Masterpiece Music: American Coastlines, A Five Part Concerto

This post is an update of my earlier review of my musician favorites. "American Coastlines: Concerto for Piano, Orchestra and Choir" would make beautiful background music for a movie. 

It is rare indeed to find such beautiful music born and bred the United States by an American composer.  Reminiscent of the music of some of the greatest and most ambitious American movies, past and present, these songs on the piano are clearly discernible and memorable. The added overlay of the orchestra adds fullness and richness of texture. The entire performance is marvelously imaginative and innovative, truly an American masterpiece of which to be proud.

Haunting and mellifluous melodies interweave with background music of an orchestra and choir composed and conducted by Tim Keyes, with piano music by Darlene Popkey. This stunning performance was recorded live at the Richardson Auditorium in Princeton, New Jersey in five parts:

1. Point Pleasant Beach, New Jersey: July

2. Long Boat Key, Florida: October

3. Galveston Island, Texas: January

4. Big Sur, California: April

5. Hymn

Darlene Popkey has enjoyed numerous international  musical awards and honors. She has played with the Tim Keyes Consort such masterpieces as Dvorak's Symphony no. 9 (From the New World) and Saint Saens Symphony no. 3 as well as other new symphonic compositions. Her schedule continues with live virtuoso solo and orchestral musical performances.

"
Tim Keyes is a New-Jersey-based composer, conductor and director of his eponymous orchestra of instrumentalists from Central New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania.

It is really quite extraordinary and refreshingly reassuring to be able to hear soothing and majestic new American compositions.

It's wonderful to play as a DVD on the computer or in the car. This would also make wonderful music for ecclesiastical settings, school plays and a a terrific present to buy as a gift. Everyone would like it. It is available from Amazon.

Darlene Popkey has an audio CD called "Small Town" also available at Amazon. Piano and clarinet music combine to create lovely, classy music from these two award-winning musicians.

Christians Celebrate Christmas Day at Washington National Cathedral

Christmas Day is one of the most holy in the Christian calendar. As we Christians celebrate the holy Day each December 25th, as I do, we do it in ways most appropriate to our religious views and life work. Christians find it important to continue with their life work through the holidays: nurses and doctors, flight attendants and pilots, as well as organists and church ministers.

The point is we all experience this great holiday, if we are Christians, in ways appropriate to our circumstances. And therewith we can find contentment and satisfaction, especially if we can take time to give God the space to enter our lives. There is not only one perfect way to spend Christmas. Life is a kaleidoscope and so is this special day.

Washington National Cathedral in Washington, DC has online broadcasts of three Christmas services broadcast live, in color. Two were recorded on Christmas Eve and one just now on Christmas morning. The same Organist, choir and most of the same religious officials showed up again only a few hours later on Christmas morning.

All three worship services brought tears to my eyes; I wish I had been there in person. Just to be able to stop what one is doing and watch it online is priceless to me now.

Scott Dettra, Organist, Washington National Cathedral

The entire religious spectacle is one of the finest in all the world. The Organist, Scott Dettra, is surely one of the best in the world, if not the best.Wherever in the world you are, you can enjoy Christmas by taking the time to watch it online at Washington National Cathedral.

Please give generously to the National Cathedral. The church has wonderful services, and the institution supports many social services for those less fortunate - the homeless and hungry - and offers many affiliated social programs for education, with weekday classes and the Sunday Forums.  The Cathedral is a  tourist magnet, with many extra worship events to attend. Volunteers offer tours and a gift shop is now also online. The spectacular services, sermons and special events are accessible in archives at National Cathedral's website. The online  program of webcasts are significant in at least three ways:

1) They are useful for other houses of worship to follow as examples of fine practices.

2) They are available for all of us to enjoy, both live and recorded.

3) For the future, they will be historically significant recordings.

In full disclosure, this post was not in any way paid for by the National Cathedral or with any communication whatsoever.  

I watch (and write about) these recordings 250 miles away in New Jersey.

Humility Is Necessary To Civility

In a New York Times article about Diane von Furstenberg, the dress designer talks about her fashions in Beijing. Leaping from the article at me was not the content  -  about the expansion of her fashion company into China -- but how inclusive and friendly she appears to be. One can almost imagine knowing her already. Better, she could be one of your most likeable, best friends. This empathy must be a secret to her great success, apart from the actual product of clothing -- her DVF dress she is most known for.

The quality and viewpoint of any writing, as well as the content, to be sure, hook readers. The author of the DVF article could have turned against her with a different choice of words giving readers distinctly opposing impressions of the same person.

Journalistic stance saturates partisan politics; it goes with the territory. The truth gets slanted, warped and all but unrecognizable; aided and abetted with convenient deluges of statistics, many of which cannot be instantly verified in real time and then disputed, whether on television or in print. Politicians look weak if they do not have the numbers at their disposal. Even if numbers are wildly inaccurate, the fact they are said can make them believed. In the United States today, someone saying the most common place comments, whether they tell the truth or not, can bolster their comments with a few well-rehearsed statistics, and then turn into a brilliant celebrity.

It also happens with real estate. Agents can turn against other agents, houses, buyers. Attitudes are formed by knowledge, sometimes misinformation.

Sadly, people can misuse the natural tendency of others to believe and exploit that quality. We must be educated to be skeptical and question. We aren't always perfectly correct, but then neither is anyone else, as far as the truth is concerned. We all make mistakes when we try to master a new concept, a skill, a challenge. Often, we need to heed warnings. At the same time, just as we know we cannot be completely correct, neither is anyone else. The humility to understand that idea is a foundation stone of civility.

I see arrogance all over the place, and have to consciously calm myself often to remain civil. Have you had kind thoughts about someone until something makes you question that person's psychological stability, and maybe disappoint you? What methods do you use to remain civil, polite and well-liked when someone says something a bit, well, crazy?

Dinner and a Movie: Americans Try Dine-In Movie Theaters

AMC Dine-In Theaters

A Dine-In AMC Theater is an innovative way to see a movie and eat a relaxing meal at the same time.  Leather recliners at the Bridgewater Theater offer waiter/bar service at the press of a button along with very generous seat width and leg-room. Where else can one see a movie while being served, if so desired, a glass of wine and a salad, or a menu of heartier dishes and desserts?

 

Business people  and restaurant owners from around the world should visit these theaters for the new experience. It's surprisingly relaxing to have wait service and enjoy a movie at the same time. If it sounds too good to be true, please visit one -- this website  has further details. I really liked this new idea: a hotel/restaurant/shopping center combo with a dine-in theater. I don't know what, besides this competition, except litigation or tax incentives, could force traditional  movie theaters to offer better than the standard fare of over-priced soda/popcorn/nachos (which I have encouraged already). 

You probably know a few movie snobs. They won't go to movie theaters  because they can see everything at home with better privacy, cleanliness and food. But they have a new choice; not many home media rooms have the full package of services these theaters provide. They are exactly the audience now testing the Bridgewater Mall Dine-In Movie Theater, newly renovated and re-opened in December, 2010. With seven theaters, the entire cinema now has 684 seats. Aisles are wide enough to pass out food, and wait staff dressed in black are trained to speak quietly. Composite plateware with fork-friendly food together with movable tray tables and individual lighting make this experience resemble, even surpass, first class plane travel. The costs of seeing a movie quickly add up, and the varied menu and generous seating make this place actually a bargain. Seats can and no doubt will be reserved ahead.

It's great new way to see a movie with a few significant others, especially couples and lucky teenagers. We saw an excellent movie very conducive to watching while dining. Any movie would be great here, purely from the perspective of the best seats, where each one has a great view and lots of space, and the healthier food. "How Do You Know" is a sophisticated romantic comedy, dear to my heart, that announces heart-throb Paul Rudd, also in "The Cider House Rules" and "Knocked Up" in a major role, starring already huge Reese Witherspoon, Owen Wilson, and Jack Nicholson. 

A list of current Dine-In Theaters:

Atlanta

AMC Fork & Screen Buckhead 6

Dallas

AMC Grapevine Mills 30 *NOW OPEN*

Kansas City

AMC Studio 30AMC Mainstreet 6

New Jersey

AMC Essex Green 9 *NOW OPEN* AMC Bridgewater Commons 7 *NOW OPEN*  AMC Menlo Park 12 *COMING SOON* opening 12/15/2010 (full disclosure: no sponsorship by AMC) Personally, I can't watch 3D movies without feeling extremely nauseated; "Avatar" sent me to a doctor worried I had to sit out most of it. In gratitude, this was a completely different experience. It won't be long before we go back for another "dinner and a movie." Enjoy a Dine-In Theater near you if you can.

What Are Your Three Dream Wishes For The Holidays?

Here is a good topic of conversation for anyone fortunate enough to have precious time with friends and family:

If you could, who and what causes would you help first, second and third?

That's assuming you set aside all your desires for more and better clothes, surroundings, and so on, and supposing you had unlimited amounts of money, more than the richest person in the world. It's beneficial, you are sure to count your blessings and think of those less fortunate than yourself.

It's a great question to ask almost anyone, even close friends, because you will find out aspects of others you probably didn't imagine exist. It's a quick way to find out what your significant others care about deeply. For example, my friend wants to help someone with a prosthetic leg who needs a better one. Another would like to build a new barn for a horse rescue non-profit.

I hope during the upcoming holidays, you have time to think of some of the blessings you are grateful for, and can give generously, as much as you are able, to those in need of your kindness.

Gifts and Games: Findings from Positive Psychology

Try these 10 actions to get happier now:

 Give It Away, Give It Away Now! - G

 Take Initiative at Work - I

 Make Friends, Treasure Family - F

 Say Thank You Like You Mean It - T
Smile Even When You Don’t Feel Like It - S

 GIFTS

Have Meaningful Goals - G

Avoid Comparisons - A

 Put Money Low on the List - M

 Get Out and Exercise - E
Savor Everyday Moments - S

GAMES

 GIFTS and GAMES?
 Please forgive my anagrams.

More information in this article at  Alternet

Acknowledgements:
Jen Angel, Yes Magazine
Sonia Lyubomirsky, author, psychologist
E. Diener and R. Biswas-Diener and Stephen Post

Hope Your Thanksgiving Is Happy

         Freedom from Want, by Norman Rockwell, 1943

As we head into the conventional Thursday Thanksgiving Day holiday celebration here in America, we need to show gratitude for the blessings we have been given all year, including readers of this blog, and to celebrate the year's harvest of food. 

Whenever and wherever we celebrate, harvests binds cultures together. We can all relate to their significance. Harvest festival is earlier and religious in nature in England, usually during the month of September. Canada celebrates Thanksgiving Weekend as a long weekend, including a Monday holiday the first weekend in October, much the same as here.

At our house, we have goose, dry-brined for a day in a mixture of salt and spices. With that, we have braised vegetables, homebaked breads, Cold Soil wine from Terhune Orchards. This we finish with homemade cherry and apple pies and cheeses. It's a small celebration for us, just rather formal and filled with meaning and emotion. As we set the tablecloth on the table, arrange china and silverware and light the candles, we wish everyone good, fine conversation.

Thanksgiving Day is a holiday to celebrate with humility and gratitude, and who wouldn't want more of that?

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Be Careful Whom You Bring Home

Broadmoor Hospital

A recent interview aired on BBC radio Nov. 20, 2010  concerned Broadmoor, a high security psychiatric hospital in England for men. This notorious British hospital has housed numerous dangerous inmates and captured the imagination of the British public since Victorian times.

Dr. Gwen Adshead
The Independent

The interviewer questioned Dr. Gwen Adshead, the unexpectedly mellifluous New-Zealand-raised Psychiatrist and Forensic Psychotherapist (and here is a wonderful example of what is generally meant by the word, I think).

We heard that patients are not admitted voluntarily to Broadmoor. They are admitted when they are considered a risk to society and other people and then are frequently subjected to revisions and reviews.

These risk of violence of these patients is raised by:

1) a paranoid state of mind caused by drinking or drugs

2) anti-social attitudes, they don't like others and see others as a predator on prey

3) the homicidal

She asserted the surprising point: you are most likely to be murdered by a person you sleep with, so be careful whom you bring home.

Broadmoor patients are "survivors of a disaster of which they are the disaster."

Dr. Adshead emphasized there is no direct link between crime and mental illness. At the same time, a causal relationship needs to be looked at in brain scans, how they think, their behavior, how their childhood histories have affected them, their world views and how they regulate negative feelings.

The most common illnesses at Broadmoor are:

1) paranoid schizophrenia

2) major affective (mood) disorders

3) psychotic disorders (loss of contact with reality),

4) borderline (mood) disorders

5) anti-social, callous, cruel attitude to others.

Broadmoor has a further function; it protects the public from homicidal individuals. It's a rehabilitative, restorative, and therapeutic community, according to Dr. Adshead. We are "homo narrans." Humans love to tell stories, and make meaning out of our stories.

 In Broadmoor:

• 1/3 of patients came from prisons
• 1/3 were impossible to manage in general psychiatric settings.
• 1/3 had an incomprehensible natural "element to offend".

The patients and doctors look at diagnosis and treatment options and the fear that brought them there. Treatment options are available; patients come angry, frightened, resistant to treatment. At Broadmoor, they join "a community of the excluded." Everyone needs to be attached to where they feel more secure and can grow, she said,  and most become interested in treatments. Unfortunately, some patients enter Broadmoor nasty, cruel and predatory. Nurses have to work hard and learn not to retaliate.

When asked why she works there, she said that she is interested in why people want to hurt other people, and wanted to work with the best people on the most complicated cases. Dr. Adshead says they way a society treats the least loved members is a measure of the health of a society. She says Broadmoor is giving compassionate, highly skilled treatment, and she said "it's good to be part of it."

Wikipedia says patients stay from six months to thirty years at Broadmoor. Built in 1863, Broadmoor is located in Crowthorne, Berkshire, United Kingdom. Women  patients are housed at Southall. Other famous British psychiatric hospitals are Ashworth in Merseyside, Rampton, in Nottinghamshire and Carstairs in Scotland.

Click here for the interesting podcast interview at BBC.com.

Rules To Live By In America

Thomas Jefferson,  Third President, 1801-1809

Jefferson's Rules:

1. Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today.
2. Never trouble another for what you can do yourself.
3. Never spend money before you have earned it.
4. Never buy what you don't want because it is cheap; it will be dear to you.
5. Take care of your cents: Dollars will take care of themselves.
6. Pride costs us more than hunger, thirst and cold.
7. We seldom repent of having eaten too little.
8. Nothing is troublesome that we do willingly.
9. How much pain the evils have cost us that have never happened.
10. Take things always by the smooth handle.*
11. Think as you please, and so let others, and you will have no disputes.
12. When angry, count ten before you speak; if very angry, count a hundred.

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)
From "Canons of Conduct" Written for his namesake Thomas Jefferson Smith, Feb. 21, 1825.

* meaning, "the exchange of ideas must always be civil" or interpreted by the reader. (monticello.org)

Jefferson pared down this list in later life to exclude 5 and 11. Maybe he had money issues and disputes after all.

Idyllic Frenchtown, New Jersey: Visit Liz Gilbert's "two buttons" And Eat At The "Lovin Oven" Next Door

Lovin Oven, Frenchtown, New Jersey interior, from Josey Miller

While usually I write posts with an international audience in mind, this post will be a review in favor of a wonderful restaurant in Frenchtown, New Jersey. It's a hip, upscale hot spot with flowers and art, and wooden tables and an imaginative menu, partly vegan, with pastries and artisanal breads worthy of greater recognition.

This restaurant has the unusual name, the "Lovin Oven" and I was told to go there by a friend even though it's an hour's drive away. After hearing it shares the building with the Asian artifacts store called "two buttons" owned by the writer of the book "Eat, Pray, Love" now also a movie, Elizabeth Gilbert and her husband, Jose Nunes, I couldn't resist. Trusting this great recommendation and intrigued by the quirky name, I was pleased to finally hear the location of the Gilbert shop, which I had wanted to visit since reading the book.

I definitely recommend the Lovin Oven for sophisticated diners of any age. The scenery of Frenchtown is quaint and accessible, as it is in the other nearby towns of Stockton and Lambertville, some of my favorites in western New Jersey, all situated along the Delaware River. The new address of the  "Lovin Oven" where it has relocated from Milford is in a building with plenty of parking, shared with "two buttons" and a Pilates studio.

Service was friendly, and couldn't have been better. Not for ages have I felt sufficiently inspired to write a restaurant review here, which goes to show how worthy it is of more traffic. It was filled Friday evening, and will likely soon require reservations as they've only recently moved to this new location. After a thorough renovation, the building that used to be an old warehouse now looks unrecognizably different from the view on Google maps.

We enjoyed bruschetta with broccoli, tomatoes and cheese on fresh artisan bread. The tomato soup was very fresh and spicy. For the main course entree, grilled salmon was placed atop Israeli coucous, accompanied by broccoli and carrots. My tortellini had pesto filling and tomato sauce. Dee-licious! We followed these dishes with chocolate chip mint ice cream and Terhune Orchards plum sorbet. What a heavenly taste bouquet.

62 Trenton Avenue, (Route 29) Frenchtown, NJ 08825 - (908) 996-7714 Open Wed-Thu 8am-9pm; Fri-Sat 8am-10pm; Sun 8am-3pm. Wine welcome, byob.

For more information on Frenchtown, you might read a special article in the Washington Post by Josey Miller on July 9, 2010 or see the local magazine, the Frenchtowner.

photo: twobuttons.com

CNN Raises Awareness of Bullying And Homophobia

On CNN, anchor reporter Anderson Cooper (left) has taken up the cause of bullying more than any other journalist. In this video, he very skillfully and politely persuaded an anti-gay man, C. McCance (right), to publicly back down on homophobic rhetoric in his writing and to concurrently resign from his position as vice-president of an Arkansas school board.

Anderson Cooper did a fine job on air of publicly connecting a face with homophobia for millions of viewers around the world. This elected member of an education board in Arkansas clearly seemed surprised to find himself caught on international television. I have to commend Mr. Cooper for  using his platform to confront this official. (If only certain other right-wing American talk show hosts could be as helpful.)

More than that, Mr. Cooper should get a special award for raising public awareness of the ongoing social issue of bullying, since it overlaps and underlies so very many social issues and timely matters of current public policy socially, in the workplace and at schools. At the same time, spotlighting outrageous instances of outright homophobia can't hurt the LGBT community (not that I belong, but I happen to think homophobia is wrong).

It might interest my international readers to know that America's free public schools are controlled by locally elected school board members. These board members are obviously American, in my experience, and mostly Americans of many generations.

...At the same time, it might interest my American readers to learn that most free schools in other countries are not controlled by anyone other than school heads.

These American school boards in general worry me because they aren't necessarily filled with educators and the most educated and experienced people in the community. School boards get filled with citizens whose wish for board membership coincides with having the time and inclination to serve. The busiest and most experienced professionals and educators rarely serve on school boards. The trouble is, in America these board members make academic decisions on school matters in which they are far from expert.

We can only hope school board members do the right thing for  the sensitive, vulnerable young minds, the children like mine, on whose shoulders the future rests. The work Mr. Cooper did to expose this official is valuable to all whose children's educations rely on a fair and balanced school board, sadly an oxymoron. They should be accountable to communities; yes, that is definitely the least they should be.

Slavery: An Important Old Problem Revisited with an Expert: Kevin Bales, President of Free the Slaves

Did you know there are 27 million slaves in the world in 2010 and that many of them have been slaves for generations? So says Kevin Bales, President of Free the Slaves, U.S. sister organization of the world's oldest human rights organization, Anti-Slavery International.

Here are excerpts as a quick synopsis from an interview by Bales on Big Think with apologies for errors.

Slavery has always been the same thing. It's about a person who's completely controlled by another. 

There are many types of slavery, many of which have been unaltered for hundreds of years. In the 20th century, the price of human beings collapsed and changed the dynamics of slavery. There has been a population explosion in the world. Lack of the rule of law has made people vulnerable to slavery. Huge population and lack of the rule of law has an overlap, whereby people live on extreme deprivation and citizens are harvested, and there is a glut of humans. A given is the pool of potentially slaveable population group of 700 million. The number of 27 million could be far higher and thankfully, it isn't.

Nowadays enslavement starts with asking the question: "do you want a job?" Slaves are not initially usually taken by violence, or bought. People walk into slavery, as we all would, sometimes to feed children and then the enslaved are separated, and the threat of violence begins.

There is not a single way to stop slavery. There is not a silver bullet. Liberation workers do the dangerous work of kidnapping the enslaved. Community organization has to stop it. Direct intervention creates liberation. We wish governments would step in and stop it and do what they should do.

Domestic servitude is a form of slavery. Stopping slavery in any random location requires the sharp eyes of people around to liberate the enslaved. 

Warning signs of slavery:

• underage of employment
• not in school during school hours
• not well dressed
• working all hours
• frightened 
• hungry 
• injured
• fearful
• not knowing where they are
• sleep-deprived 

Slavery is a hidden crime. It's impossible to collect solid numbers. The academic world and the United Nations have estimated there are 27 million slaves in the world at the present time, plus or minus 5 million. 

Slavery is worst in: 

• India (largest number) 
• Burma (worst percentage-wise) 
• Nepal
• Pakistan (hereditary forms)
• Japan (worst in that police overlook it; they could improve it)
• Congo 
• 1 in 10 children live in slavery in Haiti (at Freetheslaves.net)

Governments could do better, even in America.

Myth: Slavery is not in America. Truth: It is.

Myth: Slaves are all prostitutes. Truth: America has numbers of 50,000 or more slaves. In U.S. sexual exploitation (prostitution) is less than half of that number. But it exists all around, and we are unaware of it.

The U.S. has always had slavery. We could be a slave-free country. The government has promised we will have a slave-free country. 17,000 are brought into America each year to be slaves, same number as homicides, but much less is spent on slaves than homicides. A crime almost as serious as murder getting little attention.

Slavery is prehistoric. It existed then in a fairly sophisticated way. Violence exploited people. Familial exploitation existed.  Changed from family exploitation to animal domestication model, e.g. Aristotle: the "ox is the poor man's slave".

Slaves are pre-legal; 30% of code of Hammurabi is about slavery. It is pre-monetary; slaves come after records of money. Slaves do not exist in every society. Slavery as a semi-permanent condition has evolved over 5,000 years. Slavery bankrolled payrolls of army legions and is linked to productive regional growth. Now, slavery generally involves the physical possession of people temporarily, rather than land.

Amazon: Joseph, Original Soundcast

American Drug Companies Pay Doctors To Sell Drugs

Do you ever worry a trusted doctor accepts secret payments from pharmaceutical companies at the expense of your life and health? Here's a place to check.

Investigative journalists have made an astounding report in ProPublica detailing how drug companies have cleverly managed to pay so little to get so much in many cases. Many payments they made are for a few hundred dollars in "speaking fees" where doctors tout a drug. It's not surprising doctors would accept the money, since they can be bombarded by drug company incentives. In fact, it's surprising how few did accept payments, at least according to this report, and most payments were surprisingly small (in the hundreds of dollars). But many doctors have accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars. Whether they earned it is not within the scope of this article, although the article mentions doctors sometimes only had to attend seminars to get paid.

ProPublica's report includes a national American database, check-able by state and by name of doctor, linked here. It says there is nothing wrong or illegal about doctors taking money from companies manufacturing drugs. In fact, some doctors assert they do so because they are "so good" at what they do. We cannot verify that advice.The problem is, more than seventy drug companies did not disclose their payments publicly, so this list may potentially be the tip of the iceberg. 

The database is restricted in many ways, unfortunately:

• Payments to group practices were also excluded from this database; only  doctors practicing alone were included.  
• Some doctors evidently have not received board certifications. 
• The government removes older disciplinary procedures from websites.
• We cannot be sure how long these doctors have accepted payments from drug companies. 

Perhaps that is the true point of the article: not only do we as patients not know how much money doctors make from drug companies and where it comes from, we can't find out how long it's been going on or how it influences their  practice of medicine without asking them, which we wouldn't.

The investigation found proof of practices as sleazy as one would suspect and fear possible. Doctor speakers were dropped if they did not write substantial prescriptions for a company. Doctors accepted "preceptor-ship programs" to allow sales representatives to spend time observing their practices, when in fact the sales reps were paid to use the time to push drugs to doctors. The report found evidence of illegal marketing of "off-label" uses of the drugs, i.e. those not approved by U.S. government regulators. Doctors rewarded for being "top injectors." Even vacation resort fees were covered.

While whistleblowers have tried to level the field,  skepticism about the purity of prescription-givers abounds in America. Consumer Reports found in  a study that 58% of Americans assume doctors give speeches paid for my drug companies, 51% believe that less than $500 could influence a doctor's judgment and 40% would not feel comfortable asking their doctors if they accept payments from a drug company for a drug they prescribe...a low number when considered, as if 60% would ask.

 Do you think all doctors should post how much and exactly what they accept from each and every pharmaceutical company on their waiting room walls and on their websites? Do you think they ever will?

ProPublica has achieved a victory with this report and found a great deal of truth however limited to disclose.

Full-disclosure: hip and spine injections by a Physiatrist have improved my own life immeasurably. While, doctors and drug companies by themselves are not the problem, our problem is with secret payments to doctors from drug companies possibly compromising the judgments of doctors.

Restoring Power to The Powerless With Love

The statistics in my last post regarding the zero percentage divorce rate of line repairmen challenged me to find out about it. Today, I got to put the idea to the test. The electrical power to the house had an outage and in came repairmen from the power company to fix the buried line going out to the street that is half a mile away. At first, I was upset that the company had hung up on my phone call when I reported it and they hadn't taken my address, causing me to call back. (I was upset when they asked for my customer service number in the pitch black when it was all I could do to get through to the toll-free number for outages.)

Anyway, Luis, the repairman, was very kind when I talked to him outside, and he noticed my necklace and complimented it. After getting over my surprise, I told him about my friends making jewelry and my own blog, and how I like to make jewelry, and he said he helps his wife make jewelry, too, part-time as well as elevating himself four floors above ground in a cherry-picker to cut cables as his full-time job.

The point is, he spoke very lovingly about his wife over and over again, and I was very impressed with his sweetness. He also told me about a location where his wife would be selling jewelry today, so I would have the opportunity to meet her. Of course, I went over and introduced myself to her. She also had enjoyed a very successful real estate career for nineteen years, which I wanted to hear more about. I had not ever heard two people so in love with each other and talking so well of the other for decades. 

It was very beautiful and at the time, I had forgotten about the statistic that line repairmen are among the least divorced of men. Turns out they were both divorced years before they met each other, thus challenging that statistic (not that I disapprove). They were in the same second grade classes and then met up many years later. Both of them say the other is the very best thing that happened to them, and so on. It was very nice and refreshing to hear such love and devotion in their voices, and it made a very romantic story.

So, while it may be true that the very first line repairman I spoke to would render the statistic false, at the same time, he proves that it doesn't make any more sense not to love another woman any more than it would be to stop eating and breathing, and restoring power to those without it. Thanks for the lesson, Luis!

Telephone Repairmen Have Most Solid Marriages On Average

icsscale.com
According to Business Insider, divorce rates are lowest in the following professions:

• Media & communication equipment workers -- 0% divorce rate
• Agricultural engineers -- 1.78% divorce rate
• Optometrists -- 4.01% divorce rate
• Transit and railroad police -- 5.26% divorce rate
• Clergy -- 5.61% divorce rate
• Directors of religious activity -- 5.88% divorce rate
• Sales engineers -- 6.61% divorce rate
• Podiatrists -- 6.81% divorce rate
• Nuclear engineers -- 7.29% divorce

Portrait of a farmer [unidentified], [ca. 1910]
John Boyd
Archives of Ontario, I0003403

In case you are wondering about the opposite, most divorce-prone professions, here's a link for more information. I have to admit, these are riveting statistics, if true.

My angle is that marriage, in its essence, is the relationship between two private people. Individually, as far as the people we know, relationships aren't really any of our business, unless we are called upon as marriage counselors (as few of us are). So it's wise to steer clear with casual judgments about marriages and help let marriages keep their inscrutable mystery and ineffable romance. 

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/highest-divorce-rates-by-profession-2010-9#bonus-these-are-the-professions-that-dont-get-divorced-16#ixzz11KqXpv

How Ink is make

Thanks to Huffington Post:
"Set to Alfred Brendel's lyrical Piano Concerto No.5 in E flat major, it shows the process from top to bottom of how ink is made. And it turns out that that process is not only more interactive than we would have expected, but its also vivid and even balletic."

Whitman's Forgetfulness Hits Home in California

Nicky Diaz and Meg Whitman, courtesy Daily Beast

Now I don't live in California, but who isn't mesmerized by a rich lady running as Governor of California who claims she will be unbiased to workers because she spent USD$100 million of her own dollars on her campaign? If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Unfortunately, this fairy tale is being tarnished by the tears of Meg Whitman's former housemaid/nanny of ten years who claims Ms. Whitman dropped her completely and suddenly with the revelation her papers were not in order...after 10 years of household, personal service.

How credible will the polygraph Ms. Whitman "volunteers" to have be? Meaningless. Polygraphs are always voluntary in the U.S. That girl's tears told me more than I wanted to hear when I saw the clip on television. Her noted women's rights attorney, Gloria Allred, wouldn't support just anyone. 

If Meg Whitman is not expert enough on immigration to know the legal status of her household help, God help California. How on earth she got this issue wrong, I can't fathom.

Of course, I could be mistaken and this housemaid incident might be fake.  I am also aware that the entire issue is probably being promoted and funded by Whitman's opposition. At the same time, this is not trivial; just think of former female Supreme Court nominees denied the chance to serve because of immigration issues of their former employees.

Democrat, Republican, doesn't matter to me, but ignorance on the matter of legal immigration by any former CEO running for Governor is just shocking to me, and inexcusable. Whitman clearly must have been totally clueless and lax about legal immigration compliance at eBay when she was CEO, too. She should have had the knowledge of  immigration paperwork down pat, or at least the basic legalities.

Why is she only now making a show of cleaning up her act, when she probably doesn't really need a nanny after all, anymore at this point? With all her millions, she could have shown more class and offered the lady a pension. She also should have checked the nanny's legal status as a starter, which would have taken a minute ten years ago. Too late now.

America Invites Hostility With Immigration Laws

Here's another angle to the American immigration issue. I have a friend who gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to a major East Coast private school here after her five children attended the school. Now, however, she's not allowed into the country because she overstayed her visa. She also dropped a lot of money on real estate here, and she can't get to her properties.

To be sure, America doesn't want to be accused of giving priority of access to rich people. At the same time, in many areas of American life such as entrance to elite American prep schools, money screams. In cities, those with money get more respect (just tell me they don't) and likely in the country, too. Money is the most important determinant of the celebrated American quality of life.

The point is that a government that allows a school to accept foreign donations, shouldn't  allow that school to accept the money with one hand, and push away the donor with the other. If the money is accepted by a school, then it is a gift, to be sure; no one  disputes the  high value of my friend's gift to the school.  American laws now allow schools to accept donations by foreigners. And American society allows foreign investments in real estate without allowing access to the country. That's like taking free food for dinner  from a donor who isn't good enough to sit with you and eat it. It doesn't make sense. Something tells me America's behind the curve on immigration. Just where to draw the line is not my concern here.

If she feels angry at America, I would not find her sentiments unjustified in the least.

What Exactly Are Current Democratic Ideals?

An idea from Dean Lloyd's sermon yesterday has me thinking about the international ideals of freedom of speech and the press. Democratic ideals in employment concern freedom from gender discrimination, age-ism and size-ism, among many others. Lofty they may be, and the world has a long way to go to reach these ideals. 

This week the United Nations meets in New York to discuss the Millenium Development Goals for the year 2015 (in my previous post inspired by Melinda Gates), concerning:

1. poverty
2. education
3. gender equality
4. child mortality
5. maternal health
6. disease eradication
7. environmental sustainability and 
8. global development partnerships. 

Truly, there is something for everyone in these goals. At least one of them is sure to be a passionate concern of yours.  It's well-known that being generous through helping and giving to others makes it possible to attain happiness, that most fleeting and elusive of all human goals.  Definitely, this is the one perfectly indisputable incentive or reason to help.  By helping others achieve these goals, you will help yourself to achieve happiness. This is a related, famous phrase:

Happiness is like a butterfly which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.  ~Nathaniel Hawthorne

National Cathedral's Dean Lloyd on Immigration: The New Math

http://www.american-architecture.info/USA/USA-Washington/DC-002.htm

 Today at Washington's National Cathedral, The Very Rev. Samuel T. Lloyd III gave a wonderful sermon at the beginning of this new school year, and spoke inspirational words of guidance on immigration, for example, "God will stop at nothing to bring us home..."

He has seen in American society the idea "you are what you accomplish."  Ironically, he sees "gracelessness" in action these days in the  attitudes, the firestorms of Americans toward immigrants. Yet we depend on immigrants, and we  are all ourselves descended from other countries.

Where is the spirit of God's grace, generosity and justice, he wonders. Police can arrest without warrant people who appear to be undocumented in Arizona. Where is the  compassion for children of undocumented immigrants who are being cut out of healthcare and schooling?

Dean Lloyd said we need as a nation God's New Math: a generous framework of grace to frame our conversation about this difficult matter. For if we only look out for ourselves and fend for ourselves, we will live in crisis indefinitely. We need to help one another.

The main message from God is "you are loved with a limitless, fathomless, all-embracing love."

It was a fine, indeed, an excellent sermon which I cannot do justice to in this short summary,. Listen to it in its entirety here at the National Cathedral website. Sunday services and many special events from the Cathedral are now streamed live online.  Please give generously to the Cathedral, an independent, self-sufficient institution that depends on monetary support from visitors and listeners.

Dream On

A dream is an answer to a question we haven't learned to ask

~Fox Mulder in The X-Files~

WE Dream in fragments. We feel good if a dream is vivid, continuous and happy. Dreams are beneficial in very many ways: they help make connections in thoughts unresolved during your waking hours; they make emotions reappear about a certain issue, and solve challenges that may have been haunting waking hours. Dream-filled sleep can provide the healing healthfulness to move forward from loss, hardship and sorrow. Dreams can warn of threats or bring to the surface important matters forgotten during conscious busy hours.

Sometimes it takes a waking reality to interpret dreams, especially concerning hope, fear and deprivation. But dreams can open up the possibilities of deeper, hidden meanings, especially if kept and thoughtfully considered over time in a journal. Many creative people assert they work better after an effective sleep.

Consider what gives you better sleep. Having an exhausting day is sure to induce sleep, dream-filled or not. For many, having a good mattress, a quiet room and nice surroundings provide the sleep hygiene they need. But it goes further than that to how healthy and comfortable the body feels, and having a pre-sleep routine helps create relaxation and peace.

Aren't dreams strange? I hope you all have happy dreams tonight. Here's a nice soporific photo of a rainbow chosen to symbolize hope of a better world tomorrow.

stuckincustoms.com

Melinda Gates On U.N.'s Millennium Development Goals

Melinda Gates has written an article in Huffington Post about "The Future We'll Make" photo campaign. The goal is to edge closer to reaching the Millennium Development Goals.

She wants

every child to get vaccinated

 Bill and Melinda Gates


They say

polio will be eradicated

and we should

promote gender equality

In her article, Melinda Gates asks that you take these four steps: download and personalize a sign, post your photo on Flickr and join the discussion.

Here are the United Nation's Millennium Development Goals:

• Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
• Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education
• Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women
• Goal 4: Reduce child mortality
• Goal 5: Improve maternal health
• Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
• Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability
• Goal 8: Develop a Global Partnership for Development

Make Your Own List Of "Top Universities"

An organization called QS has published a list of "top universities" and a separate list of top Asian universities. For your information, QS stands for  "QS Quacquarelli Symonds Limited  and has a so-called Registered Office at 1 Tranley Mews, Fleet Road London, NW3 2DG UK. Anyway, Huffington Post and who knows who else has taken this list seriously enough to make a slideshow.

My own list of favorite universities would be just as valid (and free of cost) as the QS list because it's all a matter of opinion. I think the phrase "top university" has a personal flavor just as, say, choosing where to live is a personal choice. In other words, an arbitrary list of "top universities" is meaningless, silly and possibly harmful if students go to a certain university based primarily on legend.

Undergraduate universities and colleges will suit students who want the location and amenities offered, whether in cities or in rural, enclosed campuses. Graduate students tend to choose universities based on availability of courses with certain favored professors to follow chosen individual career paths. Universities that work at one time might not work at another era in one's life.

Students can do the work of thinking of what they want to get out of university and how they learn best. Anyone can make up a list of favorite universities, and there is nothing wrong with that, but the list you make for yourself from your own research is the very best one. What circumstances do you think will give you the most value for the time and money you will give to your years of education?

What I think would be more useful for parents than a list of "top universities" is to guide parents to think of what they want in a university for their children. They should look up course guides and see photos of interiors and exteriors of buildings now online. Universities are as different as cities.

What Goes Around Will Come Around

Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland
ejpress.org

The most important article I have read all week concerns the issue of civil liberties as reported to the United Nations international council on human rights. The U.N. Human Rights Council has a Universal Periodic Review process where all countries of the world assess self-compliance. The goal is to further human rights compliance around the world and the U. N. expects powerful nations to lead by example.

Concerning this year's recently submitted Review, Arizona Gov. Brewer fatuously calls America's participation in it "internationalism run amok" and "unconstitutional." She claims irrelevantly that America - in comparison to Libya - would "win in any such comparison" (not saying much, and demonstrating her personal lack of understanding of the goals of a Council representing 47 countries).

Ironically, she herself is governing at the same time with the power (and powerlessness) of a dictator from an African country (such as Libya) within her own state; she has sanctioned racial profiling without having mitigated paperwork inefficiencies that created the national immigration emergency in the first place.

Her mountain-sized sense of American entitlement has clearly ballooned out of all proportion. Why would any state governor challenge an international inquiry into human rights abuse? A sense of guilt or shame would be more appropriate considering all the human rights violations that are resulting from laws passed on her watch in her state.

The larger issue is that America's front door to speedy legal immigration has closed, and the sooner politicians wise up to a true and genuine emergency and solve the problem, the better it will be for everyone. Improving immigration administration is the higher road to travel that will ultimately satisfy the U.N. Human Rights Council.

I happen to care about American immigration and think I know what to do about it: speed up the paperwork. It's not a mystery. Americans should demand ruthless efficiency of their government as the number one priority, whether it's for visas, green cards, citizenship or passport processing.

Reporting Arizona law to UN was correct, CNN, by ACLU's C. Bhatnagar and A.S. Meetze.

Lang Lang Excels at Rimsky-Korsakov----April, 2010 San Francisco

This video shows Lang Lang unexpectedly demonstrating the Flight of the Bumblebee on an iPad.


courtesy:charissalui

Oxford University Dictionary Goes Digital: Not to Worry

The Oxford University Press (OUP) has announced that complete dictionary sets have become so obsolete they may stop publishing them.

The Press accumulated roughly $734 million in sales of 30,000 boxed sets (pictured above) at about $1,000 each over 21 years.

In contrast, the Press' new online digital dictionary has two million subscribers already paying $295 per year creating new revenue of $600 million in the last year alone.

In other words, the OUP is solvent at least for now. And for what it's worth, unlike this blogger, I didn't get any consideration at all for writing this piece - and haven't for any other. If I ever do, I'll acknowledge it.

From the Emmy Award Show:

Here's a clip that made me smile. Well worth watching, this video from the Emmy Award Show last night gets better after the start with terrific singing, dancing and acting.

Drive, Work, Learn, Shop, Eat in Princeton, New Jersey

There has been a problem in the town of Princeton for many years about the issue of tax payments to the town. The university used to pay little in taxes, but now Princeton pays more than other ivy league universities, such as Harvard and Yale, which paid $4 and $7 respectively to Princeton's $10 in millions of dollars.

Despite this unusual generosity, townspeople are resentful of the apparent wealth of the university. They relentlessly push Princeton University at every available opportunity to pay more taxes, most famously, for public education.

Palmer Square, Princeton, New Jersey

Would the town have the same desirability without the university? Does it really fancy it is "Greenwich or Beverly Hills with a University"? I would say Princeton isn't the same. While the town has fine real estate, its healthy international reputation is the beneficiary of the prestige of Princeton University.

Nassau Street, Princeton, New Jersey

Around the world, everyone has heard of  Princeton, because of Princeton University, but like Stanford University, the town itself is somewhat more of a mystery. Do people really live there? At Stanford University, professors live near the university and spill over into the City of Palo Alto and other suburbs of San Francisco. At Princeton, professors live in the surrounding town of the same name and the area, roughly halfway between New York and Philadelphia. Harvard doesn't have a town in the Boston area of Massachusetts named after it, and professors tend to live in towns around the university.

 

Nassau Street, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey

Many professors in general like to have a reliably and conveniently short commute and that is why the real estate around colleges and universities tend to be relatively stable, and affluent around the Ivy League Universities. I have no doubt that Princeton will continue to be one of the most winning places to live in America. 

Princeton is an idyllic place to live, with a very desirable climate and surrounded with beautiful real estate, large estates and substantial country houses built of stone and many  new areas in surrounding townships. Princeton is also the headquarters of hedge funds, pharmaceutical and technology companies. For entertainment, the McCarter Theater, music at Richardson Auditorium and the attractions of nearby Symphonies beckon, as do the close proximity of the Jersey shore, the Poconos, movie theaters, trains to airports and cities. 

McCarter Theater, University Ave at College Rd, Princeton, New Jersey

In addition, Princeton has an established philanthropic base with countless  social events to benefit the homeless,  medical services, and homeless pets. It also has the greatest concentration of private schools in America and is  the location of the home of the Governor of New Jersey as he commutes to the nearby state Capitol building in Trenton. But townies in Princeton shouldn't forget the University makes the town thrive and attracts tourists from all over the world, not the real estate. It might, however, be the real estate that makes tourists want to stay, become residents and pay taxes.

Studies Indicate Body Mass Index of 23 is Optimal

We've all heard that excess weight shortens human lifespan. Medical researchers have now announced statistical evidence that Body Mass Index or BMI numbers of 23 and 24 are optimal for good health. Among the 900,000 men and women in a study, mortality was lowest in that narrow range, according to an interesting  press release from the British Medical Research Council.

Here is a BMI table of heights and weights:

In the study, moderately obese individuals (BMI 30-35) had lifespans reduced by 3 years. Worse, severely obese  individuals (BMI 40-50) had lifespans reduced by 10 years, similar to the effect of lifelong smoking. There was also a higher death rate among those who had a BMI well below 23-24, where more information would be helpful.

Obesity is a serious public health problem with increasingly global consequences. Do you know what your BMI is today?

T. Colin Campbell

The China Study by Colin Campbell draws very interesting conclusions as far as the virtues of recommending a plant-based diet for optimum nutritional and health benefits are concerned. Thousands of studies indicate it's the best way to head off heart disease and strokes, all kinds of cancers and autoimmune diseases.

In my early twenties, I worked in the office of venerable former Head of the British Medical Research Council in Oxford, Sir Richard Doll, when he was Warden of Green College, now Green Templeton College, Oxford. He now has a building named after him, and I also met Sir Richard Peto mentioned in this release many times. In fact, I may have met Colin Campbell, too, which is why I trust this work. Incidentally, another very nice nutritionist, Barbara Rolls, who eventually created the Volumetrics Diet was an acquaintance at Green College, too.