Go Fly A Kite

I'm the dad who refuses to buy his kid videogames. No PS3, Wii, Xbox in our household. Difficult to say this without sounding priggish and self-righteous, but frankly I find them abhorrent.

I see my son's pals congregating, with nary a word of conversation between them, individually blam-blamming some onscreen arch-enemy, for hours at a time. Group solitaire -- no social interaction whatsoever. I pick up his friends to take them for a hike or a ball game, and the minute these kids get into the car, without even saying hello they pull out one of these godforsaken games -- which I confiscate immediately.

I shudder at the thought of my son turning into one of these mindless zombies. Other parents kvetch that they can't tear their kids away from their violent screens -- the ones which they have purchased for them. By now they know how I feel, and I obviously can't prevent or even dissuade them from raising a generation of dolts. But I can vote with my wallet, and will not purchase this overpriced mind-numbing crap. Consider my son deprived.

Today we bought a pair of colorful kites, $2.99 each at the supermarket, took them to the park, and spent a joyous hour running around, getting them to sail higher and higher and higher. Ours were the only kites visible against the clear blue sky. All the other kids in the park didn't even notice them. On this sunny, breezy day, they were too busy staring at their videogames.

Obama & Israel

For those concerned that Sen. Obama won't support Israel, look no further than Thomas L. Friedman's New York Times column today.

He cites several incendiary pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel quotes attributed to Obama, the kind that legitimately worry Jews. Trouble is, they were actually uttered by none other than Pres. Bush.

A true pro-Israel president, Friedman argues, is one who will make America strongest, and best able to support Israel. "Nothing would imperil Israel more than an enfeebled, isolated America."

Clearly Friedman feels Obama is that person.

If Israel is your voting priority, then at least ask the right questions about Mr. Obama. Knock off the churlish whispering campaign about what’s in his heart on Israel and focus first on what kind of America you think he’d build and second on whether you believe that as president he’d have the smarts, steel and cunning to seize a historic opportunity if it arises.

Don't Tell Anyone How You Did It

Thoroughly shuffle a deck of cards. Put it back in its box. Think of any two values -- for example, a Two and a Six, or a Five and a Nine. Suits don't matter, just the numbers (or Jacks, Queens, Kings, Aces). Now rest the card box on your left hand, and put your right hand on top of it. Concentrate on your two cards, and then... Squeeze! Really hard!

OK, lift your right hand. Open the card box. Carefully take out the cards. Spread through them. Did you succeed in squeezing your two thought of cards together, so that they're right next to each other? Spread through the whole deck to make sure. If not, you probably came close, and they're separated by no more than one or two cards. Shuffle 'em up good and try again. It'll probably work the next time. Squeeze a little harder! Practice makes perfect!

Stop the Presses!

What's news? According to CNN, here are the top stories, as we speak:

Chemist gets life for hubby's acid vat murder
Plane lands atop another taking off
Racy ads encourage safe sex for pets
Boy, 5, swipes, wrecks grandma's truck
Woman's body lies in apartment for 35 years
8 middle-schoolers expelled for sex on trip
Seacrest: Cheap shots with Cowell are real
Water is vital, but how much should you drink?

How many of these stories impact your life?
How many will you read?

Heart Cancer

Why do you never hear about heart cancer? Every other organ in the body, including the skin, can be afflicted by malignant tumors -- why not the heart?

I posed this question at breakfast this morning to some pals who are extremely bright and knowledgeable about many things, but not one had a clue about this. (Nor did I!) We all admitted it was an intriguing question, and perhaps a steppingstone to understanding why other organs DO get cancer. We all agreed that plenty of doctors and scientists must have pondered this, at much greater depth, and I'm sure that when everyone got back to their computers they Googled "heart cancer," as I just did.

And here's what I found:

The Mayo Clinic says heart cancer does exist, but is extremely rare:

Although heart tumors do occur, the vast majority are noncancerous (benign). A 20-year review of 12,487 consecutive autopsies in Hong Kong identified only seven cases of cardiac tumor — an incidence of less than 0.1 percent — most of which were benign.

A scientist on a Dept. of Energy bulletin board takes a stab at explaining why heart cancer is rare:

Cancer of the heart muscle called angiosarcoma do occur but are rare and occur more often in children and more often in the right side of the heart. Cancers like melanoma are known to spread to the heart. That being said, it is somewhat curious why certain tissues are less susceptible to cancer.This is typically ascribed to the belief that the more cells that are actively dividing in an organ or tissue the [more likely]* that organ or tissue will have a cancer arise in it. So skin, intestine and bone marrow which have high populations of dividing cells are more often to have a cancer arise in their cells than the heart whose muscle tissue is essentially non-dividing.

*(The citation says "less likely" but obviously means the opposite!)

And this from University of Pennsylvania's OncoLink:

Unfortunately, just like almost all the other tissues and organs, malignant tumors do occur in the heart. In addition, malignant tumors can spread to the heart from other sites (metastasis). Metastatic tumors to the heart are more prevalent than primary cardiac tumors, and the incidence is increasing as antineoplastic treatment results in longer survival .

Primary malignant tumors of the lining of the heart (pericardium) are exceedingly rare. However, tumors of the heart muscle do sometimes develop. Sarcomas are by far the most prevalent malignant tumors of the heart muscles (myocardium), angiosarcoma being the most common. Other malignant cardiac tumors that have been reported in the literature include rhabdomyosarcomas, mesotheliomas, fibrosarcomas, malignant fibrous histiocytomas, and lymphomas. Establishing the diagnosis of a cardiac malignancy is sometimes difficult because of their nonspecific clinical presentation. Surgery is the treatment of choice for most primary malignant cardiac tumors. Because the resection is often incomplete due to the extent and invasiveness of the tumor, radiation therapy can be used in conjunction with surgical resection. In general, the prognosis of a cardiac malignant tumor is poor.

So now you know! But now I wonder what other organs and tissues have low cancer rates, and why.

More Words to Hang By

Who knows what these mean, but here are a half dozen more Hangman nuggets guaranteed to make your opponent swing in the wind. Take it from a guy with a sore neck!

whilom
interferometer
macrocephalous
adipocyte
indaba
acceptance

What's funny about "adipocyte" is that it's got nearly every vowel, even Y, and you'll still stump 'em!

And "acceptance" is such a common word, but if they don't guess C, then they better watch out! They'll be doing the Saddam shimmy!

12 Hangman Doozies

Even if you have no idea what they mean, or are unlikely to use them in daily conversation, here are a dozen great Hangman words ... as I found out the hard way!

kymatology
rumchunder
weatherometer
acatalepsy
revenant
acaricide
redintegrate
yarborough
centuple
neurolysis
juvenescent
macromania

I got to wondering about Hangman strategies, and Googling around I found this and this, which emphasize math over vocabulary... I have no idea what the hell they're saying, but maybe you can decipher them?

Decipher. That's not a bad Hangman word either!