Smith: Temple's Gateway to the West

Our first attempt at Adobe InDesign. (OK, we'll get better.)

The Gateway Arch in St. Louis represents the city known as the Gateway to the West.
Move that about 300 miles to the Northeast and put it in Pittsburgh for Temple's purposes.
Former Gateway head coach Terry Smith is proving to be one of Matt Rhule's most productive hires so far.
Look at the list of the six "hard" verbals so far and it is peppered with Smith's Pittsburgh-area ties.
Today is a good day to talk about those ties for two reasons:
Scout.com is reporting today that Lenny Williams, Sto-Rox's outstanding dual-purpose quarterback, is about to commit to Temple and the Owls are coming off their first-ever camp held in the Pittsburgh area this weekend..
That would be great news because Williams would be the Owls' most high-profile recruit out of the Pittsburgh area since Victor Lay signed out of Aliquippa. (Adam DiMichele, also from Sto-Rox, would have qualified but he was technically a Penn State recruit and a transfer from a Florida JC.)

The website 247.com's list of hard Temple verbals.

As a senior at Sto-Rox, DiMichele threw for nearly 3,000 yards and 36 touchdown passes.
Thirty-six TD passes.
By comparison, recent Temple recruits Chester Stewart (DeMatha, Md.) and Vaughn Charlton (Avon Grove, Pa.) had 17 and nine touchdown passes during their senior years.
We'll see what kind of numbers Lenny Williams puts up in the TD-throwing department his senior year, but I'm willing to bet it'll be closer to 36 than 17.
Williams would be the fourth Temple verbal from the Pittsburgh area this season, joining the Gateway duo of Delvon Randall (safety) and interior linebacker Brenon Thrift and Renaissance Christian Academy athlete Troy Simons.
Smith, DiMichele and Rhule all were in Pittsburgh this weekend, spreading the Temple gospel.
Evidently, they found a few believers and that can only be good news for Temple fans going forward.

Announcement: Alan Aragon's Research Review Article

I'm proud to announce that I was asked to contribute an article to the April/May 2013 edition of Alan Aragon's Research Review.   

Type 2 Diabetes:  Insulin Resistance or Insulin Deficiency?

Yes, it's for subscribers only, so if you're not one already, there's no time like the present to sign up!  Alan Aragon's Research Review

{BTW, between working on the rather lengthy article and a print interview and suffering some devastating word processor crashes, I've been a bit more sparse than usual answering comments, etc.  Please don't take it personally if I didn't respond, I'm going to try to go back through the past week when I get a chance and check if I missed anything.}

GCBC Reference Check ~ Part VIII of ? ~ The Paleo Diet

Preface:  When I first read GCBC some time in 2009, I skimmed over the parts that were irrelevant to my issues with the book, which were on the basis of Taubes' misrepresentations of metabolism and obesity, etc.  In the intervening years I've gone back and read large chunks of it in more detail, but if I ever read the parts about the Paleolithic, I didn't take much note at the time because the names were not familiar to me.  

I've always found it odd how Taubes was described as paleo in some circles, his book is even cited on an infographic listing 10 years of paleo literature!  Aside from calling out refined carbs and sugar quite a bit, Taubes doesn't really make much of a deal about quality of foods, especially fats.  (Shhhhhh, don't tell the paleo peeps, but peanut oil is listed as an "especially healthy" oil in WWGF - Kindle Locations 3423-3424)

Read more »

Want to help a hospital go bankrupt? Get a bad EHR - Westchester hospitals' sale price over $54 million, Hospitals' debt about $200M

- Posted at the Healthcare Renewal Blog on June 3, 2013 - 

Sound Shore Medical Center (New Rochelle, NY) is filing for bankruptcy protection:

Montefiore Medical Center is offering to buy Sound Shore Health System for $54 million plus furniture and equipment, according to the latter’s bankruptcy filing — which also reveals just how far the troubled Westchester health network had fallen into the red.

Sound Shore Medical Center in New Rochelle, Mount Vernon Hospital and five related entities have about $200 million in debts owed to more than 3,000 creditors, while possessing only $159.6 million in assets, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court documents show. Sound Shore filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Wednesday as the first step in discharging its debts and selling itself to the Montefiore system.

Why were they in the red?

You can read the full article "Westchester hospitals' sale price over $54 million; Hospitals' debt about $200M" in The Journal News for yourself at this link: http://www.lohud.com/article/20130530/NEWS/305300081/Westchester-hospitals-sale-price-over-54-million?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|News&gcheck=1, but there's this interesting passage:

... Beginning in 2006, the hospitals saw falling patient volume and a change in their case mix. That led to “significant” losses in recent years, negative cash book balances and bills paid more than 225 days late. A 2011 electronic medical record and billing system conversion caused major delays in billing and cash collection that still haven’t been fully solved.

(This passage has a familiar ring to it; e.g., see SEC Count 9 at "Florida Hospital gets an 'F' on Informatics" at  http://www.ischool.drexel.edu/faculty/ssilverstein/cases/?loc=cases&sloc=miami.)

A 2011 EHR and billing conversion?  It's now 2013.

How many hospital IT personnel does it take to screw in implement a light bulb new EHR?

-- SS

Pengaruh Musik Pada Anak

Penelitian membuktikan bahwa musik, terutama musik klasik sangat mempengaruhi perkembangan IQ (Intelegent Quotien) dan EQ (Emotional Quotien). Seorang anak yang sejak kecil terbiasa mendengarkan musik akan lebih berkembang kecerdasan emosional dan intelegensinya dibandingkan dengan anak yang jarang mendengarkan musik. Yang dimaksud musik di sini adalah musik yang memiliki irama teratur dan nada-nada yang teratur, bukan nada-nada "miring". Tingkat kedisiplinan anak yang sering mendengarkan musik juga lebih baik dibanding dengan anak yang jarang mendengarkan musik. 

Grace Sudargo, seorang musisi dan pendidik mengatakan, "Dasar-dasar musik klasik secara umum berasal dari ritme denyut nadi manusia sehingga ia berperan besar dalam perkembangan otak, pembentukan jiwa, karakter, bahkan raga manusia". 

Penelitian menunjukkan, musik klasik yang mengandung komposisi nada berfluktuasi antara nada tinggi dan nada rendah akan merangsang kuadran C pada otak. Sampai usia 4 tahun, kuadran B dan C pada otak anak-anak akan berkembang hingga 80 % dengan musik. 

"Musik sangat mempengaruhi kehidupan manusia. Musik memiliki 3 bagian penting yaitu beat, ritme, dan harmony", demikian kata Ev. Andreas Christanday dalam suatu ceramah musik. "Beat mempengaruhi tubuh, ritme mempengaruhi jiwa, sedangkan harmony mempengaruhi roh". Contoh paling nyata bahwa beat sangat mempengaruhi tubuh adalah dalam konser musik rock. Bisa dipastikan tidak ada penonton maupun pemain dalam konser musik rock yang tubuhnya tidak bergerak. Semuanya bergoyang dengan dahsyat, bahkan cenderung lepas kontrol. Kita masih ingat dengan "head banger", suatu gerakan memutar-mutar kepala mengikuti irama music rock yang kencang. Dan tubuh itu mengikutinya seakan tanpa rasa lelah. Jika hati kita sedang susah, cobalah mendengarkan musik yang indah, yang memiliki irama (ritme) yang teratur. Perasaan kita akan lebih enak dan enteng. Bahkan di luar negeri, pihak rumah sakit banyak memperdengarkan lagu-lagu indah untuk membantu penyembuhan para pasiennya. Itu suatu bukti, bahwa ritme sangat mempengaruhi jiwa manusia. Sedangkan harmony sangat mempengaruhi roh. Jika kita menonton film horor, selalu terdengar harmony (melodi) yang menyayat hati, yang membuat bulu kuduk kita berdiri. Dalam ritual-ritual keagamaan juga banyak digunakan harmony yang membawa roh manusia masuk ke dalam alam penyembahan. Di dalam meditasi, manusia mendengar harmony dari suara-suara alam disekelilingnya. "Musik yang baik bagi kehidupan manusia adalah musik yang seimbang antara beat, ritme, dan harmony", ujar Ev. Andreas Christanday. 

Seorang ahli biofisika telah melakukan suatu percobaan tentang pengaruh musik bagi kehidupan makhluk hidup. Dua tanaman dari jenis dan umur yang sama diletakkan pada tempat yang berbeda. Yang satu diletakkan dekat dengan pengeras suara (speaker) yang menyajikan lagu-lagu slow rock dan heavy rock, sedangkan tanaman yang lain diletakkan dekat dengan speaker yang memperdengarkan lagu-lagu yang indah dan berirama teratur. Dalam beberapa hari terjadi perbedaan yang sangat mencolok. Tanaman yang berada di dekat speaker lagu-lagu rock menjadi layu dan mati, sedangkan tanaman yang berada di dekat speaker lagu-lagu indah tumbuh segar dan berbunga. Suatu bukti nyata bahwa musik sangat mempengaruhi kehidupan makhluk hidup. 

Alam semesta tercipta dengan musik alam yang sangat indah. Gemuruh ombak di laut, deru angin di gunung, dan rintik hujan merupakan musik alam yang sangat indah. Dan sudah terbukti, bagaimana pengaruh musik alam itu bagi kehidupan manusia.