"The best of seers is he who guesses well."

"Dad balks at son's prison sleepover" (AP): [*]
Key words in understanding dad's position: prison, 6-year-old son, overnight stay
Key paragraph: third
"She (the mother) is serving two life terms for killing two people, including her estranged husband's girlfriend".

"Shark bites can't stop surfers": [*]
Signposts of serious stupidity: "...risk we're all pretty much willing to take" ... "whenever I get the chance to go back, I'm out there..."

Utne Reader Online
"Just as the knee bone is connected to the thigh bone, human and environmental health are inseparable". [*]







Inhibition of carcinogenesis by dietary polyphenolic compounds: [*]

Dietary Phytoestrogens: [*]

(for the above articles, click "Pubmed Citation" in the abstract, then click "full text" link in Pubmed)

Rhythms That Bind Women: [*]

I had the fortune of finding jazz singer Jane Monheit on CBS' "Saturday Early Show". She's a package.

photos  interview1   interview2
pubpage   fansite
samples fr. "Come Dream With Me"

Jane's vocal impact reminds me of bossa nova diva Astrud Gilberto, but with vibrato in the delivery which the latter did not employ (to great effect).
[ Listen.com: Astrud (bio/.wavs/downloads) ]


Outwit. Outlast. Outhost.

Jenna Lewis (formerly of "Survivor") is doing a great job hosting VH-1's "Rock Across America". So far, she looks like the only thoroughbred of the reality tv field.
[ Jenna's RAA gig ]


EyeSites

Maze Classifications: [*]

Mandelbrot and Julia Set Explorer: [*]
[ mandelbrot mpeg ]

How Karate Works: [*]

The infotainment vehicle, "Fox And Friends", is cheesy (soft news all the way), but upfront about its prime attractor. The spice comes in the form of the female anchor, E.D. Donahey, who has a girl-next-door visage, a (very) slight lisp --- and a pair of the sexiest legs to come down the pike in years (wide shots are prominent, and they've set up a regular shot-spot to feature those gams). Maybe it's just me, but this woman can pump pheromones through the screen.

"FoxFriends" is what it is: fluff. But Linda Vester and Patti Ann Browne (formerly of MSNBC) are also broadcasting LEG during the regular afternoon newscasts. And men anchors across the medium are now standing up to do their thing, ostensibly to increase their "impact".

Here's the thing: do we really need people reading to us (from a teleprompter)?! How do newspersonalities who just toss back to the main segment justify their inflated salaries (yes, I'm talking about you, Lauren of Fox)?
A picture tells a thousand words. As I mentioned in a rec.arts.tv post ("CNN HN --- bleechh!"), why not employ voiceover for bridge-info and footage, giving on-site reporters face time w/an end tag. The _classic_ newsanchor format is archaic (and judging from email I received from a satellite news channel producer, I'm far from alone in this opinion).

In general, news content itself is (artificially) weak.
Plastic - "MSNBC Discovers Readers Want News and Editors Want Gossip": [*]

"So MSNBC gives you 10 choices of ranking the news, but with so much going on in the world that would actually piss us off and maybe inspire us into action if we knew about it, why is it we're being fed cross-promotions and elephant rampages?
  This is why the stories from Salon about the consolidation of radio and now television and newspaper ownership are so important. We'll never know anything about the world outside of our own backyard or Tom and Nicole's latest divorce bullshit unless we demand accountability and important news, no matter how hard it is to swallow."
---moose

In following-up to my 8/14 entry (marijuana vs. anorexia), I ran across a great quote that mirrors my own feeling that the war on drugs, particularly as concerns marijuana, is actually biological censorship:

"In our view, saying that the War On Drugs is a war on _drugs_ rather than on mental states, is like saying that book burnings and bannings are attacks on paper and ink, rather than on the ideas espoused by the authors."
---fr. "On Cognitive Censorship", Alchemind

"I'm sitting here, not entirely incapable of or inexperienced at deciphering the often cryptic meanings hidden in visual art, trying to figure out how the hell those photos helped Mr. Sahihi rip the hypocritical war on drugs a new asshole, and I'm not coming up with much." ---hildago

A-bout time! The past week of heat indices of 103-105 deg. has been replaced by gorgeous temps of low 70's w/low humidity. Two things driven home: 90 deg. is actually tolerable w/low humidity (for several days...); and because of perceived improvement in taste, purified drinking water (reverse osmosis w/carbon filtering) containing nutritionally insignificant amounts of minerals (potassium bicarbonate, calcium chloride, magnesium chloride) actually encourages hydration.

Other than very brief episodes of irritability, I experienced no real effects from the heat spell. However, while surfing the radio, I was reminded that many suffer from the summer version of (winter) Seasonal Affective Disorder: summer SAD. Bummer. Move north, folks, at least for July/August. ;)
SSAD article: [*]
SSAD experiences: [*]

Temp. records and averages for: Omaha, NE, Chicago, IL, Manitowoc, WI., Quebec, CN


Marijuana and (Pro-) Anorexia

Sipping on a heat-relieving, ruby-red grapefruit Snapple last week, memories of a strange dinner party came to mind.

It was brought to my attention that the husband of the hostess had exhibited "bad manners" towards black guests in the past, and a couple were expected that evening. Everyone was on-edge, anticipating a need to head off any trouble at the pass (we're not talking David Duke, here).

When "Mark" arrived, he stepped into the bedroom briefly, apparently to change clothes, emerged and greeted the guests properly - the night went off without a hitch. In fact, he seemed genuinely cordial toward the black couple. Toward the end of the party, I approached Mark and bluntly inquired about his change in attitude. He replied that it was marijuana; he had taken a few hits before emerging from the bedroom. And while under the influence, any feelings of racism simply vanished.

We all ended the evening in front of the tube, attacking a huge, freshly-baked apple pie while exploring the mysteries of "Rocky and Bullwinkle", the raw sexuality of Jane Russell, and how her "Jane" would have played against Johnny Weissmueller's "Tarzan".

Therein lies a controversial (and extraordinarily underused??) approach to the treatment of anorexia as well as an address to the growing proanorexia (?!) movement: marijuana.
Not because of the affect on appetite...

16: Int J Psychoanal Psychother 1982-83;9:303-12
Treatment in anorexia nervosa. Bruch H.
..."Anorexic" patients do not suffer from loss of appetite but actively pursue self-starvation and are frantically preoccupied with food, and even more with their size and shape. It is not an illness of weight and nutrition but a desperate effort to establish a sense of control to counteract deficits in the sense of effectiveness and the self-concept...
Traditional treatment has emphasized the restitution of weight, which, however, is insufficient for cure. For effective treatment, reparation of the underlying personality deficits is essential... PMID: 7152818

For the aerobic portion of my workout, I walk a mile, run a 440 at 80% of capacity, walk a 220, run another 440, then cool down.
Since switching from a lakefront venue to a track, I notice a slight increase in meditative effect during the walk if I keep my head up, but my eyes on the track.
Are labyrinths truly effective? [*] [*]
Any rubberized, large labyrinths suitable for jogging out there? ;)
An experience in a wooded area off a beach in the Bahamas leads me to also ask: would a 3D, runnable, "greened" labyrinth prove an effective meditative trigger? [*]

Comfy Chairs

In an LA Times article, John O'Dell reports on air-conditioned seats (based on Peltier devices ) in the 2000 Lincoln Navigator. [*]
Why not outfit lounge or lawn chairs in the same fashion?


EyeSites

Old School Foods (attn: the candy section): [*]

ASCII Man Walking: [*]

You probably won't see this on the big screen, but what about all around you?
First Contact: Creation

The Big 2-0 For Music Videos (as we know them)

MTV celebrated its 20th b-day with a 12-hour marathon of clips and videos. Which was a radical departure from their usual habit of not playing them.
I collected over 200 videos from the 80's and early 90's. The superior creativity evident in the 80's product is in sharp contrast to today's "line-dancing" and sampling.
I also have about 50 classical videos (from the non-profit Classic Arts Video channel). The one that stands out, to-date, classical or not, and which actually caused me to tear from its stark beauty and haunting voice of the singer is:

Yeah, I confess: I'm into the RL shows. "Boot Camp" (FOX), "Big Brother" (CBS), "Tough Enough" (MTV) and my favorite, "Fear Factor" (NBC).

The host, Joe Rogan, is clearly a people person, and provides an energetic vibe for the show. For the most part, the contestants have been outgoing, eccentric, intelligent and funny (Sonia! You are a _fox_, baby!)

The "eating" segments have focused on exotic items such as sheep eyes and buffalo testicles (the latter being 'farm-raised', I assume? ;) ). Since organ meats tend to concentrate contaminants, and can possibly be a source of altered prions...but those items were safe to consume in the context of procurement for the show. Surely. Odds on.
[This isn't going to turn into an anti-meat rant; I just make it a habit to avoid organ meats.]

I wonder how much fear would be a factor for the players if Joe were to take them to an upscale restaurant, and with much ado, unveil --- a 1/4 pound of cooked hamburger from an area in Britain with known vCJD victims.
Not funny? I agree. No risk would be involved in such an undertaking, you say? Hmmm... [*]

There was a prescient observation in an 08/2000 presentation by Chi Ming Yang (Tianjin, China). Attention to the third paragraph:

"Prion diseases — which include, among others, neurodegenerative diseases such as mad cow disease and its human counterpart, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease — are caused by a malfunctioning prion protein. In Alzheimer's disease, another neurodegenerative disease, the amyloid precursor protein has been implicated.

Using computer modeling, Yang discovered a similar pattern of amino acids in the prion protein and the amyloid precursor protein: a reductive amino acid followed by three non-reductive amino acids. 'This suggests a common molecular mechanism underlying the initiation stages of sporadic Alzheimer's disease and both sporadic and genetic prion diseases,' says Yang.

Reductive amino acids are more prone to damage by oxygen-containing free radicals (molecules with a highly reactive unpaired electron) than other amino acids, explained Yang. Normally, the body can clear itself of free radicals. But with age, this system may fail. When enough free radicals accumulate to damage a protein molecule, it can malfunction, he says.

Proteins typically fold into specific three-dimensional structures that determine their functions. A malfunctioning protein may remain partially unfolded, which can place different amino acids in close proximity, Yang explained. In the case of Alzheimer's and prion diseases, the reductive amino acids in close proximity can lead to the formation of protein plaques, according to Yang.