Senior Women Web

Blog

  • When It Comes to Bodies in the Library, US Writers Take the Lead Over UK Rivals

    Richard North Patterson
    British crime and thriller writers are being bumped off by their American counterparts, according to the latest tabulation of the Most Borrowed Adult Fiction Titles in UK libraries, released by Public Lending Right.  No less than 17 novels by US-based crime and thriller writers appear in the Top 20 Most Borrowed Adult Fiction Titles list. Nine of them were written, or co-written by James Patterson, including the Most Borrowed Title of 2011/12, 10th Anniversary.

    For the sixth year running, James Patterson also retains his crown as the UK’s Most Borrowed Author. In total, ten US-based authors writing in the crime and thriller genres appear in the Top 20 Most Borrowed Authors list. Only MC Beaton, Ian Rankin and Agatha Christie represent UK crime and thriller writers.

    As PLR celebrates 30 years of making annual payments to authors for the loan of their books through public libraries, a look back at the Top 10 Most Borrowed Adult Fiction Authors in 1983 reveals a very different picture. Then, British romantic fiction writers held sway in libraries, and Catherine Cookson was the UK’s Most Borrowed Author, a position she would hold for 20 years.

    UK’s 20 Most Borrowed Adult Fiction Authors, 2011/12
    1. James Patterson
    2. Nora Roberts
    3. MC Beaton
    4. Danielle Steel
    5. Clive Cussler
    6. Anna Jacobs
    7. Lee Child
    8. David Baldacci
    9. Michael Connelly
    10. Harlan Coben
    11. Katie Flynn
    12. Tess Gerritsen
    13. Josephine Cox
    14. Alexander McCall Smith
    15. John Grisham
    16. Jodi Picoult
    17. JD Robb
    18. Jeffrey Deaver
    19. Agatha Christie
    20. Ian Rankin

    United Kingdom’s 10 Most Borrowed Adult Fiction Authors, 1982/83
    1. Catherine Cookson
    2. Victoria Holt
    3. Barbara Cartland
    4. Dorothy Eden
    5. Evelyn Anthony
    6. JT Edson
    7. Margaret Pargeter
    8. Danielle Steel
    9. Harold Robbins
    10. James Herriot

    The crown for the most ‘evergreen’ author in UK libraries over the past 30 years also belongs to an American writer. Danielle Steel is the only name to appear in every annual Top 10 Most Borrowed Adult Fiction Authors list for the past three decades.

  • Ferida’s Wolff’s Backyard Series: Lovely Lavender and Pretty Pinks

     Lavender is Lovely
     I went to my local market today and was surrounded by a familiar scent as soon as I went through the door – lavender. There were pots and pots of the plants gracing the flower stand. The flowers were just beginning to open and more buds were peeking out. I passed them by to do my shopping but I went back before I paid. They were just too enticing to ignore.
     
    I had planted lavender in my garden in years past but not recently. I decided this year I would do it again. This is a lovely plant.  Tiny purple flowers delicately rise along a thin, green stem. The leaves are subtly elegant with a hint of gentle fuzz that is pleasing to the touch. The smell of lavender can be heady, announcing its presence before the plant is even seen, which must be why it is used in soaps, oils, candles, sachets, even in teas – a treat for the senses.
     
    But then lavender is lovely in other, more important ways. It has a long history of medicinal use and is a staple in aromatherapy. Some is proven, some not, but it is used in a variety of applications for many conditions. One of its uses is for its calming effect. Lavender oil embraces the whole body in the bath. Inhaled, it seems to relax tension and may help with insomnia.
     
    At the very least, lavender is a lovely addition to a garden, as it will be to mine — and maybe to yours?
     
    Look at this lovely plant’s uses:

    http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/natural/838.html

    Editor’s Note: Considered one of Jackson Pollock’s most important ‘drip’ paintings, Number 1, 1950 (Lavender Mist) can be seen at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC or online: http://www.nga.gov/collection/gallery/20centpa/20centpa-55819.html

  • Volanti Subvenimus: Challenges in monitoring and maintaining the health of pilots engaged in telewarfare

    Editor’s Note: We delayed posting this editorial which was outside our usual source for noting veterans’ health but when we picked up todays’ New York Times, the front page highlights another series about the use of this technology. The editorial’s source is the Armed Forces Health Surveillance Center. Volanti Subvenimus translates from the Latin to: To care for those who fly.

    by Hernando J. Ortega, Jr.Predator Drone firing Hellfire missile

    Author: Brigadier Lance Mans, Deputy Director, NATO Special Operations Coordination Centre

    The growth in the use of remotely piloted aircraft (RPA), also referred to as unmanned aerial vehicles or “drones”, has had a significant impact on overseas contingency operations. As noted by Drs. Otto and Webber in this issue of the Medical Surveillance Monthly Report, RPA operations began in earnest after the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. At that time, very little was known about the stressors of, or the requirements for, these operations. Demand for RPA pilots has been increasing and currently, the Air Force is training more RPA pilots than fighter and bomber pilots combined. Although RPA are oft en referred to as being unmanned, these systems require the support of teams of highly trained and experienced service members on the ground, including the RPA pilot.

    As advances in technology have enabled pilots to control aircraft without physically accompanying them, distinct challenges have emerged as a result of removing pilots from the physical battlespace. Traditionally, military operations have been expeditionary in nature, with large numbers of service members deployed overseas. This deployment paradigm often fosters the development of organizational identity and unit cohesion, both of which have been demonstrated to help service members cope with the stresses of combat. However, these elements are lacking in RPA pilots. In addition, RPA pilots face unique stressors related to the impact of fighting a war at the office and going home to a family at night. Last, the continually increasing demand for RPA support has lead to manning issues; RPA pilots are faced with rotating shift s and long hours which contribute to stress, sleep issues, and other negative consequences.

    In 2008, stories began to emerge in the lay press about “war stress” among RPA pilots in the Air National Guard and media
    reports have continued to appear regarding mental health issues in this community.  These reports cited research by the US Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine (USAFSAM) and the Performance Enhancement Directorate. In 2006, Dr. Anthony Tvaryanas and colleagues conducted the first comprehensive analysis of the human stressors involved in RPA operations.  Continued surveillance and
    research into the health and well-being of RPA pilots have offered flight surgeons and line leaders improved insight into their
    mental health needs. This information has also informed policy changes such as the dedication of additional mental health
    resources to this community. Against this backdrop, Drs. Otto and Webber have objectively quantified the state of RPA pilots with regard to mental health (MH) endpoints (as represented by ICD-9-CM diagnoses assigned by medical providers). Their results demonstrate that Air Force RPA pilots are receiving mental health diagnoses at rates equivalent to other Air Force pilots who have deployed and at lower rates than other Air Force personnel.

    The findings of this study validate several key principles of human performance developed and applied by aerospace medicine since its inception in the early 20th century. For example, the rigorous selection process aviators undergo and the ongoing operational medical support they receive are two factors (of several) which likely impact their health and operational performance; sustained vigilance and application of these principles will continue to be the cornerstone of maintaining health and optimal performance of the “human weapon system” involved in aerial combat, no matter how combat is prosecuted.

    Volanti subvenimus.

    Author affiliation: Aerospace Medicine Division, Air Education and Training Command, Randolph AFB, TX.
    MSMR (Medical Surveillance Monthly Report) Vol. 20 No. 3 March 2013

    The report itself is Mental Health Diagnoses and Counseling Among Pilots of Remotely Piloted Aircraft in the United States Air Force (PDF). Authors are Jean L. Otto, DrPH, MPH; Bryant J. Webber, MD (Capt, USAF)

  • Advice to Little Girls by Mark Twain —You ought never to “sass” old people unless they “sass” you first

    One of the stories included in The $30,000 Bequest and Other Stories, by Mark Twain, 1865; eBook #142, Project Gutenberg:

    Good little girls ought not to make mouths at their teachers for every trifling offense. This retaliation should only be resorted to under peculiarly aggravated circumstances.

    If you have nothing but a rag-doll stuffed with sawdust, while one of your more fortunate little playmates has a costly China one, you should treat her with a show of kindness nevertheless. And you ought not to attempt to make a forcible swap with her unless your conscience would justify you in it, and you know you are able to do it.

    You ought never to take your little brother’s “chewing-gum” away from him by main force; it is better to rope him in with the promise of the first two dollars and a half you find floating down the river on a grindstone. In the artless simplicity natural to this time of life, he will regard it as a perfectly fair transaction. In all ages of the world this eminently plausible fiction has lured the obtuse infant to financial ruin and disaster.

    If at any time you find it necessary to correct your brother, do not correct him with mud — never, on any account, throw mud at him, because it will spoil his clothes. It is better to scald him a little, for then you obtain desirable results. You secure his immediate attention to the lessons you are inculcating, and at the same time your hot water will have a tendency to move impurities from his person, and possibly the skin, in spots.

    If your mother tells you to do a thing, it is wrong to reply that you won’t. It is better and more becoming to intimate that you will do as she bids you, and then afterward act quietly in the matter according to the dictates of your best judgment.

    You should ever bear in mind that it is to your kind parents that you are indebted for your food, and for the privilege of staying home from school when you let on that you are sick. Therefore you ought to respect their little prejudices, and humor their little whims, and put up with their little foibles until they get to crowding you too much.

    Good little girls always show marked deference for the aged. You ought never to “sass” old people unless they “sass” you first.

    Editor’s Note: Hat tip to Brain Pickings Blog and our son-in-law, Ross Stapleton-Gray.

  • Telling Lies: The Irrepressible Truth?

    I'm a Born Liar Poster

    Introduction

    People lie surprisingly often, a task which requires a number of complex processes. For example, 40% of adults have reported telling a lie at least once per day. The majority of these lies are likely to be trivial in nature, serving a communicative function, however, others can have more drastic consequences, such as those told by criminal witnesses and suspects. Despite the apparent prevalence of lie-telling within society, lying is a complicated behavior that requires breaking the normal, default rules of communication.

    The liar must first of all decide not to assert the truth, and then must assert an alternative statement that is plausible and appears informative to the listener, all the while concealing any outward signs of nervousness. Such a pragmatic feat requires cognitive processes in addition to those used when telling the truth. In this article we investigate what those processes might be. As such, we are less interested in the intent to instil a false belief in another’s mind but more interested in the necessary and universal cognitive processes associated with making a statement that is not true. The research presented here may be far removed from an aggressive interrogation where lives or liberty are at stake; but, the fundamental cognitive processes that are taking place when someone either tells the truth or constructs a falsehood are going to have some aspects in common regardless of the situation. The aim of the current research is to understand better these cognitive processes.

    Our starting point is to examine the reasons given in the literature for why lying appears to be more difficult than telling the truth. Longer lie times, for example, must be indicative of additional cognitive processes involved in lying compared to telling the truth. Based on a framework developed in 2003, we will discuss three processes that have been implicated in lying and summarise the empirical evidence in favour of each.

    Suppression of the truth

    Our default communicative stance is to tell the truth. Without the assumption that speakers utter the truth most of the time, it is difficult to see how efficient communication could ever occur. This suggests that when people wish to lie to a question they will need to intentionally suppress the default, truthful response, which should increase the difficulty of lying relative to telling the truth.

    There is indeed plenty of empirical evidence consistent with the claim that telling lies involves suppressing the truth. For example many researchers have found longer response times for lying relative to telling the truth,  and there is neuroscientific evidence that brain regions active in lying overlap with brain regions associated with general response inhibition.

    A number of these studies have been based around a lie detection technique known as the Concealed Information Test. This typically involves the presentation of a variety of different images or words via a computer screen. Some of these stimuli relate to previously learned information, known as probes, whereas others are irrelevant items. In practical situations, individuals may be asked the identity of a murder weapon, with the probe item being an image of the actual murder weapon (i.e., a knife) embedded within a series of irrelevant images (i.e., a gun, a hammer, a baseball bat). Participants are instructed to deny recognition of all items. If participants have concealed knowledge and recognise the murder weapon, they are expected to respond differentially to probe and irrelevant items.

  • Anders Zorn: A European Artist Seduces America; Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum’s 23-Year-Old Theft

    Omnibus by Zorn
    Painting: Omnibus
    Paris, 1892, Oil on canvas; Boston, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

    The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum will present Anders Zorn: A European Artist Seduces America, the first international loan exhibition and catalogue dedicated to this Swedish artist in the United States in more than 25 years. The first historic exhibition in the Hostetter Gallery in the new Renzo Piano-designed extension of the Museum will present new international scholarship about an artist who was considered among the most prolific and talented artists living around 1900. Although highly esteemed by his contemporaries on both sides of the Atlantic, Zorn is little known to the general public in the US today.

    “Anders Zorn is one of the most significant artists of the Belle Époque,” said Anne Hawley, Norma Jean Calderwood Director of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. “The Museum boasts the finest collection of Zorn’s works in the United States, which will set the framework for this significant exhibition.”

    The exhibition will investigate how Zorn became an international artist who set the groundwork for modern art. It will reveal the artist’s achievement in a variety of areas such as his rapidly developing style from around 1890 to the early 1900s and his variety of subjects. It will be organized in five different segment areas including “Zorn and Gardner,” “Society Portraits,” “In the City,” “Country Life,” and “Artists’ Studios.”

    Twenty-four paintings are featured in the exhibition together with twenty-two drawings, photographs and letters; and gifts that Anders Zorn gave Gardner in 1894.

    Highlights include Isabella Stewart Gardner in Venice (1894) and distinguished loans that have never been shown in America such as Night Effect (1895) on loan from Gothenburg Museum of Art, Göteborg, Sweden, and The Ice Skater (1898); on loan from Zornmuseet, Mora, Sweden. In addition, major paintings will come together for the first time including items from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York and the Art Institute, Chicago. The exhibition will center on strong holdings in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, highlighting the central role of Isabella Gardner as a patron of Zorn in America.

    “This exhibition is an opportunity to once again reveal Anders Zorn, this intoxicating artist who personifies the promises and contradictions of his time,” said Oliver Tostmann, William and Lia Poorvu Curator of the Collection at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. “It will be a rare look at a span of Zorn’s work in America and Europe, giving a glimpse at what made Zorn so prolific, and yet today [he] is often overlooked.”

    A fully illustrated 200-page catalogue will accompany the exhibition including 120 color images of artwork. It will include essays from international scholars who examine Zorn’s life, work, and success.  A series of related public programs will complement the exhibition. The range of talks will investigate topics such as Zorn in the context of other Nordic Artists in the 1890s, as well as Zorn’s relationship with Isabella Stewart Gardner.

  • Megabytes for the Masses: An MIT Lecture by Yvonne Brill, the Lady With Launch Plans Under Her Arm

    You may have heard about the uproar regarding a recent New York Times obituary for Ms. Brill lauding her beef stroganoff skills rather than her Dual Thrust Level Monopropellant Spacecraft Propulsion System (Patent #: 3,807,657 ). This video of her lecture (MIT TechTV) may refocus that strange emphasis on cooking to her genius.

    The National Medal of Technology and Innovation was created by statute in 1980 and is administered for the White House by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Patent and Trademark Office. The award recognizes those who have made lasting contributions to America’s competitiveness and quality of life and helped strengthen the Nation’s technological workforce. Nominees are selected by a distinguished independent committee representing the private and public sectors.

    Yvonne C. Brill, September 27, 2011
    RCA Astro Electronics (Retired)
    For innovation in rocket propulsion systems for geosynchronous and low earth orbit communication satellites, which greatly improved the effectiveness of space propulsion systems.

    Two aspects of Brill’s invention are of special significance: she developed the concept for a new rocket engine, the hydrazine resistojet, and she foresaw the inherent value and simplicity of using a single propellant. Her invention resulted in not only higher engine performance but also increased reliability of the propulsion system. And because of the reduction in propellant weight requirements, either increased payload capability or extended mission life.

     “As a result of her innovative concepts for satellite propulsion systems and her breakthrough engineering solutions, Brill earned an international reputation as a pioneer in space exploration and utilization. Yvonne Brill receives medal from President ObamaBrill invented the hydrazine resistojet propulsion system in 1967 for which she holds U.S. Patent No. 3,807,657. Her invention became a standard in the industry. Brill’s invention translates into millions of dollars of increased revenue for commercial communications satellite owners.”

    “Through her personal and dedicated efforts, the resistojet system was developed and first applied on an RCA spacecraft in 1983. Subsequently, the system concept became a satellite industry standard. Satellites using her invention form the backbone of the worldwide communication network.” 

    The preceeding quotation are from RCA Astro Electronics (Photo from White House ceremony courtesy of Ryan K. Morris/National Science & Technology Medals Foundation.)


  • It’s a Gray Area: Madame Metamorphosis, a Rebel Against the Passage of Time

    by Roberta McReynolds

    The concern of whether I would ever use hair color sprouted long before the first strands of silver appeared. I was an impressionable preteen when I caught my mother in the act of her secret ritual. Never before had I considered that her auburn-brown tresses might have originated in a laboratory.

    My mother stood in the center of the kitchen; a statue with a disposable plastic cap secured over the gooey, dark dye slathered over her scalp. Matching gloves protected her hands, which she held in front of her, wrist bent and fingers pointing upward like a surgeon scrubbed for a stint in an operating room. A kitchen timer filled the uncomfortable silence as it ticked off the minutes until the rinse.

    I was rooted to the spot (so to speak), gawking at the spectacle. My mouth must have dropped open, because I could not only smell, but also actually taste the overpowering chemical concoction permeating the air.Madame Pompadour with gray hair

    A tattered bath towel wrapped over Mom’s shoulders like a super hero’s cape, secured with a pale pink diaper pin. A mental picture formed of her poised atop the Empire State Building, gripping a squeeze bottle of concentrated dye high above her head with that terry cloth cape flapping in the breeze. Madame Metamorphosis, a rebel against the passage of time, holds the power to conquer the sinister force of graying hair and create the illusion of perpetual youth!

    Painting: Full-length portrait of the Marquise de Pompadour by Maurice Quentin de La Tour, between 1748 and 1755. Currently in the Louvre.

    Read the rest of Roberta McReynolds essay, Part One and Part Two: http://www.seniorwomen.com/articles/articlesMcReynoldsColorOne.html

  • Why Are the Honey Bees Still Disappearing? A New Lawsuit Against the EPA and Gardening Tips for Attracting Bees

    Beekeepers and Public Interest Groups Sue  Over Bee-Toxic Pesticides; UC Davis Provides a Plan for Attracting Bees
    Honeybee

    A year after groups formally petitioned the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), four beekeepers and five environmental and consumer groups filed a lawsuit in Federal District Court against the agency for its failure to protect pollinators from dangerous pesticides.  The coalition, represented by attorneys for the Center for Food Safety (CFS), seeks suspension of the registrations of insecticides that have repeatedly been identified as highly toxic to honey bees, clear causes of major bee kills and significant contributors to the devastating ongoing mortality of bees known as colony collapse disorder (CCD).  The suit challenges EPA’s ongoing handling of the pesticides as well as the agency’s practice of “conditional registration” and labeling deficiencies.

    “America’s beekeepers cannot survive for long with the toxic environment EPA has supported. Bee-toxic pesticides in dozens of widely used products, on top of many other stresses our industry faces, are killing our bees and threatening our livelihoods,” said plaintiff Steve Ellis, a Minnesota and California beekeeper. “Our country depends on bees for crop pollination and honey production.  It’s time for EPA to recognize the value of bees to our food system and agricultural economy.”  

    The suit comes on the heels of a challenging season for California’s almond farmers, who produce 80% of the world’s almonds.  Almond growers rely on beekeepers to bring literally billions of bees from across the country to pollinate their orchards.  However, many beekeepers are reporting losses of over 50% this year and the shortages have left many California almond growers without enough bees to effectively pollinate their trees.  This is a vivid demonstration of why the Plaintiffs are demanding EPA to classify these bee-toxic pesticides as an “imminent hazard” and move swiftly to restrict their use.    

    The pesticides involved — clothianidin and thiamethoxam — are “neonicotinoids,” a newer class of systemic insecticides that are absorbed by plants and transported throughout the plant’s vascular tissue, making the plant potentially toxic to insects.  Clothianidin and thiamethoxam first came into heavy use in the mid-2000s, at the same time beekeepers started observing widespread cases of colony losses, leaving beekeepers unable to recoup their losses.

  • Temp Agencies See Opportunity In Health Law: Will Substitute Teachers Be Offered Coverage?

     By Jay Hancock, Kaisesr Health News Staff Writer; produced in collaboration with wapo

    School administrators in Dothan, Ala., aren’t sure whether health act rules taking effect next year will require them to offer medical coverage to substitute teachers, who lack it now.

    But they aren’t waiting to find out. The system has decided to hire subs through Kelly Services, a temporary staffing agency, to avoid any health-cost obligations that might come as their direct employer.

    The district pays about $700 per month per full-time teacher for medical insurance. “You multiply that times 300 [substitutes] and you’ve got a big expense,” said Dell Goodwin, personnel director for Dothan City Schools.

    The rush to implement the Affordable Care Act, which is generating billions for insurers, hospitals and technology vendors, also looks like a boon for staffing companies, whose share prices have soared. But some suggest that exceptions for temporary employees could leave holes in the health law’s expanded coverage.

    Help Wanted sign

    “That could lead to an increase in part-time workers” who lack insurance, said Susan Houseman, an economist at the Upjohn Institute for Employment Research who studies staffing companies. “You regulate something and people will always try to find a way around the regulation.”

    Starting in January, employers with at least 50 workers must offer affordable coverage or pay a penalty. Some are considering outsourcing jobs to specialists such as Kelly, Manpower, Robert Half and Randstad to stay under this limit.

    “We are already getting inquiries from our client base for companies in and around 50, asking us to help them understand this legislation, and to inquire as to how we might be helpful,” Keith Waddell, Robert Half’s president, told investors on a conference call a few weeks ago. “Our response is that we can legally help them remain under 50.”

    The health law is also prompting larger organizations such as Dothan schools to use temp agencies. By requiring employer coverage only for those who put in at least 30 hours a week, the act creates an incentive to do less with permanent workers and more with part-timers, which are staffing agencies’ specialty.

    Manpower is talking to clients about “a more flexible labor model” where workers “might be working 29 hours a week,” company CEO Jeffrey Joerres told investors in January. “We definitely look at it as positive.”

    Manpower and Robert Half declined to make officials available for interviews.

    Little-known, complex rules developed by the Internal Revenue Service could allow even some full-time jobs placed through temp agencies to come without health benefits.

    Manpower, Robert Half and other staffing specialists are giant companies, with far more than 50 employees. So they are subject to the same health act requirements as everybody else to offer coverage to full-timers.  

    But in regulations issued last year the IRS left an opening for employers of “variable-hour” labor such as temp agencies. If it’s not clear upon hiring that an employee will consistently work more than 30 hours weekly, companies get up to 12 months to determine whether she is full time and qualifies for health benefits — even if she does end up working full time. Few temps last 12 months.

    “The overwhelming majority of temporary help workers, even if they were working full-time on a weekly basis for a number of months, wouldn’t be covered because of that 12-month look-back period,” said the Upjohn Institute’s Houseman. The rules, she added, “were written in a very favorable way for the temporary help industry.”