Tuesday, May 31, 2011

A movie from Kathryn

  This is a movie Kathryn and her classmates made about English- conjunctions and OMG are they smart. I don't think I ever knew any of this stuff also I was unsure that it was Kat in the movie she has matured and her voice has changed. She is another genious in this family!

A Great Night in New York

So many things have happened since my last Blog. Gary and I took a trip to New York City a fraternity brother of Gary's was able to get us tickets to a play entitled Knute Rockne it was on Broadway. The theater seating was “in the round” our seats were in the second row it felt as if we were on the stage with the actors. Gary had picked a restaurant for an early dinner which turned out to be just a walk-through from the theater. We parked right at the theater so the evening could not have been better planned. We had a delicious Italian meal after dinner we made our way to the play. After the play we were able to meet the actors then by chance the director and producer. Dan Lauria the lead in the play (he also played the Father in “The Wonder Year- long running TV show) met up with Gary’s frat brother; they were in the military together. After the show everyone walked down to an after play Irish Tavern where many of the cast sang it was great fun.

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Healing the Hurt

Healing the Hurt

News Story About Depression

REUTERS


"Genetic Link To Depression

Scientists say they have discovered the first solid evidence that variations in some peoples' genes may cause depression -- one of the world's most common and costly mental illnesses.

And in a rare occurrence in genetic research, a British-led international team's finding of a DNA region linked to depression has been replicated by another team from the United States who were studying an entirely separate group of people.

"What's remarkable is that both groups found exactly the same region in two separate studies," Pamela Madden, who led the U.S. team at Washington University, said in a statement.

The researchers said they hoped the findings would bring scientists closer to developing more effective treatments for patients with depression, since currently available medicines for depression only work in around half of patients.

"These findings ... will help us track down specific genes that are altered in people with this disease," said Gerome Breen of King's College London's Institute of Psychiatry, who led the other research group.

The researchers said they believed many genes were involved in depression

These findings are unlikely to benefit patients immediately, with any new drugs developed from them likely to take another 10 to 15 years. However, they will help scientists understand what may be happening at the genetic and molecular levels in people with depression.

The first study analyzed more 800 families with recurrent depression, while the second examined depression and heavy smoking in a series of families from Australia and Finland.

Both studies were published in the American Journal of Psychiatry on Monday and both teams reported a strong link between depression and genetic variations in a region called chromosome 3p25-26.

"Normally in genetic studies of depression, replication of findings is very difficult and frequently takes years to emerge, if ever," said Breen, who gave a briefing in London about the work.

Major depression affects about 20 percent of people at some point in their lives. Severe and recurring depression affects up to 4 percent of people and is notoriously hard to treat.

The World Health Organization has forecast that depression will rival heart disease as the health disorder with the highest disease burden in the world by 2020.

According to a 2006 study, depression is responsible for 100 million lost working days a year in England and Wales alone at a cost of 9 billion pounds ($14.6 billion).

Studies of families with depression have indicated that the disorder has a genetic link and scientists think around 40 percent of the risk of developing it is contributed by genes, with the rest down to environmental and other external factors.

"We are just beginning to make our way through the maze of influences on depression and this is an important step toward understanding what may be happening at the genetic and molecular levels," Michele Pergadia, who worked on Washington University study, said in a statement about the findings.

Breen's team is now conducting detailed gene sequencing studies in 40 of the families involved in the first study to try to find specific genes and variations that show a link.

(Editing by Alison Williams)"

Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters.

Saturday, May 7, 2011

An interesting Spies tale

An article from the New York Times sent to me by my Mother-in-Law Madeline Spies a story from the SPIES side of the family... enjoy the read

"CHANGED HIS MIND AT THE GATE

"Inventor Peter Spies was to have sought reconciliation with his wife at the hour of noon.

Special to the New York Times
Mount Vernon New York December 6. It was noon by the village clock when Peter Spies, finishes his drink, banging his heavy mug down on the little table in the bar of the Railroad House on Railroad Street and turning to Christopher Ream, the Tavern keeper said:
“At noon you know, Chris my wife is to give me her final decision. I have told her I would call her at that time, and I must be off.”
“Luck to ye”, shouted Ream as Spies buttoned his overcoat and walked out.
Spies turned into Oaks Street and walked slowly up the hill.
In front of No. 61 the home of his wife, into which he was seeking readmission, he stopped and stood thoughtfully for a minute or two. Then he continued his walk up the hill to railroad station and went back to New York.
Since Friday of last week Spies has been calling almost daily, asking his wife to take him back into his home and her affections. She has steadfastly refused to do so, and on Thursday he told her he would call at noon today for the last time, if she did not accept him then.
Mrs. Spies a good-looking German woman and mother of eleven children eight of whom are living, says her husband, after eighteen years of marriage has not been true to her. Spies who is about forty years old is an electrician and an inventor.
Eighteen months ago he went to England to sell a patent arc light he had perfected. He remained there so long Mrs. Spies said yesterday that Mr. Paul Miller an old friend of the family went to England to try and persuade him to return to his wife and children. Spies promised to do so. “I'll take a fast steamer” Mrs. Spies said her husband told Miller and will get to New York before you do.
So Miller came back third-class. Spies was not at home then nor did he come, and a month later, on October 11 the wife leaving Miller in charge of the house and children except the baby sailed to join him. She said she did not find things there to her liking and tried to induce your husband to return with her.
Instead she said he disappeared and she returned you New York. Being without her husband’s support and with winter in front of her she planned to take in a few boarders.
To Paul Miller, a friend who had aided her she gave a suit of her husband's clothes, she having brought his trunks back from Liverpool with her. Miller became one of several boarders. Then a week ago yesterday Spies appeared, and finding the border there with his clothes on accused him of larceny, but Miller was discharged when arraigned in court. For this time Spies had tried to persuade his wife that he desired to return, that he loved her still.
“I told him”, said Mrs. Spies, “that he may have a room of his own in the house if you would provide for the children but he wouldn't room by himself, and I knew he did not love me and, in fact, he loved another and so would not consent
He came day after day but I told him I would not take him back. Then he said he would come for my answer today at noon.
“Yes I was here I told him it would be no use but just the same I did not go out of the house from 10:30 until 2, and he didn't come. My little boy said he saw his papa he was standing at the gate but he didn't come in.
“What would I have told him just what I told him? Just what I told him before I want him to provide for his children he ought to put $10,000 of the $75,000 he got for his invention in the bank for them, so they could have an education. I'm going to keep boarders and Frederick my oldest son who is 16 years old is going to work in a bakery Monday I guess will get along all right.
“Yes I do love him yet,”
Mrs. Spies’ says she does not care for a separation but just wants her husband to provide for the children."

Monday, May 2, 2011

Osama bin Laden is dead

It was late Sunday night, Gary and I had been watching videos of old shows I had taped so we did not see the LIVE television until after Gary went upstairs to get ready for bed. Then all of a sudden a banner came across a new break: Osama bin Laden is dead. What a rush it has been such a long time – it has been since 9/11 when we witnessed the destruction he planned for our country. I called up to Gary, “Osama bin Laden is dead, turn on the television. I didn’t know how to think or feel. You don’t want to be happy when someone is killed but he is the “mastermind” of one of the worst attacks on our, my country. You want to jump up and down, shoot guns, scream and holler but alas we are a civilized people so we or at least I could never rejoice in the death of anyone.
Another story that has me very upset appeared on 60 Minutes last night- The Lara Logan story
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/04/28/60minutes/main20058368.shtml?tag=contentMain;cbsCarousel

(CBS News)
"The night of Feb. 11, the Egyptian dictatorship of Hosni Mubarak was falling. More than 100,000 people filled Cairo's Tahrir Square in wild celebration. Among those in the crowd was our "60 Minutes" colleague, correspondent Lara Logan.
Lara, a native of South Africa, is an experienced war reporter, but Tahrir Square became her most hazardous assignment.
During the revolution, dozens of reporters were assaulted, often by agents of the regime. On the night of the 11th, a mob turned on Lara and her "60 Minutes" team and singled her out in a violent sexual assault…"