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Blog Great Ad
Yup, it is an ad about preventing HIV transmission. very amusing, and hopefully effective.
Great Ad ~ Comments: 0
Week in Review
Lots about death this week, but lets start with autism. Andrew Wakefield, the doctor who supposedly linked MMR and autism, is closer than ever to being banned from practicing as a doctor, according to NewScientist. Apparently the ban (on him and two co-authors) doesn't actually have to do with the autism claims, but has "concerned itself with the conduct, duties, and responsibilities of each doctor". However, the findings of the investigators does seriously call into question his integrity as a scientist as well, apparently peppered with words such as "dishonest", "irresponsible" and "misleading". It is so sad the panic this mans irresponsible claims have caused over immunizations. While true that the attention over this has caused manufacturers and regulators to pay more attention to the safety of vaccines, which is very important, it has also meant much valuable time and resources have been spent disproving this link. Time and resources that should have been going to investigate other, more likely links. Continuing on to the death theme, we move on to a very concerning development with the "suicides" in Guantánamo back in June of 2006. I highly recommend reading the Harper's article in full, but if you want the short version, watch the video at the bottom of the update. I am sickened by our government, and hope that the Obama administration will do the right thing, and come clean with all that has happened, before and since, they came to power, regarding Guantánamo and the policies of torture by the USA. This afternoon I read an article in The New Yorker about dying and mourning. I had already been thinking about death after hearing an amazing podcast from Radio Lab. The 8th segment, at about 13:30, is a story by David Eagleman from his book, SUM, read by Jeffrey Tambor. I recommend listening to the entire hour, but this is the story that got me thinking down this particular line. It is sort of an echo of something that I had been thinking about, although better articulated then I could have done, and it's kind of a natural continuation of my thoughts about emergence. It is the thought that there is a connection that we all have at many levels. There is the connection between our atoms, molecules, cells and cell structures, organs, organisms, planets, etc, which form groups at various levels. Maybe it is true that at each level there is some awareness of the interconnectedness, and some feeling like loss when the group breaks up. Strange that a type of mourning that may happen to my atoms when I die is a comfort to me, and whose to say there is no awareness in atoms or planets? Next thing you know, I'll be following the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. I do recommend the article in The New Yorker about dying and mourning, and which has nothing to do with the flying spaghetti mosnter. I agree with Meghan O’Rourke, I think we do not do the death and mourning thing well in the USA. Before we leave the death theme, I'd like to take a moment to join many fans, friends and family in the mourning of Howard Zinn and J. D. Salinger. Both made amazing contributions to our society, and I am very grateful for their lives, loves and works. On the tech front, a scary thing happened with Facebook on AT&T phones. Apparently last weekend, some people with AT&T phones logged into Facebook, and found themselves in someone else's account. There is a good, but somewhat technical, article about what happened and what needs to be done about it at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. As a reaction to the crazy ruling recently by the Supreme Court, Murray Hill Inc. is running for congress. Hmmm. Interesting article about skunk weed. According to the article, "studies have shown that pure, synthetic THC causes transient psychosis in 40 to 50 per cent of healthy people". Apparently, there is normally a compound in weed, cannabidiol (CBD), that counteracts the psychosis producing effects of THC. Guess we should stick to the other strains... Finally, time for some fun. Start with the Ultimate Graphic Novel (in Six Panels). The first comment was almost as good as the novel. Also discovered a great music site, http://digital.thinkindie.com, and found a cool new video, Anna Rose "Picture":
Week in Review ~ Comments: 0
Migraines
The bad news is that my daughter has another migraine. The good news is that I think we have discovered a major trigger. It appears she most often gets migraines when she doesn't get enough sleep. I've thought for years that it is very important for children to get plenty of sleep, and certainly this is the case for Tanika. Here is a great link about children and sleep: http://www.med.umich.edu/yourchild/topics/sleep.htm We have found that we need to put Tanika to bed at 9pm on school nights. She gets up around 6:30, so assuming it takes her 15 min. or so to go to sleep, she sleeps around 9 hours. This seems to be about right for her, as she usually gets up pretty easily on this schedule. I use to think that when she had a big assignment at school that she wasn't going to get finished in time, I should let her stay up to finish it. I'm rethinking this now. Since she is still in Middle school, I think it is probably better that she takes the hit on not having her assignment done, and gets her full sleep instead. And we teach her how to plan out her homework and not wait to the last minute, because school work is important, but school work is going to suffer without sleep, and sleep needs to take top priority, or else she literally suffers. While it is true that the migraines seem to occur when her sleep is seriously deprived (they seem to follow sleepovers most often), I think that even small losses in sleep are bad for her. Migraines ~ Comments: 2
Potato Knishes
Foodby Maria on 24.01.2010 - 01:48  So I tried to make Potato Knishes the other day, and was not entirely successful at it. (No, the picture above is definitely not what I came up with, this is from the broke gourmet, where the recipe is from.) I ended up with rather yummy potatoes mashed with onion, cheese and thyme. The bread wrapping is where things went wrong. I used whole wheat pastry flour instead of all-purpose flour. I was surprised to learn that pastry flour makes pastry dough. My dough broke apart easily, and would not roll into anything. I sort of thought that it would be the different ratios of dough ingredients that made the biggest change. Apparently, the grind of the flour makes a huge difference. I do wonder why. May have to investigate this further. In the meantime, I definitely want to make these again, but going to try the all-purpose flour this time. I can confirm that the insides of these knishes are really great; in fact, I'm going to have another bowl of knish innards right now. http://brokeassgourmet.com/articles/cheddar-thyme-potato-knishes Potato Knishes ~ Comments: 0
Global Scrub Down
Politicsby maria on 14.01.2010 - 01:21 Wow, this is completely fascinating, if true: Climate Change Catastrophe took Just Months. I read this article a while ago, and I've let it brew a bit. The article explains how the most recent ice age may have come on quite suddenly, like in about 6 months, as opposed to the many years previously assumed. Researcher William Patterson and colleagues believe a large, very cold lake in North America called Lake Agassiz burst its banks, and the large volume of freezing fresh water disrupted the Gulf Stream emough to cause lots of ice to form, which then kept the air cold, preventing the flow to return to its pre-ice age currents. So, thus was a born a mini-ice age of 1,300 years. My first thought was, if it is true that such dramatic climate change can happen so quickly and so relatively easiely, we are really fucking lucky we haven't triggered something crazy, with all of our mucking about with the earth. Think of all of the things we have done in our short time on earth. We have transformed vast treks of land from forests and mixed vegetation to farmland, cities, pastures, etc.; we have dumped all kinds of chemicals (including tons of crude oil) into the ground and waterways; damned rivers; and poured smoke and chemicals into the atmosphere, including not just the usual suspects, but the occasional nuclear bomb, test, or accident. Those are just the things that poppped immediately into my head. Somehow, it seems like some of that has probably done some harm. The findings in this study mean interesting things for our future. Strangely, it can be used as an argument either for mucking about more or less. One argument goes, well then it shouldn't be too hard to figure out how to counteract global warming, all we have to do is empty a big vat of cold water in a water current to disturb the flow, and we can reverse the warming we have caused. We can create all kinds of models to figure out the precise amount and place to do this. Obviously, this sort of thinking has some flaws. Most obviously, we are quite likely to get it wrong, or find it practically too difficult to get enough water, at the right temp. to the right place at the right time. So maybe instead we should do all we can to neutralize the changes we have made in/on the earth, so we don't accidentally provoke another drastic change in temperature? Apparently the earth is good enough at doing that on its own, without our help. Maybe we can at least stop more warming, while we figure out whether we want to go into the mucking about with the climate intentionally business? And since it is likely, given all of the changes we have made to the earth, that we have changed more than just the temperature, trying to reverse the most egregious changes we have made could stop any other crazy outcomes we have not yet forseen, but in our ignorance, directed the earth toward. I'm thinking of things like acid rain. It isn't like we don't have evidence that we have drastically changed certain places/aspects of the earth already. So, in conclusion, we should clean up our messes already (air, land, and water ones), regardless of whether we have caused actual harm to the climate (yet), becuase the planet could use a good scrub down after our mucking about on it for centuries. Global Scrub Down ~ Comments: 1
Dophins and a Hero
FunStuffby maria on 06.11.2009 - 21:21  Plus they are just so darn cute! And a big hurrah to Sergeant Munley, who's amazing performance at the Ft. Hood shooting undoubtedly saved lives. NYTimes arcticle. Must agree with William Saletan of Slate that if women can defend Fort Hood in such a brave and heroic showing, then they should definitely be defending the USA in the military.  Picture from NY Daily News. Dophins and a Hero ~ Comments: 0
Health Care
I think there are serious flaws with our (USA) health care system currently. I think all people should have basic health care, and our current system fails to do that. Not only do not all people have health insurance, but those that do can lose it when they need it most, all too easily. I believe the basic reason for this is the people who are suppose to be providing access to health care (the insurance companies) have an incentive to to NOT GIVE ACCESS TO CARE. If they give insurance to people who end up in the hospital for a long time, it costs the company lots of money, so they would rather spend the money figuring out how to not hold up their end of the bargain (usually cheaper to find a way to reject a claim/deny coverage), or spend the money figuring out how to only sell their insurance to primarily healthy people who are unlikely to cost them loads of money, not to mention advertising how great they are, to entice a large pool of people to choose the healthy people from. Oh, yes, and then there is all of the money they've been bloody spending to stop congress from changing the status quo. Hmm, wonder why they would want to keep the status quo? Their primary goal is to make money. For businesses where making the vast majority of customers happy means more business and more money and happy owners, this is okay, but when it is advantageous for a company to only keep the customers happy that do not require much, and advantageous to discourage other customers from even doing business with them, because this is what makes the most money and keeps the owners happy, this is problematic. And when it is a business that we as Americans think all people should have access to, this is doubly problematic. Medicare is successful largely because it does not have these incentives. They spend their money figuring out how to get the most people health care for the smallest costs, not in how to get out of paying for health care. So, how to solve the problem? What about regulation? What if we say, okay, you can't deny someone coverage because of pre-existing conditions? Okay, that's easy, just charge them lots more money. Chances are they won't be able to afford it, and will still be out of insurance. So, how do you regulate a company to provide everyone who asks for it insurance at a reasonable price and force them to pay all reasonable medical bills? I don't think it is possible. I think unless you break the incentive to make money, insurance companies will find the loopholes, and continue to spend lots of money on not providing health care, and there will continue to be people without insurance and denied claims. One thing I have wondered about is what would happen if you required all health insurance companies to be non-profit. I think it probably makes more sense to have a public option, based on the medicare option, but I would not rule out the non-profit idea. I wonder if there are other solutions. I also believe that having health care tied to your employer is a bad idea. Maybe it made more sense when people stayed with one employer for years, but I think it makes no sense today, where for years, the average person has been with their current employer for only 4.1 years As of Jan 2008. Why should we have to change insurance (and quite possibly doctors) when we change jobs? I once changed doctors four times in two years, because of various health insurance shenanigans. Not one of those times was because I was actually unhappy with my doctor. And why should health insurance be a factor when choosing a job? It seems crazy to me. I know people who hate their insurance, but can't change insurance companies because they don't want to change jobs. And, worse, I know people who have stayed in jobs they hated for years because they were afraid of losing their health insurance. It can't be good for your health... I think if there were a public option there would be less incentive for employers to use health insurance to entice people, and less incentive for people to choose jobs based on health insurance. At any rate, I think we need to try something that is actually different then what we are doing now, and not just a couple of reforms or regulations, because what we are doing now just isn't working, and I don't believe it can be properly patched. Addendum: It appears at least some experts believe the current bill (which has no public option) could make things worse for patients LATimes Article. </health care rant> Health Care ~ Comments: 0
Such a Ho
I was hanging out with some friends recently, when they began talking about someone they knew in high school. They called her a ho. I did not call them on it. Maybe because I did not know said girl. But it should not have mattered. It really doesn't matter whether she fulfilled some criteria for being a ho. The term ho is offensive. Very. Should not be used to refer to anyone. The old double standard. It would never have even crossed their mind to care about a label for a guy from high school who slept around. I wish I would have said something. I don't understand why it took so long for the offense to even register. Why it wasn't until much later that night that I said to myself, 'wait a minute, they called some girl a ho; I should have said something'. Next time I hope my brain isn't in such slow motion. Such a Ho ~ Comments: 0
LDAP
Techby maria on 27.05.2009 - 16:30 What a struggle. Normally I post things like this in my Work directory, but I wanted people to be able to post comments, so I'm posting here. Consider it a constant work in progress, as I will continue to learn about ldap. ldap running on port 389 can use tls or not. This is so you can do anonymous binds (as far as I can figure, there is no reason to require an encrypted connection to find out public information when not using a password). So what I want to figure out is if the ldap server can require tls for all queries that require a password. Presumably, we have already decided which ldap entries are private enough to require a password with slapd.conf ACLs. rootdn can be used for initial setup, but best to setup a user in the database to be admin, and then get rid of rootdn. Adding test gnutls: on server: gnutls-serv --x509certfile /etc/ldap/certs/server.crt \
--x509keyfile /etc/ldap/certs/server.key
on a client (needs gnutls-cli and cafile):
will give cert info:
test tls with ldap:
ldap error codes: http://www.zytrax.com/books/ldap/ch12/ LDAP ~ Comments: 0
Road Trip
myLifeby me on 25.05.2009 - 23:20 We are done with our roadtrip! Well, I'm still in California for a couple more days, but Tanika is now back in Washington. Below was our final itinerary. We had a really great time, and pictures are on the web. http://www.shadlen.org/~maria/pmwiki/Pics/SWtrip09 The times are approximate driving times, but we found them to be pretty close. Current tentative itinerary:
Road Trip ~ Comments: 2
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