Berry Picking in New Hampshire

The Coffin Was Too Confining

With all the vampire craze going on, I thought it would be appropriate to find a story on Anne Rice, known for writing "Interview with a Vampire" amongst other seemingly gothic novels. Her life has changed since the death of her husband of 41 years. After his death, Rice moved out of New Orleans to San Diego. Though, the biggest change is in her writing from blood thirsty vampires to a series of books on the life of Jesus Christ.

This article warrants for being a great example of a feature article. According to Roy Peter Clark a feature story should "illuminate lives lived in our time", "take advantage of expanded set of language and narrative strategies," and have the foundation of being a "human interest" story. This story hits upon all of those points. Here's a link to "The Coffin Was Too Confining," from the New York Times.

Spanish Movies

I admit, I'm ignorant to the world of Spanish cinema. I've scratched the surface watching the few movies redone for an American audience, but I've never explored the movies that show the authentic and sometimes darker side of Mexico. I wanted to hear the voices of those less frequently heard.

Last weekend, I was at the beach with my friend Evan. His wife, Liliana is a native of Tijuana. She wrote a list of her favorite movies. I watched a couple of films to see what influenced her while growing up. Needless to say, I understand a little bit of what I've been missing.

Liliana's List

1. Todo sobre mi madre
2. Lucia y el sexo
3. El espiazo del diablo
4. Entre los piernas
5. Huevos de oro
6. Kika
7. La mala educacion
8. Hable con ella
9. Tacones lejanos
10. Martin "H"
11. Todo el peder
12. Atame
13. Los amantes del circulo polar
14. Como aqua para chocolate

Nikola Tesla

It's his birthday. In the most unassuming neighborhood of Belgrade lies a gem of a museum filled with Nikola Tesla's discoveries. Reconstructing his experiments with electromagnetism must have been a difficult task, but the folks at this museum have done a job well done.

Sitting in the back of museum, is a golden urn the size of a bowling ball. How did they get his ashes in there? Much respect to Tesla for leaving us with a mystery from the grave.

Betty Cini lost her sheepdog, Angie, on the Fourth of July ten years ago. “We were outside and she was with us. Some of the neighbors shot off fireworks and she took off running and we never saw her again,” Cini said. “My beautiful little sheepdog, she was a great dog.”

Fireworks are a staple to most Fourth of July celebrations, but some dogs are sensitive to noises and can respond with fear to sounds such as thunder or fireworks. Loud, unfamiliar noises can cause panic, which can lead to serious injuries.

More dogs run away on Fourth of July than any other time of the year.

“Dogs are individuals and have individual reactions to noises,” said Dr. Julia Albright from the animal behavioral clinic at Cornell University. “Some dogs seem completely unaffected, whereas others, the slightest pin drop sends them into a tail spin.”

The anxiety caused by fireworks is acutely physical. Several studies have indicated that dogs may respond mildly to loud noises with symptoms like excessive panting, barking, drooling and trembling. More severe responses include destroying drywall, damaging windows, and other destructive ways to find routes of escape.

“My dog is especially sensitive to fireworks,” said dog owner, Ashley Gerrison, 27, a sales associate from San Francisco. “He gets really clingy and this is even when the fireworks are from miles down the road.”

According to animal behavioral experts, dogs can hear ten times better than humans. However, anxiety doesn’t have to be caused by loud noises. “I once treated a dog for thunderstorm and noise phobia who had never shown anxiety until a tree fell on the family house during a storm,” said Dr. Albright.

Dr. Ilana Reisner, assistant professor of behavioral medicine, at The University of Pennsylvania’s School of Veterinary Medicine Dogs said that some dogs appear to develop a worsening fear over time that eventually is characterized as a phobia.

A study of thirty dogs that showed signs of fear in response to fireworks came out of Animal Behaviour, Cognition and Welfare Group, University of Lincoln in England. G. Sheppard, One of the leading researchers in the study wanted to see if an appealing dog pheromone would alleviate their fear of loud noises. The owners said that their dogs showed significant improvements in most behavioral signs of fear. Although this is an effective way of dealing with fear, the FDA has not approved it for sale in the United States.

There are some precautions owners can follow to keep dogs safe. “Having a good solid fence at least five feet tall will decrease the probability of the dog escaping during a panic attack,” said Dr. Albright. “As veterinary behaviorists, we use medications and behavior modification to decrease noise and thunderstorm phobia.”

"Together with the right precautions and treatment," Dr. Albright said, “the dogs will learn how to stay in the situation and not let anxiety overtake them."

The Mad Ones

I've been away the last two weekends and now I could use some me time. I find little can be as fulfilling as getting lost in a new book. With school and work, late hours offer prime reading time. I read for an escape, relishing the stories of others; the life of revolutionary mobsters living in Brooklyn is my new fit.

The Mad Ones explores low level mafiosos the Gallo brothers serving their Don while being inspired by the counterculture of Greenwich Village.

Here's a clip of the author Tom Folsom:

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Left-handed people have long put up with the challenges presented by a right-handed world, but now a new study has found that left-handed people die younger than their right-handed counterparts.

Researchers from California States University and the University of British Columbia found that right-handed females live six years longer and right-handed males live 11 years longer than left-handed people.

“The results are striking in their magnitude,” said Diane Halpern, a psychology professor at California State University at San Bernardino who was one of the principal researchers.

The study is the first trial large enough to accurately assess why there are fewer left-handed people among the elderly population than right-handed. The research also concluded that left-handed people were four times more likely to die from injuries while driving than right-handers and six times more likely to die from accidents.

“Almost all engineering is geared to the right hand and right foot,” Halpern said. “There are many more car and other accidents among left-handers because of their environment.”

Peg Simmons, 29, a graduate student in English at New York University said, “These are important studies to have out because it might actually make automotive companies make cars more user friendly for left-handers. We will see how the study changes anything.”

For the trial, Diane Halpern and Stanley Coren, a researcher at the University of British Columbia, looked at death certificates of 987 people in two Southern California counties. Relatives of the deceased were queried by mail about the subjects’ dominant hand.

“We knew for years that there weren’t as many old left-handers,” Halpern said. “Researchers thought that was because in the early years of the century, most people born left-handed were forced to change to their right hands. So we thought we were looking at old people who used to be left-handed, but we weren’t. The truth was that there simply weren’t many left-handers left alive, compared to right-handers.”

The study was conducted last year and appears in last Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine.

"Some of my best friends are left-handed,” Although previous left-handed studies have been conducted on whether there was a gene that determined what hand a baby would be born with, the results of these studies have produced mixed results. “It’s important that mothers of left-handed children not be alarmed and not try to change which hand a child uses,” she said, “There are many, many old left-handed people.”

For some, being left-handed isn’t a problem. Josh Freeland, 28, a left-handed trader from New York City said “Outside of not being able to find left-handed baseball gloves and having to reverse notebooks around, I can't think of too many problems that I've encountered.”

Left-handed women die around age 72; right-handed women die around age 78. Left-handed men die about age 62, right-handed men die about age 73. Halpern said her study should be interpreted cautiously. “It should not, of course, be used to predict the life span of any one individual. It does not take into account the fitness of any individual.”

“Being a lefty really does not worry me. I eat right, exercise, and I am an alert driver,” said Simon Rodriquez, 28, a San Francisco based freelance writer, “There are far worse things to be than left handed. I’m glad that’s all that is wrong with me.”