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Joel Schwartzberg: A Remarried Dad's View of Thanksgiving

2009-11-25T03:02:05Z

I'm looking at a photo of myself topless.

I'm five years old, playing the role of an Indian in my kindergarten Thanksgiving Day play, red war paint on my chest and cheeks, and a paper feather painfully stuck in my head. I remember being much more concerned about exposing my naked chest than about some historical sit-down between Pilgrims and Indians.

Thirty-five years and many thousands of tuition dollars later, I still don't like being shirtless in public, and also don't know much more about Thanksgiving's true origins than I did then. So I did something I never would have dreamed of back in elementary school. I Googled Thanksgiving.

This is what we know: A long time ago, some 130 restless Europeans cashed in their frequent sailor miles for adventurous times -- and a helping of religious freedom -- in the New World. They brought their families, rats, and funky buckle hats. The Wampanoag Indians, happy to see the Pilgrims in the way deer are happy to see an oncoming tractor trailer, gave them corn and helped them survive the harsh winter. In return, the Pilgrims gave them small pox. The Pilgrims and Native Americans had a big three-day meal with turkey, squash and succotash. One generation after the first Pilgrims accepted the natives' generous help, the two groups were attacking each other instead of turkeys.

Fast forward half a millennium or so, and we're still replaying some of those early customs. We still carve turkeys, set our tables for guests we're wary about, and watch Redskins and Chiefs on TV. There were no Thanksgiving Day parades during Pilgrim times, of course, but it's quite possible Willard Scott was there.

In my first life as a father, Thanksgiving started with everyone getting up early and watching the Thanksgiving Day Parade on television. We yawned through the marching bands, delighted at the majestic floats, and gawked at B-level music stars moving their freezing lips to songs they'd come to hate. By the early afternoon, the kitchen would be abuzz with rolling, chopping, basting, sweating, and swearing. Inevitably, someone would become inordinately worried about the turkey. Was it taking too long to cook? Was it too pink? Too dry? Was it organic, or did it have track marks on its leg? Was it really a chicken?

We complimented everything on the table for fear of insulting a contributing guest: "This salt is so good and salty! Who here made this salt? And this water is to die for!" Meanwhile, my Dad looked longingly at the mute television as if it were calling out to him.

My ex-wife and I plan to switch Turkey Day custody every year, so last year I spent my first Thanksgiving in nearly a decade without my kids. I yakked on about the weather, car troubles, and work as I usually do, but it still felt incomplete, as if someone forgot to invite the turkey.

The day after Thanksgiving, my wife Anne and I took my kids to Disney's High School Musical on Ice. What could be more patriotic than ice dancers simulating basketball to a syrupy Disney soundtrack? The kids were mesmerized, and I dropped cash at the souvenir stand as if I was competing for their attention with Thanksgiving itself.

When we got home, we immediately dropped our Disney gear, kicked off our shoes, and flopped on the couch to watch the previous day's parade on the DVR. In the kitchen, Anne was making chicken and French fries. Lazy cats were warming the furniture all around us.

With the familiar smell of comfort food in the air, cheers and tympanis from the roaring television, and a fading likeness of Zac Efron stamped on my hand, I realized that all traditions -- even late-coming ones -- have a starting point. This is ours. This is our Plymouth Rock. (Well, perhaps the Plymouth Living Room).

And these days, I get to keep my shirt on. If that's not something to be thankful for, I don't know what is.

Joel Schwartzberg is an award-winning essayist, contributor to The Good Men Project, and author of The 40-Year-Old Version (in which this essay appears). He gives thanks to anyone giving him a subway seat, letting him cut into their driving lane, or just checking out his new book.

Susan Kane: "Kick a Ginger Day": One Mom's Horrifying Account

2009-11-25T02:01:07Z

Do you know what your child is doing online? Well, you'd better. A recent incident of violent behavior has been traced back to disturbing messages on the social media kids live for. If you don't want your child to be a target – or a horrifying bully – you must read one Parenting reader's account of a recent disturbing incident in Los Angeles:

Apparently Friday, November 20th was designated “Kick a Ginger” Day by a group on Facebook inspired by a South Park episode about beating up kids with red hair and freckles. It may sound ridiculous, but unfortunately the idea caught on. Several beatings took place at schools across the country on Friday, and a 12-year-old boy in our area was one of them.

When he was dropped off at school last Friday, a group of kids ready to “kick a ginger” laid in waiting for him. His dad was no sooner out of the parking lot before they starting chasing him – he was kicked in the groin and taken down. As he lay on the concrete ground at school, 15 of his peers, some of them classmates, surrounded him like a wild animal and formed a circle around his body. They proceeded to kick him repeatedly over and over again.

Read the rest of her account -- as well as tips for keeping your child safe online -- at Parenting.com.

To stay up-to-date on all the latest parenting news, become a fan of Parenting.com on Facebook.

Linda Tarr-Whelan: Health Care And Healthy Moms

2009-11-25T00:35:00Z

Health care for women is in the news these days. But what does it all mean? Having just researched for my new book what different decisions emerge when 30% women are at the table, I can't help but wonder what would have happened if Congress were made up of 30% women, instead of 17%.

For today, I'm riveted by news stories that a "very prestigious independent medical panel" has recommended big changes in our health care routines. As a colon cancer survivor and former nurse, it leaves me with more questions than answers. They talked about preventing deaths from breast cancer, but then told us to cut out several key steps we have learned to take.

We have walked, done relays, worn pink ribbons and educated ourselves to take practical steps: do breast self-exams, have the mammograms we need after the age of 40 and regular doctors' visits. Could these common-sense precautions really be unnecessary? Really?

First I went to the American Cancer Society website, to see what they say. The chief medical officer is very clear. Even looking at the same studies as the independent group did, they came up with different conclusions. Their guidelines--the ones we know well and try to follow--stay in place.

Yes, there are risks that need careful discussions between a woman and her physician. Yes, we'd like better science so there won't be false positives on mammography that can cause anxiety. But the bottom-line is clear: we still need to check ourselves and get the tests we need for early discovery and treatment.

Then what about that flap over the House-passed health care reform package that traded a necessary part of health care away for a cynical political deal around abortion politics? Most women don't even want to think about ending pregnancies; we concentrate on having a safe pregnancy and a healthy baby. Private insurance policies have generally treated women's reproductive health as part of health care, not a separate political football. That's important because none of us can know what the future will bring.

Forty special interest members of Congress weren't thinking about women's needs. They pushed for and won a provision to effectively prevent women from getting private insurance coverage for the full range of reproductive health options. These Members of Congress knew tax dollars cannot be used for abortion services; for 30 years, by law, no federal money can pay for the procedure. Instead, like recalcitrant children, they held up agreement on the reforms millions of Americans including my family and maybe yours need for health care.

Think about it. Every family knows someone who's at risk with our fragmented health system. Our daughter's employer--like many across the country--dropped health insurance coverage in this economic downturn. Individual policies cost far too much for Montessori teachers like her. Our son, in the computer field, was 36 years old before he had a job where the employer offered group health insurance. My aunt is only able to take the medications covered by her Medicare prescription drug plan. Every family knows what is at stake.

Health care tops the list for moms to take care of their families. Our kids need both health care and healthy moms!

A version of this blog post originally appeared at MomsRising.org

Linda Tarr-Whelan is the author of Women Lead the Way: Your Guide to Stepping Up to Leadership and Changing the World.

Michelle Howard: Stuffing: The Real Value Of Thanksgiving

2009-11-24T23:50:46Z

Disclaimer: I’m not a big fan of American holidays. The cultural critic in me can’t help but harp on the Hallmark-ization of most of the majors. I grew up more or less godless: my family leveraged the time off school and work to hit the slopes in Tahoe while everyone else was otherwise obliged.

There were moments when this odd-one-out behavior spawned the desire for belonging in me. Once, at a mediocre restaurant somewhere near the ski lifts, I ordered the “Thanksgiving plate” just so I could sample the traditional trappings of the day. Over the years I’ve dabbled with competitiveness: a mostly vegetarian foodie, I love to proffer a pre- or post-Thanksgiving feast, sans bird, to tantalize my turkey-toting friends. Turns out that I love Brussels sprouts, real stuffing, and my mom’s cranberry sauce… but I’ll never look another Tofurkey in the unface. If anyone would listen, I’d wager that I could remember at least half of the words in Alice’s Restaurant.

Thanksgiving has my vote as far as American holidays go. It’s a keeper. Other than Martha Stewart, Thanksgiving does not seem to fuel the eternal combustion engines of American consumption in the way the other holidays do. We may consume a month’s worth of calories in one meal, but we don’t have to buy gifts, cards, flowers, or champagne.

The juxtaposition of Thanksgiving and Black Friday is not lost on me. On Thursday we celebrate with cornbread stuffing and on Friday we celebrate with package stuffing and credit card limit-pushing. On Thursday we fill our hearts and bellies with gratitude and food, and on Friday we fill our trunks with superfluous consumer items.

It turns out that, in spite of calories and tryptophan, Thanksgiving is a healthy holiday. At least, the giving of thanks is a particularly healthy practice. In the last thirty years the field of psychology has begun to get over its bad self and endeavor to study the positive side of human emotions.

Professor Robert Emmons, one of those positivity pioneers, has a book pleasantly entitled Thanks! How the new science of gratitude can make you happier. His premise, put simply, is that we used to think we were born with a certain degree of happiness, and that’s all there was to it, but now we know that that happiness level can be changed by being grateful.

In his study, the first major academic research into the “science of gratitude,” Emmons discovered that:

A daily gratitude intervention with young adults resulted in higher reported levels of the positive states of alertness, enthusiasm, determination, attentiveness and energy…

Gratitude intervention! Who would have thought?

And that:

Grateful individuals place less importance on material goods; they are less likely to judge their own and others success in terms of possessions accumulated; they are less envious of others; and are more likely to share their possessions with others relative to less grateful persons.

A true scion of the me-generation and instant gratification addiction, I have to admit that I like the idea that I can do something about how happy my life will be. I like the idea, too, that it can be as easy as spending a couple of moments being grateful, which is pretty easy.

This is an easy one to try at home. As you prepare to spend the rest of the week in the kitchen, give yourself a gratitude intervention. If you’re a little rusty with the gratitude, check in with a nearby kid. Once you get them rolling, kids can remind us to be grateful for the darnedest things.

Who knows, maybe you'll be happy with Thursday's stuffing and you won't have to go shopping on Friday.

I cannot tell you anything that, in a few minutes, will tell you how to be rich. But I can tell you how to feel rich, which is far better, let me tell you firsthand, than being rich. Be grateful… It’s the only totally reliable get-rich quick scheme.

— Ben Stein, actor, comedian, economist

Helene Pavlov: The Government Is Trying To Control My Breasts

2009-11-24T23:42:57Z

Last Monday a government task force came out with an opposition to the American Cancer Society's long-standing position that women in their 40's should be getting annual mammograms. The new recommendation states that women should begin getting mammograms at age 50 and limit them to every other year. These guidelines were issued by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, whose stance influences coverage of screening tests by Medicare and many insurance companies. This panel of doctors and scientists, that did not include ANY oncologists, concluded that getting screened for breast cancer so early and so often leads to too many false alarms and unneeded biopsies without substantially improving women's odds of survival.

As a woman and a physican, this is a personal issue. While I felt that yearly exams were a bit excessive and was also aware of the need for the healthcare system to be cost conscious, prevention and early detection is key to longevity and quality of life.

One of the most important things to come out of this current debate is that these types of global directives force every one of us to begin asking important questions when our health is at issue. Here are some questions to be asked regarding mammograms:

-Who was involved in the funding of the study? Who performed the data analysis. Is there a conflict of interest?

- Where did the initial criteria for testing that we have been following for the last 20 years come from and what is triggering the need for change? Is it valid to review current guidelines or is it financially motivated?

- What about radiation exposure? Is this a major issue for women who are being tested on a yearly basis?

Should women at the highest risk follow the same guidelines as outlined in this study as woman not considered to be at risk?

- How and/or will insurance companies immediately adopt these guidelines and what will or will not be covered moving forward?

This is a debate that will likely drag on for many years to come. As an advocate for patients and their right to get the proper diagnosis, I encourage the government, healthcare providers, women's advocacy groups and other concerned citizens to continue to offer up their comments, contact their local government officials and ask a lot of questions. While it is an emotional subject, the data and facts should be presented for all, directly and indirectly involved, to evaluate.

Ray Hanania: An American Arab Thanksgiving

2009-11-24T23:41:42Z

This is a column I wrote for the Palestinian and Arab community I thought would be of interest here, also.

An American Arab Thanksgiving, Maybe one day

Thanksgiving is a special holiday for me because no other American event better symbolizes my family’s Arab experience in this country.

My dad, George, immigrated to Chicago in 1926. He moved in with an older brother, Mousa (Moses) after another brother between their ages, Yusef, had drowned while swimming at the quarry outside of West Jerusalem.

The police reports noted that bystanders nearby refused to help him with Jews believing he was Arab, Muslims believing he was Jewish and Christians believing he was a Jew. That hatred, only a few years old at the time, has become the actualization of today’s Arab-Israeli conflict. Although my dad could not foresee the tragedy that was unfolding in Palestine, it was too much for him and he decided to find a place where people could live without the hate.

That place, he felt, was America.

When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attack of his generation, the two brothers went to the recruiters and enlisted. My dad went into the 5^th Army and was assigned to Donovan’s famous OSS Division (later the CIA) in Europe. His brother, who wanted to serve with him, was sidetracked by the recruiter who asked him his name. When he heard “Moses,” the recruiter assigned him to the Navy. He didn’t part the seas but he served as a cook. Both served honorably for the entire duration of the war.

My dad married a wartime sweetheart in 1947, the same year that war had broken out between Jews and Arabs in his homeland. Tragically, his wife died giving birth to my brother on Christmas Eve, 1948, the same year my dad’s passport from “Palestine” was voided by Israel’s declaration of Jewish statehood. My father’s family was Orthodox Christian.

Dad essentially became a refugee when Israel prohibited Christian and Muslim Palestinians who lived in Palestine prior to the war, from returning to their homes and lands. His two other brothers and their families fled to refugee camps in Jordan and in a short time, my dad and his brother helped bring them to America, too.

After a few years, his family convinced him to go back to Palestine, that part not occupied by Israel, to find a wife. He saw my mother gathering water from the well outside of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem and they were married four weeks later.

George and Georgette bought their first house, a little two-story Georgian, on Chicago’s Southeast Side, a neighborhood where Jews and Arabs huddled together despite their brewing conflict 9,000 miles away, and I was born.

Although there were many great holidays to celebrate, my dad always talked about the freedoms that we had in this country and the one holiday that brought the family together was Thanksgiving.

Food has a special place in our hearts as Arabs, so Thanksgiving was the one American holiday we most loved; food symbolizes the essence of freedom, the ability to raise and feed your family without fear.

I’d listen as my dad, his brothers and cousins debated the Middle East conflict. Each year, the conflict became more and more a part of our lives. We loved America but we loved Palestine, too.

We knew there were some people who did not like Arabs. No one spoke of Muslims in the 1960s. We were all one culture and people. Arabs. Christian and Muslim. But for the most part, we were just a part of the American melting pot, another unintended allegory on food.

Well, now many years later, the world has changed. It’s not “Arab” any more, it’s “Muslim.” And the animosity we knew that lurked in the shadows of American society in the 1950s and 1960s is today out in the open, even among some friends.

Every time someone Middle East-looking commits an act of violence, it’s now the fault of everyone who is or even looks Muslim or Arab. The mainstream American media, ignorant about the facts in 1948 and even more ignorant and abusive today, plays up those fears. Americans insist they are compassionate, yet among them are vast numbers of bigots and racists. They say they are educated yet they don’t even know the fundamentals about the Middle East conflicts that consume their lives, foreign policies and billions of dollars each year in taxes. It’s tragic to see that in a country so educated, some still act so much like a mob.

My Thanksgiving table is generally the same, a mix of American and Arab traditions. We’ll have the stuffed turkey, but oftentimes it will be stuffed with rice and minced lamb. We’ll have grape leaves and zucchini (also stuffed with spiced rice and lamb), and tabouleh, a diced salad with burghal of cracked wheat. We have “spheeha” (mini Arab pizzas) and “kruss” (meat or spinach baked in triangular shaped bread).

It’s not ironic that my wife, today is Jewish. People are sometimes surprised by the relationship. In truth, Jews and Arabs have all lived a similar life, though not in sync. Persecuted, hated, and victimized, holidays that bring the family together like Thanksgiving give us shelter from the world’s endless woes.

Maybe one day Arabs and Israelis will be together as a people, too. Maybe one day Americans will be able to control those in their society who use hate and anger to drive their politics. Maybe one day people can take pride in their culture and ethnic heritage in the American melting pot that hasn’t melted because of being targeted or harassed in grocery stores, denied jobs or excluded out of fear.

“Maybe one day,” is my Thanksgiving wish this year.

-- Ray Hanania (published at PalestineNote.com)

Jeff Schweitzer: Getting Ahead...By Giving It

2009-11-24T23:29:35Z

If my title is too ambiguous, allow me to clarify in stating that new research shows fellatio is a good thing, for those among us still unaware. I offer this bit of exciting news in hopes that I have discovered the key to reducing the irrational anger and hostility emanating from the extreme far right. Perhaps they are not getting enough, and if so the solution becomes self-evident.

While homosexuality is quite common in the animal kingdom, found in more than 400 species, oral sex is considerably more unusual. We know that humans partake, of course, as do bonobos, our closest primate cousins. The practice has been reported in dolphins but those accounts remain unconfirmed. After all, these mammals are moving fast in a fluid environment, making observations of the act awkward and difficult, if not uncomfortably intrusive. The results might be skewed by performance anxiety on the part of the observed.

We can now add to the happy family of participants the short-nosed fruit bat. Researchers have discovered, and I fear exactly how, that the female bat licks the nether regions of the male during copulation. Obviously these animals have capabilities of contortion that exceed the human kind, much to the dismay of many. Scientists speculate that fellatio may have a biological advantage, at least in fruit bats, by increasing copulation endurance. How you ask? Fellatio may help maintain the mate’s erection, and saliva would increase lubrication, which may together prolong intercourse. A little extra help down there may also facilitate sperm transport. These speculations come in light of the observation that fellating females hang on to their mates for an average of four minutes, compared to a paltry, and frankly embarrassing, two minutes for those who abstain. In humans the practice may, of course, have the opposite effect for all but the tantric, so we will need to conjure up some other excuse for our own behavior. The other explanation offered, thankfully, is that the practice keeps the male otherwise occupied, and therefore less interested in rival females. That may have more immediate applicability to Homo sapiens. Finally, as running commentary during the show, researchers also speculate that fellatio may offer protection against sexually transmitted diseases, based on the antimicrobial properties of saliva found in some animals.

More details on bat porno can be found at http://bit.ly/batfellatio. Please, I urge you to keep quiet about this potentially explosive video; not everyone will share or understand our taste in animal “behavior.” Our moral superiors would be horrified to learn, for example, that many males, including short-nosed fruit bats, lick their genitals after copulation. In some species this has been shown to reduce the incidence of STDs. Again, this new insight into the animal world is of dubious application to humans (male or female) except for a lucky few, who probably never leave the house anyway.

Note that all previous examples cited only female to male interactions. So I hereby formally propose a rigorous research program into cunnilingus. I further propose we start such research on our own species since we know that one best. Sometimes science simply requires self-sacrifice for the greater good.

Our new knowledge has some practical applications. If only we had known about the benefits of fellatio during Clinton’s impeachment hearings, we might have saved taxpayers millions of dollars by cutting short the investigation and getting on with life as usual. Clinton could simply have cited biological advantage and been done with the whole mess. More immediately, I recommend that Republicans abandon Tea Parties in favor of threesomes and orgies as an adaptation to the new information. The collective release of tension will make the republic a safer place.

Philip N. Cohen: What Ails Black Women, Part 2: Health and Life

2009-11-24T23:21:31Z

The employment and wage disparities now widening between Black and White women appear alongside substantial - and possibly increasing - health disparities. As the recent concern over breast cancer advise shows, Black and White women often inhabit different worlds in our healthcare system.

Consider the infant mortality rate, a good measure of women's health and healthcare. The Black infant mortality rate (13.63) is 2.4-times the White rate overall of 5.76 (a shade worse than 10 years ago). Teen motherhood doesn't explain this, as the race gap is actually smallest for mothers under age 20 - if there were more Black teen mothers, the overall gap would be smaller.

Source: National Vital Statistics Report (2005 data).

Even controlling for income, education, obesity, smoking, and some diseases, Black infant mortality is significantly higher. This presumably indicates worse healthcare, although some suspect the "physiologic effects of experiencing lifelong racism."

The most striking of the recent reports was a scary analysis released earlier this year showing that Black women have been getting shorter: absolutely and relative to White women, and the same is not true of Black men.

Height within a group varies according to genetics, but height differences between groups indicate health and nutrition inequalities during childhood. Black women born in 1965 reached an average height of 5'4-1/2" (Michelle Obama is about 5'11"). Each cohort since then has been shorter, and the average for those born in 1980 is less than 5'4". Black men and White men and women all grew taller during this period. Black men and White men are now separated by less than a quarter inch, but White women have opened up a gap of three-quarters of an inch.

The author of the analysis, John Komlos, believes obesity is the main factor driving the disparity, compounded by inequities in health care access and quality. He concludes:

The decline in [Black women's] height is most likely related to the obesity epidemic caused by inadequate dietary balance. Black women in the age range 20-39 weigh some 9.5 kg (21.0 lb) more than their white counterparts. It appears that black females are experiencing a double jeopardy in the sense that both their increasing weight and the diminution of their physical stature are both substantial and are both probably associated with negative health consequences.
In some urban areas, the disparities between Black and White women are especially stark. That is the case in Washington, D.C., which pairs a disproportionately poor Black population with an above-average-income White population. There, Black women are more than 3-times more likely to be overweight or obese than Latina or Asian women, 5-times more likely than White women. Obesity doesn't explain everything, of course, and neither does other health behavior such as smoking. At just 17.3%, Black women have lower smoking rates than White women (21.5%).
Racism and discrimination are the hard to measure elephants in the room on both employment and health matters. That's coming in the next entry.

Before: Work and wages

Today: Health and life

Next: Discrimination and repercussions

Cross posted from Family Inequality.

Jae Son: The Future Of Breast Cancer Diagnosis Is Touch

2009-11-24T23:18:29Z

Understandably, the recent reversal of the United States Preventative Services Task Force's 1992 recommendations on mammography and subsequent reaction from the White House have elicited highly emotional reactions and caused outright confusion to women and the medical community. Although, mammography has saved countless lives, it also exposes women to radiation that increases the likelihood of developing breast cancer by 2% with each procedure.

At the heart of it, the real issue is that clearly new screening methods need to be established and supported, since our current system is risky, costly and just isn't working. New technologies have evolved that will result in a shift away from mammography as the first diagnostic tool within the next 10 years, as we have already witnessed in Australia, China and the UK.

First, let's look at what we know today:

All women should be screened regardless of their overall age related risk. Cancer is the leading cause of death for women 45-54 and breast cancer is the most common form of invasive cancer.

The Task Force is NOT saying that screening is unimportant, only that the risks of mammography far outweigh the benefits particularly to younger women. This is the key point in their recommendation--that mammography isn't necessarily the answer.

70% of cancers are initially found through palpation, meaning the 32 million screening mammographies in the United States only yielded 30% of the 193,000 cancers diagnosed or 58,000 mammo detected cancers.

Early detection remains the best means to a good prognosis for breast cancer. This is especially true for younger women as their cancers tend to be aggressive and grow more rapidly. Younger women still have a disproportionately high mortality rate.

Millions of women are being subjected to radiation every year when they could choose an alternative screening procedure and just may not know that it exists. Radiation mutates cells which can cause cancer. Low energy x-rays used in mammograms (24 to 30 kVp) are more harmful than those of a chest x-ray (80 to 120kVp) since the high energy particles more readily pass through the body according to the US Department of Energy. In addition, while the overall dose of a screening mammography is low, (`300mrem), the dose to younger women is significantly higher (`800 to 1000 mrem) since their glandular tissue absorbs more x-rays requiring greater exposures to achieve acceptable images. Diagnostic mammography procedures and additional images push the total dose much higher.

Additionally, a high percentage of breast cancer occurs in the upper outer region of the breast. A mammography paddle cannot adequately compress that region in many women since it is limited by geometry. This is also true for small breasted women.

The medical community is still standing behind the 30 year old mammography technology despite the pain, cancer causing radiation, and a very high false positive rate. What is needed is an easy, quick and non-toxic method that has effective clinical performance. We believe that an Enhanced Clinical Breast Exam using sensory technology meets that need. Close to 40 journal publications and conference proceedings and abstracts support this technology.

Breast cancer screening facilities are closing their doors due to poor reimbursement. The operating cost to perform a screening mammography is typically over $100, but reimbursement is around $85. Many centers have to make up the losses by offering other imaging services such as follow up diagnostic imaging, ultrasound and if available, MRI. Centers in underserved communities, whose clientele cannot afford these additional services, have seen higher rates of closure. This isn't okay--all women should have access to an affordable breast cancer screening solution.

Two and a half billion dollars are being spent on mammograms for breast cancer just in the US, while only 20-30% of the cases turn out to be real cancers when the lesion is biopsied. Four patients receive unneeded overtreatment for every cancer that is found using current screening techniques.

However, women who tested positive to genetic testing (BRCA1 & BRCA2) are having preemptive mastectomies without any signs of cancer partly because their chances of getting breast cancer in their lifetime is as high as 65%. We also know that the mental stress caused by the anxiety and the repeat false positive results followed by biopsy play a major role in the decision to undergo these radical procedures. If women were provided a risk and pain free, non-invasive alternative to mammography, they would avoid these preemptive mastectomies and still have peace of mind if they could get screened at their doctor's office or purchase a home-screening device to use more regularly.

I became personally passionate and involved in creating a new screening technology after my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer over 10 years ago. (Full disclosure: I have now been issued, or am awaiting approval of, 14 patents in areas related to robotic tactile sensors that emulate the human sense of touch.) After looking into mammography and the choices women are given, I felt that I could apply my background in robotic tactile sensory systems to discovering a better alternative for detecting breast cancer in women. I am excited to say that researchers are very positive about the field of elastography where tissue hardness or elasticity is determined using stress and strain measurement techniques. It has demonstrated 90% accuracy in a dozen independent clinical studies. Elastography works because most types of breast cancers turn into a hard lesion that is up to 1000 times harder than the surrounding tissue. Doctors and women have often relied on their sense of touch, but it is difficult to communicate what one person felt and has not been considered scientific enough.

Several studies show that breast self exam isn't effective, yet the majority of breast cancers (65% - 82%) are found by women through their sense of touch. The problem is that the average size of lesions that are detected by women on their own is 2.1 cm. The average threshold trained clinician can detect lesions down to 1 cm. Tactile sensing technology can reliably detect and digitize 0.5 cm lesions without any radiation or energy being transmitted through the body. A multi-center clinical study on hundreds of women has shown it to be 90% accurate when compared with pathology results.

I believe we are well on our way to making the sense of touch more ubiquitous through tactile sensory technology. It is being widely used in Australia, China and the UK and is FDA cleared and available in the US. We have also set up the Pre-Mammogram Foundation in order to donate SureTouch systems to the underserved communities that need better screening for their women.

James M. Lynch: Thanksgiving: Pay it Forward

2009-11-24T23:10:49Z

Yes, officially I've used Pay it Forward already, kind of, in the piece on the Starbucks coffee line back in May of this year, but this is different. By the way, one site picked up that 'Paying it Behind' theme and it got 1,300 hits and I got a lot of contact directly from people who were 'treated' along the way. My wife even got a cup of coffee out of it, too, but so far I'm still waiting for my turn.

This piece is a little different, though, and it is timely due to the coming holiday of Thanksgiving. There are a lot of great ideas about how to be grateful, thankful and enjoy this holiday to the fullest. One of my favorite posts so far was last week by my friend and colleague, Dr. Judith Rich, and if you haven't read it yet, go ahead: I'll wait.

If you've read it, let's continue.

Last Thanksgiving I created a new pre-dinner ritual and it created a bit of a stir but also a lot of thought and success. I haven't seen anyone else writing about it so I'll share it here and hope it profits you.

Before our meal last year I asked everyone to share what they were thankful for during the meal, including any thanks they had for any member of the dinner party. But before thanking anyone for the past year's events I invited everyone to 'pay it forward' by looking into this Thanksgiving. In other words in 2008, we were looking into 2009.

I asked our guests to consider what they would be thankful for in a year; what would be an accomplishment that they would have achieved, by being committed and taking intentional actions for the whole year. We were, in a sense, looking into our crystal balls and seeing what we would accomplish.

It was very interesting to hear each person share what they were committed to, what they would be looking back on with pride this year and envisioning the year they would have. The energy around it was great and it created a lot of support and encouragement for the coming months.

The 'stir' it caused was that some of the people at the table had conflicting goals for each other. 'If that's your goal, what about the goal we have together?' came up after the fact. That's a possible consequence to take into consideration but it is why we need to speak our goals out loud.

Speaking goals out loud starts the process of 'making them real', as people do with 'declarations' and as part of 'success teams' or even setting business or sales goals at corporate retreats. Speaking them out also engages others who might be able to support you or encourage you along the way.

Speaking them out loud also can be the 'line in the sand' that helps you get out of your head and into action. The 'great ideas with no action' syndrome is so prevalent that any support or 'kick start' you can get will help along the way.

So here is my Thanksgiving challenge to all of you: What is it that you will be looking back at during Thanksgiving 2010 and saying 'thanks for'? What will you have created or achieved, what personal growth or new way of being will you be celebrating and giving thanks for in 2010 and sharing with your friends and family as what you are thankful for?

Many of our dinner guests this Thanksgiving were with us last year and this Thursday we'll check in on what they said then and how that worked out for them. We'll also be creating new 'Thanks-giving' opportunities for the year ahead.

I invite you all to create this 'thankful future', for yourself and for those you share Thanksgiving with this year. Please share your ideas and predictions here as a comment or meet and discuss with others on a forum called 'Thanks-giving 2010' at http://www.doityourselflifecoach.com. Let's create a 'virtual feast' of great things in the year to come and move powerfully into what could be for all of us and the rest of the world.

Thanks and blessings to all of you and all of yours.

Rick Horowitz: Not All The Turkeys Are In The Oven

2009-11-24T23:03:28Z

I can see it now like it's an artist picture painted big and bright and hanging right in front of me, or maybe one of those high-def flat-screen things like Cousin Becca Lee is always showing off, which is why we wound up doing Thanksgiving at Cousin Becca Lee's house in the first place, so we can all see what else she's got.

That, and Cousin Rufus has to be where his parole officer can find him.

I can see every step of it except for the parts where someone's whispering behind closed doors somewhere, and since most of the time the whispering turns into screaming soon enough, I can see those parts too. (I know -- you want me to say "I can hear those parts too," but since the whole movie's playing inside my head, I get to decide, and I say I'm seeing it, even the spoken parts. When you have your own movie, you'll get to decide.)

Anyways, it starts the same as always, with Uncle Theophilis showing up the Thursday before and ready for a great big meal, since he somehow thinks Thanksgiving falls on the third Thursday instead of the fourth, even though everyone up to and including Aunt Heliotrope, who's in the car with him all the way over, has told him otherwise. It's like he doesn't want to know.

And also it's a free meal, since nobody's much inclined to throw Uncle Theophilis to the street when he looks so small and sad, and hungry besides, which I'm convinced is exactly the thing Uncle Theophilis is counting on. It beats another dinner at the Chick-fil-A.

So then the actual Thursday comes, and Uncle Theophilis is right back there, ready for more, but so is every last other body in the entire family, and some who used to be but show up no matter the divorce, which might have become final a dozen years ago and everyone having gone and remarried since, but they pull up a chair and dig into the marshmallow salad like nothing ever went off the track, let alone crashed and burned. Cousin Becca Lee says "Family's forever."

Sometimes it sounds sweet. Sometimes it's more like a threat.

Before there's food (regular-on-plates food, I mean -- everyone's sneaking off to the kitchen to grab spoonfuls of something or other as soon as they're through the door), there's catching up on the family news, which is partly about whatever new trade they're teaching to Cousin Rufus so he'll finally be a productive member of society, and mostly about the latest adventures of Cousin Britnye -- she moved the "y" around all by herself three Thanksgivings ago (an "artistic statement," she said) -- which is mostly about how's life in the big city, and who the particular love of her life is this week, and why it'll be different this time.

And Aunt Jeanine, who's only got mousy little Cousin Margaret to brag on who's never even been to the big city but has two sweet little boys and a husband who comes home every night, nods right along and bites down on her tongue so hard it's a wonder she doesn't bleed herself dry by the time the drumsticks arrive.

Which they always do, and the rest of the turkey and all the stuffing and the side dishes and the three kinds of gravy right along with them, and always exactly 77 minutes after Cousin Becca Lee promised they would, which she says builds up the excitement with everyone long since called to the table and sitting there waiting and then waiting some more (and is her lucky number besides), but mostly means everyone's so loaded down with the snuck-from-the-kitchen food they can barely manage a bite of the real thing.

And then they start talking politics.

# # #

Rick Horowitz is a syndicated columnist. You can write to him at rickhoro@execpc.com.

Janice Taylor: 21 Thanksgiving Tips: Avoiding The Slings And Arrows

2009-11-24T22:36:00Z

Truth be told, for me (maybe you?) getting through Thanksgiving unscathed is less about food and more about dealing with the slings and arrows that could be 'lovingly' sent my way.

Like last year ... I noticed my mother 'looking' at me, soon to be followed by, "You know. Lots of times when people lose weight, their skin gets all saggy and hanging. But you don't look so bad." Thanks, Mom!

Here follow my 21 Tips that range from food tips to relationship advice and more! I think I've pretty much anticipated anything that could send us over the edge and straight into the eggnog. Enjoy!!! And feel free to add to the list. Comment below!

21 Tips: Thanksgiving Survival Guide

1. Manage Your Expectations: For whatever the reason, when it comes to the holidays, our expectations are often over the moon out of whack. We have preconceived notions on how the dinner should be, the conversation should sound, how people should act and how we should feel. Somehow or another, we still hold in our heart that our family gathering - the holidays - will be a Norman Rockwell painting come to life. No problems, just flowing love. If you want to make your holiday celebration easier, then lower and manage your expectations now. The less you are disappointed, the more you are likely to appreciate and enjoy the day.

2. Forget Perfection. The holiday is just like any other day. It will have its ups and downs. There is no perfect day much less perfect holiday.

3. Expect Change. As the years pass, children become young adults; young adults become adults. New people enter the picture and the family composition often changes. And with all these changes, so go the rituals. Be open for new people and new ideas.

4. No One Has Read the Script You've Written for Them. Nor have you read the script they have written for you! If someone says something that irritates you, let it go.

5. Play Nice All Year. Imagine how lovely it would be if we all appreciated each other every day of the year, instead of just one or two!

6. Food Accessories. Trim the Trimmings, Shave the Calories. Just as you wouldn't want to wear a bracelet, necklace, earrings, pins, and a scarf, go easy on your 'food accessories.' There are lots of 'food accessories' that we add to a meal, which in turn add hundreds of calories to each and every meal. Go light on the nuts, cheese, cream sauces, gravy, butter, dressings, and whipped cream.

7. Club Soda In One Hand, A Napkin in the other! If you are holding a drink, preferably water, in one hand, and a napkin in the other, it makes those tastes and nibbles a lot more difficult! Don't resort to licking, please.

8. Speaking of Nibbles. Did you know that appetizers can run anywhere from 50 to 300 calories a pop. Chew on that!

9. Be Discriminating. Eat only what you love. Before you dive into that greasy bowl of whatever, ask yourself, "Is it worth it?"

10. Savor the flavor. Enjoy the sweet, the sour, the salty ... be one with your food.

11. This is not The Last Supper. There's more in the kitchen. Eat until you are sated, not until overly full or stuffed.

12. No Starving Oneself Allowed. Eat! People often make the big mistake of thinking, "I'll skip lunch and save calories for the party I'm going to tonight." This strategy rarely works and it is likely to blow up in your face. If too hungry, you are likely to lose control.

13. Don't Pile It High. Pace Yourself. If you are going to partake in the appetizers, how about taking one on your plate a time.

14. No Closet Eating. Whatever you are going to eat, eat it out in the open! No sneaking. No lies!

15. To Drink or Not to Drink - that is the question! Limit the booze, baby! Alcohol, a Trigger? Alcoholic drinks are loaded with calories, especially the sweet drinks and the eggnogs! And they are likely to lower your inhibitions and might trigger you to eat more than you really want to.

16. No Elastic Waist Bands Allowed. Go Snug. You really don't want to leave room for expansion, do you? For goodness sake, wear fitted clothing. Studies show you'll eat less and have a more realistic take on what's happening in the 'waist' department.

17. Go Active. Plan activities. The holidays aren't always about food, are they? They are about enjoying eachother's company, having fun, laughter! Think outdoor games: sledding, skating, badminton, horseshoes. Indoor fun: bowling, indoor skating rinks, dancing!

18. Games Galore. More play time. How about a spirited game of cards, charades, or even musical chairs! Make a list of your favorite games!

19. Hand Hobbies. Keep your hands and mind busy with crocheting, knitting, needlepoint, or by being a foto-food journalist. Photograph the food - or your family. It's difficult to eat and purl one at the same time.

20. Practice Loving Kindness. Be kind to others and yourself. No name calling (like fat pig). Love, love and love yourself some more!

21. All Is Forgiven. Move On. This time is my time and it can be your time, too, if - when you fall off the wagon - you get up and dust your self off and repeat Our Lady of Weight Loss's most powerful mantra: "All is forgiven. Move on."

Spread the word ... NOT the icing!
Janice

____________________
For daily weight loss wisdom, visit Janice's Beliefnet blog.
Meet Our Lady of Weight Loss
About Janice Taylor.

Natasha Dern: Financial Lack: What Is Your Personal Net Worth?

2009-11-24T21:48:12Z

Would you believe me if I told you that you are richer than you think, that you have more money than you currently believe. Money, which has yet to be converted into actual dollar bills. All the potential for financial earning is still dormant. What you need to do is to create a shift within your consciousness and take stock of your personal net worth. What is your personal net worth? All the skills, abilities and talents that you have been cultivating from the first day you started working.

You've had a lifetime of work experience which you need to classify as your personal net worth. Some people are busy determining their financial net worth -- you need to sit down and determine your personal net worth. List everything and remember your personal net worth is the means through which your financial net worth will flow.

Financial lack or hardships are a mirror of your unused potential.

I repeat : financial lack or financial hardships are a mirror of your unused potential.

The discontent you feel about your financial life speaks volumes and reveals so much more about you -- that you are meant for more. If you weren't meant to have more than you would feel contented with your lot. However, your discontent is your soul telling you there's more out there for you, that you can do more, that your potential is greater than you currently believe. Your soul, the mastermind behind every event in your life, can see the whole of your life and knows what you are capable of manifesting.

Financial lack tends to snap you out of complacency, stagnation and mental laziness. It awakens every nerve and fiber of your being; it is a call for more development. It compels you to action; it inspires you to search for ways and means of eradicating it from your reality. It forces you to get creative; it forces you to think differently about your circumstances, it forces you to upgrade and cultivate more skills; it forces you to exercise your inner financial guru muscles. Rather than perceiving lack, in any area of your life, as a curse, begin to view it as a sign from the universe that more inner development is called for.

There are no short cuts to financial abundance. You need to work, initiate, create, plan and execute. A person who possesses and exudes a certain charisma, a certain degree of skill, a healthy confidence and belief in their talent will achieve great things. People like this play for long term gain, and dismiss short term wins. They are after the big fish and the catch of the day does not impress them. Are you after the big fish or catch of the day?

You need to have enough discipline to forfeit instant gratification for future rewards including extraordinary riches. The idea that certain people are luckier is ludicrous! When you apply yourself, when you use your innate determination, focus on the object of your intention, and commit to learning all that you can about your chosen field -- there is no way that you won't succeed. Prepare yourself as much as you can for the position that you desire -- whether to run a company or own one -- you need to be prepared and when opportunity comes, luck will be all around you.

At this time, all of us are being challenged to awaken more of our inner potential -- especially in the realm of finances. We are evaluating our priorities and assessing our relationship with money. We've all heard the saying 'Money doesn't grow on trees' but it does grow within your consciousness and bears fruit through clear vision, intention, determination, persistence, discipline and service. All of us are being given the opportunity to create multiple financial platforms. Are you up for the challenge? Are you willing to spend time figuring out your personal net worth? The journey from financial lack to financial abundance requires the complete use of Divine consciousness and human intelligence -- use it wisely.

Marlise Karlin: If A 10 Year Old Can Do It, So Can You

2009-11-24T21:31:01Z

Reboot in a Breath

It seems to be a common denominator these days. Everyone has stress, from the very young to the very old. Learning how to release stress in our lives is important for many reasons, one being, how we treat people when we're stressed. What do we have to offer others when we are feeling angry, sad, or fearful?

What I'm speaking of is the quality of our lives -- others -- as well as our own. How do we communicate? How do we interact with people when we are unhappy, resentful or overwhelmed? And how do you feel in each moment if this is going on -- headachy, upset stomach, back and neck pain, exhausted, depressed, etc? If you agree with what science tells us today, that we get what we send out, then it's easy to understand why stress and anxiety is growing. When all we hear in the news is about illnesses floating around, economic challenges and planetary catastrophes, it's a wonder we ever feel happy. What can we possibly do to refocus our minds on what we truly value and want our lives to be about?

Katie was ten, angry, sad and deeply troubled over her father's death from cancer. "How could he leave me?" was one among many self-defeating thoughts that were running through her mind, creating her life at school to be a living nightmare. It was hard for her to study, and she isolated herself as much as possible from kids who didn't understand what she was going through.

Her mom asked me if I would teach her the Three Breath Awareness Practice which allows you to connect with the Stillness inside. Within minutes of the first time she tried it, there was a calm that came over her. Katie knew instantly that she would use it to help her keep her own focus.

What Katie didn't count on, was how much of her stress would also be released. Imagine a moment in your own life when you felt a sense of tranquility, of the calm that you can experience when looking out at smooth, still, glassy water in a pond. Imagine having that sensation, the tranquility of Stillness, move through your mind and body in such a way, the chaos that surrounds you begins to subside. This was Katie's experience and it didn't end there.

Six months later I interviewed Katie because I'd heard that her life had changed in the most wonderful way -- she was now bringing that energy of Stillness to many of the people she interacts with daily. This child with a new strength shining through her charmingly oversized glasses, told me how she looks for other kids now who are having a hard time and how she helps them find the happy times again, just like what happened for her (see video):

People want to make a difference in the world, they want their lives to matter, but when 'bad things happen' it's difficult. How can you send out happiness if you aren't feeling it? If it's simple enough for ten year olds to incorporate into their lives, it just might be something to pursue for too.

Lorraine Roe: The Six W's Of Charitable Giving This Season

2009-11-24T21:25:56Z

Ok, people, look alive! Let's get this Thanksgiving rocking with not only a nod to good causes, but also with a shout about how discerning we can be. We're rocketing into the season of giving. I've been to the mall and the grocery store and Hanukkah-Christmas season is upon us. Soon come the unverified charities asking me for cash outside the doors of these stores and extra solicitors at my own door and on the phone. It's time to give back and be grateful. Ok, ok, I'm thankful, your thankful. But that doesn't have to translate into mindless giving. Let's go over some helpful ground rules for making donations that I developed after working as a reporter.

It all started in my journalism training about writing a complete news story. We were taught to ask the five "w's" which are: who, what, when, where and why. When you're about to give, make sure you answer the who first. Are they a tax-deductible organization? Being tax deductible has two advantages. The first is that, of course, you can deduct it on your income tax. The second is that the organization has their accounting on file in a public place. The document is the IRS Form 990. Checking this form can provide some delicious details when you're a reporter or a civilian giver. That's where you can often find out that the non-profit spent 85% on administration, with only 15% of their money going to actual people who are supposedly helped by the cause. Of course there are countless charities devoted to helping people that actually do that. But it's important to check their non-profit's 990, just to make sure. Many non-profits post their Form 990 on their websites. But, if they don't, you can often find those forms in the offices of the State Attorney General in many states across the country. And if you don't have the time you can visit a charity watchdog website, that does a lot of the checking for you.

Nonprofit websites and their literature often answer the what, when, where and why of their charities. If they don't have stories about real individuals or places you can find in a Google address search, they may be pulling your leg. A while back I had a friend of a friend who held a turkey dinner fundraiser at a church. He then helped cook the dinner and we did a Thanksgiving turkey day story for the six o'clock news. Later I learned that the man collected hundreds of dollars that went into his pocket beyond the cost of making the meals for the homeless. He actually had scammed a lot of people, because he operated on the word and good graces of people who had built up trust in the community. No matter what the cause, as a giver, I now ask people to mail me information or direct me to a website where I can confirm their organization's validity. I also find that when I ask a lot of the people asking for money outside grocery stores (who's causes appear to be homeless shelters, holiday meals or recovery houses) they often don't carry any official identification to show their affiliation or their organization has no such website or literature.

Finally, there are the five w's, but I also learned a fifth as a cub reporter. There is the question, who cares? I personally believe the best giving comes from the heart. It comes out of being compelled, not by being guilted into it. As someone who follows her intuition and encourages outhers to do the same, I believe having a really good feeling about a cause goes a long way in making good choices. Ask yourself, who cares? Do I really care about this cause. If your answer is yes, then take the time to ask the five w's. Beware of urgent giving, in the rush, you may be giving your hard-earned money to someone who's actually a thief dressed in the clothing of a charity. True, it is the season for giving. But the value of getting all the facts about a charity is timeless. That way you know your hard-earned money really is getting to people who need and deserve it.