Showing posts with label Heroes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Heroes. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 31, 2013
Friday, July 12, 2013
Tuesday, June 25, 2013
Sunday, May 19, 2013
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
"Look at me now, Ohhh!"
Love this. It's a "TED Talk" by a couple of girls who made it through the system to college. They are giving advice on how to do it, and referring others to info about AB 12, a California Act that provides transitional benefits to youth aging out of the foster system.
Thursday, December 20, 2012
Dubstep Christmas Lights
Not to be missed, this is the Cadger's awesome 2012 Christmas show:
Shorter, but similarly awesome, by the Delaney's:
Shorter, but similarly awesome, by the Delaney's:
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
Interview with Louise Erdrich
Luoise Erdrich talks with PBS Newshour host Jeffrey Brown about her National-Book-Award-nominated "The Round House":
Reading a clip from the book:
Watch Conversation: Louise Erdrich, Author of 'The Round House' on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.
Reading a clip from the book:
Watch Louise Erdrich Reads From Her Novel 'The Round House' on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
Saturday, October 20, 2012
Finding the future with Google's Larry Page
Dude's voice is almost too mellow, but he has some interesting things to say (that aren't all self-promotion):
Saturday, October 13, 2012
Friday, September 7, 2012
How did you spend your summer vacation?
I also want to draw attention to this interesting post by an epidemiologist who blogged from the refugee camps in South Sudan, Ruby Siddiqui. Full text is linked here for those of us too apathetic to click the link.
Emergency epidemiology-what does this mean?
By Médecins Sans Frontières
Posted: August 21, 2012
‘Mortality rates in a refugee camp in South Sudan are nearly double the threshold for an emergency, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has warned’ said a BBC report on 6th July 2012. ‘In Yida camp, [MSF data show] at least five children dying each day, most from diarrhoea and severe infections’, August 2nd, MSF press release. But where did these numbers come from? Getting good data might not seem the first priority in an emergency but it is essential to understand and respond appropriately to the needs of the population affected. I am an MSF epidemiologist and have just returned from the Jamam refugee crisis in South Sudan (I have documented my experiences here). In early May 2012 we started receiving reports of refugees fleeing Blue Nile state, Sudan and crossing the border into the world’s youngest nation, South Sudan. The refugees were escaping fighting and bombing by the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) targeting rebels allied with the South Sudanese (Sudanese People’s Liberation Army (SPLA)-North). These refugees, weakened by months on the run, hiding in forests and caves and eating nothing but leaves were arriving in Upper Nile State, South Sudan, in shocking conditions, sometimes beyond medical care. And then in June 2012 the rains came, turning Jamam refugee camp into a muddy swamp.
MSF was already working in two refugee camps in Upper Nile State (Jamam and Doro) and another in neighbouring Unity State (Yida), supporting a total of 120,000 refugees since January 2012 that had fled the same fighting. Agencies were already struggling to provide enough clean water and shelter to these refugees. This was certainly a challenging environment. I have never seen children so malnourished that they are literally skin and bone or people drinking from muddy pools. My role was to understand the scale and severity of the emergency. This is measured through the mortality rate. I needed to somehow measure what proportion of the camp population was dying every day. These data would guide the nature and size of our intervention. And ensure we gave these refugees the most appropriate help.
The MSF epidemiology team interview families at a transit camp near Jamam, South Sudan after the start of the rainy season. Image Credit: Ruby Siddiqui/MSF There are several approaches for measuring mortality such as the classic 30×30 retrospective cluster sampling survey where 30 clusters (villages, wards, districts) are randomly selected and 30 households within each cluster are interviewed. Although this technique is useful for capturing the mortality rate at a single point in time, it does not indicate whether the rate is increasing or decreasing and may not be relevant to the current situation if the recall period is large.
So we elected to set up prospective surveillance in which we visited every household within the camp weekly. As well as monitoring mortality rates, with this system we could monitor the health status of the refugees more closely. We could refer any sick people to the MSF clinic, monitor the nutritional status of children aged less than five years using mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC) measurements and trace children defaulting from the therapeutic feeding programmes before their condition deteriorated.
Such a system relies on solid training of outreach workers, local people that are trusted by the local population and able to communicate in their language. We identified 46 such people, all from the local population, most of whom were not literate but could all count. Although it was at times challenging to train these outreach workers, sometimes requiring two rounds of translation (English-Arabic and Arabic-Ingassana or Magaja) and re-designing of surveillance forms such that they required no writing, these teams were bright and understood quickly what they needed to do. And by forming them into teams in which there was a mix of men and women, all local languages were represented and at least one person was literate we were able to discover quickly that the crude mortality rate was 1.8 per 10,000 per day and the under-five mortality rate was 2.8 per 10,000 per day. Both rates were well above the emergency threshold, defining this as a severe situation. Almost 3 children were dying in the camp every day and 65% of deaths were due to diarrhoea. We were able to respond to these shocking findings by decentralising clinic services, setting up oral rehydration points throughout the camp and promoting safe water and hygiene practices at every household visited. The international media quoted our findings in headline news that demanded that governments and international agencies paid attention to this refugee crisis.
And now we have seen mortality rates dip below the emergency thresholds. There is still much to do. We need to identify and protect against the main morbidities in this population, remain vigilant against malaria and cholera for which the conditions are perfect and moreover continue to advocate for the transfer of these refugees out of the Jamam swamp. And as long as we continue to supervise strongly and are provided with a vehicle when needed (always a major challenge in MSF projects!), the prospective surveillance system will continue to provide the real-time health data that enables us to respond quickly and provide timely care to this population who have been through so much.
Ruby Siddiqui
Ruby Siddiqui is an epidemiologist based in the Manson Unit, MSF’s clinical research unit in London, United Kingdom. She has just returned from working on the refugee crisis in South Sudan. She supports MSF field projects with medical surveillance and monitoring, outbreak investigation and evidence-based decision-making (including routine data analysis, surveys and operational research).
Emergency epidemiology-what does this mean?
By Médecins Sans Frontières
Posted: August 21, 2012
‘Mortality rates in a refugee camp in South Sudan are nearly double the threshold for an emergency, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has warned’ said a BBC report on 6th July 2012. ‘In Yida camp, [MSF data show] at least five children dying each day, most from diarrhoea and severe infections’, August 2nd, MSF press release. But where did these numbers come from? Getting good data might not seem the first priority in an emergency but it is essential to understand and respond appropriately to the needs of the population affected. I am an MSF epidemiologist and have just returned from the Jamam refugee crisis in South Sudan (I have documented my experiences here). In early May 2012 we started receiving reports of refugees fleeing Blue Nile state, Sudan and crossing the border into the world’s youngest nation, South Sudan. The refugees were escaping fighting and bombing by the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) targeting rebels allied with the South Sudanese (Sudanese People’s Liberation Army (SPLA)-North). These refugees, weakened by months on the run, hiding in forests and caves and eating nothing but leaves were arriving in Upper Nile State, South Sudan, in shocking conditions, sometimes beyond medical care. And then in June 2012 the rains came, turning Jamam refugee camp into a muddy swamp.
MSF was already working in two refugee camps in Upper Nile State (Jamam and Doro) and another in neighbouring Unity State (Yida), supporting a total of 120,000 refugees since January 2012 that had fled the same fighting. Agencies were already struggling to provide enough clean water and shelter to these refugees. This was certainly a challenging environment. I have never seen children so malnourished that they are literally skin and bone or people drinking from muddy pools. My role was to understand the scale and severity of the emergency. This is measured through the mortality rate. I needed to somehow measure what proportion of the camp population was dying every day. These data would guide the nature and size of our intervention. And ensure we gave these refugees the most appropriate help.
The MSF epidemiology team interview families at a transit camp near Jamam, South Sudan after the start of the rainy season. Image Credit: Ruby Siddiqui/MSF There are several approaches for measuring mortality such as the classic 30×30 retrospective cluster sampling survey where 30 clusters (villages, wards, districts) are randomly selected and 30 households within each cluster are interviewed. Although this technique is useful for capturing the mortality rate at a single point in time, it does not indicate whether the rate is increasing or decreasing and may not be relevant to the current situation if the recall period is large.
So we elected to set up prospective surveillance in which we visited every household within the camp weekly. As well as monitoring mortality rates, with this system we could monitor the health status of the refugees more closely. We could refer any sick people to the MSF clinic, monitor the nutritional status of children aged less than five years using mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC) measurements and trace children defaulting from the therapeutic feeding programmes before their condition deteriorated.
Such a system relies on solid training of outreach workers, local people that are trusted by the local population and able to communicate in their language. We identified 46 such people, all from the local population, most of whom were not literate but could all count. Although it was at times challenging to train these outreach workers, sometimes requiring two rounds of translation (English-Arabic and Arabic-Ingassana or Magaja) and re-designing of surveillance forms such that they required no writing, these teams were bright and understood quickly what they needed to do. And by forming them into teams in which there was a mix of men and women, all local languages were represented and at least one person was literate we were able to discover quickly that the crude mortality rate was 1.8 per 10,000 per day and the under-five mortality rate was 2.8 per 10,000 per day. Both rates were well above the emergency threshold, defining this as a severe situation. Almost 3 children were dying in the camp every day and 65% of deaths were due to diarrhoea. We were able to respond to these shocking findings by decentralising clinic services, setting up oral rehydration points throughout the camp and promoting safe water and hygiene practices at every household visited. The international media quoted our findings in headline news that demanded that governments and international agencies paid attention to this refugee crisis.
And now we have seen mortality rates dip below the emergency thresholds. There is still much to do. We need to identify and protect against the main morbidities in this population, remain vigilant against malaria and cholera for which the conditions are perfect and moreover continue to advocate for the transfer of these refugees out of the Jamam swamp. And as long as we continue to supervise strongly and are provided with a vehicle when needed (always a major challenge in MSF projects!), the prospective surveillance system will continue to provide the real-time health data that enables us to respond quickly and provide timely care to this population who have been through so much.
Ruby Siddiqui
Ruby Siddiqui is an epidemiologist based in the Manson Unit, MSF’s clinical research unit in London, United Kingdom. She has just returned from working on the refugee crisis in South Sudan. She supports MSF field projects with medical surveillance and monitoring, outbreak investigation and evidence-based decision-making (including routine data analysis, surveys and operational research).
Wednesday, September 5, 2012
Thursday, July 12, 2012
Saturday, April 7, 2012
Friday, March 9, 2012
Dolphin Rescue in Brazil (Nice Beach!)
For tomorrow's pie, I will attempt this recipe from http://prouditaliancook.blogspot.com/2008/10/savory-vegetable-ricotta-pies.html:
You can bake them with a crust, or without. Basically the ingredients are the same.
About 1lb. of ricotta,
1/2 lb or less, of your favorite shredded cheese, here I used a mixture of provolone, asiago, and mozzerella.
1 cup of grated parm or romano,
3 beaten eggs,
garlic and
onion.
After that, you can add in whatever veggies you want! You can use shredded zucchini which has been squeezed of its moisture, frozen spinach that has been thawed and squeezed of all water, chopped artichoke hearts, roasted red peppers, sun dried tomatoes, various pesto's and herbs for flavorings.
Just start out sauteing your onion and garlic in olive oil, then add your veggies. Have your eggs and all your cheese whipped up together in a separate bowl, and then combine it all together. I bake them at 350F, till golden and firm in the middle, not wet. It could take 30 to 50 min's. It depends how good you get the moisture out of everything, the ricotta included. Cool them down a bit before you cut into them, so everything stays together.
Friday, April 30, 2010
How to earn $50,000 in High School: Epidemiology
From the Philly Enquirer:
Posted on Tue, Apr. 27, 2010
2 area high school girls win public-health contest
Two area teenagers were awarded first prizes Monday in the country's top public-health contest for high school students. Shoshanna Golden, 17, of Allentown, and Gazelle Zerafati, 16, of Villanova, took top honors in the Young Epidemiology Scholars Competition, which ended Sunday in Washington. Each won a $50,000 college scholarship.
Golden, a junior at Moravian Academy in Bethlehem, won for her research project "Energy Epidemic: Teen Perception and Consumption of Energy Drinks." The project examined how much her peers know of the possible health risks of energy drinks.
Zerafati, a junior at the Baldwin School in Bryn Mawr, won for her project "Epidemiology of Migraine in Teenage Girls, A Student Population-Based Study." Zerafati, who suffers from migraines, surveyed classmates to learn what they knew about the crippling headaches. - Sam Wood
Monday, March 1, 2010
Two Favs in One 'Toon
One of the great things about the Coyote/RoadRunner cartoons is that they do not require speech (although they do rely on English writing for the signs and labels and kabooms and such), but in this cartoon, Wile E speaks. It's all good. :)
"Why do they always want to do it the hard way?"
In this one, Bugs is standing in for the Road Runner, and he deconstructs the 'toon while he's at it :)
"Why do they always want to do it the hard way?"
In this one, Bugs is standing in for the Road Runner, and he deconstructs the 'toon while he's at it :)
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Gossamer/Rudolph
aka, the big hairy orange monster:
"Don't think it hasn't been a little slice of Heaven...because it hasn't."
"A wee bit small, but it'll have to do."
"Don't think it hasn't been a little slice of Heaven...because it hasn't."
"A wee bit small, but it'll have to do."
Monday, February 22, 2010
My Hero...
...and the origin of my "Bugs Bunny face". (Look for it at 4:10)
Hyde and Hare - The best bloopers are here
For my imaginary audience who hasn't seen my Bugs Bunny Face, it's sort of a stress signal and stress reliever in one. When I recognize that I'm getting stressed, I make the Bugs Bunny Face to remind myself of what stress does to me. And it makes me giggle, so that's a less philosophical bonus.
Hyde and Hare - The best bloopers are here
For my imaginary audience who hasn't seen my Bugs Bunny Face, it's sort of a stress signal and stress reliever in one. When I recognize that I'm getting stressed, I make the Bugs Bunny Face to remind myself of what stress does to me. And it makes me giggle, so that's a less philosophical bonus.
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