Stay Cool

With temperatures soaring into the triple digits today, it is more important than ever to know how to protect oneself against this dangerous and potentially lethal heat. I found a good article with useful tips:

http://attleboro.patch.com/articles/tips-to-stay-safe-and-beat-the-heat

Highlights of the article: Make sure your air conditioning is installed and operating successfully. Start drinking extra fluids before you even go out into the heat. Thirst is a late — and therefore not a good — indicator of dehydration; By the time you’re thirsty, you’ve been dehydrated too long. Children and the elderly are more susceptible to dangerous responses to the heat than the rest of us. Both water and drinks with electrolytes (coconut water is my personal favorite) are important. And, know that this is no joke — heat stroke is often fatal, and at the very least will cause permanent brain damage.

So stock up on coconut water (drink it on ice), drink plenty of regular water as well, stay indoors somewhere cool, and if you must go outside, do not exert yourself.

This public service announcement is brought to you by Jack Simony.

Stamping Out AIDS

At the AIDS summit being held at the UN today, African leaders have called for greater resources to battle what has long been a true pandemic on that continent.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jHCl1GCIuzWCU-KOBIhIGD4lLDLQ?docId=CNG.4b51b056239693ce4c4888dc9ef63302.8b1

The continent of Africa has literally been ravaged by the disease. Its nations desperately need help obtaining the drugs that keep the disease at bay for those who have been infected with HIV. Furthermore, they need to expand educational programs, which must be done with great sensitivity to the cultures of the people whom the programs are targeting.

I went to college with a young woman from South Africa who lost both of her parents to AIDS. Sadly, half of her friends lost parents, too, before drug treatment began to stem fatalities. But AIDS orphans are still shockingly common throughout Africa. The tragedy is epic.

To date, the AIDS epidemic has killed over 25 million people worldwide, a staggering figure. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has set the goal of eliminating AIDS altogether by 2020. And by the way, we shouldn’t think that it’s just a problem in Africa — young people of all walks of society here are still getting infected at frightening rates. It is in everyone’s interests for wealthier nations to help poorer nations — and themselves — fulfill Secretary General Ban’s goal and eradicate this scourge as quickly as possible.
-Jack Simony

Mental Health Warrants Focus

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/26/us/26loughner.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha23

“You don’t have to be a professional psychologist to know the boy is disturbed.” So said one of the victims of Jared Loughner, who killed six people and injured 13, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, in January.

The professionals agree. The psychologist and psychiatrist who interviewed Loughner for many hours for the court diagnosed schizophrenia. And now the judge in his case has found him not competent to stand trial and sent him for treatment at a psychiatric hospital.

What a sad, sad story. Clearly, people who knew Jared Loughner knew he was troubled. But no one knew just how ill he really was – or what to do about it.

This is yet another tragic illustration of how ill-equipped we are, individually, as communities, and as a nation, to understand, recognize and treat serious mental illness.
-Jack Simony

Celiac Awareness Month

In case you were not aware of the fact, May is Celiac Awareness Month.

http://www.celiaccentral.org/awarenessmonth/

Celiac Disease affects approximately three million Americans, many of whom are suffering without knowing the cause of their malaise.

You keep hearing about people needing their food to be “gluten-free”, but why? Gluten is a protein in wheat, rye, barley and many oats (particularly those grown in the US). It is in many foods that wouldn’t seem at first blush to contain gluten, and is a filler in many medicines.

http://triblocal.com/grayslake/community/stories/2011/05/may-is-celiac-awareness-month/

Celiac Disease is an autoimmune disease whereby one’s body is attacked when gluten is consumed. Symptoms can be digestive…or extend to the rest of the body. It can also compromise the body in a way that invites other diseases to take hold, such as other autoimmune diseases, neurological disorders and cancers. It tends to run in families. It can be present but dormant, and be kicked into gear by such events as severe stress, physical injury, another disease such as Lyme’s, infection, pregnancy or childbirth or surgey.

Avoidance of gluten cannot be sporadic or intermittent or half-way; if one has Celiac Disease, one must cut it out 1000 percent of the way. Even a speck of gluten can wreak significant damage on the system of a person with Celiac Disease, and traces of gluten can remain in one’s system for nine full months.

Get tested! Find out if you should be avoiding gluten. It’s a pain in the neck to go gluten-free and requires vigilance, but it becomes a way of life and gets easier as one gets used to it. And as friends of mine have assured me, the benefits far outweigh the drag of it.
-Jack Simony

A Not-So-Idyllic Marriage

So, Fatah and Hamas are reconciled and will form a joint government to run the Palestinian Authority. http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/27/us-palestinians-reconciliation-idUSTRE73Q50820110427?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews

U.S. lawmakers are not pleased to see a terrorist organization (Hamas) joining the PA government the U.S. has been funneling money to for years.

House Foreign Affairs Chairwoman Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen released a statement warning that “The reported agreement between Fatah and Hamas means that a Foreign Terrorist Organization [Hamas], which has called for the destruction of Israel will be part of the Palestinian Authority government. U.S. taxpayer funds should not and must not be used to support those who threaten U.S. security, our interests, and our vital ally, Israel.”

And Democrat Rep. Gary Ackerman, Ranking Member the House Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia, said that “the United States will be compelled by both law and decency to withhold any assistance that could fall into the hands or control or even partial control of anyone reporting to, or belonging to a terrorist entity, as is Hamas.”

The accord between the two is a sweet deal for Fatah and Hamas, since apparently they neither trust nor fear the U.S., and since they need each other now that their primary backers (Hosni Mubarak for Fatah, Bashir Assad for Hamas) are currently in hot water.

It’s not so sweet for Israel, though, since the deal reportedly doesn’t require Hamas to make even a pretense of giving up its stated mission of driving Israel into the sea.
-Jack Simony

“Medically Ready”

Since I’ve written about her in the past, I feel compelled to note that Representative Gabrielle Giffords has flown from Houston, where she is in hospital, to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, to attend the Friday launch of the space shuttle Endeavour. The flight is to be commanded by her husband, astronaut Mark Kelly.

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/04/27/report-giffords-boards-flight-ahead-of-husbands-space-shuttle-launch/?hpt=T2

This is fantastic news, not just because Representative Giffords is happy to finally get some time away from the hospital that has been her home since she was shot in Tucson on January 8, but because of what it says of her current condition. Representative Giffords has been making a remarkable recovery.

This will be the final space mission for the Endeavour, and it will be delivering communication antennae and other equipment to the international space station.

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/04/26/endeavour-commander-giffords-more-than-medically-ready-to-see-launch/

President Obama and his family are also slated to attend the launch.

Representative Giffords has long wanted to attend this launch. She worked hard at her rehabilitation to be “medically ready” to do so. I am so pleased for her and her husband that she will be there on Friday.
-Jack Simony

ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL

The good news is that we haven’t had a major air disaster in quite some time. The bad news is that the good news seems to be a matter of luck – along with some skilled piloting by the people flying the planes – rather than proper vigilance by the air traffic controllers whose job it is to help keep travelers safe.

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2011/apr/13/emergency-landing-reno-airport-made-after-air-traf/

The person in charge of the system has just lost his job, and that’s as it should be. http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/air-traffic-control-heads-exit-leaves-behind-a-system-in-turmoil/2011/04/14/AFzYOueD_story.html
And no doubt more heads will roll – at least of the controllers who were napping on the job, whether or not it’s entirely their fault that they were as tired as they were. But firing people isn’t going to be enough to fix this problem. Clearly, we need to take a good look at the whole system and find a way to keep our air traffic controllers awake and working (no doz, anyone?).

Of course, most air traffic controllers are not falling asleep at their desks – as far as we know, anyway. But it only takes one to cause a serious accident. Because we have an air-traffic control system for a reason. Don’t we?
-Jack Simony