CDC Has a Sense of Humor

I was going through draft blog posts and discovered this missing one from awhile back -- so I'm going to post it.


Someone at the CDC had a sense of humor and decided to do a blog post about surviving a zombie attack -- the tips are also applicable if there is a natural disaster.  (Thanks to Rene for the link)
See:
http://bit.ly/jTGqGi
Among the tips:
Plan your evacuation route. When zombies are hungry they won’t stop until they get food (i.e., brains), which means you need to get out of town fast! Plan where you would go and multiple routes you would take ahead of time so that the flesh eaters don’t have a chance! This is also helpful when natural disasters strike and you have to take shelter fast.
Also, did you know that you can kill zombies by shooting them in the head?  There's a song to drive the point home.
http://bit.ly/lpvIjL

Helmets at Ski Resorts

Saw this article in the Times about how helmets are becoming more widespread at ski resorts.  When I was starting to ski in the boy scouts in the mid 1990s, no one even thought to wear a helmet.  Even when I went skiing a few years ago, I don't remember seeing that many people wearing helmets.  Now, I wonder how people think about helmets with skiing, and whether they are going to become more widespread.
At the same time, though, as one person in the article points out, if you're speeding down a ski slope and crash into a tree, the helmet is not going to do much good.

A Hunch May Be Worth Listening To

According to this piece from the University of Florida, a hunch is worth listening to.  One of my professors at law school said that if you were talking to a client and something seemed off, it probably was.

Peanut Butter Recall Information

This website from the FDA has information on the peanut recall and a comprehensive list of every product affected.

Red Cross Has Problems Again

I've written regarding the Red Cross's blood donation problems before.  According to an article in the Times, they still continue to have problems.  The article discusses a specific procedure for disinfection prior to inserting the needle to donate blood (swabbing antiseptic and such).  I didn't know there was a separate procedure, but I'll bet that other blood donation services that I've given to have not followed that rule. 

Information on Working Out

This article in the New York Times discusses the most efficient calorie-burning methods for using various machines in the gym. Some take-away points:

• Not entirely a surprise, the calorie count on the machine is inaccurate.
• Hanging on the rails of a treadmill reduces the number of calories burned by 40 or 50 percent.
• It looks like it may be better to run on a treadmill than to use a bike.

Running Again

I've been at a loss for things to blog about recently. However, I've taken up running again. I ran a lot last summer while I was studying for the bar exam, but kind of dropped it after that. I've started doing it again, and as I'm sitting in my office during the day, I kind of look forward to it. I've got a new route worked out, which goes around town, a lot of it is along quiet streets, so I don't have cars whizzing by me all the time. I'm debating joining a gym, but running is a good workout in and of itself.

Smoking Ban in State College

I think that the smoking ban described here is a good idea. There has been a ban on smoking in bars in New York City for four years now, and I think it's really good. If every bar is forced to ban it, then I don't think that customers are going to go elsewhere, since they will have no choice. Second-hand smoke has been proven hazardous to one's health, and it would help the staff at restaurants if the ban was implemented. I know there are arguments for the other side, but smoking is already banned in a lot of other places, so maybe this is just the next logical step.
Besides everything else, it is refreshing to go out to a bar and come back without having my clothes smell like cigarette smoke. I don't mind my clothes smelling so much as I mind my jacket smelling, since that I have to wear again.
I realise I'm a non-smoker, so do other people have comments?

The Bigger Loser Competition Tips

I'm going to post my two cents on dieting for the Bigger Loser Competition. I agree with much of what Dorothy said on her blog.
With that being said, one good thing to do if you are dieting (or even just generally) is to watch the fat content of the food that you consume. Besides saving on fat (a good thing), you also save considerably on calories, without having to go crazy counting them. If you get low-fat varieties of items, you may not notice much of a taste difference, but the food will inherently have less calories.
For example:
Nabisco Chips Ahoy Regular Cookies have 160 calories and 8 grams of fat. Here is a link to the nutrition facts page at Nabisco.
However, Nabisco Chips Ahoy Low Fat Cookies have 140 calories and six grams of fat. Here is a link to the nutrition facts page at Nabisco.
Twenty calories may not seem like a lot, but if you eat other low-fat or non-fat items, it can add up to a significant amount of calories. If you ingest less calories, then you have to burn less calories.
Using low-fat or fat free salad dressing may save even more calories than low-fat chocolate chip cookies.
Some fat-free items don't taste very good; I won't buy fat free cream cheese because I think it tastes like paste. But, I don't mind low-fat or non-fat salad dressing.
Obviously, drinking water instead of soda is a good idea, but keep in mind that even though milk is healthy, it is also 110 calories per cup.

Red Cross' Irresponsibility with Blood

The Red Cross is in trouble -- again -- with the Food and Drug Administration for not following proper safety procedures with regard to processing and screening blood. This time, the FDA caught the Red Cross with blood units that had failed testing that were mixed in with blood units that had passed testing.
According to the report, it was extremely unlikely that this blood would ever have made it into a person, because there are further checks along the way. The FDA fined them five million dollars for this offence. Although that seems like a lot of money, the reporter seemed to think it was a slap on the wrist, since blood donation is a multi-billion dollar industry. The Red Cross is responsible for 40% of the blood here.
The Canadian Red Cross has gotten into trouble too. In the 1980s, the Canadian Red Cross failed to screen people adequately for HIV. As a result, according to this article on the BBC's website, over 3,000 people died because they contracted AIDS from the tainted blood. The whole report (called the Krever Report) for this is published on a website set up by Health Canada. Although HIV was not as well known then, the Canadian Red Cross should have known about the risks at the time these tainted blood donations were accepted.
The Canadian Red Cross used to be responsible for blood donation and processing in Canada. Not anymore.
When I have donated blood, I have seen potential failures in the screening process too. For example, last year when I was donating blood at the law school, I sat down with a questioner who asked me the usual questions. However, the questioner was going through the questions really fast, so fast that I was just answering no to the question without thinking. Then I said no and realized that the proper answer to that question was yes and made him go back. My "yes" did not cause me to be ineligible to donate blood, but when the questioner is asking those questions so quickly, it encourages the person donating to quickly answer the questions without thinking. The questioner should go through the questions slowly and methodically.
The questioner also thought that a "Channel Island" (with reference to the United Kingdom) was the island of Britain. Not true. The Channel Islands are Guernsey and Jersey, according to Wikipedia. The questioner's knowledge (or lack thereof) in geography did not inspire any confidence in the Red Cross's screening procedures.
Another place that I have donated blood to -- the New York Blood Center -- also asks questions, but they switch the answers so that the "right" answer to the question is sometimes yes. This catches the people who just want to answer no to every single question. The other good thing that they do is that they allow the donating person to label their blood and indicate whether they want the New York Blood Center to use it or not. The questioner turns away while the donating person does this. If the person donating labels it and asks the New York Blood Center not to use it, the blood will still be tested for HIV, etc. If the person has engaged in risky behaviour and does not want their blood to be donated for some reason, then he or she can mark it accordingly and still appear to be donating blood if there are other people around who might be peer-pressuring them into donating blood. The New York Blood Center does this -- partially -- because blood tests won't always catch HIV in the early stages.
The Red Cross (and the Central Pennsylvania Blood Bank) don't do this. I think they should.
With all that being said, I think that blood donation is really important. If you can donate, you should. Although, of course, I cannot guarantee your safety, I have never heard any concerns about the safety of the donation process itself.
There's a Jewish saying "He who saves one life, it is as if he saved the world entire."
(Phew. Lots of links in this blog entry)
I heard the report about this on NPR.