nonlethal gun that looks like it was designed by Syd Mead. It comes in pretty colors too. Related: Trailer for the Life and Times of Syd Mead.