Archive for January, 2006
SNAQ: Are the Elderly in Your Life Losing Too Much Weight?
Monday, January 23rd, 2006This four question quiz should answer the weight question for you.
Answer questions, then tally your SNAQ score using the numerical scale.
My appetite is:
a. Very poor
b. Poor
c. Average
d. Good
e. Very good
When I eat:
a. I feel full after eating only a few mouthfuls.
| b. I feel full after eating about a third of a meal.
c. I feel full after eating over half a meal.
d. I feel full after eating most of the meal.
e. I hardly ever feel full.
Food tastes:
a. Very bad
b. Bad
c. Average
d. Good
e. Very good
Normally I eat:
a. Less than one meal a day
b. One meal a day
c. Two meals a day
d. Three meals a day
e. More than three meals a day
Numerical scale:
a = 1, b = 2, c = 3, d = 4, e = 5. The sum of the scores constitutes the SNAQ score; 14 or less indicates significant risk of at least 5% weight loss within six months.
Source: SNAQ
When families and doctors know that a patient is at high risk for weight loss — frequently linked to chronic pain, depression, dental problems or the cumulative effects of multiple illnesses and medications — they often can do something about it, Wilson says. Patients whose SNAQ scores indicate high risk should see a doctor for a nutritional assessment, she says.
I-Pod
Monday, January 23rd, 2006I know this is true. Last night was spent downloading songs. The only downside to the I-Pod that exists for me: shutting myself out with kiddos to listen for is not an option. I need the little stereo adapter sooner rather than later.
Kobe Bryant Scores 81 Points
Monday, January 23rd, 2006Big deal. Yeah, you read that right. His shooting percentage was almost 52% from the floor including his three-pointers. His freethrows were 18 out of 20–90%.
Kobe Bryant is the world’s biggest ball hog and was before this game, too, which is why no team he’s on ever wins when it counts. It’s called teamwork. He should look up the definition.
How do you feel as a teammate to a guy who took 46 shots? Okay, I guess, as long as you win. Which they did. Congratulations LA!
Cowher Redemption
Monday, January 23rd, 2006Its difficult to watch talented teams (Astros) never quite make it to the finishline. Coaching means so much in big games–big games reveal team discipline, cohesion and strategy against new opponents. In short, they reveal coaching.
Like Larry Bird so sneeringly commented about Phil Jackson when Jackson got so much respect for winning over and over (admittedly with egos the size of stadiusms), that when you have a Michael Jordon on the team, the players kinda matter, too. And while that is a definate starting point, coaching can destroy good potential just as easily or not encourage their stars to overcome their weaknesses.
Anyway, it’s nice to see Cowher making it happen after all this time. Good luck Steelers!
Russia: Gentle Giant Strikes Again
Monday, January 23rd, 2006Now it’s Georgia‘s energy supply they are accused of “disrupting”.
Terrorists Manipulate Western Media
Thursday, January 19th, 2006Glenn Reynolds says something profound every once in a while and today he hit the nail on the head:
As the UPI’s Pam Hess noted a while back, the press seems relatively unconcerned about being manipulated by the insurgency, but deeply afraid of anything that might slant its reporting in favor of the U.S. military; this is just another illustration of that phenomenon. But terrorism is, of course, information war disguised as military action, and manipulating the press is what the terrorists are all about. If the press were more resistant to such tactics, the terrorists would be less effective — and, ironically, the press would be a less appealing target.
UPDATE: Dave Price has related thoughts.
Terrorism is an information war. Terrorists want a certain idealogical outcome which will lead to cultural outcome which will lead to economic outcome (almost assuredly bad for the common folk but good for the ruling Mullah Class), which will lead to a strategic outcome which will form a bigger platform to spew the ideology they want to seed and spread.
Because the terrorists know American and other Western journalists bias (which is, for all of you who haven’t figured it out yet, that the U.S. is bad and mean and bullying and a huge, vast gluttonous Imperial power) they can easily manipulate them to their own ends, and have, very effectively, in fact. So when the media portrays Iraq going to hell in a bombed out Hummer (yippee! the insurgents are winning, those peace-loving, country-defending goody-goodies will triumph!) and the bully is going down thanks to the homeboy’s grit it, works well for the terrorists. They don’t need Bin Laden or Zarchari or any other wacko mouthpiece, they have better, more “well-reasoned”, culturally acceptable mouthpiece dressed up in the clothes, make-up and language acceptable to the enemy.
This strategy, a good, smart and efficient one I might add, has hit a snag. More Iraqi people, even a few Sunnis (gasp!), are seeing the way of the future and car bombs are impeeding that future not speeding it. Imagine that! The Iraqi people are getting sick of being used as cannon fodder by other Muslims and former regimers who claim to be serving them. It is getting to be a tougher sell every day.
For a while, Iraqis complained (and some still do) that the U.S. isn’t protecting them, that they are sitting ducks. While that criticism has some roots in truth, the greater truth is that to protect their own self-interests they need to get on board with helping those who can protect them. In this case, it means their own Iraqi army and police, those brave people willing to risk life and limb for their own country. These people, the real heros, are the ones defending Iraq and being a force to build a stable country for the future.
Well, guess what? Iraqis are jumping in and helping themselves. Infused with the hope of an election, seeing real progress, sifting through the propaganda and seeing the truth for themselves, they are joining the effort to build their country.
Foreign-born fighters, those “noble” (insurgents) violence spreading cancer cells, need nourishment to survive. Like human tumors, they survive on blood supply–energy in the form of money, food, protection. Slowly, they are being choked and starved of what they need–at least in Iraq. Iran, Syria and other forces are happy to oblige and fill this need.
Now, if the Western media could step out of their hotel fortresses without fear of death at the hands of these noblemen, they would see, even with their jaded eyes, hope in the form of schools, hospitals, commerce and….progress. They might even report it. Might.
That’s a chance the noblemen don’t want to take. Since their mouthpieces are changing their tune (or might) they revert to their typical mouthpieces. Crazy men, yes, but at least they spout the desired information.
Enter stage left: Osama Bin Laden. Ding-dong American and other Western journos will make their own interpretation of this beast raising his ugly head, but what will the average Muslim think? Won’t they have to balance his rhetoric against the images of the suffering their Muslim brothers and sisters experience at his supposedly benevolent hands? There was a reason why he was expelled from Saudi Arabia. Thanks to that country the cancer metasticized.
So the common people in the West are waiting, really. The common people of the Middle East have a choice. They’ve seen the nazi regimes at the hands of tribal and religious leaders. The Iraqi people, the Lebanese people, the people of Jordan, the Palestinian and other brave Muslims and Christians and agnostics can form a new Empire just west of Persia based on art, music, math, science, learning, freedom and informed by religious principles of love rather than hate. Or not.
The patience of the American people and the brave citizens of the world who stood by her in Iraq and Afganistan must surprise the despots and journalists, too. Who would have thought in a nation where attention span is impaired by every sort of distraction and materialistic thing, that the common people would remain stalwart, firmly planted, waiting for freedom to take root in a world so far away for people dismissed as beneath the ability to handle choice? Who would have thought? Certainly not the people who have contempt for any common person–American or Iraqi.
Iraq, we wait. Many more people than you know earnestly desire freedom’s spread. We wait. We hope you ignore the mouthpieces of doom and gloom and know that they rarely represent the common man, just like we know that Bin Laden rarely represents you. We wait.
Freedom for one is freedom for all. One person deprived of freedom is a loss for all. We wait.
GM: Would You Like A Back-Pedal to Go With Your Rear Wheel Drive?
Wednesday, January 18th, 2006Having been born and bred into a GM family (please don’t hold it against me–I went to public school too so there you go), GM cars are to me what human bodies are to my kids. When the midwife asked the older two if they knew a pregnant lady’s innards, they said “that’s the placenta, that’s the spine, that’s the large intestine, those are the lungs, etc.” Isn’t nice to know that we’re breeding nerds? But I digress.
Anyway, GM, and this will astonish noone, is stupid, stupid, stupid. A few years back, the genuises over there decided to get rid of a very hot selling rear-wheel drive Impala. It is a good-looking car, even today and boy could it move. It looked uniquely American. For those of you who think that’s a negative, may I point you to all the bland-looking Euro/Asian sedans that all look like tight-arsed little silver boxes. GM couldn’t keep up with the orders for the Impala. So the logical solution? That’s right! Close down the line and discontinue all rear-wheel drive chassis because no one wants them anymore.
What?
So, like the ladies late to the dance yet again, GM reissues another rear wheel drive vehicle–the Camaro. Frankly, this company fatigues me.
Automotive News asks, “But will it appeal to new drivers?” Yes, you ninny-headed nincompoops! Who doesn’t like a Rear Wheel Drive car? People loved it when it was discontinued! Let’s see, it peels out, you can spin it, it starts fast and if the engine is decent it rumbles under your butt. While the Baby Boomers buy it for nostalgia, the younger set will buy it for the same reasons kids always bought Camaros and Impalas:
Fast, animal-looking, zippy and cheap (in comparison to high performance cars like the sterile imports).
Car predictions for 2006:
- Boring bland BMW-ers are out and fun-color American cars in
- Customization, customization, customization–people will do more and more as Pimp My Ride trickles down to the average Joe
- Companies will perform, for extra dough, more customization off the line finding ways to do more colors and more other fun stuff efficiently
MySpace
Wednesday, January 18th, 2006Hey old people! Have you been to MySpace.com–the place where teens everywhere post everything about everyone hot and not?
Here’s an example of a personal friend of mine–B Smiddy he calls himself.
I’ve given some thought to these pages. Some people feel that they are terrible because they limit interaction–real, human interaction. Other people they are just the New Millenium way to communicate. At least you know where your kids are!
My concerns are that sickos know way too much about innocent kids. I won’t point you to some of the spaces, but essentially all the information you could ever want about some kids are nicely packaged and so easily accessible it’s scary. Another kid of a friend of mine has so much information, you could drive to her house with mapquest without any trouble at all. You’d have to get by her Daddy’s shotgun, but still….
Beside the nutjob factor, what is presented on these pages really represent what the kid wants to portray himself or herself as–kinda like a movie star. You can read fifty profiles about a Hollywood-type, but do you know them? On one level, the answer is yes. On another, not at all. That’s these websites. Without advantage of voice inflection or expressions or body language or experience you make a judgement about this person. Who know’s if its the truth or just plain fiction?
You might say, that that is the problem with the Internet, but it may be the benefit, too.
Insecticides and Leukemia
Wednesday, January 18th, 2006I just posted on chelation therapy and here’s research showing the link between Insecticides (arsenic, antimony, lead) and leukemia. Living near a golf course can be harmful to your health.
