Jan 24 - Vital Statistics (The Most Miserable Day redux)

January 24 is the 24th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 341 days remaining until the end of the year (342 in leap years).
Earliest day on which Saturday of Souls can fall, while February 27 (or 28 during Leap Year) is the latest; observed 57 days before Easter. (Eastern Orthodox)
Feast of Our Lady of Peace (Roman Catholic Church), and its related observances:

Births

• 3 BC – Galba, Roman Emperor (d. 69)
• 76 – Hadrian, Roman Emperor (d. 138)
• 1287 – Richard Aungerville, English bishop (d. 1345)
• 1444 – Galeazzo Maria Sforza, Duke of Milan (d. 1476)
• 1540 – Edmund Campion, English Jesuit (d. 1581)
• 1679 – Christian Wolff, German philosopher (d. 1754)
• 1705 – Farinelli, Italian castrato (d. 1782)
• 1712 – King Frederick II of Prussia (d. 1786)
• 1746 – King Gustav III of Sweden (d. 1792)
• 1848 – Vasily Surikov, Russian painter (d. 1916)
• 1862 – Edith Wharton, American writer (d. 1937)
• 1916 – Rafael Caldera, President of Venezuela (d. 2009)
• 1917 – Ernest Borgnine, American actor
• 1918 – Oral Roberts, American evangelist (d. 2009)
• 1939 – Ray Stevens, American musician
• 1941 – Neil Diamond, American singer
• 1941 – Aaron Neville, American singer
• 1943 – Sharon Tate, American actress and Manson murder victim (d. 1969)
• 1945 – D. Todd Christofferson, American religious figure
• 1947 – Warren Zevon, American musician (d. 2003)
• 1949 – John Belushi, American actor (d. 1982)
• 1950 – Gennifer Flowers, American actress, political figure
• 1951 – Yakov Smirnoff, Ukrainian-born American comedian
• 1957 – Mark Eaton, American basketball player
• 1961 – Nastassja Kinski, German-born actress
• 1965 – Carlos Saldanha, Brazilian film director
• 1968 – Mary Lou Retton, American gymnast
• 1974 – Ed Helms, American actor
• 1979 – Tatyana Ali, American actress and singer

Deaths

• 41 – Caligula, Emperor of Rome (b. 12)
• 1002 – Otto III, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 980)
• 1125 – David IV of Georgia (b. 1073)
• 1366 – Alfonso IV of Aragon (b. 1299)
• 1376 – Richard FitzAlan, 10th Earl of Arundel, English military leader
• 1595 – Ferdinand II of Austria (b. 1529)
• 1895 – Lord Randolph Churchill, British politician (b. 1849)
• 1962 – Stanley Lord, captain of the SS Californian the night of the Titanic disaster (b. 1877)
• 1965 – Winston Churchill, soldier, politician, historian, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Nobel laureate (b. 1874)
• 1971 – William Griffith "Bill" Wilson, American co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous (b. 1895)
• 1982 – Alfredo Ovando Candía, Bolivian president and dictator (b. 1918)
• 1983 – George Cukor, American film director (b. 1899)
• 1986 – L. Ron Hubbard, American writer and founder of Scientology (b. 1911)
• 1989 – Ted Bundy, American serial killer (b. 1946)
• 1992 – Ricky Ray Rector, American murderer (b. 1950)
• 1993 – Thurgood Marshall, U.S. Supreme Court Justice (b. 1908)
• 2006 – Chris Penn, American actor (b. 1965)
• 2010 – Pernell Roberts, American actor & singer, last surviving star of Bonanza (b. 1928)

I Put a Spell On You (Friday the 13th)

Salem Witches Hold ‘Ritual’ to Stop Tebow & Broncos From Winning

It’s Friday the 13th — a day that may cause some of the more superstitious among us some angst. But it seems Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow, who by all accounts has had a mixed bag of luck on the football field, may need to pray a little bit harder this weekend.

A group of witches held what FOX News called “a seance” at noon today in Salem, Mass., in an attempt to cast a spell that would lead Tebow and his team to defeat.

I think the Patriots need cuter cheerleaders



Laurie ‘Lorelei’ Stathopoulos and Lori Bruno, two women who are well-known in the “spiritual” community, planned to assemble at Crow Haven Corner, a witch shop in Salem, to rally the sprits in an effort to bring the New England Patriots to victory on Saturday evening.

I’m going to raise the energy of the universe and send out all the good mojo,” Lorelei said in an interview with the Boston Herald. “Lori will call in the Angels.”

To summons the spirits, the witches planned to chant, “Tom Brady will see what he needs to see, be where he needs to be and will take the Patriots to another victory.”

Of course, they said that they don’t plan to hex Tebow, as they’re “good witches.” On their altar, they said they’d have a hand-sewn Brady puppet and “mojo bags” containing herbs and stones for each member of the Patriots.

No witches were actually burned at the event.

Now you almost didn't see it (What?)

Cornell Scientists Did ... Something ... With Light

Cornell researchers have invented a "time masker," according to an AP article , which is capable of hiding "an event for 40 trillionths of a second" by altering not where the light flows but how fast it moves, changing in the dimension of time, not space.

Huh? What was that?

"You kind of create a hole in time where an event takes place," the study's co-author, Alexander Gaeta, director of Cornell's School of Applied and Engineering Physics, explains. "You just don't know that anything ever happened." 

Oh. Okay. Well, that explains everything.

So what we have is an invisibility cloak.

Newt Gingrich is a jerk!

Did I say that out loud?

Yeah. Fascinatingly intelligent man who lets his temperament turn him into an ugly public face. The whole "I'm running a positive campaign until I'm pissed that I didn't win Iowa" is troublesome. Not that I'm a fan of Romney, but what did you expect, Newt? So now you go back on your word and demonstrate your ability to blow like a leaf in the wind to any change. Okay, new tactic. Quit claiming you are the principled one and that you are the "conservative" candidate and the successor to Ronald Reagan. You've been conservative, but you've also played the enlightened liberal (just like Mitt).

Instead, focus on playing up your adaptability and ability to get on the bandwagon of political change and pretend you were part of it all along (teaparty candidate, my ass!) Let people know that you can lead, you just need to borrow a cause, and you can take it from there.

Second thought, nah. We already have a commander-in-chief who lives by sour grapes and blasts back at all his critics. We don't need another.

Wow! I'm suddenly like really hungry for a cold-cut sandwich right now.

For my sweetheart

Bet she never sees this...

One Weird Old Trick

I have been inundated with these stupid, stupid ads. I can’t take it anymore. It has hit the level of absurd. Daily I have to hear about someone in ERIE (yes, they use targeted advertising and know where my DNS pings) who has discovered a weird old trick to do something fantastic. Supposedly, I can use this old tip, which, by the way, is weird, to do the same. Often these ads are accompanied by the most ridiculous pictures you’ve ever seen.

Allegedly this weird old trick was discovered by a single mom…a paraplegic soldier…an unemployed first responder…or any other sympathetic character. The hope is that you are simply consumed with curiosity to know what the heck is that ONE weird secret. This urge is further augmented by the noted fact that the powers that be don't want you to know.  These are the one percenters keeping the 99% down. Michael Moore is doing a documentary on it. They don't want the masses to know how easy it is to:

·         Increase muscle mass

·         Increase breast size (absurd photo accompanies this)

·         Enlarge a male member 

·         Lose weight or spot reduce an area, usually belly fat

·         Pay your mortgage off in a fraction of the time (bankers don’t want you to know this weird old trick)

·         Brighten teeth (dentists hate the person who discovered this weird old trick)

·         Clear up acne (dermatologists hate the person who discovered this weird old trick)

·         Pay pennies for car insurance

·         Go back to school for free (one weird old trick?)

·         Beat a traffic ticket (police don’t want you to know about this weird old trick)

·         Get out of a DUI.

·         Make your own electricity at home (utilities companies don’t want you to know about this weird old trick)

·         Etc, etc, etc…

If you click on the ad you will be taken to a fake blog (flog) or a fake article (farticle) where the hard sell really begins. You may even be sold real products – acai berries, for example – but they will not spot reduce belly fat or enlarge a sex organ.

I wish there was a weird old trick to make these ads go away! Evidently they have discovered one wierd old trick for driving gullible traffic to their websites.  

Merry Frickin' Christmas (Depression and Diabetes Redux)

If you have read through my blog posts you know that I am interested in the comorbidity of depression and diabetes. Increasingly, I am seeing more and more on this topic in mainstream sources. The holiday season is a particular stress on diabetics. The reasons are not as obvious as they may seem.

Yes, it is harder to control blood sugars if all that temptation in the form of treats are always stuck in front of your face. But it goes beyond that. The real stress of the holidays (and yes, I know the holidays are stressful for everyone) comes more in the social interaction demands. The co-occurrence of mood swings and diabetes makes this season a particularly difficult one for many diabetics. I can't tell you the extent of my own difficulties in juggling the "merriness" of the season with my opposite affect syndrome. Indirect B always comes back with a vengence. Anyway, consider the article below.

This latest comes from RealAge.com

3 Reasons to Curb High Blood Sugar

No doubt you already know about diabetes' scary complications, from heart disease to blindness and nerve damage, but did you know that diabetes can take a huge toll on your personal life, too? According to data we analyzed from 1 million RealAgers, it can impact your life in 3 key ways:

1. Relationships. People with diabetes are far less likely than nondiabetics to spend time with friends or relatives. They're also more than twice as likely as those without diabetes to say they're unhappily married. That's not surprising. Diabetes can make you prone to depression and anxiety, both of which are hard on relationships. It can also put the brakes on your sex life by causing vaginal dryness in women, and low testosterone and erectile dysfunction in men.

2. Depression. People with diabetes were twice as likely as the general population to suffer from depression. Diabetes may cause changes in the brain that contribute to depression, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. The stress and expense of managing an all-encompassing condition like diabetes also can make you more vulnerable to depression.

3. Finances. Diabetics are three times more likely than nondiabetics to report severe financial stress. This may be because type 2 diabetes hits low-income communities especially hard, but diabetes is expensive no matter where you live. According to the American Diabetes Association, people newly diagnosed with diabetes spend $4,174 a year more on medical costs than those who don't have diabetes. That figure goes up another $158 every year after that.