A Curious Statistical Anomaly

Well, I hum when I’m contented too. I couldn’t resist this article when I saw it on BBC Earth News — The Man who walks with Bears. Professor Lynn Rogers has been studying black bears for the last 43 years, learning their behavior, their rules of conduct, and their idiosyncrasies. A BBC film crew followed Professor Rogers getting some excellent footage of the bears and their behavior in the wild.

What really thrilled me though is that they hum when happy and/or content. Of course, most everyone who has ever read Winnie the Pooh knows that, but then Winnie is not a black bear — he’s more golden yellow. My husband and I collect bears and are always interested in them– reading most of the studies that come out on bears. We are however among those people who do not confuse the cute and cuddly plush bears with the wild in the woods ones. Though I am particularly partial to polar bears –plush and in the wild; especially this time of year.

I found this site that has some fantastic photos of the bears Lynn Rogers works with. Hope you enjoy this bear-y interlude.

First off, I found this Breast Cancer Awareness PSA hilarious.  But it’s raising eyebrows everywhere and there are many who feel it is too sexy to be on TV and sends the wrong message.  I want you to watch it and see for yourself:

It’s about time the giggle factor be used to heighten awareness. Let’s face it breasts are used to sell everything from cars to computers to guns to sailboats–if it’s for sale they drape a scantily clad women over it. Sex sells as the saying goes and sex is personified in boobs. I’ve never been able to understand how we manage to get so caught up in two lumps of fatty tissue that also contain milk ducts–but it’s that societal emphasis on the breasts that keep many people from touching their own breast to learn how they feel so they can recognize changes in the tissue. It’s fear of losing a breast that cause some women to ignore lumps and pretend everything is fine when they know deep down it is not fine.

I’m a breast cancer survivor.  My mother had breast cancer and so did my uncle.  My mother is also a survivor, but my uncle died of complications of the treatment for his breast cancer. It’s not just women who get breast cancer but it’s women that the awareness ads and Breasat Cancer Awareness Month focuses on.

Each year 182,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer.  Each year 20,000 women die of breast cancer.  The key is to recognize the symptoms and get treatment early.  For women that means breast self-exams and regular mammograms or MRIs.

Breast cancer in men is something most men don’t want to talk about but you can learn about symptoms, causes, and risks. While breast cancer is rare in men, it does happen so if you’re male and have a lump in your breast area, get it checked out. The survival rates for men are similar to the survival rates in women with breast cancer in the same stage. The problem is that since breast cancer is so rare in men, when it is found it’s usually fairly advanced — when in doubt check it out.

I don’t want anyone to die of breast cancer. It’s treatable when found early and the survival rates are rising each year. Educate yourself about your family history of breast cancer. Be aware of your own body and the changes that occur as you age — what’s natural and what doesn’t seem right. If you have doubts ask your doctor if this is a normal change in tissue or should it be checked out.

Meanwhile, I still find this PSA hilariously funny. I hope it does make young people aware of the danger their boobs could be in if they don’t do self-exams, see their doctor regularly, and have mammograms at the proscribed intervals.

Do you think this type of public service announcement is helpful or harmful? Would you remember it?

Wow, I sat glued to my seat for these first three episodes of Children of Earth. We’d been catching up with Torchwood via Netflix and though things started a bit rough in season one they’ve improved steadily as the cast found their footing. I was really upset when one of the characters got killed but I cheered when one of the others finally, finally, died for keeps. So, I was looking forward to the next season.

We’d been spacing them out one disk of the show and a couple of movies between then back again to another disk. I’d forgotten just how intense British drama can be. The tension built steadily from the first to the second and now the third and ends on a shocking cliffhanger. It’s times like these that I wish we had one of the multiple disk plans but, no. Ordinarily, I’m very happy with our one disk at a time unlimited plan — but now I have to wait to send out this disk and then wait for the next one to come.

If you’ve seen the ending of Season 3 don’t spoil it for me. There are very few US TV dramas that are as nakedly brutal as some of the British shows. I’m not talking so much the story lines as their delving into the really human issues. In this case children. What kind of government would turn over 12 children to an alien race as a gift? In the setup, 12 children from an orphanage were given as a gift to an alien race 456. Now it’s the present and the aliens are back. You can guess what the first thing the government tries to do–I’m sure you got it in one. Hide the evidence of what they did in 1965.

I find myself thinking that as awful as that was — after what was done by this country under our previous government that I’m not really surprised that a government would do such a thing. I think over the last few decades I’ve seen things done by various governments that have put the bar for base and horrible acts pretty low. I’ve lost faith that government actually works for the good of the people they represent. Maybe that’s why I find Torchwood, a show about a secret government sort-of agency that works without oversight to be so absorbing. Fighting aliens and stuff — not so much. But lying to the citizens and covering up their mistakes — that, unfortunately, I don’t have trouble believing in.

Wonder what the popularity of these shows says about us — people/humans/citizens of Earth? Don’t know but I wonder if we actually learn from them and keep a closer eye on our representatives? Those who speak for us without asking us what we think about things. I know I tend to be a bit more concerned about what my leaders are saying about “us” to others and most of the time it’s attitudes that I certainly don’t want to be associated with. But then that’s me. Maybe other people really don’t care or agree with what’s going on in the world of government whatever.

Okay, I’ve just got to let off some steam. I’ve been using computers for years. I’ve built them. I’ve coded the programs that run on them. I’ve been technical support. I’ve even taught classes on how to use them and how to use software on them. But it fries my cookies how many people who send email daily can’t seem to grasp the importance of having a good clear subject line.

Today, I got a document I was expecting, from someone working on a project with me. The subject line was so off the wall that I had clicked to move it to my junk folder before I noticed the email address of the sender and managed to pull it back and read it. The attachment was the document I was looking for. A bit less caffeine or attention and it would have hit the junk folder and I’d have deleted it forever. Until now I thought the problems I was having getting information from this person was because my ISP was blocking them or it was getting caught in my firewall. Who knew that this person couldn’t write a subject line along the lines of: Here’s the document on X. Granted I get spam like that but it would have been better than the line that was used.

We have a friend who either doesn’t enter a subject line at all or who says “hello”. Doesn’t this friend realize (even after being told) that I get about 40 similar emails every day from spammers and those my spam filter usually picks up automatically and puts them in the Junk folder. (Yes, I do check my Junk folder for email address of the usual suspects.)

I moderate a list that is supposed to have only two types of emails posted. To stay on the list they must participate and a program checks the posts against membership and the various subject lines, because anything that does not start with one of  the allowable subject lines, doesn’t count for participation. Guess what? Bet you can — many people can’t seem to do it. When I know they’re new to email and the internet, that’s one thing. But those who have been reminded repeatedly still mess up regularly. I won’t even go near the send-the-email-to-the-right-list rant.

What’s the big deal? I mean when you use snail mail you have to put on the receiver’s mailing address. You can’t just say, Sam Somebody, a street with a tree, East Coast. No, you have to be explicit about where you want your mail to go. It’s the same with email. You have to put the correct email address in the TO field. But if you want the person to actually look at it, the email should let them know, sort of, what the email is about. Our dinner plans for Friday. The proofs for the story. The document on X that you asked me for. Something to trigger the “I should read that circuit”.

When I get spam, and I get a lot, I scan for subject lines that might be valid and then check the address of the sender. If the address is valid, I’ll take a peek at the email (it’s already been scrubbed for viruses and such). If the subject lines is a non-starter, I may not even look at the sender.

I’m sure I’m not the only one fed up with the poor use such an important communications tool — the Subject Line. I’m just not sure why people don’t use it correctly to impart information. How can anyone get them to change? Maybe it’s just me. To some degree, I know it is because I’ve got a lot of tasks piled up and I’m still recovering from being ill so I’m low on energy. But, I had to vent.

And, yes. I’m actually interested in knowing if I’m the only person that gets bent out of shape about this topic. Let’s face it, I can’t cure the world’s ills until I manage to become Supreme Mugwump. So, I’ve decided to worry about the little things that just might be fixable. If not fixable, at least I can get it out of my system and move on to more important things, like the fact that no matter how many spoons I buy, there are never enough.

I was reaching for a book to take it off the shelf and got a pretty bad gash from the dust jacket. That got me thinking that most of the cuts on my hands have been paper cuts. Should books and paper be reclassified as dangerous weapons? Should those TSA people start making us put newspapers, magazines, and books in our check through? I remember that they did forbid books for a while in flights from Britain to the US when there was an incident that had nothing to do with books a while back.

Sometimes, it makes you rethink things, but could it be that they were afraid people would read something scary or incendiary and throw a fit? Do people get passionate about their reading material anymore?

I know that I’ve burst out laughing while reading a passage or been sniffling back sobs and tears and had people step away from the crazy person. Friends have told me that they often react to what they’re reading by laughing, crying, or getting emotional in other ways.

But with my throbbing paper cut, I’m thinking maybe ideas aren’t the only danger that books possess.

What do you think?

Today I ran across an article on IT World by Jennifer Kavur called “How much are you worth on the black market?” Kavur highlights some of the problems that are involved with Identity Theft and highlights Norton’s 2010 site where you can get your risk evaluated and a dollar amount for how much your identity would be worth and how much someone might pay to buy your identity.

The Norton Online Risk Calculator, unveiled within a microsite to coincide with the launch of Norton 2010, calculates your net worth on the black market by asking a few questions about your personal Internet use.

I decided to check out the risk calculator and went to the site and answered the questions. I’d be for sale for about $31 and my risk is very low. The reasons my risk is low include:

• I’m not famous or infamous
• I’ve got a collection of software that protects my machine from viruses, spyware, and other “bad” stuff.
• I turn off my javascript and only turn it on when I trust the site I go to — if I don’t trust it I live with only having partial access to the material on the site.
• If I think the site might be one set up for phishing, I don’t click on the link.
• I’ve got my browser and email programs to show me the link prior to clicking on it. If the link doesn’t match what I think a link to that site should look like I don’t click it — ever — no matter who sent the link to me.

I try to use safe computing/internet practices, but I’m not perfect. Someday, I’ll goof and get caught and I can only hope that I’ll manage to save my identity from being used maliciously and getting me, my finances, or my reputation in a mess.

While people may not read a paper on Identity Theft, they just might be willing to answer a few questions to see just how much at risk they may be. Then hopefully, they’ll act on that information to protect their data and their computer access. Keep yourself safe. Know the risks.

How do you protect your identity? Do you think you’re safe? What more could be done?

I’m beginning to think all my life is about time. Time to work. Time to sleep. Time to play. Hours. Minutes. Seconds. Years. Decades. A lifetime.

All these small bits of time make up our lives. We treat life like it is infinite, but we all know there’s an end. Every minute is precious and not to be wasted. We know that and yet we waste so much time.

I find myself staring off into space. Not daydreaming. Daydreaming would be thinking, imagining things as they aren’t, but could or might be if only… An absence of consciousness — but not asleep either. Time has past and I don’t know where it went. I can account for the time but some is missing — so where did it go.

I’ve the flu — or a cold — I never know which because I always have the symptoms of both so I can’t tell. So maybe some of this missing time is because of the way I’m feeling but what about at other times.

Maybe you’ve had the same feeling when your coding and really into it — or writing or whatever you get very involved in. To me only a few minutes will have past, but my spouse will say it’s been hours are you ready for a break, and I check the clock and it has been hours …  but only minutes for me.

This blog seems like it’s really beginning to be about time — but that’s because I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately. Maybe it’s because I work at home — mostly alone without interruptions — so there’s no break-time or lunch-time or close-up-for-the-day-time. All time is work time if I don’t watch out.

How to other people perceive time? I wonder if other people miss time, find it passing quickly or excruciatingly slow or just as it should. What should our relationship to time be? I know it’s changed over the years with the invention of lights, the industrial revolution, the factories, and other imposition of time constraints by society.

I guess it’s always something to think about–time. What does it mean to me? What does it mean to you? How do you use it? Do you miss it? Is there enough for work, family, and play?

I just realized it’s been several days since I posted. Not that I haven’t seen things that catch my attention–just haven’t had a minute to actually think about what I’ve seen and ponder the ramifications or emotional attachment to it.

Lately, it seems that I have a very iffy relationship with time–there never seems to be enough of it to do what I want to do. Prioritizing doesn’t work because I want to do it all and putting them in an order means that some (at the bottom of the list) just won’t get done as it gets reset and redone as the time runs out and the new day’s list is made including what didn’t get done the first time.

It seems to me the only way to deal with all this is to live forever. Yup, now the problem is to figure out how to do that. I mean getting turned by a vamp might work but then, depending on which mythos you go with, there are drawbacks and pluses. There’s all those vampire politics that seems to be a given for all the myths–so I guess I’ll have to do more pondering…but that takes even more time.  Maybe I should look into string and loopy theories…just saying…