7 Color Lagoon

New Post on my little blog, Lizard Stew, about disinfecting foods — especially those eaten raw.  Tomatoes are in the news for that reason.  Last year it was “pre-washed” spinach.  It is a simple process that is not only for the developing nations.  Moctezuma can visit the US, too, for his revenge.

The other alternative is to eat cooked foods.  These tomatoes are safely cooked in a sauce with onions, capers, olives, and (for me) chiles.

Whole fish in a Veracruz style sauce at the Restaurant Cenote Azul.  Photo © Howard Dratch.

As I begin to think about a move to Mèrida or, at the least, some trips to visit again; I am interested in the phenomena of “medical tourism” that has moved beyond fringe activity into mainstream alternatives.

It is understandable in the world - such as America - where insurance policies cost $5000 a year and more for one person, unbelievably large amounts for couples and families.  My policy that finally needed to be dropped was over $5000 with a $10,000 deductible.  It is a fine company, Equitable, that always paid as much as they were supposed to or more and paid out hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years of by-passes, emergency surgeries and pacing devices.  But that is the problem that is destroying lives in the States where government has resisted more civilized health care for its citizens.  The costs of care have been driven up to astronomical and inhuman levels.

Medical care no longer costs a lot by normal standards.  It is now obviously based on play money since people do not, cannot have the astronomical sums that are used in the medical world.  That is only counting mainstream medicine.  Cosmetic surgeries, dentistry, alternative (non-reimbursable) techniques are seldom covered.  Dentistry comes to mind first since it is necessary but unaffordable in the US.  A visitor recently told me of the implants and dentures he needed in the States and the $48,000 estimate for the cost.  That would buy the Mexican dentist a pleasant house in many places.

Mèrida, for one, is gearing itself toward the medical tourism boom that is expected.  The economic downturn in the US, recession and the fear of the financial future will help as people flee the US for more affordable havens.

In my case I am looking for a place that has First World standards and Third World prices.  One of the alternatives for dentistry and other procedures is Mexico.

Living here I already have a dentist — actually a periodontist who does everything for me except the recent root canal when he sent me to another specialist.  He was quite painless, clean and professional with a charge of around $US120 for the root canal.  I seem to remember 10 years ago in upstate NY the same job was around $800.

There is finally a website guide to medical tourism called Pangea Medicine that acts as an online medical travel directory to help people find quality care outside the US.  Most of their Mexican referrals are similarly to dentists, often in the areas easily accessible to the West Coast but, by now, all the world is accessible by plane.  One dentist mentioned in Baja California is an American with a bi-lingual staff and photos of an amazingly modern and clean facility. Just to remind me how backward Chetumal is medically.  There are drawbacks to living on the edge of the jungle in a border area.

Another dental destination is Costa Rica which is highlighted on the Pangea Medicine site with a clinic in a town 15 minutes from San Josè which is described as:
Our specialized dental clinic includes dentist, doctors of dental surgery (DDS), orthodontics, pediatric dentistry, endodontics, periodontics, and aesthetic surgery all in one place. Along with these specialized dentistry services we also staff professional dental hygienists which help patients with Dental Clinic Prevention Programs. Our dentist and staff come from well known national / international universities and have been hand picked to provide patients with the best dentistry in this country. Dentist appointments are scheduled within travel packages for a nice and relaxing recovery. Get a dental solution, transportation, day tours and visit amazing places all at the same time. Take advantage of high quality dental services for much less than the United States cost. Make the most of your money and time off by touring amazing beaches and rainforests with Costa Rica dental tourism plans.

If you don’t already live here, it sounds great to me.  Costa Rica is said to be beautiful, democratic and peaceful.  The visiting American I mentioned had described a friend who had great luck with dentistry in Costa Rica.

Because health care costs have become so absurdly high in the US and,  the HMO alternative so unusable; the idea of combining tours to interesting and beautiful places while saving the cost of the trip is, indeed, a viable alternative for those who like to travel.

“A dentist with silver forceps and a necklace of large teeth, extracting the tooth of a seated man.”  Medieval print courtesy of commons.wikipedia.com.

Yahoo today reported on a newly proven link between male sexual hormone levels (testosterone strikes again) and market risk taking and success in financial markets.  This British study from Cambridge shows that elevated levels of testosterone in male traders boosts aggressivity and risk-taking and often supports success in the market.

Photo © Howard Dratch, 2006.

However, a continued hormonal rush finally backfires causing irrational risk-taking and behaviors that eventually compromise the success factor.  Those men with high testosterone in the mornings were “more likely” to make a financial gain during the day.

The second hormone involved — cortisol — is considered linked to “uncertainty, novelty and unpredictability” which, the researchers pointed out was “pretty much” what traders needed to be.

One comment was that the markets needed more women and old men to temper the excesses and irrationality of the financial alpha males.

The conclusions of the researchers were that:

“Cortisol is likely, therefore, to rise in a market crash and, by increasing risk aversion, to exaggerate the market’s downward movement. Testosterone, on the other hand, is likely to rise in a bubble and, by increasing risk taking, to exaggerate the market’s upward movement.”

And that, Coates and Herbert wrote, “may help explain why people caught in bubbles and crashes often find it difficult to make rational choices.”

The Times ran an interesting piece on another form of solar energy for the coming fossil fuel crisis — solar thermal power. Mirror farms focus desert sunlight onto pipes or towers that contain a liquid. The heated liquid powers a generator to produce electricity. Not new and not without its own dangers; but fascinating.

Check out their story about “Turning Glare Into Watts”.

This article in the New York Times last week caught not my heart but the strings of my stomach. Here in the hot and steamy tropics in summer the kitchen becomes its own oven. The choice is often between what I would like to eat and how much heat I can stand in the house. The air conditioner helps but electricity is very expensive in a country that maintains its state monopolies and the house very large.

The Times to the rescue with an article by Mark Bittman on 18 July titled, “Summer Express: 101 Simple Meals Ready in 10 Minutes or Less.”
Some sound as if they would be excellent, light, cool and quick. Many are not appropriate for those who, like me, suffer intense cardiac problems. Some can be easily modified to meet my strict health requirements. From those 101 the seeds of tasty thoughts come. Rather than following them they will be added to the memory cells to be called up on hot nights when the hunger has me.

As Mr. Bittman points out, “The trouble is that when it’s too hot, even the most resourceful cook
has a hard time remembering all the options. So here are 101
substantial main courses, all of which get you in and out of the
kitchen in 10 minutes or less.”

Surf on over to the Times and check some of these out before you put them into your recipe software or the natural software in your brain just behind the taste buds.

22 Make wraps of tuna, warm white beans, a drizzle of olive oil and lettuce and tomato.43 Migas, with egg: Sauté chopped stale bread with olive oil, mushrooms, onions and spinach. Stir in a couple of eggs.

45 Sauté shredded zucchini in olive oil, adding garlic and chopped herbs. Serve over pasta. (This one could happen tonight since I have a zucchini, always have garlic and a few dried and fresh herbs. It is Mexico so some onion and dried chile de arbol — cayenne — will make it mine.)

There are some that cannot be made on the edge of the jungle in a Mexican village. This one is pure New York and not possible here: “69 Buy good blintzes. Brown them on both sides in butter. Serve with sour cream, apple sauce or both.” “Buy some what? And serve with cream that has gone bad!” There is also one for bagels and salmon.

Technorati Tags: Food, Summer Meals, Recipes, Cooking

Earth has been hit and is constantly at risk of attack by interlopers from space. These are called “near earth objects” (NEOs). Major players are asteroids. Most burn harmlessly during their trip through the atmosphere. However, just as in the intensely mediocre films, Armageddon and Deep Impact, there is more than a zero chance that a large one will threaten earth in the near future.

Quietly in the background of our already nervous world, scientists have been making plans for how to prevent a catastrophe whether or not Bruce Willis is available. NASA recently presented its report to Congress. More recently Rusty (Russell) Schweickart, lashed out at NASA for a recent study on the threat from NEOs (Near Earth Objects) impacting our planet. Schweickart was the lunar module pilot for Apollo 9. He is now Chairman of the B612 Foundation and a member of the Association of Space Explorers (ASE) where he is on the Committee on Near Earth Objects.

B612 is a group of astronomers, astronauts and scientific specialists who have dedicated time to working on methods to deflect the orbit of asteroids in order to prevent another catastrophic “event” like the 1908 Tunguska explosion which has been shown to have been caused by a 45-50 meter diameter asteroid exploding in Siberia. It destroyed 2000 square kilometers of Siberian forest “… and maybe a few reindeer.” Schweickart noted that, “Had it hit a couple of hours later it might have wiped out London or Moscow…”

Both groups call for early warning detection systems, “deflection capability”, and an ability to coordinate the responses internationally. The possibilities of such an impact are becoming less as time goes on. Partly because we are now cataloging the objects that present possibly dangerous trajectories.

By 2019, he said, there will be more than 10,000 objects “…with a non-zero probability of impacting Earth.” “A non-zero probability.” What great euphemisms scientists can invent!

At this time, we were warned, there is no one and no agency of the U.S. government or of any other on the planet that is responsible for dealing with the potential threat nor for developing “Mission Rules” for the deflection of NEOs.

In true astronaut-geek speak Schweickart warned that there is “… the possibility-in an evolutionary sense-of a Control-Alt-Delete; a reboot of the evolutionary system that has already occurred many times on Earth.”

“If we do our homework right, never again should an asteroid that can do damage on the ground and impact the Earth,” Schweickart suggested. “We’re living at a time — with our technology — we have the capability to eliminate this major shaper of evolution - the evolution of life on this planet.”

The “Tunguska Event” was the catastrophe in Siberia that is now accepted as the explosion of an asteroid above Tunguska in deserted Siberia in June, 1908. The 100th anniversary is next year. Start planning your Chicken Little parties early.

It was early morning 30 June, 1908. Witnesses, of which there were few, recalled in recently translated testimony that they saw a fireball falling from the sky as far as 110 miles away. Seismic recordings were made 600 miles away and 40 miles from the event people were knocked down or knocked into unconsciousness. The closest witnesses were “reindeer herders” about 20 miles away who were blown out of their tents into the air. “Everything around was shrouded in smoke and fog from the burning fallen trees,” said one witness. Another man was blown into a tree and died later according to a report by the Planetary Science Institute. Russian scientists interviewed people from the Vanavara Trading Post. One translated account included, “I saw the sky in the north open to the ground and fire poured out. The fire was brighter than the sun. We were terrified, but the sky closed again and immediately afterward, bangs like gunshots were heard. We thought stones were falling… I ran with my head down and covered, because I was afraid stones may fall on it.”

Since the object, now believed to have been a meteorite of about 30 meters (98 feet) traveling at 15 km per second (9.3 miles per second), exploded before impact; there is no crater. A scientific group in 1993 studied the records and were later corroborated when Russian scientists found rocks of the same composition as “common stone meteorites” blasted into trees at the site. It was the kind of Earth-altering event that is thought to happen relatively often in planetary time.

In the 1990s a military satellite detected an explosion in the Pacific. In 1972 a 1000-ton rock skimmed the atmosphere over the Grand Tetons and was thrown back into space. It was visible enough to be photographed by tourists (and recorded by satellites). Had it struck it would have caused an explosion in Canada roughly the force of Hiroshima.

About 20,000 years ago a 100 meter object hit in Arizona causing the “Arizona Meteor Crater” (open to tourists) and the famous dinosaur-killer of 65 million years ago is thought to have been 10 kilometers across (6.2 miles). It hit in the Gulf of Mexico and Yucatan Peninsula according to geological studies.

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There is a new campaign to bring canines to the depressive front. The “Support Partners: Canine Companions” is a new program trying to form networks that would include dogs into the recovery process for the depressed. It is sponsored by the Psychiatric Service Dog Society. “Woof. Cheer up,” said the psychiatric dog and licked his master’s face. “Woof.” Move over, Freud and Jung.

According to this group and Dr. Rakesh Jain of the Clinical Research Center in Lake Jackson, Texas, “While a doctor, family and friends should form the basis of any support network, dogs can play an important role by being a constant companion. They can help reduce these emotional symptoms, while possibly helping other symptoms, like fatigue or lack of energy, with daily walks.”

The benefits of having a dog, according to some health-care professionals, is that pet owners overwhelmingly thing that their pets are “extremely important” to them when they are feeling sadness, loneliness and depression. Dogs are much like the clichè that comes to mind, a “best friend” — empathetic, receptive and demonstrative in their affection.

Half of pet lovers think that their pets make a difference in their lives in a positive and healthy manner — exercise and companionship were mentioned most often. “Talking to dogs” is part of achieving greater physical and mental health in their lives, they thought.

“Support Partners: Canine Companions is the newest component of the Support Partners program, a national educational campaign dedicated to people with depression and to those who care about them. Co-sponsored by the National Women’s Health Resource Center (NWHRC), the Support Partners program aims to open the lines of communication about the illness and encourages a support- team approach to overcoming depression. Support Partners offers three guidebooks that provide tips for people with depression, and those who care about them, on how to form a support network. Copies of the guidebooks can be obtained by visiting Support Partners Program .”

My body- and house- guard has been pushing me to get a dog for some time to help with the guarding of the grounds.  He suggests Pit Bulls which, being wary to terrified of large or mean dogs, is not to be my choice. I might need two dogs. One to guard and rip out the throats of bad guys and another to lick my face and listen to my rants. Of course the first person whose throat will be ripped out by a guard dog is me.  I might go for a large cat like this one I was behind in Chetumal.

Cats are nice. This one could give a fine purr and would probably be overjoyed to live somewhere homey. This one might not only protect the house from bad guys but even gobble up what was left of them and clean itself.  Chase pests and lizards, too.  (Click on the thumbnail to enlarge the photo.)

Do also note my post on my blog, Lizard Stew, linking to a study on how impotence in otherwise healthy men can predict arterial and cardiac problems to come.

She did it.

Atlantis lifted-off at 7:38:04PM on 8 June as scheduled and docked with the International Space Station.

Visit NASA for more information, NASA-TV and other stories of interest to space and technology enthusiasts.

NASA briefed journalists yesterday 1 June about both the activities of the Expedition 15 crew who are residents of the International Space Station and the schedule for Atlantis’ lift-off on 8 June. In these days when shuttle missions are sort-of routine. “Beam me up Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin” says the Atlantis mission commander, Rick Sturckow, a Marine colonel to the ISS’ Russian commander. It is pretty normal fare these days after Atlantis has flown 28 times out of 118 shuttle missions.

Somehow this press conference caught my imagination more than usual. Not as much as, back in the 1950s, a pal’s father took us camping on Cocoa Beach to watch a long-ago lift-off before there was a race to the moon or giant Titan rockets. We had fun. It got to T minus 20 and stayed there. It didn’t happen. Those were more primitive days. Today the shuttle is on its way out and it doesn’t create the same rapt awe as once it did– even for another night lift-off. My new Macbook Pro probably has as much power and speed as those late 50’s days of flying into the unknown on a controlled explosion and a prayer.

We also hadn’t been entertained or, perhaps, saddened to find our astronaut’s were not larger-than-life, the only remainders of the mythic heroes like Armstrong, Shackleton, Hillary or Lindbergh. They had jealousies and loves and even shared insanity with the rest of us. Welcome to the human race, guys and dolls.

So we now have a new situation, perhaps a new respect for the men and women who are launched (some have spoken of “riding the rocket”) heavenward to face an immensity of space, a different level of reality where the face of the infinite must make even the most uptight and shipshape of them explode with wonder. They must come back changed at least a little.

The shuttle herself has taken on the mantle of the experienced old lady of space. Maybe a little ill-at-ease locked onto the Earth and immobile after the relative freedom of low-earth orbit. She was getting ready for her launch back in March when hail damaged her nose, tore away some heat shields and sent her scooting (2 mph, I believe) back to the NASA-sized hangar for her nose job.

She’s back. And she wants to fly.

This mission romantically referred to as “STS-117″ by NASA plans to keep working on the construction of the ISP just as have the last two missions. This one is to use what has been learned on previous flights to install new solar collectors and pull in an older one.

There will be a crew of seven who will do three spacewalks (EVAs). Atlantis will “deliver and install” a 17.5 ton truss system to the starboard side of the station. The truss is embedded with photo-voltaic cells for increasing power to the station to help with the international science modules planned during the coming two years.

They will also pick up a hitchhiking woman hanging out at the space station. Doesn’t that sound like the other 2001, the better version of life by Stanley Kubrick. 2001 had a space Hilton or Howard Johnson’s (I’ve forgotten which was plugged) and an anti-septic crew stopping by on their way to Nirvana. This time Astronaut Sunita L. Williams will be given a lift home after staying at the space station since December, 2006 when she arrived on STS-116. This was her first mission on the station although she already held the record for “extravehicular activity time” (spacewalks) on previous shuttle missions. She was alone alone, as it must feel like with the Earth below, for 29 hours 17 minutes during 4 spacewalks. When she gets back she will have been in space more than any woman has before. (more…)

Remember the galaxy in a jeweled cat collar in Men In Black? They remind me of each other. The Hubble Heritage Team (credit to A. Zezas & J. Huchra from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics) has shot the “sharpest image ever taken of the large “grand design” spiral galaxy M81″.

The picture of which they are justifiably proud was made from data assembled from 2004 through 2006. Astro-photography obviously does not base itself on 1/60th of a second. The composite image was made from blue, visible and infrared-sensitive images.

M81 is similar to our own Milky Way which gives us a chance to see the architecture of a spiral galaxy like our own. It may be 11.6 million light-years distant but it is tilted obliquely to Earth which allows for a good view. It is a bright galaxy from earth — one of the brightest with a magnitude of 6.8. The magnitude implies that it might be able to be seen by the naked eye. It is on the edge.

There are spiral arms made of younger stars of bluish hue. These are hot orbs that are only some few million years old. Hubble has become so sharp that it is able to see individual stars even at almost 12 million light-years (time traveling, we see what was a scant 12 million years ago). It can make out dust clouds of fluorescent gas and star clusters as well.

The “central bulge” of M81 is made of older stars, redder stars and is “significantly larger than the Milky Way’s bulge”. When I publish this

there could be a rash of spam aimed at increasing the size of your “central bulge”. But we will know that we can’t compete with M81.

It even has a bigger black hole at its center than our home galaxy. Fifteen times larger in mass. Hubble scientists had shown in the past that the size of the black hole is directly proportional to the size of the central bulge.

Scientists have also decided to study further the theory that the spiral arms are giving birth to a flood of new stars because M81 had a “close encounter” with another spiral galaxy (NGC3077) and a starburst galaxy (M82) about 300 million years ago

Hubble, the Space Telescope, is a cooperative venture of NASA and ESA (the European Space Agency).
Visit their sites and NASA for a lot more information on the contributions of the orbiting telescope and the way in which the information was collected.