Measles and Autism

There are a total of 4 siblings in my family and all of us were vaccinated for measles, although my youngest brother was born with down syndrome and then later when he was around 2 years old my parents found out he had autism. Did they think it was from the vaccine? No they didn't but after reading several stories that said it came from the measles vaccines that children get, my mother started to believe that was the case as do many others since the measles are making a dramatic come back, and yes in the U.S. There have been many studies that have show that the measles vaccine DOES NOT cause autism but it's hard to squash years of rumors. There is an article in Scientific American "New Study: Measles Vaccine Does Not Cause Autism" and it goes in depth about the study on how the measles aren't the culprit for autism. The number of people vaccinating their children have gone down but the rate of autism is going up, 1 out of every 150 children are now autistic.

Many people will still believe that autism is caused by a vaccine, but not vaccinating your children is an even more risky game. Measles can be deadly in children especially for those without means or health care. "In a room of 100 people, only one of whom actually has measles, another 90 to 95 people will become infected, Seward said" This is a direct quote from Bio Medicine. There is no reason for children to be contracting this disease, especially in industrialized countries where vaccines are readily available.

For more recent news on the measles outbreaks click here

Broccli the new anti aging drug?

I don' know about most people but I love broccoli, and I like it steamed and plain. For those of you who don't like broccoli after reading Keen Cuisine: Broccoli Rave you might want to change your mind, or at least try it several different ways or hide it in another food just to eat some. Apparently Broccoli activates antioxidants can help fight aging by boosting the immune system. It also helps fight against heart disease, diabetes, and degenerative joint diseases. So if you don't like broccoli try it steamed and be sure to hold your nose while you swallow it down =)

How to end your worries

I know that sounds crazy, I mean how does one stop worrying? I mean there are so many things to worry about, the economy, is my job secure, how are you going to get money for college, are your kids doing well in school, is your relationship heading for disaster, did you pass your final exam, etc etc the list could go on forever. I came across Eight Weeks to End Your Worries, and I'm going to tell you right now it's a really long feed but it has a great deal of information it is also followed up with another post First Week: End Your Worries. If you come across this I think everyone should take up the 8 week challenge and see if you can end your worries or at least reduce them I would be interested to know how people do.

Electric Cars

I plan on purchasing a new car in about 2 years, by then I should be done getting my B.S. and have narrowed down a graduate school. I want to move to a more urban area so I won't be so dependent on a car, because for my next car I would really like to go electric. Right now I drive less than 40 miles per day so it would be a great deal, and even a better deal if I could walk where ever I needed to go. Unfortunately I don't know where I am going to go to grad school so it might not be an urban area and my commute might be a little further, if this is the case I hope that electric cars start making some advances fast. This problem in discussed in Scientific American's "Electric Vehicles of America: Helping drivers go electric but not very far" talks about this very issue on battery life and how major advances need to be made before they will be good for long road trips. It also talks about the DIY conversion kit to change your car over, honestly this sounds kind of scary, complicated, and an accident waiting to happen (speaking for only myself of course). Currently from what I have read the average miles you can get on a fully charged battery is between 40-45 of course some are more and some are less. These are the cars that are available to most people across the country, this excludes the aptera which is only going to be available in California and the telsa roadster because lets face it not everyone can fork out over 100k for a car. Since gas prices have gotten as high as they are, the demand for alternatives are finally driving manufacturers to start making big changes, I cannot wait to see the car industries are going to be making over the next 10-15 years.

How Safe is your identity

In a world where all of us have put our lives on the internet, with blogs, myspace, facebook, digg, flicker, and various other methods of getting our information in public view we have all put ourselves at risk. Browsing through my google reader I came across "How I stole Someone's identity" which is an amazing article of how someone was able to get get bank information changed by doing some simple password changes. How did he know the answers to the security questions to email accounts and bank accounts....simple he looked at her blog site which gave him all the information he needed, well most of the information.

I think about the information that I have floating around out there and I did a search on my real name, then my user name, and then my blog names and nothing really stood out to me. I don't get that personal on the web, I just have simple information nothing that would help anyone get the answers to my security questions. Most people have the standard security questions, mother's maiden name, and date of birth or something along the lines of that. Try changing those out for more difficult ones information that only you would know, or if you are able to make your own security questions do so and make it some off the wall information like:
What is your favorite brand of toilet paper?
What is the name of your kindergarden teacher?
or find some private information that you wouldn't share with anyone:
What was the nickname your parents had for you?
what is your greatest fear?
what is your greatest fantasy?

Do a search on your name, check your blogs, and other pages to check exactly what kind of information you are just handing to people interested in screwing you over.

Great News for Amputees

It looks like there has been some advances in prosthetics that may help those that lack all of their limbs. Although the technology hasn't advanced enough for humans it is being used in animals. This technology I believe would greatly help reduce the stress, depression, and anxiety of those born without limbs, or those who have had to have limbs amputated. This would cause movements to be more natural, and it would feel more like a piece of their body because it would become a permanent prosthetic.

Real Human Contact

In this day and age of modern ways of communicate we forget that actual talking, and face to face time goes a long way. Text messages are ok for simple messages but they lack the emotions you feel from hearing tone of voice, laughter, sarcasm, crying, etc. When couples face troubles real communication is what is going to get them over the hurdle, as discussed in Texting Leave Out More Than Just Vowels discusses how real communication makes large impacts. Memories are created from contact and real involvement, something more than you can get from a text message, email, or instant messaging. Younger generations are leaving out the communication and trading it in for electronics, which there is nothing wrong with but in a relationship you need something more. You need to feel the caress of your partner, the sound of their voice and just being together is what will cause your relationship to develop and grow stronger. Messages not given in person can also be taken the wrong way because you can't hear the tone of voice, which can cause arguments that would have been prevented if the phone was picked up and used instead.

This is especially true when partners are separated for what ever reason. If the seperation is due to travel it has been known to cause higher emotional distress and real interaction was the only thing that helped with the distress "In fact, only a long phone conversation-not a bonanza of emails, texts, or voice messages-was effective at ameliorating these participants' negative experiences brought on by the separation." That is from Separation Distress Among Romantic Partners and its Lessons for Human Mating, this talks about how seperation causes high stress, and anxiety. This just goes to show that we need real contact in order for our relationships to grow, and how attached we become to one another but even that attachment needs constant reassurance from something more than an electronic message.

Are relationships too hard?

I'm sure it's not news when I say the divorce rate is up, and that infidelity is skyrocketing. I have also heard people say "well that was her first marriage, and you know those never work" but why? I came across Is Marriage Hard of course on psychology today and it was perfect, and I though amusing. It said

In fact, marriage is only hard for those who:
• Try to make their partners into someone they are not
• Believe they have superior rights, tastes, preferences, beliefs, or morality
• Are unwilling to use binocular vision to see their partner's perspectives alongside their own
• Are convinced that their partners are selfish, mentally ill, or defective
• Are unwilling to admire their partners' strengths and regard their vulnerabilities with compassion and support
• Are unwilling to appreciate the value and meaning their partner's add to their lives.

This right here says it all, if your a selfish person that only sees one point of view (your own) then you are not going to be happy with anyone but yourself. All relationships can be difficult it does require you to have an open mind, be compassionate, patient, and compromising. You are never always going to see eye to eye with anyone other than yourself, and if you don't believe that you are living in a fairy tale and have committed all of your relationships to failure. Relationships are only as difficult as you make them, my boyfriend and I have all different beliefs, likes, and dislikes but we support each other no matter what they are.

Another problem is everyone is in a rush, we have to get married, we have to have kids, we have to do this, but why do we have to do it as soon as possible? It can take years to get to know someone and be comfortable enough with a person to let your inner most secrets out. So why do people think that after 6 months of knowing someone they can just hop on the train of matrimony and everything is going to work out? Take your time, get to know each other make sure you have enough in common, but have some differences to keep things interesting if you do that then it shouldn't be hard, but that doesn't mean you won't hit a speed bump or two =)