Nightingale

It's a long weekend, and I'm celebrating because I just got a new job!

Time.com "Since the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the HPV vaccine, Gardasil, last summer, doctors have disagreed over who should get the vaccine. The government approved it for girls and women ages 9 to 26, and public health experts say the youngest girls — those who haven't had sex yet — need it most. But some clinicians say there's no reason women older than 26 wouldn't benefit from it too. The argument against a wider application of the vaccine is that it's a preventive measure, not a therapeutic one. (An Aug. 15 study in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that Gardasil did not cure women who had already developed cervical cancer or had existing HPV infections.) Though vaccinating girls early can drastically stem the spread of the virus, by the time they get older and start having sex, the vaccine may provide little protection. From a public health standpoint, that logic seems to makes sense. Since at least 80% of women who have sex will acquire the virus by age 50 (in most cases it causes no health problems and clears the body within two years), it accomplishes little to give the vaccine to older, sexually active women, who may already have HPV or have already spread it within the community. But humanpapillomavirus isn't a single virus; rather, it's a family of viruses that includes at least 100 strains, more than 30 of which are transmitted sexually. About 10 of those can cause cervical cancer; others may cause genital warts. So even if a woman has been exposed to one strain of HPV, there may well be others that she is still vulnerable to. HPV also poses a threat to men because some strains — likely spread through oral sex — can lead to cancers of the mouth and throat. A new analysis of U.S. head and neck cancer trends published in the Oct. 1 issue of Cancer suggests that young men be vaccinated too. Gardasil, which is the only currently available HPV vaccine, protects against only two of the types of HPV that cause cancer: the strains numbered 16 and 18. Yet these two strains account for 70% of all cervical cancer cases. Cervarix, an HPV vaccine developed by GlaxoSmithKline, which expects federal approval for the drug in 2008, is designed to protect against four strains of HPV — 16, 18, 31 and 45 — that together account for 80% of all cervical cancers worldwide. Overall, only a small percentage of women who have had persistent infections with even the high-risk HPV strains are at risk for cancer. Still, say some doctors, it makes absolute sense to give the vaccine to older women, regardless of previous exposure. As yet, there's no easy test to diagnose which particular strain of HPV a woman has or has had. "We don't have any way of telling at this point whether a sexually active woman has been exposed or not to a strain of HPV that can cause cancer," says Dr. Alan Waxman, professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Mexico School of Medicine. Waxman is one of several HPV experts who advise women to consider getting the vaccine, even if they've acquired the virus in the past. "You don't know whether you've been exposed to all the [strains protected by] the vaccine," says Dr. Richard Schlegel, a professor at Georgetown University Medical School who is developing a second-generation HPV vaccine. "Clearly if you haven't been exposed, it would be worthwhile to get it." ... Women should be aware, however, that the vaccine doesn't offer blanket protection against cervical cancer, says Harper, and all women should still get regular pap smears. Gardasil's maker, Merck, hopes the FDA will extend approval for the vaccine's use in older women in 2008. The company is currently conducting research on women ages 26 to 45 to study the vaccine's efficacy and side effects. Though older women can get the vaccine "off-label," for now there's no hard data on whether it's as effective in that group as in younger women." ...

ROFLMAO. I've had to knock that attitude out of a couple of guys in the ring. It's old-fashioned and sexist, and there's a big difference between some sparring between friends and beating on somebody weaker than you. ps- not even if she asks nicely?

Like I said, I don't know how to wrestle, but let me know if you want a real fight.

I would pay to see that. Sorry J, but I'm putting my money on Nightingale. You are wirey. She is just badass. I don't know how to wrestle. Knocking people out, yes. Wrestling, no.

Walk by all your neighbor's garages and call for him. He'll meow if he hears you.

I got the job!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Congrats! What is it? Grants Specialist for the mayor's office. Apparently today wasn't really an interview... the mayor just wanted to meet me and offer me the job.

I got the job!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks for the stone skipping lessons, Harry! Sorry I hit you with a rock

ofc the downside is Apple's tend to keep their new users 'not particularly technical'... I cant imagine I'd have ever gone into Engineering if the TRS-80 I first had was as simplistic (vs simple there is a HUGE difference) to use as Apple's are... ofc with PCs moving that direction as well eventually we will have an entire generation of people who never took things apart to see how they worked when they stopped how many people who learned on a manual cant drive an automatic? nice thing about macs... they don't usually "stop". People are going to be as technical or non-technical as they want to be, whether they use windows or mac. If they want to be technical, they'll solve their own problems and configure things themselves. If they want to be non-technical, they'll hand it to someone else and say "fix it, please?"

no power pins on mac laptops. they have that nifty mag-safe thing. iBooks have power pins. MacBooks have mag-safe.

Thanks!

My steps to giving cat liquid drops: This requires two people. 1. Sneak up behind cat with very sturdy towel. 2. Ambush cat. Drop towel over cat, and wrap cat up like a baby. Cat will struggle at this point. 3. Wrestle with cat and rearrange towel so that the only part of cat visible above the towel is the head. Cat will not be pleased. 4. Person 1 gets a firm grip on towel with one hand. Scruff cat with the other hand. Cat will stop struggling. 5. Person 2 fills syringe with cat-drops. Gently pry open jaw and shove syringe as far back into throat as possible, and squirt. Fast. Cat will swallow or choke. There is about a 50/50 chance for swallowing or choking. If cat chokes, go back to step 1 and repeat.

Grants Specialist for the mayor's office. What's wrong with Grant that he needs a specialist? LOL!

Grants Specialist for the mayor's office.

I know that common advice to people with sleep problems is not to work out within a few hours of bedtime. I know I have a hard time relaxing if I go to a late karate class.

or modblog.bmezine.com

I'm nervous.

Make sure you get the apple-care warranty. It really pays off, because sooner or later, everyone does something dumb with a laptop, like spill grape jelly in the keyboard, break the power pin, or sit on it. Applecare takes care of that stuff for you, worry free.

Texas Governor Rick Perry has announced that he is commuting Foster's death sentence to life in prison without parole. This is only the 2nd time that a Texas Governor has granted clemency since 1976. (The other case was Henry Lee Lucas in 1998.)" -DPF

I agree. It seems like when parents hide the adoption, the kid gets issues, because they get the message that adoption is something shameful to be hidden, or they develop their self-identity around being a biological child, and then this gets shaken up when they find out later that they're adopted. The only adoptees I know with no adoption issues have always known, grew up with age appropriate definitions, and were able to form their identity based on reality.

I don't understand why anyone cares about what anybody else does with any other consenting adult. I don't understand why people want to outlaw behavior between consenting adults. I don't understand why the government feels it has the right to regulate or sanction relationships between consenting adults. I really wish they'd spend their time, energy, and resources looking at shit that actually matters, like, say, the war going on?

Usually by the time I'm that tired, my ability to focus on anything is completely shot.

Whatever the patient and the family wanted done. Hospice gets people thinking and making decisions about this stuff in advance...

Due to a stupid work schedule, I get about five hours of sleep at night. I spend my entire day exhausted and just counting the hours until I can go home, do my homework, log on for online school, and go to bed. Then, the clock hits midnight, and I'm just staring at my ceiling, too tired to relax enough to fall asleep. When I finally do fall asleep, I wake up in five hours and do the same thing the next day. By the time friday rolls around, I've got a migraine (lack of sleep is a migraine trigger for me). Edited to add: It feels like what causes the inability to sleep is that when you force your body to run on empty for so long, you over-ride the usual off-switches that let you sleep, and they take a little while of relaxing to reset. I've found that taking chamomile pills (a little stronger than the tea) about an hour before I want to sleep helps a bit.