INTERESTING TIMES

In 2005 a 23 year old gay man was murdered in Arizona, and found in the Colorado River near Yuma. I lived in Arizona then, but I did not hear about it. I heard a lot about the Japanese woman who was murdered and found in Havasu Creek. But the boy who played girl was not in the news, not in the river grapevine. I just found out about him today, though an org called Equality Arizona. How they found me and my Oregon address I do not know. I guess I must have made my position known enough about my belief that people have every right to love who they love, and no right to say who someone else may love. It just strikes me as ironic and sad that I hear about this death now, near the end of 2008, from another state. I suppose I'm more tapped into the gay rights movement than I have been in the past. I'm certainly getting more willing to express my views.
( olds and news tidbits )

Wrong in a genetic sense, that is. We are best paired, for reproductive purposes at least, with people who have different MHC than we do. MHC are markers on our cells that make each one of us unique, they are the things that cause trouble when people get organ transplants, they are the things that make one person smell good to us (pheromones) when another person stinks. That stink is telling us something more than just hygiene. That stink is telling us genetics. And now new research shows that woman on birth control pills and also pregnant women have compromised sniffers. If only I could blame my misspent youth on this.

Here's the original paper, from 1995:
http://journals.royalsociety.org/content/eg93h541912m44g0/

The Pill makes women pick bad mates
Ability to sniff out a compatible partner affected by taking contraceptives
By Jeanna Bryner
updated 10:17 a.m. PT, Wed., Aug. 13, 2008
from: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26180187/
( text )

The Drug the Mothers Act is our congress' latest effort to medicate us all for something, (anything!) as long as it profits the big pharmaceutical corporations. Mercola has called a spade a spade--again, and offers tools to help us stop the financial hemorrhage of our tax dollars into corporate pockets while parading as "healthcare". Obama is one of the sponsors of this bogus bill! Is he too busy to notice who this bill profits? Let him know. I can't vote for a man who supports bills like this, much less sponsors them. This is one more sign that BARACK OBAMA IS NOT FOR CHANGE AT ALL, he is for more of the same, government by the corporations, for the corporations. It makes me sad to learn this. I want to believe in him but I don't.

Barack Obama (IL) - co-sponsor of the bill
Tele: 202-224-2854
Fax: 202-228-4260

Here's the link to Mercola's page with a couple of Youtube blurbs about it:
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2008/3/20/sound-the-alarm-stop-the-dangerous-drug-promoting-quot-mothers-act-quot.aspx
( Mercola's comment )

This movie was Ricki Lake's idea, after she was pushed through a standard hospital birthing with her first child. Her second child was born at home, and that birth is one of several shown in the movie. Someone warned me that in the movie I would see Ricki Lake "in her altogether" and indeed, there she is. But the nudity is simple, human, practical, not sexualized or titillating. It brings the beauty of childbirth back into my consciousness. Interestingly, the film's director Abby Epstein gets pregnant while making the movie and we get to see her experience as well.
( lots more on hospital vs home birthing, C-sections, midwives, surgeons and such )

There's this lovely bacterium called Listeria monocytogenes that is gram positive and likes to grow in dairy products. It doesn't produce any toxins or spores, it just gets in your cells and kills them. It gets started invading your body via the gut (gastroenteritis), but can take over much more of your body (invasive disease) given enough time. It is one of just a few bacteria that gets inside of your own cells (though this is standard practice for viruses) using a "zipper" mechanism. Once Listeria is inside your cells, the normal macrophage cleanup crew can't find it. It swims inside of host cells by making actin polymers! Listeria can grow at 4 degrees celcius, and is one good reason to we keep meats frozen.

Some 500 deaths/year are caused by Lysteria, and the pregnant woman and baby are most suceptible. The most common way for a pregnant mother to be exposed is by eating soft cheese. The first signs/symptoms of gastroenteritis are watery diarrhea (no blood), fever and headache, myalgias (flu-like). No vomiting. If a 1-4 week old newborn has meningitis, suspect Listeria. It can also get in the placenta during pregnancy and cause sepsis and abortion. Tx for invasive disease: ampicillin.
( and more: on Clostridium (four species including the ones that cause botulism and lockjaw) )

I'm going to begin here to collect ethical arguments pertaining to the issue of abortion in the US. These notes will be the backdrop of a paper that I will write later.
( notes )

.....keeps the Doctor away.....

It's old news, I know. But new research keeps coming out to explain WHY and how apples are good for you. The most nutritious and high fiber part of the apple is: the skin. Apple consumption has been shown to fight cancer, aid digestion, reduce asthma in children when pregnant mothers eat apples, and decrease risk of lung cancer, heart disease and stroke.

How long has it been since you ate an apple? (Me: weeks...)

asthma research: http://thorax.bmj.com/cgi/content/abstract/thx.2006.074187v1
cancer fighting: http://pubs.acs.org/cgi-bin/abstract.cgi/jafcau/2007/55/i11/abs/jf063563o.html