This Bird Is Tweeting
Posted by Michelle Moquin on November 10th, 2009
Good morning!
I am sure that all of you by now have noticed that this bird, moi, has joined twitter and is now tweeting! Join twitter and come follow my tweets. It’s easy to join and much more simpler than FaceBook. Although I am not knocking FB. I faced off awhile ago but I am back at it again and have figured out how not to be on it for hours on end. Now I am enjoying connecting with so many of you on all 3 venues. I have even recently joined some of my fave websites where my comments are now connected to my twitter. Pretty cool. So if you are having a hard time commenting here, or just want to connect in another way, join twitter and come tweet me baby!
Okay enough of blog biz.
Hi Mike: Thanks for the compliment and the offer. If I could be in SF at 4:00 on Thursday, I would be there to support but I work during the day so it is a no go for me. Are you going to be there? Let us know how it goes – thanks.
Eunice: My pleasure.
Libby: I removed that ad of Newt – As you can see it’s still up. – it takes a while to get it out of the system. But hey, maybe I should keep it for that one purpose. :) Since you joined – please keep us posted.
Anon, Anon 2: Well, well, well….are either of you close friends of mine? I can’t imagine that if either of you knew me well, you would know that my blog would never be a subject that you could not broach. Are you just too shy or is it something else? I spoke about my blog several times that evening, and happy to do so. So no, I do not mind being approached in public – why would I? I love chatting about my blog.
Let me guess….hmmm were either of you amongst the 4 in the bedroom who were totally silent when I was speaking to a woman who I just met, about my blog? I knew all of you quite well except for the one guy….And even though we haven’t seen each other in years, we had all grown up together, and yet not one of you said a word when this new acquaintance and I were chatting it up. Yeah I noticed the silence. :) Look, I won’t put you on the spot. I don’t expect you to answer. I just find it humorous that both of you had topics that you wanted to discuss yet you didn’t come up to me. You must know that I am so approachable. And if you didn’t, you do now! Talk to me.
Hey Zen Lill: As much as I agree that we need to pump up availability and research in prevention, I am not sure if you are saying that you personally would not like to pay for penile dysfunction products, viagra or abortions, meaning that people in general should get these for free through health insurance etc., or if you mean the government public option, should not subsidize these products and procedures.
A ‘personal decision‘ is a very shady area in my mind. Circumstances change. People change. Sometimes women get pregnant, and the man gets cold feet and leaves. Should a woman be forced to have the baby as a single parent? Women can be persuaded into pregnancy thinking that she does want a child, gets pregnant, and then wakes up one morning, reality hits and she realizes that maybe she really doesn’t want a baby. Maybe a young woman wants to have a child, gets pregnant, and a month later gets the raise and promotion that she has been working so hard for, but knows she won’t get the support from her boss – a man. She makes a tough decision and opts to have an abortion, knowing that she can live the dream job and have children later. My girlfriend just went through this only she chose to have a baby, and her boss, a man, laid her off – she is now in a law suit.
The point being, having a child is a huge life changer. I know you know this even better than me :)
I just feel that during the decision process, women can change their minds, and they have every right to. And women should be supported for changing their minds if they choose. There are all sorts of personal reasons and decisions why women chose to get pregnant and then choose to have an abortion. And because women are the only ones who truly experience this on a physical level not to mention an emotional level, women need to be supported by it. And worrying whether they will be covered by it, shouldn’t be an issue.
Here’s an article that I read this morning on the Huff Post. (I tweeted it too :)
Boxer: Senate Has Votes To Block Stupak Amendment
One of Congress’s foremost champions of abortion rights said on Monday that the Senate did not have the votes to add a more restrictive anti-abortion amendment to health care reform legislation.
Senator Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) said that 60 votes would be needed to strip the current health care bill of its abortion-related language and replace it with a version resembling that passed by the House of Representatives on Saturday. And, in an interview with the Huffington Post, the California Democrat predicted that pro-choice forces in the Senate would keep that from happening.
“If someone wants to offer this very radical amendment, which would really tear apart [a decades-long] compromise, then I think at that point they would need to have 60 votes to do it,” Boxer said. “And I believe in our Senate we can hold it.”
“It is a much more pro-choice Senate than it has been in a long time,” she added. “And it is much more pro-choice than the House.”
Boxer’s reading of the political landscape might seem like the hopeful spin of an abortion-rights defender. But it was seconded by a far less pro-choice lawmaker, Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.)
“It would have to be added,” sad the Montana Democrat of an amendment that mirrored that offered Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) in the House. “I doubt it could pass.”
Speaking days after House Democrats helped pass the Stupak provision — which would greatly restrict private insurers from covering abortion — Boxer and Baucus’s proclamations are undoubtedly music to the ears of pro-choice activists. President Obama, likewise, stressed during an interview with ABC News Monday night that he would like to see the Stupak amendment changed before a final version of health care legislation is produced.
In making her argument, Boxer described the provision as inherently prejudiced, as well as bad policy and unfair politics. The Stupak amendment, she said, would deny women access to “a legal medical procedure” even if she agrees to pay for it with private funds (a supplemental policy would have to be purchased to cover abortion).
“It’s bad enough on the first count, but on the second count it seems to me very unfair and very discriminatory,” she said. “I don’t see them picking out anything that a man relies on, any kind of procedure that a man relies on. This is very discriminatory towards women.”
She noted that it was predominantly men who were making these policy decisions.
“In all my years in politics, this is what it’s been like,” Boxer said. “This is the way it is. It always amazes me. The leading voices always, since I’ve been in Congress, have always been males. And that is one of the reasons why I think it is so important to have more women. Not that every woman is pro-choice. It is not true. But most of the women are.”
“And so when I see man after man come down there I just feel, in my heart our of hearts: Why don’t you trust women to make this decision? We are deserving of your trust,” the senator added.
Currently, the Senate bill’s language would allow for insurers participating in a health care exchange to cover abortions so long as they ensured that federal funds are not used to pay for the procedure. An amendment similar to Stupaks’ effort — which was offered by Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) — had already been voted down in the Senate Finance Committee.
To re-introduce such a provision, Boxer said, 60 senators would be required to cut off debate on the floor. And the votes for that, she said, likely won’t materialize.
“If they try to add the language we would try to stop them,” she said. “If somebody wants to take it out they are going to need 60 votes to take it out… And my view is that we do have the numbers.”
Boxer is slated to meet on Tuesday with Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) as well as other Democratic women in the Senate to discuss the topic of abortion vis-à-vis health care reform.
“When we sat down to do health care, I thought there was an understanding that we would be abortion-neutral,” she said. “In other words we wouldn’t change anything on abortion; that federal funds couldn’t be used but of course private funds could as long as this was legal. And Roe v. Wade is the law of the land.”
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Hey BTK: Loved your comment – you are so right on. And here…on my blog….you can say anything you like, even twice :) – go for it.
Jeff: Awesome – thanks for making such a big commitment.
Readers: Comments? Thoughts? Complaints? Compliments :) – blog me or tweet me!
Gratefully your blog host,
michelle
Aka BABE: Your Bad Ass Bitch Editor
If you love my blog and my writes, please make a donation via PayPal, credit card, or e-check, please click the ‘Donate’ button below. (Please only donations from those readers within the United States. – International readers please see my ‘Donate’ page)
November 10th, 2009 at 11:12 am
VIDEO MOTIVATES DECISION-MAKING ABOUT END-OF-LIFE CARE
All religious beliefs aside, medical and legal experts counsel individuals to create living wills and advance health care directives and to name health care proxies before we actually need them. Doing so can save immeasurable pain and heartache for your loved ones if you are incapacitated. Now, new research reports that when people view videos of patients in such a state, it helps provide a better understanding of the reality of what those final days might look and feel like for all involved… which in turn helps people decide about the level of care they’d like to receive if and when they fall ill.
PICTURES SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS
At Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, researchers led by Angelo Volandes, MD, examined how video could be used to help older people make health care decisions about possible future illness — dementia, in particular. In a randomized, controlled study at four primary care clinics, 200 healthy people 65 and older were divided into two groups. One group listened to an oral presentation on dementia, while the other listened to the same presentation and also viewed a two-minute video of a daughter’s visit with her 80-year-old mother who had advanced dementia and was being cared for in a nursing home. The daughter lovingly feeds the woman dinner while attempting conversation, but her mother is unable to respond.
Immediately after the presentations, researchers outlined care options for people with advanced dementia. Included were life-prolonging care, which uses all medical means to extend life… limited care to maintain physical functioning… or comfort care to provide only measures that alleviate pain and discomfort. They asked participants which they’d choose if they had the disease. They found that…
In the group that listened to the oral presentation, 64% opted for comfort care… 19% limited care… 14% life-prolonging care… and 3% were unsure.
In the video group, 86% chose comfort care… 9% limited care… 4% life-prolonging care… and 1% were unsure.
When asked again six weeks later, people who had viewed the video were less likely to change their minds. In the verbal group, 29% altered their preferences, compared with only 6% in the video group.
Results of the study were published in the May 28, 2009, online edition of BMJ. View the video at http://www.bmj.com/video/care_preferences_dementia.dtl.
MAKE PLANS WHEN YOU ARE STILL WELL
The video is not meant to steer viewers in a particular direction and also does not replace discussion, Dr. Volandes emphasizes. It does provide information and reinforcement for vitally important conversations. He told me that he believes that video can be a valuable tool to help give people a realistic understanding of what it is like to live with advanced dementia. The vast majority of participants said that they would recommend the video to others — which suggests that they were comfortable with it, not frightened or intimidated.
Dr. Volandes told me that in his experience, seniors want to talk about end-of-life issues and welcome an opportunity to make informed decisions. He recommends raising these issues with your doctor and family to make your preferences clear. Do this when you can discuss matters calmly and dispassionately, when you are still healthy — or as soon as possible after a serious disease is diagnosed. Knowing the facts gives you the tools to make an informed decision — and when the decision relates to how to spend the final days of your life, the stakes couldn’t be higher.
Source(s):
Angelo Volandes, MD, is a faculty member in the General Medicine Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, both in Boston. Dr. Volandes’s research is focused on empirical and philosophical analysis of contemporary ethical issues in medicine.
November 10th, 2009 at 2:03 pm
I will be commenting, or attempting to on this article in the Huffington post. As you can see the bigots and misogynists are as bad as ever.
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The New York Post editor fired after speaking out against a cartoon depicting the author of the president’s stimulus package as a dead chimpanzee has sued the paper. And as part of her complaint, Sandra Guzman levels some remarkable, embarrassing, and potentially damaging allegations.
Guzman has filed a complaint against News Corporation, the New York Post and the paper’s editor in chief Col Allan in the Southern District Court of New York, alleging harassment as well as “unlawful employment practices and retaliation.”
As part of the 38-page complaint, Guzman paints the Post newsroom as a male-dominated frat house and Allan in particular as sexist, offensive and domineering. Guzman alleges that she and others were routinely subjected to misogynistic behavior. She says that hiring practices at the paper — as well as her firing — were driven by racial prejudices rather than merit.
And she recounts the paper’s D.C. bureau chief stating that the publication’s goal was to “destroy [President] Barack Obama.”
The most outrageous charges, however, involve Allan. According to the complaint:
“On one occasion when Ms. Guzman and three female employees of the Post were sharing drinks at an after-work function. Defendant Allan approached the group of women, pulled out his blackberry and asked them ‘What do you think of this?’ On his blackberry was a picture of a naked man lewdly and openly displaying his penis. When Ms. Guzman and the other female employees expressed their shock and disgust at being made to view the picture, Defendant Allan just smirked… [N]o investigation was ever conducted and the Company failed to take any steps to address her complaints.”
Guzman’s complaint goes on:
“On another occasion, upon information and belief, Defendant Allan approached a female employee during a party at the Post, rubbed his penis up against her and made sexually suggestive comments about her body, including her breasts, causing that female employee to feel extremely uncomfortable and fearing to be alone with him.”
And finally: “… [W]hile serving as the top editor at the Post, Defendant Allan took two Australian political leaders to the strip club Scores in Manhattan…”
Guzman alleges that while at the paper, misogynistic and racist behavior was directed at her specifically. According to the complaint, she was called “sexy” and “beautiful” and referred to as “Cha Cha #1″ by Les Goodstein, the senior vice president of NewsCorp. After doing an interview with Major League Baseball star Pedro Martinez, she says Allan asked her whether the pitcher “had been carrying a gun or a machete during the interview” — a line Guzman said was racist and offensive.
When she would walk by certain offices at the paper, Guzman alleges, editors would routinely sing songs from West Side Story — a nod to her Hispanic heritage — including the tune: “I want to live in America.”
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Here goes
BillytheKidd
November 10th, 2009 at 2:19 pm
Thank you BTK for your support. With Helena in mind I want to submit this interesting note.
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Barbara Walters, of 20/20, did a story on gender roles in Kabul, Afghanistan several years before the Afghan conflict. She noted that women customarily walked five paces behind their husbands.
She recently returned to Kabul and observed that women still walk behind their husbands. Despite the overthrow of the oppressive Taliban regime, the women now seem to, and are happy to, maintain the old custom.
Ms. Walters approached one of the Afghani women and asked, ‘Why do you now seem happy with an old custom that you once tried so desperately to change?’
The woman looked Ms. Walters straight in the eyes and without hesitation said, “Land Mines.”
Moral of the story is (no matter what language you speak or where you go): *
* BEHIND EVERY MAN THERE IS A SMART WOMAN*
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Ruth
November 10th, 2009 at 2:28 pm
Hi Mischa, I’d rather that some of those items not be subsidized, i.e. if your penis isn’t working try getting healthy and if that doesn’t correct the sitch and you have 3 letters from women who definitely want to fuck you (ala Wanda Sykes) then OK, ‘partial’ subsidizing is ok, I’m partially poking fun, I haven’t worked out the whole process and details for this, I know there’s lots of gray areas to consider but overall a man’s penis functioning or not is not a serious nor life threatening health problem, he may have pysch issues also, who the heck knows…?
And I just read and of course, this is an extreme example (but I do know girls in my day that used abortion as their bc option, having 3-5 of them) about a literarry agent who had 15+ abortions, OK, now a mistake, maybe even 2 mistakes, I can handle but the above is just not taking responbsibility – & we (women) can get angry if we want to about being mostly in control (ok totally) of the bc issue but I learned long ago that’s its my belly that will swell, so as much as I would have liked for my man to step up and take a more responsible role, whether he did or did not, the bc issue had to be addressed (by me) and I could not just walk around saying, ah I don’t feel like taking my bc pill everyday, I hate it and it makes me feel like shit (and I often felt that way) but I also didn’t want a child more…bc…yes, you’re right it totally changes your life – decisions about whether to keep or not in leui of a job promo, finishing college, etc…I understand and maybe a one time fully paid is ok but only partially subsidized for any more mistakes could work, like I said, not sure of all the details. Or as the Christians like to say, there’s always celibacy, hahaha, yeah OK, you try it and let me know how that works out for ya ; )
Please do not take any of the above as my cop out/opt out of public option I just think there does need to be some regulating involved, whether its male/female products/services we’re talking about, it’s about some vital checks and balances.
I’m short on time, will be till Th/Fri, that working thing, you know…so add the tennis shuffle as often as possible into your walking, its tough on those outer thighs, I can feel it, just came up from shuffling in my driveway with my roomie, it totally kicks her ass, she’s stoked! & lookin’ good…she’s looking for a lesbian relationship, sex only, love too, whatever works and I hear through the grapevine of past lovers that she’s queen of the G spot, I’m almost curious what she’d do with mine if she had her way with me : ) yeowww and meowwww….
Luv, Zen Lill
November 10th, 2009 at 2:39 pm
This is incredible.
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(Nov. 6) — Allison Henry isn’t the first to suffer from a horrifying medical condition that few women talk about. But her case was particularly bad, and she’s just one of the few brave souls willing to come forward so that others will have the courage to seek help.
To put it bluntly, as Henry does: “My vagina fell out of my body.”
The 39-year-old school psychologist from Kenmore, Wash., suffered from a rare combination of disorders that began when she was pregnant with her son, Kirian, and she writes an amazing account of her bizarre medical condition on MomLogic.com.
Allison Henry, Photo courtesy Allison Henry
“I know it sounds like a science fiction movie,” she told Sphere.com. “Every time I retell this story, I still tell myself, ‘I can’t believe this happened to me.’”
It began five years ago, when Henry was in her 10th week of pregnancy with Kirian, her second child. She had vowed that she wouldn’t gain 60 pounds this time around, and she was practicing prenatal yoga in her home when she felt a sudden pain.
“It felt like someone rammed a pitchfork up my butt, so I stopped,” she writes. “It was an intense, sharp pain, but it passed.”
Later that day, while giving her daughter lunch, she ran to the bathroom, thinking she had to urinate, and found blood gushing instead. “It was the biggest scare of my life,” she writes.
Her OB/GYN couldn’t figure out what was wrong, and she kept bleeding. “I’d bleed through a maxi pad in 30 minutes,” she says.
In her 25th week, she was put on bed rest in the hospital, where she stayed for three weeks. When she finally went home, she started bleeding again and had to go back.
“My husband and I were so worried,” she says. “My son was born 6 1/2 weeks early. Thank God, he’s OK now.”
Doctors found that she had developed a hematoma outside her placenta, and they thought that was the root of her problem.
In fact, her problems were just beginning.
‘My Insides Were on the Outside’
“One day in the bathroom, I felt something kind of strange when I was wiping,” she writes. “There wasn’t really a hole there — it felt kind of flat. I thought it was a little weird, but I had a 19-month-old and a newborn to care for, so I brushed it off. I wasn’t bleeding, I wasn’t in pain, so I didn’t address it.”
What Henry was describing was the beginning of a vaginal prolapse, a condition in which the vagina, uterus, rectum, bladder, urethra and small intestine shift and — in severe cases — innards may protrude from the body.
“Women will suffer for years and not tell anyone,” says Dr. Suzanne Gilberg-Lenz, a gynecologist in Los Angeles. “They’d rather tell their doctor they have a sexually transmitted disease than say that something is hanging out of them.”
“Allison Henry clearly had an extraordinary, horrible case,” the doctor says. “But it’s widely estimated that 30 percent of women or more suffer some degree of prolapse in their lifetime.”
Instead of dealing with her health problem, Henry turned her attention to raising her children. She also had to have an appendectomy, which consumed much of her time over the next year.
Still, each time she went to the bathroom, she noticed her problem was getting worse.
“One night, I took a look down there, and it was like my insides were on the outside and they were coming out,” she writes. “I knew I couldn’t put this off any longer. I went to my doctor and said, ‘My vagina is falling out of my body!’
“I was referred to a pelvic floor specialist. She took a look and said, ‘Holy crap — your vagina is falling out of your body, and it’s dragging your bladder and your rectum along with it!’”
In addition to a uterine prolapse, Henry also suffered rectocele — a condition wherein the rectum pushes into the back walls of the vagina. “That explained why I had been constipated for months,” she says.
Henry also suffered from cystocele, a condition similar to rectocele, only with the bladder.
While the normal uterus is 8 to 11 centimeters inside the vagina, hers was only 3 centimeters up, and when she was standing, it was sticking out at least 5 centimeters.
After confronting the problem, Henry was able to undergo a series of surgeries to restore her vagina, untwist her bladder, and push her rectum back into place.
“On top of this, I had a labia reduction, which was brutal,” she writes. “All of ‘Dr. 90210′s’ patients who say it doesn’t hurt are lying. I’d rather get my teeth pulled out than do that again!”
Stable Mable Regains Her Humor
Her road to recovery has not been easy. At one point, she lost 30 pounds and had to return to the hospital several times to deal with complications.
“I had always been a healthy person, nothing so much as a yuckie pimple when I was growing up,” she says. “And then, I was incapacitated for several weeks, many times.
“Among my friends, I was always the stable Mable,” she says. “‘I eventually started taking anti-depressants to cope with the chronic stress and I became so emotionally depleted.”
Henry credits her husband for pulling her through. “He is the kind of man who doesn’t need to be asked to do something,” she says. “He just does it. It helps a lot that he was working at home most of the time this was going on.”
It’s now a year and a half since her last stay in the hospital, and Henry came forward to tell her story because she wants women to seek help if they have to face what she has gone through.
Uterine prolapse is most common in women following following menopause, childbirth or a hysterectomy, according to eMedicineHealth.com.
“Once I got past being mortified, I tried to keep my sense of humor. I can laugh about a lot of this now,” she says. “But I also know what it means to not have your health.”
Read Henry’s full account on MomLogic.com.
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Don’t we have enough trouble without having to worry about losing our vaginas.
Theresa
November 10th, 2009 at 10:14 pm
Hafa adai
This is not the best news but I have to level with you. People here are letting Swine flu get the best of them.
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Could A Doctor’s Note Save You Some Hassle?
By Michael Rudolph
GUAM – Don’t sneeze or go to the bathroom on your next flight. Or you might get kicked off the plane because a crew member thinks you have H1N1.
That’s exactly what happened to a mother and her daughter on a United Airlines flight from Tampa back home to Honolulu. After returning from the restroom, the mother was told by the flight crew to gather her belongings and exit the plane.
According to KITV in Hawaii, “United Airlines’ policy allows the crew to determine if someone who appears visibly ill should be allowed to fly.”
If a flight crew can remove a passenger from a plane because they think that person might have swine flu, does that mean we have to get a doctor’s note before we fly?
No word yet on whether UA’s policy is becoming the industry standard in the Pacific, nor whether passengers have been subjected to similar treatment on flights to or from Guam. But we’ll keep you posted.
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This is what happens when Airlines are given too much power.
Peter
November 10th, 2009 at 10:33 pm
Michelle
I can’t believe the woman I saw at the party writes this stuff. Who is your ghost writer? My husband says that hot babes like you are too dumb to come up with all the shit we see on your blog.
November 10th, 2009 at 10:54 pm
We are heading for the year 2003. Bita says she wants to see the actual occurrence of a certain event. She hasn’t revealed what that event is so we are going to enter January 3, 2003. I wanted to start at one of the new year parties but Adam said that we could use the rest.
Michelle
I told Bita that you asked me to purchase her clothes when she gets to 2003. I have a few hot items in mind. Adam says I should just lock myself in a room and watch “Suzie Wong” all night.
I am taking a detour from my WWI for Bita. Although I prefer to see her in stockings with garters.
AH
November 10th, 2009 at 11:10 pm
My husband called me and said that he was leaving me for another woman three years ago. A friend sent me an invitation to his wedding. The shit is marrying a man. I am so glad that gay marriages was outlawed in California. To think I voted for it.
The creep is marrying my cousin.
November 10th, 2009 at 11:26 pm
I used to love a woman who left me for a woman. So you angst isn’t unique Marsha. Shit happens. I like men and women but I prefer women. Unfortunately the women I prefer usually prefer other women.
Perhaps, if I move to our long lost colony, I will find the woman or man of my dreams. My sister said that I could probably find a mate on you blog. So this is Basil in England looking to meet a woman or man in the USA.
Interested parties? make yourselves known.
Basil
November 11th, 2009 at 6:32 am
Michelle
I sent an email. It came out as if it was number 11 on your blog, but when I checked back it had disappeared. I will try again.
I forgot my intro but here is the gist of the comment. I entered a news item about Sgt. Munley, the woman who dropped that crazy Major Hasan, even though she had been shot three times by him.
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Sgt. Munley was nearby getting her car tuned-up when the 911 call came in. Without waiting for backup, she was the first law enforcement official to arrive on the scene at Fort Hood.
“She Fired Until He Dropped. The Killing Ended.”
Much has been written about Sgt. Munley’s heroism, but few have described her behavior in the heat of a confrontation with the Fort Hood shooter better than the editorial writers at the Las Vegas Review-Sun.
“Could Sgt. Munley, hit in the wrist and both thighs, really be blamed if she’d ducked for cover? She didn’t. From all reports, she stood her ground under fire, calmly reacquiring her sight picture, putting four rounds right where she wanted, in the advancing murderer’s center of mass. She fired until he dropped. The killing ended.”
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Women never quit.
Evelyn
November 11th, 2009 at 6:46 am
Michelle
I attend the University of Jyväskylä in Findland. I will graduate this year. I am looking forward to the opportunities my degree will present to me. But I am becoming increasingly anxious about the state of the world.
Man is becoming increasingly more out of touch with humanity’s responsibility to the planet.
We are killing each other at an alarming rate most of the time because of religious beliefs. The concept of god was meant to make us live better with each other by being more tolerant with each other.
It seems priests, preachers, and authorities on the various words of god from the different books purported to be written by those who claim to be speaking for or about god have hijacked the concept of tolerance to preach murder.
So now the world is full of people willing to kill others who do not believe as they do.
I hope I will have the opportunity to contribute a different attitude to a better world. Your blog has opened my eyes to the opportunities to influence those on this planet to re-examine their way of thinking.
Thank you, many women in Finland love you.
Ingrid
November 11th, 2009 at 7:04 am
MAGIC PROBLEM-SOLVER: WALK BACKWARD TO SHARPEN THINKING
Trying to solve a thorny problem? Try taking a few steps backward. That’s what a study with 38 students at Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands suggests. The researchers set up a study to test the effect on mental functioning of “approach” movements, such as walking toward something, and “avoidance” movements, such as backing away. The study, published in the May 2009 issue of the journal Psychological Science, found evidence that suggests stepping backward may boost your capacity to deal with difficult situations.
WALK THIS WAY
The students took a test in which color words, like red, were sometimes printed in matching ink (like the word red written in red ink) and sometimes in another color (the word red written in blue ink). The test was to quickly name the ink color, suppressing the natural tendency to read the word, immediately after walking four steps forward, backward or sideways. Each participant walked in each direction twice. When the color names and inks matched, reaction times for correct answers were similar no matter which way the students walked. But when color names didn’t correspond to inks, reaction times for correct answers were fastest after walking backward. Backward locomotion appears to be a very powerful trigger to mobilize cognitive resources, say the researchers.
STEP BACK FOR FORWARD-THINKING
Stepping backward isn’t an inborn trigger for increased mental control, but a learned one, notes social psychologist and study coauthor Severine Koch, PhD. “Over a lifetime, the movement is habitually performed in situations that require increased control, such as when people encounter a dangerous or difficult situation,” she explains. “Because of this associative link between backward movement and a vigilant state of mind, stepping backward seems to enhance cognitive functioning even in the absence of actual danger.”
Okay, so in modern life we’re not typically retreating from a lion and it’s not so realistic to be walking backward — but we certainly face other challenges that require intense concentration and enhanced mental capacity. Will stepping backward open the mind to new solutions? Dr. Koch said that the practical applications of this study require further research, but she speculates that people in jobs requiring constant alertness could benefit from avoidance movements. Meanwhile, you may want to take a step backward the next time you’re plagued by a problem.
Source(s):
Severine Koch, PhD, department of social and cultural psychology, Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
November 11th, 2009 at 7:24 am
I have concluded that the chief reason we want to use humans as an asset to be added to the universal gene pool is because humans can self regulate their genes.
If we apply our science to their potential, we can make a new species of being. One that will have the emotional aptitude to feel a kinship with the task of bring order to the Universe.
Even on a primitive stage humans can produce an internal regeneration of their genes. Their science will discover this on an general medical level soon. This will enable humans to regulate the stress in their lives and thereby reduce the diseases that could attack their bodies by 67%.
That would increase their life span by 38 years. But I doubt it will be explored because it will not produce a profit for the medical industry.
Most of the industry will be geared up to deny its efficacy so they can continue to make huge profits on drugs.
I continue to be amazed at what is available in the human brain for expansion. Of course those brains can easily be distracted by the hormone that takes over logical reasoning when a human male is lustfully chasing a female. Witness the incredible waste of intellect by Lexie(AH) as he is consumed with repeated intersections with Bita’s body.
Adam
November 11th, 2009 at 8:13 am
Michelle
Thanks for the mention. I think it is always a good idea to make the enemy to waste resources. I look at newt sending me his email spiel as serving two good purposes. (1) I get to see what bulls**t he is exporting and (2) he it cost him money to do it.
Here is some of the bulls**t from my first email from Newt.
First as always he continues to try to make Reagan a idol of worship. Here he is trying to put the inane crooked Reagan with a Pope. His line – “And before there was a victory for freedom, 20 years ago this week, there were unflinching advocates for freedom in Eastern Europe like Ronald Reagan and Pope John Paul II.”
“These are the heroes we honor today.” So now that they have paired ronnie with a Pope, it is easy to call him a hero. Presto ronnie is a “hero.” These republicans are without peer when it comes to using propaganda to influence the ignorant.
And if one should click on the reagan link the bull to make reagan wonderful is without peer when it comes to slick presentation of lies and manipulated facts. These guys are good. I almost wanted to send in my recommendation to the Pope for his canonization.
Newt, like the republican party loves exploiting our support of our troops with nasty remarks about Obama’s “regime.”
Washington Seems More at Home with International Dictators Than America and Its Heroes
“Hero” is not a word we use a lot these days. We have a media dedicated to destroying, not showcasing, greatness. We have popular culture determined to celebrate victimhood rather than heroism. And we have a regime in Washington that seems more at home with international autocrats and dictators than America and its heroes.
But the inescapable fact of America is this: Ours is a country founded and defended, not by conciliation and sophisticated diplomatic gestures, but by honor, bravery and sacrifice.
Our heroes are not incidental to our nationhood but an essential part of it. Why? Because America is not, contrary to what our President believes, merely a nation among nations. We are, on our best days, closer to what Ronald Reagan believed: A shining city on a hill.
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Notice the subtle reference to “dictator.”
Mike