The Power Trip

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704407804575425561952689390.html#

Fifty Writing Tools

Fifty Writing Tools
By Roy Peter Clark Senior Scholar, Poynter Institute

At times, it helps to think of writing as carpentry. That way, writers and editors can work from a plan and use tools stored on their workbench. You can borrow a writing tool at any time. And here's a secret: Unlike hammers, chisels, and rakes, writing tools never have to be returned. They can be cleaned, sharpened, and passed on.

Each week, for the next 50, I will describe a writing tool that has been useful to me. I have borrowed these tools from writers and editors, from authors of books on writing, and from teachers and writing coaches. Many come from the X-ray reading of texts I admire.

I have described most of these tools in earlier lists, first of 20 and then 30. In those renditions, I defined each tool in shorthand, 50 words or less, without elaboration or exemplification. In spite of -- perhaps because of -- their brevity, many aspiring writers found them useful, and the tools popped up all over the Internet, translated into several languages. This warm acceptance has given me the courage to do more with these tools, to hone them, to discard some rusty ones, and to add to my collection.

As you study and discuss these, please remember:

• These are tools and not rules. They work outside the realm of right and wrong, and inside the world of cause and effect. You will find many examples of good writing that seem to "violate" the general advice described here. 
• It will not help to apply these tools at once, just as aspiring golfers swing and miss if they try to remember the 30 or so different elements of an effective golf swing. 
• You will become handy with these tools over time. You will begin to recognize their use in the stories you read. You will see chances to apply them when you revise your own work. Eventually, they will become part of your flow, natural and automatic. 
• You are already using many of these tools without knowing it. It is impossible to speak, write, or read without them. But now these tools have names, so you can begin to talk about them in different ways. As your critical vocabulary grows, your writing will improve.

My friend Tom French, who won a Pulitzer Prize for feature writing, told me he liked my tool list because it covered writing from the "sub-atomic to the metaphysical level." By sub-atomic, he meant the ways words, phrases, and sentences work. By metaphysical, he meant the ways writers live, dream, and work.

With that as both introduction and promise, let us begin.

Writing Tool #1: Branch to the Right
Writing Tool #2: Use Strong Verbs
Writing Tool #3: Beware of Adverbs
Writing Tool #4: Period As a Stop Sign
Writing Tool #5: Observe Word Territory
Writing Tool #6: Play with Words
Writing Tool #7: Dig for the Concrete and Specific
Writing Tool #8: Seek Original Images
Writing Tool #9: Prefer Simple to Technical
Writing Tool #10: Recognize Your Story's Roots
Writing Tool #11 Back Off or Show Off
Writing Tool #12: Control the Pace
Writing Tool #13: Show and Tell
Writing Tool #14: Interesting Names
Writing Tool #15: Reveal Character Traits
Writing Tool #16: Odd and Interesting Things
Writing Tool #17: The Number of Elements
Writing Tool #18: Internal Cliffhangers
Writing Tool #19: Tune Your Voice
Writing Tool #20: Narrative Opportunities
Writing Tool #21: Quotes and Dialogue
Writing Tool #22: Get Ready
Writing Tool #23: Place Gold Coins Along the Path
Writing Tool #24: Name the Big Parts
Writing Tool #25: Repeat
Roy's 'Toolbox' is Filling Up
Writing Tool #26: Fear Not the Long Sentence
Writing Tool #27: Riffing for Originality
Writing Tool #28: Writing Cinematically
Writing Tool #29: Report for Scenes
Writing Tool #30: Write Endings to Lock the Box
Writing Tool #31: Parallel Lines
Writing Tool #32: Let It Flow
Writing Tool #33: Rehearsal
Writing Tool #34: Cut Big, Then Small
Writing Tool #35: Use Punctuation
Writing Tool #36: Write A Mission Statement for Your Story
Writing Tool #37: Long Projects
Writing Tool #38: Polish Your Jewels
Writing Tool #39: The Voice of Verbs
Writing Tool #40: The Broken Line
Writing Tool #41: X-Ray Reading
Writing Tool #42: Paragraphs
Writing Tool #43: Self-criticism
Writing Tool #44: Save String
Writing Tool #45: Foreshadow
Writing Tool #46: Storytellers, Start Your Engines
Writing Tool #47: Collaboration
Writing Tool #48: Create An Editing Support Group
Writing Tool #49: Learn from Criticism
Writing Tool #50: The Writing Process

Diagnosing Diabetes With Glucose Criteria: Worshipping a False God - Diabetes Care

Diagnosing Diabetes With Glucose Criteria: Worshipping a False God
http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/34/2/524.extract?etoc

Stjepan Hauser and Luka Sulic - Smooth Criminal

Molecular Visualizations of DNA

How to Tie a Knot

How to Tie a Knot / Diamond Knot / Chinese Button Knot

• Greg: An animated website of How to tie knots
• Forbes Pettigrew: A Few Good Knots & Bends and Hitches
• Clifford Ashley: Ashley Book of Knots, an encyclopedia of knots
• Wikipedia: List of knots
• Wikipedia: Diamond knot
• How to tie the lanyard knot (diamond knot)
• Wikipedia: Chinese button knot

Body chemistry may hold key to diabetes - CharlotteObserver.com

Body chemistry may hold key to diabetes - CharlotteObserver.com

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2011/01/04/1954013/blood-and-guts-tell-the-diabetes.html

Obesity and Diabetes Articles

Obesity and Diabetes Articles

• Clinical Gems in Diabetes in Control: International Textbook of Diabetes Mellitus
• NIH(2016). Diabetes in America, 3rd Edition, Diabetes in America, 2nd Edition
• Corkey (2016).What Causes Type 2 Diabetes?
• BMJ: Diabetes
• Bibliographic resource: Diabetes and the environment.
• International Society for Prediatric and Adolescent Diabetes (2009): The Clinical Practice Consensus Guidelines
• Pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes: tracing the reverse route from cure to cause (2008)
• IDF - Diabetes Atlas
• Diagnosis of Diabetes and prediabetes
• Diagnosis and Classification of Diabetes Mellitus (ADA, 2013)
• Definition and diagnosis of diabetes mellitus and intermediate hyperglycaemia (History of criteria) (WHO, 2006)
• Use of HbA1c in the diagnosis of diabetes (BMJ, 2012)
• Values for diagnosis of diabetes mellitus (Venous, capillary of whole blood (1998)
• Added (A1c, prediabetes): Categories of increased risk for diabetes (2011)
• Added (A1c): Diagnosis and Classification of Diabetes Mellitus (2010)
• Revised (FPG, prediabetes): Categories of increased risk for diabetes (2004)
• Revised (schemes): Diagnosis and Classification of Diabetes Mellitus (2003)
• Revised (FPG): Diagnosis and Classification of Diabetes Mellitus (1997)
• Diagnosis and Classification of Diabetes Mellitus (1979)
• Homeostatic model assessment
• Wikipedia. Homeostatic model assessment
• Matthews (1985). Homeostatic model assessment
• Wallace (2004). Use and abuse of HOMA modeling
• Caumo (2006). New insights on the simultaneous assessment of insulin sensitivity and beta-cell function with the HOMA2 method
• Diabetes Care (2007). HOMA Point and Counterpoint
• Tabak (2009). Trajectories of glycaemia, insulin sensitivity, and insulin secretion
• Predicting type 2 diabetes
• German Institute of Human Nutrition (GIFE) provides a on-going systematic review and calculators of predicting model of type 2 diabetes.
• Obesity
• ConscienHealth (2018).The Counterintuitive Physiology of Obesity
• Levis (2016).Are All Calories Equal?
• Waist Circumference and Waist–Hip Ratio (WHO, 2008)
• R!: Body weight in the U.S. (2012)
• Damaged Hearts NEED Fat and Top 10 Super Foods To Control Diabetes fat (2011)
• Short sleep duration as a cause of obesity: myth or reality? (2011)
• Energy expenditure during sleep, sleep deprivation and sleep following sleep deprivation in adult humans (2010) This article support that sleep conserves energy and that sleep deprivation increases total daily EE in humans.
• Exercise and diet in weight management: updating what works (2010)
• Extra Calories Cause Weight Gain—But How Much? (2010)
• Triglycerides and Cardiovascular Disease: A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association (2011): "...A long-standing association exists between elevated triglyceride levels and cardiovascular disease* (CVD).  However, the extent to which triglycerides directly promote CVD or represent a biomarker of risk has been debated for 3 decades..."
• The Endocrine Function of Adipose Tissue: An Update (2006) - Medscape
• Lifestyle or medicine (2006)
• High-fructose corn syrup and obesity and diabetes (2009)
• Is Sugar Toxic? (2011) - NYTimes.com
• Brown Adipose Tissue: Function and Physiological Significance (2004) - Physilogical Reviews
• Upper and Lower Body Adipose Tissue Function (2004) - Obesity
• Obesity: BAI as a new measure of adiposity—throw away your scale? I will not use this index.
• An integrative view of obesity (2010) by David Heber another An Integrative View of Obesity (2007) by Brent E. Wisse et al.
• How Obesity Causes Diabetes: Not a Tall Tale (2005)
• Diabetes, Obesity, and the Brain (2005)
• Obesity in Biocultural Perspective (2006)
• Nature Insight: Obesity and Diabetes (2006)
• Science Special Issue: Obesity--What Is To Be Done? (2003)
• Measured Smoking-Related Chemicals in NHANES
• Global Burden of Disease and Risk Factors
• Video Clips: Obesity, Diabetes, and Heart Diseases
  • Jamie Oliver's TED Prize wish: Teach every child about food
  • Sugar: The Bitter Truth, an interesting talk.
  • Why We Get Fat: Adiposity 101 and the Alternative Hypothesis of Obesity, another interesting talk but quite long.
  • What is the single best thing we can do for our health?

Int. J. Epidemiol. Table of Contents for October 2010; Vol. 39, No. 5
----------------------------------------------------------------
Editor's Choice
----------------------------------------------------------------
George Davey Smith
John Snow or Raymond Pearl: who would you rather have dinner
with?
Int. J. Epidemiol. 2010 39: 1129-1132; doi:10.1093/ije/dyq216.
http://ije.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/39/5/1129?etoc
----------------------------------------------------------------
Editorial
----------------------------------------------------------------
Debbie A Lawlor and Nish Chaturvedi
Methods of measurements in epidemiology--call for a new type of
paper in
the IJE
Int. J. Epidemiol. 2010 39: 1133-1136; doi:10.1093/ije/dyq178.
http://ije.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/39/5/1133?etoc
----------------------------------------------------------------
Reprints and Reflections
----------------------------------------------------------------
C Spearman
The proof and measurement of association between two things
Int. J. Epidemiol. 2010 39: 1137-1150; doi:10.1093/ije/dyq191.
http://ije.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/39/5/1137?etoc
Sandy Lovie and Pat Lovie
Commentary: Charles Spearman and correlation: a commentary on
'The proof
and measurement of association between two things'
Int. J. Epidemiol. 2010 39: 1151-1153; doi:10.1093/ije/dyq183.
http://ije.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/39/5/1151?etoc
Julie Perks
Commentary: 'The next trick is impossible.'
Int. J. Epidemiol. 2010 39: 1153-1155; doi:10.1093/ije/dyq182.
http://ije.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/39/5/1153?etoc
Donna Spiegelman
Commentary: Some remarks on the seminal 1904 paper of Charles
Spearman
'The Proof and Measurement of Association between Two Things'
Int. J. Epidemiol. 2010 39: 1156-1159; doi:10.1093/ije/dyq201.
http://ije.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/39/5/1156?etoc
Nick de Klerk
Commentary: Spearman's 'The proof and measurement of association
between
two things'
Int. J. Epidemiol. 2010 39: 1159-1161; doi:10.1093/ije/dyq200.
http://ije.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/39/5/1159?etoc

Glucosamine Causes The Death Of Pancreatic Cells

Glucosamine Causes The Death Of Pancreatic Cells

High doses or prolonged use of glucosamine causes the death of pancreatic cells and could increase the risk of developing diabetes, according to a team of researchers at Université Laval's Faculty of Pharmacy. Details of this discovery were recently published on the website of the Journal of Endocrinology.

In vitro tests conducted by Professor Frédéric Picard and his team revealed that glucosamine exposure causes a significant increase in mortality in insulin-producing pancreatic cells, a phenomenon tied to the development of diabetes. Cell death rate increases with glucosamine dose and exposure time. "In our experiments, we used doses five to ten times higher than that recommended by most manufacturers, or 1,500 mg/day," stressed Professor Picard. "Previous studies showed that a significant proportion of glucosamine users up the dose hoping to increase the effects," he explained.

Picard and his team have shown that glucosamine triggers a mechanism intended to lower very high blood sugar levels. However, this reaction negatively affects SIRT1, a protein critical to cell survival. A high concentration of glucosamine diminishes the level of SIRT1, leading to cell death in the tissues where this protein is abundant, such as the pancreas.

Individuals who use large amounts of glucosamine, those who consume it for long periods, and those with little SIRT1 in their cells are therefore believed to be at greater risk of developing diabetes. In a number of mammal species, SIRT1 level diminishes with age. This phenomenon has not been shown in humans but if it were the case, the elderly - who constitute the target market for glucosamine - would be even more vulnerable.

"The key point of our work is that glucosamine can have effects that are far from harmless and should be used with great caution," concluded Professor Picard.

The results obtained by Picard and his team coincide with recent studies that cast serious doubt on the effectiveness of glucosamine in treating joint problems.

This study was co-authored by Mathieu Lafontaine-Lacasse and Geneviève Doré.

Source: Université Laval

Copyright: Medical News Today

ACARAJÉ DE FEIJÃO BRANCO OU FRADINHO

Recipe - ACARAJÉ  DE FEIJÃO BRANCO OU FRADINHO

By Paloma Jorge Amado Costa (Brazilian) 

Acarajé with white beans or black eyed pea 

Ingredients

• 1 kg white beans (or black eyed peas)
• 1kg onions
• 1 onion (for frying)
• Salt
• Palm oil (for frying; you may use other oil if you prefer)

Instructions

• Beat the beans quickly in a blender or food processor to break the skin and then let them rest in water overnight. 
• Discard the water and remove the skins (if you wish, keep them). Pass the beans through a meat grinder or mix in a blender or food processor. 
• Grind the onions and mix with the beans and salt and mix well. Make the balls with two spoons.
• Heat he oil (add sufficient amount to cover about half the height of the balls) and add the entire onion.
• Fry the balls in both sides, turning them when one side is brown.

You may serve them by themselves or cut in halves and accompanied by dried shrimp with spicy sauce and vatapá.

MOLHO DE CAMARÃO SECO (dried shrimp sauce)

Ingredients

• 200 g dried shrimp
• 1 onion
• 1 cup palm oil (you may use other oil if you prefer)
• 5 cashew nuts
• Salt
• 1 cup dried red malagueta pepper (you may adjust quantity to your taste!)

Instructions

• Chop the onion
• Mix the pepper in a blender or crush with mortar and pestle.
• Beat cashew and dried shrimp
• Fry the onion and add the cashew/shrimp
• Add the rest of the shrimp and cook for about 5 minutes.
• Serve cold

VATAPÁ

Ingredients

• 1kg white bread
• ½ kg onions
• 300 g dried shrimp
• 250 g cashew nuts
• 250 g peanuts
• 3 cups unsweetened coconut milk
• 50 g ginger
• 2 cups palm oil

Fish or chicken broth (if made at home, use salt, garlic, tomatoes, onions, peppers, cilantro and lime juice or rind)

Instructions

• Chop the bread and let it soak with 1/3 of the coconut milk and then blend in the mixer.
• Chop the onions
• Blend the dry shimp
• Beat the peanuts and the cashew with 1/3 of the coconut milk
• Grind the ginger
• Fry onions and dry shrimp
• Add the bread, mixing always
• Add peanuts, cashew and ginger and continue mixing
• Add the broth mixing well
• Add the rest of the coconut milk
• Mix until the mixture frees itself from the pan.

Tent Tube Repair and Replacement

This is site I found for tent tube replacement or repair. Do you know
any better places for tent tube replacement? Thanks.

http://www.polesforyou.com/index.htm

Access 20 years of survey methodology for public health researchers

Access 20 years of survey methodology for public health researchers

Read our free virtual issue, Survey Methodology for Public Health
Researchers: Selected Readings from 20 years of Public Opinion
Quarterly. The virtual issue's 18 articles illustrate the range of
survey methods material that can be found in POQ and include conclusions
that are still valid today. Specially chosen by guest editor Floyd J.
Fowler, the articles will be of interest to those who work and research
in public health and health services more broadly.

http://www.oxfordjournals.org/our_journals/poq/collectionspage.html

The Lack of Utility of Circulating Biomarkers of Inflammation and Endothelial Dysfunction for Type 2 Diabetes Risk Prediction Among Postmenopausal Women

Arch Intern Med -- The Lack of Utility of Circulating Biomarkers of
Inflammation and Endothelial Dysfunction for Type 2 Diabetes Risk
Prediction Among Postmenopausal Women: The Women's Health Initiative
Observational Study, September 27, 2010, Chao et al.

A study from WHI:
http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/170/17/1557

In the spotlight: Margins of predicted outcomes

In the spotlight: Margins of predicted outcomes
http://www.stata.com/news/statanews.25.3.pdf

Hierarchical and Covariance Models for Public Health Data

Hierarchical and Covariance Models for Public Health Data
By Prof. Sudipto Banerjee

http://www.biostat.umn.edu/~sudiptob/CDC/CDC_2010.html

ADDITION: No significant benefit of intensive therapy in diabetes

September 22, 2010 | Lisa Nainggolan

Stockholm, Sweden - Intensive multifactorial treatment was not significantly better than routine care in a study of 3000 patients with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes treated by general practitioners, at least in terms of the primary outcome, a composite of first cardiovascular events. Results of the Anglo-Danish-Dutch Study in General Practice of Intensive Treatment and Complication Prevention in Type 2 Diabetic Patients Identified by Screening (ADDITION) trial were reported today at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) 2010 Meeting by Dr Simon J Griffin (University of Cambridge, UK).

 

Griffin said the study "was pragmatic and relevant to everyday general practice" and shows that "intensive treatment in people with screen-detected diabetes is feasible" in primary care. The lack of a significant effect of the intensive intervention on the primary end point was likely the result of the great improvements in the routine care of diabetes over the course of the study in the three countries involved, Denmark, the Netherlands, and the UK, he commented.

 

"Even in the routine-care group that did not receive significant additional support, cardiovascular risk factors improved in the five years following detection by screening. Our intervention to promote more intensive treatment was associated with statistically significant but relatively modest differences in prescribed treatment, in levels of risk factors, and in the proportion of patients for whom treatment targets were achieved. These relatively small differences were in turn associated with a nonsignificant 17% relative reduction in the incidence of a composite CV end point over five years," he told meeting attendees.

Important to note also, said Griffin, was the fact that maintaining average glycated hemoglobin (HbA_1c) levels of 6.5% in the intensive-treatment arm of the study was not associated with any increased mortality risk. This is seen as particularly important in the wake of the ACCORD results, a trial in which intensive glucose lowering appeared to increase mortality.

Commentators applauded the ADDITION trial, which they noted must have been very difficult to carry out. The invited discussant, Dr William H Herman (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor), explained that all prior studies of this nature have been observational, and this was research that "I personally believed would never be performed." ADDITION demonstrates that primary-care-based stepwise screening for type 2 diabetes "is feasible and identifies patients with substantial levels of cardiovascular risk that is potentially modifiable," said Herman.

Common Errors in English Usage

http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/errors.html#errors

Changes in Terminology for Childhood Overweight and Obesity

Changes in Terminology for Childhood Overweight and Obesity

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhsr/nhsr025.pdf

Statistic software, books etc. websites

Statistic software, books etc. websites

This website listed here comprise a powerful, conveniently-accessible,
multi-platform statistical software package. There are also links to
online statistics books, tutorials, downloadable software, and related
resources.

http://statpages.org/