3* Review By James R. Holland
This reviewer saw this feature in a movie theater with only two other people, both female, in the audience. There was not a peep out of either of them at any time in the entire film. With no audience reaction to note, this review is based entirely on how this reviewer feels about the movie. Audience reaction does cause reviewers to consider that aspect of the experience when doing a review.
This is a one-tissue story. There were several other attempts to increase the Kleenex rating, but they didn’t quite work. Admittedly this motion picture fan prefers escapism to reality at the movies. I have more than enough stress and hardship in my everyday existence than to want to experience more at the movie theater. I’ve always gone to the movies to be entertained, escape reality for a brief time and maybe for educational purposes. However, over the years the educational benefits coming out of Hollywood have proven more than a bit suspect. The movies have tended to be more than a little influenced by various left-wing liberal agendas, but that wasn’t the case with this particular feature film. This film’s educational slant focused mostly on coin collecting and understanding Autism.
Dear John is the film version of the novel by Nicholas Sparks. It’s a love story between John Tyree, a young Special Forces army soldier played by Channing Tatum, and an idealistic college student Savannah Curtis who is played by Amanda Seyfried. They meet at a beach in Charlestown, S.C. during the two-week period when John is home on leave and Savannah is on a summer break. In addition to spending her time at her family’s beach house and attending the usual number of beach activities, she is also helping to build a new house for a family whose home was washed away by a hurricane.
It’s a story of love at first sight. They agree to remain true to each other until his tour is over in twelve months and she graduates from college. They also agree to write each other constantly so that they can share each other’s experiences and not grow apart because of the separation. So this John is actually getting a “Dear John” letter every day from his sweetheart back home. Naturally, the best laid hopes and plans of youth are soon altered by the uncontrollable forces of reality. The events of 9-11 set in motion a series of adventures that neither member of the young couple can really control. The story is about two average everyday people. It’s about their motivations and why they make the life decisions they do. Autism is a sub-team in the movie. Relationships get complicated and the cast gets enveloped in them whether they wish to or not? Richard Jenkins did a good job as John’s father, Mr. Tyree. The understated roles are always harder to make believable.
Since this is a contemporary film with American locales, this reviewer found himself wondering about several annoying little things throughout the movie. Why was Savannah so, so pale when she was spending everyday at the beach or out in the sun building a house with the charity group Habitat for Humanity? Why did she appear to need a manicure, perhaps because of the hard physical construction work she was doing although that didn’t seem to be problem? Why was everyone driving the brand new automobiles or trucks they were?
And the location of the small house being constructed seemed like a very upscale location—the kind of real estate where homeowners would have flood and homeowner’s insurance and assets with which to rebuild their own homes? These kinds of distractions don’t help the audience enjoy the story. It means the dialogue isn’t keeping the viewers' minds totally involved. I’d heard this was a “chick flick” but that description probably doesn’t really sum up this PG-13 motion picture because it’s more than that, but it definitely didn’t appeal to me and I don’t think many of my male friends or sons would be interested in seeing it either. Give me entertainment every time. I don’t want to have to pay for a ticket in order to feel anybody else’s pain if I don’t have to.
James R. Holland is a film editor, producer, and author--most recently of Adventure Photographer (A Bit of Boston Books/ 2009). He reviews movies exclusively for Basil & Spice. Visit James R. Holland's Writer's Page.
By Randall Radic
The poet Paul Valery asserted that a woman who does not use perfume has no future. This is because perfume is the keeper of memory. And a woman without a past has no future.
Alexander the Great’s body smelled naturally of musk, which consequently made him very popular with women. And it has been reported that the mad monk Rasputin exuded a powerful yet pleasing odor. This scent was responsible for his magnetism. In a sense, then, he was simply irresistible.
But that was then and this is now. Now there are so many perfumes to choose from. Some are sweet nothings, reminiscent of a small sad bar of motel soap. A few, though, are like a beautiful woman, whose beauty camouflages other qualities – her more abstract virtues. Two of today’s most spectacular perfumes are Tommy Girl and White Linen.
Calice Becker concocted Tommy Girl, whose infrastructure is that of tea. After trying 1100 blends, Tommy Girl emerged. A radiant scent that shimmers like Prokofiev’s First Symphony. It’s what is known as a floral perfume. And once it is applied, a point of pure white emanates forth, providing its host with verve. She who wears it stridently asserts her vitality to all entering her realm.
Tommy Girl is quintessentially American – brash and young. Therefore it suits young women or mature women who have not abandoned themselves to vain regrets or lost causes.
Catching a whiff of Tommy Girl is like falling into heaven, which is clean and white and bright. It gives life meaning. Which explains why Tommy Girl is one of the top fifteen fragrances ever.
At the other end of the spectrum is Black, by Bulgari. It’s an oriental scent. Complex, sometimes inscrutable, Black changes color like a chameleon. As the wearer’s mood alternates – from dreamy to capricious – Black seesaws right along. This means Black is more than a beautiful fragrance. It’s fascinating, because it’s full of impish intelligence.
Annick Menardo created Black. She made it three-dimensional, imbuing it with a pinch of sweetness, a hint of floral bouquet, and then she ramped in the pungency of fresh rubber. In effect, it’s as if she managed to put Wagner’s Ring Cycle in a bottle. Spritz it on and theme underscores theme underscores theme. Black moves to the emotion of the wearer.
Black is designed for women whose temperaments are not subtle, who make no pretense of stoic resignation. In other words, Black is a vivacious instrument of expression. Above all, Black dislikes boredom.
The choice is yours. Tommy Girl or Black. You can’t go wrong with either one. Both will make you alluring and enchanting.
Randall Radic is a former Old Catholic priest. He is a graduate of the University of Arizona. He holds a Master of Theology, from Trinity Seminary, a Doctorate of Theology from Trinity Seminary,Th.D., and a Doctorate of Sacred Theology, S.T.D. from Agape Seminary.
After a midlife crisis, he spent time behind bars. Today, he has emerged a changed man. He is the author of Gone To Hell: True Crimes of America’s Clergy (ECW Press/ Oct 2009), and A Priest in Hell: Gangs, Murderers and Snitching in a California Jail. Radic writes the 2012 EXPOSED series exclusively for Basil & Spice. Visit his Writer's Page.
Copyright © 2006-2010, Basil & Spice. All rights reserved.
Reviewed by David M. Kinchen
BOOK REVIEW: 'Career GPS' Offers Specific Advice for Career Women; Your Attitude, Clothing Choices Could be Holding You BackIt's pretty difficult for anyone to accuse Ella L. J. Edmondson Bell, Ph.D. of being politically incorrect when she offers career advice to women in her new book Career GPS: Strategies for Women Navigating the New Corporate Landscape (Amistad, an imprint of HarperCollins, 256 pages, $25.99, written with Linda Villarosa).Dr. Bell is a black woman, so when she advises black women to check their Angry Black Women (ABW) attitudes at the door to the executive suite, she's sure to get attention. If a white man had said something like that -- even stating that there often is an ABW behind the stereotype -- he'd be pilloried, at the very least. Not only does Dr. Bell discuss attitudes, she gives tips on what to wear at work. One tip: ditch the severe black "corporate" look and go for bright colors. You don't have to look like a guy, she says, as long as you don't overdo it with revealing garb better suited to a party.Career GPS is written by an academic -- Dr. Bell is an associate professor at the prestigious Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth University in New Hampshire, but she also is a consultant to many Fortune 500 companies. She divides her time between Hanover, NH and Charlotte, NC, with feet planted in both the academic and "real" worlds. The workplace is constantly in flux, and even now there are new opportunities open to women. But to take advantage of these possibilities, it's essential to know the current rules for corporate success. This isn't your father's or your mother's workplace anymore. It isn't even the workplace of two or three years ago.It's not enough to be a competent employee, Bell says. You must develop workplace relationships that will advance your career. The relationships often include people in technical support positions, including jobs that once upon a time were considered fairly menial. The guys and gals from IT or the administrative assistant to a big-shot manager are important and a smart woman -- or man -- learns to treat them with the respect and friendship they deserve.Each chapter ends with a summing up of the tips, with bullet points to make it easy to check off what you should do. Speaking of bullet points, here are a few from the good doctor:
Career GPS is properly indexed, so it's easy to use. I recommend it not only for women seeking to improve their career opportunities and realize their potential, but also to corporate executives -- men and women -- to help them understand how their employees view today's radically changed corporate environment.Author's web site: www.careergpsthebook.com
RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C.—RTI International has developed a revolutionary lighting technology that is more energy efficient than the common incandescent light bulb and does not contain mercury, making it environmentally safer than the compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulb.
At the core of RTI's breakthrough is an advanced nanofiber structure that provides exceptional lighting management. Nanofibers are materials with diameters and surface features much smaller than the human hair but with comparable lengths.Solid-State Lighting Device
RTI's technology, which was funded in part by the Department of Energy's Solid-State Lighting program, centers around advancements in the nanoscale properties of materials to create high-performance, nanofiber-based reflectors and photoluminescent nanofibers (PLN). When the two nanoscale technologies are combined, a high-efficiency lighting device is produced that is capable of generating in excess of 55 lumens of light output per electrical watt consumed. This efficiency is more than five times greater than that of traditional incandescent bulbs.
"By using flexible photoluminescent nanofiber technologies for light management, RTI has opened the door to the creation of new designs for solid-state lighting applications," says Lynn Davis, Ph.D., director of RTI's Nanoscale Materials Program. "This new class of materials can provide cost-effective, safe and efficient lighting solutions."
Additionally, RTI's technology produces an aesthetically pleasing light with better color rendering properties than is typically found in CFLs. The technology has demonstrated color rendering indices in excess of 90 for warm white, neutral white, and cool white illumination sources.
"Because lighting consumes almost one-fourth of all electricity generated in the United States, our technology could have a significant impact in reducing energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions," Davis said. "The technology also does not contain mercury, which makes it more environmentally friendly and safer to handle than CFLs and other fluorescent lamps."
RTI is continuing development of this technology and is actively pursuing commercialization opportunities in the marketplace. It is anticipated that commercial products containing this breakthrough will be available in three to five years.
About RTI International
RTI International is one of the world's leading research institutes, dedicated to improving the human condition by turning knowledge into practice. Our staff of more than 2,800 provides research and technical expertise to governments and businesses in more than 40 countries in the areas of health and pharmaceuticals, education and training, surveys and statistics, advanced technology, international development, economic and social policy, energy and the environment, and laboratory and chemistry services. For more information, visit www.rti.org.
©2010 RTI International. RTI International is a trade name of Research Triangle Institute.
Tokyo, Feb 8, 2010— The Japanese government breached a series of internationally guaranteed human rights by detaining two Greenpeace activists who had uncovered major corruption in the Japanese whaling programme, according to a working group of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC).
Junichi Sato and Toru Suzuki, known as the “Tokyo Two,” are due to stand trial on February 15th, but it has been revealed that the UNHRC’s Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) informed the Japanese government in December that the rights of the two men have been breached by the Japanese justice system.German Activists Support Tokyo Two; Photo Credit: Greenpeace
“Junichi and Toru acted in the public interest to expose a scandal that involved corruption in the taxpayer-funded whaling programme. Now it is clear that this is not just the opinion of Greenpeace, but also of the competent United Nations body,” said Greenpeace International Executive Director Kumi Naidoo. “We expect the Japanese courts to take note of this opinion and judge the case accordingly.”
The Working Group noted that Sato and Suzuki had “…acted considering that their actions were in the greater public interest as they sought to expose criminal embezzlement within the taxpayer-funded whaling industry.” It recognises that they willingly cooperated with the police and the Public Prosecutor, that this cooperation was not acknowledged, and that the Government did not itself submit any essential information, such as details of their activities as environmental activists, the investigation they carried out, the evidence they gathered or the help they gave to authorities to formally investigate their allegations.
The Working Group concluded: “The right of these two environmental activists not to be arbitrarily deprived of their liberty; their rights to freedom of opinion and expression and to exercise legitimate activities, as well as their right to engage in peaceful activities without intimidation or harassment has not been respected by the Justice system.” As such, the Working Group found that the government has contravened articles 18,19 and 20 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and articles 18 and 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. It also took the view that Sato and Suzuki had been denied the right to challenge their detention before an independent and impartial tribunal in fair proceedings, and requested that the remainder of the trial be conducted fairly.
“The decision to engage in this political prosecution was made by the previous government in Japan. The new administration can remedy the shame of this damning opinion by ensuring the trial will now be fair, adhering to international legal standards. In the interest of transparency they should welcome observers from other governments to the proceedings,” said Dr Naidoo, who is travelling to Japan later this week to observe the trial. “Prime Minister Hatoyama must also order a re-examination of the original allegations made by the Tokyo Two,” Dr Naidoo added.
Since their initial arrest in June 2008, more than a quarter of a million people have signed a petition to demand justice for Sato and Suzuki, and legal experts including Supreme Court advocates worldwide have expressed concern about the prosecution. International human rights and advocacy groups such as Amnesty International and Transparency International have questioned the legitimacy of the prosecution. A week of protests at Japanese embassies worldwide began today in the run up to next Monday’s hearing.
Greenpeace is an independent, global campaigning organization that acts to change attitudes and behavior, to protect and conserve the environment, and to promote peace.
BOOK REVIEW: 'The Selling of the American Economy' Explores Impact of Foreign Companies -- Including Toyota -- on U.S. Economy, Especially ManufacturingReviewed by David M. KinchenToyota is in the midst of its biggest quality crisis ever, which is somewhat unfortunate for the latest book on the auto industry by New York Times senior business correspondent Micheline Maynard, The Selling of the American Economy: How Foreign Companies Are Remaking the American Dream (Broadway Business, a division of Random House, 272 pages, $26.00).The widening recall crisis facing the Japanese auto giant -- a truly global country with a big manufacturing big presence in the U.S. and more than two dozen other nations -- shows a company famous for its quality reputation that is also infamous for its inept crisis management handling of recalls involving sudden acceleration and now problems with brakes in its halo Prius model.Maynard's book came out late in October, well before the latest revelations of problems with many models of Toyotas, and -- to be fair to her, much of the book deals with three other foreign companies in the U.S.: Tata of India, Haier of China and the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS), a French-German firm that manufactures helicopters in Mississippi. Also to be fair to her, she discusses the quality control problems of Toyota that antedated the latest ones.Still, Maynard, who calls her book the continuation of a previous book on the American auto industry, The End of Detroit, comes across all too often as a cheerleader for Toyota. She drives a Prius and lives in Ann Arbor, the Berkeley of Michigan, an upscale community home to the University of Michigan and a far cry from the gritty streets of Detroit.Maynard argues that despite the lingering xenophobia that colors American perception of foreign-owned companies, foreign investments are actually an overwhelmingly positive force. Not only do they create thousands of jobs and pump billions of dollars into national and local economies, she says, they reinvigorate and strengthen communities, foster innovation and diversity in the marketplace, and teach Americans new ways to live and work. In the manner of her Times colleague Louis Uchitelle (The Disposable American, Knopf, 2006) Maynardpresents us with moving stories of workers whose lives have been transformed by the arrival of companies like Toyota, Airbus, and Tata. She also interviewed many government officials, including Michigan's Canadian-born governor, Jennifer Granholm, who have fought -- often against the will of their supporters -- to lure foreign companies to their communities and states. She also obtained a rare interview with Toyota's new president, Akio Toyoda, who has just apologized to one and all for the recalls and the damage to Toyota's reputation for building quality vehicles.Akio Toyoda on Friday, Feb. 5, 2010 held a press conference, two long weeks since the U.S. gas pedal safety recall was announced. Toyoda tried to rescue the situation by apologizing for the inconvenience to customers around the world. The company ascribes the alleged brake problems to customers misunderstanding the feeling of the ABS braking system and says that only the 2009 model Prius is involved. Since January, the company has fixed the software so that the ABS responds more quickly.Observers have said that the apology is too little and too late, that Toyota -- and Akio Toyoda, grandson of the founder, who was named president in 2009 -- still haven't gotten the need for a full-bore crisis management effort, on the order of the Tylenol recall.As the cliche goes, only time will tell if Toyota will regain its stellar reputation. Its operation in Putnam County, West Virginia, which manufactures engines, has long been one of the firm's best operations and apparently has nothing to do with the problems involved in the recalls. Still, like all the other plants in the U.S., it's affected by the halt in Toyota production.What does "Buy American" mean anymore, when Maynard's own publisher is owned by Germans (Bertelsmann), when the iconic Eight O'Clock coffee (my day starts with their Hazelnut flavor!) is owned by Tata of Mubai, India, which also bought Jaguar and Land Rover from Ford? Haier was thwarted in its attempt to buy Maytag, Maynard writes, losing out to Whirlpool of my native state of Michigan, which quickly shut down Maytag's Iowa plants, shifting manufacturing overseas.How about Chrysler, along with General Motors forced into bankruptcy? Fiat, of Turin, Italy, is bailing out one of our oldest and most iconic automakers, not out of altruism, but to gain access to Chrysler's extensive dealer network. If Americans can accept the view that Fiat's notorious quality control problems of the past ("Fix It Again, Tony" is what many Americans think Fiat stands for) are ancient history, Chrysler may soon have the fuel-efficient cars that Americans want.Nestle, an American icon? It's based in Switzerland. Budweiser, which commands more than half of the American beer market, is now owned by a foreign company (I only hope that some day Budweiser would taste like Stella Artois, a premium beer from inBev). In 2008 Anheuser-Busch sold the majority of their stock to Belgian-Brazilian beer giant InBev, to create the largest brewing company in the world.Maynard mentions tiny Buffalo, West Virginia, where Toyota makes engines and how its employees come from 27 of the 55 counties in the Mountain State. She also tells fo the revitalization of Georgetown, KY, just north of Lexington, and how Toyota's massive plant there has brought revitalized Georgetown's dying downtown.Let me be a cheerleader for a moment, something I just accused Maynard of: I hope that Toyota will solve its problems and regain its reputation for quality vehicles. I believe in globalization as long as it helps the nation, as Haier's purchase of Maytag probably would have. My own vehicle, a 2001 Ford Ranger pickup, is manufactured by a global company that has overcome quality problems of the past and also avoided the bailouts of Chrysler and GM. So, despite the continuing Toyota problems, I recommend Maynard's book for its insights into the positive side of globalization.
Micheline Maynard is the Senior Business Correspondent at the New York Times, and the author of the acclaimed book, The End of Detroit. The recipient of the 2009 Nathanial Nash award for excellence in business journalism, she has written for USA Today and U.S. News and World Report, and appears regularly on CNBC and NPR. ?
By Loyd Eskildson
David Rhodes and Daniel Stelter are Europe-based senior partners in the Boston Consulting Group. In Accelerating Out of the Great Recession they purport to offer solid advice on how American business can survive and thrive in these trying times. They begin by observing that it would take a 32% increase in China's private consumption to offset a 5% reduction in U.S. consumer spending - something they believe is not going to happen. Thus, when combined with various spending inhibitors, they conclude business leaders should instead look for growth in the U.S., albeit slower than in the past. Accompanying that slower growth will be unwanted increased efforts at government regulation, anti-immigration action, and trade protectionism. Other economic drags include downward price pressure due to deleveraging, and bank reluctance to lend due to their failure to recognize the extent of their potential losses and recapitalize. Continuing, the authors point out that U.S. household wealth shrank an estimated $13.9 trillion (22%) in the last few years, while the savings rate rose from -2.7% in 2005 to +5.9% in 2009. Both factors reduce demand. Meanwhile, the GDP-boosting U.S. trade deficit (4.6% of GDP) cannot continue, unemployment and underemployment remain high, and most surveyed business leaders are not optimistic about soon returning to record 'pre-recession' profits. Soaring U.S. health care costs (17.3% in 2009, expected to hit 25% in 2025 and 37% in 2050 without fundamental change - Congressional Budget Office) receive almost no attention in Accelerating, despite the obvious fact it cannot continue. (Suffice it to say, health care reform will not occur on its own, and will have major impact.) Rhodes and Stelter continue, finally concluding that consumers will become more "value-conscious," obvious old news to most. Eg. Guess what has driven Wal-Mart from nothing to become the world's largest public corporation in 40 years and the U.S. largest grocery retailer in 21 years, while department-store market share fell from 38% in 1995 to 19% in 2002? Home equity financing reached almost $1 trillion in 2006 (7% of GDP), before home values began tanking - guess what that does to demand, especially for big-ticket items? Up to 70% of homeowners are underwater on their mortgages in some areas - those homeowners will not lead any economic recovery, period. Just two years ago the U.S. finance industry generated 41% of corporate profits - that won't be repeated soon either. Worse yet, Rhodes and Stelter are oblivious to the reduced impact and opportunity from today's consumer sales. Decades ago when Americans bought a car, toaster, toy, shirt, tank of gasoline, or a shrimp dinner they not only boosted retail sales, but generated added activity for the U.S. auto, appliance, textile, toy, oil, and fishing industries and their U.S. employees as well. Today, that second level of activity is largely gone, both in the preceding areas and many, many more - mostly off-shored to China. Thus, adding a dollar of U.S. consumer sales not only requires more credit than before ($1 in the 1950s, $3 in the 1990s, and $5 in the last decade - per the authors), but also far less impact on total GDP. Regaining that stronger impact requires protectionism, despite Rhodes and Stelter's unconvincing counter-arguments, unless one proposes ballooning the trade deficit - which they also oppose. What does this mean for business leaders - that major economic improvement requires government to reverse course on 'Free Trade.' The second section of Accelerating covers suggested business strategies. Those looking for new, sophisticated strategies and insights, however, will not find any. The material is simply a superficial rehash of Finance 101 - protect your cash position, negotiate with suppliers, focus on inventory management and reduce debt levels, divest non-core businesses, focus on bloated R&D, focus on innovation, . . .. Easy to say, not so easy to do when surrounded by excess world production capacity (U.S. - 20%, Japan - 15%, European Union - 18%, India - 30%, China - 40%, Brazil - 30%), with Asian producers especially advantaged by much, much lower operating and capital costs. Clearly, America's economic future will not be found through just working harder at more of the same. Bottom-Line: The U.S. cannot accelerate out of the great recession without creating a new, significant, sustainable, strategic advantage, or at least a similar defense - especially in the industries of tomorrow. The New York Times (1/30/2010) reports that China is already the world leader in green energy wind and solar power, and pushing hard to build nuclear reactors and more efficient coal-fired plants. It also is leading in electric bicycles, and the "smart money" (Buffett's Berkshire) is betting on a Chinese state-owned company developing electric cars and their batteries. Meanwhile, China is also significantly boosting R&D efforts in nanotechnology and bio-sciences. All this while erecting trade barriers to outside competition in new areas, and refusing to revalue its currency - thus protecting old areas as well. Little, if any of these current (or former) initiatives occurred through purely private initiative, or simply across-the-board Chinese business tax-cuts. Nonetheless, Accelerating Out of the Great Recession ignores or takes a negative posture on the potential role of U.S. government, probably because many Americans believe it should have no role in private enterprise. China became a modern power by facing down its anti-capitalist roots en route to a heavy government role in lifting private businesses; further, its on-going economic vibrancy is assisted by much, much lower health care costs (admittedly the government is working to expand this area) and an undervalued currency. The U.S. similarly needs to face down its anti-government roots to help maintain our modern status through government-led health care reform, severely limiting illegal immigration, imposing tariffs to counter China's under-valued currency, and guiding/helping the development and protection of nascent industries. ?
David Rhodes is a senior partner and managing director of the London office of The Boston Consulting Group and the global leader of the Financial Institutions practice.
Daniel Stelter is a senior partner and managing director of the firm’s Berlin office and the global leader of the Corporate Development practice.
Loyd Eskildson is retired from a life of computer programming, teaching economics and finance, education and health care administration, and cross-country truck driving. He's now a reviewer for Basil & Spice.
Review By Arthur Rosenfeld
Surgeons tend to be “up-and-at-‘em” kind of guys, and Marc Wallack, M.D., Chief of Surgery at Metropolitan Hospital and Vice-Chair of the Department of Surgery at New York Medical College is evidently no exception. Back To Life After a Heart Crisis, written with his wife, Fox News host/anchor Jamie Colby, details his experience with quadruple bypass surgery. The book is an honest, detailed account of the surgical, rehabilitative and emotional dimensions of coming close to death, putting your life in the hands of people you don’t know, and then attempting to rebuild that (active, accomplished, stressed, and full) life once out of the hospital.
The book is written by a “power couple” and presents advice in sports/military fashion, even using chapter headings such as “Conquer the Night," “Arm Yourself for Career Issues” and “Train for a Huge Physical Challenge.” Wallack was a runner before the surgery, and to his great credit managed to run a marathon afterward. He details his training plan not only for those with that particular ambition, but to show it can be done. That results in one of the book’s most powerful themes, namely the amazing resilience of the human body. The chest is cracked open, heart vessels are cleared, the breastbone is wired together, eventually knits, and there’s a marathon at the finish line (another chapter header).
Far more than a memoir, the volume is an action plan for others facing the same challenges. It rises above a medical recipe by virtue of the yin/yang advice and perspective offered by this husband/wife team. Wallack’s emphasis on getting back to the place you were before a major illness, while Colby takes aim at the caregiver, offering counsel on everything from screening get-well cards (she nixed anything that oozed sympathy) to using a nickname for her husband (Rambo) to help him feel like a superman. She also chose movies like Rocky for him (he likes action films) because they have an upbeat, “I-shall-overcome” message.
Colby’s advice is interwoven, in boxed format, throughout the book. She addresses such varied topics as how to get a recovering heart patient to get out of the house for a walk (“You’re still in this world, Let’s go see it.”) and how to get to know hospital staff and routine before surgery. She even gives very frank and intimate advice for becoming sexually active again after surgery. When it comes to achieving or maintaining an erection, for instance, she suggests saying something like: “You have more circulation than you’ve ever had. How did you do it before when you had so little blood flow? I can’t wait to see what it will be like now that your heart and blood vessels are so healthy.”
Wallack does mention how much serious illness changes a person, and there is a lot of detail about the feelings of anxiety and loss of control, even loathing the body that accompanies major heart surgery. Much of this may be helpful to recovering patients, but it might have been satisfying to see more about finding balance after such a life-altering event and less about achievement. Still, the author is smart to augment his own insights with those of others who have gone through similar experiences. These “Unbeatables” include Yvonne Payne, who was diagnosed with a heart rhythm disorder when she was a teenager, Larry Mart, who has a genetic disorder that raises his cholesterol and has caused multiple heart attacks, and Chase Carter, who “died for the first time at twenty-nine”. Carter wrote music—called the Chase Carter Method—used in healing therapy, and offers the opinion that “Dying really isn’t that bad. It’s just the next phase of our consciousness. You just go to another place, a wonderful place, so don’t fear it.”
Back To Life After a Heart Crisis is chock-full of useful information, including explanations of medical terms, tests and procedures from the proverbial “horse’s mouth.” There are good notes at the back of the book, a useful index, and a chapter full of “Back-To-Life resources worth the price of admission. These include ways to assess a hospital or physician’s track record, inspiring books and audio series, support groups, charity events, even funny movies. More, Colby has a section brimming with imaginative recipes for healthy versions of popular foods. Included are Oven “Fried” Chicken Fingers with Apricot Curry Dipping Sauce, (which uses buttermilk, Japanese-syle breadcrumbs, ground flaxseed and Multi-Bran Chex cereal), and Old-Fashioned Mac and Cheese made from whole-grain pasta, Benecol and skim milk.
Readers are unlikely to find another book quite like this one. It’s unique and important for those who need it, and certainly a clarion call to those readers who need to turn their health around, but are avoiding the tough decisions required to do so.
Arthur Rosenfeld is an authority on the spiritual dimensions of Eastern thinking for a Western world. A novelist, martial arts master and philosopher, Rosenfeld is a contributor to national magazines, including Vogue, Vanity Fair, and Parade, has been seen on national tv and radio networks. The author of eleven acclaimed books and the creator of the fiction genre "Kung Fu Noir," he combines stories with Eastern wisdom drawn from nearly 30 years of martial arts study. His latest title is Quiet Teacher.
A Yale graduate, Rosenfeld combines scientific background and communication skills gained through post-graduate studies at the University of California with real-world savvy gleaned from high-level corporate positions. Drawing on his background in medicine and science he has been cited in national media, including Newsweek, Ebony, and Parade. He has also written The Truth About Chronic Pain.
Linda Burke-Galloway, M.D.--
The Universe is speaking to Michelle Duggar and hopefully she’ll take a moment to listen. Duggar is a 43 y.o. housewife whose life is chronicled on TLC’s TV reality series, The Duggars. While it’s admirable to watch Duggar and her husband, Bob, navigate life raising a plethora of children, pregnancy and giving birth is not an entirely benign act.
The February 8th issue of People Magazine ("The Duggar Baby: Her Fight for Life") gave an exclusive account of Duggar’s most recent delivery that was complicated by both preterm birth at 25-weeks and pre-eclampsia. If the truth be told, both mom and baby are lucky to be alive. Duggar had delivered her 18th child just six months prior to conceiving her 19th. Her body did not have ample time to heal. Profound changes occur in the heart, lungs and kidneys of pregnant women. The body has more fluid circulating and the lungs have less air present at the end of each breath. The gallbladder also does not process fat properly and some pregnant women develop gallstones which is exactly what happen to Duggar. She had a gallstone attack and developed pre-eclampsia that warranted an emergency cesarean section. Her premature baby weighed 1lb 6oz.
It is not clear whether Duggar has received properly counseling from her ob healthcare practitioner, so let me jump in.
The Bible says to go forth and multiply and you’ve followed directions well. Now pat yourself on the back and give your body a well deserved rest. You escaped serious harm because of Divine Intervention and a skilled medical staff. Please, do not push the envelope.
Linda Burke-Galloway, MD, MS, FACOG is a board-certified ob-gyn physician who is a champion of patient safety and is on a mission to keep pregnant women from falling through the cracks of our imperfect healthcare system. For over twenty years she has provided clinical services to high-risk pregnant women in medically underserved communities. She served our country through the National Health Service Corp, is a medical malpractice consultant for the U.S. Human Health Services and the federal government has also sought her expertise in reducing obstetrical malpractice cases in high-risk communities. Dr. Burke-Galloway has worked for the State of Florida Department of Health for over thirteen years in direct patient care. She is the author of The Smart Mothers Guide to a Better Pregnancy and is the Pregnancy Expert for LifeScript.com. She is a graduate of City College of the City University of New York, Columbia University School of Social Work and Boston University School of Medicine. She lives with her husband in Central Florida and is the proud mother of two sons. Dr. Galloway is the author of The Smart Mother's Guide to a Better Pregnancy (Red Flags Pub/ 2008). You'll find Dr. Galloway online at www.smartmothersguide.com
Jill Blakeway, M.Sc, L.Ac.--
This year Chinese New Year falls on February 14th when we will be saying goodbye to the Year of the Ox and welcoming in the Year of the Tiger. More next week about what the Year of the Tiger has in store for us, but today I thought I’d celebrate by baking Chinese Almond Cookies. These are said to look like coins and symbolize prosperity and so we bake them at this time to wish our loved ones a prosperous new year.
For my version I swapped butter for almond butter and olive oil and replaced the sugar with maple syrup. So here is my recipe for whole grain, dairy-free New Year cookies to wish you all a healthy and prosperous new year.
Happy New Year! Gung Hay Fat Choy!
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
½ cup spelt flour
½ cup almond flour
1 tsp baking soda
¾ tsp sea salt
¼ tsp ground cardamom
1 cup almond butter
1 cup maple syrup
1/3 cup olive oil
1 tsp almond extract
½ cup slivered almonds
Preheat the 350 degrees
Method: -
Mix the dry ingredients together. This includes the whole wheat flour, spelt flour, almond flour, baking soda, cardamom and salt.
In a separate bowl mix together the wet ingredients. This includes the almond butter, maple syrup, olive oil and almond extract.
Pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and mix lightly until just combined.
Put into the refrigerator for half an hour to firm up.
Drop heaping tablespoons full of dough onto a parchment lined baking sheet.
Press down with a fork to make little ridges.
Press the slivered almonds into the cookies to decorate.
Bake for 10 minutes being careful not to overcook because without the usual butter and eggs these cookies are much healthier but can get dry.
Jill Blakeway is a Licensed Acupuncturist and Board Certified Herbalist. A former Professor of Traditional Asian Medicine she is the coauthor of Making Babies: A Proven Three Month Program for Maximum Fertility and The Fertility Plan. She is the Clinic Director at the YinOva Center in New York City, which is a complementary medical center for women and children. www.yinovacenter.com
Dennis E. Coates, Ph.D.--
When I was 17, something weird happened to me.I wanted very much to go to West Point after high school, but to compete for the appointment, I knew I'd need a good resume. I was vice-president of the student council, first in my class, an Eagle Scout, and captain of the golf team. But I felt I needed another sport. So I decided to go out for the wrestling team. This would help my application, and it would get me in better physical condition.The good news is that I loved wrestling, and my body was getting stronger by the week. The bad news, if you want to call it that, was that my team-mate in my weight class was the All-Europe champion. I had to wrestle Skip Ledbetter in practice every day. I knew the only way I'd ever wrestle in a match was if he got injured. So I accepted my role as "practice dummy" for him. My ambition was a pragmatic one: I would learn to wrestle well enough that I could at least survive a practice without being pinned.That was easier said than done. I had a lot of moves to learn, and my body needed to get a lot stronger. So I became obsessed with becoming a decent wrestler. In idle moments, I would think about what I learned. In my mind, I would imagine myself performing the correct moves on Skip.One night I lay in bed thinking about a particular escape move. I imagined Skip on top of me, pushing me into the mat. Then I imagined executing this difficult move perfectly, over and over again. After doing this mental exercise for half an hour, I realized that I felt exhausted. And my bed was completely soaked in sweat. I had to change the sheets!I remember wondering how such a thing was possible. I wasn't moving my body at all. I was just imagining it. Why would this cause me to sweat?That wasn't the end of the weirdness, however. The next day in practice, Skip took me down and was trying to work me into a position to pin me. Instinctively, I executed the move perfectly. And I found myself facing Skip, free of his grasp. He laughed and said, "Wow, good move!"I know now that what I was doing is what is called "mental rehearsal." If you do something repeatedly, the brain adjusts to make this action easier to perform. It secretes chemicals that cause dendrites on the brain cells related to the skill to grow until they connect with each other in a new network. When this growth is complete, the brain has the most efficient possible wiring to enable the skill. The activity seems comfortable and automatic. What psychologists have discovered is that simply imagining the activity has almost the same effect. The mind doesn't seem to care if you are physically performing the action or simply imagining it. Today, mental rehearsal is a well-established component of athletic training. In tournament play, nearly all professional golfers mentally rehearse the action of the desired swing and the flight of the ball before they actually execute the shot. Tennis players do the same thing. Question: Can mental rehearsal help you improve a personal strength behavior pattern? Answer: Absolutely.I encourage you to try it. But I suggest you follow these guidelines...1. Make sure that what you're imagining is correct. You don't want to rehearse a flawed technique. So before you begin mental rehearsal, review the best practice model.2. When you imagine yourself doing something, don't see yourself out there doing it. Instead, imagine what it's like to do it. Experience that feeling.3. Envision the entire process that leads to the desired result. And after imagining what it's like to complete the entire action and result, imagine how good you feel having done it well.4. Rehearse the action in your imagination many, many times in sequence. Practice makes perfect, even in your mind.5. Don't rely completely on mental rehearsal. Most of your practice should be physical. You need real in-the-world practice to give your imagination the correct images. Mental rehearsal can speed the learning process, but it can't take the place of actually doing it.I know mental rehearsal sounds amazing, but it actually works. There, I've just shared one of the most powerful learning strategies known to trainers. Now you can take advantage of it and share it with your friends.?
Dennis E. Coates, Ph.D., is co-founder and CEO of Performance Support Systems, Inc. He is the author of 20/20 Insight Gold, an award-winning, versatile online feedback survey platform, and ProStar, an online learning reinforcement and self-development system. A graduate of West Point, Denny has over 35 years’ experience as a manager and leader. His military assignments focused on training development and personnel management and included service in Vietnam and Germany. He earned his Ph.D. at Duke University and has served on the faculties of the United States Military Academy, the Armed Forces Staff College, the College of William and Mary, and Thomas Nelson Community College. In addition, he was an adjunct lecturer at the Center for Creative Leadership for ten years. Hundreds of Fortune 1000 companies have benefited from his work in assessment, self-awareness, leadership and team development. He is the author of numerous articles, booklets, and manuals in the areas of cognitive style, leadership, management, training, and creativity. You'll find him online at www.buildingpersonalstrength.com
Carole Carson--
Innovation in the prevention of disease?not improved treatment?will be the key factor in realizing affordable healthcare.
The emerging shift in paradigms is the result of maddening increases in medical insurance expenses over the past decade. From 1999 to 2008, medical insurance costs for a family of four increased 119 percent. And if future projections materialize, the annual premium for a family of four ($13,375 in 2009) will climb to $23,842 in 2020.
Treating illness, particularly medical conditions that are triggered by lifestyle, is fast becoming prohibitively expensive. As a consequence, a century-long tradition of employer-subsidized medical insurance intended to treat illness is being supplemented with practical programs designed to prevent illness.
Reinforcing the need for intervention is George Blackburn, MD, PhD, associate director of the Division of Nutrition at Harvard Medical School and author of 12 books and over 500 articles. While acknowledging the remarkable advancements in the treatment of diseases in the 20th century, Dr. Blackburn asserts that the defining task of the 21st century is “creating similar breakthroughs in prevention.”
The financial implication of paying for lifestyle-induced medical care is not lost on employers. In particular, surplus pounds lead to medical conditions and injuries that trigger significant increases in the cost of medical care, workers’ compensation claims and absenteeism. Reducing the girth of employees is key to maintaining profitability.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), “Medical expenses for obese employees are estimated to be between 29 percent and 117 percent greater than medical expenses for employees with a healthy weight.” In addition, obese employees spend 77 percent more on necessary medication than do their healthy-weight counterparts.
I can vouch for the accuracy of these statistics, based on my own experience. At 59, I was obese. My medical file expanded in tandem with my body: doctor’s visits and hospitalizations for an assortment of lifestyle?related problems, from chest pain to gallbladder disease, were frequent. I joked that my medical insurer stored my 5-inch claim file under the letter C not because my name is Carson but rather because I was chronically ill. My devoted husband, who married me in sickness and in health, started asking, “Where’s the health?”
A medical assessment placed me in the 90th percentile for risk of cancer, diabetes, stroke and heart disease. After losing 62 pounds through lifestyle changes, I was retested: my risk had dropped to the normal range. My decision to lose weight and get fit spared my insurance provider thousands of dollars in medical expenses, improved the quality of my life and most likely extended the quantity of my remaining days.
In retrospect, I can see that a sedentary lifestyle combined with increasing weight made my medical problems and expenses predictable. Employers, faced with the reality of hundreds of employees like me, are introducing programs promoting wellness?with a particular emphasis on weight loss?despite hard economic times. In one recent survey of 450 employers with 1,000 or more full-time employees, over 300 had introduced weight-management plans.
Small-business employers are also taking action. According to Dr. Blackburn, the work force in small businesses tends to be younger and healthier, and it enjoys fewer benefits. Because resources are limited in a small company, the productivity of each employee counts more than ever; hence, the need to offer programs that encourage healthful behavior and weight maintenance is crucial.
The CDC is encouraging this trend by launching an online resource site called LEAN Works! (Leading Employees to Activity and Nutrition). The site features a calculator that computes the cost of employee obesity in higher medical bills and absenteeism and allows employers to measure their return on investment in employee health.
The site does not recommend specific interventions, predict the estimated weight loss of employees or provide estimates on the cost of implementation. Employers are also cautioned not to use LEAN Works! in making personnel decisions involving hiring, firing, promotion and demotion.
Critics of LEAN Works! worry that the calculations will be used to discriminate against obese employees. Some also feel that collecting information about one’s body is a violation of privacy. Peggy Howell, member and public relations director of the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance, expresses this viewpoint: "They are my employer. They are paying for my time to work for them. They are not my owner. They do not have a right to my personal information such as my height, my weight or my BMI.”
Despite these concerns, employers are proceeding to introduce weight-loss programs based on the three-pronged model developed by LEAN Works! The recommended strategies involve making changes in the work environment, offering education to individuals and groups and introducing intervention programs designed to teach skills so employees can make choices that are more healthful. Depending upon the budget of the employer, programs can be integrated or offered separately. Wellness programs may be offered for as little as $1 per employee. A comprehensive program typically costs between $100 and $150 per employee. This investment typically produces $300 to $450 in savings.
Changes in the environment might include offering healthier options in the company cafeteria, decorating stairwells to encourage their use and providing “stretch” breaks led by a personal trainer. Some companies are adding gyms for employee use.
Educational efforts might involve free exercise videos from the company library, personal exercise prescriptions and health-education classes. Health and risk assessments are also used to educate overweight employees about their higher risk for type 2 diabetes, heart disease, certain cancers, joint problems and depression.
In structuring interventions, some companies are providing financial incentives for losing weight and adopting healthier habits rather than assigning penalties for failing to lose weight. Employers report that organized weight-loss competitions between departments, teams and locations work well.
Employers are also promoting fitness outside the workplace. Employees’ families and the surrounding community are frequently encouraged to participate in weight-loss programs. Given the increasing awareness of the importance of socialization in modeling behavior, employers are involving family and the larger community in promoting healthier lifestyles.
Perhaps the best example of this approach is found in Rochester, New York. Wegmans Food Markets recruited six local employers (Bausch & Lomb, Eastman Kodak, Xerox and others) along with the Rochester Business Alliance to orchestrate a health and fitness program for the surrounding community. The campaign, Eat Well. Live Well, currently involves over 44,000 employees, family members and customers.
In adopting these strategies, companies are embracing two relatively new ideas. The first is that the workaholic who devotes his or her entire waking hours to the job?leaving little or no time for family or social life, exercise or healthful eating?no longer represents the ideal employee. Work is no longer the be-all for the perfect employee. Today’s model employee leads a balanced life—enjoying work but also taking time to be nourished by healthful food, strong family and social relationships and regular exercise.
The second idea is that an investment in prevention produces big savings in reduced medical costs and the costs associated with absenteeism. While some researchers argue that their studies of treatments by physicians show that 80 percent of preventive measures cost more than waiting and treating the disease later, others are convinced the opposite is true, particularly when the larger picture is considered.
In a 2008 report from Trust for America's Health, researchers confidently claimed that “some disease prevention measures can pay off. Antismoking campaigns and exercise programs, often needing only small investments, can yield major savings.” Ron Z. Goetzel, a research professor at Emory University in Atlanta, adds, “In many cases, if not most cases, prevention activities are more cost effective than treatment."
For companies, employees and families suffering from the emotional and financial cost of surplus pounds, the prevention of obesity can’t arrive a day too soon.
Good news seems to be on the horizon. After climbing for 30 years, the increasing girth of Americans is leveling off. Although two-thirds of Americans remain overweight or obese, the number is no longer expanding.
The jury is out on whether this unexpected development is a temporary pause before expansion resumes or the beginning of an overdue shift downward, similar to the leveling off and subsequent decline in the number of smokers since 1965.
Researchers cite no single cause for the temporary pause; however, the amount of public-health education surrounding lifestyle issues and the introduction of community-based weight-loss programs have increased exponentially over the past decade, as has the increasing stridency of voices urging lifestyle changes—particularly given the increase in childhood obesity, which tripled during the same 30 years.
Will all of these forces, combined with practical interventions at the workplace, create a synergy that will eventually result in a return to healthier lifestyles and appropriate weight? The answer is yes because we can’t afford anything less.
Dubbed “An Apostle for Fitness” by the Wall Street Journal, Carole Carson was the inspiration behind the Nevada County Meltdown, where more than 1,000 people lost nearly 8,000 pounds. Carole is the author of From Fat to Fit: Turn Yourself into a Weapon of Mass Reduction and serves as the national coach for the AARP Fat to Fit Community Challenge, a free weight-loss program welcoming all ages.
Interview: Into the Wilderness With Paul Auerbach
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Jeffrey B. English, M.D.--
Do you still believe you will get to keep your doctor if you so choose under the “reformed” health care system? Under the House health care bill, the Secretary of the Health and Human Services is granted the power to force physicians to decline private health insurance (and their patients) as a condition to participate in the public offered insurance plans. That is to say, a Government official has the power to force physicians to take patients with public insurance and exclude them from seeing anyone who has private insurance. Also, a health care official will be able to decide which doctors can participate in the private and public provider networks. In summary, the Government, not the patient, will decide on the physicians available to both privately and publicly insured patients. This is troublesome for many reasons. First of all, it goes against one of President Obama’s first promises and requirements for the new health care system. The American people were specifically told that we would be able to keep their insurance and physicians if they so choose. The House must have missed that promise in the many speeches I heard. Secondly, this drastically changes the way physicians and patients interact. No longer will decisions be made in the best interest of the patient, they will be made based on Government protocols. As I have mentioned before in blogs, the health care bills set up requirements for all health care providers. If the doctor does not conform to these requirements, the appointed Government officials have the power to remove the physician from both the private and the public insurance network. The physician can be removed from taking care of patients. Since the Government requirements may not follow recommendations set up by physician experts but for political or financial reasons, a physician may be faced with an ethical problem. Doing what is best for their patients may not conform with the rules. Deviating from those rules could lead to the physicians removal from patient care. What you will see in the next 2-3 years is large numbers of physicians removing themselves from all insurance contracts, public or private. This will enable them to practice in the patient's best interest, still under the Hippocratic Oath, in order to avoid this ethical problem. With the exception of physicians who require surgical centers or hospitals to practice their care, most physicians would do better taking cash only. The physician would benefit by removing these restrictions (and paperwork) that escalate costs of providing care, while preserving the doctor-patient relationship. Patients will benefit as the cost of care would go way down and make doctor visits affordable. As with most speeches and campaign promises, the final product never looks like the ones laid out in the beginning. Health care reform is no different. In the end, the most powerful special interest groups wrote the bills and made the campaign promises hollow. Unfortunately, patients don’t have a powerful special interest group, so they lost. As the American Medical Association (AMA) is supported by 17% of all physicians, the physicians also lost as they had no special interest group. The health care bills create more uniform, inferior health care. The future system will look like Medicaid for everyone. Medicaid is slow, inefficient, inferior, and (unfortunately) bankrupt. Maybe next time we can vote in politicians who will actually try to do what the majority of the people asked for: a level playing field where one can purchase affordable, excellent health care. This is achievable if only the Government would get out of the way.
Dr. Jeffrey B. English is a Board Certified Neurologist with sub-specialty training in Clinical Neurophysiology. He is in private practice in Atlanta, Georgia. Dr. English is the Clinical Research Director at the Multiple Sclerosis Center of Atlanta, a non-profit organization for the treatment of patients with multiple sclerosis. He helped develop and helps run the Center. He is also a national speaker on multiple sclerosis and on the economics of health care delivery. He admits to having “no formal economic background,” just extensive “real life, in the field” experience.
Sally Kneidel Ph.D.--
Why do girls fear snakes and spiders more? Is it genetic?
I love snakes. Every time I take a walk around the neighborhood, I stop and examine every squashed snake carcass I see on the road, of which there are many. I lament the loss of every one of them.
My parents, on the other hand, killed every snake they saw when I was a kid, and called all of them "copperheads." They were protecting us young'uns, or so they thought. I didn't realize how many people kill all snakes until I spent three years teaching elementary science. I used to bring a lot of snakes in to show my students. Every single time I did this, a dozen hands would shoot up begging to make a comment. And almost every single comment was "My daddy killed a snake last week with a shovel" or "My granddaddy chopped a snake in half in the garden." No one ever said that a snake their family saw was a welcomed or even a tolerated sight. And all of the snakes were allegedly "copperheads." After awhile, I began my snake lessons by banning stories about family members killing snakes; I couldn't take it anymore. It's a miracle that the U.S. has any remaining snakes at all.
Why are we so afraid of snakes? As a person partial to snakes, I have little patience with it.Gopher Snake by Alan Kneidel
Are girls genetically primed to fear snakes?
I read recently an intriguing study about fear of snakes, published in the journal Evolution and Human Behavior. That study is the subject of this post. Researcher David Rakison of Carnegie Mellon University looked at differences in the way 11-month-old humans react to pictures of snakes and spiders. Specifically, he looked at differences between male and female children. His findings surprised me.
Rakison showed pairs of images to the youngsters in his study. First he paired either a happy or a fearful cartoon face with a snake, a spider, a flower, or a mushroom. After that, Rakison timed how long each baby looked at new pairings of images that were different from the original pairings they had viewed. He wanted to see if the new pairings would seem odd to them and would cause them to look longer, out of puzzlement or curiosity.
Here’s what Rakison found:
Apparently the girls more readily associated the snake or spider with a fearful face. When the girls were subsequently shown a happy face with the snake or spider, they looked at it a long time (as if trying to make sense of something surprising). With the little boys, no pairings of images were more interesting than any others. The boys did not find the snake or spider paired with a happy face surprising or interesting.
Rakison said that this finding (if confirmed by other studies) indicates that human females have evolved an aversion to snakes and spiders. That trait evolved because women in our evolutionary history were in charge of protecting their children from the bites of snakes or spiders. Another study in Sweden found that snake and spider phobias are four times more common in women than in men.
Black-Tailed Rattlesnake by Alan Kneidel
Not so fast…
So says Vanessa LoBue of the University of Virginia. She disagrees with Rakison's findings. If girls gaze longer at the pairing of a snake with a smiling face, it's because 11-month-old girls are better at recognizing facial expressions than male babies, and therefore understand the pairings better. This understanding would account for their surprise and longer gazes.
LoBue offers evidence from her own studies that 5-year-old girls recognize threatening and nonthreatening expressions faster than boys. Do 11-month-old girls have that capacity too? We need to find out! What do you think?
Maybe women are squeamish because their vulnerability is attractive to men.
I personally don't believe that girls are "primed" genetically to be more fearful of snakes and spiders. I think it's all cultural. I think little girls learn to act squeamish and fearful from their mothers. I think adult females behave as though they're fearful and vulnerable because that's the ideal sexy female prototype that's been promoted by our Western culture since who knows when. Powerful fearless women are, in general, not sexy. Women are encouraged (often very subtly) to appear weak and afraid like Olive-Oyl, while Popeye eats his spinach and beats the tar out of Brutus. I agree with LoBue. Rakison's results can be explained by female children's acuity in reading human facial expressions.
I would love to hear reader comments.
Sources:
David Rakison. "Does women's greater fear of snakes and spiders originate in infancy?" Evolution and Human Behavior. Volume 30. November, 2009.
Bruce Bower. "Girls but not boys may be primed for arachnophobia, ophidiophobia: Fear of crawly, slithery things could begin before first birthday." Science News, September 26, 2009.
Sally Kneidel, PhD, is the author of eleven books on nature, conservation, and science topics. Two books from Fulcrum co-authored by Sally and Sadie Kneidel are Going Green: A Wise Consumer's Guide to a Shrinking Planet (May, 2008) and Veggie Revolution: Smart Choices for a Healthy Body and A Healthy Planet (Nov, 2005). Sally Kneidel can be found online at www.veggierevolution.blogspot.com and at SallyKneidel.com
Reviewed By Marilyn Dalrymple
I found Animals In Translation fascinating, but it brought many questions to mind and I'm not sure I found the answers. I'm curious about the abilities of someone who was diagnosed as autistic. Was the author, Temple Grandin wrongly diagnosed, or are the abilities of autistic people misunderstood? These are just a couple of the questions this book brought to mind.
As an animal lover, I found this book difficult to read. It brings to the forefront the cruelty of which humans are capable and it bothers me greatly that so many are willing to mistreat our furred, feathered and scaled friends. It troubles me what animals must go through to appease humans for sometimes inessential purposes. Could Grandin better use her gift of being able to decode animal behavior by championing vegetarianism or to stop animal cruelty in the broad spectrum, or are her talents essential to the better treatment of animals heading for the slaughter house? These are more questions that came to mind as I read this book. Animals In Translation is worth reading, but can be difficult to read in spots if you are a softy when it comes to animals. Trying to match ethical slaughtering methods with fighting animal cruelty is a hard leap to make, but if animals are to be slaughtered, I guess it is a worthy cause. ?
Temple Grandin earned her Ph.D. in animal science from the University of Illinois and went on to become a professor at Colorado State University. She is the author of four previous books, including the national bestseller Thinking in Pictures. Grandin spearheaded reform of the quality of life and humaneness of death for the world’s farm animals. You'll find the author online at www.templegrandin.com
Animals In Translation: Using the Mysteries of Autism to Decode Animal Behavior (Scribner/ Feb 2010) By Temple Grandin
Only 16% of Americans engage in some form of exercise on a regular basis. Whereas five times as many – fully 80% of Americans – spend two or more hours per day watching television.
Of those who do exercise regularly, most prefer walking. Lifting weights is the second most popular form of exercise. And aerobic exercise (running, rowing, jumping rope, etc.) comes in third.
The problem is not enough people exercise. And more often than not, the reason they don’t exercise is because – let’s face it – exercise is boring. Doing the same old thing over and over and over is plain old dull. Which means that motivation lags. And when motivation lags, well, it’s easy to simply slack off.
Some people hire personal trainers. Trainers provide lots of guidance in the areas of nutrition and exercise selection. Mostly though, they jump-start the client’s motivation. The problem with trainers is they are expensive. Most people don’t have the luxury of wheelbarrows full of disposable cash.
Enter a company named Gaiam. They have a solution to the above problems. It’s called Fat-Burning Bootcamp Workout Kit. And it comes with everything you need, including the motivation.
In the fitness industry, the term ‘boot camp’ describes an exercise routine that promotes fat loss by means of bodyweight exercises and resistance training. The boot camp is run by a trainer or a drill instructor. Gaiam’s Workout Kit comes complete with a virtual drill instructor, who arrives on a DVD. The instructor’s name is Tanja Djelevic. Surprisingly, not only does she provide motivation, but you can program a customized workout to meet your level of fitness and your goals.
The Bootcamp Workout Kit consists of a resistance cord, a stability disc, and a weighted water ball, along with the DVD. Yours truly – the reviewer – popped the DVD in the player and went through a 30-minute workout using all three items in the Kit. Frankly, he was expecting an uninspiring, lame workout. What he got was 30 minutes of fun and a sweat-drenched T-shirt.
Tanja knows her stuff and the Workout Kit comes through on its promises. The combination of trying to remain balanced on the disc while performing the routines with the water ball and the resistance cord is challenging and it works the core muscles, especially the abdominal muscles.
All together, the Bootcamp Workout Kit is like having your own personal trainer and your own private gym. The boredom factor is zilch and the motivation factor is high. Which means Gaiam’s Workout Kit is a hit. If you want to tone up your arms, legs and tummy – and not waste any time – this is the way to go.
On the Rate-O-Meter, which ranges from 1 star (flabby) to 5 stars (shapely), the Fat-Burning Bootcamp Workout Kit exerts 5 stars.
Gaiam promotes conscious living, in harmony with the environment, the planet and the people who share our homes. They provide eco-friendly, organic products and healthy living solutions to help us live our best lives. Find them online at www.gaiam.com
After a midlife crisis, he spent time behind bars. Today, he has emerged a changed man. He is the author of Gone To Hell: True Crimes of America’s Clergy (ECW Press/ Oct 2009), and A Priest in Hell: Gangs, Murderers and Snitching in a California Jail. Radic writes the 2012 EXPOSED series exclusively for Basil & Spice.
Jill Nussinow--
Today at the farmer's market a guy that I don't think that I know directly asked me if I'd seen any bok choy at the market. I said, "No" because, I hadn't.
The Veggie Queen’s Raw Kale SaladServes 2-4This is easy to make and you’ll get a great dose of greens. Use your favorites types, put in extras to suit your taste. The only limit to what goes into this salad is your imagination. When you massage the greens, be sure to add the love.
Note: you can also add sunflower seeds or dried fruit to this salad, or go more savory by adding crushed garlic and sliced onion and omitting the apple. Notice how the greens shrink by about half when they are massaged with the tahini, miso and lemon juice. If you are eating this by yourself, make half a batch at once.
Jill Nussinow, aka The Veggie Queen™, is a culinary educator, cookbook author and Registered Dietitian whose goal is to get consumers to eat more vegetables as the way to deliciously improve their health. She is the author of The Veggie Queen: Vegetables Get the Royal Treatment and is featured in the DVD Pressure Cooking: A Fresh Look, Delicious Dishes in Minutes.
Ann Louise Gittleman--
Rekindle romance naturally in time for Valentine’s Day.
Julia R. Heiman, PhD, director of the Kinsey Institute for Sex, Gender, and Reproduction at Indiana University, estimates that 25 to 53% of women of all ages have low libido. And judging by all those commercials for erectile dysfunction, estimates that 30 million men experience sexual dysfunction don’t seem at all unreasonable.
Candlelight and soft music may not be enough to spark that loving feeling in today’s high-stress world. Before you invest in a bottle of bubbly or a slinky negligee for Valentine’s Day, ask yourself what may be holding you—or the one you love—back.
Burning the candle at both ends is one sure way to put out any romantic sparks. Being overweight can also make some people feel less attractive—and negative body image is one sure way to kill libido.
Not that there aren’t plenty of physical reasons for lowered sex drive, as well. Hormonal changes impact women at almost every life stage, particularly before their periods, after pregnancy, and during perimenopause and menopause, affecting libido.
For either sex, an underactive thyroid can diminish sex drive, leading to significant weight gain and depression, further lowering libido. Now a new Scottish study shows that among men with erectile dysfunction, 40% also had metabolic syndrome (a prediabetic condition for which blood sugar imbalances and belly fat are some of the symptoms).
Both men and women produce fewer sex hormones as they age. And men don’t have a monopoly on testosterone. A 2008 study in the New England Journal of Medicine shows this male hormone makes women feel friskier too!
In this placebo-controlled trial, researchers followed 814 postmenopausal women with “sexual desire disorder” in Australia, Canada, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The women received either 150 mcg or 300 mcg of testosterone daily via a patch—or they were given “placebo” patches.
Neither the scientists applying the patches nor the women receiving them knew who got what until the end of the study. But both groups receiving testosterone reported increased sexual desire.
Other research suggests that testosterone therapy relieves hot flashes and other vasomotor symptoms of menopause, lessens breast tenderness, improves sexual desire, increases sexual sensitivity, and can help promote orgasm in women. It also enhances their sense of well-being and boosts energy levels.
I agree with research results that testosterone is the hormone of desire. Unfortunately, synthetic testosterone is not recommended for any woman at risk for breast or uterine cancer.
Most experts also advise against this kind of hormone replacement therapy for men because testosterone may promote prostate cancer. There is also evidence that too much testosterone can increase the risk for cardiovascular and liver disease in both sexes.
That’s why I recommend a natural topical Hot Times Testosterone Body Creme—available for both men and women. It combines 11 homeopathic ingredients that have been safely used for more than 150 years to mimic testosterone’s effects in the body—without the negative side effects of the synthetic hormones.
Oh, and by the way, if you have a little black dress that feels a little snug, you still have time to lose tummy fat before Valentine’s Day. The 5-Day Hot Metabolism Booster in Fat Flush for Life can help you recoup your “skinny” metabolism—or break through a weight-loss plateau.
The centerpiece of this amazingly satisfying and effective plan is a soup-like cocktail that allows you to enjoy a larger volume of food than most diets. Drinking the Hot Metabolism Booster cocktail triggers the stomach’s stretch-like receptor to signal the brain to stop eating.
Also important in this quick, safe, but effective way to turbo-charge weight loss? Eat enough lean protein (eggs, fish, poultry, seafood, and whey) to raise your metabolism by roughly 25 percent. Along with green and low-starch veggies, “good” fats, fiber-rich fruits, thermogenic spices, and plenty of water to flush out toxins and further rev up metabolism, you’re likely to drop 5 to 10 pounds in plenty of time for Valentine’s Day.
Sources: Fat Flush for Life http://womenshealth.about.com/cs/menopaus1/a/menotestosteron.htm http://women.webmd.com/normal-testosterone-and-estrogen-levels-in-women www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20057988 www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20070301 www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20057984
Ann Louise Gittleman is a health guru, diet/detox expert, award-winning author of 30 books on health and healing including the New York Times bestsellers The Fat Flush Plan, Before The Change, and Fat Flush For Life. A regular contributor to national television and radio, visit her at www.annlouise.com.
Allan Becker--
Recently, I have noticed many garden bloggers are calling themselves geeks; refer to their knowledge as plant-geek, and to their gardens as geekdoms. It is time to stop this self-deprecation. We are not geeks!
We gardeners generate pleasure and joy not only for ourselves, when we practice our craft, but also when we help others. There is nothing nerdy about gardening. There is nothing nerdy about our expertise. That we are misunderstood is unfortunate. That our passion mildly amuses non-gardeners, rather than impresses them, is their problem and their loss. Our opinion of ourselves should not be molded by the ignorance of others.
I am proud of who I am and what I do. I watch peoples’ eyes light up when I deliver a colorful plant; I see their ecstasy when that flower is planted in their garden. I hear their joy when they tell me how they run to their window each morning to see a plant newly in bloom. On their way to work each morning, people stop to admire my garden. Some get out of their cars to take pictures. That does not make me a geek; that makes me a local celebrity, even though I do not seek out that honor.
The history of geeks is quite different from our own. Years ago, industry kept their technical staff in the back room, where no one could see them. Behind the scenes, they were responsible for fine-tuning the machinations of commerce or machinery itself. They were mostly invisible because, through no fault of their own, they had focused on developing the brain at the expense of social graces. Businesses did not want the public to notice them for fear that their awkward manner might frighten customers away.
Then the computer was born and only the technically inclined could understand it; only they could explain it to others. Suddenly, clients who needed technology demanded to talk directly to those that really knew. Now industry had no option but to move the geek from the back room to the front office, then to the head of the company and finally to the forefront of industry. Suddenly, the geek became a prince.
In 2008, the National Gardening Association reported that about 84 million households participate in some form of gardening activity. Unfortunately, these numbers do not differentiate between those that maintain lawns and other outdoor living spaces and those that specifically focus on growing flowers or vegetables with a passion. The congested parking lots at nurseries in spring, and the size of the perennial flower display at all big box retail stores, indicate that the number of passionate gardeners is greatly underestimated.
The garden blog website Blotanical reports that over 1650 people who garden also write blogs on garden related topics. That number does not include those who tend to gardens without writing garden blogs. Nor does it reflect the thousands of unique visitors that access garden bloggers' sites weekly. The readership number for these sites explodes during the gardening season.
Gardeners are not awkward; nor do we lack social graces. We are passionate, hard-working, creative people, who are happy to talk to others, to share our knowledge and our plants. We deserve respect. More importantly, we deserve to respect ourselves because in the garden, we are royalty.
Allan Becker has been designing and planting flower gardens, since he was a teenager in the 1960s. Now retired from the soft goods industry, where he held several positions in design, product development, and marketing, he has turned his passion for gardening into a second career, as a garden designer for private clients in Montreal, Canada. In spring and summer, he supervises his assistants, mostly college students, who transform his designs into flower gardens. In winter, he reviews books on garden-related topics and writes a gardening blog http://allanbecker-gardenguru.squarespace.com
Allan earned a B.A. from McGill University, followed by two years of studies in Design at Sir George Williams College [now Concordia]. He lives in the Montreal suburb of Cote St Luc with his wife and travels regularly to Toronto and Boston to visit his children and grandchildren.
?Copyright © 2006-2010, Basil & Spice. All rights reserved.
Cheryl Forberg R.D.--
We love reading diet books, almost as much as we love eating. You’d never know it, with the explosive rise of obesity in this country. But high fiber, low fat, sugar-busting diets abound. Though they’re not always supported with solid science, we do seem to learn valuable lessons from each passing diet craze. Case in point is the low carb, high protein trend that took the country by storm (and almost didn’t go away).
One of the unintended and sensible consequences of this carbphobic madness is that we’ve finally learned the significance of protein -- lean protein -- in a balanced diet. Not only is it a valuable source of energy, but protein is required in every cell of our body. We need it for growth, for repair and for immune function. We also need it for strong muscles.
Experts are discovering that our current recommended amounts (is 0.8 grams per kilogram of body weight for adults) may be sufficient to prevent deficiencies, but not enough for optimal health. Whether or not your goal is weight loss, if you’re trying to build or maintain muscle (and burn fat), it’s crucial that your protein needs are met. Individual recommendations vary per person, depending on weight and body composition. If you have any health conditions, such as kidney disease, that may affect your protein requirements, consult with your medical provider to determine your protein needs.
Try to include protein with each meal and each snack so your body can benefit all day long. Lean protein:
There are plenty of choices from which to choose in three different protein groups.
Animal protein
Seafood: Wild fish and seafood that are rich in omega-3 fatty acids. These fish include salmon, sardines (water-packed), herring, mackerel, trout, and tuna.
Meat: Lean cuts, such as pork tenderloin, lean cuts of beef including round, chuck, sirloin or tenderloin. USDA Choice or USDA Select grades of beef usually have lower fat content. Avoid meat that is heavily marbled and remove any visible fat. Try to find ground meat that is at least 95% lean.
Poultry: Leanest poultry is the skinless white meat from the breast of chicken or turkey. Egg whites are an excellent source of protein and are fat free
Dairy
Top choices include skim (fat-free) milk, low-fat (1%) milk, buttermilk, plain fat free (or low fat) yogurt, fat free (or low fat) yogurt with fruit (no sugar added), fat free or low fat Greek-style yogurt, fat free (or low fat) cottage cheese, fat free or low fat ricotta cheese. In addition to lean protein, dairy foods are also a robust source of calcium. Aim for three servings a day.
Vegetable
Excellent sources of vegetable protein include beans, legumes and a variety of traditional soy foods. Many of these are also loaded with fiber.
Here is a scrumptious dessert or sweet snack to infuse your day with performance-boosting protein:
Mini Maple Ricotta Cheesecakes with Berries and Toasted Pecans
Using lowfat ricotta cheese and nonfat yogurt instead of cream cheese and sour cream slashes the amount of fat found in a traditional cheesecake. I haven't tried sweetening this with stevia. If you do, please let me know how it works!
Yield: 36 mini-cheesecakes Twelve 3-cake servings
Ingredients:
Garnish:
Instructions:
Lightly coat 3 mini-muffin pans (12 muffins each pan) with cooking oil spray. Set aside. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
Add all ingredients to a blender jar or the bowl of a food processor. Blend or process just until smooth. There will be about 4 cups of batter. Divide batter between the prepared pans. The batter will come to the top of the cups.
Bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes. Cool completely. Chill. It is normal for cakes to fall.
To serve: Place 3 cakes on each plate. Sprinkle each serving with 2 T berries and 1 teaspoon nuts. Garnish with mint sprig
Nutrient Analysis for one 3-mini-cake serving
A registered dietitian and professional chef, Cheryl Forberg is the nutritionist for the NBC reality series The Biggest Loser and an advisor for Prevention magazine. She has written or contributed to several books, including Simple Swaps (Stop the Clock! Cooking, The New Mayo Clinic Cookbook, and The Biggest Loser: The Weight Loss Program, and the recently published Positively Ageless. She is also a recipient of the prestigious James Beard award for healthy recipe development. To learn more about Cheryl and her work, visit her Web site at www.cherylforberg.com.
Men make new sperm every day and those sperm come to fruition within 72 days. This is good news for men who want to give their fertility a boost, because it means that within three months they can make a big difference to their reproductive health. For more detailed information it is worth checking out our book Making Babies: A Proven 3-Month Program for Maximum Fertility, where Dr. David and I give specific advice to men based on their fertility type. Briefly though, here are five simple things men can do that have a big impact on sperm quality and quantity.
It’s important that the testicles are 1- 2 degrees cooler than the rest of the body and so taking hot baths or sitting with a lap top on your knee can be contributing to diminished fertility. Likewise men who sit at a desk all day can become overheated so at the YinOva Center we advise them to get up a move around once an hour to air off their private parts.
You will find more information in Making Babies about how to eat right for your fertility type but all men can benefit from eating a wide range of colorful fruits and vegetable, whole grains and lean protein. Poor intake of vitamin C and E and the minerals zinc and selenium can affect sperm quality and would-be fathers with borderline sperm counts might want to consider supplementation. Finnish men have some of the highest sperm counts in the world which is thought to be due to the amount of oily fish they eat. For this reason at the YinOva Center we suggest men use a fish oil/omega-3 supplement.
In Making Babies we discuss how the average sperm count for American men has plummeted over the past few decades. Dr. David and I believe that environmental toxins and the main reason and so advise men to eat as much whole food as possible and to avoid processed foods.
Smoking, whilst it does not reduce sperm count, does damage sperm DNA which can lead to a greater chance of miscarriage. Excessive alcohol use can affect hormone levels and lead to atrophy of the semeniferous tubules, loss of sperm cells, and an increase in abnormal sperm. Marijuana use has been shown to reduce sperm and semen volume. If you need help dropping unhealthy habits come on in to the YinOva Center. We are happy to support you.
Infections such as chlamydia or urea plasma can impair fertility and also lead to early miscarriages. Men should ask their doctors for a semen culture to make sure that they are not infected.