October 28, 2007, 2:06 PM CT

Demand for Spanish-language cancer Web

Eventhough Spanish-speaking cancer patients are rapidly increasing their search for patient education resources on the Internet, there are very few Spanish-language Web sites available to provide this information, as per a research studypresented October 28, 2007, at the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncologys 49th Annual Meeting in Los Angeles.

Spanish-speaking cancer patients were also shown to have more limited access to the Internet in comparison to English-speaking users of cancer information Web sites, based on the user patterns of the two groups.

There is an urgent need for more Web-based information to be more available to Spanish-speaking patients with cancer, and Internet access needs to be more widely available, said Charles Simone II, M.D., lead author of the study and a radiation oncologist at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. The increased knowledge gained among these patients will help to eliminate healthcare disparities and lead to improved medical outcomes.

The Spanish-language cancer information Web site, OncoLink en espaol, quadrupled their number of unique visitors last year, from 7,000 visitors per month in January 2006 to nearly 29,000 monthly visitors by the end of the year. More than 200,000 users visited the Web site in 2006......... Posted by: Sean      Read more         Source

Sun, 28 Oct 2007 03:26:59 GMT

Escape

This is part of the base of a tree. This tree happens to be close to our new campsite, but there are quite a few trees like this throughout the woods at Roundrock. This hole was formed when a low branch of the tree died and rotted away. It gives access to the hollow core of the trunk, and I suppose a lot of forest critters make use of this doorway to sanctuary.

What I find curious about these holes is the gnawing and scratching I commonly see around them. I imagine a drama with a small forest critter being pursued by a larger one. The little critter probably leapt into this hole (having known it was here) and found safety within the trunk. The larger critter dashed up and was surely disappointed, but with the frenzy of the chase still in its blood, it gnawed and scratched at the knot, perhaps thinking it could dig its way in.

There may be some sense to that. The forest floor is littered with fallen trees. Some are rotten enuf that they are barely holding themselves together. I’d guess that at least once a hungry forest critter has gnawed and scratched one of these rotten logs and gotten to the soft filling inside.

That’s the story I’m going with anyway.

Missouri calendar:

• Snow goose population at wetland areas is at its peak.

Posted by: Roundrockjournal      Read more     Source

Sat, 27 Oct 2007 21:35:29 GMT

Frieze. Nov - Dec 07

Bert Rebhandl on the Romanian wave:

The praise these films have received is well-deserved, because their achievements constitute a striking example of a Modernist form of "national cinema": their approach to examining Romania's recent history encompasses the entire experience of European auteur cinema since Roberto Rossellini started filming in Rome in the early 40s. Narrative cinema (like any other art, but more so because of its potential to "write history" in its own way) has a threefold task in "liberated" or "revolutionary" societies: to remember and reconstruct the time before the change, because the overthrown regimes have usually been audio-visually restrictive; to remember and re-evaluate the "revolutionary" events themselves; and to chronicle the aftermath (the new era) and measure it against what preceded it. Now, 18 years after the revolution, Romanian filmmakers assume these tasks with a confidence and a variety of formal strategies that is all the more astounding for the fact that, with the exception of the work of director Lucian Pintilie (The Afternoon of a Torturer, 2001, for instance), there is really no tradition of this kind of filmmaking in Romania.

Also in the new issue of frieze: Posted by: dwhudson      Read more     Source

October 22, 2007, 8:44 PM CT

Rise in atmospheric CO2 accelerates as economy grows

Human activities are releasing carbon dioxide faster than ever, while the natural processes that normally slow its build up in the atmosphere appear to be weakening. These conclusions are drawn in a new study in the early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,* October 22-26. The report states that together, these effects characterize a carbon cycle that is generating stronger-than-expected climate forcing sooner than expected.

Between 2000 to 2006, human activities such as burning fossil fuels, manufacturing cement, and tropical deforestation contributed an average of 4.1 billion metric tons of carbon to the atmosphere each year, yielding an annual growth rate for atmospheric carbon dioxide of 1.93 parts per million (ppm). This is the highest since the beginning of continuous monitoring in 1959, states the report. The growth rate of atmospheric carbon dioxide is significantly larger than those for the 1980s and 1990s, which were 1.58 and 1.49 ppm per year, respectively. The present atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide is 381 ppm, the largest concentration in the last 650,000 years, and probably in the last 20 million years.

While the worldwide acceleration in carbon dioxide emissions had been previously noted, the current analysis provides insights into its causes. The new twist here is the demonstration that weakening land and ocean sinks are contributing to the accelerating growth of atmospheric CO₂, says co-author Chris Field, director of the Carnegie Institutions Department of Global Ecology......... Posted by: Jaison      Read more         Source

Tue, 23 Oct 2007 01:45:59 GMT

Airbus A380 Panoramic Pictures

The Airbus A380 is a double-deck, four-engined airliner manufactured by the European corporation Airbus.
The largest passenger airliner in the world, the A380 made its maiden flight on 27 April 2005 from Toulouse, France, and is scheduled to begin commercial flights on 25 October 2007 with Singapore Airlines.

Some panoramic pictures from 15 October 2007 when the first Airbus A380 was handed over to Singapore Airlines. Posted by: Gerard      Read more     Source

Mon, 22 Oct 2007 02:09:27 GMT

Looking for Something Specific

Google has another great tool and thanks to John Jantsch for turning me on to Google Custom Search.

Imagine a search engine that YOU DESIGN to only contain the sites, blogs and information that you want to read. Say you just want to search sites with information about dogs or beer or vacation sites in Europe. Google makes it super simple.

John started by creating a marketing search engine called GoGetMarketing. He spent a little more time by creating tabs for even more details searches, but I just went out and created a basic search engine for Website Content.

It's a very cool tool and like everything Google; it's free.

Give it a shot!

Deborah Chaddock Brown
Writer Posted by: Deborah Brown      Read more     Source

Mon, 22 Oct 2007 01:47:57 GMT

Gossip..

Gossiping is a big internal threat to your business. Not only does it rob you of precious time but it also can do serious damage to the relationships within your business.

I once worked for a major computer manufacturer. It seemed like you could not go to the bathroom without someone gossiping about it. The building became a hot bed of gossip and it affected productivity in multiple ways.



Not only could a person's feelings get hurt, but you could loose a valuable employee and worse have a harassment or hostile work environment lawsuit on your hands.

Take action to ensure that you have a healthy work environment for your employees

Here is an article from the Pasadena Star News Posted by: John Dornoff      Read more     Source

Mon, 22 Oct 2007 01:19:01 GMT

Perfectly brewed tea with the Penguin Tea Timer

So how would you like it if a cute lil' fella could brew that perfect cuppa everytime you need one and yet never complain about being overworked? Sounds too good to be true? Nope, considering that the man Friday we are referring to is the Penguin Tea Timer. This well-groomed penguin has a built-in timer (1 to 20 mins), which you can set depending on how strong you want your tea. Simply sling the tea bag over his beak, set the timer and relax. The penguin lowers the bag into the water and lifts it out when the time's up. Cute, huh? Can be used as a regular timer too.

Available at Harriet Carter for $12.98 or Amazon for $14.98. If you prefer a dapper version (with a top-hat!), get it from Signals at $18.98.

Via bookofjoe. Posted by: Sarah      Read more     Source

October 19, 2007, 4:49 AM CT

Lack of athletic skill often means loneliness and peer rejection

In the Peanuts comic strip, Charlie Brown was never able to kick the football, fly a kite properly or lead a baseball team. He was also sad and often the target of ridicule from his peers. A new Canadian study looking at the connections between athletic skill and social acceptance among school children confirms that Chucks problems were true to life: kids place a great deal of value on athletic ability, and youngsters deemed unskilled by their peers often experience sadness, isolation and social rejection at school.

As per a research findings published in The Journal of Sport Behavior, scientists at the University of Alberta in Edmonton examined the relationships among perceived athletic competence, peer acceptance and loneliness in elementary school children. Their findings will likely confirm the experience of anyone who was picked last for the team in gym class: children seen as athletic by their classmates are also better liked and less likely to feel lonely, while unathletic children experience the opposite.

For both boys and girls, we observed that popular children reported less loneliness and received higher athletic ability ratings from their peers than rejected children, says lead researcher Janice Causgrove Dunn, from the Faculty of Physical & Recreation at the University of Alberta. On the other hand, the kids who reported higher levels of loneliness tended to receive lower athletic ability ratings and lower social acceptance ratings from their peers......... Posted by: Jim      Read more         Source

October 17, 2007, 8:23 PM CT

Power Of Altruism In Wikipedia

The beauty of open-source applications is that they are continually improved and updated by those who use them and care about them. Dartmouth scientists looked at the online encyclopedia Wikipedia to determine if the anonymous, infrequent contributors, the Good Samaritans, are as reliable as the people who update constantly and have a reputation to maintain.

The answer is, surprisingly, yes. The scientists discovered that Good Samaritans contribute high-quality content, as do the active, registered users. They examined Wikipedia authors and the quality of Wikipedia content as measured by how long and how much of it persisted before being changed or corrected.

"This finding was both novel and unexpected," says Denise Anthony, associate professor of sociology. "In traditional laboratory studies of collective goods, we don't include Good Samaritans, those people who just happen to pass by and contribute, because those carefully designed studies don't allow for outside actors. It took a real-life situation for us to recognize and appreciate the contributions of Good Samaritans to web content".

Anthony worked with co-authors Sean Smith, associate professor of computer science, and Tim Williamson, a member of the Dartmouth Class of 2005 who worked on the project as an undergraduate. They set out to examine the reputation and reliability of contributors to Wikipedia. Wikipedia has an archive of the history of changes and edits to its entries, which allowed the scientists access to analyze the perceived quality of content......... Posted by: Tom      Read more         Source