Author: SeniorWomenWeb

The Power of Words

by Rose Madeline Mula

Okay, I admit it. I’m an addict, and my addiction is controlling my life. Actually, I no longer have a life. I don’t have time for one.  Feeding my obsession consumes my every waking minute. The moment I arise in the morning, the unquenchable craving seizes me.

Today I hit rock bottom. I had been sitting at my computer for what I could have sworn was less than an hour. I looked at the clock. I couldn’t believe it! 3:00 PM!   And I hadn’t eaten breakfast — or lunch. Nor had I made my bed (something I always did as soon as I got up). Worse, I hadn’t yet showered, dressed, combed my hair, or even brushed my teeth. My doorbell rang. I looked through the peephole. The FEDEX guy. I didn’t open the door, even though I knew he had a package I had been expecting. I couldn’t let anyone see the wreck I had become. I vowed on the spot to give up the compulsion that had me in its grip — or at least to taper off.

No, I’m not on heroin, cocaine, or crack. If that were the case, maybe medical intervention could help. Unfortunately, no rehab programs exist to cure my addiction — computerized
Words With Friends. I fully understand why Alec Baldwin allowed himself to be thrown off a flight recently, rather than obey the flight attendant’s order to turn off his I-Pad and terminate a Words game he was playing. It’s not as if he had a choice. The monster had him in its grasp, and he was powerless to free himself. Maybe he was just about to play a “Z” in a triple letter space of a triple word for a score of over ninety points! No one would be able to resist a temptation that strong.

It’s the same with me.   Every morning when I get out of bed, I go straight to the den and turn on my computer. I promise myself I’m just going to do a five-minute check of my email. But of course I can’t resist a quick peek to see if any of my Words With Friends opponents have made a move since midnight, when I had last checked.

Even if they haven’t, I again scrutinize the jumble of letters I have to work with, trying every possible configuration that would give me the highest score and moaning that if only I had an “S” or a “D” — or, wait, an “A” — I could use all my letters and score thirty-five bonus points. Not fifty as in regular Scrabble, but still nothing to sneeze at — which is good, because no way am I getting up to grab a tissue.

Hurray! I find another seven-letter word using just the ones I have. I’m elated! Until I look at the game board and see there’s absolutely no place to put it — unless my opponent puts down a word that will give me an opening.   Meanwhile, I decide to check the seven other games I have in progress …

And that’s how my day goes. As the sun sets I realize I didn’t write that essay I had promised my editor.   I didn’t do the laundry and put fresh sheets on the bed. I didn’t empty the dishwasher and load it with the dirty dishes in the sink. I didn’t go grocery shopping. I didn’t even get to my mailbox.

But one good thing has come of my Words With Friends obsession. It has cured me of my addictions to computer Free Cell and Spider solitaire.

©2012 Rose Mula for SeniorWomen.com

Rose Mula’s most recent book,

The Beautiful People and Other Aggravations is now available at your favorite bookstore, through Amazon.com and other online bookstores, and through Pelican Publishing (800-843-1724), as is her previous book, If These Are Laugh Lines, I’m Having Way Too Much Fun.

Check out Rose’s new YouTube video: http://youtu.be/iAsDjwD3j80

January 30, 2012
Child Protection, Employment Compensation Brackets and Abortion Congressional Bills Introduced

Some of the bills of interest to women introduced in the House and Senate during week of January 23 — 27th, 2012. Courtesy of Women’s Policy, Inc:

Child Protection

H.R. 3796 — Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI)/Judiciary (1/19/12) — A bill to reauthorize certain programs established by the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act.

H.R. 3829 — Rep. Gwen Moore (D-WI)/Education and the Workforce (1/25/12) — A bill to require a criminal background check for employees of child care providers, family child care providers, and adults who reside in the private residences of family child care providers in states that receive funds from the Child Care and Development Block Grant Program, and for other purposes.

Employment

H.R. 3791 — Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY)/Financial Services (1/18/12) — A bill to require annual disclosures relating to the compensation brackets in which an issuer’s minority and women employees reside.

Abortion

H.R. 3802 — Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-SC)/Energy and Commerce (1/23/12) — A bill to require an abortion provider, before performing an abortion, to wait for a period of at least 24 hours.

H.R. 3803 — Rep. Franks (R-AZ)/Judiciary, Oversight and Government Reform (1/23/12) — bill to protect pain-capable unborn children in the District of Columbia, and for other purposes.

H.R. 3805 — Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH)/Energy and Commerce (1/23/12) — A bill to ensure that women seeking an abortion receive an ultrasound and the opportunity to review the ultrasound before giving informed consent to receive an abortion.

International

S. Res. 352 — Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY)/Foreign Relations (1/23/12) — A resolution expressing the sense of the Senate that the United States should work with the government of Haiti to address gender-based violence against women and children.

H. Res. 521 — Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-FL)/Foreign Affairs (1/23/12) — A resolution expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the United States should work with the government of Haiti to address gender-based violence against women and children.

This week:

Floor Action: Family Support — The House is scheduled to consider the Welfare Integrity Now for Children and Families Act (H.R. 3567). The measure would prevent Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) benefits from being used in strip clubs, casinos, and liquor stores.

Mark-Ups: Violence Against Women — On Thursday, the Senate Judiciary Committee will mark up the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act (S. 1925).

January 30, 2012
Freddie Mac Bets Against American Homeowners

by Jesse Eisinger, ProPublica and Chris Arnold, NPR News, Jan. 30, 2012

This story is not subject to our Creative Commons license.

This story was co-published with NPR News [1].

Freddie Mac, the taxpayer-owned mortgage giant, has placed multibillion-dollar bets that pay off if homeowners stay trapped in expensive mortgages with interest rates well above current rates.

Freddie began increasing these bets dramatically in late 2010, the same time that the company was making it harder for homeowners to get out of such high-interest mortgages.

No evidence has emerged that these decisions were coordinated. The company is a key gatekeeper for home loans but says its traders are “walled off” from the officials who have restricted homeowners from taking advantage of historically low interest rates by imposing higher fees and new rules.

Freddie’s charter calls for the company to make home loans more accessible. Its chief executive, Charles Haldeman Jr., recently told Congress that his company is “helping financially strapped families reduce their mortgage costs through refinancing their mortgages.”

But the trades, uncovered for the first time in an investigation by ProPublica and NPR, give Freddie a powerful incentive to do the opposite, highlighting a conflict of interest at the heart of the company. In addition to being an instrument of government policy dedicated to making home loans more accessible, Freddie also has giant investment portfolios and could lose substantial amounts of money if too many borrowers refinance.

“We were actually shocked they did this,” says Scott Simon, who as the head of the giant bond fund PIMCO’s mortgage-backed securities team is one of the world’s biggest mortgage bond traders. “It seemed so out of line with their mission.”

The trades “put them squarely against the homeowner,” he says.

Those homeowners have a lot at stake, too. Many of them could cut their interest payments by thousands of dollars a year.

Freddie Mac, along with its cousin Fannie Mae, was bailed out in 2008 and is now owned by taxpayers. The companies play a pivotal role in the mortgage business because they insure most home loans in the United States, making banks likelier to lend. The companies’ rules determine whether homeowners can get loans and on what terms.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency effectively serves as Freddie’s board of directors and is ultimately responsible for Freddie’s decisions. It is run by acting director Edward DeMarco, who cannot be fired by the president except in extraordinary circumstances.

Freddie and the FHFA repeatedly declined to comment on the specific transactions.

Freddie’s moves to limit refinancing affect not only individual homeowners but the entire economy. An expansive refinancing program could help millions of homeowners, some economists say. Such an effort would “help the economy and put tens of billions of dollars back in consumers’pockets, the equivalent of a very long-term tax cut,” says real-estate economist Christopher Mayer of the Columbia Business School. “It also is likely to reduce foreclosures and benefit the U.S. government” because Freddie and Fannie, which guarantee most mortgages in the country, would have lower losses over the long run.

Freddie Mac’s trades, while perfectly legal, came during a period when the company was supposed to be reducing its investment portfolio, according to the terms of its government takeover agreement. But these trades escalate the risk of its portfolio, because the securities Freddie has purchased are volatile and hard to sell, mortgage securities experts say.

The financial crisis in 2008 was made worse when Wall Street traders made bets against their customers and the American public. Now, some see similar behavior, only this time by traders at a government-owned company who are using leverage, which increases the potential profits but also the risk of big losses, and other Wall Street stratagems. “More than three years into the government takeover, we have Freddie Mac pursuing highly levered, complicated transactions seemingly with the purpose of trading against homeowners,” says Mayer. “These are the kinds of things that got us into trouble in the first place.”

‘We’re in financial jail’

Freddie Mac is betting against, among others, Jay and Bonnie Silverstein. The Silversteins live in an unfinished development of cul-de-sacs and yellow stucco houses about 20 miles north of Philadelphia, in a house decorated with Bonnie’s orchids and their Rose Bowl parade pin collection. The developer went bankrupt, leaving orange plastic construction fencing around some empty lots. The community clubhouse isn’t complete.

January 30, 2012
Fleur Cowles The Flower Game: What Ten Flowers Would You Take to a Lonely Island?

The personal archive of publisher, author, and artist Fleur Cowles (1908 –2009) has been donated to the Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas, Austin. The materials will be accessible once processed and cataloged, but an initial assessment confirms that the archive is as dynamic as Cowles was herself. (Editor’s Note: She was perhaps best known for the short-lived Flair magazine, described by Time magazine described as “a fancy bouillabaisse of Vogue, Town & Country, Holiday, etc.)

In 1983, Cowles celebrated the publication of The Flower Game, a book that shared hundreds of responses from friends around the world, all answering the question of what ten flowers they would like to take to a lonely island, assuming anything would grow there.

When soliciting friends, Cowles wrote, “The replies will determine the best loved flowers everywhere (I am writing to many places around the world).”

Participants ranged from European to Hollywood royalty, proving that Cowles didn’t limit herself to a continent nor to small social circles. A detailed chart documents the progress of Cowles’s initiative, revealing the friends invited to participate and the dates for solicitation and receipt.

Just as these responses provide insight into Cowles’s broad personal and professional network, the hundreds of typed and handwritten, signed responses represent just a small fraction of the correspondence found in the archive.

Below are highlights from a handful of the participants.

Cecil Beaton:
Photographer Beaton provided not only his list of flowers but also a handwritten note stating “Any large white orchid of any variety, as long as it is white.”

Candice Bergen:
Actress Bergen’s list included wisteria and night-blooming jasmine, and she elaborated on her selections: “Flowers to see and smell — by day and night — that bloom underfoot and hang overhead, plus a few insect escorts — butterflies and caterpillars, the odd ladybug — for company.”
November 28, 1981

Olivia de Havilland:
Actress de Havilland gave herself an hour to construct her list, which contained water lilies, blue bells, and peonies.

Douglas Fairbanks:
Actor Fairbanks’s list includes a reference to his trademark carnation. Topping his list at number one is “The dark red (or Harvard red) carnation, as I have worn one in my button-hole actually since I have had a button-hole.”
March 6, 1979

Jane Goodall:
The challenge of selecting flowers was difficult for anthropologist Goodall, who wrote, “The first 6 flowers were very easy to chose — but the last 4 were much harder. Not because it is difficult to think of 4 flowers one loves, but because it is difficult to reject others.”
February 27, 1979

Princess Grace of Monaco:
Listed among her favorite flowers, Princess Grace included bamboo, noting, “I hope you will accept bamboo although I have never seen it flower.”
March 7, 1979

January 27, 2012
Bill Would Require Independent Study of X-Ray Body Scanners

by Michael Grabell
ProPublica, Jan. 26, 2012.

Sen. Susan Collins, the top Republican on the Homeland Security Committee, plans to introduce a bill in the coming days that would require a new health study of the X-ray body scanners used to screen airline passengers nationwide.

The Transportation Security Administration began using the machines for routine screening in 2009 and sped up deployment after the so-called underwear bomber tried to blow up a plane on Christmas Day of that year.

But the X-ray scanners have caused concerns because they emit low levels of ionizing radiation, a form of energy that has been shown to damage DNA and mutate genes, potentially leading to cancer. ProPublica and PBS NewsHour reported in November that the TSA had glossed over cancer concerns. Studies suggested that six or 100 airline passengers each year could develop cancer from the machines.

Shortly after our report, the European Union separately announced that it would prohibit X-ray body scanners at its airports for the time being “in order not to risk jeopardizing citizens’ health and safety.”

The new bill drafted by Collins would require the TSA to choose an independent laboratory to measure the radiation emitted by a scanner currently in use at an airport checkpoint. The peer-reviewed study, to be submitted to Congress, would also evaluate the safety mechanisms on the machine and determine whether there are any biological signs of cellular damage caused by the scans.

In addition, the bill would require the TSA to place prominent signs at the start of checkpoint lines informing travelers that they can request a physical pat-down instead of going through the scanner. Right now, the TSA has signs in front of the machines noting that passengers can opt out. But the signs mostly highlight the images created rather than possible health risks.

The bill is the latest volley in a back-and-forth between Collins and the TSA. At a hearing in November, TSA administrator John Pistole agreed to a request from Sen. Collins to conduct a new independent health study.

But a week later at another hearing, Pistole backed off the commitment citing a yet-to-be-released report on the machines by the Department of Homeland Security’s Inspector General.

“I have urged TSA to move toward only radiation-free screening technology,” Collins said in a statement to ProPublica. “In the meantime, an independent study is needed to protect the public and to determine what technology is worthy of taxpayer dollars.”

The TSA uses two types of body scanners to screen passengers for explosives. The X-ray machines, known as backscatters, look like two refrigerator-size blue boxes and are used at Los Angeles, Chicago O’Hare, New York’s John F. Kennedy, and elsewhere. The other machine, which looks like a round glass booth, uses electromagnetic waves that have not been linked to any adverse health effects. Those machines are used at airports in Dallas and Atlanta, among others.

Photo: Screenshot of an explainer video from the TSA

January 26, 2012
Book Review, The Swerve: How the World Became Modern and Chef Supreme

In this Issue, Jill Norgren Reviews Two Books:

Swerve illuminates the fascinating nooks of antiquity, as well as the Renaissance, for the neophyte. This is the sort of book that, during these winter months, will bring the pleasure endorsed by Epicurus and Lucretius. Chef Supreme: Martin Ginsburg creates a paean to good food and its ability to create community; the recipes and tributes are rich, as was his life.

The Swerve: How the World Became Modern

By Stephen Greenblatt, c. 2011

Published by W. W. Norton & Company; Hardcover; e-book; 356 pp

In the age of Twitter, Google, and viral, Poggio Bracciolini’s 1417 discovery of a manuscript on a dusty shelf in a remote monastery speaks of an age gone by. But what an age!

In The Swerve, Harvard Professor Stephen Greenblatt serves up an extraordinary story of the power of information. Detective story, biography, and intellectual history The Swerve describes the hunt for, and chain of events following, Bracciolini’s unearthing of Lucretius’s ancient poem, On the Nature of Things (De rerum natura). In his preface, Greenblatt states simply: “There is no single explanation for the emergence of the Renaissance and the release of the forces that have shaped our own world.” He argues, however, that the uncovering of On the Nature of Things created a cultural shift, a swerve, that made a difference in the re-naissance of antiquity and a re-examination of thought in ways that shaped modern thinking.

The Poem: The Roman Titus Lucretius Carus wrote this lengthy (7,400 lines), sublimely beautiful poem, a philosophical epic, in about 50 BCE. Little is known of the author although the praise of Cicero and Ovid survives Lucretius’s lost biography. The ideas unfurled in On the Nature of Things endorsed the teachings of the Greek philosopher Epicurus who had lived two centuries before Lucretius. Epicurus argued that everything that exists is composed of invisible building blocks called atoms, that the universe is the result of an evolving natural order rather than the fiat of the gods. Existence, he insisted, should be given over to the pursuit of pleasure, not fears of death, or worship.

The ideas of Epicurus provoked displeasure in ancient Greece and Rome, and most of his works were lost. Lucretius, however, found enough to provide an intellectual bridge into his time and wrote On the Nature of Things. In its lines he boldly argued that everything is made of invisible particles, which are infinite and eternal, that the universe is not the product of a divine creator, and that providence does not exist. He wrote that particles shift, or swerve, periodically setting off a chain of collisions and providing a source of free will. Lucretius also wrote of evolution and adaptation among living things.

Heretically, he insisted that there was no afterlife, and that the gods have no interest in the everyday existence of humans. Life, he urged, should be a journey in seeking pleasure and reducing pain. For Lucretius, however, pleasure was not a synonym for self-serving hedonism. Pleasure was a larger, virtuous pursuit: a life style and philosophy that celebrated friendship, emphasized charity, justice, and forgiveness, and mistrusted worldly ambition as well as militarism.

The Book Hunter: Poggio Bracciolini was, by Greenblatt’s lights, one of the greatest book hunters of the fifteenth century, a man he calls “a midwife to modernity,” a man with an obsessive craving, “a book mania.” Some of the most charming and engaging chapters of The Swerve chronicle the culture of book hunting, the wooing of monastery librarians, and the artful work of the scriptorium.

January 26, 2012
Rosemary, Arthur and Ben: On the Road to Mecca (Followed by Doug)*

Subject: For Arthur Sulzberger Jr. and Ben Brantley

Date: January 19, 2012 1:28:04 PM GMT+01:00

To: publisher@nytimes.com

Cc: thearts@nytimes.com

From: Nancy Dawson*

Dear Arthur Sulzberger Jr.,

I hope you remember AA Milne’s delightful poem (The King’s Breakfast) about the king who asked the milkmaid for a little bit of butter for his royal slice of bread, because, it aptly describes my experience yesterday with your newspaper when I tried to buy a digital subscription to read Ben Brantley’s review of my friend Rosemary Harris in Athol Fugard’s The Road to Mecca at the American Airlines Theater by the Roundabout Theater Company.

Early in the morning I eagerly took my coffee to my MacBook brought up The New York Times online to read the review and was greeted by your invitation to subscribe and your well-presented explanation of its necessity. I gladly obliged, filling out the financial information required, but The Times reported an error with my numbers. I tried many more times during the morning and afternoon with carefully entered numbers, becoming more and more disappointed that I couldn’t read Ben Brantley’s review of my friend Rosemary Harris in Athol Fugard’s The Road to Mecca at the American Airlines Theater.

Finally I called The Times and explained to Julio in New York that I wasn’t a fussy person and if it wasn’t not too much to ask, could he please help me read Ben Brantley’s review of Rosemary Harris in Athol Fugard’s The Road to Mecca at the American Airlines Theater. Tried as he could, Julio couldn’t get The Times to accept my bank card. He said, “There, there, call your bank because they can surely fix this for you.”

To Maria in Manilla, I explained that my Chase Bank JP Morgan card wouldn’t work to get The Times subscription and she said it is not the bank that is the problem, it is The Times. There were already eleven 99-cent charges The Times had made on my card. “We never did and never would decline a charge that would keep you from reading Ben Brantley’s review of Rosemary Harris in Athol Fugard’s The Road to Mecca at the American Airlines Theater,” Maria said. “Maybe you should try The Huffington Post instead.”

I couldn’t go to a newsstand to buy a Times edition because I live in the Perigord, France. “I have a very fine broadband,” I said to Kelly in Pensacola, “Can’t you please fix this so I can read Ben Brantley’s digital review of Rosemary Harris in Athol Fugard’s The Road to Mecca at the American Airlines Theater.” She said she’d do what she could to help me, but couldn’t find any record of Julio’s work on my behalf, and turning a little red she said, “The Times doesn’t like your card; maybe you should go to bed.”

She passed me on to Myrna in Iowa whose job was resolutions. By then the call was reaching 85 minutes and I sobbed to Myrna that I’d happily pay the king’s ransom in addition to the twenty-three 99-cent charges on my Chase Bank JP Morgan card if I could only read Ben Brantley’s digital review of Rosemary Harris in Athol Fugard’s The Road to Mecca at the American Airlines Theater. “There, there,” Myrna comforted me. “We’ll fix you up in no time,” and she did.

Eagerly I went back to The Times online, but alas, I was greeted again by your invitation to subscribe instead. To Donavan in New Jersey I said “it’s now nearing midnight and 15 hours since I first tried to read Ben Brantley’s review of Rosemary Harris in Athol Fugard’s The Road to Mecca at the American Airlines Theater.” Donavan said, “The problem is that you are logged into the wrong website and the solution is quite simple.” He led me through logging out and logging in and waited patiently as I opened Ben Brantley’s digital review of Rosemary Harris in Athol Fugard’s The Road to Mecca at the American Airlines Theater. I thanked him for his kindness and took a glass of wine and finally read Ben Brantley’s magnificent review of my friend Rosemary Harris’ performance in The Road to Mecca at the American Airlines Theater.

Nobody, but nobody would call me a fussy person, not even nowadays when others may prefer the Huffington Post to The New York Times instead. I do like my Times each morning and don’t think it’s too much to ask. But when a friend is featured as yesterday Rosemary was, I make no apologies for making a little bit of a fuss.

©2012 Nancy Dawson* for SeniorWomen.com

*Nancy Dawson was raised in Philadelphia, spent 40 years in North Carolina, initially during the civil rights movement at a Quaker college and worked for women’s rights as a NOW leader. She was public relations director for the North Carolina School of the Arts for 25 years. The mother of two feminist and artist daughters, she lives in the Périgord, France with her artist husband, and taking time to write.

Photo: Rosemary Harris and Carla Gugino in The Road to Mecca. Credit: Joan Marcus, 2012.

What Is The Matter With Nancy D?

From: Doug Lewis**

What is the matter with Nancy D?
She couldn’t get the Times for free,
Not even if she said she’d pay.
(The website turned her card away.)
What is the matter with Nancy D?

What is the matter with Nancy D?
She tried and tried — could not succeed.
(Became so angry she almost peed).
She called New York and said: “Indeed!”
What is the matter with Nancy D?

What is the matter with Nancy D?
She called from Perigord, not from Paris,
To get the scoop on our Miss Harris.
What is the matter with Nancy D?

What is the matter with Nancy D?
The answer came: “You’ll be just fine.
Change the web site. Drink some wine.”
What is the matter with Nancy D?

Now what’s the matter with Nancy D?
Au bout, rien du tout.

— ©2012 Doug Lewis

** Doug Lewis is an old North Carolina friend of Nancy’s who eagerly follows her life in France and responds to her AA Milne parody with one of his own.

January 24, 2012
Where Doesn’t It Hurt? Women Report Feeling More Pain Than a Man
by Bruce Goldman

Women report more-intense pain than men in virtually every disease category, according to Stanford University School of Medicine investigators who mined a huge collection of electronic medical records to establish the broad gender difference to a high level of statistical significance.

Their study, published online Jan. 23 in the Journal of Pain, suggests that stronger efforts should be made to recruit women subjects in population and clinical studies in order to find out why this gender difference exists.

The study also shows the value of EMR data mining for research purposes. Using a novel database designed especially for research, the Stanford scientists examined more than 160,000 pain scores reported for more than 72,000 adult patients. From these, they extracted cases where disease-associated pain was first reported, and then stratified these findings by disease and gender.

“None of these data were initially collected for research, but this study shows that we can use it in that capacity,” said Atul Butte, MD, PhD, the study’s senior author.

RELATED NEWS
- » Major changes needed to end inadequate pain management for millions, say Stanford authors of IOM study
- » Does that hurt? Objective way to measure pain being developed at Stanford
The medical literature contains numerous reports indicating that women report more pain than men for one or another particular disease, noted Butte, a professor of systems medicine in pediatrics. “We’re certainly not the first to find differences in pain among men and women. But we focused on pain intensity, whereas most previous studies have looked at prevalence: the percentage of men vs. women with a particular clinical problem who are in pain. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first-ever systematic use of data from electronic medical records to examine pain on this large a scale, or across such a broad range of diseases.”

The study’s first authors were Butte’s graduate student Linda Liu and postdoctoral scholar David Ruau, PhD, who splits his time between Butte’s group and that of co-author Martin Angst, MD, professor of anesthesia. David Clark, MD, PhD, a professor of anesthesia, was another co-author.

Electronic medical records are deployed in about 1-2 percent of hospitals now, but that should approach 100 percent within the next few years as the United States continues to move toward EMRs, Butte said. Thus, large-scale research using clinically collected data will become increasingly feasible.

In this case, the scientists tapped an existing data archive that has been designed specifically for ease of research: the Stanford Translational Research Integrated Database Environment, or STRIDE. Pioneered by the medical school’s chief information officer, Henry Lowe, MD (who is also an associate professor of systems medicine in pediatrics and director of Stanford’s Center for Clinical Informatics), STRIDE aggregates clinical data on patients cared for at Stanford Hospital & Clinics and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital, making this data searchable for approved research projects.

Butte’s team selected only adult records and looked for gender-related differences in pain intensity as reported on 1-to-10 scales, in which a zero stands for “no pain” and 10 for “worst imaginable.” Their search algorithm combed through de-identified EMR data for more than 72,000 patients, and came up with more than 160,000 instances, ranging across some 250 different disease categories, in which a pain score had been reported.
January 24, 2012
Review, New York Met Opera’s HD Live Performance of The Enchanted Island: Guile, sorcery, love, and rejection

By Jill Norgren

The Metropolitan Opera celebrates its 2011-2012 season with a World Premiere production of The Enchanted Island, an enthusiastically received operatic pastiche.

The Met describes this much heralded new production as one in which “lovers of Baroque opera have it all: the world’s best singers, glorious music of the Baroque masters, and a story drawn from Shakespeare.” In this case the public relations talk does not lie. This operatic pasticcio, drawing upon music composed by Handel, Vivaldi, and Rameau is a harvest basket of delights.

On Saturday, January 21, opera lovers around the world, including this reviewer, were able to see and hear the production in movie theaters as an HD Live (simulcast) performance. The story, drawing upon A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Tempest, opens with Prospero, the aging, exiled Duke of Milan plotting to win a husband for Miranda, his daughter and, not coincidentally, restore himself to society. Guile, sorcery, love, and rejection mark the opera’s action, expressed in arias and duets with the occasional appearance of the chorus.

The stellar cast includes countertenor David Daniels (Prospero), mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato (Sycorax the island sorceress), Plácido Domingo as Neptune, lyric soprano Danielle de Niese (Ariel, a sprite servant), and bass-baritone Luca Pisaroni (Caliban, son of Sycorax). Lisette Oropesa and Anthony Roth Costanzo sing the roles of Miranda and Ferdinand, the man Prospero wishes Miranda to marry.

The cast is asked to sing, dance, and entrance. They do it with aplomb. Beautiful singing marks the production: DiDonato is outstanding, Domingo defies the years with his seemingly effortless excellence, and de Niese steals the first act with her impish portrayal and fine singing. Daniels is in fine voice, although the mix of the countertenor sound with Prospero’s macho, scheming persona strains the imagination. In contrast, the sweet countertenor voice of Anthony Roth Costanzo, singing the role of the young Ferdinand, fits beautifully with the romantic posture of a suitor. The young Italian Luca Pisaroni, fresh from his success singing Leporello, creates a starkly tragic Caliban, etching sorrow and anger into the notes of his arias.

Enchanted Island showcases an all-new English libretto by Jeremy Sams, who worked with the Baroque specialist William Christie. The latter, as conductor, performs his own magic with the wonderful Met orchestra. The costumes dazzle; the stage setting is inventive, and far more satisfying than several of the Met’s recent confections.

The Met: Live in HD permits opera lovers to have a front row seat for twenty or twenty-five dollars, rather than the one or two hundred paid for the best seating at in-house performances. These theater simulcast programs are part of an effort initiated by Met general manager Peter Gelb, who hopes to bring opera to more people living on limited budgets as well as to enthusiasts who live far from New York City.

Now several years old, HD Live is itself a smash hit, reaching new audiences and broadening the appeal of opera. Initially, opera lovers asked whether it would be pleasurable to watch productions on a big screen. Millions have answered, “yes!” and surely await the Met’s decision to make these operas available on DVDs.

A few live opera house performances of The Enchanted Island remain this season and, according to internet information, there will be an encore HD Live performance of the opera at theaters in the United States on February 8 at 6:30 pm (EST) and in Canada on March 3 and March 26, also 6:30 pm (EST time). Check your local listings and don’t miss it.

©2012 Jill Norgren for SeniorWomen.com

Editor’s Note: We also noticed products in the Met online Store related to this opera.

January 22, 2012
Makeup Tips for the Older Woman

Maia Moura shares the makeup tips mentioned in her interview with SeniorWomen.com. Good quality ingredients, reasonable prices and a plan that works for the individual woman form the basis of Maia’s philosophy of looking radiant, healthier and natural.

After she had held a makeup session with us at Saks Fifth Avenue some years ago (and impressed with the results) we asked if she might share makeup tips for the older woman, taking into account the changes we were experiencing in our skin and coloring. What follows is the result:

Read More: http://www.seniorwomen.com/hfs/articles/articlesMaiaMakeup.html

Consumer Tip:Save money by looking online for promotional codes and coupons for your favorite beauty products.

January 22, 2012