Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Thunder Lizard Continues To Be Thy Name

The voice in my head is Alex Trebek's.

It doesn't sound like Alex Trebek, but it's definitely him. I know this because every now and then he wakes me up in the middle of the night to provide me with an answer for which I have to remember the question.

Alex: Ned
Me: What was Nancy Drew's boyfriend's name?
[pause]
Me: Oh! Ned Nickerson. That's right. Sheesh, I've been trying to remember that all day.
Alex: It's 4:21 a.m.
Me: $&^#.
Alex: I'm sorry. You didn't phrase that in the form of a question.

Of course, Alex only gives me an answer if he happens to have one. For the really tough questions I have to perform thorough and extensive research, often while I'm awake.

Take, for instance, this important question that began tickling my brain in the fall of 2005, when I'd just moved to Jersey City: What does "Thunder Lizard Be Thy Name" mean and why did somebody write it on a mailbox on Jersey Avenue?

Forgoing a review of literature, I immediately devised and implemented a comprehensive research plan to address this pressing question. Wasting no time, I took the following concrete steps:

1. Posting an entry to this blog in which I mentioned the mailbox graffiti.
2. Pointing out the graffiti to upwards of three visiting friends as we happened to walk by the mailbox.

I am pleased to report that my exhaustive efforts have led to success. I have determined what "Thunder Lizard Be Thy Name" is.

My first breakthrough came in December 2006 when somebody's Google search for "Thunder Lizard Be Thy Name" led him to our blog and in turn led me to the answer. I regret that I did not immediately report my findings.

Shortly thereafter, an anonymous tipster left a comment on the original blog entry, solving the mystery forever. Since Anonymous phrased it so well (as he/she always does, that master of poetry and prose), I shall simply quote him/her here:


"thunder lizard be thy name is a band from jersey city. sorry to end the mystery"


So there you have it. One of life's great unanswered questions, answered. Of course, this new insight only leads to more questions: What inspired the name? What kind of music do they play? Who are their influences? Where do they play? Will I be able to talk anyone into going to a show with me?

I'll take "Overthinking Trivial Things" for a thousand, Alex.

DOOO-DOOOOO-DOOOOOOOOOOO

the number you are calling has not been recognised!

major unearthly rumblings a foot, I am having to get a mobile, urch, can't even say it, a mob... .belch....mobil........vomit.........I'm getting a mobile...........................AARRggggg ............................... turning green,......................................................
......................phone,
so in retaliation I have chosen the most god awful and disgusting green coloured phone out of protest! If I have to succumb to modern life, I'm going to go down with my friggin ringer off.. and in a style of my own!

Saturday, February 24, 2007

This blog is really here to get rid of the last one

Feeling frustrated today, frustrated by the media, the world, the press and there behavior to Briteny spears (come on people it's not that interesting). The press not covering ‘real’ stories, also the democratic supporters arguing about which candidate is going to get all of their ‘hard earned’ fundraising money, Obama or Clinton (you just know you want these two to get together and make beautiful democracy together) but mainly the sun!
You know the sun when it’s up, seems to stay in ruffly (is this a real word or am I imagining it) the same place ALL year friggin round. I have to admit I am used to the extremes of Scotland, were it’s dark in the winter from 4.30 till at least 8am in the winter and light from about 5am till 1am in the morning. The sunshine might sound nice to you, but as an artist I find it very frustrating to paint. I need the drama in the sky, and the other seasonal colours to feel the under current of the time of year. Right now it feels more like June (except for the hideous cold)....... not the darkness of February. Don’t get me wrong I enjoy summer and the sunny days as much as the next person, but I also enjoy dull days, snowy days, rainy days autumn dusk days, spring sunshine days...........anything that isn’t sunshine EVery day. Hear me weather gods, give me rain......... even a dribble!

and crapper snappers I have to get a mobile phone...... I feel dirty, but I also feel poor


Also yay to me for finally getting back to my web site, all the paintings should be linked to larger images also it has had a bit of an overhaul, and a little faster.

m

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Television

the drug of the Nation Breeding ignorance and feeding radiation T.V. (note rage against the machine lyrics)

Ok I hate TV, more importantly at every instance I point this out to the other house inhabitants (yes even the cats) I get irritated, I get angry, even within 5 minutes of watching TV. Adverts make me sick (even the ridiculousness ones with smiling men suffering from erectile dysfunction), TV presenters make me squirm, and thats before you get to the News networks, which to be honest make me want to poke my eye out with a very rusty blunt object. I fail to find it inspirational, both from a creative and a spiritual point of view. So you can imagine my sadness when I read the following article (which I will copy and paste below), it turns out that TV might be almost as bad for you as crusty Mcnugget from a loathsome fast food 'crap-shack'. It also highlights my worst fears for the future of humanity .................. Celavi!

Children's TV 'is linked to cancer, autism, dementia'
FERGUS SHEPPARD (fsheppard@scotsman.com)

* Study shows ill-effects of TV more wide-ranging than initially thought
* Quantity of TV and age of children viewing key elements of study
* Time in front of computer screens also part of problem

Key quote
"It is the number of hours and the age at which they start which produces the biological effects. It is because of the medium, not the message, that these effects are occurring." - DR ARIC SIGMAN

Story in full IT HAS long been blamed for creating a nation of couch potatoes. But a new report today claims that Britain's love affair with television is causing far more damage - both physically and psychologically - than previously thought.

The findings have been compiled by Dr Aric Sigman, a psychologist who has previously written about the effects of television on the viewer. His report, analysing 35 different scientific studies carried out into television and its effect on the viewer, has identified 15 negative effects he claims can be blamed on watching television.

Among the most disturbing findings are the links he claims to have found between long hours of television viewing and cancer, autism and Alzheimer's.

The effects on children watching TV have been well publicised in Britain. Fears of a timebomb of obesity have sparked a wave of ministerial initiatives to promote sport and tackle the couch-potato lifestyle.

However, today's report suggests the consequences of television are far more serious. They range from myopia and attention deficit disorder to diabetes, autism, Alzheimer's and a generation whose brains are being numbed by on-screen imagery.

His report, published in the respected Biologist magazine, claims the problem with television lies in the length of time we spend in front of the set. For most people, watching television now takes up more time than any other single activity except work and sleep. According to the British Audience Research Bureau, by the age of 75 the average Briton will have spent more than 12 years of their life watching television.

Dr Sigman, an associate fellow of the British Psychological Society and author of Remotely Controlled: How Television Is Damaging Our Lives, said arguments over how educational programmes are were a distraction. He said: "The medical studies I have looked at are about the medium of television, irrespective of the programmes children are watching. It is the number of hours and the age at which they start which produces the biological effects. It is because of the medium, not the message, that these effects are occurring."

Dr Sigman's research draws from studies by groups including the American Academy of Paediatrics, Cornell University, Stanford University Medical Centre, the British Market Research Bureau and medical publications such as the Lancet and the Journal of Sleep Research.

The stage for the harm Dr Sigman believes television is doing is being set, he claims, by the vast amounts of it we watch - by the age of six, a child will already have spent one year in front of the television. When time in front of a computer is added, the psychologist claims watching a screen of some kind is the dominant activity for older children - those aged 11 to 15 now spend 55 per cent of their waking lives, or seven and a half hours a day, watching television and computers. According to today's report, that represents a 40 per cent rise in a decade.

Dr Sigman claims the battery of ill effects takes its toll on both body and mind. He claims the effect on the brain is not stimulating, but almost narcotic, numbing the areas of the brain stimulated by, for example, reading.

The influence of modern editing techniques - for example the rapid "jump cuts" - also plays its part. Attention spans fracture while at the same time, according to Dr Sigman, the brain is programmed to reward itself with the neurotransmitter dopamine for being able to cope with an onslaught of novelty on screen.

The litany of bodily ills Dr Sigman links to television makes for equally bleak reading. He associates it not only with obesity, but Alzheimer's, diabetes and even the breakdown of cells capable of healing wounds. Dr Sigman claims a significant body of research now points to television as a key factor in reducing levels of the hormone melatonin, the substance that regulates the body's internal clock and also governs the speed at which puberty develops.

Melatonin is produced at night and induces feelings of sleepiness. However, today's report suggests the bright light emitted by television screens may play a part in suppressing melatonin levels in the blood.

That syndrome may explain that adolescents who are glued to the television are tired out by more than watching late-night programmes.

The other crucial issue thrown up by melatonin, Dr Sigman says, is its link to puberty. The hormone also plays a key role in governing the onset of puberty, and its suppression may be paving the way for a generation of children to experience ever-earlier entries into adolescence.

That tendency can be traced back to the 1950s, according to the report, when television itself became a mass medium.

While the mass of research indexed by Dr Sigman goes heavily into physiology and biology, one conclusion may be more recognisable to general critics of TV - the suggestion that daytime TV and soaps virtually rot the brain. "The content of television - soap operas and talk shows - is also associated with poorer cognition in older women, including clinically significant cognitive impairment in attention, memory and psychomotor speed [reaction time]," he said.

Dr Sigman last night said the youngest children should be banned from watching TV at all, and introduced to it "judiciously" after that.

He added: "To allow children to continue to watch this much screen media is an abdication of parental responsibility - truly hands-off parenting."

In a reference to the crusade by celebrity TV chef Jamie Oliver, the academic added: "While society has shown alarm over school dinners, it has ignored the high-screen diet children have been consuming."

However, other critics last night suggested that not all time spent before a screen was bad.

Adrian Monck, a professor of journalism and media analyst at City University in London, said: "I certainly think the idea of banning young children from watching television is impractical.

"Television is part of growing up and what we need to be aware of is how children use that. Television, like everything, is something you have to take with a pinch of salt - I certainly think there is a good case for parents not using it as a substitute carer."

Pat Kane, a broadcaster and writer, said he also disagreed with "parking children in front of television or DVDs without some element of monitoring or even participation in the narrative".

However, Mr Kane cited programmes such as CBBC's Tracy Beaker - which is based on Jacqueline Wilson's novel about child in care - as a "fabulous" way of showing that "some children are facing problems with parents, lifestyle and economics".
OBESITY

TELEVISION viewing is directly related to and now considered an independent cause of obesity. Sitting in front of a screen commands an increasingly large part of children's lives and, Dr Sigman believes, has replaced physical activity for many. Inactivity can also overlap with poor diet.
HEALING

TELEVISION may be involved in alterations in the activity, size and consistency of skin immune cells. It may lead to an increase in the migration of "cutaneous immune system mast cells", parts of body tissue that play a key role in healing wounds and offering defence against disease.
HEART TROUBLE

TELEVISION can set the conditions for long-term cardiovascular illness, some research claims. The adult risk of raised cholesterol and the potential for heart disease is strongly linked to TV viewing habits formed in childhood and teenage years, setting up a store of problems for later life.
METABOLISM

A SIGNIFICANT relationship was found in which the metabolic rate decreased as average weekly hours of television viewing increased. Lowered metabolism leads to a reduced ability to burn fat. Combined with high-calorie food and drinks, it sets the stage for obesity and other health issues.
EYESIGHT

PERMANENT eyesight damage previously attributed to genetics is now being strongly linked to television-screen exposure. TV screens, or indeed computer screens, are blamed for a rising incidence of myopia as they demand long periods of fixed attention from the viewer.
ALZHEIMER'S

TELEVISION viewing between ages 20 to 60 is associated with the development of Alzheimer's disease: for each additional daily hour of television viewing, the associated risk of Alzheimer's disease development increases. Attention, memory and reaction time may also be affected.
ATTENTION SPAN

LONG periods of TV viewing may affect what are called the "neuronal mechanisms" behind attention and impulse control. This means damaging brain-cell development and the person's ability to concentrate on non-TV subjects. For children this could mean learning difficulties and attention disorders.
HORMONES

WATCHING television suppresses production of melatonin, a key hormone and powerful antioxidant that has important roles in the immune system, sleep/wake cycle and the onset of puberty. Melatonin regulates the body's internal clock but bright screens may interrupt production.
CANCER

REDUCED levels of melatonin may also result, Dr Sigman suggests, in a greater chance that cell DNA will produce cancer-causing mutations. Some doctors have speculated on a link between sleeplessness and cancer, which one expert suggested formed a "pathway from stress to disease".
EARLY PUBERTY

EXPOSURE to TV screens affects the melatonin levels of younger children, in particular at the onset of puberty. Girls are reaching puberty much earlier than in the 1950s, a fact critics of TV put down to reduced levels of melatonin. Animal studies link low melatonin levels to early puberty.
AUTISM

EARLY childhood television viewing may be an important factor in autism, which currently affects one in every 166 children. Dr Sigman quotes Cornell University, which last year published research suggesting television may be a trigger in young children with a tendency to the condition.
SLEEP

A SIGNIFICANT relationship was found between exposure to television and sleeping difficulties in different age groups ranging from infants to adults. Television viewing among infants and young children is independently associated with irregular sleep schedules.
HUNGER

THE lack of sleep ascribed to the effects of watching TV may directly increase appetite and body-fat production. Research suggests it could do this through alterations in the hormones leptin and ghrelin, which regulate feelings of being full and of hunger respectively.
BRAIN GROWTH

EVEN interactive media such as computer games have been associated with limited neurological activity. Watching television has been found by neuroscientists to be a "non-intellectually stimulating activity" for brain development. This was not found to be the case for reading.
DIABETES

DR SIGMAN'S report suggests TV viewing is directly related to and significantly raises the risk of abnormal glucose metabolism and new Type-two diabetes. This is linked to side-effects of a sedentary lifestyle and the kind of diet that can go with heavy TV watching, such as sweets and sugary drinks.
Bright light from sets may suppress sleep hormone

MELATONIN is a hormone produced by the pineal gland in the brain and plays a key role in regulating the body's internal clock.

The body manufactures it at night and rising levels of melatonin in the blood have the effect of inducing sleep.

One possibility is that the bright light given off by a television set suppresses the release of melatonin. If true, this action would suggest TV has a role in disrupting the sleep/wake cycle beyond the viewer merely staying up late to watch a particular programme.

Television's suppressive effect on melatonin in the human body is also believed by some researchers to explain ever-earlier instances of puberty in the western world. Since the 1950s, puberty has been spotted at increasingly early ages, a syndrome some claim stems from the arrival of TV.
'I'd rather go out and play than watch telly'

SAOIRSE Woolley has bucked the trend for children to spend hours glued to a TV screen.

She admitted she enjoys CBBC but said she'd rather be outside than watching television and doesn't even want a TV in her bedroom.

The bright and articulate ten-year-old, visiting Dynamic Earth in Edinburgh with father Chris, said: "I don't really watch TV that often. I like to read and I like to go out and do things."

Mr Woolley, 54, a jeweller from North Berwick, said he was surprised by the findings - particularly the statistics on how long the average child spends in front of the TV.

Kenny Notman said his two daughters' viewing time was rationed because it took time away from family activities.

The 42-year-old human resources manager from Edinburgh said he and his wife both worked, so family time was precious.

But he said he had no objection to Hayley, 13, and Anna, five, having a TV in their bedrooms. He added: "It's not the TV itself which is the problem, it's the parents who allow their children to watch too much of it."

And Anna added: "I do like the Tweenies, but I'd rather go out and play."

Social worker and mother-of-three Dawn Cameron said that there was an element of "scaremongering" over the TV health warnings.

She added: "It can also be relaxation and there seems to be a lot of emphasis on everything having to be educational these days. TV takes the blame for a lot of problems which may be related to poverty and other issues."

http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=265852007

Sunday, February 11, 2007

Those damn words

Here's my confession for the day: I, Maria Dessena, am not good with words. I do not have a particular gift for language. Admittedly, I can get around ok on a blog; I can occassionally retell events in an amusing way (like the dumpster story). But not without much thought and practice - it takes me a good hour to write a paragraph-long email to a friend, reading and editting, rewritting, reading, etc. And for a musician, I have a hard time being spontaneous with anything aside from pitch... At work, if I have to call someone, it takes a couple hours to get pumped up, and I have to fully write the conversation down ahead of time so I don't freeze when they answer "hello?".

That being said, I'd like to draw everyone's attention to 2 new blogs I've discovered this week: In a Cold Climate and Science for Sale, written by my college buddy and former roomie in Harlem, Ashley Shelby. SHE is good with words:

"Squeezer is a seventeen year old geriatric cat, who chews the fur off her flanks and who has become so amnesiac that she lets anyone and everyone pet her. When she first came into our home, Christmas of '91, she was, it was instantly agreed, my cat. She stayed up in my room, ate her meals there and used the litterbox that was placed in the linen closet between mine and Lacy's rooms. She never deigned to allow anyone else to fondle her. I went away to college and, later, New York, and she had to lower her standards. Soon, she and my mother were inseparable. First came the Squeezer pin-up calendars, filled with photos my mother had taken of the cat in various seasonal and holiday apparel. Then came commissioned paintings of the cat. Upstairs, in my old bedroom, my mother keeps box after box of photographs of Squeezer in various stages of repose. Coming across this stash is like coming across a foot fetishist's collection of women's shoes."

Having actually seen the Squeezer calendar, I was in stitches for a good ten minutes after I read that. That selection is from In A Cold Climate, Ashley's day-to-day blog.

Science for Sale is something else entirely:

"One of the most interesting pharmaceutical examples is the case of breast cancer research. Until quite recently, research focus has been limited to what are called “lifestyle” factors thought to lead to the disease: obesity, alcohol use, fat intake, and early detection. In fact, Breast Cancer Awareness month focuses entirely on early detection, and is funded by one of the world’s largest manufacturers of pesticides, pharmaceuticals, and plastics: Zeneca Pharmaceuticals. Zeneca earns more than $300 million a year in sales of acetochlor, a carcinogenic herbicide. It earns nearly $500 million a year from its bestselling cancer therapy drug, tamoxifen citrate. It operates eleven cancer treatment centers. When, in 2001, researchers with Cornell University suggested that environmental estrogens such as the chlorine compounds found in herbicides might cause breast cancer, the Chemical Manufacturers Association launched a million dollar P.R. campaign to discredit the research, calling it “a rejection of accepted scientific method.” While it’s rarely talked about, early detection is, ultimately, a stopgap method for managing breast cancer. However, research into causes of cancer that have to do with chemicals in the air and in the ground, as well as herbicides, is limited due to the vigorous attempts of those industries to squelch such inquiries."

I can't tell you how many times I've wondered how I got Hodgkin's. Aespestos? Pesticides in the crops outside Hornell? Genetics? Who knows. Has no one done the research? Considering Rochester is one of the top Cancer Cities in America, you'd think someone would. There's a strip of land outside Arkport, a giant field that used to be a lake until it was drained for farmland. A woman and a man, two neighbors, live across the street on a hill overlooking this farmland. One was treated for thyroid cancer, the other died from pancreatic cancer not long after. Another crop south of Hornell - home of my nieghbor's daughter, treated for breast cancer. Childhood friend, the same year I was treated, died of Leukemia.

Yes, people get cancer. People are treated. But to think that the same people that treat it are creating it?? Makes me want to scream.

In ANY case, ranting aside, I find comfort in the fact that Ashley can articulate things I only speculate about. Science for Sale is a well thought-out, well researched look into corporations funding scientific research that conveniently disproves anything that could incriminate them.

I am proud of Ashley.

Thursday, February 01, 2007

dumb-du-dumb............

"Britain is bored and disillusioned with politicians, not least Tony Blair. It is unimpressed by public services, despite the money Mr Blair has poured into them. It is cross about rising taxes and interest rates. It is concerned about social cohesion and frightened by its homegrown bombers. It is furious about the Iraq war and George Bush." - The Economist


felt sorry for the blog, so found some cheery filler, it has looked so lonely of late........ also trying to keep my British upper lip .....er....up......

or should I post about the phantom 'meatapalooza' (yes spell check you read that correctly) or should that be 'chicka-looza' did you you see what I did there....... hm.......hmm.......hmmm forget it, that one's purely for Mr Shenton. For some reason the hampered chicken vanished from our freezer, bizarre.

What have I been up to? lets see, I have been enjoying the local Jersey news service (compared to CNN which has become tragic and truly awful of late), it's a riot. Old school TV news, featuring amusing commentary, blowing wind clouds on the weather and mispronunciations a plenty. One of the many highlights has to be during the commercials (an advert to UK viewers) they announce the name of a random local district and say hello to it, as in 'Hello Hoboken' Which for some reason raises a laugh at every instant, namely when they blurt out 'Hello Elizabeth' when Beth-Ann is in the room. OK so January was a quiet month.

anyway hoped you enjoyed my blog filler, coming up next your yearly star signs (one month late, hay tomorrow never comes!) or perhaps your love stars for the 14th if I'm feeling mushy.

o' wait I remember what I'm blogging about, how could I forget, tomorrow is groundhog day, yay, so I would like you to raise a glass and a tip 'o' the hat to Punxsutawney Phil,

or possibly a dip into you dvd collection..........

yay Phil, I think Livia has a crush on you!

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