I think I learned about them in English class in high school. I never got into them.
Lately, I’ve been seeing comic haiku celebrating the end of various presidential campaigns (bye-ku)
Now, a friend has published a book of erotic haiku, Pillow Talk
I am, in truth, not into poetry. My favorite though, which I learned in school, is Keat’s poem about discovery, On first looking into Chapman’s Homer.
And its with little to show for it
Americans are spending more money than ever to treat spine problems, but their backs aren’t getting any better.
Those are the findings of a report in the Journal of the American Medical Association, which found that United States spending on spine treatments totaled nearly $86 billion in 2005, a rise of 65 percent from 1997, after adjusting for inflation. Even so, the proportion of people with impaired function due to spine problems actually increased during the period, even after controlling for an aging population.
It’s not the lactic acid buildup.
For decades, muscle fatigue had been largely ignored or misunderstood. Leading physiology textbooks did not even try to offer a mechanism, said Dr. Andrew Marks, principal investigator of the new study. A popular theory, that muscles become tired because they release lactic acid, was discredited not long ago.
In a report published Monday in an early online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Dr. Marks says the problem is calcium flow inside muscle cells. Ordinarily, ebbs and flows of calcium in cells control muscle contractions. But when muscles grow tired, the investigators report, tiny channels in them start leaking calcium, and that weakens contractions. At the same time, the leaked calcium stimulates an enzyme that eats into muscle fibers, contributing to the muscle exhaustion
This explains why it takes time to recover from a heavy workout.
I saw an ad for Lyrica, the first FDA-approved drug for fibromyalgia. How it works is unknown
In Lithuania, where few Jews survived the Holocaust, Jews take the place of witches in a Halloween-like festival
When Simonas Gurevicius, the 26-year-old executive director of the Jewish Community of Lithuania, opened the door to his house during last year’s Uzgavenes, he was greeted by two children dressed in horns and tails, reciting a song that translates as, “We’re the little Lithuanian Jews/We want blintzes and coffee/If you don’t have blintzes/Give us some of your money.†(It rhymes in Lithuanian.)
“They understand it as Halloween, a time to have fun and adventures,†Gurevicius said. “On one hand, it is important to respect the traditions of the country. On the other hand, psychologically it stays in their brain: The image of the Jew will be closely associated with the image from the festival.â€Â
Amazingly, it comes from the Archbishop of Canterbury, the head of the Church of England.
One can argue that allowing members of a cultural group to use religious law as an alternative to civil law is fine if its by mutual consent. However, in cases or marital disputes, I think its unlikely such choices would be truly voluntary. There could be community pressure and an undercurrent of violent threats that could make people waive their rights under civil law.
Orthodox Jews in Great Britian are allowed to voluntarily settle disputes under a beth din as an alternative to civil law. I’d rather get rid of that, than spread the empowerment of religious authority in what should be a secular state.
It should be noted that Great Britain does not have a separation of church and state. The views of the archbishop are an excellent argument for introducing it there.
So says the autopsy results
The medical examiner has concluded that actor Heath Ledger’s death was an accident, and the result of the abuse of prescription medications.
The medical examiner released results of the toxicology report Wednesday, saying Ledger died as the result of acute intoxication by the combined effects of six drugs, including pain killers, sleeping pills, and anti-anxiety drugs.
The six drugs found in his system were oxycodone, hydrocodone, diazepam, temazepam, alprazolam, and doxylamine, the medical examiner’s office said.
Sad events like this are why I favor cognitive behavioral methods as the first line to control pain (I don’t know if Ledger used them, but it certainly sounds like he preferred to take a pill, as is common among busy people. Alternative methods are often time consuming)
A deity worshiped in Greece before the arrival of the Greeks has been unearthed at a site later used for worshipping Zeus.
Ken Dowden, director of the Institute of Archaeology and Antiquity at the University of Birmingham, in England, who was not involved in the research, said that it was not surprising to find the migrating Greeks adapting a sanctuary dedicated to gods of an earlier religion for the worship of their own gods. “Even Christians would on occasion reuse a pagan sanctuary in order to transfer allegiance from the preceding religion to Christianity,†he noted.
This goes to the question of whether humanists should fight existing cultural elements, like Christmas, or seek to rechannel habitual behavior into seasonal celebrations like that of the solstice. I believe its easier to redirect the habits of a nation rather than to break them.
Antidepressants for non-specific low back pain
There is no clear evidence that antidepressants are more effective than placebo in the management of patients with chronic low-back pain. These findings do not imply that severely depressed patients with back pain should not be treated with antidepressants; furthermore, there is evidence for their use in other forms of chronic pain.
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