What is the Biggest Challenge for Leaders?

 The following is the second in a series of five questions and corresponding answers on leadership.  (See question #1: How to Motivate and Inspire Others? ) 2. What is the biggest challenge in leading an organization? Communication is the most important and most challenging task when leading an organization.    Leaders must communicate organizational goals and strategies, especially during difficult[…]

WolframAlpha: The Answer Engine

When I was studying mathematics at the University of Puget Sound in the early 1990s my professors were extremely excited about a newly purchased, and quite expensive software program called Mathematica.  There were only a few copies available to our department, but when I got my hands on one I immediately recognized the power of Mathematica as a[…]

Inspiring and Motivating Others

I was recently involved in a research project asking me to submit my views on leadership development.   The following is the first in a series of five questions and corresponding answers.  I found the exercise to be extremely useful and encourage you to come up with your own answers to these questions.  It will help you clarify[…]


National Nutrition Month Campaign

March is National Nutrition Month and it has been a process in the making at developing a campaign for such an important month to the professional of dietetics! As an intern, I have worked with the entire staff at the facility that I am rotating at currently at, and there are a number of events, activities, and education that we have planned for this month.

MyPlate March Madness:
– Employees register for a month-long MyPlate cornhole tournament and particpate during their lunch hour in the multipurpose room within the facility. The winner at the end of the month will receive a healthy cookbook and cooking tips as well!

West Virginia Ramps:
– Nutritional information, cultural background, cooking use, and growth information will be provided to clients, patients, and employees at the facility. I collaborated with another staff member at developing the content.

NNM 2014 Table Tents:
– I developed these table tents with the NNM 2014 logo as well as “Nutrition 101” questions and answers at the bottom of each side of the table tents. Then I put these on display in the facility’s public eating area for everyone to see! This gives this specific population a boost of nutrition knowledge all throughout the month!

March Mediterranean Lunch ‘n Learn:
– This event will incorporate cooking skills, food culture, and nutritional benefits-like heart health. I assisted in the development and implementation of the event and this will take place at the end of the month, as a 1-hour event in a multipurpose room within the facility as well. Participants will learn how to create easy, affordable, and creative appetizers, dips, and spreads. I’ll even give you a hint- kale chips will have a BIG role in this delicious event as well!

Pro-Stat Supplement

Pro-Stat is a nutritional supplement that I recently became familiar with at my MNT rotations. This supplement is used for patients who are having difficulties gaining weight or consuming energy, in general. This supplement delivers the highest concentration of protein and calories in the smallest serving size. It is ideal for patients with an increased need for protein, have a poor appetite, suffer from pressure ulcers, or who could be experiencing protein-energy malnutrition. Pro-Stat is a complete protein and contains all the essential amino acids while being easy to administer. There is no mixing required and I witnessed the supplement being used with a patient who was on a tube feeding. The patient didn’t seem to mind the supplement, which is rare. A large number of patients who are on tube feedings seem to be very particular about what supplements or formula they are consuming. So, it was to my surprise that the patient who we introduced this supplement to, actually seemed like he enjoyed the protein supplement. Plus, I think it helped that I explained to the patient why we were giving him the supplement and how it would help his health status too.

Nasogastric Tube Feedings

NG tube feeding has four distinct advantages:

·         Short-term (<4 weeks)

·         Most commonly used

·         Easiest to place (with a prior patient assessment)

·         Least expensive to administer

NG tube

Parenteral Nutrition

When a patient cannot eat any or enough food because of an illness or health complication, sometimes other forms of nutrition are required to assist the patient towards better health. The stomach or bowel may not be working normally, or a person may have had surgery to remove part or all of these organs. When this occurs, and a patient or client is unable to eat, nutrition must be supplied in a different way. One method that can be applied is Parenteral Nutrition.

Parenteral Nutrition bypasses the normal digestion in the stomach and bowel. It is a special liquid food mixture given into the blood through an intravenous (IV) catheter (needle in the vein). The mixture contains proteins, carbohydrates, lipids, vitamins and minerals. This special mixture may be called Parenteral Nutrition or Total Parenteral Nutrition (TPN).

A special IV catheter will be placed in a large vein in the chest or arm. It can stay in place for as long as needed. Proper care is required to avoid infection and clotting. Different kinds of catheters may be used. Common types of catheters are Peripherally Inserted Central Catheter (PICC), triple lumen, double lumen, or single lumen catheters, and Ports. Nutrition is given through this large vein. Coordinated care, consisting of doctors, nurses, RDs, and pharmacists, will talk with the patient about the different types of catheters prior to administering anything.

Prior to initiating TPN, a nutrition assessment is necessary to determine nutrient needs and to anticipate any metabolic changes that may occur due to the patient’s underlying condition, medications or concurrent therapies, etc. Important factors to consider when assessing a patient for TPN are:

·         Anthropometric Data: CBW, Wt Hx, IBW

·         Lab Values: Mg levels, Phosphorus levels, TG levels

·         Patient Medical History (PMH): Anatomy resections, ostomies, pre-existing conditions like diabetes or renal failure

·         Diet History: Diet prior to admission, Food/Drug Allergies

·         Medications: Current medications and supplements

TPN_All tube feedings

Modified Barium Swallowing Test

A Modified Barium Swallow (MBS) test is an X-ray that is taken to check the swallowing skills of a client or patient. I recently observed an MBS in a patient who has been cancer-free for nearly 10 years but, was aspirating when he swallowed certain foods and beverages. The MBS was carried out by a Speech Language Pathologist (SLP) at the facility that I’m rotating at currently. The SLP had previously worked with this patient and mentioned that he had developed fibrous tissue along his esophagus, caused by his radiation treatment several years earlier. This was her initial assessment of the patient’s swallowing problems.

Throughout the test, the mouth, throat, and esophagus are checked to see if there are any visible problems with a patient’s ability to swallow.  Before we began the test, the SLP and I put on protective lead vests and a thyroid collar. This was done to shield ourselves from the radiation used in the actual test.

Barium is actually a dry, white, chalky powder that is mixed with water to make thick, almost like the consistency of a milkshake. It is an X-ray absorber and appears white on X-ray film. When swallowed, a barium drink coats the inside walls of the pharynx and esophagus so that the swallowing motion, inside wall lining, and size and shape of these organs is visible on X-ray. This process shows differences that might not be seen on standard X-rays. Barium is used only for diagnostic studies of the GI tract. The use of barium with X-rays contributes to the visibility of various characteristics of the pharynx and esophagus. Some abnormalities of the pharynx and/or esophagus that may be detected by a barium swallow include tumors, ulcers, hernias, diverticula (pouches), strictures (narrowing), inflammation, and swallowing difficulties.

The SLP noted that if she were to have assessed this patient bedside, she probably would have missed that he has aspirating when he swallowed. The MBS really caught the problem that the patient was actually having. It was interesting to see how everything looked through the MBS and to see how problems can go unnoticed.

The SLP was really hands-on and pointed out every part of the patient’s anatomy including his epiglottis, esophagus, stomach, tongue, etc. I can honestly say that working with patients who suffer from dysphagia or who are experiencing temporary swallowing problems is really becoming an interest of mine. There’s so many elements that an RD has to take into consideration, for example consistencies of beverages and foods or physiological problems from cancer treatments.

What is a SOAP Note?

A SOAP note is a form of documentation used by healthcare professionals to record a patient’s visit or consultation. It is an ongoing system to support the steps of the Nutrition Care Process (NCP) in the capacity of a hospital, long-term care facility, and other similar agencies. Standardized language is part of NCP, which improves both written and oral communication among members of the health care team as well as communication with the patient. A Registered Dietitian at my rotations said to me the first week I was there, “Ninety percent of life is communication.” And when the RD said this to me, it really stuck with me. Life really is based on communication- every aspect of it. So, if healthcare professionals all use the same words, or standardized language, when documenting the progress of a patient, it prevents a barrier of communication or confusion. These SOAP notes are designed to be relevant, accurate, and timely. Yes, there are several other forms of documentation but, the SOAP note seems to be the most commonly used. Here is a brief outline of how a SOAP note should be constructed:

Subjective (S):

This is where the healthcare provider enters all patient information or data collected from the patient or caregiver. This information would also include a diet recall and any food allergies that the patient reports.

Objective (O):

This section is based more on physical evidence about the patient. Information in this section would include height, weight, BMI, weight change over a period of time, labs, PMH, medications currently using, or any other trending values (i.e.: TG levels over the past 6 months).

Assessment (A):

This is where the Nutrition Diagnosis is made. This diagnosis is referred to by healthcare professionals with a nutrition background, as a PES statement. PES stands for problem, etiology, and signs and symptoms. The PES statement is phrased as follows:

Problem related to etiology as evidenced by signs and symptoms

·         Altered GI function related to Partial Bowel Obstruction/ileus as evidenced by hypoalbuminemia, parenteral nutrition.

·         Excessive intake of simple sugars related to consumption of regular sodas and juices as evidenced by food and blood glucose logs.

·         Inadequate oral food/beverage intake related to decreased appetite due to cancer and treatment as evidenced by dietary recall and unintentional weight loss.

Plan (P):

This is the section where an outline of interventions is made necessary to treat the nutrition problems(s). Goals are made, short-term and long-term, using the SMART format.

S: Specific

M: Measurable

A: Attainable

R: Realistic/Relevant

T: Timely Manner

This section also includes information as to how the patient plans on monitoring their progress, when their follow-up consultation should take place, and if any multivitamins are being suggested.

Cancer of the Sigmoid Colon

The sigmoid colon is the terminal section of your large intestines that attaches to the rectum and anus — a sigmoid colectomy is a surgical procedure in which the sigmoid colon is resected. During this procedure, the sigmoid colon is removed and the remaining large intestine is then reattached to the rectum. After the procedure, patients will need to eat certain foods to allow the intestines to heal, as well as to prevent gastrointestinal upset such as diarrhea, constipation and excessive gas.

Patients should follow a low-fiber diet for about six weeks after discharged from the hospital. A low-fiber diet is imperative for post-colectomy patients to decrease the risk of trauma to the intestines and promote healing. After six weeks, slowly introduce fiber back into your diet. Patients can then increase fiber intake by only one serving each day, until they are able to tolerate 20 grams to 35 grams per day, or about five servings. Patients should be sure to drink plenty of water while increasing your fiber. Fiber can be constipating when not complemented with adequate water.

I recently led a follow-up appointment with a patient who was on his third chemotherapy treatment and recovering from a sigmoid colectomy. The patient consistently lost 14 pounds over the last 6 months but gained 10 pounds since his last appointment, which was last month. But, the patient reported that he was slowly gaining his appetite back but could not tolerate smells like he used to. On the SOAP (subjective, objective, assessment, plan) note I developed, I indicated that I educated the patient on the importance of keeping his weight up and maintaining that weight as well. It’s important for patients to maintain their weight after major surgeries like a sigmoid colectomy, in addition to cancer treatment. The stronger the state that the body is in, the more tolerable it will be towards the treatment of cancer. The patient is currently prescribed a vanilla-flavored supplement from the facility and reported that he couldn’t tolerate the taste of it sometimes. So, I educated him on different ways to make his supplement taste better like adding chopped strawberries to his supplement. We talked about what foods he could eat and how we were going to make sure that the patient listens to his body. By listening to his body, I mean if a patient can tolerate a certain food on a Monday- then eat it. But if he can’t tolerate that same food on Tuesday- try something different. The patient reported that he “forces himself to eat”, which is good for patients going through chemotherapy. A number of patients that are going through chemotherapy become easily frustrated. But, RDs are there to remind them that they need to fight through the frustration and aggravation of their senses (taste and smell specifically) changing.

This is an image of a normal colon

This is an image of a normal colon

This is an image before a sigmoid colectomy and highlights the area that will be removed.

This is an image of how the colon looks after surgery and the shows the section where surgeons re-connected.

This is an image of how the colon looks after surgery and shows the section where surgeons re-connected.

Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass Surgery and Nutritional Concerns

Bariatric surgery is performed for patients who have chronic problems and difficulties losing weight, in order to be of a healthy body mass index for their individual size and frame. Weight loss surgery is a major surgery, yet it is safe and effective. It is not considered a cosmetic operation. It is considered to be permanent. One particular bariatric surgery, that I have noticed more common compared to other procedures, is the Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass procedure.

Reasons for the procedure

Doctors generally recommend the weight-loss surgery only if you are severely obese. That means about 100 pounds overweight for men and 80 pounds for women. They also usually don’t recommend it unless you haven’t been able to lose a large amount of weight and keep it off through diet, exercise, and changes in lifestyle.

Before the procedure

During the Procedure

After the Procedure

Talk with your doctor, surgeon, and RD about proper wound care, the type of pain-relieving drugs that are safe to take, and when you can resume physical activities. Your surgeon will tell you how often to change the dressing on your incision.

Your initial weight-loss may occur quickly, so it’s important to get all of the nutrition and vitamins you need as you recover. Your doctor will prescribe certain vitamin and mineral supplements that your body may no longer absorb well from food alone.

Recommendations for the following supplements to prevent nutritional deficiencies after recovery from surgery are:

  • Multivitamins. You should take a daily multivitamin that contains 200% of the daily values. Wait two hours to take a calcium supplement after your multivitamin.
  • Oral vitamin D supplementation if a deficiency is detected. Your doctor may prescribe 50,000 IU of vitamin D2 taken orally once a week for 8 weeks, some people require lifelong vitamin D supplementation.

Because nutritional deficiencies are so common after this surgery, RDs recommend that your blood be tested every 6 months for the rest of your life to ensure that you are getting the right amount of vitamins and minerals.

roux en y

What is the Braden Scale?

The Braden Scale for Predicting Pressure Sore Risk was developed during a Robert Wood Johnson Teaching Nursing Home project and while writing an NIH proposal to study pressure ulcer risk factors. The scale is a tool that was developed in 1987 by Barbara Braden and Nancy Bergstrom and the purpose of the scale is to health help professionals assess a patient’s risk of developing a pressure ulcer.

The Braden Scale is a scale made up of six subscales, which measure elements of risk which contribute to both higher intensity and duration of pressure, or lower tissue tolerance for pressure. These subscales are: sensory perception, moisture, activity, mobility, friction, and shear. Each item is scored between 1 and 4, with each score accompanied by a descriptor. The lower the score, the greater the risk for a pressure ulcer a patient is at-risk for.

braden scale1

pressure ulcer

pressure ulcer1

The Burlodge Multigen III

Who is Burlodge?

Burlodge is a kitchen equipment company originating from Italy but has companies and factories in the United Kingdom, Italy, France, United States of America, and Canada. The headquarters in the US in based out of Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

What is the Multigen III 105 Series?

This piece of kitchen equipment is a revolutionary dual-oven technology that is used is a variety of patient foodservice systems around the world. The Multigen series allows foodservice professionals to re-thermalize products of different densities and textures to a consistent heat, insuring optimum food quality every time. Another beneficial characteristic of the Multigen series is the adaptability of the oven compartment which can be configured to various sizes to accommodate different meal arrangements. Basically, this piece of equipment is a multi-portion point of service trolley that is intended for cook-serve, cook-chill, and cook-freeze foodservice applications.

I was trained how to use this equipment yesterday at my patient foodservice rotation. The representative who trained the kitchen staff was a Registered Dietitian from Nashville, TN who worked for Burlodge.

The Burlodge equipment is broken down by different categories of major kitchen equipment:

          Tray Systems

          Bulk Systems

          Tray Assembly Systems

          Support Equipment

The Multigen III 105 Series falls in the Bulk Systems category and is a two compartment cart consisting of oven and refrigeration settings. The equipment is used in locations that cook, hold, and deliver food to other parts of the facility that are physically farther away than ideal. For example if a hospital setting had a nursing home attached, foodservice workers would be able to cart their Burlodge Multigen III over to the connecting facility, while the meals for service were cooking. Then, serve these meals without compromising the food safety of the meal.

Features of the equipment include:

          The Multigen III uses convection heat (Competitors use conduction heat)

          Reaches temperature in less time

          Heating time reduced and food re-thermed at a lower temperature

          Distributes heat evenly

          Saves energy

          The cart can be programmed to wake itself up and begin cooking

The daily cleaning procedures include:

1.      Removing racks and shelves from cart

2.      Using a hot soapy solution, wipe compartments, exterior stainless steel panels, shelves, and hot top; then rinse with a separate cloth and plain water. Allow to dry.

3.      Allow heavily soiled surfaces to soak for about 15 minutes.

4.      The hot top should also be sanitized as this surface may come in direct contact with food.

5.      Clean the sneeze screen with a soft cloth and a suitable hard surface/glass cleaner. Do not use abrasive pads or cleaners as these will damage the screen surface.

6.      Clean the control panel with a damp cloth only.

Burlodge USA

Multigen 3multigen 3_


Things Every Odia wants ‘Tike Extra’

Visiting Lord Jagannath temple , Puri

Every Odia needs or wait for an excuse to go to Puri and visit Lord Jagannth temple.Be it a family tour or an official visits a simple cause is enough to plan a trip to Puri.Even government bureaucrats make it a point to visit the temple and pay respects to the holy triumvirate.It is considered to be a grave mistake to be in Puri and not do the darshan.Even after 1 hour of darshan of Lord Jagannath , we feel like seeing once while exiting from the temple.

Jagannath Dham Puri

Gupchup competitions wih friends are fond memories of school and college days.There is no specific time to enjoy the delicious street food . How much you have , be it of Rs.10 or Rs.50 , but asking for 1 extra is always been an habit of every Odia irrespective of financial background. Remember “Bhai gote Sukhila dia”

Daahibara Aludam

Every Odia is a fan of daahi bara and aludam.Hunger or no hunger, nothing is more satisfying than devouring daahi bara on a hot afternoon & asking for a little more aludam & ending with dahi pani (Curd Water) is a must .

Cuttack Dahibara aludam

The Lemon-Chilli Duo

Everytime we go to haata (Market) to purchase vegetables it is common practice for the shopkeeper to throw in a couple of lemons, a bunch of coriander leaves and a handful of chills.And the bargaining begins again. People ask for more chillis, a couple more lemons and an extra bunch of ‘dhaniya’ and the shopkeeper begins to quote how expensive lemons and chillis have become. Finally, a deal is struck. But no vegetable bag in an Odia household is complete without the sprinkling of lemon and chilli.

Tea has become the basic need of every Odia irrespective of gender & age group.We drink tea when we are happy,we drink tea when we are under stress and we drink tea when we want to answer the nature’s call. Drinking tea and shaking heads in exasperation while reading the morning paper is one of the sacred rituals of Odia households.Intense discussions and brainstorming sessions happen over tea in tea stalls all over Odisha, day and evening. Tea is our all-weather friend.


People know that I have an obsession with corgis, so when it came to writing a story about lost things during a poetry class, a corgi became the main character. This poem is about grief, and how it affects yourself and others. In the story, the corgi is grieving a loss, the loss of his collar, and he notices how big the changes in his life are, even with such a small loss.

I’m a corgi called Carlos, and I lost my collar.

And now, nobody can hear me coming.

I can’t run toward my person when she comes home

Tags jingling, ringing like a fire bell.

Silence. Running doesn’t sound the same anymore

I was running outside beneath a tree,

Feeling the low branches brush my back

I felt something tugging on my collar

I wriggled away from whatever was pulling it

I heard a snap, and then I was free.

It feels like I have a thorn in my paw.

Nothing’s really hurt but my pride.

I don’t have the status that the other dogs have.

The others lay their ears back and growl.

I can’t chew the rope toy with them.

I feel naked, like I forgot something

Shame. Grief. I lost what I hold dear.

I don’t have friends anymore.

I wish I could wriggle back to where I was

To recover what I lost.

That ring of an unknown color

(I can only see black and white)

Those metallic tags that warn I’m coming

I’m cold without them

Golly, I miss my collar.

I Worried All Day

It’s not the question of whether or not the killing of Philando Castile was justified that’s bothering me. What’s bothering me is the fact that his 4 year old daughter was in the backseat of the car and saw this all play out. SHE WATCHED HER FATHER DIE IN FRONT OF HER. This will have a negative effect on her, mentally and emotionally, for the rest of her life: PTSD. This poor baby won’t understand any of what plays out: the nightmares, the flashbacks that come with the things that trigger her. This is a terrible thing to happen to anyone, especially a small child, and it all comes from one man choosing to pull a trigger. It bothers me that her life, and her mother’s life are treated like they don’t matter as much as mine, as a white woman, does. Racism exists on both sides, guys. It’s not just white people who can be racist. Black people can be racist, too. And it’s because of racism that a small child is going to bed tonight and probably crying herself to sleep because all she understands is that daddy isn’t there to tuck her in tonight. THAT is what’s been in the back of my mind all day. It absolutely breaks my heart.

From one girl who was at the scene of a parent’s death to another: you can do this. The journey is rough, but keep your head up. Remember, it’s okay to cry; crying is a sign of strength. Nobody expects you to get over this. You will carry this grief all your life. You saw something no child should see at a young age. I’m walking with you. Your daddy is with you, sweetheart. He loves you very much.

What Bipolar Actually Means

Many people, unknowingly, use ‘bipolar’ as a word to describe someone who has crazy emotions, and has a negative connotation. That is not what ‘bipolar’ means. Here’s what it means: Being labelled as ‘bipolar’ is something I’ve have to deal with for a while now. I have to take medication for my disorder, and even then, the medication doesn’t cure it. It’s a disease; a disorder. Bipolar Disorder is a life sentence…there is no cure.

It affects relationships with everyone. I’ve lost friends because I have little to no control over my emotions, even on meds, because these people think I’ve gone crazy. Some have taken advantage of me, because my judgement is skewed during manic and depressive episodes. I really found out who my true friends are. My family’s been understanding and supportive, giving me the push I need, but it’s still hard to relate to them…they don’t have Bipolar Disorder, and I do. Romantic relationships are rocky for me. I’ve been broken up with because of my disorder, being called a ‘basket case’. Sometimes, my emotional ‘downs’ scare people away. But for now, I know I have to have someone who is rock solid in my life, and helps me through tough spots. I’ve found that my relationships need to be solid and consistent.

Bipolar disorder has definitely affected my faith. I know I’m headed towards a depressive or manic episode because my attitude towards it changes. Honestly, I need consistency in my prayer life, too. Outside of going to church, consistency is fine, but so much changes at church that I feel lost and everything seems to spiral out of control. I find myself depressed more often than not because I feel invisible when I’m there. As a result of this depression, I’ve withdrawn from God when I’m home. But when I’m at college, and there’s a routine established, it’s easier for me to go to Mass, because I feel like my needs are being met. It’s a delicate balance. I tend to go to confession and adoration a lot in a depressive episode because it makes me feel better. That’s sometimes where I’m at.

Bipolar means crying so hard it hurts, dropping to the floor because I physically can’t stand anymore. It means bursting into tears at the littlest things. It means not being able to sleep at night. It means waking up in the middle of the night hungry as a side effect of medication, and gaining weight as a result of eating so much. Bipolar can also, completely contrary to that, mean that I don’t eat at all. It sometimes means I snap at the ones I love without meaning to do it. It means that sometimes, I can’t get out of bed on a certain day, I stay in my room all the time, or need to be dragged out of bed. It means that I literally cannot function. It means being afraid to get married and have children because I know these children will have my disorder, because it’s genetic.

On the flipside, Bipolar means that I’m happy. It means laughter. It means jumping out of bed in the morning, ready to seize the day. Bipolar means that everything looks like it’s going to be okay. It means sunshine. It means strength. Bipolar means that I’m not overworking myself in school, but not completely blowing it off. Mania is that time when I feel light, healthy, and there’s not a care in the world…but it’s also dangerous. I might go off my meds because I feel so good. There’s a fine line between feeling good and being healthy. Bipolar means that I am ready to take on the future.

So, where am I at now? Good question. Newsflash: I’ve learned how to live with my disorder and sort of roll with the punches.

There are a lot of things that I am, but most of all, I am a college student, and I am strong and happy, and because I’m happy, here’s a picture of me laughing, something that has been easier to do lately. Sometimes, my disorder manifests itself in ways that I can’t control, like being sensitive to certain noises, but it’s nothing that I can’t handle. Sometimes, I’m happy or depressed for no reason, and those people who understand that my medications don’t cure it and that I can’t control it are appreciated by me, and I certainly let them know that. All my life, I’ve been told to do what I love, even if it’s multiple things, and I am going to school to do all of those things. I’ve gone so much further than I thought that I would go. I haven’t let my circumstances stop me from doing anything that I want to do, and go where I want to go.

Bipolar isn’t something that I am. It is something that I have. Stop making it an adjective for having crazy emotions within a relationship. Stop making it so negative. Some of the brightest, strongest people I know suffer from this disorder, and all you are doing is glamorizing it. Mental illness is not glamorous. It is not something that we make up. It’s real, and it’s affecting many people. There’s such a stigma put on it, albeit indirectly, and that needs to stop.

A father tills the soil,

bringing the best to the surface.

He helps his children, who are his plants

by planting them securely in the flowerpots

to grow and thrive, blooming in vivid colors

A mother is a gardener

She sees the flowers as her children.

As her flowers grow, she nurtures them

They flourish in her care.

She holds them close to her in the midst of storms.

Eventually they are transplanted into real earth.

Everything jerked to a sudden stop.

A pickup truck, speeding towards her like quicksilver

She dropped the flowerpot I was in.

The soil he tilled was suddenly scattered

My flowerpot shattered.

I had to be transplanted much too early.

I started wilting without my source of life.

Now, I am withering.

The Shadow: A Serious Problem

Where Does It Come From and What Causes It?
What Kinds of Evil Are There?
“Evil Proves There Is No God”
Well, even Aquinas, when writing the Summa Theologica,
God’s Answer To Suffering
He Came
Summing It All Up
Catechism of the Catholic Church 385
Dr. Peter Kreeft, God’s Answer to Suffering
Dr. Peter Kreeft, The Problem of Evil

Christ, the Rebel

Response to Pro-Life Movement Being Framed for the Colorado Planned Parenthood Shooting

I’ve gotten sick and tired of all the hate that the pro-life movement is getting. The shooting at Planned Parenthood in Colorado was NOT an accurate representation of the pro-life movement. The man may have said “No more baby parts!!” but that doesn’t make him pro-life because his actions were what the pro-life movement goes against: senseless killing of any kind. His actions were those of terrorism. He claimed to be a Christian. His actions were not Christian. They go against the tenets of Christianity. In fact, I do not condone what he did. I condemn his actions. Those who are framing the pro-life movement for this and calling our movement “extremists”, need to think about what they are saying and think about the definition of the word “extremist” in our society.
#ProLifeProPeace #NotInMyName

The Practical Wisdom of Catholic Social Teaching: Applied to the Death Penalty in the Secular World

Recently, the United States was able to experience the presence of Pope Francis. During this visit, it seemed that the American public became interested in all things Catholic, even if there was some disagreement with Church teaching. The Pope showed that some teachings of the Church offer some practical wisdom on the life issues and the dignity of the human life, not only religiously, but in the secular world as well.1

In his recent address to Congress, Pope Francis expressed support for the worldwide abolition of the death penalty. “The Golden Rule,” Pope Francis said, “reminds us of our responsibility to protect and defend human life at every stage of its development.” Since the beginning of his ministry, this conviction has led him “to advocate at different levels for the global abolition of the death penalty.” Francis goes on to say  that he is “convinced that this way is the best, since every life is sacred, every human person is endowed with an inalienable dignity, and society can only benefit from the rehabilitation of those convicted of crimes.”

About twenty five years ago, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops “renewed their call for the abolition of the death penalty”.  The bishops wrote, in A Culture of Life and the Penalty of Death, that  “Each of us is called to respect the life and dignity of every human being. Even when people deny the dignity of others, we must still recognize that their dignity is a gift from God and is not something that is earned or lost through their behavior. Respect for life applies to all, even the perpetrators of terrible acts. Punishment should be consistent with the demands of justice and with respect for human life and dignity.”

Pope Francis expressed his support for them, “Recently my brother bishops here in the United States renewed their call for the abolition of the death penalty. Not only do I support them, but I also offer encouragement to all those who are convinced that a just and necessary punishment must never exclude the dimension of hope and the goal of rehabilitation.” So even the Pope and the Bishops of the United States, who know what the Church’s teachings on the death penalty are, advocate for the abolition of this unnecessary, aggressive violence.

First, I will discuss what the Church teaches on the death penalty in the Catechism, encyclicals and through theologians such as St. Thomas Aquinas. The Catechism of the Catholic Church stated that the state has the right to exact the death penalty, but neither St. Thomas Aquinas nor any Magisterial text presumes this gives the state an unlimited right to make capital laws and carry them out. It is inherent in a just capital punishment law that there be proportion between the taking of the life of the criminal and the benefit expected to the common good.

In article 2267 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, it is taught that “assuming that the guilty party’s identity and responsibility have been fully determined, the traditional teaching of the Church does not exclude recourse to the death penalty, if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against an unjust aggressor”. But even if a criminal is identified and it is known that the said criminal committed the crime he or she has been convicted of, where does the common good come into play? How does an execution benefit the common good? One will ask those questions since the common good includes the criminal as well.

The Bishops of the United States and people such as Sister Helen Prejean, the author of Dead Man Walking, assert that the death penalty is a violation of Catholic Social Teaching.  The Catechism of the Catholic Church also states, in article 2267, that “If, however, non-lethal means are sufficient to defend and protect people’s safety from the aggressor, authority should limit itself to such means, as these are more in keeping with the concrete conditions of the common good and more in conformity with the dignity of the human person.” In other words, there are non-lethal ways of rendering a criminal unable to do harm. This is stated in the Catechism as well as in Evangelium Vitae article 56. “Today, in fact, as a consequence of the possibilities which the state has for effectively preventing crime, by rendering one who has committed an offense incapable of doing harm – without definitively taking away from him the possibility of redeeming himself – the cases in which the execution of the offender is an absolute necessity “are very rare, if not practically non-existent.”

That being said, the next thing that needs to be discussed is the principles of Catholic Social Teaching that are being violated, and how these principles are being violated. There are ten total principles of Catholic Social teaching, and there are three that are being violated. So I will touch on those.

The first principle being violated is that of preservation of human dignity. This principle states that  all life is sacred and that the dignity of the person is a the core of a moral vision for society. According to Catholic Social teaching  “Our belief in the sanctity of the human life and the inherent dignity of the human person is the foundation of all the principles of our social teaching.” Capital punishment takes away the dignity of a criminal. In a complete and total disregard for the sanctity of a criminal’s life, we kill him or her, because it seems like the right thing for them to do. The U.N. Universal Declaration on Human Rights states that there are two essential human rights that every human being has: the right not to be tortured and the right not to be killed.  The death penalty is just that: torture and killing. It violates one’s rights.

The second violated principle is stewardship of creation.  Stewardship of creation insists that we show our respect for what/whomever we see as a creator by caring for creation. We are called to protect people and the planet, living our faith (or lives in general, whatever we might believe), in relationship with all of creation. This environmental challenge has fundamental and ethical dimensions that cannot be ignored. This is a tricky situation when it comes to the death penalty. Some could cite reasons for the death penalty being that it helps protect the rest of society.  Capital punishment isn’t actually necessary. There are other alternatives. Tougher sentencing would discourage offenders from committing crimes. Longer jail times for felons and first-time offenders would keep them from entering into society until they are able to rehabilitate.  Requiring inmates to pay for their time in prison would reduce the cost to taxpayers. Allocating a portion of a prisoner’s earnings toward facility expenses and programs would force them to “pay” for their crimes, literally and figuratively, making keeping a convict in prison for life without parole even cheaper. A portion of inmates’ wages should also be put into funds for crime victims and their families. Although money can never replace a loved one or completely heal the damage, it could help families establish a new normal and get on their feet again. The prison system in place today, at least in the United States, is more sophisticated than the one we had in place 100-200 years ago, so people aren’t as much of a danger to society anymore once they are locked behind bars. There is a possibility that the criminals could escape. There are more constructive alternatives to the death penalty.

And, the third and final violated principle is providing options for the poor and vulnerable. This principle roots itself in Catholic teaching’s proclaiming of a basic moral test, which is how we treat the most vulnerable members of society. We must put the needs of the poor and vulnerable first. Christ said it himself in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 25: “Whatsoever you do for the least of my brothers, you do for me.” The vulnerable person in this equation, so to speak, is the criminal. We as human beings are just so centered on being vengeful about the deaths of the victims, and cannot summon enough love to forgive someone for that, even if he is not showing remorse. We already have power over this criminal, so why not use this power for good?

It’s been seen in multiple cases where the death penalty has been dealt. The victim’s or victims’ family(ies) want the perpetrator dead. Others will find it in their hearts to forgive.

But let me ask this:  Is it really worth it, watching someone die in front of you, even if that person hurt you and your loved ones?

I would have to say no, it’s not worth it.

John Paul II. Evangelium Vitae: Encyclical : The Gospel of Life. Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1995.

A Culture of Life and the Penalty of Death. Washington, D.C.: United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, 2005.

The Story of A Student

I go to a small Catholic liberal arts college (in the tradition of the Sisters of Notre Dame) called Notre Dame College, also known as NDC, which is twenty minutes away from downtown Cleveland. It sounds like it’d be an easy choice, right? Not so much. I actually needed divine intervention to make the decision to even come to Notre Dame College. Nobody knows about that part of the story, and it’s definitely worth telling.

Before I applied to any colleges, I wanted to enter the convent. Yes, I wanted to become a religious sister straight out of high school at the age of eighteen. That’s the reason why I was so slow at making a college choice. It took me until December, when everyone else was hearing about acceptances, to even go to the guidance office and get my transcripts sent out. Yes, I was kind of a slow bloomer. Or so they say.

So, you’re waiting to hear my college story. My story’s not something super crazy, like going on campus for the first time and having a completely life-changing experience or falling in love with it or something like that. At first, I resisted the thought of going to NDC. I think part of me knew I was home, but I wrestled with that feeling, saying “I really don’t like it here.” But as time went on, it really started to grow on me, and I decided that I would go for two years to get my general education requirements done, and then transfer to Franciscan University of Steubenville, my first college choice and the other school I had been accepted to, and study Theology.

I would often tell myself “If you want to make God laugh, then tell him your plans!”. God must have been having a good laugh, just as He always does when I make plans.

It was late March into early April when it, the big breakthrough and decision happened, just a few weeks after my eighteenth birthday (March 13). I decided to start a novena to St. Therese, the Little Flower. The Rose Novena. I have a devotion to her, and I figured she’d be the best person to tell me if I was on the right path. I told her, “One rose, and I’ll stay for two years.” On the ninth day of the novena, I was on a retreat with my home parish’s youth group. This retreat focused on the Blessed Mother. Usually, when my youth group was on retreat, we would split into a men’s session and a women’s session, and would never really interact with each other. So that retreat, we decided to show the men how much we really appreciated them. Well, that night, we planned on doing something special for each other. The men went all out. They gave all the women roses. I immediately knew what was happening. St. Therese was about to say something, and it was something big. When I was being escorted into the room, there was some slight confusion, and I was given not one, buttwo roses. That night, the Little Flower told me that I was going to be at NDC for all four years of my college career. It was really no use arguing with it. And in the next week, I wrestled with what St. Therese told me through the roses, but to no avail. The Little Flower was more stubborn than I.

I made “my” decision during my tenth period study hall on April 8, 2014, that following week. There was enough silence in that room during study hall (a surprise considering that my high school was around 2,500 in student body size), and I just focused on things that were weighing me down. Then, I just came to terms with it. I was going to NDC. And I felt better. I told my aunt that I had chosen NDC, filled out my enrollment form, and sent it in the mail. The moment the form, in its envelope, was put into the mailbox was the moment I became a Falcon. I came to NDC just once before coming to school. That was for my freshman orientation. My aunt knew what I was thinking, and when I got into the car to leave campus, I confirmed it. I said “I’m home.” A month later, I came back to start my life as a college student; a Theology major.

That year wasn’t an easy one for me, because of all the transitional things that were going on. I was slowly learning to be an adult, and I was frustrated with school sometimes, because it, too, was an entirely new experience. When the idea of a transfer was presented to me, I honestly began thinking that I was wrong about staying at NDC for all four years of my college career. So I began considering the two year route again. And that’s when God decided to pull out all the stops.

I began praying the novena to St. Therese again, this time out of sheer frustration. Her sign to me wasn’t a flower this time, but my desire to read a book she wrote called ‘The Story of A Soul’. One day, when I was stressed about something, I had to write my full name on a form: “Ana Rose Plumlee”. That just blew my mind. Every time I wrote my name, I was receiving a rose. “What if I am one of St. Therese’s roses?” I thought. The thought calmed me enough to get through that day. Then, she and God brought an amazing professor into my life; a professor who taught me so much, and encouraged me to write, to play to my strengths. What really did it for me, though, is that no matter if a professor has me in class or not is that they care about me. The fact that everyone, including the college president, cares that I have dreams for my major and wants to know what’s happening in my life, and will take the time to sit down and ask about my life and goals (That happened to me close to the end of the school year last year, and truly made my entire day). At NDC, they care for and about me. I learned one day about what one of my professors truly sees in me, and I was stunned to learn that he sees a different me than what I see. Which has not only been huge in my deciding not to transfer, but has helped me become a lot more confident. It has helped me see myself in a better light.

Now, I’m beginning year two. And I’m not planning to transfer, or enter a Religious Order. Actually, I’ve almost completed my Philosophy minor, and I am declaring my second major soon. I’ve decided to pursue both English and Theology, because those are my strengths. I have a writing internship with Life Matters Journal. I write for Catholic365. I run three different blogs (one of which is my personal website)*. Not to mention that I’m involved in campus ministry, went on an immersion trip to Guatemala this past summer, I’m in Chamber Choir, and I’m in Philosophy Club (a new addition to the list as of this year). Without NDC, I wouldn’t be in this place. When I joke about how NDC ‘stole’ me from the convent, I mean it as a good thing. I was too young for that decision. And now, God is working in so many different and radical ways in my life.

My name is Ana, I am a Falcon for Life, and this is my story.

*the other blogs I run are as follows: In the Image of Love- Reflections on life and random inspirational things. Harry Potter and Catholicism- How Harry Potter and Catholic stuff do, indeed, connect. For fans of the Potter series, and for the curious.

I don’t mean to start an argument about abortion, but here’s something that someone really must think about.

If someone kills a woman, and this woman is pregnant, it is considered a double homicide. However, if a pregnant woman gets an abortion, it isn’t considered killing a human being. I’m sorry, but what the hell? You can’t consider an unborn child as human when it seems convenient to do so. Why is the unborn child considered human when the mother is killed, but not when the mother decides to get an abortion? Don’t tell me that science determines it. Because that’s bull. If you were to use science to determine whether or not an unborn child is human, you would learn that yes, when a child is in the womb, it is still human. It’s alive, it still has human DNA, and (OH MY GOSH….SHOCKER) did you ever notice that it is growing inside of ANOTHER HUMAN BEING? Science says that human beings cannot produce offspring that isn’t human. So why are people saying that an unborn child isn’t human? FLAWED LOGIC.

Okay. Rant over.


What is Epilepsy?

Seizures are the physical manifestation of uncontrolled electrical activity in the brain and are the most common neurological problem in canines and felines. They can be very distressing and cause anxiety for you and your pet. All of the cells in the brain communicate with each other using chemical and electrical signals. Seizures are the physical manifestation of uncontrolled and hyper-synchronous electrical activity in the brain.

How can I tell if my dog has Epilepsy?

Different types of seizure can occur in animals; most typically ‘generalised’ seizures are seen. Generalised seizures cause a loss of consciousness, involuntary repetitive movements, urination, salivation and defecation. Smaller or ‘partial’ seizures involve more focal areas of the brain and may appear as muscle spasms/tremors, abnormal sensations or even hallucinations. Your pet may exhibit any variation of the aforementioned signs however be rest assured that your pet does not feel pain during a seizure and are largely unaware they are occurring. However they may feel disorientated and confused afterwards for a variable time period. It is important to give them reassurance and the opportunity to adjust following a seizure. Usually this involves some TLC and rest.

What is the cause of Epilepsy?

Seizures may occur due to an identifiable cause; like intoxication, kidney disease, liver disease, brain malformations, tumours or inflammation (so called ‘symptomatic’ epilepsy). When an underlying cause cannot be identified, primary or idiopathic epilepsy is the presumed diagnosis. In most cases we assume this is related to an underlying genetic predisposition, but multiple genes and environmental factors are involved in developing epilepsy.

How is Epilepsy diagnosed?

No single test can tell if your pet has primary epilepsy. It is what we call a ‘diagnosis of exclusion’ as multiple tests are required to exclude all other causes of seizures. Typically, a diagnostic investigation is split into two parts; firstly to investigate and exclude diseases where the seizures are caused by a problem outside of the brain, secondly to investigate and exclude those within the brain itself. Your pet will most likely have a blood sample taken and a urine sample as part of the diagnosis process. Finances permitting, advanced brain imaging via magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain may also be performed by our advanced diagnostic imaging team followed by cerebrospinal fluid analysis to exclude structural abnormalities (such as inflammation, or tumours) as a cause of clinical signs. Primary epilepsy is most likely in young animals (1-6 years of age) that are neurologically normal (normal behaviour, normal gait, etc) between the seizures.

MRI scan of a normal brain

Primary epilepsy most likely has a complex genetic and environmental cause. It is rare that vets and scientists have been able to identify the genes responsible in individual animals or dog breeds; however, several dog breeds are known to have a higher ‘familial’ risk of epilepsy, the same may be true for cats. Most epilepsies are ‘poly-genic’, involving mutations in lots of genes. This means that unlike recessively inherited genetic diseases, breeding to prevent epilepsy is very difficult and primary epilepsy can be diagnosed in any individual animal of any breed despite multiple normal generations and litters.

How is Epilepsy treated?

It is possible for most epileptic animals to have an excellent quality of life. However, epilepsy is a chronic and occasionally progressive disease that will need to be managed. Rarely, an animal may have a single seizure and not seizure again. An animal that has more than one seizure is expected to have more frequent or severe seizures in the future. There is evidence to suggest that early treatment in the course of the epilepsy can provide a better long-term outcome.

Despite treatment, epileptics are still likely to suffer intermittent seizures. Full remission may occur with treatment, but our goal in the majority of patients is to reduce the frequency of seizures by at least 50% within a four week period. The severity of seizures should also reduce. 25-33% of dogs with epilepsy will require more than one medication in order to control their seizures. The same may be true for cats. We normally recommend epilepsy is treated when more than two seizures occur in a six month period.

There are many different anti-epileptic drugs (AEDs) available for the treatment of epilepsy. Your neurology clinician or primary care vet will determine which AED is suitable based on the type and number of seizures your pet has had, but also on licensing, formulation, and cost considerations. Two drugs are licensed for the treatment of primary epilepsy in dogs; Phenobarbital (commonly prescribed under the trade name EpiphenTM) and Imepitoin (prescribed under the trade name PexionTM). Potassium bromide (prescribed under the trade name LibromideTM) is licensed for uncontrolled epilepsy in dogs. No medication is licensed for cats but we have lots of experience of treating cats with phenobarbital.

We have experience with many other AEDs that are only licensed in people but used in animals. These medications are only used in special circumstances are not recommended in the first-line treatment of epilepsy in animals. The main reason for this is that dogs metabolise these medications very quickly and they are less effective in dogs than they are in people.

With most AEDs side effects of treatment can be expected to occur. These side effects are typically worse in the first few weeks of treatment and their severity may decrease with time. Common dose-dependent side effects include increased thirst and hunger (consequently urination and weight gain), lethargy, panting, hyper-excitability and possibly wobbliness. Your neurology clinician or primary care vet will discuss with you what side effects may be expected with medication.

What can you do to help your Epileptic pet?

It is very important to keep a seizure diary for your pet. The diary should include the date, the number of, the duration and appearance and severity of the seizure(s), whether there was any obvious precipitating cause, whether abnormal behaviour was seen in the period after a seizure (post-ictal period). Sharing these diaries with your neurology clinician or primary care vet will assist them in assessing whether treatment is reaching its goals. In addition, it will help to de-emotionalise the seizure experience if you and your family understand what should be done when they occur.

During a seizure you should do the following things to protect your pet:

  • Move any objects from around your pet that they may injure themselves on e.g. furniture
  • Turn off the lights, music and television to reduce environmental stimulation
  • Begin monitoring and recording their duration and severity of the seizure

Never be tempted to put your hands in or around your pet’s mouth. Animals may bite during or after a seizure as they may not recognise you. It is understandable that you will want to comfort your pet but only hold them if they have stopped actively seizing and if they are seeking attention. If your neurology clinician or primary care vet has prescribed rectal diazepam this can be administered as instructed if it is safe to do so.

Contact your vet as soon as possible if:

  • Your pet is actively seizing for more than two minutes
  • Your pet has more than two seizures in a 24-hour period
  • Your pet is showing recurrent twitching / tremoring

What is the prognosis of Epilepsy?

The prognosis for epilepsy is typically good although it is largely dependent on the number of seizures an animal suffers.

Occasional visits to your primary care vet may be required during the course of treatment. Some AEDs will be metabolised by the liver. This metabolism can increase with time, meaning higher drug dosages may be required to maintain the same concentration of the drug in the blood. Your vet may suggest blood tests every few months to assess the concentration of the AED in the blood, or to assess the function of the liver. How often this is required will be dependent on your pet’s response to treatment.

Patient Story

Fitzpatrick Referrals


In any technology decision, having the IT and business aspects of the organization on the same side is critical to identifying the best solutions and addressing key needs.

When such a situation surrounds IT security, a chief security officer can essentially take one of three approaches:

1. Scare them into investing. This is accomplished by highlighting the
    worst possible scenarios, and then getting them so worried that
    they invest in anything just to get the peace of mind that they are
    addressing the issue.
2. Invest reactively. This is where everyone just sits back and waits
    for a problem to occur. Once it does, they hurry and invest in a
    point solution to fix that specific issue, but rarely look into an
    overall IT security strategy to safeguard the company.
3. Plan and invest proactively. This approach is accomplished
    through raising IT security awareness through discussion, training
    and business alignment. In this way, the entire company has
    bought into the idea that IT security is important and worth the
    investment - that is actually is a mandatory investment.

There are, of course, pros and cons to each tactic.

Scare tactics are risky. They can cause businesses to over react. This not a strategic approach and not respected by most C-level executives as a good business practice. Though it usually works in the short-term, it is not seem as applicable to a specific business entity.

Reactive measures are extremely risky. By the time the security issue is noticed it may be too late to protect the company, so CIOs loose credibility with the business. Given the current heightened awareness of security in general, this approach appears not well thought out and not a strategic approach to protecting a company's IT assets, though C-level executives easily invest in security after an incident.

On the other hand, it is more difficult to get C-level buy-in initially for proactive measures. But it is a strategic approach, enabling CIOs to gain credibility with the business and supporting business audit and security requirements.

So given this, proactive approaches seem the obvious way to go. But how do you go about doing it?

Start with a structured approach to data classification. The objective of data classification is to determine what information within the company is actually important to secure. This is an easy thing for the C-level executives to understand and support, and is not an IT/technical approach to the issue. A simple approach to data classification is to define the data as

  • Highly restricted - only available to a limited number of people in the organization. Company confidential - available to anyone who is an employee of the company.
  • Confidential - available to employees and business partners under a non-disclosure agreement.
  • Public - available to the general public.

Draft a matrix showing the various types of company data and how it would be classified. It is important that this matrix be specific to the company. Use real names of information types and reports. Be prepared with examples to support why the information should be classified a certain way and what the risks are to the company if the information is not protected. Discuss the various types of internal and external security risks.

Review the data classification definitions and the draft matrix with the C-level executives. Usually they will agree that not all information is the same, and that different information needs different security measures.

These steps are critical to gaining executive awareness of the importance of protecting the information and linking the IT security measures to the risks of unprotected information. Now that the executives have agreed that the information should be protected, and understand the real risks to the business of not protecting the information, the conversation about how to protect the data can begin. There are several parameters to protecting the information

  • Security awarenes. This starts at the C-level and must permeate the entire organization. Awareness begins with a security policy and information dissemination.
  • Security infrastructure. This involves providing the capability within the organization to protect the information. It is where the majority of the investment in security is made.
  • Security audit. This step in the process ensures that the agreed upon security measures are being carried out. It is an ongoing process to continually review and improve the security infrastructure of the company and respond to any new developments regarding the company's information security.

All of these activities require some level of funding. The security awareness can be funded within information systems as a project expense, within HR as a company training expense, or within finance as an internal controls expense. Any of these funding approaches can be successful, but it is ultimately information systems' responsibility to coordinate the activity. The success of the security policies is heavily dependant on having the appropriate security infrastructure in place to implement, monitor, and report on security issues. The responsibility to provide the security infrastructure rests within the IS organization since the information is developed and maintained within IS systems.

The security infrastructure is funded and implemented within information systems, which must interpret the security policies they helped develop through the data classification approach, into the specific software, hardware, and information systems procedures necessary to implement the policies. Each of the data classifications should have a phased approach to implementing security, and depending upon the current level of information systems within the organization, this could be a multi-year effort. Every investment item should be tied directly to the data classifications and types of security risks that were discussed and agreed upon with the executives. This business linkage is vital to gaining approval for the IS security infrastructure investment.

Security audits are often funded within the internal audit activities of a company. In this way there is a 'check and balance' to the security process since IS is not responsible for auditing itself. Security audits are usually conducted using outside experts who are very experienced in performing IS security audits. IS security audits is a specialized skill which requires broad knowledge of the IS technical infrastructure and current information on not only security protection technologies, but also on the current techniques and tools used to violate IS security.

The most critical part of the funding process is to ensure linkage to the business. Do not try to scare the C-level executives into investing, but explain to them the potential pitfalls of not investing and the potential damage to the company. Even if they make the business decision not to invest, it is the CIO's responsibility to bring these issues to their attention in a manner that clearly demonstrates the potential risk to the company and the risk mitigation strategy that can be implemented through IS activities.

Linda Hughes is CIO and managing director, North Highland Company (, a management and technology consulting firm.


SpaceX to sponsor Hyperloop pod competition at 1-mile test track in 2016

Hyperloop Elon Musk
Public Domain Hyperloop Elon Musk

A 760 mph, solar-powered pod train

Our society claims to value highly creativity and entrepreneurship, but sadly it doesn't seem to put as much emphasis on thinking big and actually aiming to solve hard problems. The result? Hordes of very smart people are designing one more social media app for your smartphone, or working on Wall Street, writing high frequency trading algorithms to skim fractions of pennies millions of times a day. That's why we need more people like Elon Musk. Despite already being the CEO of two companies working on very hard things, and being chairman of a third company, when Musk heard about plans for California's high-speed train, he took time from his busy schedule to invent a new form of transport that he thinks could be better all around (cheaper, faster, safer, cleaner, etc). In his words:

When the California “high speed” rail was approved, I was quite disappointed, as I know many others were too. How could it be that the home of Silicon Valley and JPL—doing incredible things like indexing all the world’s knowledge and putting rovers on Mars—would build a bullet train that is both one of the most expensive per mile and one of the slowest in the world? [total cost: $68.4 billion, max speed, 220 MPH, and it wouldn’t be finished until 2029]

So he came up with the concept for the Hyperloop, a futuristic, solar-powered supersonic pod-train (you can see the 57-page white paper here).

How fast would the Hyperloop be? The journey from L.A. to San Francisco would take about 35 minutes at an average speed of 598 mph (962 km/h), with a top speed of 760 mph (1,220 km/h) in the middle part (you accelerate for a while, and then decelerate for a while at the end, so you don't go at the top speed for the whole trip).

Hyperloop Elon MuskHyperloop Elon Musk/Public Domain

Elon Musk has said that he's too busy to try to make it himself, and others have created a company to try to make it happen, but he still wants to help, as he mentioned in the past:

So to encourage development, SpaceX, Musk's space company, is sponsoring a pod competition that will take place a year from now on a 1-mile test track the will be built at its Californian facility:

Neither SpaceX nor Elon Musk is affiliated with any Hyperloop companies. While we are not developing a commercial Hyperloop ourselves, we are interested in helping to accelerate development of a functional Hyperloop prototype.

For this reason, SpaceX is announcing an open competition, geared towards university students and independent engineering teams, to design and build the best Hyperloop pod. To support this competition, SpaceX will construct a one-mile test track adjacent to our Hawthorne, California headquarters. Teams will be able to test their human-scale pods during a competition weekend at the track, currently targeted for June 2016. The knowledge gained here will continue to be open-sourced.

Break a pod!

Those who are interested in participating need to fill the form here before September 15, 2015.

Here is the short promo video for the competition:

Hyperloop Elon MuskHyperloop Elon Musk/Public Domain

Hyperloop Elon MuskHyperloop Elon Musk/Public Domain

Here's a possible route for the Hyperloop between L.A. and San Francisco:

Hyperloop Elon MuskHyperloop Elon Musk/Public Domain

More details on the Hyperloop can be found in our post here: Elon Musk unveils Hyperloop, a futuristic, solar-powered supersonic pod-train

Tags: California | Trains | Transportation

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An Introduction to Continuous Speech Recognition Software

Stated in the simplest terms, continuous speech recognition (SR) software takes voice input through the user's microphone and uses this input to "type" words into a document displayed on the computer screen. (This document may be saved and used just like any other file.) It is called "continuous" because the user is expected to dictate in a conversational manner, uttering entire phrases with brief pauses between. This is different than "discreet" speech recognition software, where words must be uttered individually.

The primary use of SR is word processing. Producers of SR make varying claims of compatibility of SR with other types of applications, including popular productivity application suites, web browsers and email clients. Users report varying degrees of success when using SR with other applications, finding that certain SR products handle certain situations in compatible applications better than others.

Most SR packages are intended to run on Microsoft's Windows operating system and include their own "native" word processing application that resembles Microsoft's Word Pad application (included with Windows) with extra menus and toolbar buttons added for accessing the unique features and functions of the SR application. SR packages are also available for Mac and Linux operating systems.

Users must go through a process of "enrollment" before being able to dictate a document in the word processor. This process "trains" the SR software to recognize the user's voice and speech. Several paragraphs of text displayed on the screen by the SR software must be read by the user with the microphone on. This process may take 15-30 minutes or more. Because the SR software is recording the sounds users make when pronouncing words during the enrollment process, care should taken to enunciate all words precisely. Once the enrollment process is complete, the user may begin dictation sessions.

The microphone is part of a headset. A flexible, adjustable band goes over the top of the head and supports a boom that holds the microphone. The boom is usually flexible so that the microphone may be properly positioned close to the mouth but to one side so that inadvertent noises, such as the "pop" when using words with the letter P, are reduced. The headset keeps the microphone in the proper position while allowing the user some degree of movement.

The function of SR software may be divided into three broad areas: dictation, correction and editing, and command and control. Some SR products perform tasks within these areas better than others, and the extent to which users may utilize functions and features within these areas exclusively by voice varies from one SR product to another. All will require some keyboard or mouse input to accomplish certain tasks - none are 100% hands-free.

During a dictation session, users simply say what they wish to appear in the document. Inadvertent utterances are to be avoided, as the SR software will attempt to interpret these and insert them into the document. It cannot "guess" what the user meant to say and meant not to say. Recognition errors will occur. Users play an extremely important roll in preventing misrecognitions by enunciating each word with precision. This doesn't mean that users must dictate more slowly, loudly, or one word at a time. In fact, any of these would be counter-productive. What it does mean is that users will get better recognition accuracy if they concentrate on pronouncing every syllable of every word clearly, without any slurring or laziness.

Correction is the process of replacing a misrecognized word with the intended word. Each SR product has a specific procedure for accomplishing this task. In contrast, when users change their mind about which words they would like to use in their document, replacing existing words with new words is editing. Each SR product also has a specific procedure for editing.

Command and control includes using menus, changing settings in dialog boxes and similar tasks. SR products vary in their ability to accomplish these tasks with voice input. Keystrokes or mouse movements and clicks may be required.

There are some issues that are unique to the use of SR software. Although the vocabularies of SR applications are very large, an unusual proper noun may require the user to take the extra step of adding it to the vocabulary for better future recognition. Homonyms and acronyms may also present unique challenges.

SR software should not be installed on marginal systems. A minimum system for satisfactory use with the native word processing application would be a processor of not less than 600 MHz, RAM not less than 256 MB, and audio components of high quality. If the intended use includes using SR within other applications, a more powerful computer will be required. Given good hardware, users who develop good enunciation habits should have satisfactory experiences with SR software.


Sauternes is one of the most remarkable wines of Bordeaux. Produced from white grapes, Semillon, Sauvignon Blanc and Muscadelle, it is usually a sweet wine. With the warm, humid climate, the grapes become infected with Botrytis cinerea, "the noble rot," a mold that causes grapes to become partially raisined, producing wines of considerable sweetness. This does not always occur. In some years only semi sweet or dry wines are produced depending in the growth of Botrytis cinerea. Sweet Sauternes age well. In youth, they are amiable sweet wines, suitable with desserts, especially tarts. As they age, they become drier as the sugars oxidize and acquire a caramelized taste, with the botrytis imparting a distinctive, fungal, nutted taste. These aged Sauternes make superb accompaniments to foie gras and Roquefort cheese.

 On Thursday, May 18th, Philippe Michel hosted a tasting pf Sauternes from the 2005 and older vintages for the SOB (Sons of Bacchus) wine tasting group. Philippe supplied most of the wines from his cellar and others brought interesting wines. Because of the nature of Sauternes, there was not much agreement as to the favorites. That depended on individual preferences for highly botrytised wines or higher fruit acid ones. Here is a rundown of the most interesting wines, with my notes and scored, not in any particular order.

2003 Chateau Rieussec, Sauternes - This showed a deep amber color and a maturing nose of dried fruits and banana flambé, with nuts and spices. Elegantly styled, with considerable botrytis, a bit low in acid. 19+/20 points.

2003 Chateau Coutet, Sauternes-Barsac - Deep amber colored with an oxidative nose of dried fruits and butterscotch. The flavors were viscous, nearly dry, with nutted botrytis undertones and a long, complex finish. 19+/20 points.

2005 Chateau Guiraud, Sauternes - Deep amber colored, with a nutted nose of dried flowers and fruits. The flavors showed notes of honey, clover and creme brulée, and a long botrytis finish. A classic. 19.5/20 points.

1988 Chateau Lafaurie-Peraguey, Sauternes - This was a fine example of an aged Sauternes. Amber colored, it showed complex aromas of dried fruits, orange peel and caramel, with faintly honeyed flavors. Fine acidity has enabled this wine to age well, even though from a drier year without much botrytis. It was one of my favorites, but not by most tasters. 19.5/20 points.

2005 Chateau La Tour Blanche, Sauternes - Medium amber colored, this showed floral aromas of wildflowers, nuts and a hint of butterscotch. The flavors were rich and viscous, with a long, complex, spiced, nutted finish. Exquisitely styled. 19+/20 points

1989 Chateau Sudiraut, Sauternes - This was an interesting example of an aged Sauternes. Medium copper colored, it showed a mature nose of dried flowers and fruits. The flavors were nearly dry, with a distinctive nuttiness. Past its peak, it lacked fruit acidity and complexity. 18.5/20 points.

Thanks to Philippe Michel for hosting this tasting and supplying nuts, dried fruits, Roquefort cheese and unforgettable mousse de foie gras. A superb tasting.


Astronomical Concepts

8 x Tuesday evenings 6:00 - 8:30 commencing 10th October 2017
8 x Thursday evenings 6:00 - 8:30 commencing 12th October 2017

Book through the Sydney Observatory website

An 8 week course on the concepts we use to describe the universe. From the planets, to the stars and the cosmos, a few simple concepts help explain much of what we observe in the universe today.

Astronomical Concepts introduces you to quantum physics and relativity, and applies them to the latest discoveries in astronomy. Aided with the latest in 3D stereo graphics the complex is made simple, and your understanding of the universe is given a new enlightened dimension.

An Introduction
An introduction to the course and astronomers' reliance on light. If the universe did not give out light we would not know it is there. Fortunately much of what is in the universe has a temperature and also radiates.
The Inner Planets
The Solar System is held together by one of the 4 forces in nature, gravity. We look at the planets near the Sun and how gravity defines them. We also explore two different descriptions of gravity.
The Outer Planets
The outer planets, comets and the formation of the Solar System. We examine some of the more subtle effects of gravity.
Light and Matter
Quantum Physics. How light and matter interact, and what this tells us about the universe. How is it that astronomers can tell you what a star is made of many thousands of light years away?
Sun & Stars
The life cycle of stars. From vast nebulae too white dwarfs, neutron stars, black holes. A star is fueled by nuclear reactions. We see how this very unlikely reaction gives the universe light.
Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity explained. The nature of time and space.
What are the current ideas of the cosmos? Astronomy is in a state of flux and uncertainty. What is Dark Energy and Dark Matter?


Wednesday, July 5, 2017

Is it 1917 or 2017? Wobblies lose campaign for sick leave at U.S. sandwich chain

This July 3, 2017 article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune captured my attention because of the incongruous tale of the Wobblies - the Industrial Workers of the World, first established in 1905 - losing a campaign to unionize a local Jimmy Johns sandwich restaurant and obtain sick leave for its employees.  Wait, what?  Is it 1917 or 2017?  The Wobblies are still actively organizing workers?  According to the Wobblies' web site, no, they did not disappear in 1917.  After a resurgence about 40 years ago, they seem to have a number of active campaigns throughout the United States - an indicator that we may be in another gilded age.

Of course there's that other thing that hasn't changed in the U.S. in the last century.  Most Americans don't have the legal right to or access to paid sick leave.  According to a July 2016 report released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, among the poorest 25% at the lower end of the labor market only 41% have access to paid sick leave.  Access to sick leave increases as wages increase.  Among workers in the top 25% of the labor market, 87% have access to paid sick leave.

The federal appellate court decision reported on in the Star Tribune article criticized workers for being "disloyal" because they posted images on Facebook showing that customers don't know if a sandwich was made by a healthy worker or a sick worker bringing germs to work because she can't afford to stay home because she doesn't have paid sick leave.

Wobblies in Minneapolis are not the only ones making the argument that paid sick leave is necessary for the health and well being not only of workers but of the public as well.  In a 2010 report issued by the World Health Organization (WHO), The case for paid sick leave, Xenia Scheil-Adlung & Lydia Sandner wrote, "In fact, the absence of paid sick days forces ill workers to decide between caring for their health or losing jobs and income, choosing between deteriorating health and risking to impoverish themselves and often their families."  They also point out that a number of workers throughout the world without paid sick leave worked even after they contracted the H1N1 virus, causing over 7 million other Americans to contract the virus.  The U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) also came out in a 2012 article arguing that paid sick leave is needed to protect public health and safety. Think of that next time you head to the local burger chain around the corner for an illicit unhealthy midnight snack.

According to Scheil-Adlung and Sandner, 145 countries around the world - a group among which the U.S. will not be found - have laws ensuring between 7 and 30 days of paid sick leave to workers each year.  Granted, high rates of employment outside the formal economy in some countries mean that the legal requirement does not extend to as many people as it should.  It cannot be denied, however, that paid sick leave is an area where the U.S. has fallen behind 75% of the rest of the world.  When low income countries like Cambodia and Bolivia have laws guaranteeing paid sick leave, one does wonder what is wrong with the biggest economy in the world.

It wasn't until 2012 that Connecticut became the first U.S. state to require employers to provide paid sick leave to their employees.  Now, according to guidance on complying with paid sick leave laws from the Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM), seven states (Arizona, California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Oregon, Vermont and Washington) and the District of Columbia require employers to provide paid sick leave to their employees.  SHRM also reports that the U.S. states of Maine, Maryland, Michigan (Michigan doesn't already have sick leave?), Pennsylvania and hey - Minnesota! - currently have paid sick leave legislation pending.

Affordability may be a genuine concern for some small employers.  This concern can be addressed by legislative tiers of sick leave coverage.  For example, under District of Columbia law, employers with 25-99 employees must provide 5 days of sick leave a year and those with 100 or more employees must provide 7 days of paid sick leave a year.  Very small employers with 24 or fewer employees must provide 3 days of sick leave a year.  Other examples cited in the WHO's study on paid sick leave include social security or public insurance programs to cover paid sick leave might be unpalatable at the federal level in the U.S. but might be considered by some U.S. states.  Even when affordability is a concern, some small employers still want to provide some measure of paid time off.  Not only can human resources organizations like SHRM provide guidance, but there are a number of resources available from entities like Quickbooks and Dun & Bradstreet that can help small employers tweak payroll budgets to ensure their employees have access to paid sick leave and other paid time off when they need it.

Wait, what - is it 1917 or 2017?  Did I just write a blog post arguing that U.S. law must extend access to paid sick leave to workers?  Hasn't that been a right in most other countries for almost the last century?  You'd think we don't have the legal right to paid vacation or holidays either.  Oh, yeah.  About that...


The Best Places Have Edges Worn With Time

When I stayed at my grandmother's house a couple of weeks ago, I asked if we could visit a small piece of land next to their neighborhood. It is full of antiqued houses and a cabin and each building on the property is stuffed with furniture from a myriad of time periods.

The birds were chirping as we picked our way through overgrown grass and wildflowers that bobbed their heads, tickled by our heels. The light bathed us in an aura of gold as we wandered, curiosity filling our heads as our eyes darted from one interesting sight to another.

It almost felt like summer. Like freedom.

just your everyday average bathtub... in the middle of the woods...

You have to wonder, you know. Who lived there? Who has family memories and tragedies and happy moments that happened in these houses? Why did they leave, leaving all of their furniture and things behind?

History is a fantastic thing - full of secrets that could go unknown for hundreds of years.

my grandparents. how cute are they?

There's just something about walking around an old house, smelling the almost overpowering scent of honeysuckle and green grass, during the golden hour. Lovely.

There was also an old trailer filled with goodness-knows-what.

What are some of your favorite places?

  1. That place looks amazing. You captured it well. Pretty pictures! :)

  2. Wow, very cool! Where has that place been all my life...

Because comments are awesome.


Strength Ball Training

A stability ball is also known as a Swiss ball, exercise ball or flexibility ball. It is a large, inflated, rubber ball which was originally created in Italy in the 1960s. It is based on the principle of extending instability or resistance which requires athletes to make use of their core muscles to attain balance. It helps develop strength and flexibility of those muscles. Strength ball training augments core stability of the body. A lot of emphasis is being laid on core stability exercises in contemporary times to fight injuries, enhance overall performance and develop strength.

Strength training ball exercises are very simple to do, but they add a level of intensity that a flat bench simply will not. Instead of doing regular crunches, why not try stability ball crunches? What about doing Pikes on the ball? You can even use the stability in place of smaller medicine balls. The possibilities are absolutely endless.

Strength Ball Training is a gimmick-free book based on scientific training principles. The authors are strength training experts who are well known throughout North America. Lorne Goldenberg has served as a strength and conditioning coach for four National Hockey League (NHL) teams, Team Canada’s hockey team, and football players in the Canadian Football League (CFL). He also lectures internationally on stability ball exercises and program integration.

Student Objectives:

Identify the goals of a warm up.

Identify the differences between establishing an exercise program for a child or young athlete compared to an adult exercise program.

Identify challenges and solutions to establishing an exercise program for an obese child.

Identify components in choosing exercises and progressions utilizing balance balls, medicine balls and BOSU Dynamic Stabilizing Load balls.


AidAbroad transforms a traveler’s experience of finding information about and receiving medical aid by connecting travelers who are in need of medical help with local resources via a web-based platform.

The Team

My Role

how it works

The sick user firsts use the AidAbroad platform to contact an AidAbroad Consultant, who would then recommend to the user a series of possible next steps. For instance, the sick user could ask to be connected to a local Aide, which is a service personnel contracted with AidAbroad who is located in the same vicinity as the user and could provide services such as transportation to the nearest medical facilities and translating medication.

Prototyping + User Testing

We sent out a survey to get a sense of people’s general impressions of dealing with health while traveling and provide us with some general information about our problem space.

What we learned:

Need. Most people have gotten sick while traveling abroad, in varying levels of seriousness.

Emotion. Most people were moderately distressed when sick while abroad.

Self-Treatment. Most people waited the illness out, or bought medicine to treat themselves.

Barriers. Most people had some degree of difficulty in getting medical help. Lack of information and language barriers were the most cited problems.

Role Playing

Taking on the role of the doctor allowed us to engage with potential users to understand how someone is able to describe and navigate through an imagined scenario.

What we learned:

Language. Users felt ill-equipped to describe their symptoms in accurate enough language to achieve an accurate diagnosis from the doctor.

Hesitation. Many users felt hesitant to believe a distant doctor's diagnosis. After the phone call ended users felt unsure of what to do next.

Privacy. Users felt uncomfortable with the service accessing medical records.

We presented users with two similar scenarios and asked them to act about both while narrating how certain actions or task made them feel.

We learned about...

Connection. Users responded positively to human-interactions and felt safer if with the presence of a companion if they were verified by the service.

Translation. One of the most well recieved concepts related to assistant in translation of symptoms, perscriptions, or overall health-care process.

Both semi-structured interviews (with scenarios/narratives) and unstructured interviews allowed us to hear about the challenges and decision making  behind being sick abroad.

We learned about...

Local Host. In the times people spoke about being sick and receiving help, a local host or local contact was always mentioned as a player that provided trustworthy and knowledgeable information.

Self-treatment. People often described an attempt to self treat before seeking professional help.

Insurance. Multiple people described issues with payment or insures, compounded by language issues that made it challenging to communicate a complex system.

user walkthroughs

Presented users with given scenarios and asked to sort walk us through their responce using low- fidelity screens as a talking point for how they might choose to interact with our service.

We learned about...

Comfort. Users felt more comfortable if they were able to have share phone-call with a service member (instead of messaging).

Trust.  Users expressed concerned that a video-chat or phone call with a medical professional could accurately diagnose sicknesses.

Curious to see what traits a user's gravitated towards in their Aides, we devised an acted-out experiment to see how participants responded to different staff profiles.

We learned about...

Age. Users valued age and perceived older staff (55+) to be more trustworthy.

Residency. users did not share a preference for natives vs non-natives as long as they had lived in the country for 3+ years.

Experience. Users valued experienced natives over an aide that shared a similar background to the user.

service development

Service Blueprint

Stakeholder Map

Multiple User Journey Flows

Pricing Structure

Hey hey


But interestingly, the way people identify with the issue has shifted over the years. No longer do labels like “pro-choice” and “pro-life” reflect the way people think about abortion. The fact is, generations of Americans — across party lines — understand that it’s just not that simple. Abortion is deeply personal, often complex and not something that can be put squarely in a “pro” or “anti” box. Indeed, the number of Americans who support access to safe and legal abortion is consistently higher than those who identify as “pro-choice.” And many Americans self-identify as both “pro-choice” and “pro-life,” or neither.

What unites people and what doesn’t need a label is the shared belief that politicians should not interfere in a woman’s personal decision about her pregnancy. And an underlying principle to such a complex decision is that none of us can understand a woman’s specific situation. We don’t walk in her shoes.


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