Blood Type Tied to Stroke Risk

Posted on November 28, 2011 by

Okay, I admit I almost had a heart attack when I read the news last week that your blood type might just be an indicator as to your natural, pre-wired, inclination to have a stroke or not.

Up until last week, I had been a proud member of the “AB Positive” blood group.  We are a rare breed making up only 3% of the blood types.  We are commonly known as the “universal recipient” where we can take any blood type in a transfusion and not be harmed.  Few know that AB-positive types are also universal plasma donors.

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Posted in Medicine | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

The Sad Devaluation of Military Experience

Posted on November 21, 2011 by

When I was visiting Israel in 1998, my cousin told me that his friends who had been in the military — meaning all of them (The Israeli military requires men and women at the age of 18 to serve for up to three years) had varying levels of success in finding work but there was one common thread — the higher their rank, the better they did in terms of getting jobs that paid more. I found this to be a commendable thing but at the time I thought that this was fairly commonplace.

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Posted in Government | Tagged , , | 6 Comments

Not Vegan Yet? It’s Only a Matter of Time

Posted on November 14, 2011 by

Being Vegan is a blessing and a curse.  It’s a blessing because Veganism can immediately change your health for the better just by changing what you eat.  Vegan is a curse because so many people misunderstand the lifestyle to be some sort or religious radical movement dedicated to upending the red meat tabernacle when it is not.  Veganism is only about making wise food and living choices that enhance and support life.  We don’t condemn.  We encourage.  We offer a better way.  There’s no good that can come from condemnation.

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Posted in Medicine | Tagged , , , | 9 Comments

The Folly of First World Problem Commenters

Posted on November 7, 2011 by

Gordon Davidescu wrote in June about the new “First World Problem” meme:

While browsing the popular link aggregating site Reddit one day I found a link to a tumblr blog called “First World Problems” and while I went seeking humor I came away from the experience feeling just a little blue. I gave it a little more thought and realized we who have the ability to get to such a blog and read it are some of the more privileged in the world.

As the publisher of the 14-blog strong Boles Blogs Network, I am now seeing a taxing, and utterly boring, trend of “New World Problem Commenters” — people who take time out of their miserable day to try to slap you one across your virtual face to show you just how morally superior they are to you.

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Posted in Panopticon | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

The Grocery Store Society and the Loss of Professional Vocabulary

Posted on October 31, 2011 by

In case you don’t already know it — we live in a consumerist society in the USA — and that’s a terrible notion for everyone in this nation, because we’ve become this messy ganglia of customers looking for the best price and never the better value.

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Posted in Recording | Tagged , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

The Lesson in Steve Job’s Death: Be Smarter than Steve Jobs in Life

Posted on October 24, 2011 by

The veneration of Steve Jobs is over and now the hack jobs and the jealous nellies are coming out from cover to scurry about and degrade the name of the man and his legacy.  Sure, Steve was prickly and sometimes unkind — but that was the price of his magic — and the man repeatedly put himself and his vision on the line and found massive success.

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Posted in Medicine | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

Google News Badges. Really?

Posted on October 17, 2011 by

For the brief time I was a Boy Scout, I loved merit badges above all else. The very idea that I would get these tangible pieces of evidence that I had done something — be it learning something or accomplishing something and it was of sufficient significance to award said badge — I loved it. I cherished those badges, though sadly not enough to put them somewhere I could continue to see them now if I wished to do so — I probably disposed of them when removing clutter from my possessions. I suppose if those badges had been recorded in some kind of database, you would now be able to look it up by my name on the Boy Scouts of America web site. Perhaps it is better that it is in the past.

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Posted in Recording | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments