A Tribute to Casey Quinlan – Advocate and Renaissance Woman
On Tuesday April 25th 2023, the world lost a bright flame. After a long journey with cancer, Casey Quinlan @MightyCasey passed away peacefully with family and friends by her side. Quinlan was one-of-a-kind and if you had the good fortune of meeting her in-person or interacted with her online, she undoubtedly left an impression. She was one of the few people who had zero qualms about speaking her mind – and that is one of reasons why I admired her. Outspoken Advocate I got to know Quinlan through the early #hcldr tweetchats that we hosted (and still host) on Tuesday nights at 8:30pm ET. At the time, I had never seen someo...
Source: EMR and HIPAA - April 28, 2023 Category: Information Technology Authors: Colin Hung Tags: Clinical Communication and Patient Experience Healthcare IT Hospital - Health System Advanced Directives Casey Quinlan Cinderblocks Jan Oldenburg MightyCasey Patient Advocate QR code tattoo Source Type: blogs

Wednesday Bible Study: Legitimate Political Discourse
Well, it kind of is. Absalom manages to usurp the throne basically by becoming more popular than David. But there a lot of plot twists in this. I ' ll make comments along the way.15 After this Ab ′salom got himself a chariot and horses, and fifty men to run before him.This first sentence seems a non-sequitur.2 And Ab ′salom used to rise early and stand beside the way of the gate; and when any man had a suit to come before the king for judgment, Ab′salom would call to him, and say, “From what city are you?” And when he said, “Your servant is of such and such a tribe in Israel,”3 Ab ′salom woul...
Source: Stayin' Alive - February 9, 2022 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs

Answer to Case 643
 Answer to theParasite Case of the Week 643: Not a parasite; plant material. As mentioned by Idzi, Bernardino, and Phil G-J, this beautiful structure is apeltate trichome, possibly from an olive (Olea) leaf. Bernardino Rocha provided a greatlink to this open access article and the photos look just like what we are seeing. To obtain further insight, I contacted our knowledgeable botanist reader, Dr. Mary Parker, and was pleased to hear that she agrees with our assessment! She commented that this structure is definitely a peltate trichome and could quite possibly be from the lower epidermis of a leaf of an oli...
Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites - June 20, 2021 Category: Parasitology Source Type: blogs

Sunday Sermonette: Well okay then
I think Deuteronomy 28 is the longest chapter in the Torah, though I haven ' t tried to confirm that. Anyway, it ' s actually an expanded version of Leviticus 26, which recites the blessings the people will receive if they obey Yahweh and the evil that will befall them if they don ' t. It even uses some of the same language; the blessing section is quite similar, but it adds a lot to the curse part. I actually do recommend that you read this, for the black comedy value. Update: After I posted this, by coincidence I learned that Flavius Josephus, in his account of the rebellion against Roman rule that culminated in the...
Source: Stayin' Alive - February 21, 2021 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs

2 easy, affordable, plant-centered dinners
Plant-based diets have taken root in American culture in recent years, mostly thanks to the growing realization about the health benefits of this eating pattern. But contrary to what some people think, plant-based doesn’t necessarily mean you must forego all animal products. Rather, you might just eat meat or dairy products less frequently, or in smaller portions. To replace those lost calories, you should eat more beans and legumes, vegetables, whole grains, and fruits. These mostly low-fat, nutrient-rich foods have been linked to improvements in many health-related issues, including high blood pressure, diabetes, and h...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - November 25, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Julie Corliss Tags: Cooking and recipes Food as medicine Healthy Eating Source Type: blogs

Sunday Sermonette: My eyes glaze over
Numbers 28 is basically a repetition of previous instructions to make temple offerings. I haven ' t gone back to compare everything, but it does seem to be very interested in adding substantial quantities of wine and olive oil to the formulas. It also emphasizes how much God loves the smell of burning meat. Remember, however, that it is only the abdominal fat and offal that is burned. The priests get to keep the meat and hides, along with the other swag. In the first reference to wine it is to be " poured out " in the sanctuary but I strongly suspect it wound up being poured down the throats of the priests. The priest...
Source: Stayin' Alive - October 18, 2020 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs

Grain-Free, Legume-Free, Sugar-Free Experiment
For the month of August, I’ve been doing a new dietary experiment. I’m eating grain-free, legume-free, and sugar-free. I’m doing this mainly out of curiosity to see what effect it has. I think I’m far enough along (about four weeks) that this would be a good time to share what I’ve learned. The biggest adjustment was switching some common food sources, especially carbs. Instead of brown rice or rice noodles, I’ve been eating more potatoes, sweet potatoes, and starchy squash. Instead of beans or tofu, I’m eating more fruit, nuts, and veggies. While I’ve removed refined s...
Source: Steve Pavlina's Personal Development Blog - August 28, 2020 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Steve Pavlina Tags: Health Lifestyle Source Type: blogs

Fragile Habits
Some habits are more fragile than others. Once established, some habits are very delicate. If you miss a day or try to alter them, it’s easy to knock them out of place completely and see them fade out. Other habits are more resilient. You can push and prod them, change them in different ways, and they still stick pretty well. At the extreme they act like borderline addictions – it’s harder to stop doing them than to keep doing them. For me early rising is a relatively fragile habit. I need to be strict with it to keep it in place. I can let myself sleep in a little later very infrequently, like a few...
Source: Steve Pavlina's Personal Development Blog - August 7, 2020 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Steve Pavlina Tags: Health Lifestyle Productivity Source Type: blogs

Wednesday Bible Study: Pot pourri and lex talionis
As I ' ve noted before, the division into chapters and verses was made by medieval monks, and isn ' t always logical. (They may have been getting into the sacramental wine.) Leviticus 24 consists of three obviously distinct parts, two of which might have originally gone together as specifications of ritual but the third of which is unrelated. Furthermore, the whole thing is an interpolation between the schedule of festivals in 23 and the schedule of jubilees in 25. Leviticus generally is haphazardly organized. It seems the priests didn ' t really care about narrative or logical coherence, they just wanted to get everything...
Source: Stayin' Alive - July 1, 2020 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs

Olive oil or coconut oil: Which is worthy of kitchen-staple status?
Coconut oil has developed a cultlike following in recent years, with proponents touting benefits ranging from body fat reduction to heart disease prevention. Sadly for devotees, the evidence to support these assertions remains rather sparse. But there is plenty of research to suggest that other plant-based oils have advantages over their animal-derived counterparts, particularly when it comes to heart health. So which is best? While no specific type should be hyped as a panacea, one variety isn’t getting the press it deserves: olive oil. The case for olive oil continues to grow Olive oil is a staple fat in the Mediterran...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - June 18, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Emily Gelsomin, MLA, RD, LDN Tags: Healthy Eating Source Type: blogs

How to stock a plant-based pantry (and fridge) on a budget
Given the current pandemic and related economic stressors, many of us are trying to maintain healthy habits while watching our expenses. One of the areas where we can support our immune system is through our food choices. We all have to eat, and eat several times a day, and selecting foods that support our health and our planet — while also saving money — is now a priority for many. People are going meatless for many reasons About a quarter of the US is now vegetarian, especially people ages 25 to 34. A survey from 2017 studied US attitudes toward animal farming, and found that 54% of Americans were trying to purchase ...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - June 12, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Uma Naidoo, MD Tags: Cooking and recipes Food as medicine Healthy Eating Heart Health Nutrition Source Type: blogs

In defense of the salt shaker
Sherry B, a healthy and active 61-year-old woman, came to my office several months ago. She had noted an unusually fast heart rate during exercise, and felt lightheaded when standing in line at the grocery store or after finishing her five-mile run. She carried a water bottle with her and drank from it throughout our meeting. “I don’t understand!” she said, “I’m always thirsty, even though I drink water constantly.” Most of her symptoms had started the previous year when she decided to “clean up” her lifestyle, began to exercise more regularly, and stopped eating out. She added proudly that she had thrown a...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - November 6, 2019 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Dara K. Lee Lewis, MD Tags: Healthy Eating Heart Health Hypertension and Stroke Source Type: blogs

Sunday Sermonette: Wasting food
Exodus 29 goes from the stage setting of 27 and costuming of 28 to the action of the drama: consecration of the tabernacle and establishment of the priesthood. These instructions are highly elaborate and seem largely arbitrary, but they do have the consistent quality of being very expensive. The temple is built of precious materials, the garments are set with gemstones, and now we have a ritual in which mass quantities of food are destroyed. For pastoral nomads, meeting God ' s demands must have been quite onerous. Judaism today no longer has this quality. Temples are mostly modest, as are priestly garments, sacrifice has ...
Source: Stayin' Alive - November 3, 2019 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs

Sunday Sermonette: More interior design
I ' ve done a little bit of reading to see if people have thoughts about why a book that presents some of its key events in a few verses goes onad nauseumabout the precise details of the tabernacle. (And soon to come the priestly vestments and various ritual requirements.) Well, for one thing, the text existed; it was available. Somebody saw this thing at some point and described it. Obviously it wasn ' t in the historical context described here, which fictitious, but the details get projected back to this time of lawgiving.And it was important in a way that the story of Cain and Abel and other events that get much shorter...
Source: Stayin' Alive - October 20, 2019 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs

The anything-but-beige brigade
Moth Bird Watch 7 – The anything-but beige brigade Ask most people to describe a moth and usually terms such as dull, grey, brown, night-flying, drab, dingy, useless, clothes eater, are the terms they will use. Some might go so far as to describe them as the boring relatives of butterflies. Well, nothing could be further from the truth the Lepidoptera (meaning scaly winged) are a vast group of insects fare more diverse than just the butterfly sub-group. Many of the 2500 recorded different species in the British Isles are anything but dull and grey, many of them fly during the day and most of them have quite exotic ...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - July 29, 2019 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Moths Source Type: blogs