Year: 2007
Friday Xenartha Blogging – Attack of the Giant Sloth
Posted on August 31, 2007 in Xenartha
It sounds like a plot for a science fiction/horror crossover film, Brazillian style:
The folklore here is full of tales of encounters with the creature, and nearly every Indian tribe in the Amazon, including those that have had no contact with one other, have a word for the mapinguary (pronounced ma-ping-wahr-EE). The name is usually translated as “the roaring animal” or “the fetid beast.”
So widespread and so consistent are such accounts that in recent years a few scientists have organized expeditions to try to find the creature. They have not succeeded, but at least one says he can explain the beast and its origins.
“It is quite clear to me that the legend of the mapinguary is based on human contact with the last of the ground sloths” thousands of years ago, said David Oren, a former director of research at the Goeldi Institute in Belem, at the mouth of the Amazon River. “We know that extinct species can survive as legends for hundreds of years. But whether such an animal still exists or not is another question, one we can’t answer yet.”
Mr. Oren said he had talked to “a couple of hundred people” who had said they had seen the mapinguary in the most remote parts of the Amazon and a handful who had said they had had direct contact.
In some areas, the creature is said to have two eyes, while in other accounts it has only one, like the Cyclops of Greek mythology. Some tell of a gaping, stinking mouth in the monster’s belly through which it consumes humans unfortunate enough to cross its path.
But all accounts agree that the creature is tall, 7 feet or more when it stands on two legs, that it emits a strong, extremely disagreeable odor, and that it has thick, matted fur, which covers a carapace that makes it all but impervious to bullets and arrows.
One hundred and three degrees
Posted on August 31, 2007 in Weather
The skies were nearly like the ones I love in Utah during the month of October: white plops of cloud torn up and strewn in a vast, blue sinkhole. The Saddleback was still as a lizard soaking up the sun. The children who make our short street a danger to drive between three and five every day stayed indoors. I slept, but not very well.
[tags]weather, Southern California, drought, California[/tags]
Defying the Meds Establishment
Posted on August 30, 2007 in Bipolar Disorder Psychotropics
I’ve never had the problem of not taking the meds once I got up the courage to pick up the phone and make an appointment to be seen by a psychiatrist about fourteen years ago. One morning I woke up, turned to my wife and said “I’m sick.” Within a few weeks, I was on [[Prozac]] and taking part in a group about how to live through depression at the Kaiser Foundation Hospital in Redwood City. It would be eleven years before I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
I’ve had the [[lithium carbonate|lithium]] shakes, the [[Depakote]] bloat, nausea, muscle spasms, and more. I trembled in fear at the thought that my [[Lamictal]] would give me a case of [[Stevens-Johnson syndrome]]. (It didn’t) Still I discovered that there always was another medication to try, that the contemporary pharmocological toolbox is vast.
Maybe you aren’t the same.
Bipolarcentral.com has a new page which speaks to the issue of deciding not to take your meds. It’s filled with anecdote upon anecdote by bipolar sufferers who decided they would wing it or only use the meds when they felt bad. It’s filled with the kinds of stories that I have come to hear quite a bit in support groups, but goes beyond the mere approbations by delivering answers and solutions to the typical objections for not taking your meds.
Demanding herbal remedies instead of “artificial” ones is an excuse some people employ:
if someone chooses not to take a prescribed medication that is intended to control their depression, and opts instead to take the natural supplement St. John’s Wart, they are taking two major risks.
The biggest risk is that the supplement will not work to really control their depression. In this case the individual; will continue to get worse, maybe even suicidal. [[St. John’s Wort]] is intended to control “normal” depressions; however, [[Bipolar Disorder]] involves a chemical imbalance in the brain whereby depression is only half the battle, and is definitely not like a “normal” depression.
The second risk is that the supplement can react badly in their system, causing even more problems than the original ones they started with. Again, this could be because this supplement is trying to treat a “normal” depression, instead of a chemically induced depression.
The desperation we feel from having this disease and the stigma we set ourselves against (I am talking about the inner stigma), leads us to jump for any alternative to meds that suggests itself. The Bipolarcentral.com page does a fine job of answering many common challenges to the need to take medications. I don’t normally advertise such sites, but this one is worth an hour or so of your time both for yourself and for others.
[tags]psychotropics, depression, mania, bipolar disorder[/tags]
A Tale of Two Gators (Tale Gators, get it? Ah sharks….)
Posted on August 29, 2007 in Strange
First there’s Teresa’s tale of Reggie the Gator which led me to remember the song by the Arrogant Worms called Rippy the Gator.
It is not fit to be fat
Posted on August 29, 2007 in Sugar and Fat
The new [[obesity]] index has been published and if the fat rights movement is right, people in Mississippi are taking a stand for chubby beauty. Not. More than thirty percent of its residents (30.6%) have been diagnosed as obese. My own California placed 36th place with 22.7% of its adults fitting the criteria.
Fifteen years ago, no state was above 15%, according to officials from the Trust for America’s Health, a nonprofit group that prepared the report using federal statistics obtained through telephone interviews.
For the first time, the annual report included state-by-state figures on childhood obesity, showing the District of Columbia in the No. 1 spot with 22.8% of its children overweight and Utah last with 8.5%.
California is ranked 36th in adult obesity with 22.7% and 32nd in childhood obesity with 13.2%.
The report is “a devastating indictment,” said Jim Marks, a senior vice president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, a healthcare philanthropy group that sponsored the study. “The nation is in the middle of a public health crisis that is deteriorating rapidly, and we are treating it like an inconvenience.”
Marks found the data for youth particularly discouraging.
“These children could be the first generation to live sicker and die younger than their parents,” he said.
Here are more facts:
Twenty-two percent of American adults report that they do not engage in any physical activity. Mississippi has the highest rate of inactivity at 31.6 percent and Minnesota had the lowest rate of inactivity at 15.4 percent. Seventeen states require their school lunches, breakfasts and snacks to meet higher nutritional standards than the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) requires (6 states enacted new laws in 2006-07). Twenty-two states have set nutritional standards for foods sold in vending machines, aý lacarte, in school stores, or in bake sales in schools (9 states enacted new laws in 2006-07), and 26 states limit when and where these foods may be sold on school property beyond federal requirements (6 states enacted new laws in 2006-07). While every state has school physical education requirements, many are limited in scope or are not enforced. Sixteen states screen students’ body mass index (BMI) or fitness status and confidentially provide information to parents or guardians (8 states enacted new laws in 2006-07).
There are those who confound the question by insisting that it is a matter of aesthetics, that fat people have the right to think of themselves as beautiful. These belong in the same category as those who believe that smoking is sexy or excessive drinking is a harmless party game. But I don’t put the blame squarely on their shoulders because the real cause is a food industry which is as out of control as tobacco was only fifteen years ago. The use of [[corn syrup]] as a sweetener, the magnification of restaurant portions, and the increasingly reliance on fast foods has made it hard to stay slim. The ones who are harmed the worst are the poor because, quite frankly, it is expensive to eat properly. (Include preparation time and price of food when you make this calculation.)
[tags]fat,fatness,obesity,obeseness,health and fitness,diabetes and obesity[/tags]
Those Little Squares
Posted on August 29, 2007 in Site News Whimsies
If you’ve been commenting or reading the comments, you may have noticed the squares to the left of the comments. You may have noticed that the squares are the same for each email address. These are identicons. Each is generated when a new poster appears and continues to appear whenever they comment.
The results range from Moorish to quiltish.
The following is a brief guide:
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Me |
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Lynn |
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Bill the Lawyer |
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Bipolar Princess |
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BP Hockey Chick |
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gulnaz |
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Jane |
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Liz |
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patient |
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Raine |
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Sally |
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Staggo Lee |
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ToddHellsKitch |
Really?
Posted on August 29, 2007 in Quizzes
| What kind of extremist are you?
Your Result: Rational Person
You consider these questions obvious straw men, designed to distract people from a meaningful investigation of facts and a serious discussion of relevant political issues. How boring. |
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| Right-Wing Extremist |
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| Moderate Extremist |
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| Left-Wing Extremist |
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| What kind of extremist are you? See All Our Quizzes |
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Oh no! Where did I go wrong? I have characteristics of a right wing extremist? Maybe I ought to go die in a corner somewhere.
The Late Birds and the Worms
Posted on August 29, 2007 in Weather
Having been put through hoops by yet another social services agency, I took a walk through my neighborhood. All in one place I saw four robins picking through the grass, in the late afternoon. The late birds were desperate, hoping for a livening of the worms by the very light showers we’d had.
Guest Bloggers Sought
Posted on August 27, 2007 in Site News
In early October, I’ll be out of town seeing the Grand Canyon and other sights of northern Arizona/southern Utah. (Yes, there is a pattern here.) During the nine days of my absence, I’ll need a few guest bloggers.
Apply here.
AHnold Helps the Rich, Screws the Mentally Ill
Posted on August 26, 2007 in California Watch Class Psych Wards Stigma
Check out Marty Kaplan’s article about Schwartzeneggar’s line item veto of Integrated Services for Homeless Adults With Serious Mental Illness. Seems Conan the Cruel thought it vital to preserve a tax break for owners of yachts, pleasure planes, and RVs. Phil Angelides would never have allowed this to happen.
Crazy
Posted on August 26, 2007 in Stigma Words
It’s been suggested several times by several different people on this blog that using the term “crazy” to refer to people who are not mentally ill but bizarre and unrealistic reduces the stigma inherent in the word. I believe this is no more effective or true than using the phrase “she jewed me” against Gentiles reduces the sting of anti-Hebrew language. What we say when we call an outsider “crazy” is that being mentally ill implies that our ideas are valueless, unrealistic, and inane. It comes back to us. We are as broken glass, it says, useless for seeing reality.
