Become an Astronaut and Look Younger for Awhile.
Creatures living on mother earth need gravity. To go boldly where no man has gone before is sure to modify human physiology. It was previously known that muscles atrophy and bones lose mineral mass, but now longer space flight also alters vision. Astronauts develop intracranial abnormalities similar to idiopathic cerebral hypertension. Research teams at the University of Texas studied the brains and eyes of 27 astronauts who had been without gravity for an average of 108 days. Magnetic resonance imaging recorded expansion of the cerebrospinal fluid space around the optic nerve in 33%, flattening of the posterior eyeball in 22%, papilledema in 15%, and changes in the pituitary gland in 11%. Scientists theorize that the common denominator is gravity. Weightlessness allows upward shifts in internal fluids that would be kept lower in the body due to the pull of gravity. Among the effects are facial fullness and disappearing wrinkles, so it's not all bad.
When a Challenge Arises, Follow Procedure.
Forty-nine years ago this November, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. Following the shooting and subsequent pronouncement of death at Parkland Hospital (and for reasons never satisfactorily explained), Secret Service agents, in violation of the law, insisted on removing the body to Washington DC. After a brief scuffle with Dallas law enforcement authorities, the body was placed in Air Force One and transported to Bethesda, Maryland, for autopsy. This act was more than a violation of the law. It was also a medical-legal catastrophe because the Bethesda Naval Hospital pathologist was not forensically trained. He performed what could be described as a routine autopsy. At that time Dallas had an experienced and skilled medical examiner on staff. Many of the critical details about point of bullet entry, direction of projectile, position of the body at moment of impact, and a multitude of other data were lost. A post-mortem exam that would have taken eight hours or more by a skilled forensic specialist was concluded in about three hours. Subsequent analyses of photographs and witnesses testimony only provided confusion, contradiction and speculation.
Perhaps We Could Emphasize the Low Malpractice Premium.
The Scientific Working Group on Medico-legal Death is an organization created in March 2011 under the auspices of the Justice Department and the FBI. The Group mission is to advance the scientific basis and improve the quality of medico-legal death investigation. Since 1959, only 1400 board certified forensic pathologists have been generated. The number has decreased to an estimated 500 today with a need for at least 1000 more. The national autopsy rate is now a pitiful 8.5% with only about 4.3% of disease-caused deaths. Historically, hospitals were required to maintain a minimum autopsy rate of 20%, but the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health Care Organizations (°CAHO) repealed the rule. Despite fascinating television dramas like “CSI,” “Quincy” and “Bones,” young doctors are not drawn to the morgue. The pay is relatively low and many communities do not have the tax base to justify funding a forensic medical expert. Then too, there is the olfactory insult. Few smells are as grossly repugnant as rotting flesh. The outcome? As the saying goes, “You could get away with murder.”
O, What a Beautiful Blood Type.
Professor of Nutrition Lu Qi at the Harvard School of Public Health analyzed heart disease data collected in two large studies over a 25-year period. With over 89 thousand health care professionals participating, the team found that heart disease risk varies with blood type. Adjusting for known risk factors, diet, gender, race and diabetes status, Qi reported that participants with type AB blood were 20% more vulnerable to heart disease than those with blood type O. Type B was next with 11%, and type A followed with 8%. Rh factor did not show variation. The research appeared in the journal Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology, published by the American Heart Association. Dr. Qi emphasized that the study was not designed to identify reasons for the variation in heart disease risk.
America, Get Off Your Fat A---!
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published the 2011 data on the fat United States of America. By defining obesity as a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or greater, Colorado is the least porky with 20.6% adult obesity. Second at 21.8% is Hawai‘i with Massachusetts, New Jersey and California filling out the top 5. This is not to suggest these states are lean, but merely a little less likely to sound the elevator buzzer. With a few exceptions (Indiana and Michigan), the really round numbers are down south with Mississippi and Louisiana having more than one third obese adults. The truly alarming statistic is that no state had an obesity rate above 15% in 1985. How did we get so fat in less than 30 years? The obvious changes are less physical activity, tasty fast food at every corner, and especially much more sitting time with computers, television, and automobiles.
Fast Food Makes You Lazy and Indolent, or Does It?
Day in and day out, 100-year-old Catherine Reddoch walks 1.5 miles from her home in Matamata on New Zealand's North island to get lunch. For the last 20 years she has been walking with her zimmer to the same McDonald's for her complimentary cheeseburger and hot chocolate. No variations, please. Forget the salad and forget the relish. The 3 mile round trip takes about an hour each way.
People Who Live in Glass Houses Better Pull Down the Blinds.
Congress recently passed the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Reauthorization Act that the President is expected to sign. Included in the bill is a provision to develop regulations for the testing and licensing of commercial drones by 2015. This stipulation in the law is the outcome of pressure from some lawmakers and the defense sector. Drones are used for military applications to seek and destroy targets, chiefly al Queda, but far more drones are used for surveillance. The domestic use raises legitimate questions about privacy and snooping by both government agencies and private entities. Steven Aftergood (a built-in monicker) heads the Project on Government Secrecy for the American Federation of Scientists. He foresees serious problems on the horizon. Some experts claim that the commercial use in American airspace could be worth hundreds of millions of dollars, and that as many as 30,000 drones might be airborne by 2020.
It Pays to Advertise.
In Vermont, inmates working in the print shop of the correctional facility designed a state police crest. They managed to sneak a prank image of a pig into the image that was emblazoned on 30 police cruisers.
Addenda
Eyelashes recycle about every three months.
In 1997 one-third of American homes had a computer.
A vegetarian is a person who won't eat anything that can have children.
If Dracula can't see himself in a mirror, how come his hair is so neatly combed?
When your gecko is broken you have a reptile dysfunction.
In Chicago murder is up 35%. Police are asking tourists to bring their own chalk and yellow tape.
ALOHA AND KEEP THE FAITH rts
(Editorial comment is strictly that of the writer.)