Archives for 2010

If there is something more annoying than a random bag of milk rupturing and slowly leaking inside your fridge, what is it?

Yikes:

Almost 6 percent of American women, that’s 7.5 million adult women, report using prescription medicines for a boost of energy, a dose of calm or other non-medical reasons, according to the latest numbers from the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

“Many may not consider what they’re doing abuse because they’re using a prescribed drug,” says Susan R.B. Weiss, chief of NIDA’s Science Policy Branch. “Many of these medications are being taken as performance-enhancers.”

[…]

To blame may be what some are calling the superwoman syndrome. Overworked, overwhelmed and overscheduled women juggling families, friends and careers are turning to stimulants, painkillers and anti-anxiety meds to help launch them through endless to-do lists.

I have no idea whether that’s true or not – I’m sure there are all kinds of reasons people take drugs, and they probably don’t all have to do with trying to do too much. But hey. If you find yourself so overwhelmed that you need anti-anxiety meds, maybe what you need is a break instead. Take it from someone who’s gone through a few burn-outs and has learned this lesson the very (very) hard way: Less is almost always more.

Seriously: I haven’t watched five minutes of Olympics coverage (one, I don’t have television, two, I don’t have time these days to watch anything, and three, the limited time I get for athleticism I spend in my dojo). But I’m enjoying stories like this, and this:

VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Even after nearly 20 years of skating and traveling the world with his ice dance partner Isabelle Delobel, Olivier Schoenfelder was never expecting the phone call he received from her last winter.

The good news: Delobel was pregnant. The bad news: Delobel was pregnant and the Winter Olympics were in little more than a year.

[…]

The petite, dark-haired Delobel and the tall, blond Schoenfelder, both from France, were world champions in 2008 and were looking like favorites for the gold medal in Vancouver after climbing the ranks for many years, an ice dance prerequisite, and finishing fourth in the 2006 Olympics in Turin, Italy.

But a shoulder injury that Delobel sustained in December 2008 during an exhibition interrupted their season, and it was during her injury layoff that she became pregnant.

“I was still convinced we’d make it to the Olympics,” said Delobel, 31, in an interview after the compulsory dance Friday night in Vancouver.

The reaction from their rivals is a blend of admiration for Delobel’s ability to return so quickly and of sympathy for Schoenfelder.

[…]

Though Delobel continued to train and skate deep into her pregnancy, even suffering the occasional fall in practice, she left the ice in late July, giving birth on Oct. 1 to a son, Loïs, and then returning to practice in late October at their longtime training base in Lyon, France. She began three-a-day sessions and intense physical training in November.

“You better believe it was tough,” said Delobel, who had gained close to 20 pounds during pregnancy. “It was really a physical challenge, but I’m proud to have managed it.”

And she has every right to be. Well done!

I wish I could say we’re making this up:

Anti-smoking porn?  Only in France.

And you thought the lap-dancing teachers in Winnipeg were setting a bad example… Apparently we Canadians have nothing on the French.  Here comes news of a new anti-smoking ad that is causing quite a stir in France.  You can judge for yourself, but the porn-inspired photos leave little to the imagination.

Right here in Canada, I mean.

OTTAWA ­- Infant mortality rates are up for the first time in Canada since 1982, according to new numbers released by Statistics Canada Tuesday.

The infant mortality rate rose slightly from 2006 to 2007, up to 5.1 from 5.0 per 1,000 live births, a 6.2% increase from 2006 to 2007.

That’s the first increase in the infant mortality rate since 1982, when the rate was at 9.1 infant deaths per 1,000 live births. Boy and girl death rates increased at the same rate.

The story does not offer anything by way of explanation, and I must admit I don’t have time to go looking for one (workworkwork you know). Anyone with more info, please send it in.

The idea that women earn less than men is a mainstay idea of old school feminists. That’s it’s not true would take the wind out of their sales and funding out of their pockets.

This column is all about how if women do earn less than men it’s typically for very good reasons, like they work fewer hours:

Few people would advocate more women living in poverty, but if we are going to have a serious discussion of how best to tackle the issue that more women than men live in poverty, we need to face reality. Sadly, the report issued by a collection of advocacy groups fails miserably on that count. The group uses conjecture rather than facts and when confronted with facts, changes the rules to suit themselves.

If women have bridged a gender wage gape, why perpetuate the old myth?

This post features a video outlining the rights of pro-life clubs on campus. In the U.S., that is – not everything in there can be of use in Canada. But some of it might.

Identify and explain five (5) elements of gender architecture and how they apply to your everyday life.

Failing that, read this amusing piece by Tasha Kheiriddin and chuckle to your little heart’s content.

An update on a story I mentioned in November:

LONDON — It was heralded as a medical miracle. After spending more than two decades in a coma, Rom Houben, a Belgian man in his mid-forties, was suddenly able to communicate, news reports trumpeted last November.

Other experts questioned the method Houben that was apparently using to communicate. The technique is known as “facilitated communication,” in which the patient supposedly directs the hand of a speech therapist who typed out his thoughts.

Houben’s doctors said it seemed to be genuine. Until now.

Dr. Steven Laureys, a neurologist at Liege University Hospital in Belgium, one of Houben’s doctors, now acknowledges the technique doesn’t work and that while Houben is conscious, he is not communicating.

“We did not have all the facts before,” he said Friday. “The story of Rom is about the diagnosis of consciousness, not communication.”

If I understand correctly, the patient has more brain activity than other doctors had thought, but is not really able to communicate.

[h/t]

What a weird (and ultimately good) story:

Mechelle Hall dabbed tears from her eyes Tuesday as she pleaded guilty to second-degree assault for brandishing a knife and threatening a woman who urged her not to get an abortion.

Yet, she revealed later, she never got it.

[…]

The surprise came when Hall was reached by phone at her Superior home Tuesday evening. She said she never had the planned abortion. Hall said she decided to keep the baby after being confronted by anti-abortion protesters Leah Winandy and her mother, Sarah, on Nov. 24. She said she was stressed out and they made her realize that she didn’t want to end the life she was carrying inside her.

Hall was asked if there was anything she’d like to say to the Winandys.

“Thank you for being there,” she said. “If they weren’t there, I probably would have gone through with it and regretted it for the rest of my life. It probably would have gone the other way. I’m sincerely sorry for doing that to her.”

[h/t]