Turkey Casserole
Saturday, November 27, 2010
Happy Thanksgiving
Sweet Potato Casserole
Green Bean Casserole
Tradition Cornbread Dressing
Collard Green Dressing
Monday, November 22, 2010
News/Events
Reptile’s Pet-Store Looks Belie Its Triassic Appeal
TUATARA Naitive to New Zealand, the tuatara is not like any other vertibrate alive today.
A tuatara is born. Eggs incubate in the ground for a year, and the reptiles routinely live to be 100 — plenty of time to enjoy crunching on the weta, below
As a femur-shaped island paradise that snapped away from the Gondwana supercontinent some 80 million years ago, New Zealand is famously home to eccentric forms of wildlife that look like pets for a Hobbit.
TUATARA Naitive to New Zealand, the tuatara is not like any other vertibrate alive today.
A tuatara is born. Eggs incubate in the ground for a year, and the reptiles routinely live to be 100 — plenty of time to enjoy crunching on the weta, below.
There is the kiwi, of course, with its dense, furlike feathers, its catlike whiskers and its long, slender, curving bill tipped by a pair of ultrasensitive nostrils; and the kakapo, a heavy, flightless, nocturnal parrot with the flat-cheeked face of an owl; and the giant weta, a cricket the size of a human hand that displays by waving its formidably serrated rear legs high in the air as if brandishing a pair of saws.
Yet the animal that may well be New Zealand’s most bizarrely instructive species at first glance looks surprisingly humdrum: the tuatara. A reptile about 16 inches long with bumpy, khaki-colored skin and a lizardly profile, the tuatara could easily be mistaken for an iguana. Appearances in this case are wildly deceptive. The tuatara — whose name comes from the Maori language and means “peaks on the back” — is not an iguana, is not a lizard, is not like any other reptile alive today.
In fact, as a series of recent studies suggest, it is not like any other vertebrate alive today. The tuatara, scientists have learned, is in some ways a so-called living fossil, its in some ways a so-called living fossil, its basic skeletal layout and skull shape almost identical to that of tuatara fossils dating back hundreds of millions of years, to before the rise of the dinosaurs. Certain tuatara organs and traits also display the hallmarks of being, if not quite primitive, at least closer to evolutionary baseline than comparable structures in other animals.
For example, the tuatara has a third eye at the top of its skull, the legendary if poorly understood pineal eye, which is found in only a sprinkling of reptile species and which vision researchers suspect harks back to nature’s original eye — pretty much a few light-sensitive cells on a stalk. A tuatara’s teeth likewise follow the no-nonsense design seen in dinosaur dentition, erupting directly from the jawbone and without the niceties of tooth sockets and periodontal ligaments that characterize the teeth of all mammals and many reptiles. Some researchers are looking at tuataras for clues to how dental implants, which are inserted directly into the jaw, might be improved.
Yet in a startling counterpoint to the notion of the tuatara as a holdover from Triassic Park, researchers lately have discovered that a few regions of tuatara DNA appear to be evolving at hyperspeed, possibly the fastest mutation rate yet clocked in a vertebrate genome. The quick-changing sequences are limited to so-called neutral regions of the tuatara’s DNA, affecting filler codes, rather than the molecular blueprints for how to build a tuatara. The researchers have yet to determine what the observed hypermutability is all about, but obviously, said David M. Lambert of Griffith University, in Brisbane, Australia, an author of the study, “the processes that govern skeletal morphology are decoupled from the biological processes that govern changes in DNA.”
Moreover, while the modern tuatara resembles its distant ancestors anatomically, life aboard a long-isolated land mass clearly has wrought major changes in the reptile’s physiology and behavior, pushing the tuatara to Guinness-worthy extremes. A famous Gary Larson cartoon may have featured a crocodile on the witness stand angrily telling the prosecutor, “Well, of course I did it in cold blood, you idiot! I’m a reptile!” but in reality crocodiles and a vast majority of other reptiles do very little when the thermometer drops and their blood runs cold — except maybe die. Not so for tuataras.
“Their biology is quite distinctive,” said Charles Daugherty of the Allan Wilson Center for Molecular Ecology and Evolution at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand. “They have a unique type of hemoglobin, and their enzymes are set to function at lower temperatures than in most reptiles.” As a result, tuataras remain active at night, and in weather just a few degrees above freezing, said Dr. Daugherty, “at temperatures at which most reptiles couldn’t survive.”
Yes, tuataras are out and about, working the night shift, hunting down other New Zealand fauna similarly adapted for the cold. “They like to eat wetas,” said Stephanie S. Godfrey, a postdoctoral researcher at Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia, who has studied parasite transmission among tuataras. “Walking through the forest at night, you can hear the tuataras eating — crunch, crunch, crunch.”
Mark Twain’s Autobiography Flying Off the Shelves
By JULIE BOSMAN
Published: November 19, 2010
“Autobiography of Mark Twain,” a $35, four-pound, 500,000-word doorstopper of a memoir, they kept their expectations modest with a planned print run of 7,500 copies.
Hiroko Masuike for The New York Times
“Autobiography of Mark Twain” is a smash hit across the country.
Now it is a smash hit across the country, landing on best-seller lists and going back to press six times, for a total print run — so far — of 275,000. The publisher cannot print copies quickly enough, leaving some bookstores and online retailers stranded without copies just as the holiday shopping season begins.
“It sold right out,” said Kris Kleindienst, an owner of Left Bank Books in St. Louis, which first ordered 50 copies and has a dozen people on a waiting list. “You would think only completists and scholars would want a book like this. But there’s an enduring love affair with Mark Twain, especially around here. Anybody within a stone’s throw of the Mississippi River has a Twain attachment.”
Farther upriver, at the Prairie Lights bookstore in Iowa City, Paul Ingram, the book buyer, said he initially ordered 10 copies, but they disappeared almost immediately.
“We are dearly hoping we’ll get more copies in a couple of weeks,” Mr. Ingram said. “I’m sure every bookseller in the world is saying, ‘I should have been sharper, I should have thought this one through more carefully.’ ”
Earlier this week, the book was out of stock at a handful of Barnes & Noble stores in Chicago, Boston and Austin, Tex. On Borders.com, it is back-ordered for at least two to four weeks. Some independent booksellers said they had been told, much to their despair, that they would not receive reorders until mid-December or even January.
“It’s frustrating,” said Rona Brinlee, the owner of the BookMark in Neptune Beach, Fla. “In this age of instant books, why does it take so long to reprint it?”
Those who have been lining up to buy it seem to be a mix of Twain aficionados, history buffs and early Christmas shoppers who gravitate toward big, heavy classic biographies as gifts.
“It’s totally the Dad book of the year,” said Rebecca Fitting, an owner of the Greenlight Bookstore in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. “It’s that autobiography, biography, history category, a certain kind of guy gift book.”
Many booksellers said the memoir has a perfect holiday-gift quality: a widely adored author, a weighty feel, and a unique story behind its publication. (Twain ordered that the book be published a century after his death.)
Most of the content was dictated to Twain’s stenographer in the four years before he died, at 74 in 1910. It is more political than his previous works, by turns frank, funny, angry and full of recollections from his childhood, which deeply influenced books like “Huckleberry Finn.”
A younger generation of readers is discovering Twain for his political writings, Ms. Fitting said.
“He’s surprisingly relevant right now,” she added. “When you look at how much he wrote and the breadth of the subjects he wrote about, you know that if he were alive today, he would totally be a blogger.”
Steve Kettmann, an American writer living in Berlin, said that he tried to buy a copy during a visit to a Borders in Orlando, Fla., but was told that they were sold out and would not receive more copies for four to six weeks. (He went to another Borders nearby, found two copies, and bought them both.)
“I just think that there’s a feeling out there by a lot of people that Mark Twain is one of our greatest writers, and there’s something particularly American about his combination of wit and insight,” Mr. Kettmann said. “He was a wonderful showman. And he was cool, let’s face it. That’s part of it.”
Alex Dahne, a spokeswoman for the University of California Press, said the book was the biggest success the publisher has had in 60 years.
TUATARA Naitive to New Zealand, the tuatara is not like any other vertibrate alive today.
A tuatara is born. Eggs incubate in the ground for a year, and the reptiles routinely live to be 100 — plenty of time to enjoy crunching on the weta, below
As a femur-shaped island paradise that snapped away from the Gondwana supercontinent some 80 million years ago, New Zealand is famously home to eccentric forms of wildlife that look like pets for a Hobbit.
TUATARA Naitive to New Zealand, the tuatara is not like any other vertibrate alive today.
A tuatara is born. Eggs incubate in the ground for a year, and the reptiles routinely live to be 100 — plenty of time to enjoy crunching on the weta, below.
There is the kiwi, of course, with its dense, furlike feathers, its catlike whiskers and its long, slender, curving bill tipped by a pair of ultrasensitive nostrils; and the kakapo, a heavy, flightless, nocturnal parrot with the flat-cheeked face of an owl; and the giant weta, a cricket the size of a human hand that displays by waving its formidably serrated rear legs high in the air as if brandishing a pair of saws.
Yet the animal that may well be New Zealand’s most bizarrely instructive species at first glance looks surprisingly humdrum: the tuatara. A reptile about 16 inches long with bumpy, khaki-colored skin and a lizardly profile, the tuatara could easily be mistaken for an iguana. Appearances in this case are wildly deceptive. The tuatara — whose name comes from the Maori language and means “peaks on the back” — is not an iguana, is not a lizard, is not like any other reptile alive today.
In fact, as a series of recent studies suggest, it is not like any other vertebrate alive today. The tuatara, scientists have learned, is in some ways a so-called living fossil, its in some ways a so-called living fossil, its basic skeletal layout and skull shape almost identical to that of tuatara fossils dating back hundreds of millions of years, to before the rise of the dinosaurs. Certain tuatara organs and traits also display the hallmarks of being, if not quite primitive, at least closer to evolutionary baseline than comparable structures in other animals.
For example, the tuatara has a third eye at the top of its skull, the legendary if poorly understood pineal eye, which is found in only a sprinkling of reptile species and which vision researchers suspect harks back to nature’s original eye — pretty much a few light-sensitive cells on a stalk. A tuatara’s teeth likewise follow the no-nonsense design seen in dinosaur dentition, erupting directly from the jawbone and without the niceties of tooth sockets and periodontal ligaments that characterize the teeth of all mammals and many reptiles. Some researchers are looking at tuataras for clues to how dental implants, which are inserted directly into the jaw, might be improved.
Yet in a startling counterpoint to the notion of the tuatara as a holdover from Triassic Park, researchers lately have discovered that a few regions of tuatara DNA appear to be evolving at hyperspeed, possibly the fastest mutation rate yet clocked in a vertebrate genome. The quick-changing sequences are limited to so-called neutral regions of the tuatara’s DNA, affecting filler codes, rather than the molecular blueprints for how to build a tuatara. The researchers have yet to determine what the observed hypermutability is all about, but obviously, said David M. Lambert of Griffith University, in Brisbane, Australia, an author of the study, “the processes that govern skeletal morphology are decoupled from the biological processes that govern changes in DNA.”
Moreover, while the modern tuatara resembles its distant ancestors anatomically, life aboard a long-isolated land mass clearly has wrought major changes in the reptile’s physiology and behavior, pushing the tuatara to Guinness-worthy extremes. A famous Gary Larson cartoon may have featured a crocodile on the witness stand angrily telling the prosecutor, “Well, of course I did it in cold blood, you idiot! I’m a reptile!” but in reality crocodiles and a vast majority of other reptiles do very little when the thermometer drops and their blood runs cold — except maybe die. Not so for tuataras.
“Their biology is quite distinctive,” said Charles Daugherty of the Allan Wilson Center for Molecular Ecology and Evolution at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand. “They have a unique type of hemoglobin, and their enzymes are set to function at lower temperatures than in most reptiles.” As a result, tuataras remain active at night, and in weather just a few degrees above freezing, said Dr. Daugherty, “at temperatures at which most reptiles couldn’t survive.”
Yes, tuataras are out and about, working the night shift, hunting down other New Zealand fauna similarly adapted for the cold. “They like to eat wetas,” said Stephanie S. Godfrey, a postdoctoral researcher at Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia, who has studied parasite transmission among tuataras. “Walking through the forest at night, you can hear the tuataras eating — crunch, crunch, crunch.”
Mark Twain’s Autobiography Flying Off the Shelves
By JULIE BOSMAN
Published: November 19, 2010
“Autobiography of Mark Twain,” a $35, four-pound, 500,000-word doorstopper of a memoir, they kept their expectations modest with a planned print run of 7,500 copies.
Hiroko Masuike for The New York Times
“Autobiography of Mark Twain” is a smash hit across the country.
Now it is a smash hit across the country, landing on best-seller lists and going back to press six times, for a total print run — so far — of 275,000. The publisher cannot print copies quickly enough, leaving some bookstores and online retailers stranded without copies just as the holiday shopping season begins.
“It sold right out,” said Kris Kleindienst, an owner of Left Bank Books in St. Louis, which first ordered 50 copies and has a dozen people on a waiting list. “You would think only completists and scholars would want a book like this. But there’s an enduring love affair with Mark Twain, especially around here. Anybody within a stone’s throw of the Mississippi River has a Twain attachment.”
Farther upriver, at the Prairie Lights bookstore in Iowa City, Paul Ingram, the book buyer, said he initially ordered 10 copies, but they disappeared almost immediately.
“We are dearly hoping we’ll get more copies in a couple of weeks,” Mr. Ingram said. “I’m sure every bookseller in the world is saying, ‘I should have been sharper, I should have thought this one through more carefully.’ ”
Earlier this week, the book was out of stock at a handful of Barnes & Noble stores in Chicago, Boston and Austin, Tex. On Borders.com, it is back-ordered for at least two to four weeks. Some independent booksellers said they had been told, much to their despair, that they would not receive reorders until mid-December or even January.
“It’s frustrating,” said Rona Brinlee, the owner of the BookMark in Neptune Beach, Fla. “In this age of instant books, why does it take so long to reprint it?”
Those who have been lining up to buy it seem to be a mix of Twain aficionados, history buffs and early Christmas shoppers who gravitate toward big, heavy classic biographies as gifts.
“It’s totally the Dad book of the year,” said Rebecca Fitting, an owner of the Greenlight Bookstore in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. “It’s that autobiography, biography, history category, a certain kind of guy gift book.”
Many booksellers said the memoir has a perfect holiday-gift quality: a widely adored author, a weighty feel, and a unique story behind its publication. (Twain ordered that the book be published a century after his death.)
Most of the content was dictated to Twain’s stenographer in the four years before he died, at 74 in 1910. It is more political than his previous works, by turns frank, funny, angry and full of recollections from his childhood, which deeply influenced books like “Huckleberry Finn.”
A younger generation of readers is discovering Twain for his political writings, Ms. Fitting said.
“He’s surprisingly relevant right now,” she added. “When you look at how much he wrote and the breadth of the subjects he wrote about, you know that if he were alive today, he would totally be a blogger.”
Steve Kettmann, an American writer living in Berlin, said that he tried to buy a copy during a visit to a Borders in Orlando, Fla., but was told that they were sold out and would not receive more copies for four to six weeks. (He went to another Borders nearby, found two copies, and bought them both.)
“I just think that there’s a feeling out there by a lot of people that Mark Twain is one of our greatest writers, and there’s something particularly American about his combination of wit and insight,” Mr. Kettmann said. “He was a wonderful showman. And he was cool, let’s face it. That’s part of it.”
Alex Dahne, a spokeswoman for the University of California Press, said the book was the biggest success the publisher has had in 60 years.
Monday, November 15, 2010
News/Events
In the Remote Pacific, Glimpses of Pristine Corals
Our team is in the midst of a monthlong research cruise in the Line Islands, an archipelago in the remote central Pacific. According to many metrics, these islands are among the most isolated on the planet, and they depend on the already-remote islands of Hawaii as nearest port of refuge. (Mind you that Honolulu is more than 1,200 miles to the north of us.) We are here to study the ecology of coral reefs, taking a holistic perspective of each of the major biological players on the reef —the fish, corals, algae, and even the bacteria and viruses — and estimating how fast each of these groups grows.
Why, you may ask, did we travel so far to study growth rates on coral reefs? There are certainly simpler ways to reach coral reefs than by chartering a 158-foot yacht and spending the greater part of a year arranging the logistics. The answer lies specifically in the location’s remoteness. The Line Islands have been difficult to reach for all of human history, and as such have remained largely outside the influence of people. It is here in the Line Islands that we have a chance to study the basics of coral reef ecology, not simply the remains of coral reef ecology. The reefs here have not collapsed, and the hand of humans is somewhere between light and nil. It is surprising how rare it is to study coral reefs without lamenting solely what has been lost.
If you read reports about coral reefs, the news is typically bad. Reef fisheries are collapsing due to overexploitation. Seaweeds are growing out of control when too much pollution is dumped, often leading to the spread of invasive species. And when the seawater gets too warm (as happens during intensive El Nino events), the corals can go into a form of heat shock and die. Fishing, pollution, and climate change are the main stories on coral reefs, and we are trying to prevent these culprits from killing all reefs before our children or grandchildren get to enjoy them. But in order to manage coral reefs in the presence of people, we have to understand how coral reefs work in the absence of people. The Line Islands give us a rare
A research diver collecting data on fish populations. Today we started our work on Tabuaeran, finding an abundance of corals and countless dinner-plate-sized fish sprinting around the reef. A dive like this would sell for a lot of money in many popular destinations, and many of my fishing friends would love a day spent with hook and line in these waters. Happily, these coral reefs are thriving, not collapsing.
We arrived to Tabuaeran by way of Palmyra Atoll and Kingman Reef. Unlike Tabuaeran, these islands are uninhabited and support some of the biggest and healthiest coral reefs on the planet. The fish on the reefs are huge, and sharks and large snappers dominate. The corals on the reefs are also spectacular, with table corals that look like underwater satellite dishes and dome corals the size of the satellites they are trying to reach. A dive at these islands would also sell for much more money.
A variety of fish call the coral reefs of Palmyra Atoll home.A critical question remains: what does it mean ecologically for a reef to be “heavy” — by which I mean some ineffable quality of being impressive and even a bit daunting? But even more importantly, what does it mean for humans trying to live off of the services provided by their reef if the heaviness is lost? Because the reefs of Tabuaeran are changed relative to Kingman and Palmyra, has some critical service been lost to the local humanity? The answer is not simply academic. Millions of people depend on the productivity of coral reefs. The fires onshore are a demonstration of the importance of understanding productivity of the sea. The reefs below us are feeding the residents of this island.
By comparing the reefs of inhabited and uninhabited islands in this remote part of the Pacific, we are looking for the sweet spot of human activity. We cannot feed humanity by not fishing, and we cannot feed humanity by fishing too much. Somewhere in between is the solution, and the people of Tabuaeran may just have found this perfect balance. Floating here in the true middle of the Pacific Ocean, we are taking steps to provide new answers.
Great Homes and Destinations
Near Madrid, a House of Concrete I-Beams and Steel Girders
Antón García Abril, a Madrid architect, has designed a house that is built out of infrastructure pieces -- three giant concrete I-beams, two concrete segments from an irrigation canal and two steel girders -- anchored on top by a 20-ton piece of granite.
Our team is in the midst of a monthlong research cruise in the Line Islands, an archipelago in the remote central Pacific. According to many metrics, these islands are among the most isolated on the planet, and they depend on the already-remote islands of Hawaii as nearest port of refuge. (Mind you that Honolulu is more than 1,200 miles to the north of us.) We are here to study the ecology of coral reefs, taking a holistic perspective of each of the major biological players on the reef —the fish, corals, algae, and even the bacteria and viruses — and estimating how fast each of these groups grows.
Why, you may ask, did we travel so far to study growth rates on coral reefs? There are certainly simpler ways to reach coral reefs than by chartering a 158-foot yacht and spending the greater part of a year arranging the logistics. The answer lies specifically in the location’s remoteness. The Line Islands have been difficult to reach for all of human history, and as such have remained largely outside the influence of people. It is here in the Line Islands that we have a chance to study the basics of coral reef ecology, not simply the remains of coral reef ecology. The reefs here have not collapsed, and the hand of humans is somewhere between light and nil. It is surprising how rare it is to study coral reefs without lamenting solely what has been lost.
If you read reports about coral reefs, the news is typically bad. Reef fisheries are collapsing due to overexploitation. Seaweeds are growing out of control when too much pollution is dumped, often leading to the spread of invasive species. And when the seawater gets too warm (as happens during intensive El Nino events), the corals can go into a form of heat shock and die. Fishing, pollution, and climate change are the main stories on coral reefs, and we are trying to prevent these culprits from killing all reefs before our children or grandchildren get to enjoy them. But in order to manage coral reefs in the presence of people, we have to understand how coral reefs work in the absence of people. The Line Islands give us a rare
A research diver collecting data on fish populations. Today we started our work on Tabuaeran, finding an abundance of corals and countless dinner-plate-sized fish sprinting around the reef. A dive like this would sell for a lot of money in many popular destinations, and many of my fishing friends would love a day spent with hook and line in these waters. Happily, these coral reefs are thriving, not collapsing.
We arrived to Tabuaeran by way of Palmyra Atoll and Kingman Reef. Unlike Tabuaeran, these islands are uninhabited and support some of the biggest and healthiest coral reefs on the planet. The fish on the reefs are huge, and sharks and large snappers dominate. The corals on the reefs are also spectacular, with table corals that look like underwater satellite dishes and dome corals the size of the satellites they are trying to reach. A dive at these islands would also sell for much more money.
A variety of fish call the coral reefs of Palmyra Atoll home.A critical question remains: what does it mean ecologically for a reef to be “heavy” — by which I mean some ineffable quality of being impressive and even a bit daunting? But even more importantly, what does it mean for humans trying to live off of the services provided by their reef if the heaviness is lost? Because the reefs of Tabuaeran are changed relative to Kingman and Palmyra, has some critical service been lost to the local humanity? The answer is not simply academic. Millions of people depend on the productivity of coral reefs. The fires onshore are a demonstration of the importance of understanding productivity of the sea. The reefs below us are feeding the residents of this island.
By comparing the reefs of inhabited and uninhabited islands in this remote part of the Pacific, we are looking for the sweet spot of human activity. We cannot feed humanity by not fishing, and we cannot feed humanity by fishing too much. Somewhere in between is the solution, and the people of Tabuaeran may just have found this perfect balance. Floating here in the true middle of the Pacific Ocean, we are taking steps to provide new answers.
Great Homes and Destinations
Near Madrid, a House of Concrete I-Beams and Steel Girders
Antón García Abril, a Madrid architect, has designed a house that is built out of infrastructure pieces -- three giant concrete I-beams, two concrete segments from an irrigation canal and two steel girders -- anchored on top by a 20-ton piece of granite.
Monday, November 8, 2010
Sunday, November 7, 2010
News/Events
Zen and the Art of Coping With Alzheimer's
The number of Alzheimer's patients is expected to increase dramatically in coming years, straining the health care system.
Scientists have not discovered the cause nor devised effective treatments. Even diagnosis is difficult.
In the absence of therapies, attention has turned to teaching the skills necessary to cope with demented patients.
Increasingly caregivers are encouraged to validate the feelings and perceptions of the person with Alzheimer's.
During the YouTube forum with the Democratic presidential candidates in July, the first question about health care came from two middle-age brothers in Iowa, who faced the camera with their elderly mother. Not everybody with Alzheimer’s disease has two loving sons to take care of them, they said, adding that a boom in dementia is expected in the next few decades.
“What are you prepared to do to fight this disease now?” they asked.
The politicians mouthed generalities about health care, larded with poignant anecdotes. None of them answered the question about Alzheimer’s.
Science hasn’t done much better. There is no cure for Alzheimer’s and no way to prevent it. Scientists haven’t even stopped arguing about whether the gunk that builds up in the Alzheimer’s brain is a cause or an effect of the disease. Alzheimer’s is roaring down — a train wreck to come — on societies all over the world.
People in this country spend more than a $1 billion a year on prescription drugs marketed to treat it, but for most patients the pills have only marginal effects, if any, on symptoms and do nothing to stop the underlying disease process that eats away at the brain. Pressed for answers, most researchers say no breakthrough is around the corner, and it could easily be a decade or more before anything comes along that makes a real difference for patients.
Meanwhile, the numbers are staggering: 4.5 million people in the United States have Alzheimer’s, 1 in 10 over 65 and nearly half of those over 85. Taking care of them costs $100 billion a year, and the number of patients is expected to reach 11 million to 16 million by 2050. Experts say the disease will swamp the health system.
It’s already swamping millions of families, who suffer the anguish of seeing a loved one’s mind and personality disintegrate, and who struggle with caregiving and try to postpone the wrenching decision about whether they can keep the patient at home as helplessness increases, incontinence sets in and things are only going to get worse.
Drug companies are placing big bets on Alzheimer’s. Wyeth, for instance, has 23 separate projects aimed at developing new treatments. Hundreds of theories are under study at other companies large and small. Why not? People with Alzheimer’s and their families are so desperate that they will buy any drug that offers even a shred of hope, and many will keep using the drug even if the symptoms don’t get better, because they can easily be convinced that the patient would be even worse off without it.
It is telling, maybe a tacit admission of defeat, that a caregiving industry has sprung up around Alzheimer’s. Books, conferences and Web sites abound — how to deal with the anger, the wandering, the sleeping all day and staying up all night, the person who asks the same question 15 times in 15 minutes, wants to wear the same blouse every day and no longer recognizes her own children or knows what a toilet is for.
The advice is painfully and ironically reminiscent of the 1960s and ’70s, the literal and figurative high point for many of the people who are now coping with demented parents. The theme is, essentially, go with the flow. People with Alzheimer’s aren’t being stubborn or nasty on purpose; they can’t help it. Arguing and correcting will not only not help, but they will ratchet up the hostility level and make things worse. The person with dementia has been transported into a strange, confusing new world and the best other people can do is to try to imagine the view from there and get with the program.
If a patient asks for her mother, for instance, instead of pointing out that her mother has been dead for 40 years, it is better to say something like, “I wish your mother were here, too,” and then maybe redirect the conversation to something else, like what’s for lunch.
If Dad wants to polish off the duck sauce in a Chinese restaurant like it’s a bowl of soup, why not? If Grandma wants to help out by washing the dishes but makes a mess of it, leave her to it and just rewash them later when she’s not looking. Pull out old family pictures to give the patient something to talk about. Learn the art of fragmented, irrational conversation and follow the patient’s lead instead of trying to control the dialogue.
Basically, just tango on. And hope somebody will do the same for you when your time comes. Unless the big breakthrough happens first.
Gebremariam Wins New York in Marathon Debut
Gebre Gebremariam once studied marathon world-record holder Haile Gebrselassie in school, in a class that also featured another Ethiopian marathon legend, Abeba Bikila.
Gebre Gebremariam of Ethiopia, right, edges Emmanuel Mutai of Kenya near the end of the New York City Marathon. More Photos »
He earned an A.
Gebremariam started running himself at age 18 in Ethiopia, and he has won at every distance and on every kind course since until he made his marathon debut Sunday in relative obscurity in the New York City Marathon.
Gebrselassie, 37, was the most hyped runner on this day other than perhaps Edison Peña, the Chilean miner. But the hype deflated when Gebrselassie dropped out on the Queensboro Bridge in the 16th mile with tendinitis in his right knee.
When he became a footnote in history, Gebremariam went on to claim it.
Running effortlessly and alone in the final two miles, Gebremariam, 26, cruised to a victory in 2 hours 8 minutes 14 seconds. His only competition late in the race, Emmanuel Mutai of Kenya, had dropped back in the 25th mile in Central Park with pain in his leg. Gebremariam looked back several times, then stormed ahead to the tape.
The number of Alzheimer's patients is expected to increase dramatically in coming years, straining the health care system.
Scientists have not discovered the cause nor devised effective treatments. Even diagnosis is difficult.
In the absence of therapies, attention has turned to teaching the skills necessary to cope with demented patients.
Increasingly caregivers are encouraged to validate the feelings and perceptions of the person with Alzheimer's.
During the YouTube forum with the Democratic presidential candidates in July, the first question about health care came from two middle-age brothers in Iowa, who faced the camera with their elderly mother. Not everybody with Alzheimer’s disease has two loving sons to take care of them, they said, adding that a boom in dementia is expected in the next few decades.
“What are you prepared to do to fight this disease now?” they asked.
The politicians mouthed generalities about health care, larded with poignant anecdotes. None of them answered the question about Alzheimer’s.
Science hasn’t done much better. There is no cure for Alzheimer’s and no way to prevent it. Scientists haven’t even stopped arguing about whether the gunk that builds up in the Alzheimer’s brain is a cause or an effect of the disease. Alzheimer’s is roaring down — a train wreck to come — on societies all over the world.
People in this country spend more than a $1 billion a year on prescription drugs marketed to treat it, but for most patients the pills have only marginal effects, if any, on symptoms and do nothing to stop the underlying disease process that eats away at the brain. Pressed for answers, most researchers say no breakthrough is around the corner, and it could easily be a decade or more before anything comes along that makes a real difference for patients.
Meanwhile, the numbers are staggering: 4.5 million people in the United States have Alzheimer’s, 1 in 10 over 65 and nearly half of those over 85. Taking care of them costs $100 billion a year, and the number of patients is expected to reach 11 million to 16 million by 2050. Experts say the disease will swamp the health system.
It’s already swamping millions of families, who suffer the anguish of seeing a loved one’s mind and personality disintegrate, and who struggle with caregiving and try to postpone the wrenching decision about whether they can keep the patient at home as helplessness increases, incontinence sets in and things are only going to get worse.
Drug companies are placing big bets on Alzheimer’s. Wyeth, for instance, has 23 separate projects aimed at developing new treatments. Hundreds of theories are under study at other companies large and small. Why not? People with Alzheimer’s and their families are so desperate that they will buy any drug that offers even a shred of hope, and many will keep using the drug even if the symptoms don’t get better, because they can easily be convinced that the patient would be even worse off without it.
It is telling, maybe a tacit admission of defeat, that a caregiving industry has sprung up around Alzheimer’s. Books, conferences and Web sites abound — how to deal with the anger, the wandering, the sleeping all day and staying up all night, the person who asks the same question 15 times in 15 minutes, wants to wear the same blouse every day and no longer recognizes her own children or knows what a toilet is for.
The advice is painfully and ironically reminiscent of the 1960s and ’70s, the literal and figurative high point for many of the people who are now coping with demented parents. The theme is, essentially, go with the flow. People with Alzheimer’s aren’t being stubborn or nasty on purpose; they can’t help it. Arguing and correcting will not only not help, but they will ratchet up the hostility level and make things worse. The person with dementia has been transported into a strange, confusing new world and the best other people can do is to try to imagine the view from there and get with the program.
If a patient asks for her mother, for instance, instead of pointing out that her mother has been dead for 40 years, it is better to say something like, “I wish your mother were here, too,” and then maybe redirect the conversation to something else, like what’s for lunch.
If Dad wants to polish off the duck sauce in a Chinese restaurant like it’s a bowl of soup, why not? If Grandma wants to help out by washing the dishes but makes a mess of it, leave her to it and just rewash them later when she’s not looking. Pull out old family pictures to give the patient something to talk about. Learn the art of fragmented, irrational conversation and follow the patient’s lead instead of trying to control the dialogue.
Basically, just tango on. And hope somebody will do the same for you when your time comes. Unless the big breakthrough happens first.
Gebremariam Wins New York in Marathon Debut
Gebre Gebremariam once studied marathon world-record holder Haile Gebrselassie in school, in a class that also featured another Ethiopian marathon legend, Abeba Bikila.
Gebre Gebremariam of Ethiopia, right, edges Emmanuel Mutai of Kenya near the end of the New York City Marathon. More Photos »
He earned an A.
Gebremariam started running himself at age 18 in Ethiopia, and he has won at every distance and on every kind course since until he made his marathon debut Sunday in relative obscurity in the New York City Marathon.
Gebrselassie, 37, was the most hyped runner on this day other than perhaps Edison Peña, the Chilean miner. But the hype deflated when Gebrselassie dropped out on the Queensboro Bridge in the 16th mile with tendinitis in his right knee.
When he became a footnote in history, Gebremariam went on to claim it.
Running effortlessly and alone in the final two miles, Gebremariam, 26, cruised to a victory in 2 hours 8 minutes 14 seconds. His only competition late in the race, Emmanuel Mutai of Kenya, had dropped back in the 25th mile in Central Park with pain in his leg. Gebremariam looked back several times, then stormed ahead to the tape.
News/Events
When a Rig Moves In Next Door
In the sparsely populated pastures of De Soto Parish in Louisiana, the ability to extract gas from shale — which can involve a process known as fracking — has been welcomed as an economic windfall. Some residents call it a gift from God.
Some Pennsylvanians fear pollution from gas drilling. But in states accustomed to its risks, the industry is seen as an economic lifeline.
Residents of De Soto Parish, La., capitalize on a drilling boom by supplying water; hoses snake for miles to a rig. But 1,400 miles to the north, in Susquehanna County in Pennsylvania, shale gas development has divided neighbors, spurred lawsuits and sown deep mistrust. Along Grove Avenue in Montrose, the county seat, a billboard looms overhead, advertising the services of a personal-injury law firm. “HURT by DRILLING?” it asks.
Dead Coral Found Near Site of Oil Spill
A survey of the seafloor near BP’s blown-out well in the Gulf of Mexico has turned up dead and dying coral reefs that were probably damaged by the oil spill, scientists said Friday.
The coral sites lie seven miles southwest of the well, at a depth of about 4,500 feet, in an area where large plumes of dispersed oil were discovered drifting through the deep ocean last spring in the weeks after the spill.
The large areas of darkened coral and other damaged marine organisms were almost certainly dying from exposure to toxic substances, scientists said.
The corals were discovered on Tuesday by scientists aboard a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration research vessel using a submersible robot equipped with cameras and sampling tools.
The documented presence of oil plumes in the area, the proximity to BP’s well and the recent nature of the die-off make it highly likely that the spill was responsible, said Charles Fisher, a marine biologist from Pennsylvania State University who is the chief scientist on the gulf expedition, which was financed by the federal government.
“I think that we have a smoking gun,” Dr. Fisher said. “The circumstantial evidence is very strong that it’s linked to the spill.”
The discovery of the dead corals offers the strongest evidence so far that oil from the BP well may have harmed marine life in the deep ocean, a concern raised by many biologists soon after the April 20 blowout that caused the spill. At an estimated nearly five million barrels, it was the largest offshore oil spill in the nation’s history.
A brownish substance covered many of the dead or dying reefs but was probably dead tissue and sediment, not oil, Dr. Fisher said.
Oil seeps naturally from the seafloor throughout the Gulf of Mexico, but that was unlikely to have caused such a severe coral die-off, he added.
“We have never seen anything like this at any of the deep coral sites that we’ve been to,” Dr. Fisher said. “And we’ve been to quite a lot of them.”
Further study is needed to conclusively link the coral die-off to the spill, scientists said, and the survey team took a number of samples from the site to test for the presence of hydrocarbons and dispersant.
Whether these samples will yield direct evidence leading back to the spill is unclear. “No one yet knows if the signature of whatever toxin killed these corals can be found in their skeletons after the tissue sloughs off,” Dr. Fisher said.
Jane Lubchenco, the administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, called the findings significant. “Given the toxic nature of oil and the unprecedented amount of oil spilled, it would be surprising if we did not find damage,” she said in a statement. “This is precisely why we continue to actively monitor and evaluate the impact of the spill in the gulf.”
“We are determined to hold the responsible parties accountable for the damage done to the environment,” she added.
The ocean floor near the site of the well is still largely unexplored and is probably home to many other deep-water coral communities that scientists are eager to study.
The scientists will return to the same region on an expedition in December for more research, using a Navy vehicle that can accommodate two scientists and a pilot to depths of up to nearly 15,000 feet. Work on deep-water corals is typically conducted using advanced submersibles or remotely operated underwater vehicles.
Coral sites in shallower waters farther from the well have not suffered visible damage, scientists say, but they are still studying these reefs for signs of less acute long-term effects.
“There’s a lot of work to be done to see if there’s been some sublethal effect on these corals,” said Erik Cordes, a marine biologist from Temple University who has been studying reefs in the gulf in the aftermath of the spill.
In the sparsely populated pastures of De Soto Parish in Louisiana, the ability to extract gas from shale — which can involve a process known as fracking — has been welcomed as an economic windfall. Some residents call it a gift from God.
Some Pennsylvanians fear pollution from gas drilling. But in states accustomed to its risks, the industry is seen as an economic lifeline.
Residents of De Soto Parish, La., capitalize on a drilling boom by supplying water; hoses snake for miles to a rig. But 1,400 miles to the north, in Susquehanna County in Pennsylvania, shale gas development has divided neighbors, spurred lawsuits and sown deep mistrust. Along Grove Avenue in Montrose, the county seat, a billboard looms overhead, advertising the services of a personal-injury law firm. “HURT by DRILLING?” it asks.
Dead Coral Found Near Site of Oil Spill
A survey of the seafloor near BP’s blown-out well in the Gulf of Mexico has turned up dead and dying coral reefs that were probably damaged by the oil spill, scientists said Friday.
The coral sites lie seven miles southwest of the well, at a depth of about 4,500 feet, in an area where large plumes of dispersed oil were discovered drifting through the deep ocean last spring in the weeks after the spill.
The large areas of darkened coral and other damaged marine organisms were almost certainly dying from exposure to toxic substances, scientists said.
The corals were discovered on Tuesday by scientists aboard a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration research vessel using a submersible robot equipped with cameras and sampling tools.
The documented presence of oil plumes in the area, the proximity to BP’s well and the recent nature of the die-off make it highly likely that the spill was responsible, said Charles Fisher, a marine biologist from Pennsylvania State University who is the chief scientist on the gulf expedition, which was financed by the federal government.
“I think that we have a smoking gun,” Dr. Fisher said. “The circumstantial evidence is very strong that it’s linked to the spill.”
The discovery of the dead corals offers the strongest evidence so far that oil from the BP well may have harmed marine life in the deep ocean, a concern raised by many biologists soon after the April 20 blowout that caused the spill. At an estimated nearly five million barrels, it was the largest offshore oil spill in the nation’s history.
A brownish substance covered many of the dead or dying reefs but was probably dead tissue and sediment, not oil, Dr. Fisher said.
Oil seeps naturally from the seafloor throughout the Gulf of Mexico, but that was unlikely to have caused such a severe coral die-off, he added.
“We have never seen anything like this at any of the deep coral sites that we’ve been to,” Dr. Fisher said. “And we’ve been to quite a lot of them.”
Further study is needed to conclusively link the coral die-off to the spill, scientists said, and the survey team took a number of samples from the site to test for the presence of hydrocarbons and dispersant.
Whether these samples will yield direct evidence leading back to the spill is unclear. “No one yet knows if the signature of whatever toxin killed these corals can be found in their skeletons after the tissue sloughs off,” Dr. Fisher said.
Jane Lubchenco, the administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, called the findings significant. “Given the toxic nature of oil and the unprecedented amount of oil spilled, it would be surprising if we did not find damage,” she said in a statement. “This is precisely why we continue to actively monitor and evaluate the impact of the spill in the gulf.”
“We are determined to hold the responsible parties accountable for the damage done to the environment,” she added.
The ocean floor near the site of the well is still largely unexplored and is probably home to many other deep-water coral communities that scientists are eager to study.
The scientists will return to the same region on an expedition in December for more research, using a Navy vehicle that can accommodate two scientists and a pilot to depths of up to nearly 15,000 feet. Work on deep-water corals is typically conducted using advanced submersibles or remotely operated underwater vehicles.
Coral sites in shallower waters farther from the well have not suffered visible damage, scientists say, but they are still studying these reefs for signs of less acute long-term effects.
“There’s a lot of work to be done to see if there’s been some sublethal effect on these corals,” said Erik Cordes, a marine biologist from Temple University who has been studying reefs in the gulf in the aftermath of the spill.
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Hollywood portraits model by Whitley and Sophia
Jennifer Jones
copy of Jennifer Jones-Whitley
update verison-Whitley
Bettie Davis
copy of Bettie Davis-Sophia
update version -Sophia
Rita Hayworth
Copy of Rita Hayworth-Whitley
update version -Whitley
Barbara Stanwyck
copy of Barbara Stanwyck-Whitley
update version-Whitley
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