In Chios, Greece, on Greek Orthodox Easter, this is how parishoners of two churches celebrate:
To mark the resurrection of Christ, the two congregations fire thousands of
handmade rockets at midnight across a valley at each other's churches.
Story and video here. Their goal is to hit the bell tower. No major injuries were reported this year. However, they are not uncommon (ya think?).
A significant challenge of recycling waste seems to be finding someone's back yard to do it in. Awhile back I posted about a fight between Eastern Organic Resources, the DEP, and local governments. The last I heard about Eastern Organic was that the DEP revoked their license.
According to this Asbury Park Press article, a new controversy with a similar ring to it is brewing in Dover Township. Washington, D.C.-based Fuel Frontiers Inc. wants to build a new facility to manufacture ethanol from waste material. The ethanol would be blended with gasoline as a motor fuel.
Just like Eastern Organic, Fuel Frontiers idea sounds great on paper. Recycle waste and reduce oil dependency all at once. Unfortunately, local reaction is also similar. The article reports that:
Potential environmental problems are a concern in Dover Township, where the former Ciba-Geigy Corp. plant is now a Superfund site, and dumping of hazardous waste at the former Reich Farm led to contamination of wells in United Water Toms River's Parkway well field. Talk of any kind of fuel plant makes officials uneasy.
Well, who can blame them. Hopefully Fuel Frontiers can address Dover's concerns. The article reports that the two sides are talking:
"We recognize the issue here. We want the town to feel like they know what's going on," [Fuel Frontiers, Inc. President Jack] Young said. "We care about how we look, if we smell, and how we operate."
[Dover Councilman Michael J.] Fiure said he has been pleased that Fuel Frontiers has shown a willingness to work with the council. He said council members hope to schedule a public presentation of the company's plans at a future council meeting.
"I am very encouraged that they are going to meet with us and that we will be able to ask them questions," Fiure said.
In my Eastern Organic post, I said that this is technology we need. Let's hope things go better in this endeavor.
Thanks to Sharon for sending me the story.
Of late this blog is a ghosttown, but apparently someone's reading. I got a great comment to my Advair post that actually explains some of the problems with Advair. Forbes would have done better to ask this person to write their article.
Several people asked me about the "darker weather" comment in this post. Sorry I left that hanging. I figured I'd have more to say when things settled down a bit, but it's taken a lot longer for that to happen. I'll cut to the chase - everyone is fine. Here are the details:
The comment came from news that a "spot" showed up on my father's chest X-ray. Also, blood tests showed certain elevated levels that can indicate cancer. He would be having a CT scan the next day. It took four more days to get results. To everyone's relief, the scan showed no signs of cancer - the best possible outcome. They'll keep watching, but the news could have been much worse.
A day later, my mom called me. She was in the car, my dad was driving her to the ER with chest pains and elevated blood pressure. She made me promise I wouldn't drive too fast on the way to the hospital, and I didn't. We spent the next several hours there while they ran tests, monitored her vitals, and gave her medication to lower the blood pressure. She was admitted, and they kept her two days under observation in a telemetry unit where they constantly monitor her heart. They did an echocardiogram and a stress test. All came back fine.
She did have a sky-high fasting blood sugar, so she's on drugs for diabetes. It's looking like she doesn't need insulin, though, so some good news there. She's back home now. She was still in the car when she called, enjoying the fresh air. I'm sure she feels better just being out of the hospital. Just being there makes you feel sick, I think.
It's been one thing after another these last few weeks. I'm knocking on wood as I say that maybe things are finally settling down.
Thursday morning on the Today Show, Katie Couric spoke with Forbes managing editor Dennis Kneale (see the clip here). Kneale was discussing this article in Forbes magazine about the GlaxoSmithkline Asthma drug Advair, and concerns about its safety. The overall question is an important one, worth consideration: what do you do when a drug helps millions, yet can be harmful or fatal to a small percentage. I have a real problem with the way this article, and Kneale's comments on the Today Show, frame the issue.
When I first heard about possible dangers of Advair, I consulted with a friend who is both an MD and asthma sufferer. Advair actually contains two drugs. One is a steroid, the same steroid found in the GlaxoSmithkline's Flovent, which eases inflamation of the airways. The second, a bronchodilator that expands constricted airways, is the same drug found in the GlaxoSmithkline product Serevent. It belongs to a class of drug called beta agonists. All bronchodilators I know of are beta agonists, and some people have adverse reactions to them. The problem with Serevent is that it lasts longer (12 hours instead of 4-6), so an adverse reaction will go on longer before symptoms subside.
The article opens with two stories of people suffering reactions to Advair. One person said that, despite complaints of ill effects, his doctor said to keep taking it (sounds like the doctor's fault to me). The second was another story of someone suffering ill effects who continued to take the drug, an includes visual that is gratuitously repeated throughout the article: dying while still clutching the inhaler.
The the article highlights Advair's popularity, noting the advertising dollars spent. I can't argue with that; I am against prescription drug advertising. I didn't like the way the discussed Advair's "nifty delivery system," which they called a "purple plastic puck." Kneale also uses the purple puck term in the interview, telling Katie how "doctors love gadgets." His tone suggests that it's some kind of unecessay gimmick product, the asthma equivalent of the Swiffer.
In fact, the Advair Diskus (as it's called) is a vastly superior delivery method. Aerosol inhalers required the user to inhale at the moment as the push the cannister down. If you're off (as I was from time to time), you end up spraying most of the drug on the back of your throat instead of inhaling it. Further, unless you kept careful count of uses, you didn't know quite when the inhaler was empty. Finally, you needed between 2 and 4 inhalations, 60 second apart, each time you take it. Advair has a little number that decreases with each use. It turns red when you're under ten doses left. When you inhale, the force of your breath draws out the drug, so you always inhale it properly. Finally, you only need to inhale once each time. That's as much of a gimmick as anti-lock brakes.
Another issue they highlight is overprescribing. One of the people in the openning paragraph also had a persistent cough and wheeze, but was not diagnosed with asthma. Kneale talks about how his doctor prescribed it to him for a persistent cough from bronchitis. He doesn't say if it helped or not. The article also notes that Advair is being prescribed to more than just severe asthma sufferers. I thought that was unfair. My asthma was never severe or life threatenning, but it is still very important to my long term health that it be kept well controlled.
The article and Kneale play free an loose with the numbers. The first statistic the present is a single doctor's assertion that Advair and Serevent are killing 4000-5000 people a year. Only later do the note studies that showed numbers like 12 out of 17000, still taking time to suggest that this finding was inappropriately deemed statistically insignificant. When numbers minimize the risk, the article's tone is always questioning. They never cast doubt on the 4000 deaths/year estimate.
They also mix in statistics for other bronchodilators, like in this paragraph:
But Serevent had been under suspicion from the start, and earlier beta agonists had stirred doubts for decades. In 1948 one study of 2,200 asthma patients found a fivefold-higher death rate for patients who inhaled epinephrine, a beta drug, versus those who hadn't."
First off, I checked and found that almost all bronchodilators are beta-agonists. This article doesn't mention that. Non-beta bronchodilators are not inhaled - they're taking orally, so the side effects tend to be worst. Theophylline is non-beta example I've taken, and it sucked. As for epinephrine, the article is correct about its dangers. I've taken it - it's awful stuff. What the article failes to mention is that more modern beta drugs, Serevent included, are a vast improvement. To read the Forbes article, you'd think epinephrine and Serevent are like Motrin and Advil.
The article does everything it can to hype the danger aspect of Advair. They're searching for the next big drug company scandal.The article says as much when it conjures up the spectre of Merck's Vioxx and Wyeth's Redux. I'm all for keeping the drug companies honest, mind you, but Forbes this article is heavy drama and a light cogent fact. There is next to no mention of the drugs success in controlling asthma and similar respitory ailments. In my opinion, that success is the real reason for Advair's popularity.
There are also no anecdotal stories of people who's lives have improved thanks to Advair. So, here's one:
When doctors, insurance companies, etc. try to assess how well you are managing your asthma, they want to know how often you use your rescue inhaler. A rescue inhaler is a fast acting bronchodilater you use when you're having an attack. If you are using it often, you asthma is not well controlled, and you could be doing harm. Since I began taking Advair, I have all but stopped using my rescue inhaler. If I use it three times a month, it's a lot. I used to use it at least that many times a week. My respitory health has improved drastically thanks to this drug.
I'm one of the millions it's helped. I'd prefer a little less media hype about this one.
I awoke on my own. I looked at the clock, and it was 10:05 AM. "We overslept!" I shouted, "It's already after 10!" My wife's groggy reply was unintelligible as rushed downstairs to grab my cell phone - I was supposed to be on a conference call for work. As I fumbled through my bag, I noticed that it was still dark out. I looked at one of the clocks downstairs. It was 3:47 AM! Relieved, I headed back to bed, reassuring my wife that we weren't late and the bedroom clock got changed somehow, maybe the cat. I pulled up the covers and settled into the pillow, looking forward to another two hours of sleep....
That was when the alarm went off, and I awoke for real.
Last night, we were watching the Godfather. It seems to be a fairly regular staple on cable channels like AMC and Bravo. Sharon observed that you never see the guy who played Fredo anymore. I always figured he drifted into obscurity after the Godfather movies. He didn't.
John Cazale, who played Fredo, had won numerous awards for his stage performances before his film debut in The American Way. In addition The Godfather and The Godfather: Part II, he appeared in The Conversation (also directed by Coppola) and Dog Day Afternoon (a performance that earned him a Golden Globe nomination). He was engaged to Meryl Streep, who was his co-star in The Deer Hunter.
That would be his final film, however. At the same time he was filming, he was dying of bone cancer. The studio, upon learning of his illness, wanted to remove him from the film. Streep fought to keep him, threatenning to quit. He completed the film, but died the same year.
Most of these details come from his IMDB biography.
It's been awhile since I posted. I preoccupied with a pair of decisions that needed to be made.
I had to choose which job I wanted. I had pretty much come to the conclusion that it was time to move on because there was not way to stay here and continue doing what I enjoy - software development. For about a year I've been hunting. There were a few offers, but nothing worth taking. In December I interviewed at a really good place, but no offer came. In February, a new project started up here. It was completely unexpected, and it was exactly the type of stuff I wanted to do (although it's VB.NET, not C#, but I digress). Plus, they need me to get my MS certification, and they'll fund it.
It was nice. I remember telling someone that I was actually enjoying my job again. Wouldn't you know this would be when the place from December called be up with an offer? I know, people should have such problems. I understand that in this economic climate plenty of people are unemployed or under-employed. I'm damn lucky. That said, it was still a touch choice with serious implications on my future. I was back an forth a dozen times, sweating every detail. Finally I decided to stay where I am. This is the last thing I would have expected three months ago, but there it is. What changed was this: I was not longer under pressure to get out of my current job. That raised the bar on any job offer that came. I think I made the right choice. Time will tell.
The other big decision was much easier to make, but much harder to act upon. Odds are good that you've seen seen Sharon's post on the subject. Our 12 year old greyhound Toasty was suffering liver failure, and we decided to end her life quickly. That decision was clear for me. That didn't make it any easier. In reply to our e-mail about this last trip to the vet, my brother replies simply, "Sorry to hear that. Not a fun trip." He'd taken it himself only a week or two earlier. No, it wasn't.
Having weathered those storms, I got to enjoy a weekend of warm sun and gentle breezes. Yet amid the peace of bike rides and campfires, a phone call brought news of darker weather on the horizon. It's Monday now, with overcast skies.
Here's a clear sign of success for Apple. The French lawmakers approved a bill that would force Apple to open their proprietary formats to competion. Read about it here. For years Apple has been everyone's favorite underdog in the fight with Microsoft. Meanwhile, governments all over were scrutinizing Microsoft's every move, the oft leveled criticism that they purposely designed Windows to lock out competitors.
I often had arguments with the Apple devoted about Microsoft. My supposition was that Apple was no better than Microsoft, jut not as successful. Apple consistently fought to keep out competition. Microsoft's success was, in part, due to the fact that they supported generic hardware. I was convinced that if Apple found a product as successful as Windows, they'd have the government breathing down their neck in no time.
Sure enough....
This is the latest MSNBC story about "Operation Swarmer," the new offensive in Iraq. The subtitle carries the denial that politics was a factor in the timing. That sure was the first thing that crossed my mind. I have to admit, there's a good chance it's not politically timed, but I could never believe that at this point.
It's gotten so bad that, when Alberto Gonzales announced a major child pornography bust, I was dubious. This was no doubt a group of scumbags that needed to be stopped, but I cannot see past this loathesome administration. That is how much they betrayed our trust. There's no getting that back.
It doesn't matter what they do any more. It might be pumpkin pie, but all I see is sewer rat.
Here it is. An NBC/WSJ poll shows a majority in favor a Democrat-controlled Congress. Now is the time. Now is the place. What are we going to do?
Early indicators suggest we're going to blow our best chance yet. Will we yet again be left pleading for leadership? Will the Democrats answer the call?
A majority favors a Democrat controlled Congress. We're running out of excuses here.
If you never have, you need to visit Cockeyed.com. Just go there. If you need some extra incentive, check 0ut their "How Much Is Inside" section. It will answer the time honored questions like "How much gold is there in Goldschlager?" and "Are Planter's Mixed Nuts really less than 50% peanuts?" and much much more.
He's an MD. He's a vegan. He might even be Swedish!
And now he has his own blog.
*Although attributed to VeeganMD, this quote may actually be the product of a fiendishly clever imitation
Last week I posted about the ups and downs of recycling and renewable energy playing out in a dispute between Eastern Organic Resource and the DEP. Yesterday, as reported by the Times of Trenton, the situation worsened. The DEP has begun taking steps to revoke the recycling company's operating permit and shut down the Burlington county facility. Eastern Organic is vowing a fight. We'll see how it goes, but it doesn't look like this can end well.
This one has been bugging me for several days, but I'm only now getting off my virtual lazy butt and blogging it....
On Tuesday I was in New Brunswick for lunch at the Harvest Moon Brewery with some friends. The lunch didn't bug me - it was a good food and great beer. No, it was the person I encountered on the drive in. As I was pulling up to the parking deck entrance, a woman darted in front of me from between two street-parked cars. I had to stop short to avoid hitting her, and she gave me a nasty look as jaywalked into the parking deck. Fine. She had right of way, even if she chose to disregard pedestrian laws and common sense. I certainly can't claim to have never jaywalked.
We parked and started heading down the ram to the stairs. There was another person walking a few steps behind us who had also just parked. A car came up behind us all, creeping forward waiting for us to move. We did so quickly, as we were walking a little to far into the middle. Then person in the car gunned the engine and raced by us. Guess what? Yup, same woman flashing that same nasty look.
Here's the thing though, if someone rushed in front of her, like she did with me, she'd have run them over. If, as pedestrian she had encountered herself as a driver, she'd be dead. There would also be one hell of a paradox in the space-time continuum, but I digress.
Okay, I'm about to mention the men's room at my workplace. There will be only vague detail, but feel free to skip this paragraph. When I returned from lunch, I made a pit-stop, as it were. Someone had spit out their gum in the urinal. If you are unfamiliar with the flushing mechanics of the average urinal, let me just say that it is highly unlikely that gum was going anywhere. Anyone who uses a urinal would know this, including the guy who left it there. The person cleaning the urinal would have to remove this item, making an unpleasant job a little more unpleasant. This was not a unique occurrence. Often people throw paper towels in toilets, resulting in clogs that someone will have to deal with. All this with not one, but two trash cans nearby.
Everyone's probably heard the quote leading into this post. It's one of countless expressions of the ethic of reciprocity. Commonly known as the Golden Rule, this moral principle is found in virtually all cultures and religions. Its prevalence suggests the Rule may be related to innate aspects of human nature, according to the Wiki article I've linked to. You've got to wonder, though. It's hard to believe it's an innate behavior when people can't even be bothered to toss a piece of gum in the trash.
I claim no moral superiority on this, by the way. One reason I'm thinking about this now is that I am considering the ways I could have handled a workplace disagreement. I try to keep work out of my blog, so I won't elaborate, except to say this. I had the opportunity to consider the other person's situation and didn't, choosing focus on how I'm inconvenienced. A "conflict resolution" seminar at a recent company meeting was mostly about the golden rule, respecting the circumstances of the person you're in conflict with. It seems obvious when presented in that forum, but it's more difficult in the heat of the moment. Anyway, I could do a better job of dealing with these people, and I'm working on that presently.
To be fair, the lady from the parking garage doing the same thing, asking herself why she didn't just slow down. The guy with the gum might also be asking himself why he didn't just spit it in the trash.
One final thought.... Googling the Golden Rule yielded this essay, which contains the following paragraph:
The golden rule is best seen as a consistency principle. It doesn't replace regular moral norms. It isn't an infallible guide on which actions are right or wrong; it doesn't give all the answers. It only prescribes consistency - that we not have our actions (toward another) be out of harmony with our desires (toward a reversed situation action). It tests our moral coherence. If we violate the golden rule, then we're violating the spirit of fairness and concern that lie at the heart of morality.I want to take this quote and use it as a context to discuss the policies and actions of our government under the Bush administration, but this post is already long. Besides, I think the conclusions are pretty clear.
Michael Hirch wrote a great commentarty on the incompetent leadership of George W. Bush. There are no new revelations in the story. We've heard about each failure before. Still, there is something about seeing them oulined one after another. The sheer weight of it all hammers home the fact that this is one of the worst presidents in history who has done great harm to this nation. In short, a miserable failure.
"Organic recycler faces regulatory wrath" is the headline of this article in Monday'sTimes of Trenton, but you might wonder why after reading the opening paragraphs:
Eastern Organic Resources has big plans for the decomposing fruit, vegetables and grass clippings it collects at its composting plant in Springfield, Burlington County, hoping to enclose the pungent piles and generate enough methane gas to power a 5-megawatt cogeneration plant at neighboring McGuire Air Force Base.
If the company wins approval from regulators, it would be the first commercial food waste composter in the state to produce both soil and fuel, solid waste experts say.
Eastern Organic's plans sound like a win-win scenario. But read on and you'll
understand the problem in a story that highlights the pitfalls and promise of
recycling and renewable energy.
Over three years, the company increased production from 50 tons of material each day to 200 tons. In 2005, they sold about 200,000 cubic yards of compost produced from a combination of food waste, grass clippings, leaves, and shredded wooden pallets. They have also been assessed hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines by county health inspectors responding to local residents' complaints about the smell. Not the DEP may force them to stop operation.
Ironically, the complaints and possible DEP action threaten plans that could actually solve the odor problem. Eastern Organic is currently approval not only to generate methane in a "anaerobic digester" that would generate methane, but also to enclose the smelliest part of the operation, filtering out the stench. McGuire AFB, seeking to fulfill energy saving mandates, has already said they would buy the methane.
There is cause to question their ability to deliver. The DEP contends that Eastern Organic has failed to comply with environmental management issues like water storage and wetland protection, in addition to controlling the odor. The breakdown of a machine designed to turn the compost resulted in a more intense stench. Burlington County officials have complained about what they call the company's inaction.
There is a little bit of everything here. There is a company that is probably not doing all it can to minimize its environmental impact. There are regulations threatening to squash a valuable growth industry. And there are residents in favor of recycling but against having it in their back yard. These problems are incredibly universal, and solving them is undeniably crucial.
At the end of the article, local planning board member Lisa Specca sums it up this way:
"It's a great idea to take the waste from restaurants and supermarkets and turn it into soil -- the concept is absolutely sound," said Specca. "The problem is rotting garbage really stinks."
"We're all crossing our fingers and hoping," Specca added. "If they don't put in the digester, it will be shut, and that would be a loss for everyone."
It would indeed. We need companies like Eastern Organic to succeed. When they fail, we all lose. I hope we're up to the challenge.
Carnival 40 is up at The Opinion Mill. Check it out!
Senate Republicans have been getting a little unruly lately. I mean, folks like Arlen Specter were starting to act like they had a mind and will of their own. Well Senator Pat Roberts, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, stepped up today to show Congressional Republicans how a good lap dog behaves.
Some may have questioned his devotion to Presidential servitude when he promised a committee vote on whether to investigate unwarranted domestic surveillence. But there were no doubters yesterday when he broke his word and cancelled the vote. That wasn't enough for Roberts, though. He went one step further in demostrating his absolute subserviance when he announced that he would be working with the White House to amend FISA to permit warrantless spying. He really did that! Faced with a President that openly and unapologetically breaks the law, he decides we need to change the law.
Congratulations Senator Pat Roberts! You win the distinction of being this week's biggest White House Stooge!
There are many news stories on this, but I think this NY Times editorial says it best.
Often lately I find myself at a loss for what to post. I've decided I need a few recurring themes I can fall back on when nothing else strikes me. To that end, here is the first in what I hope will be an ongoing series titled "Rediscovered!" Every so often, I dig a CD out of our collection and say, "I haven't listened to this in ages." Then I rip it, fire up the long neglected tracks, and remember why I liked them so much.
So, I figured I'd highlight some of this rediscovered music and talk about it a little. As the title says, today's rediscovered album is REM's Dead Letter Office. I dug this out after Jeri posted a Megashuffle that included "Ages of You," the second song on the second side (when there were such things as sides). The album is an apropos choice in that the album itself is a collection of dusted-off rarities and b-sides from their days at IRS records. Most bands put out one of these collections at some point. This came out as REM made the switch to the Warner label.
Not everyone likes rarity collections, and often you need to be a fan to appreciate this type of work. I think material Dead Letter Office is stronger than what you'll find on the average collection. There are several decent covers, including three of Velvet Underground songs ("There She Goes Again," "Pale Blue Eyes," and "Femme Fatale") and one of Aerosmith's "Toys in the Attic." Then there's the cover of Roger Miller's "King of the Road," the song REM guitarist Peter Buck is talking about in the quote above, taken from his liner notes.
While I'm on that subject, Peter Buck's liner notes are one of the particular treasures of this album. They're have a dry, often self-deprecating humor to them. Of "King of the Road," Buck goes on to say that, "If there was any justice in the world, Roger Miller should be able to sue for what we did to this song." They also provide insight into the band's musical influences, and they capture the pure fun they were having. (You can find the liner notes when you click on Dead Letter Office in the discography section of REM's web site.)
In addition to the covers, there are several straight-up songs reminiscent of REM's early years. "Ages of You," which I mentioned earlier, "Burning Down" and "Crazy" fit this build. Once track, "Burning Hell" is something of a window into the distorted guitars and growling vocals of REM's future work on albums like Monster. There are a couple catchy instrumentals, my favorite being the surf-rockin' "White Tornado." And of course, there's "Voice of Harold," where Michael Stipe sings the liner notes of a gospel album over the backing track of Reckoning's "Seven Chinese Brothers." That song is, a its "lyrics" proclaim, "A must!"
One last observation, then I'll call it quits and publish.... A nice thing about rediscovering an album is that you might find something you never noticed before. That happened with Dead Letter Office. Early on in "King of the Road" you can hear Mike Mills shouting in the background. I always though he was shouting along with the song, or saying "yeah!" or "yee-haw" of something. I'm not pretty sure what he is shouting out the chord changes, something I've seen bands do often when working out a new song.
