Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Medicare For All

Mark Hyman, MD, in The Huffington Post writes Why Cholesterol May Not Be the Cause Of Heart Disease.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mark-hyman/why-cholesterol-may-not-b_b_290687.html

My mom’s been saying this for years. She’s been saying a lot of other things also and like every good daughter, I ignore as much as I can. But I do feel bad that her generation may be the last “before the commercialism blitz hit America” generation. You know, the generation which didn’t run to drugs, tests or the MD for every ailment. The generation which still had a voice to say “No.” to the medical profession. Tom Brokaw got it wrong; hers may have been the “great generation.”

Of course, I did learn something else from mom. She still reads magazines, Time (icky), Better Homes and Gardens (sappy); you know the type. As she reads she removes all the ads so the magazine she finally reads is less than half the size of the copy which first arrived in her mailbox. Guess what she says almost all the ads are for? Pharmaceuticals. At least three pages for each drug: first the Papa Bear font of slick advertising, then the Mama Bear font of somber persuasive writing, and finally the teeny Baby Bear font of all the side effects and contraindications. (If you’ve been following this, you will have realized with an odd numbered three-page spread the advertisers make sure you can’t rip out at least one page.)

So before I get to Website Wednesday, I’ll leave you with this to ponder: With all this drug advertising, how do you think the pharmaceutical companies will react to Hyman’s article?

Website Wednesday

I think we need some fun in these dark economic times so occasionally it’s just going to be fun time on Wednesday Website. Today, it’s Drench from Flash By Night:

http://www.flashbynight.com/drench/

AKA, in a former life, Virus 1, 2 or 3. The only difference is Drench has no directions, so here is a simple starter: Look at the color of the top left square (or shape) and the color of the shapes it touches. On the right side you have button of all the colors on the board. Let’s say, your first square is gold and it touches one blue square and 2 green squares. It you push the green button the gold square turns green. Now you have 3 green square made into one larger green shape. Now, you look at the colors this green shape is touching and press the appropriate button.

You keep clicking the color buttons and the screen gets a larger and larger shape of one color. The object is to change the playing area to just one color (it can be any color) and with each game you have fewer and fewer moves you can use. But you can’t get killed, there is a Return arrow and there is something visually appealing as the board changes into a larger and larger colored form. You need logic, but no stress is involved.

After you play Drench, go to the main site:

http://www.flashbynight.com/

It calls itself “coffee break entertainment.” (Note to all: remember I mentioned “dark economic times” at the beginning of this post? You may want to bookmark this site for home use and work diligently through your work coffee break.)

The About Us section says:
I enjoy writing and programming games in Flash. Everything on flashbynight.com was produced by me and everything is original. With a few exceptions, these games can only be found on Flash By Night. I run this site for fun, so everything is free.

I'm fascinated by simple games that are fun to play. For example, Tetris has such a simple premise, but it is so addictive. One day, I would like to make the 'next' Tetris for my site.

My programming skills are far from perfect and I treat flashbynight.com as a project site. Hopefully, I am improving.

His programming skills seem fine to me. Of course, the one and only game I made had a bear walking to a tree. And, I'm still bragging about that one.

I played Escapoids (which is a very interesting variation of Drench), Are You Smart or Stoopid? (I was smart, thank goodness.) Illuminscence, Choke, Word Slamm (I need practice), Bongo Blocks, Are You Psychic? (No, I am not.), Chucklehead (surprising how much fun this game was once I read the rules), Bizzle (I am definitely not coming back as a bee.), and 7Down (where I still can't figure out what I'm doing but I like it.)

There are also “boy” games, that is, shoot-‘em-up games, so there is something here for everyone.

OK, I think I've played enough games. It's time to get to work. But be sure to bookmark this site. It’s a good place to go for a quick, entertaining break. But be warned: It is addictive.

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