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I do like community...and while I prefer to be 'invisible', I don't like to be alone. I want to see the research, now...
Group culture protects from depression
from the Press Release page of The Royal Society
28 Oct 2009
Collectivistic cultures, which promote social harmony over individuality, protect people who are genetically predisposed to depression from experiencing the condition. So says a study published today in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, which looks at how genes and environment can evolve together.
People living in individualistic cultures such as Western societies are more likely to suffer from a genetic tendency for depression than people in Eastern cultures, despite fewer people carrying the specific 'depression gene' being studied, say psychologists Joan Chiao and Katherine Blizinsky from Northwestern University. The research supports the idea that depression can result from both genes and the environment, and an interaction of the two.
( Read more... )
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I would be remiss if I didn't link to ![[info]](http://s.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png) alliwantisanelf's marvelous series of posts from last year in honor of Fire Prevention Month, including the very useful stuff people brought up in the comments. It's too easy to take for granted that our cities won't burn to the ground, but in fact, it's always a danger- this is why I support my local fire department's fund-raising activities, and hope you support your local fire department, too.
That said, anyone bring the marshmallows?
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Librettist needed for operetta project (General)
Date: 2009-09-28, 10:24AM PDT
Reply to: gigs-kx4wz-1396463358@craigslist.org
ASCAP composer seeks librettist for collaboration on an original operetta concept.
Libretto experience preferred, but poetry and/or dramaturgical background also acceptable.
Enthusiasm, versatility, and imaginativeness a must.
Familiarity with Broadway and operatic idioms recommended.
Enjoyment of "cult classic" science fiction, horror, and/or dystopian cinema also preferred.
Project seeks to fuse the so-called "New Wave/Neo-Romantic movement" of American opera and musical theatre ("Dead Man Walking", "Harvey Milk", "Little Women"/ "Sweeney Todd", "Wicked") with the idioms of the cinematic styles mentioned above (see the work of George Romero, John Carpenter, David Cronenberg and Roger Corman, among others) to create a truly engaging new work for a new generation of operagoers.
CA [California] residence not required, as most collaboration will likely take place via email, etc.
* Location: General
* it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests
* Compensation: Project is speculative, however, any eventual profits/fees will be divided as close to 50/50 as possible.
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I'll credit Peter Shankman at HARO [Help a Reporter Out] with turning me on to Mothers Emerge Worldwide, an educational and experience-sharing website and fund-raising through micro-business venture. I admire what the founder's done and what the website offers. If you've given birth, are considering pregnancy, or know someone who is, I recommend this new, growing site.
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From their facebook Cause page:(it's a cause I support, IRL)
Help Us Wish John Well & Thank Him For His Service
In today's message:
1. John Abodeely is moving on, let's send him off with a big Thank You!
2. John has a request before he goes.
3. Share your wins with us!
1. John Abodeely has served Americans for the Arts as the Arts Education Manager and is moving on to the Kennedy Center in DC. We support the move and are sad for the loss. He is a consummate professional who has helped the Cause and the arena of Arts Education tremendously. Please feel free to wish him well at jabodeely@artsusa.org by September 25th.
"I've learned a lot. There are amazing people at Americans for the Arts. My colleagues are brilliant, wonderful, smart and have taught me so much That's been awesome. It's an amazing organization." - John Abodeely
Working together, he's helped us accomplish a lot!
2. John has a request before he goes - BLOG-A-THON GOING ON NOW!
This week, all week, 30 arts education experts from around the country will blog daily on Americans for the Arts’ new arts education blog and webpage: www.AmericansForTheArts.org/ArtsEdu cation.
Our esteemed bloggers will be talking about steps each reader can take to ensure the children in their family, schools or community have access to a great arts education.
Our bloggers will include members of the Arts Education Council of Americans for the Arts; Lucia Brawley, activist, actress, and writer for the Huffington Post; emerging leaders Jenna Lee and Kim Willey, both of Washington, DC; Mike Blakeslee from MENC; state advocacy leaders; state department of education staff; teaching artists; local program experts; and, other folks from all over the country.
But they’re just the start. You—and specifically your responses to their posts—are what this online event is truly about. That’s where you can weigh in, offer your own opinions and present yourself as an expert for readers around the country. Solutions do not come from the top down—they come from peers, colleagues, friends, and fellows well-met.
Read, respond, do.
http://bit.ly/nRYTX
3. Share your wins with us!
Based on the amazing feedback we got at the end of last school year, Americans for the Arts has created a portal for members like you to share what is working so that other people can benefit from your success.
Please share that here. http://bit.ly/WOYzB
This year, I am volunteering to help Americans for the Arts create a Toolkit for building an effective arts program in your school. I could use your help. Initially we'll be creating a guide for outlining and managing the project, establishing buy-in from all the parents, educators and students, and following up with agreed actions toward common results. Your involvement could include many forms of activity and support and suggestions are appreciated!
Early next week we'll be floating a petition your way that is sanctioned by the President of Americans for the Arts. With that said, I highly caution you to read the petition before signing it. It asks President Obama to release funds in a very proactive and thus, non-traditional way. I only ask you to support it if you truly believe in it. So, please read through it. Again, I'll send that out early next week.
Thank you for your effort, energy, attention and time.
I am grateful to you for all that you contribute to make this Cause so powerful.
Sincerely,
M******* P*********
Cause Admin
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Come, join my Cause, and get invitation credit (not to mention thanks!) when you invite your friends.
Yeah, ok, it's Facebook. It's the school-yard, the soda fountain, the village well, the back fence, the water cooler, the bar, it's where people gather and shoot the breeze and come together to work and party down afterwards, and it's where I'm trying to raise a little money to support making Nuclear Guardianship something we just do, like buckling seat belts and picking up trash and not hitting kids and taking care of the elders. I'm supporting the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons because I believe these weapons to be the single largest, most weighty, least acknowledged threat to the public health, and I have a life-long dream of reducing, removing, this threat to my community.
So, if you're in Facebook, or your kids are, wander on by. Join, donate, invite. I promise it's not a RickRoll.
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Is today. Florence Nightingale's birthday.
In her honor, three things. Gifts for her, maybe, or for all of us.
It's also Fibromyalgia Awareness Day
FM awareness day at Chronic Pain/Karen Lee Richards
Personal story
It's International Nurses' Day. It's ten days until I graduate with my BSN. One thing I have learned over the long haul is, nursing applies to everything, and everything applies to nursing. Florence, with her meticulous data collection and interpretation and the help of a few well-placed friends, brought the British Government to a completely different understanding of how a man wounded at the front should be treated, and why. It took her over a decade just to be heard- she is my model for keeping on keeping on.
All that said: I went back to school to get my BSN after getting my RN because I have a concern, as Quakers say: I'm concerned about the presence of nuclear weapons on the planet. I find them to be the single most expensive public health hazard of our times, and I want them gone. An Ounce of Prevention launched yesterday. This is my professional blog: This is where I am pursuing my goal in connection with the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons. I am keeping this identity separate from that one for reasons of focus, but you're all welcome to read there, to find me on Twitter and Facebook, and help me help others have better health/lives/world. (Ideas for columns gratefully accepted, caveat being, I'll be writing about it from my angle. Just so we're clear. I can't write the column you would, but I might be able to host it as a guest column. We can talk about it.)
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Swine Flu: This is the real deal, according to a friend of mine who's a very experienced infection control nurse.
So, what can you do?
1. Don't panic. Get educated. Be smart. Yes, it's infectious. Yes, it's scary. So be intelligent.
2. WASH YOUR HANDS. Early. Often. I don't usually like anti-bacterial soaps, but right now, I'm carrying Purell Hand Sanitizer with me (on my keychain, in my backpack, a bottle in the car...- yeah. Before and after the ATM, etc...) and using the sanitizer wipes at my grocery market's entrance. Yes, I know some people are sensitive to it, and can't use it. That's ok. Soap and water works just fine. But them as can, could, and that'll help keep germs from spreading via all those publicly shared things like ATMs and grocery carts. (and everything else you touch: doors, bus bench backs, etc. etc. but ATMs and grocery carts are known to be great reservoirs.) I've been informed about Vicks Foaming Hand Sanitizer also available. I put the whole listing so you can choose where to order from.
3. If you're really worried, get some masks. Just enough to keep your coughing from spreading in its usual 3-feet-in-all-directions cloud, and enough to keep other people's cough-cloud from getting into your nose and throat. (The only really useful scene in the movie "Outbreak" is the one of how airborne infection can spread. The rest of the movie is more or less melodrama, as well as geographically insanely incorrect.)
4. Remember: Infectious agents need very specific things to spread. A useful model is the Chain of Infection model: infectious agent, reservoir (where it lives when it's not infecting someone), portal of exit, means of transmission, portal of entry, susceptible host (and back around to the infectious agent, ready to swing through the chain again).
Break that chain at any point, and the power of the infectious organism is broken, too. This is why hand-washing works, why you should cover your mouth when you cough or sneeze (preferably not with the hand with which you're next going to touch the ATM or grocery cart, but by sneezing into your shoulder or the crook of your elbow).
To my friends who live in places already affected, my very best love and good wishes to you. To the rest of us, let's be good, and wash our hands.
[Editorial comment: This is why we vaccinate, even though it's likely that a vaccine for this strain of Swine Flu won't be available soon. Mechanism of vaccination, and some numbers: (Wikipedia article, WiseGeek article, and yeah, I know the objections to vaccination, I do, but I also know the huge dent in my Dad's back from where part of a rib was removed so he could have a pulmonectomy for Diptheria, and how crappy two weeks in bed with Measles worrying I might go blind was, and how scary Rubella was for pregnant women, too, and how horrible the deaths of the children who got Measles with secondary pneumonia in 1989-1991 in California were. {I worked in the PICU at Oakland Children's during that epidemic- It was not good.} If you're not going to vaccinate, fine. Just be prepared for the possible consequences not only to your own or your child's health, but to your community's as well, because it's work, dealing with an epidemic. Yes, the vaccine developers and manufacturers can do a better job. yes, we should hold them accountable. But, yeah- community health is the responsibility of the community, not the manufacturers, not even, in the end, the government. Of the people, for the people, by the people...etc., etc.) End Editorial comment.]
If you're sick, STAY HOME. Tell someone you're sick, but STAY HOME. If you must be out, cover your mouth, wash your hands early and often, eat well, drink LOTS of water (not soda), and go home early- don't linger about out in the world. MomsRising Petition for Family Sick Leave act. Yes, it's only one country, yes, it's only one segment of the population, yes it's a start.
x-posted, sorry for the repitition.
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