Carolyn's Daily Posts: 2011

www.carolyncholland.wordpress.com to read my personal writing site. Check the CATEGORY list in the right hand column to read stories in your personal interest area. SUBSCRIBE (upper right hand column) to receive e-mail notification of posts as they are posted.

www.carolyncholland2011.wordpress.com this site, to review postaday2011 writings

www.intertwinedlove.wordpress.com to read posts related to my historical novel-in-progress

www.beanerywriters.wordpress.com to read the Beanery Online Literary Magazine, supported by the Beanery Writers Group in Latrobe, Pennsylvania

http://carolyncholland.wordpress.com/category/adoption-2/

Weekly Photo Challenge: Between

carolyncholland — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 07:00:22 +0000

CAROLYN’S DAILY POSTS 2011

WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE: BETWEEN

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ADDITIONAL READING:

http://carolyncholland2011.wordpress.com/category/adoption-2/

Shaken Baby Syndrome Renamed Abusive Head Trauma

carolyncholland — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 07:00:12 +0000

CAROLYN’S DAILY POSTS: 2011

SHAKEN BABY SYNDROME

RENAMED

ABUSIVE HEAD TRAUMA

Language evolves.

It’s been reputed that in the human service profession language evolves to keep non-professionals aware that the same syndrome has numerous a.k.a.s.

Thus, when I read a news story on a man guilty of shaken baby syndrome (suffering neurological injuries after being shaken) I wasn’t surprised by the following statement: …the boy’s condition stems from biological factors and not Abusive Head Trauma, formerly called Shaken Baby Syndrome (italics mine).

Whether it is known as Shaken Baby Syndrome or Abusive Head Trauma, the five-month-old boy had injuries that included a “large amount of blood on his brain” and “significant bilateral retinal hemorrhages,” according to a report.

Although the defendant’s lawyer said We don’t believe right now they are injuries. ..We believe it’s illness…The baby, who returned home to his mother…is undergoing defense-ordered testing to determine the reason for his condition…

SOURCE

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/westmoreland/s_762965.html

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ADDITIONAL READING:

http://carolyncholland.wordpress.com/category/child-abuse-issues/

Black Widow Ride…Not on My Bucket List

carolyncholland — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 07:00:04 +0000

CAROLYN’S DAILY POSTS: 2011

BLACK WIDOW RIDE…NOT ON MY BUCKET LIST

Kennywood Amusement Park in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania, has a new ride: the Black Widow.

The thrill ride is a 90-foot tall that seats forty riders who sit in outward-facing suspended seats that form a giant circle. The passengers have their legs freely dangling but wear shoulder restraints.

The circle swings in a pendulum motion while rotating counterclockwise. It swings at an angle of one hundred twenty degrees from its center, and back and forth at sixty-eight miles per hour. At the peak of the Black Widow riders rise one hundred forty-six feet above ground and feel a sense of weightlessness.

No siree, it’s not for me. It’s not on my bucket list. I can think of more interesting things to do than to have by body thrust in a pendulum swing at sixty-eight miles per hour.

The ride will be available for the brave on May 17, 2011.

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ADDITIONAL READING:

Maintaining Top Positions at a Former Blog Host Site

carolyncholland — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 07:00:42 +0000

CAROLYN’S DAILY POSTS: 2011

MAINTAINING TOP POSITIONS

AT A FORMER BLOG HOST SITE

My original host site for my blogs, proBlogs, had a reasonable setup for the purpose behind the Beanery Online Literary Magazine and my writing site. However, when the site changed ownership in 2007, it also changed its design. The new design did not meet the needs of either blog, so I changed host sites.

While on proBlogs both sites I facilitated claimed the top hit (visitor) spots.

I began the Beanery Online Literary Magazine blog on the new site in the fall of 2007, and my writing blog, Carolyn’s Compositions started in February, 2008

I revisit the proBlogs site occasionally, finding consistent statistics with those I saw when I visited it a few days ago. The two sites I managed still maintain top spots—albeit, eighth (the Beanery magazine) and ninth (my personal writing site) spot now.

I find it interesting that the statistics kept us in these positions over the past four-plus years.

Just an observation and a comment.

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ADDITIONAL READING:

http://seniorjournal.com/NEWS/Alzheimers/2011/20111206-EatingBaked.htm

Have You Had Your Baked/Broiled Fish Today?

carolyncholland — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 07:00:40 +0000

CAROLYN’S DAILY POSTS: 2011

HAVE YOU HAD YOUR BAKED/BROILED FISH TODAY?

An MRI brain scan study discovered older persons who regularly ate baked or broiled fish experienced a reduced risk of mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s disease.

Eating fried fish did not improve gray matter volume or reduce the risk of developing cognitive impairment.

The study controlled for age, gender, education, race, obesity, physical activity, and the presence or absence of apolipoprotein E4 (ApoE4), a gene that increases the risk of developing Alzheimer’s.

The findings showed that consumption of baked or broiled fish on a weekly basis was positively associated with gray matter volumes in several areas of the brain. Greater hippocampal, posterior cingulate and orbital frontal cortex volumes in relation to fish consumption reduced the risk for five-year decline to MCI or Alzheimer’s by almost five-fold.

“Consuming baked or broiled fish promotes stronger neurons in the brain’s gray matter by making them larger and healthier,” Dr. Raji said. “This simple lifestyle choice increases the brain’s resistance to Alzheimer’s disease and lowers risk for the disorder.”

I tend to fry my fish, usually in olive or vegetable oil. I wonder if frying the fish harms or destroys the valuable omega-3 fats in the fish, especially DHA, one of the fats.

I guess I will begin to bake or broil my fish from now on.

SOURCE

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ADDITIONAL READING:

A Quiet Christmas Day, 2011

carolyncholland — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 03:00:32 +0000

CAROLYN’S DAILY POSTS: 2011

A QUIET CHRISTMAS DAY, 2011

Last evening Monte, my daughter Sandy and her husband Michael, and I attended Christmas Eve services at Heritage United Methodist Church in Ligonier, Pennsylvania.

Today was a quiet day. A nice respite after the hectic preparations for the season, and the hectic activities of 2011.

My husband and I awoke, read the newspaper, opened our gifts. He went to church while I lounged about at home, relishing the quiet. In the afternoon we walked to our daughter’s house to watch our granddaughter open her gifts, and ate dinner there. It was just the five of us. A ham dinner. Quite good.

Christmas isn’t about hectic activity, although it seems to be that way for most of us. It’s about peaceful relationships between persons who love each other, and love for those we don’t feel a likeness for, and for those who are less fortunate than we are.

I hope all you you had a joyful holiday.

Our son from Cleveland didn’t arrive today, but will probably come tomorrow. I’d best get some rest before they arrive…

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ADDITIONAL READING:

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/s_770543.html

A Christmas Planet: Kepler-22b

carolyncholland — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 07:00:13 +0000

CAROLYN’S DAILY POSTS: 2011

A CHRISTMAS PLANET: KEPLER-22b

That huge box that won’t fit under the Christmas tree might hold the perfect present for some Earthlings. When they open it, they will find…a planet…a Christmas planet.

A Christmas planet?

This is how one newly discovered planet was described by William Borucki, chief scientist for the Kepler telescope, launched on a planet-hunting mission in 2009.

“It’s a great gift,” Borucki said about the first planet discovered by the Kepler telescope that is confirmed in the habitable zone.

The planet, eerily similar to Earth, sits outside our solar system in what seems to be the ideal place for life…smack in the middle of what astronomers call the Goldilocks zone, that hard to find place that’s not too hot, not too cold, where water, which is essential for life, doesn’t freeze or boil. And it has a shopping mall-like surface temperature of near 72 degrees

The new planet — named Kepler-22b — has key aspects it shares with Earth. It circles a star that could be the twin of our sun and at just about the same distance. The planet’s year of 290 days is even close to ours. It likely has water and rock…Floating on that “world completely covered in water” could be like being on an Earth ocean, and it’s not beyond the realm of possibility that life could exist in such an ocean.

Could this be a new frontier for us Earthlings, who are managing to use up the earth?

As with everything else, the discovery isn’t problem free.

It’s … a bit big for life to exist on the surface. The planet is about 2.4 times the size of Earth. It could be more like the gas-and-liquid Neptune with only a rocky core and mostly ocean.

However, us Earthlings are creative. And some among us like to take on extreme challenges.

Perhaps. Perhaps. Perhaps we have discovered a viable new frontier. Only time will tell.

SOURCE

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ADDITIONAL READING: