Monday, December 15, 2008 . 12/15/2008
I have not written in here for so long that it's unbelievable, but I feel like doing so now.I'm currently re-learning almost everything that has to do with math that isn't addition/subtraction or multiplication/division, like fractions and such. I actually like figuring out fractions. The thing is, I keep failing and then having to redo online math exams. It's so frustrating because I think I have the right answer - there is only ever one right answer - and it turns out that it's wrong. Here I think I'm doing it right, I get excited because of that, and it turns out I'm not right at all and I just feel like screaming. I feel so stupid for not being able to understand math. I don't hate math, I want to understand it, I should be good at it, but I'm not. What the hell is wrong with me?
I think part of the reason why I suck so bad is because of this crappy math book I have. More than once I found myself having to look up how to do a problem because the book explains it so poorly. What I really need though is a tutor.
And that is why, unless you're not an idiot at math like I am, you don't take correspondence classes. You sit there in an actual classroom and learn from a real live teacher.
What a mistake I've made. 0 Comments - Post/view comments
Tuesday, August 05, 2008 . 8/05/2008
I haven't posted anything in ages, goddamn. For anyone who bothers to read this and/or thinks that I'm amazing and was worrying about me, let me explain why.I (or rather my dad, since I don't know how) had to reformat my computer since it was messed up and would restart every hour or so (more on this in a bit). He reinstalled Windows XP because 2000 is crap and once he did, I reinstalled Firefox and all my games etc, including Oblivion which would always crash. So I downloaded all the mods I used to use and more, which took forever... and then BAM, my hard drive pooped out. Cue ANOTHER reformat and painstakingly getting all these mods for Oblivion again. Good news is that my new hard drive is obviously much, much better, and now I have a new graphics card too. Doing some reading made me realize that the computer restarting constantly meant that my old hard drive was dying and wasn't getting enough power.
So anyway, I've been playing Oblivion quite a bit since now it runs much better than it ever did, and with high settings to boot. And to avoid looking like a shut-in, I'm going to mention that I'm going to be getting a job at the hospital my parents work at soon, perhaps next week. Data collecting at first probably, but she also suggested I could draw blood which would pay about $12 an hour which isn't bad, and I'd only have to work about four days a week. One problem, though. I have blood phobia. BUT being around blood a little every day before I were to get this job could help, and my mom reassured me that almost everyone faints at first. I know that therapists even take the "face your fears" approach so maybe drawing blood will help me conquer blood phobia once and for all.
AND NOW BACK TO YOUR SCHEDULED PROGRAMMING - animal rights activists. They're at it again:
Santa Cruz police labeled the incidents "acts of domestic terrorism."
In the off-campus incident, a well-known molecular biologist and his family, including two small children, were forced to escape a smoke-filled house using a second-story ladder after a firebomb was intentionally set off, police said. One family member sustained injuries requiring brief hospitalization, and police are calling the firebombing, which occurred shortly before 6 a.m., a case of attempted homicide.
About the same time, a car belonging to a researcher parked at a home on campus also was firebombed, destroying the vehicle.
The violence occurred four days after a customer at Caffe Pergolesi, a downtown Santa Cruz coffeehouse, found fliers listing the names, home addresses, home phone numbers and photos of 13 UC-Santa Cruz science researchers and professors. Police believe unidentified animal rights activists created the fliers, which were made to appear as "wanted posters." They warned: "Animal abusers everywhere beware; we know where you live; we know where you work; we will never back down until you end your abuse." City and UC-Santa Cruz police contacted most of the people on the list to warn them.
Read on
Horrible. What these so-called animal rights activists fail to realize is that without animal testing, they most likely wouldn't even be alive. We wouldn't have modern medicine, sunscreen, penicillin, or any of the things we tend to take for granted. Further, researchers must take as much care of these animals as they can.
I can't find the words to say much else as this is all just too insane.
Oh yeah and I just remembered something that has absolutely nothing to do with the above (unless you count vegetarian PETA terrorists) - on Saturday while I was getting my hair done, the hairdresser and her client next to me were talking about how amazing fried chicken tasted and how regular chicken was flavorless. The fuck? I felt like asking "Ever try grilling it? Smoking it? Maybe even, oh I don't know... SEASONING it?" And fried chicken is gross. Get better taste buds, fatass.
Labels: News, Personal, Stupid
1 Comments - Post/view commentsSaturday, July 19, 2008 . 7/19/2008
How to cure anorexia with exorcisms
The once mighty ‘Mercy Ministries’, a secretive outfit that purports to treat young women with mental illness, is now in serious trouble.
Bankrolled by controversial Pentecostal group the ‘Hillsong Church’ and Hillsong-aligned Gloria Jean’s coffees the group has been the subject of a number of complaints to authorities. They’ve already closed one of their two facilities.
Women who’ve been through its programs say the main ‘treatment’ they were prescribed were exorcisms and prayer study, supervised by bible studies students. That’s whether they were dealing with anorexia, anxiety disorders or substance abuse.
And all the time being kept virtually as prisoners - cut off from the outside world with no TV or newspapers, with severely restricted access to friends and family and made to even ask permission to go to the toilet.
Nowhere was the promised phalanx of mental health professionals, psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers and dieticians. Just bible studies students whose answer to all questions was more prayer.
Three former residents told LIVENEWS.com.au they were left in a worse state after going to stay at Mercy Ministries – which still operates in a house in Sydney’s Glenhaven.
Meg Smith (not her real name) says she went to Mercy because of the group’s promise of free treatment for her anxiety disorder and panic attacks.
But she quickly became disheartened after “free” meant signing over her Centrelink payments to the group and “treatment” didn’t include proper access to doctors, psychologists and social workers.
“The 'counsellor' I had was not qualified to treat mental illness... nobody there was. She was in the middle of a mercy 'in-house program' to teach her how to prayer counsel,” says Smith.
“I spent months there and the only 'therapy' I had was prayer readings and an exorcism.”
She paints a disturbing picture - where a group of vulnerable girls isolated in a suburban home and forbidden to leave or form friendships on pain of being expelled – followed a punishing daily routine.
All I can say is wow. The article just speaks for itself. 2 Comments - Post/view comments
Friday, July 18, 2008 . 7/18/2008
I was watching Joao Magueijo's Big Bang on the Science Channel earlier today (pretty good show, except I couldn't help but notice Magueijo used the word 'theory' wrong several times). During commercial breaks, I thumbed through my mom's newest Oprah magazine. And that got me thinking: Why are women's magazines so stupid? Sure, they can have descent articles every once in a while, but it's mostly just trash. Touchy-feely "I'm on top of the world and I can change reality if only I think really hard" trash. Oh, and you can't forget the "advice" from "Dr" Phil. And the horoscopes, too. And then the shitty books they offer as recommended reading. In one magazine (can't remember the name), the only book listed that looked even mildly interesting was Stephen King's Duma Key. The rest were either cook books or feel-good pseudoscience from the looks of it; one that caught my eye in particular was written by Sylvia Browne.Unbelievable.
Women can't really be this stupid, can they? Call me crazy, but I'd much rather stick to magazines like The Skeptical Inquirer and Scientific American.
Labels: Rants
0 Comments - Post/view commentsTuesday, July 15, 2008 . 7/15/2008
This is an excellent article on multivitamins and how they are largely ineffective and can even be harmful.I always get this from my mom: "You should take a vitamin everyday" "It will make you feel better" etc, etc. I always tell her that if she thinks I'm severely lacking in a vitamin(s), then she can take me to the doctor's and they will determine it. That's what people should do when considering taking a supplement, anyway. Many times, perfectly healthy people will take vitamins in pill form when they simply don't need to, and as a result can overdose and even get sick as a result. Taking vitamins while at the same time eating a balanced diet just seems extremely redundant to me.
In my opinion, multivitamins and other supplements should only be available by prescription from a doctor (and not a "holistic" one either, but an actual licensed medical doctor).
Labels: science
0 Comments - Post/view commentsSaturday, July 12, 2008 . 7/12/2008
As my previous post stated, we had to put down our 11-year-old dachshund, Sugar, yesterday afternoon. She was an incredibly sweet dog, and this entry is dedicated to her.
It all started when I was about seven or eight years old. My dad and I were looking for a puppy, and a small hairy one caught my eye. My mom was at work that day, so we left for the time being so that she could see the puppy before we adopted her. When we did come back, a tiny little dachshund got brought in and she stole my heart. She ate her crate-mate's poop right in front of us, but she was adorable all the same. We ended up taking her home instead. I got the honor of naming her - Sugar.
I cannot stress enough how cute and sweet she was as a puppy. Her ears were huge and floppy and she still had lose skin that she needed to grow into. She would cuddle up with you in bed, right next to your stomach.
What was funny about her was that she would steal my socks to keep me from having to go to school. In those days I went to a school where uniforms and socks were required, and I hated the socks more than the uniforms. Sugar apparently picked up on this because she would steal them and hide underneath the bed or table.
She would also steal my friend's clothes whenever we went swimming. She just took them and carried them off into the woods. You always knew Sugar was up to something when you saw a white sock or shirt floating among the bushes.
Even though she was just a small weiner dog, Sugar would herd our neighbor's goat that often escaped from its enclosure. She'd bark, run around the goat's heals, and continue doing so until she got it back in the pasture with the horses where it belonged. It was hilarious to watch.
Unfortunately, as she aged she started to become quite annoying (just like any grandma). She was diagnosed with Cushing's Disease when she was around nine years old, and because of this she'd eat anything she could get her mouth on, including shed hair from our larger dog, Kingston. She'd sneak in and steal his food, the cats' food, and pretty much everyone else's besides her own. She'd lick everything, as well, which made me increasingly frustrated because she'd leave wet spots all over the carpet.
She was very loved, despite all of that. She had her ups and downs, her funny moments and her annoying points. She had a good life.
Rest in peace, sweetie. You will be missed. <3
Well, it finally happened. We had to put our 11-year-old dachshund, Sugar, to sleep yesterday afternoon due to kidney and liver failure. What's weird is that it all started with a swollen eye. Let me explain...
A little over a week ago I noticed that Sugar's right eye was a little red and swollen, but it wasn't too bad. I showed my parents and they said that if it didn't go away or if it got worse by the next day they'd take her to the vet. Fast forward to a day or two and the whole right side of her face got swollen, she was shaking all over and she looked really tired and just plain horrible in general. And that eye... let's just say that if she happened to be a pug, it probably would have popped out.
She lost tons of weight (since she had Cushing's Disease, her stomach bloated up but you could easily feel her ribs and spine by this point). Since it was Sunday, no regular vet was open so we called an e-vet. They suggested giving her a Benadryl to calm down the swelling, so we did, and it helped a bit. We took her to the vet the next day of course, and they thought that it could have been an infected tooth that made her face poof up. Either that or it could be cancer, they said, but they wanted to rule out the infected tooth first, since they didn't think that cancer was too likely. So they gave her some antibiotics and told us to take her back to get another injection the next day. She was scheduled to be put under the following weekend to see about said possible infected tooth since she was in too much pain as it was to risk doing so while she was awake.
Fast forward to Friday and she's bleeding from her mouth, but the swelling was down quite a bit. My dad guessed that it was the infection draining out, but her breathing was shallow and it looked like she could die at any minute, so my parents took her back to the vet (I couldn't be there at the time). They ended up having to put her to sleep because it was discovered, as I mentioned earlier, that her liver and kidneys were failing.
So now I'm wondering how a swollen face could connect to liver and kidney failure. Ever since it swelled up, she stopped eating her food (she was all for cat food and beef though, as always), and she drank water but she didn't pee. Could it have been something she got into? Poisoning? Or maybe it really was cancer... I know it's pointless to speculate if all of this could have been prevented since it's obviously too late, but I can't help but wonder.
Anyway, my next post will be dedicated to the happier memories.
Tuesday, July 08, 2008 . 7/08/2008
Live Longer: The One Anti-Aging Trick That Works
The formula is simple: Eat less. It could add years to your life, several experts now say. And done in moderation, it could at least help you live a more healthy life.
The only question is: Will the average person do it?
While little short of a nip-and-tuck will make you look younger, calorie restriction, as it is called, is as close to a real Fountain of Youth as any known technique comes. Even scientists who are cautious about anti-aging hype say it works, both by cutting risks for some diseases and by allowing all body cells, somehow, to hang in there longer.
"There is plenty of evidence that calorie restriction can reduce your risks for many common diseases including cancer, diabetes and heart disease," says Saint Louis University researcher Edward Weiss, who last week announced a new study that brings fresh understanding to how it works. "And you may live to be substantially older."
The numbers
Here's a rough rule of thumb that many experts generally agree on now: Eat 15 percent less starting at age 25 and you might add 4.5 years to your life, says Eric Ravussin, who studies human health and performance at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Louisiana.
One important caveat: Ravussin's estimate is based mostly on studies of other animals and only preliminary research in humans. But the work by Weiss and others is unlocking the mysteries of aging and suggesting the animal studies apply to humans.
"There is absolutely no reason to think it won't work," Ravussin told LiveScience.
Perhaps even more promising, though in early stages of research, are drugs designed on the basis of what's been learned from calorie-restriction studies. Those drugs would target human cells to deliver the same benefits, turning off bad things and turning on good things to extend cell life in general, or offer new therapies and cures to vexing diseases like Alzheimer's and cancer.
If you can hang in there until these promising new drug therapies are developed, you may live in a world where lifespan increases by 10 to 15 years, researchers say.
Don’t plan on living to be 200, Ravussin said, "but I think we're going to gain quite a few years."
My only concern is that this might "encourage" eating disorders in people who don't understand. From what I'm getting from the article, it's important to still eat enough so that you're not severely restricting, otherwise you'd have the opposite effect and die (obviously).
Another interesting article from LiveScience:
Most Sunscreens Fail to Protect
The Environmental Working Group (EWG), a Washington-based research group and habitual gadfly to the business world, has found that 4 out of 5 of the nearly 1,000 sunscreen lotions analyzed offer inadequate protection from the sun or contain harmful chemicals. The biggest offenders, the EWG said, are the industry leaders: Coppertone, Banana Boat and Neutrogena.
While 3 out of 3 industry leaders are rather upset with the EWG report, and while some dermatologists criticize it for hyperbole, the report does underscore several long-standing health concerns:
Sunscreens do not offer blanket protection from the sun and do little to prevent the most deadly form of skin cancer; reliance on them instead of, say, a hat and protective clothing, might be contributing to skin cancer; and the Food and Drug Administration has yet to issue any safety standards, mysteriously sitting on a set of recommendations drafted 30 years ago.
Subcutaneous homesick blues
Sunlight contains ultraviolet radiation, largely in two forms: UVA and UVB. Aside from sunburn, UVB exposure causes the most common forms of skin cancer — basal cell carcinoma, which is rarely deadly and mostly only disfiguring, and squamous cell carcinoma, which can turn deadly about 1 percent of the time.
UVA penetrates the skin more deeply and causes wrinkling. Recent research, however, has found that UVA exacerbates the carcinogenic effects of UVB and might cause skin cancer itself.
Most sunscreens block only UVB. And the SPF system, short for Sun Protection Factor, refers only to UVB. SPF provides an estimate of a lotion's level of sunburn protection. If you start burning in about 30 minutes, then SPF 15 will allow you to stay in the sun 15 times longer before getting burned, in theory.
SPF of 1 zillion
Total UV protection is within reach and has been used for millennia. It's called clothing. Unfortunately this isn't so convenient when summertime fun calls for minimal clothing.
The EWG report takes an ax to the loose SPF claims. Almost all sunscreen lotions contain chemicals that, perhaps counter-intuitively, breakdown in the presence of sunlight. But in fact this is how they block UVB from penetrating the skin, like a castle wall protecting against cannonballs until the wall crumbles.
Notions of all-day protection, as some sunscreen products claim, or even several hours of protection are ludicrous, the EWG said, because most sunscreens start deteriorating in as quickly as 15 minutes. This doesn't even account for sweat and casual rubbing, further reducing protection.
Also, few sun-worshipers use the recommended shot-glass-amount of lotion with each application. We merely think we are protected; few really are.
Controversy, not just skin deep
The EWG also trashed any lotion containing harmful chemicals that can easily penetrate the skin. Oxybenzone, which blocks UVA, is a main offender. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has found oxybenzone in the urine of just about everyone tested.
This chemical can promote DNA damage in the presence of sunlight. Oxybenzone and similar cancer-causing chemicals in sunscreens contribute to the minority view that sunscreens actually cause more and deadlier cancers than they prevent. Several small studies have found an increased risk of malignant melanoma, by far the deadliest form of skin cancer, among regular users of sunscreens.
Many zinc-based protects appear to be safe, according to the EWG. Until the FDA breaks its silence and offers some guidance, there's the EWG list of recommendations at http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/special/sunscreens2008. Or you can move to Seattle.
Labels: science
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This post by PZ Myers over at Pharyngula talks about the new (I think) website, The Darwin Conspiracy. Now it is hard as hell to tell a legit religious site from a satirical one, so I'm just going to assume that it's being serious.
So in that case, what the bloody hell? I may not be a biologist (yet!) but it pisses me off like nothing else when creationists make up all these ridiculous claims about evolution and biology. Who is out in the field collecting data? Biologists. Who is interpreting the data? Biologists. Who actually studies biology for a living? You've guessed it, biologists. And yet we have creationists, not making any contribution to anything, not predicting anything, not giving evidence for an alternative theory, trying to undermine all of the hard work biologists do. It's ridiculous. It's way beyond ridiculous, actually. It's downright pathetic. One wonders why these creationists also don't try to undermine the theory of gravitation or even germ theory. I also find it very ironic that people who deny evolution are products of evolution themselves (hell, everyone is; everything is) In that light, it would make more sense to deny germ theory.
Labels: Denialism, Rants, Stupid
0 Comments - Post/view commentsThursday, July 03, 2008 . 7/03/2008
I haven't taken a dumb quiz in a while so here's some new ones:| You Are a Snake |
 You have extraordinarily sharp senses. You sense what's going on almost before it happens. You connect with the world. People instantly feel close to you. You are a natural protector. You take good care of your friends. You are an ambitious person. Your ambitious drives you. But while you are ambitious, you are also humble. You are thankful for everything you have. |
| You Are Pretty Charming |
 While you're not a natural charmer, you can be charming when you want to be. And lucky for those around you, you usually feel like turning on the charm. You project a happy, calm image - even when you're feeling the exact opposite. You make people feel great about being around you... though you're not always up for putting in the effort. |
| Your Attention Span is Long |
 You're attention span is amazingly long. You can concentrate well, and your mind doesn't stray easily. Even if you have a mundane task to complete, you can get it done easily. Because you don't get distracted, you accomplish more than most people. Your self discipline is your greatest strength. You can will yourself to do almost anything. All you have to do is put your mind to it. |
| You Are a Winter Person |
 You are calm, serious, and focused. You're the type of person who appreciates the quiet and calm. Winter is the perfect time for you to get cozy and work on a hobby. Summer is a bit too hectic for you. You like the dead of winter... preferably with a roaring fire inside. |
| You Are a Citizen of the World |
 Whenever possible, you try to pay attention to what's going on in the world. You are truly interested in all people and countries, no matter how far away from you they are. You try to learn, travel, and understand. Being a part of the whole world is important to you, and you're always working to be more internationally focused. |
| The Road Trip of Your Life |
 You see life as precious and special. Heritage and family are very important to you. You often find yourself rushing through life. You don't take as much time as you'd like to enjoy the little things. You don't like a lot of risk or randomness in your life. You prefer to stick with what's known, even if it's a bit boring. You are able to find a fairly healthy balance between work and play. You work when you need to, but you never let yourself burn out. In another life, you could have been a great artist. You trust your creative instincts enough to let them lead you. |
Labels: Quizzes
0 Comments - Post/view commentsWednesday, July 02, 2008 . 7/02/2008
As some of you might already know, LiveScience isn't always that great (the Science Channel website is much better). But never have I seen an article on it that didn't have anything to do with science whatsoever:Giraffe Helps Camels, Zebras Escape from Circus
Police spokesman Arnout Aben says the animals wandered in a group through a nearby neighborhood for several hours after their 5:30 a.m. breakout.
The animals were back at the circus later Monday after being rounded up by police and circus workers with the assistance of dogs. Aben says neighbors fed some of the animals — which he said was a bad idea — but they were tame and nobody was hurt.
Says Aben: "You have to imagine somebody rubbing his eyes first thing in the morning and saying, 'Am I seeing things or is that 15 camels walking past?'"
Oookay. It may be under "Strange News" but I was under the impression that it was called LiveScience for a reason.
Oh, and was anyone else hoping that the animals would be placed in zoos after escaping instead of being caught again and being dragged back into the circus? I'm not an animal rights guru by any means, nor do I endorse it (I prefer animal welfare), but circuses are pretty nasty places for any animal (humans included). 0 Comments - Post/view comments
Sunday, June 29, 2008 . 6/29/2008
Unlike intelligent design/creationism, science actually progresses:Bird Family Tree Gets Re-Write
"With this study, we learned two major things," said Sushma Reddy, lead author and a fellow at The Field Museum in Chicago, Ill.
"First, appearances can be deceiving. Birds that look or act similar are not necessarily related. Second, much of bird classification and conventional wisdom on the evolutionary relationships of birds is wrong."
The results of the largest ever study of bird genetics are so widespread that the names of dozens of birds will now have to be changed, says the study to be published in Science magazine.
The Early Bird Assembling the Tree-of-Life Research Project has been researching the evolution of all major living groups of birds and has already examined 32 kilobases of DNA data in 19 places of some 169 bird species.
A kilobase in molecular biology is a unit of length for DNA fragments representing 1,000 base pairs of DNA.
Among new discoveries the team found that birds repeatedly adapted to new environments. For example, flamingos and grebes did not evolve from other water birds, while birds that now live on land such as cuckoos did not evolve from other land birds.
Other findings were that, contrary to current thought, daytime hummingbirds evolved from nocturnal nightjars, falcons are not related to hawks and eagles and fast flying ocean birds are not related to pelicans and other water birds.
"We now have a robust evolutionary tree from which to study the evolution of birds and all their interesting features that have fascinated so many scientists and amateurs for centuries," Reddy said.
"Birds exhibit substantial diversity, and using this 'family tree' we can begin to understand how this diversity originated as well as how different bird groups are interrelated."
Pretty cool, huh? 0 Comments - Post/view comments
I've been thinking about how I used to believe in ghosts and such lately, especially how I used to absolutely love the show Ghost Hunters. I was kind of sciencey back then (less then than now, obviously) and I wanted to have my cake and eat it too when it came to science and the paranormal. Ghost Hunters claimed to include science with their "investigations" so I was thrilled. I bought into it all, hook, line, and sinker. They claimed to be more interested in debunking hauntings than proving them to be true and I believed it.
But there is a big problem (ok, there is more than just a single problem but this one is major) -
TAPS goes in already assuming that ghosts exist, which means if they can't debunk something to their satisfaction, they assume the place is haunted. This is not good science. I could just as easily go into these so-called haunted places assuming that invisible fairies exist, try to prove that invisible fairies were not the cause of all the ruckus, and when I can't, fall back into my original conclusion that it was invisible fairies. Never mind that there isn't any evidence ghosts exist in the first place, let alone invisible fairies: it's circular reasoning. It's a logical fallacy.
I really do wish ghosts existed though, don't get me wrong. In fact I cannot even begin to describe how much I want them to be real, and truth be told I kind of miss believing in them whilst happily ignoring more logical explanations. Unfortunately though, just wishing something existed does not poof said something into existence.
Labels: Personal
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