WAM! - The Day After: The Good.

I live blogged WAM! and now it's time for a wrap-up post.

The Good:
I got to meet some awesome bloggers and writers that I have admired and aspired to be like. Starting at the networking session there was Jen Angel of the dearly departed Clamor, and Miriam of Radical Doula and Feministing. At the Friday night reception I met Allison Stevens of Women's eNews and Echidne of the Snakes. Did I mention EotS likes this blog? haha...sorry, I still can't believe that moment happened.

Seriously the best part was the Radical WOC bloggers session where I got to meet BFP and far too many other wonderful WOC. Again, this was a freaking love fest session. I've been struggling all day on how to explain what I felt during this conference. Since I'm in the "good" part of this post, I'll do the good part first.

As a Latina who has never felt a real strong connection to the Latina community especially since I don't speak Spanish, I have never felt so welcome than on Saturday. Part of it was that I've come a long way in my Latinaness. The other is that I was surrounded by other WOC who have peace with their own position as a WOC. Unfortunately success in many communities of color is still equaled to being white or a sell-out, so I think that most, if not all, of the women in the room have struggled with not being X enough as a WOC. I hope you followed that.

The love continued on to the WOC reception that was held off-site. I meant to stay for just an hour or so and then head on over to the official WAM dance party, but honestly I was so comfortable and loved with my hermanas that I blew off the other party.

I met so many other fabu women during breaks, in the lunch line, and justing sitting around. Apologies for not listing you all here. But if you have a blog, please leave a comment so I can find you!

Of course, the best part was spending time with my dear friend, Jennifer Pozner of Women In Media & News. I've been one of her biggest fans for so long and this weekend she really showed me that she is also one of mine. It's not that I didn't know it, but watching her stumble thru introducing me (seriously, I do a lot of stuff, you try summing that up in 20 seconds) AND then having random strangers come up to me and say "Hey, Jenn keeps raving about you!" It was way more than nice. I'm always in awe of how many people she knows, but as long as she lets me keep following in her wake I'm happy. Not to mention our girl talks.

Jenn & I roomed with Anne Elizabeth Moore, a fellow Chicagoan whom I never get to spend too much time with. So it was wonderful to have some good chats with her about politics and fashion. Of course, now I need to find some time here in Chicago to chat with her over some issues I have with blogging. This is the positive post, so no negative stuff, k?

I met lots of folks who said "Hey, maybe you can blog for us!" or even mentioned writing articles. I'm very flattered. Please don't be shy to contact me about any of it. I can't say that I have a lot of time right now, but let's work on it. Everyone I met have some kick ass projects going or brewing.

One of the epiphanies I had over the weekend was this: I call myself a professional feminist, but I think I'm also a professional cheerleader....maybe a professional feminist cheerleader. I love, love, love getting people together. I think half of the time I was talking with someone, I either said "Oh, you should talk to...." or I was thinking, "Who should I hook them up with?" And for that, I thank all the wonderful women of WAM.

Technorati tags: WAM!, WAM! 2008

Chest compressions-only CPR works as well as standard technique in adults

The not-so-old 2005 AHA CPR guidelines put much more emphasis on chest compressions as opposed to rescue breaths. For the first time, the AHA advised CPR performers to give 30 compressions for every two rescue breaths, i.e. 30:2 (the old ratio was 15:2).

It's not ABC anymore, DocAroundTheClock half-jokingly wrote, it's ACB (airway, compressions, breathing).

Well, it looks like it will be just AC (airway, compressions) from now on. Click here for the official AHA advisory on Hands-Only (Compression-Only) Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation published in Circulation (PDF file).

According to the CNN report from the 2008 AHA meeting, chest compressions-only CPR works as well as the standard technique in adults:

"Bystanders will now be more willing to jump in and help if they see someone suddenly collapse. Hands-only CPR is simpler and easier to remember and removes a big barrier for people skittish about the mouth-to-mouth breathing.

"You only have to do two things. Call 911 and push hard and fast on the middle of the person's chest."

Hands-only CPR calls for uninterrupted chest presses -- 100 a minute -- until paramedics take over or an automated external defibrillator is available to restore a normal heart rhythm.

This action should be taken only for adults. A child who collapses is more likely to primarily have breathing problems -- and in that case, mouth-to-mouth breathing should be used."


It's not Rocket Science, it's Hand-Only CPR!

See the CNN video: Heart Association: Hands-only CPR works.

Mr. Bean did not feel very comfortable performing mouth-to-mouth breathing either, as you can see from this YouTube video (not to be taken seriously).



References:

Heart Association: Hands-only CPR works. CNN.
Hands-Only (Compression-Only) Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation: A Call to Action for Bystander Response to Adults Who Experience Out-of-Hospital Sudden Cardiac Arrest. A Science Advisory for the Public From the American Heart Association Emergency Cardiovascular Care Committee. Circulation.
Image source: Gray's Anatomy, 1918, public domain.

Related:

Dangers of unrecognized heart disease: Husband dies while giving wife CPR (both found dead, age 60, 59) http://goo.gl/LZ39U
British Heart Foundation is urging people to forget "mouth-to-mouth" during CPR: 'no kissing, just hard CPR'. BBC, 2011.

Feliz Dia de Cesar Chavez!

I really wish I knew how to make the upside down exclamation mark.

Did you know that today is Cesar E. Chavez day? It's an official holiday in eight states (Arizona, California, Colorado, Michigan, New Mexico, Texas, Utah, and Wisconsin) according to the Chavez Foundation site. Althou Dolores Huerta is in Chicago to celebrate and Democracy Now! says that Illinois celebrates as well. OK, maybe we celebrate but it's not an official Illinois holiday.

Who is this man I'm mumbling about?

Cesar Estrada Chavez, Senator Robert F. Kennedy noted, was "one of the heroic figures of our time.."

A true American hero, Cesar was a civil rights, Latino, farm worker, and labor leader; a religious and spiritual figure; a community servant and social entrepreneur; a crusader for nonviolent social change; and an environmentalist and consumer advocate.

A second-generation American, Cesar was born on March 31, 1927, near his family's farm in Yuma, Arizona. At age 10, his family became migrant farm workers after losing their farm in the Great Depression. Throughout his youth and into his adulthood, Cesar migrated across the southwest laboring in the fields and vineyards, where he was exposed to the hardships and injustices of farm worker life. More at the Chavez Foundation.

To mark the birth of this Latino hero, please head on over to a petition to make March 31st Chavez day across the country. And no, I had no idea that there was a breakfast this morning or else I might have gotten my tired ass out of bed early enough to shout "Viva!" at 8 am with Dolores. She is amazing.

Oh and a little humor to celebrate:




Technorati tags: Cesar Chavez, latino, holiday

Google Maps Street View Comes to Cleveland -- See Cleveland Clinic, UH, Metro, SVCH, etc.

Last week, Google Maps Street View expanded to more metropolitan areas in the U.S. and now includes Cleveland.

The Cleveland hospitals have become the "crown jewels" of the city. Some of the top health institutions in the country, and indeed, in the world, are located in Cleveland and now you can see them as if you there, from street level:


View Larger Map
This view from Euclid Avenue shows "the past and the future" of Cleveland Clinic. The original Clinic building is shown on the right and the new all-glass building of the Heart Institute is shown on the left.


View Larger Map
My office is in one of the buildings in the middle, called H. There are buildings from "A to Z" at Cleveland Clinic, and in fact, building A is shown below:


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The Crile building of Cleveland Clinic (building A)


View Larger Map
University Hospitals (UH)


View Larger Map
St. Vincent Hospital (SVCH)

Street View images like the ones above can easily be embedded in websites and blogs, so go ahead and share your favorites.


Video: How to use Street View of Google Maps

References:
Street View: expanding our horizons. Google Maps Blog.

Google puts its eye on Cleveland. The Plain Dealer.

Disclaimer: Dr. Dimov is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine at Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, and a Staff Physician at the Department of Hospital Medicine, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, Ohio. All opinions expressed here are those of their authors and not of their employer.

Enterprise Wiki - Why and How to Start One

Mike Cannon-Brookes has a good presentation on Organisational Wiki Adoption on SlideShare (link via DavidRothman.net). This may convince your department or hospital to start a wiki, if you do not already have one.

He also lists the top 4 wiki enemies:
1. Share drives
2. Email
3. Knowledge management
4. Intranets

WAM! - Sunday Late Morning Sessions

Again I'm going to go to more than one session.

How to Get Heard: The Art of Strategic Communication with Editors
Barbara Beckwith, Jeanne Harnois, and Shirley Moskow

• Don't turn in an assignment without pitching a new story
• Hang out with writers - It's a lifestyle
• Never pitch a story with an attachment - It will end up in a spam folder
• Always turn in things on time
• Just get out there and do it
• Don't be afraid to push back

Barbara's notes

• While most people say that you shouldn't work for free, she did start out writing for Sojourner which paid very little ($15) or nothing at all. Her early writing was her experience that she used to be a more professional writer.
• Don't minimize your experience. You aren't just a college student - You wrote for the Beacon.
• Meet your editor if you can in person.
  
• How to approach an editor - Know that you have value, express a sense of congeniality, don't use their first name until they use yours thou, know that they need your ideas to get their work done.
  
• Bringing up money enhances your credibility and professional status in an editor's eyes.
• Try the top, try the bottom. Don't think that you have work your way up from the bottom.
  

Conscious Women Rock the Page: Using Hip Hop Fiction to Incite Feminist Action
JLove Calderon, Elisha Miranda, Sofia Quintero, and Marcella Runell Hall

I jumped in and out of this session NOT because it sucked but because my brain is full. I needed to find a place to chill out a bit before brunch.

Technorati tags: WAM!, WAM! 2008

WAM! - Sunday Morning Sessions

I'm going to be jumping between 3 different sessions this morning, so here are my notes.

Strategies for Making Change: Models for Feminist Media Justice

Not that I'm biased or anything, but this is the cutest panel of the entire conference. Jennifer Pozner, Anne Elizabeth Moore, Betty Yu, and DeAnne Cuellar

Jenn is talking about the POWER Sources Project. This is the oldest feminist project to bring more women's voices to media (newspaper columns, op-eds, sources, talk shows, etc.) by helping journalists connect to expert women in a multitude of areas. Thus removing the excuses of "We'd love to put a woman on the panel, but there aren't any women in [insert field not health care, children's issues, and abortion] OR I just can't find any women in [insert field not health care, children's issues, and abortion]. Everything that WIMN does involves not just women as a monolith, but women as a diverse group (ethnicity, geography, socioeconomic status, careers, age, on and on). This allows WIMN to change media on a palpable way on a case by case way.

WIMNs Voices is a group blog that uses the resources of over 50 diverse women blogging about different fields and how media is covering that issue. Women, media and....Economics, health care, science, disabilities, sports, on and on. There are journalists, media activists, bloggers, etc on this blog.

The best example how WIMNs Power Sources and the group blog worked together to move the media conversation is during the Don Imus controversy is that journalist and WIMNs Voices blogger Jill Nelson wrote a piece which got picked up by other blogs and then corporate media. Ta-da! Finally a black woman talking about what Don Imus did instead of just straight white men debating whether Don Imus was racist, but also sexist.

Anne Elizabeth Moore is discussing her recent trip to Cambodia, zine making, and the FCC hearings in Chicago.

Resisting Walls and Bars: Amplifying Voices from Death Row and the Prison Industrial Complex

Barbara Becnel, Alice Kim

I came in just as Alice was wrapping up about how the increase immigrant arrests means that more immigrant women are in prisons.

Barbara is talking about Stanley Tookie Williams and the work they did together to keep young people from joining gangs. Told her that he did not want his legacy to be founding the Crips and he wanted to write books for kids. When she took the books to publishers they wouldn't sell it because the books were targeted to poor inner city kids - who have no money to buy books. But Barbara didn't let up. She went to the American Booksellers Association con in Chicago around 1995. 6500 booths and she went to every one of those booths pitching the books over two days. In the end she got 3 interests and one finally published the books. She did end up self-publishing a book, which a lot of people thought was published by a major publishing company, without any censorship. She was there on the day of his execution. After his execution, she was able to get Simon & Schuster reprinted his memoir. Again, no censoring in this memoir.

The mainstream media (MSM) very biased against prisoners and their allies. The prison system is also biased. A lesson learned....$9B spent on prison system, but 43rd among the states on how much they spend on public education and #1 on prisons. This is what we have to fight. The MSM doesn't want to buck the $9B institution. Prison official who was dishonest about Stanley admitted a year and a half later in the New Yorker that he had been dishonest, gotten approval by the system and the state atty general to lie. He implied that the Gov was in on it too.

There is an opera in the works on Tookie Williams with some of the leading young black opera stars. AWESOME! There is also a documentary in the works. Pacifica also gives Barbara 2-3 times a week a small time to talk about whatever she wants.

Fact vs. Fiction: Advancing the Truth in Today's Media Maelstrom

Rebecca Wind and Janna Zinzi

I walked in on a writing exercise to simplify a sentence full of stats. Be careful of acronyms. Remember that you are talking about real people. Use real experiences.

Ex. Recent study in Ghana, talked to teens about HIV, STDs, etc. Janna just read a few lines from the study conclusion that is total expert speak. NOT the way you should be blogging, writing for the public, or talking with teens. You need to translate it into real speak - Humanize the qualitative evidence.

Rebecca will now discuss trouble shooting & crisis management.

What if your data is used incorrectly? If it is a major media outlet, you can write a letter to the editor and contact the outlet. You can send out a press piece about the correct data. You can also use an editorial to correct the information. You need to always calculate whether it is worth your time and energy to correct the misrepresentation of your data.

Remember that not engaging is a way to DISARM people who are misusing your data & information.

When the NYTimes wrote about a Chinese drug maker's tainting of the abortion pill as inflammatory (compared to a well written piece by the Wall Street Journal) the makers of the pill circulated some talking points about the issue and the errors/misrepresentations in the NYTimes piece.

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Overall an amazing morning session. Well worth the early rise. This is what I hate about conferences. There are always overlapping kick ass sessions. The dilemma of picking one or trying to get a little bit of multiple sessions.

Technorati tags: WAM!, WAM! 2008

WAM! - FACT-UP Fact Check, Research, & Think Critically like a Radical Librarian

Presented by Radical Reference volunteers Jenna Freedman and Lana Thelen

The presentation is online! WOO! Gotta love it.

"This workshop will introduce skills to novice and veteran media makers alike, encouraging them to 'research like a librarian,' providing tips on how to find and recognize appropriate resources for researching and fact checking their stories. The presenters will be happy to adapt this workshop to whomever is in the room, but the impetus for proposing it is sharing skills with those newer to advanced research and critical thinking. However, people who are already confident in their research skills will undoubtedly learn some things, too. The facilitators can field questions on fact checking and research, but also on the mysteries of tagging, RSS feeds and the like."

The first thing taught in library school is how to evaluate sources aka check your facts.

• Make time to fact check
• Keep track of where you are getting your facts & what you change.
  
• Ask a 3rd party to go thru and point out any facts that need to be checked. Names, places, data points, etc.
• Go thru one last time that you have all the facts highlighted
• Check your sources
  
• Check quotations!
• Read your quotes back to them
• Don't share anymore of your article at that point
• Stay in charge of the story
  

Be aware of editorial comments that frame the story in a certain way...Are you skewing the story?

Boston Public Library has an excellent online library and you can get an electronic library card.

To search a website via Google type in " site:.gov "supreme court" kimbrough " this way you don't have to use the site's own search interface.

Wikipedia is a great place to START a fact check, but wouldn't use it to verify a fact. Don't forget the citations at the bottom of Wikipedia. Those just might be what you do want to cite.

They have a great list of good places for references. Feel free to log into the site and add a comment with your own great source.

Another trick to remember on a websearch: "link:site.org"

This was a great session for journalists as well as bloggers who write about facts. haha...Don't we all? But seriously, my pet peeve is when someone blogs about a science or health research article, but doesn't read it. I know it's hard, but when you take a firm stance on something, you have to know what kind of foundation you're standing on.

Technorati tags: WAM!, WAM! 2008

WAM! - We B(e)lo(n)g: Womyn of Color & Online Feminism

I'm sitting next to Liza and she asked just before we started "Is Brownfemipower here?" When she said, "Yes!" I ran to her, but Liza jumped over a table. We embraced BFP in such a large hug. Oh, yes...we set the stage for the love fest.

We are beginning with introductions about our wishes. Here is my introduction:

I wish that I didn't have to justify my Latinaness just because I don't speak Spanish. I wish that my daughter will not wrestle with this and grow up always surrounded by love.

There are a lot of awesome wishes which I won't even attempt to write down here for fear of misstating them. We all wish for better representations, complete histories, I wasn't so tired, that our brothers had a positive view of themselves in media, and many many more. The openness of just our introductions is so heart warming, so honest, so needed.

There is a blog that is associated to our wishes! wishes fulfilled. Go, post your wish. We're in a six minute exercise to write our wishes down. Since I already did I'll write a few more wishes for this conference:

• I wish that I would find more awesome bloggers to collaborate with
• I wish that I could take all these women home with me
• I wish that I felt as awesome as I feel for them
• I wish I had a better answer for "So why do you blog so much? Especially not for pay?" when people start grilling me
  
• I wish we could all feel this loved
  

Discussion points:

• we need to value our spaces, our blogs, our words, our work
• how do we get involved in/find the WOC community
• we need to not only find our own WOC mentors, but also find time to mentor others

The conversations were awesome and because this was such a safe space, I really don't want to write too much of what was discussed. It's not that some totally private stuff was said, but ya know?

Now we're wrapping up. Please don't forget about the WAM! Ning site and the WOC group I set up.

Technorati tags: WAM!, WAM! 2008

WAM! Friday recap

Good morning!

Yesterday was awesome and I don't feel like I did that much. It's too funny.

Speed Networking: I got there late because my flight was canceled and I got on another flight an hour later. I met a lot of awesome women, got some leads, gave some leads, and just had a great time.

Reception: More meeting of awesome women, getting some leads, and met another author who is considering blogging. She's coming to my panel (that's in an hour!) on feminist blogging to get some idea if she really should do it. Considering that more and more authors are jumping on this blogging bandwagon, I do hope she does. And of course, I'm more than happy to walk her thru it all. Authors are like drug dealers to me...They have access to books. Oh yeah...

The best thing thou was this beautiful woman came up to me and simply said, "I love what you write." and hands me her card. OH MY FUCKING GAWD....It's Echinde of the Snakes! I mean, hello? She likes my stuff? Yeah...I'm a total fangirl this weekend so I don't know how to handle any sort of compliment other than, "Thanks." haha!

Keynote: Helen Thomas rawked. She's seen it all and that's what I wanted to hear about. How she has seen the Presidency evolve since JFK, what she thinks of them (I haven't read her books), and what we can do to fight back against lying media crap. Some do think she was a bit divisive when she went off on why she will be voting for Hillary, the misogyny of the press on her, and how Obama gets softballs (until Tina Fey & SNL) from the press.

She told some awesome stories and I would had live blogged it but the place was packed and I was sitting on the stairs. With Jenny! The plan was to actually ditch Helen Thomas for Jenny, but she wanted to see her too, so we went together.

Jenny & I then grabbed some coffee and talked forever about being a mom, our cutie pie kids, and blogging. Thanks so much Jenny for driving out to see me.

I'm missing the Saturday morning keynote in favor of a huge bowl of oatmeal and a mint mocha.

I'm still on the hunt for some of my fave bloggers.

Technorati tags: WAM!, WAM! 2008

Steve Ballmer's Videos and Human Psychology

Steve Ballmer is a CEO of Microsoft and a very intense personality, as you can see from the videos below. In 2008, Mr. Ballmer was ranked the 43rd richest person in the world, with an estimated wealth of $15 billion.


Steve Ballmer shows his excitement at Microsoft 25th Anniversary by performing what became known as "Monkey Boy dance."


"Developers, Developers, Developers!" Steve Ballmer shows how important the applications developers are to Microsoft.

Wikipedia describes those "viral videos":

"Footage featuring Ballmer's flamboyant stage appearances at Microsoft events have been widely circulated on the Internet, becoming what are known as "viral videos". The most famous of these is commonly titled "Dance Monkeyboy", it features Ballmer dancing and hopping around while verbally screeching and screaming erratically on a stage for about 45 seconds after being introduced at a Microsoft employee convention. Another video, captured at a developers' conference just days later, featured a visibly sweat-drenched Ballmer chanting and shouting the word "developers" fourteen times in front of a gathering of Microsoft associates."

For a more balanced view of Mr. Ballmer, you can watch his interview with Guy Kawasaki.

Tomorrow's the day!

I have a confession...I'm actually a pretty shy person. Oh, sure, I can blog on and on, but that's because I don't have to look at you and when you laugh at my missing word, incorrect use of a comma, or at my entire point, I can't hear it. But when we're face to face, I clam up.

Of course, this isn't good for going to conferences, especially ones where you really should network and get to know new people. Hell, I have a growing list of people I need to at least meet and tell them in person how much I love their writing. I am such a fangirl of some bloggers that I know I'll get tongue tied many a time. The thought of getting into WAM! tomorrow around 1 and then leave on Sunday around the same time is mind blowing. Only 48 hours to try to meet some of the most awesome feminist bloggers and writers around? I need 48 hours just to pluck up the courage to say hi. Now my in person friends will tell stories of me walking right up to certain musicians and offering them a beer or two, but seriously that took me years to build up to.

Despite the fact that I've been blogging in some fashion since late 2000, I still feel like a newbie. Despite the fact that I get asked advice from real newbies, I still feel like I don't know what the hell I'm doing.

But I also know that I'm going to have a rocking time.

Should a feminist listen to misogynistic music?

R@d@r asked this about a post from last week:

as a songwriter/musician i am very interested in this question of whether a feminist "should" be into certain booty-shaking jams. (i know you were just being flip but this is actually something i think about.) chris rock did a whole routine about it that was pretty interesting as well as funny. my wife, who is a pretty hardcore feminist, really really loves "the seed 2.0" by the roots & cody chestnutt, in fact it is one of her favorite songs - but if you actually listen to the lyrics they're pretty horrible. i know that a lot of people enjoy songs and ignore the lyrics, but as a singer and writer of lyrics this disturbs me (or, perhaps it's just a blow to my ego). it's a phenomenon i find curious.

My friends know that this is one of my side issues...meaning that it's a great question, but one that I try to ignore as it reveals so many hypocrisies about myself as well as the movement.

And honestly, I wasn't being flip...I meant it when I said I was listening to un-feminist music. I like to explain a lot of my choices as a teen as just that, being a teen and making bad choices. But in reality, I think I did them because well, I liked the beat, the music, and even the attention that it brings a young woman when "Rump shaker" is on the sound system. Especially a young woman with a rump.

Fast forward to now and there has been a lot of attention brought to misogynistic lyrics & music in hip-hop, which brings anti-racist activists to bring to light the horrible lyrics of the Beatles, Rolling Stones, and Jimi Hendrix, as r@d@r pointed out in his comment as well. Misogyny in music is not a new invention nor is it located only in hip hop music where you can easier say that "I don't listen to the lyrics, just dance to the music."

I honestly think that un-feminist lyrics fall into that vat of "WTF feminism" that includes Brazilians and going to strip clubs for the fun/irony. I sometimes have no idea what to make of it.
Are we bad feminists when we listen to misogynistic lyrics? Or are we bad feminists period?

Last year I was at two feminist conferences. Both had a dance party one night and at both we ended up dancing to music that just earlier in the day we had enlightened and engaging debates about. At one point, one older feminist who was also shaking her thang pulled me close to ask, "Um, isn't this what we're protesting against?"

So r@d@r, I don't have an easy answer to your question. It's a good one. And one that will continue to be debated as long as feminists end up in dance parties...Which I believe I'll be at another one this Saturday and maybe in my own hotel room.


Technorati tags: feminism, music

The Fascinating Story of "Stingray Jim"

The CNN recently published the unfortunate story of a woman who died after a stingray leaped from the water off the Florida Keys and struck her. The force of the blow pushed the woman backward, she hit her head on the boat deck and died.

The article mentioned a guy who was considerably more lucky and become a member of the exclusive club of few who have survived after being hit in the chest by a stingray barb.

Read the story of "Stingray Jim" below.

The famous TV personality Steve Irwin ("Crocodile Hunter") was killed when a ray's barb pierced his heart in September 2006.

The 81-year-old James Bertakis is the founder a successful home manufacturing company (started 1972). Just a month after Steve Irwin was killed, the retired Michigan businessman was fishing on his boat near Lighthouse Point, Florida, when a stingray leaped out of the water and landed in his lap. The fish lashed out with its tail and the barb penetrated his chest.

This is where the story ends for most people but Mr. Bertakis is no ordinary man. His son, James, told CNN that his father is a "tough customer": "He is extremely active; he puts a lot of people to shame. He never admits he's over 69 years old. He's quite a character."

Mr. Bertakis managed to drive the boat back to shore, bleeding and light-headed, laid down on the dock and had his granddaughter call 911. He was taken to North Broward Hospital, where a chest X-ray showed the barb in his chest. He was taken to surgery, but as doctors worked, the barb was pulled through his heart as it pumped. Without cardiac bypass equipment available, the surgeons closed the heart with the barb still inside, and airlifted him to Broward General Hospital where the barb was removed.

He spent 5 weeks on a ventilator and his recovery took several months but was fit enough to appear on The Today Show "feeling wonderful," surrounded by his family and ready to fish again.

Feeling that he was spared by a miracle, Bertakis has started The Stingray Jim Charity (stingrayjim.com) to raise money for charities that help children and the elderly.

And that is the story of Stingray Jim. If interested, you can even buy branded t-shirts, coffee mugs and other memorabilia from Cafe Press.

But wait a minute -- what happened to the stingray that attacked Stingray Jim? This is the only answer in the FAQ section of his web site: "Stingray Jim bears no ill-will toward the stingray that stung him. Sadly, the stingray expired in the commotion surrounding the attack. Stingray Jim asked his family to have it preserved and mounted as a reminder of how unexpected and precious life is. You can see Jim holding it on the front page of this website."

References:
Woman dies after ray strikes her. CNN.
Man who survived stingray attack ready to fish again. The Today Show.
Irwin might have survived: surgeon. Sydney Morning Herald.
Florida Stingray Victim 'Holding His Own.' CBS News.
Stingray attacks Fla. boater, lodges barb into his heart. The Detroit News.
Man stabbed in chest, heart by stingray barb. St. Petersburg Times.
How do stingrays kill? How Stuff Works.
Images source: Wikipedia, Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 1.0 license, by Dr. Tony Ayling, and GNU Free License.

The Price of Motherhood

My latest post for Work it, Mom! is up now. It's about discrimination against pregnant women and mothers. It's more of a big question for everyone rather than me spouting some point.

Technorati tags: blogging, motherhood, Work it, Mom!

March is Colon Cancer Awareness Month: Get a Screening Colonoscopy if Appropriate for Your Age and History

Video: See What to Expect During a Colonoscopy.

The CBS news anchor Katie Couric (formerly of the NBC Today show) lost her husband to colon cancer ten years ago. According to the press release, "since then colon cancer awareness and prevention has been a cause near to her heart. March is Colon Cancer Awareness Month and Katie Couric put together a video for her YouTube channel with recognizable faces who have loaned their talent for Public Service Announcements about the disease."


Colon Cancer Awareness

Related:

Cleveland Clinic Colorectal Cancer Risk Assessment Tool. Get your score in 2 minutes (free).
Remembering Dad on Father’s Day. Paging Dr. Gupta, 06/2008.

Fear was the No. 1 reason people gave to explain why they hadn’t gone in for a colonoscopy to screen for colon cancer. NYTimes.

Booger is a Feminist

The Feminist Majority has a new video with a slew of stars, men and women, and some every day people talking about being a feminist. One of the men included is Curtis Armstrong who played Booger in the Revenge of the Nerds movies. Of course this made me chuckle. Sorry, but each time I see Curtis, I think of Booger and his amazing belching skills. I am still in awe.



Of course my favorite Latina is in the movie (as is Betty's sister & beloved Daniel). Which is awesome.

And as should be expected is a few seconds are spent on how being a feminist makes you good in bed. Oy...can we please move past this? Yes, being in control of your life is empowering everywhere else, but this whole feminist = good sex thing is far too over played. Do new feminist recruits all get a tube of lube and a sex toy? Do young women only care if feminism will make them awesome in bed? Overall it's a great movie and had a great number of men in it. Check it out.



Technorati tags: Booger, America Ferrara, feminist, Feminist Majority

WAM is on Twitter

Can't make it to MIT for WAM!? (I know my editing friends will love that opening line.)

WAM! has a Twitter channel...group...whatever it's called. So if you're into that Twitter thing and want to see what's happening (well when you're not reading my live blogging), visit their profile page and start following.


Technorati tags: WAM!, feminism, twitter

Topics Discussed During the Medicine Consult Service Rotation at Cleveland Clinic in March/April 2008

This is a list of the topics discussed during the Medicine Consult Service rotation with residents and medical students at Cleveland Clinic:

Which blood pressure medications to take on the morning of surgery?
Use of blogs in medicine
How to start a medical blog in 2 minutes
Use of RSS feeds in Medicine
Best Web Feeds Reader for Medical and General Information
What is the risk for developing ARF after surgery?
Something you have never seen before -- a rare central line complication in NEJM
Self-plagiarism of a Case Report in NEJM
What to do if you loose a guide wire during central line placement?
Guidelines for treatment of DVT/PE. See the presentation from Google Docs.
Preoperative Care of Patients with Kidney Disease, mnemonics PAST and HIP
New perioperative guidelines for noncardiac surgery (ACC, Medscape)
Podcasts in Medicine:
- Top 5 Medical Podcasts I Listen To
- Annals of Internal Medicine Launches Podcast and Audio Summaries
- Podcasts from Conferences of University of Tennessee IM Residency Program
Text-to-Speech Programs and Continuous Medical Education
Case 2: Does this patient need a beta-blocker? and 4CD mnemonic to remember the risk factors in RCRI
How to Score Well on the Boards?
Chest compressions-only CPR works as well as standard technique in adults
Hyponatremia and Hypernatremia:
Hyponatremia - Na 118 - What is the cause?
Syndrome of Inappropriate Antidiuretic Hormone Secretion (SIADH) due to SSRIs
SIADH due to Lung Cancer and Aspiration Pneumonia
Hypernatremia due to Dehydration in Dementia
Wellbeing practices correlated with the feeling of happiness: MOTORS
Keep residents happy -- it is better for patients
Inventor of Cardiac Bypass (CABG)
A doctor asks which portable computer/PDA/smartphone to choose
Electrocardiogram (ECG, EKG) Learning Tools
A Systematic Approach to Electrocardiogram (EKG) Interpretation by Using 2 Mnemonics: A RARE PQRST/DR III EEE by Dr. Dimov
Atrial fibrillation (AFib) with rapid ventricular response (RVR) due to triple lumen catheter (TLC) placement
Complications of Central Line Placement: Pneumothorax, Arrhythmia, Hematoma
Drum circles at a major Cleveland hospital relieve employee stress
Will "Dr. Nurses" Take Over Primary Care?
Case 3: When to correct hyperkalemia before surgery?
Case 4: When to do hemodialysis before surgery in patients with ESRD?

To be discussed in the future

Acid-base Balance Cases and Calculators by Dr. Dimov
5 Tips to Stay Up-to-Date with Medical Literature
Web 2.0 in Medicine (from Google Presentations) by Dr. Dimov
Aortic Stenosis and Preoperative Evaluation for Noncardiac Surgery
New guidelines for prevention of bacterial endocarditis

Topics from previous rotations

Different IV catheters and related complications
Atelectasis as source of fever by Dr. Dimov
Rates of medication errors among depressed and burnt out residents by Dr. Dimov
How do you define prolonged immobilization?
Hydralazine use in HTN by Dr. Dimov
How many "organ"-renal syndromes are recognized? by Dr. Dimov
GLP-1 receptor agonist (Byetta) and DPP-4 Inhibitors for Treatment of Diabetes by Dr. Batal/Dr. Dimov
Difficult to control asthma - what to do after ICS/LABA/LTRA have failed by Dr. Dimov
When to Use Xolair (Omalizumab) in Asthma? by Dr. Dimov
Mind maps for asthma treatment by Dr. Dimov

The list will be updated periodically as new topics are added by the end of the month. As you can see from the links above, a blog can be used as an educational portfolio for both personal learning and teaching.

Further reading:
Topics Discussed During the Internal Medicine Rotation at Cleveland Clinic in October/November 2007. CasesBlog, 10/2007.
Topics Discussed During the Internal Medicine Rotation at Cleveland Clinic in September 2007
Using a Blog to Build an Educational Portfolio. CasesBlog, 1/2007.
DB’s thoughts on being a clinical educator. DB’s Medical Rants, 11/2007.
Attending Rounds. DB’s Medical Rants, 02/2008.
Happiness. DB’s Medical Rants, 03/2008.

Updated: 04/04/2008

Remembering the ACGME 6 Core Competencies by a SIMPLE mnemonic

The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) is responsible for the accreditation of post-MD medical training programs within the United States. The ACGME developed the so-called 6 "core competencies" that all residents should achieve during their training. When I was a chief resident, the concept was still new and not easy to remember so I made up a SIMPLE mnemonic for the 6 competencies:

SIMPLE

Systems-Based Practice
Interpersonal Skills and Communication
Medical Knowledge
Patient Care
Learning - Practice-Based and Improvement
Etiquette ~ professionalism

References:
General Competencies. The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME).
Medical Mnemonics
Image source: OpenClipArt, public domain.

Bush's War on PBS

We're only 40 minutes into the PBS Frontline special on "Bush's War" and my heart is broken all over again. The arrogance is sickening. Just sickening. I can't believe that I haven't puked. I'm surprised I'm not crying my eyes out. The arrogance, lies, and that smirk. That fucking smirk. Oh how the press kissed their asses and now they have an arrogance about a wrong war. The media needs to be brought up on war crimes too. Just like Cheney, Rumsfield, Bush, Rice, and the others. Blair and Powell are living their punishment, IMO. They let the others play them, run over them, and they know they were right to focus on Afghanistan. People still talk about Powell with reverence - VP, President...I can never trust that man again. Go teach others how to deal with war mongers.

The saddest thing of all? The lies we sold the Afghan people, especially the women and girls. There are many a day when I think I can justify the invasion of Afghanistan, but most I still can't justify the harm we did to the women and children.

Technorati tags: George W. Bush, war, PBS, Afghanistan

Video: Brain Researcher at Harvard Talks About Her Stroke and More

Jill Bolte Taylor: My stroke of insight. The brain she is holding in the video is a real one.

Read the transcript. From the TED Conference:

"Neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor had an opportunity few brain scientists would wish for: One morning, she realized she was having a massive stroke. As it happened -- as she felt her brain functions slip away one by one, speech, movement, understanding -- she studied and remembered every moment. This is a powerful story about how our brains define us and connect us to the world and to one another."

TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. "It started out in 1984 as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Since then its scope has become ever broader."

The byline of TED is "ideas worth spreading." Not surprisingly, Dr. Taylor's talk is about more than her own stroke:

"So who are we? We are the life force power of the universe, with manual dexterity and two cognitive minds. And we have the power to choose, moment by moment, who and how we want to be in the world. Right here right now, I can step into the consciousness of my right hemisphere where we are -- I am -- the life force power of the universe, and the life force power of the 50 trillion beautiful molecular geniuses that make up my form. At one with all that is. Or I can choose to step into the consciousness of my left hemisphere. where I become a single individual, a solid, separate from the flow, separate from you. I am Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, intellectual, neuroanatomist. These are the "we" inside of me.

Which would you choose? Which do you choose? And when? I believe that the more time we spend choosing to run the deep inner peace circuitry of our right hemispheres, the more peace we will project into the world and the more peaceful our planet will be. And I thought that was an idea worth spreading."

Link via O'Reilly and Scobleizer.
YouTube link to the video.

Speaking of good authors...

I'm in this month's Bookworm carnival for my two book reviews:

Viva la Feminista reviews Wendy Walker’s Four Wives about four housewives from Connecticut and their secrets. In another post she reviews The Baby Lottery by Kathryn Trueblood, a novel about the influence one woman’s abortion has on her circle of long-time friends.

But since I know you've already read those reviews, head on over to the Bookworm Carni to read what others are saying about women's literature.

Ode to editors

I just finished looking at my essay for What We Think and wow...some amazing editor took my last minute written essay and whipped into something that actually looks pretty darn good. And yes, I'm holding back because it's something *I* wrote and I don't want to get your expectations up when you do finally read it. ;-)

But seriously, as someone who isn't a professional writer in the classic sense, I do have writer envy. Peering down at the fabulous books I gorge on and wonder, "Why can't I write like this?" Reading tight grant proposals and wondering "What's wrong with me?" I usually end up falling back on the very true fact that I don't have a great grasp on grammar and thus, I blow it off. But it's more than that.

Now that I have received my edits, I know something else. Writers are not to be envied, it's the editors baby!!

I have one for the anthology, I'll have one for the magazine article, and now to find one for my work writing. Hmmm...don't think that fits into my budget thou. Oh well. Back to the writing board.

Un-Feminist Music Jams

My husband just turned down the NCAA game to put on the radio. A station is playing some freakin' awesome mixes. I started listening during a Brooks & Dunn song that merged into Margaritaville into some booty-shaking music from high school. Just now:

- My Humps
- Nothing But A Good Time
- Keep on Rocking Me Baby
- Glamorous Life

And in between the actual songs are snippets of other booty-shaking songs that really a feminist shouldn't be shaking her ass to, but I do. Sue me. Now if only I can finish my damn article on women of color in the mommy blogosphere. It's due next week and while it's very short, I'm totally freaking out as I have a lot riding on this baby. Mostly I don't want to disappoint the totally awesome people who will be reading & editing and maybe thinking, "Damn, maybe we don't need this..."

Back to work!

- You're The One I Want over Snoop Dogg just started...

A serious question about Richardson

Before I hit the road for the weekend...

Does Richardson have any influence in the Latin@/Hispanic community outside of his state?

So I'm not the most Latin Latina (apologies to Hijas), but I have never ever heard another Latin@ say anything good or bad about Richardson, quote him or anything. OK, maybe that time when he was in the Clinton administration and that thing about nuclear secrets & spying. But it still wasn't anything very supportive about the man.

That leaves me to ponder, how the hell is he going to deliver all these Latin@ votes for Obama?

Now if Jimmy Smits were to come out for Obama...I might think about it. But Richardson? I dunno.

Technorati tags: Bill Richardson, latina

Tagged!

A fellow mommy blogger tagged me for this one. Thanks Kim!

Here are the rules:
A. Post the rules at the beginning.

B. Answer the questions about yourself.

C. Tag 5 people and let them know in a comment on their blogs that they have been tagged.
Meagan, Sara, Pickel, LawyerMama, PunditMom

What Was I Doing 10 Years Ago?
Enjoying our post-college years and trying to decide to move to DC or not. Obviously, I didn't. Instead I stayed in Chicago and spent the next 3 summers at Wrigley Field. I'll never have a better tan than during that time period.

Snacks I Enjoy: Chocolate, cupcakes, chocolate cupcakes, and cinnamon pita chips. Gotta have something semi-healthy!



Five Things on my To-Do List Today: 1) Transfer money from my account to our joint account; 2) Email Jenny re: meeting up in Btown next week; 3) Write my column that's due on the 25th! 4) Finish up a mailing for work work; 5) Got out of the office early so we can hit Target for Easter goodies.


Things I Would Do if I Became a Billionaire: I would pay off the in-laws house and cars, set up a college fund for the nephews and the daughter, travel to all those conferences I want to attend and retreats, stay home do volunteer work, work on my writing, and of course, open up that family care center on campus that is sorely needed. You know, where workers can bring in the baby and Grandma for the day. Family fun! Oh...and buy that 6 flat on the block, duplex both sides and turn the first floor into offices and a studio for a certain crafty chick.

Three Bad Habits: Eating at my desk, too much time online, and saying 'yes' too often.

Five Places I Have Lived: I've lived in the Chicago area since I was 4, but before that I lived in Columbia, SC (dad's basic training), Corpus Christi, TX (mom left me there with her big sis for a few months), Colorado Springs, Co (more Army fun!), and I think I logged a few months in San Antonio, TX during the insane first few years of my life while Dad was in the Army and Mom & I followed him around the country.

Jobs I Have Had: Pizza Puff maker (drop frozen puff into vat of hot grease), movie theater concessioner (Mmm...free nachos), tuxedo rental place assistant (yes, I hemmed, sewed, and ironed tuxes...which is why I don't iron now), Payless Shoe worker (where I met my husband!), Greenpeace door canvasser (ding dong...Hi! I'm Veronica, did you know that in the event of a nuclear meltdown, we have X minutes to take cover?), office assistant in a brokerage firm (got fired from there!), sold t-shirts and stuff at the United Center (during the Jordan II era), fish researcher (published baby!), academic advisor, and various variations on my current job.

Things People Don't Know About Me:
Hmmmm....I'm pretty open, so if you don't know it, I probably don't want you to know it. That or I haven't found the right time to tell you.

New Moms Needs Your Help

Earlier this week a fire destroyed a shelter for new moms. I had heard about the story, but forgot about it. Fortunately Firebelly Design sent a reminder email:

This past Tuesday night, (March 18th) an accidental fire caused extensive damage to the New Moms shelter in Humboldt Park. New Moms provides temporary housing and support to young mothers and their children. Thankfully there were no injuries but now 20 young women and their children have nowhere to stay.

I *love* Firebelly. They are an awesome design group and they give back to the community. So if you can, please go to the New Moms website and donate via PayPal. Just $25 is what we're asking for to help out these young moms who are now homeless.

Technorati tags: New Moms

How to backup your medical blog?

Writing a medical blog takes time and effort. A blog is also a personal archive which should be protected against deletion by an accident or a malicious hacker. The first step is to choose a good password. The second it to backup your blog regularly, probably weekly or monthly.

There are 2 relatively easy options to backup your blog:

1. HTTrack Website Copier

This free program allows you to save entire web sites (including your blog) on your hard drive so that you can browse them offline. I use HTTrack to backup several of my websites and have not had any problems with it. It downloads all the text, links, images, audio and video files to the hard drive in a directory called "MySites." An incremental backup is done after the first run of the program.

2. Blogger Backup at CodePlex.com

Blogger Backup goes one step further than HTTrack by allowing you to restore your posts back online in case you accidentally delete your blog or some of the posts. I have not tried the program yet but the credible Digitial Inspiration blog has a positive review of Blogger Backup.

References:
Download All Your Blogs with Blogger Backup, Easy Restoration. Digital Inspiration.
Image source: Wikipedia

Related:
New: Export Your Blogger Blogs or Merge Multiple Blogs into One. Digital Inspiration, 06/2008.
How do I import and export blogs on Blogger? Blogger.com.
Bulletproof Backup Strategies. EfficientMD, 08/2008.
Import and Export for Blogger blogs. Blogger Buzz, 12/2008.

Updated: 12/11/2008

Love Note From My Husband

Subject: thinking of you

Message:
“Bartlet: Charlie! Would you pull the first lady out of whatever it is she's doing?
Charlie: She's with the women's caucus.
Bartlet: Well put on a helmet and pads and get in there.”

-President Josiah 'Jed' Bartlet

New Gig @ Work it, Mom!

That's me and Sara (fellow CMBer) at our new blog, Moms on Issues, at Work it, Mom! We just launched today and then Sara & I will take turns blogging each week on issues that relate to working moms. From politics to celebrities, so we'll cover Hillary and Christina!

Stop on by and join the conversation. It should be a good time. And please excuse my first post...I've been fighting off a migraine the last couple of days. Ugh...migraines are the bane of my existence.

Technorati tags: blogging, motherhood, Work it, Mom!

Wanna see me get my ass kicked?

I commented over at Feministing and brought up the "Full Frontal Feminism" cover...again. Hey, they asked for it! *sigh*

I seriously see no difference in getting all huffy about WOC being cropped at the neck and advertising a book that has a cropped white woman's body. And I've already been told that the difference is that it is WOC who are being cropped while the white woman keeps her head. Oh, ok...Maybe I'm thinking too hard.

But, I ask you my dear and growing gaggle of readers, what do you think? Of course, if you see no problem with either depiction of women, say that too. It's a valid stance.

edited to add: I'm admittedly surprised that the conversation didn't get out of control over my comment. Not that I think I'm some walking target, but I've seen the comment section go out of control before when someone questions F'ing's intentions. So I've very happy that I was able to comment and it pretty much went over everyone's head.

Technorati tags: feminism

The day Barack Obama broke my heart

My husband is amazed at my recollection of mundane and minute details when I get into a political debate. I am amazed at my repression of moments when my heart is broken.

I've written before about when I fell in love with Barack Obama. That late fall day in Federal Plaza when he spoke so eloquently against the Iraq War...oh, he was so eloquent. He sent chills down my spine. That is what teens must had felt during Beatlemania. My screams joined others. I applauded harder than I've ever in my life. Oh, 2002...a lifetime ago. Back when I wasn't a mother, but had one.

Fast forward to the summer of 2007...Cook County (the 2nd largest county in the USA) is embroiled in a political mess, to say the least. Our county government was up for election in March and just a few weeks before the primary the President fell ill from a stroke. His family told us all that he would be just fine. He'd recover to rule again. He won the very close primary...which, truth be told, I think was a bit too close and should had been recounted - It smelled like Florida 2000 in Chicago that winter. So this President still isn't seen in public and it just so happens that he "decides" to remove his name from the ballot just after the date where us voters would have a say in the matter. A scrawled note from the President appears and he asks that the Party put his son on the ballot instead.

Democracy Chicago style.

So we now have the son on the ballot - a man with so little experience that it is embarrassing. He's running against a Republican with some pretty far-right views. The pro-choice and other liberal groups use a lot of money to tell everyone that they must vote for the son. Considering how Democratic Cook County is, I wonder why the son's supporters are so scared?

I'll tell you...the whole situation was sickening to watch. After the son was crowned as the successor, I decided that this might be one election I'll sit out. It was THAT bad.

Then June came...And a press conference. Who's at this press conference? Just about any Democrat who was willing to loan the son some semblance of dignity & respect. One politician at this press conference was my junior Senator, Barack Obama.

Are my eyes deceiving me? Am I seeing the man who ran on a vision of change or not being a party man really up there on a stage trying to convince me that the son could run the 2nd largest county in this country? That being the son of a President is enough for me to vote for him? Oh, hell no!

Well the son won...it wasn't even close. He ran on a promise to cut bloat from the job rolls. Instead there are more workers than before...And many are related to him. He also isn't being as pro-woman as the liberal groups said he would be. At least if I'm going to have a crappy politician, at least they can send me some love!

One of my newest BFFs works in health care and sees first hand the ramifications of the son's ascent to power. It ain't good folks. She reminded me at dinner over the weekend that Obama's endorsement of the son weighed on her as she decided who to vote for in our primary. I had repressed that nightmare.

Now with it fresh in my memory again, I am heart broken all over. Ever break up with someone twice? It hurts even worse the second time again.

I'll still vote for Obama in November and no, I have no idea if Hillary endorsed a political family member like the son or if she endorsed a banker connected to the mob, but I do know that Obama did. And for that, I'll never see him as a truly progressive and grass roots politician who isn't a party man. Because he is.

See, this is why I'd never win an election in Chicago, I am not a party loyalist.

Technorati tags: Barack Obama, Cook County, politics, health care

Prepping for WAM

And even thou I do plan to take the laptop and do some live-blogging, I figured that I should also attempt to Twitter WAM as well. Also note my new tag just for WAM! :)

I guess you need to be a follower of mine to see my updates. As my current status says, I'm still not convinced that this new uber-popularity contest tool will be important, but hey, maybe I'll just use it for times like conferences where people are always saying something awesome.

Technorati tags: Twitter, WAM, Women, Action & the Media

Announcement: Conference on Web 2.0 in Medicine in Toronto, September 2008. What is "Apomediation"?

According to the conference website:

"Medicine 2.0™ is an international conference on Web 2.0 applications in health and medicine, organized and co-sponsored by the Journal of Medical Internet Research, the International Medical Informatics Association, the Centre for Global eHealth Innovation, CHIRAD, and a number of other sponsoring organizations."

Medicine 2.0 is defined as "Web-based services for health care consumers, caregivers, patients, health professionals, and biomedical researchers, that use Web 2.0 technologies as well as semantic web and virtual reality tools, to enable and facilitate specifically social networking, participation, apomediation, collaboration, and openness within and between these user groups."

What is "apomediation"? According to this article, "traditional media intermediaries are replaced by apomediaries -- tools and peers standing by to guide consumers to trustworthy information, or adding credibility to information." The reference is provided in case some of the readers of this blog always wanted to know what apomediation was but were afraid to ask.

The deadline for abstracts is May 2nd, 2008.

The conference is organized by Gunther Eysenbach who is the Editor-in-Chief, publisher of the Journal of Medical Internet Research, and the author of the term apomediation. See his blog Gunther Eysenbach's random research rants.


A low resolution version of Medicine 2.0 map (fair use). Click here to see the full resolution image from Gunther Eysenbach's blog.

An easier on the eye version is the Social Media Starfish created by Darren Barefoot (a Creative Commons license):

The starfish also illustrates some of what I call "6 Axes of Medical Education in Web 2.0 Style":

1. Web feeds (RSS)
2. Podcasts
3. Blogs
4. Wikis
5. Custom search engines
6. Second Life virtual world

Judging by the conference web site, it looks like the term "Medicine 2.0" was registered as a trade mark... Berci Mesko who organizes the Medicine 2.0 carnival may want to look into that. Actually, I never use "Medicine 2.0" in my presentations. They are usually titled simply "Web 2.0 in Medicine" which is an attempt to solve the confusion created by terms such as eHealth, iHealth, Health 2.0, Medicine 2.0, Medicine 3.0, etc. I also hold the dubious distinction of first describing how physicians can use Web 2.0 in medicine on 10/29/2005 but that does not count for much anymore, I guess.


My presentation on Web 2.0 in Medicine, updated in 1/2008.

References:
Web 2.0 in Medicine. CasesBlog, 2005.
Medicine 2.0 Conference in September. eHealth.

Related:
Dangers of Web 2.0: In Medicine. ScienceRoll.com.

Sometimes there is no escape from an abuser

I have to admit that each time I hear a story of a woman who leaves her boyfriend/husband and ends up dead a part of me dies too. I became tired of this story many years ago. My heart is dead to the stories in that I no longer cry and scream when I hear about it. The rage is quiet inside me.

The latest story to grab local headlines is the story of Cindy Bischof. The Chicago Tribune has a great story about how she did everything right. I've heard all the lectures about what to do when you leave a relationship and what to do when he freaks out and starts threatening you. Bischof appears to have heard it all and did it. And she still fucking ended up dead!

Cindy Bischof thought her breakup with a longtime boyfriend would go smoothly after he agreed to move out of her house. But Michael Giroux quickly turned hostile, writing up a plan to destroy her home and following through with it.

Terrified after Giroux, 60, spray-painted every wall and piece of furniture in her Arlington Heights home last spring, the 43-year-old real estate broker moved swiftly to secure a protective order from a Cook County judge that prohibited him from contacting her.

When he violated the order on two occasions, including an attempt to hang himself on her patio, she didn't hesitate to press charges that landed him in jail for two months followed by home confinement.

To relatives and prosecutors, it appeared that Bischof was taking all the necessary steps to stay safe and that the legal system was delivering protection.

But after Giroux was released from home confinement this month, he showed up at Bischof's office in Elmhurst armed with a .38-caliber revolver. When she tried to get into her car, he shot her repeatedly then turned the gun on himself.

The shittiest part of this story and every one like this is that the safest way to leave a violent situation is for the woman to change her name and relocate. She does nothing wrong and she's the only who has to leave her job? Her home? Her family? If I had ever found myself in that situation, I would had said, "Fuck that." I'm stubborn that way. OK, so maybe the rage isn't so quiet...But it really isn't fair that some asshole can hold this much power. I really don't have a solution to all of this.

Technorati tags: domestic violence, feminism, violence against women