Lofty Matters

I just read about a new Google service at VentureBeat that is definitely worth a closer look.

Of concern are privacy issues, as you might imagine. As VentureBeat points out, third party systems are not regulated by medical privacy laws. This may open the door to some unethical activity, although Google pledges that they will not betray the trust of their customers.

The official update from VentureBeat is that Google Health will likely be launched “in coming months,” but not now. Should be interesting!

The colors of Mercury are subtle but beautiful. At first glance, the innermost planet appears simply colorless, but images that include infrared colors normally beyond human vision accent much detail. Many craters that appear on top of other craters appear here as bright with bright rays that include a slightly blue tint.

I have been without a good watch for several months. As our family schedules begin to switch into high gear now that the weather is getting warmer, I need to find a watch to keep me on top of the time.

Perhaps I should take a look at some of these Seiko Watches. They are affordable and attractive as well.

I prefer analog to digital. I also wear more gold than silver, so I need a gold watch. Something like this gold watch is exactly like what I would wear on my wrist daily. Hey – my birthday is soon. Perfect!

It could be stated that Americans have become too cynical to expect much truth in what they read, hear, or watch.

Several recent events have brought to light the decay of integrity around us.

The US Army just confirmed that thousands of soldiers have been cheating on online tests for promotions. Consequently, it will have to spend millions of dollars to revise these correspondence courses.

The British magazine Nature recently reported that a new scanning program they are using has identified 76 cases of outright plagiarism among professors (not students) of biomedicine. Consequently, the study’s entire database of articles is now on a public website for peer review.

There is evidence that people do still care about integrity, however.

Antiplagiarism software is growing in popularity. Ethics courses abound in business schools and character education is popular in classrooms. How about those “truth boxes” published by the media that find mischaracterizations and even campaign fibs? There have also been firings for bogus credentials in academia and business reported in recent years.

Bottom line – both as individuals and a society as a whole, we lose our bearings and our foundation when we compromise on truth.

If you eat [tag-tec]oysters[/tag-tec], are you careful? Did you know that seafood that lives in some waters can be especially dangerous if not eaten carefully? Gulf oysters are one such mollusk that must be prepared carefully or you risk illness.

Have you heard of Vibrio vulnificus? If not and you are an oyster eater, then you need to visit the BeOysterAware website. Vibrio vulnificus is a gram-negative bacterium that occurs naturally in warm, unpolluted seawater. Levels of Vibrio vulnificus are positively correlated with seawater temperature, and warmer water temperatures are linked to an increase in Vibrio vulnificus related illnesses.

Becoming ill with Vibrio vulnificus comes from the direct consumption of raw, undercooked or non-depurated seafood (finfish, crustaceans, and mollusks) and exposure of wounds to contaminated seawater. Although Vibrio vulnificus related infections are treatable with antibiotics, without prompt medical attention you can become very sick.

Oysters are sedentary bivalve mollusks that eat by filtering plankton from estuarine water. Because Vibrio vulnificus occurs naturally in the same waters that oysters feed, the bacteria is ingested and becomes concentrated in the animal?s tissues. Then when people ingest oysters, there is a risk of becoming infected with Vibrio vulnificus.

If you eat oysters, please do so carefully and make sure that they are prepared according to recommended specifications.