May 4, 2008 - Discovery Channel: I Love the World Here is something to make you believe in the goodness of Nature, all over again. Enjoy!
April 25, 2008 - - 18 Pages of Resources for Job Hunting.
The other day I was invited to speak to graduating MPH students at Southern Connecticut State University about looking for a job. Aren't we all. I developed a handout (of course) with tips about how to look for a job. It was so well-received that I thought it was worth sharing with anyone looking for a job. So, I turned it into a Webpage, Job Hunting Tips . I have also added this icon, to all the pages related to job searching to the main navigation bar of these 16 pages so you can get around to all of them. Happy hunting, and may the job you find, find you the best person for the job!
April 25, 2008 - Elephant Artist Colony If elephants can paint, why can't you? (Thanks, Lourdes!). Think you've seen everything? Check these out:
April 25, 2008 - Chengdu Delight Panda bears are cute, regardless of how old they are. Now here is a place I wouldn't mind spending time at, the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding. Watch them melt your heart with extreme cuteness (one of many YouTube videos available below). There's something to be said about the "Survival of the Cutest" in the scheme of things.
April 19, 2008 - Online Instructions Since 3/16, when I was being plagued by ... I went online for help with setting up a computer network to take advantage of the supersonic speed of a cable modem.
I gave up on a nationally known dial-up service, that shall remain nameless, even though it didn't want to give me up (the hard-pressure from people who cannot speak English, yet provide a consistent scripted message was most annoying) because it was basically infected with a virus. As a result, I had to reformat two desktops. To truly sever the ties that bind, I had to get another credit card....
Back to the network. Being an avid researcher, I looked up everything that was available about setting up a network. There was plenty. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a waste of time because most of the online instructions were very outdated. I didn't find this out until I was actually setting up the network. I came across many well-meaning Webpages that were put up by do-it-yourselfers, who had no foresight into how such pages would be used.
However, along the way I learned about MAC addresses, which have nothing to do with fast food, and the ever-improving nature of Wi Fi (Wireless Fidelity - "faithfulness with no strings attached"? How novel.), with IEEE specifications that are now at reaching "802.11n". Thank goodness WiFi developers had the common sense to make new WiFi equipment compatible with older equipment (UNLIKE other electronic manufacturers that require us to have at least 6 remotes to choose from, or that whole HD format debacle). Security settings have gone from WEP to WPA and WPA2, just so you can maintain some sort of privacy while WiFi-ing.
After printing out a slew of articles, with step-by-step instructions, I found that cable modem manufacturers have made it so simple that they will set you up, out of the box, by running the software that came with the modem. Duh.
I think it would be really useful if there were some standards for online documentation. Of course, good Web design would require that you include dating your pages so visitors know how current the page is. All my Webpages are have 2 dates (when it was first published, and when it was last updated), along with an R#, which records the number of revisions I have made to the page, something that you will not find with many sites.
For Webpages pertaining to computers, these are my recommendations for making them truly useful:
Date the page was first posted
Date of the last revision to the content of the page
"Purpose of the Page": e.g., "How to Set Up a Secured Home Network"
"Operating system": e.g., "Windows XP only"
"Computer specifications" necessary to run whatever you are setting up (like the list of ingredients for a recipe): e.g., "Equipment needed - cable modem access; cable modem; ethernet cables; Wi Fi adapters, 512 megabytes of RAM, or higher, etc."
"Time it takes to complete the task": Can this be done over the weekend, or do you just need to set aside 3-4 hours, etc. In reality, it could take several weekends, which was the case on my end because I had problems with the cable connection (and the cable company had to send someone to fix their connection, and an inside connection), and I had to buy more RAM memory for my computers, and this was after reformatting both computers, of which each took 7+ hours before they were ready to be hooked up to the network).
Let's hope your computer endeavors are more smoother than mine have been.
April 16, 2008 - Back-to-Basics Medical Research During my graduate school days, I had an idealistic notion about Research. I thought it was the most honorable activity to reach the truth of things that mattered. If you dig long and hard enough, you will find the "a-ha"/Eureka moment. My research professor, Dr. McDonald, taught us the importance of critically reviewing the literature and watching for who's sponsoring a study so we would understand the biases that such sponsorship would breed. And, she was so right.
The most recent publication about the pollution of Research (Vioxx Documents Offer Glimpse Into Ghostwritten Manuscripts, "Hire-A-PI," and Data Manipulation
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/573075?sssdmh=dm1.345559&src=nldne) once again reinforces the importance of being a critical research consumer.
Unfortunately, not all research is as stellar as the implication behind "randomized controlled studies" would have us to believe. Though research may be a creative venture for the perennial student like myself, the fact of the matter is, there are people who conduct research for a living. Such people are usually involved in academia, in which they are expected to conduct research as a matter of professional advancement and daily livelihood. The more they publish, the greater their chances of getting further funding to do more research.
All sounds well and good. However, for the less creative but clever ones, there is the proliferation of numerous articles reflecting a slice and dice mentality, or milking any particular research project for all its worth, resulting in numerous articles across a variety of journals, with skimpy conclusions, all of which could have been reported in one well-written peer-reviewed article.
Number of publications do not necessarily mean quality research, but is more reflective of the degradation of Research. So is the practice of multiple authorship, which was addressed a few years back by the more prestigous medical journals that put a limit to how many authors could be listed for any particular article. Multiple authorship does a disservice to those who actually did the work, and I just find it incredulous that 25 listed authors could actually put in equal effort to publishing a particular article. When reputation is so important in the Research sector, I certainly wouldn't want my name listed with a slew of people whose work I may not be familiar with, nor would I have the conscience to defend the work should a question of unethical practices come up.
Another problem with research publications have to do with what actually gets published. Such publication bias puts greater pressure on researchers to come up with publishable research, which usually means significant findings, some of which have no clinical significance. This means that a lot of research may be discovering important outcomes that would be useful for the clinician to know, but is not chosen for publication because no statistical significance was found.
Negative significant findings (the new treatment fails) never get published either, although I think this is just as important. This is stifled by the early termination of studies showing too many people are dying. Such studies should be written up and published for future reference, and are just as important, if not more so than studies showing that a new treatment works. And, in cases where there is no difference, such research should be published as well.
For example, for research to be publication-worthy, let's say, a statistically significant difference was reached by the number of deaths that occurred between two comparison groups. As far as I am concerned, one death is one death too many, and therefore should be reported, even if it isn't statistically significant. This is why I find case studies such interesting reading. Unfortunately, such reports are relegated to the letters section of most journals, which then must compete for print space against the rebuttals of prestigious researchers.
How research results are used is problematic as well. The target audience for medical research is usually the medical practitioner, and research consumers make a peripheral audience. But many times, results and conclusions drawn cannot be easily translated into the practice setting. Yet, pharmaceutical companies use research results to try and convince physicians to prescribe their drugs because theirs is better than the competition. Health insurance companies use research results to justify their decisions not to reimburse for services and procedures not considered to be effective. Physicians would just like to use the results to improve the care they are providing to their patients, as should be the case. Unfortunately, the proliferation of "so much research" (some of which is questionable by who is sponsoring it) makes it difficult for even the most vigilant professional to keep up, so research results are "sound-bited" by the press for easy but not necessarily healthy digestion.
JAMA's editorial to make research reporting more transparent is a worthwhile endeavor that at least addresses the sponsorship issue. But, as you can see, there are many issues plaguing Research today that need to be addressed. Researchers need to take the first step in policing themselves and come up with a code of ethics everyone should live by, then work towards adding to the Body of Knowledge lean muscle rather than visceral fat.
April 11, 2008 - Financial Intelligence is sorely lacking these days. I am not sure if this is an outgrowth of a mathematically challenged society, or the arithmetic phobia I am seeing among college students today is more pervasive than anyone would let on. Unfortunately, the inability to deal pragmatically with numbers, per se, is beginning to reveal itself with the blind acceptance that we can do nothing in a failing economy.
I started seriously thinking about this problem when I read in the Sunday paper that a company has begun to make it easy for people to take loans out of their 401K accounts. This is a bad move. For most people, 401K accounts are the only savings they have for retirement. For some, this is the ONLY savings they have. If people do not aggressively save money in these accounts, they will hardly have enough for retirement, given that other retirements sources are drying up(see the previous blog entry).
The financial industry can be partially blamed for the worsening economy as it is trying to make a quick buck from the average consumer. Such tactics as issuing multiple credit cards to everyone, regardless of whether or not they have the wherewithal to pay the monthly balances on time, to blurring the boundary between savings and investment services by having investment services share the same site as banks is bad karma.
Similarly, giving out mortgage loans to people who do not have the income to pay the ballooning mortgage payments is really unethical. Though it is the American Dream to own a home, not everyone can WITHOUT seriously saving enough for a down payment that would be large enough to reduce the monthly payments of a mortgage. So, it really does come down to ethics. What exactly is the ethical principles of financing?
When a banker said to me, "What is your tolerance level for risk?", it makes me wonder where his soul is at, when he's basically asking me to gamble away my hard-earned money by trusting him to make money for me. Of course, if I lose it all, well, after all, it's my money, and not his, he already made his commission.
I think it's time to stop asking how much I am willing to risk, but how much should I be saving and how much I should stop spending on things I don't need and probably cannot afford. It's time to get back to "living within our means," because living beyond our means hurts no one but ourselves.
March 29, 2008 - Minimum for retirement - $225,000 and that's just for non-covered health-related expenses for a couple (Business Week, in Health Freedom Watch, March 2008). So, now that millions of baby boomers (born between 1946 and 1964) are on the verge of retiring, exactly how prepared is this particular cohort for retirement? Hardly. Aside from individual characteristics associated with saving money, there are, of course, the macroeconomics that encompasses a failing economy, etc.
If nothing is done, Social Security is predicted to go bankrupt in 2042 (2/4/2005 CEA Memo from the White House). This basically means that those born in 1977 will have no Social Security when they turn 65. And everyone born after 1977 can just forget about Social Security as a source of retirement income period. Current estimates show that Social Security comprise over a third of income sources for those 65 and older ten years ago. Just think if this pie were to comprise of only assets and income (100%), how many of us would survive???
Source: MLR:The Editor's Desk, Sources of Retirement http://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2001/May/wk3/art03.htm
Take note of two slices - one for earnings, the other for employer benefits. Does this mean we will be expected to work till we die? And, what kind of employer benefits are they talking about? These days, it's mostly 401Ks and possibly stock options, more than pension plans, which are fast disappearing, DESPITE the fact that ING Financial Services cites that sources of retirement income comprise of 55% Social Security, 24% Employee Pension Plans and 24% savings and investment (and why do these numbers not add up to 100%?) (http://www.ing-usa.com/us/individuals/planningtools/retirementcenter/sourcesofretirementincome/index.htm).
So, how much should one have at retirement? Currently, the estimate is $1,000,000, which "will only support a $35,000 to $50,000 per year lifestyle" (http://www.retireearlyhomepage.com/accum1.html). This would be equivalent to the 1995 average hourly wage of $16.63/hr, with a 40 hour work week, to yield an annual income of $34,590.40. (http://www.kyklosproductions.com/articles/wages.html). Keep in mind that this does not take into account the $225,000 for non-covered health-related expenses.
Finally, what about Medicare? Well, "according to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC)... only 36 percent (of baby boomers) know that Medicare eligibility begins at age 65; 21 percent said 62; 9 percent said 67; 6 percent said 59½; and 28 percent weren’t sure." (Health Freedom Watch, March 2008). This does not take into account that Medicare is predicted to go bankrupt in 2019 (http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=14901), if the government doesn't do something about this soon. This basically means that the baby boomers born in 1946 would have reached 73 and they would have no health insurance for the rest of their lives, which could be a minimum of another 5 years (at today's life expectancy of 78 years).
An aside, if we were to lend credence to the Mayan calendar that the world will end 12/21/2012, I suppose we need not worry at all...(http://www.viewzone.com/endtime.html). For the more pragmatic, you can find more information about planning for retirement, with a set of helpful calculators, in the new section devoted to this topic on my Senior Health Page By the way, all these calculations and research for this entry took 4 hours!!
March 28, 2008 - How Long Can You Expect to Live? How long can we reasonably expect to live? Get an estimate using the "Life Expectancy Calculator" that takes into account everything from genetics to health behaviors and find out what your "virtual age" is, compared to your biological age and life expectancy. You get to view how various factors affect your age on a sliding meter. You can find a link to this on my Wellness Index Page , under Aging.
March 19, 2008 - To wipe or not to wipe, that is the question.
Okay, computer maintanence is becoming a pain in many ways and places. What to do when you get something like "res://shdoclc.dll/DNSERROR.HTM#" when you try to open Internet Explorer? The cable modem tech said I had to contact the computer manufacturer AND Microsoft to walk me through fixing some corrupt files (after 45 minutes on the phone).
After reviewing postings on some 40 forums, etc. I have to come to the conclusion that my computer is once again infected with some stupid virus. Well, it's not a recent infection, but probably a residual shred from an infection that occurred with my dialup software (gasp! yes, there are still some of us who use that antiquated method to access the Net) that's slowly metastasizing all over the hard drive.
So my options are: I can troubleshoot by downloading and installing 11 programs, a few of which "some" posters say do not work, or I can wipe/reformat the hard drive. Since I have done the reformatting once before, I know that this strategy will take me at least 7 hours, not to mention having to reinstall all my programs and removing all the garbage that came with the computer. Or, I can be adventurous and go on a treasure hunt with new and exciting scan and fix programs that have page-long instructions, which may or may not work, and will probably take just as long, if not longer. What would you do? I'm just going to reformat the drive....
March 17, 2008 Web site Cluster Map I love this stuff! Here's a new mapping service to show where visitors to my Web site are coming from. Much more benign than the Global Incident Map....
March 17, 2008 Global Incident Map Geography is no longer limited to how far we are willing to travel. Thanks to the Net, communication can be almost instantaneous, if you have a fast connection. Disaster stories like the Bear Stearns investment bank collapse on Friday required a weekend bailout before the stock markets opened this morning to stem the possible repercussions from a major bank going bankrupt. Nothing can be hidden for long these days.
I am not sure that such rapid communication of EVERYTHING is necessarily a good thing. The financial world is so precarious that rampant rumors can cause major downturns within a day's time. Such instability is not good for mental health. I suspect that greed is the driving force behind all the economic troubles we are facing today, but then again, I am not an economist. Read Alan Greenspan's "Age of Turbulence" to get a handle on today's economics. I am sorry he's not with the Fed anymore.
Back to Public Health. The issue of preparedness is a constant concern in our daily lives. The Global Incident Map actually displays, on a world map, any terrorist act or suspicious activity occurring around the world. And, the map is updated every five minutes. If nothing else, at least you will know where to stay away from, for your own safety. Perhaps, monitoring is the best way to handle the stress of our modern lives, and prayer. You can find a link to this site on my Everything You Ever Wanted to Know Page .
March 17, 2008 Healthcare Services During Times of Disasters Are healthcare providers ready when the need is the greatest, during times of disaster, natural and otherwise? The California Department of Public Health has recently released its "Surge Standards and Guidelines" to prepare health care and emergency responders in the event of a disaster. Well-thought out, this is document can serve as a model and template for all states, as they grapple with what needs to be done during difficult times. We certainly cannot affort another New Orleans debacle.... You can find a link to this useful document on my Public Health Links Page - Emergency Preparedness and Disaster Planning section .
March 16, 2008 The Beatles Visit India FORTY years ago this month. How time flies. Though we all have our favorite bands, The Beatles is probably a perennial favorite for many. A cultural phenomenon that started in 1957 and lasted till 1975, that's 18 years of great music that is still around today.
How many bands today would survive that long? My favorite LPs (long-playing for the iPod generation) are "Abbey Road","Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Heart Clubs Band", "Revolver," "Let It Be" (their last LP as a group) and the "White Album," IF I had to choose at all. They are all great. It was a sad day when they broke up. I don't think Lennon or McCarthy ever recaptured the magic of the music they co-wrote and produced together.
I hope young people today will take the time to get to know this iconic group. Interestingly, I played "The No-No Song" in my class on psychoactive drugs and not one student knew who Ringo Starr was. BUT, when I asked if they knew The Beatles, most of the class did....
March 14, 2008 Second Quarter 2008 I decided to start a little earlier, but I have been a bit behind in anything that has to do with the Internet because it's suddenly acting up... More about this when I can say something substantial.
February 29, 2008 Quality of Life Quotes Since the beginning of the year, as I was revamping the Home Page, I decided to include Public Health-related quotes to highlight important Public Health news. During the month of January, the number of quotes increased so much that it started taking up a lot of space, so I moved the sources for the quotes to the end of the Home Page. By the end of January, I turned the quotes into a marquee, to save space. Visitors seem to like it.
In keeping with the site's main theme of Public Health, and I will concentrate on news and stats tidbits that have to do with enhancing our quality of life. To keep the marquee relevant and timely, I am going to change the quotes on a monthly basis (well, that's my goal, and it will depend on how much news there is). All quotes used will then be archived on one Webpage for those interested in researching in more depth the topics and stats covered. You can find all the quotes, and their sources, on the Quality of Life Quotes & References Page. Watch for new quotes throughout the year. Enjoy!
Links to public health pages, SCSU Thesis/Special Project documents and forms, SCSU Public Health Alumni Pages - MPH Accreditation Committee, Scholarship Committee, Service Committee (Mentor, Speaker Programs) pages; MPH Alumni Record - Main, Accomplishments, Presentations, Professional organizations, Programs & Projects, Teaching, Written Works pages
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Cardiovascular Disease - General High Blood
Cholesterol;Daily aspirin therapy: Understand the benefits and risks; Heart and Stroke Statistics;
Cardiovascular Disease - Specific & Stroke ASA: Rising Stroke Rates in Women Ages 35 to 54 Tied to Obesity: Update to the AHA/ASA Recommendations for the Prevention of Stroke in Patients with Stroke and Transient Ischemic Attack; Heart Disease Risk Calculator;
Chinese Culture Panda Land; Gestational
Diabetes Treatment; Chinese Characters and Pinyin Dictionary; Learn Mandarin;
CT Maps fromWorld Atlas.com; Connecticut Society of Geneologists
Map; Community Health Centers; CT mortgage loans, CT gas prices;
Consumer Health Information Organ Donation: Organ Donation from MedlinePlus; Organ Donation from National Kidney Foundation; Organ Donor.gov; Organ donation: Don't let these 10 myths confuse you; Types of Donation;
Evaluation Resources & Report Cards Governing, Measuring Performance, The State Management Report Card 2008;
The 2008 Roadmap to State Highway Safety Laws. Navigating State Action to Curb Highway Deaths and Injuries;
Favorite Movie Sites The 10 Most Historically Inaccurate Movies; 21, 10,000 BC, Baby Mama, Jumper, Shutter, Stop-Loss, The Bank Job, The Bucket List, The Counterfeiters, The Forbidden Kingdom, There Will Be Blood, The Ruins, The Spiderwick Chronicles, The Year My Parents Went on Vacation,
Fitness Couch Potato? Mini-Workouts; 9 Least Effective Exercises; Blast Fat in 20 Minutes; Whole Grains Fight Belly Fat;
Meet the 5 Flat Belly Foods; Fitness programs: 5 steps to getting started;
Rise and Shine; Walking for fitness: How to trim your waistline, improve your health; Gmaps Pedometer;
Public Health Continuing Education Opportunities Ohio's KePRO Medical-related Conference Calls; New section: Emergency Preparedness Programs; Emergency Preparedness Programs from Alabama Department of Public Health; FEMA Independent Study Program (ISP); Johns Hopkins Center for Public Health Preparedness; National Center for Disaster Preparedness Training Center, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health;
Public Health Data Unintentional Strangulation Deaths from the "Choking Game" Among Youths Aged 6--19 Years --- United States, 1995--2007; Healthier Moms and Babies;Pregnancy Data Tables;
Postpartum care: What to expect after a vaginal birth;
Public Health Sites A - C Piercings: Proper care can help prevent complications; Helping Patients Who Drink Too Much: A Clinician's Guide and Related Professional Support Resources;
Public Health Sites D-G Surge Standards and Guidelines for Healthcare Providers; Truth About Inhalants;
Senior Health New section - Retirement Resources: Choose a Benefit Calculator; How Much Do You Need to Retire? from AXAonline.com, Moneycentral.msn, Finance.yahoo.com, CNNmoney.com, The Oxford Club; Near Retirement?; Simple Retirement Calculator; Sources of Retirement Income; The Big Question: How much do I need to retire on?; End of Life: Helping with Comfort and Care; Providing Comfort at the End of Life; Age-related Macular Degeneration Support;
Wellness Index 17 Best Foods for Dieters;
15 Foods That Can Save Your Heart; Heart-healthy Diet: 7 steps to prevent heart disease; How to Fight Depression and Anxiety; Eating Breakfast May Beat Teen Obesity; Could You Have an STD — And Not Know It?; The New Disease-Fighting Foods; The Happiness Factor; STD symptoms: 7 STDs and common symptoms; 20 Worst Foods in America; The Time Movie; The Realize Movie; The Love Movie; The Potential Movie; Life Expectancy Calculator; The Fit Inside Movie; The Choice Movie; Simple Tips to Cut Calories; Modern Dating. Looking for love in all the wrong places? Online dating is popular, but it's not your only option; 5 Things You Didn't Know About Your Period; Body Language Basics; Stop the Decline, Dogging Dementia; Cigarette Costs Calculator; Bring vs. Buy Lunch Calculator; Coffee Costs Calculator; Food Facts That Restaurants Hide From You;
Women's Health Life Cycle Issues Evidence-Based Prenatal Care: Part I. General Prenatal Care and Counseling Issues; Apgar Score; Prenatal Care Measures;
Women's Health IssuesFRAX - World Health Organization's Fracture Risk Assessment Tool; NOF’s New Clinician’s Guide to Prevention and Treatment of Osteoporosis;
... I went online for help with setting up a computer network to take advantage of the supersonic speed of a cable modem. 
