That's right, it's WhoTube now, as in "who hacked my YouTube account, and why on earth would you?" And like I wasn't gonna figure it out. . . it's like you don't even know this Mugwump.
Okay, the hacker probably doesn't know me. And I don't know if this would qualify as a "hacking," per se, because this really involves no sensitive information. It does, however, affect my viral video viewing habits.
I looked for a synonym of "habit" that started with a V for a 4-V alliteration phrase, which would have been absolutely epic for a Sunday night. I looked for an embarassingly long time online, but came up with nothing. I am sorry the use of the word "habit" is such a let down at the end of that sentence.
In light of my hacking experience at YouTube, I have created a "How to Know if Someone Unknown to You has Tampered With Your YouTube Account" to share with you. I will dispense my knowledge here.
1. Log in to your personal account at YouTube.com.
2. Look at your "Recommended for You" videos on the homepage.
3. Say to yourself, "Huh, some of these videos seem like odd recommendations. I have never searched or watched this kind of stuff on YouTube before."
4. Accept that YouTube is a giant, twisted web of videos that sometimes connect in funny ways. For example, in a search for something simple like moon landing, you first get the following video of the actual moon landing:
But if you continue to click on the recommended videos that pop up in the viewer after the video is over, eventually you get:
I came to the Open Eyes Sneeze Mythbusters clip after only watching 3 videos after the moon landing. 4 degrees of separation between the moon landing and an open-eyed sneeze? It's a video web on the virtual web. . .
5. Okay, so accepting that sometimes videos are linked in strange ways, it is not unusual to get some strange recommendations.
6. So here is where your super-sleuthing skills are important. Vital, really. You must now find how your "favorite" videos could possibly be related to the videos recommended. I will give you an example of one of my pairings and perhaps you can see if you can find a link.
A favorite video of mine:
Aaaaaaand, a recommended one:
Yeah, a puking kitty. Really?
So, if you hacked my YouTube, stop searching kitties. Search cool stuff. Like stop motion music videos and the Make Art series. Or maybe something I haven't thought of. But not puking cats or romantic wedding proposals or animated nursery rhymes.
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Monday, April 20, 2009
Google: Making Us All Hypochondriacs Since 1998
If you Google any combination of the following symptoms:
- Swollen lymph nodes in the neck
- Headache
- Stiffness in neck and back
- Slight fever
- Aches
- Fatigue
You may have the following diseases:
- Cat scratch fever (I didn't even know this was real)
- Mononucleosis
- Lyme disease
- Scarlet fever
- Tuberculosis
- Plague (this has to be my personal favorite)
- Lymphoma (cancer in your lymphatic system/immune system)
So, since Google has been right about so many other things, I was sure that I had some unheard of, chronically fatal, mega-disease (which I have recently termed 'Cat Scratch Scarlet Plague-oma, with Lyme'). Somewhere in my ridiculously hectic weekend I found some time to at least see a nurse practitioner, hoping they would be able to recognize the signs and symptoms of my certain death. You would never BELIEVE the diagnosis. . .
"You're tired. And not getting enough sleep. And maybe not eating as well as you could be. Go home, take a nap and eat an apple. If your lymph nodes are still swollen in ten days or symptoms get worse, make an appointment to see the doctor.
And stop Googling your symptoms."
And no lies on that last line, he honestly said that. So, so far I have not woken up dead and I feel that I am on the road to recovery.
- Swollen lymph nodes in the neck
- Headache
- Stiffness in neck and back
- Slight fever
- Aches
- Fatigue
You may have the following diseases:
- Cat scratch fever (I didn't even know this was real)
- Mononucleosis
- Lyme disease
- Scarlet fever
- Tuberculosis
- Plague (this has to be my personal favorite)
- Lymphoma (cancer in your lymphatic system/immune system)
So, since Google has been right about so many other things, I was sure that I had some unheard of, chronically fatal, mega-disease (which I have recently termed 'Cat Scratch Scarlet Plague-oma, with Lyme'). Somewhere in my ridiculously hectic weekend I found some time to at least see a nurse practitioner, hoping they would be able to recognize the signs and symptoms of my certain death. You would never BELIEVE the diagnosis. . .
"You're tired. And not getting enough sleep. And maybe not eating as well as you could be. Go home, take a nap and eat an apple. If your lymph nodes are still swollen in ten days or symptoms get worse, make an appointment to see the doctor.
And stop Googling your symptoms."
And no lies on that last line, he honestly said that. So, so far I have not woken up dead and I feel that I am on the road to recovery.
Saturday, April 11, 2009
"Oh, it's safe to go into ventricular fibrillation here. Don't worry."
Seeing as I complain all the time about school eating things I value-- time, social life, sleep, sanity-- let me introduce you to what I am actually doing at the School of Public Health this semester.
Semester Two: The Sleeping Giant of Semester Projects
For the duration of the semester, many of my classes focus on a semester project, where each assignment is one more step towards a completed product to turn in at the end. Community Health Theory and Practice II, my major's core course, has plunged me feet-first into the world of sudden cardiac arrest and automated-external defibrillators (AEDs). This topic of my choice is not really related to emergency preparedness, I know. Here's why: when one is first learning the public health model and the theories we use to justify behavior change and message creation, it is advantageous to use a topic that closely fits the public health model and that fit is supported by empirical research. This is not the case for emergency preparedness. So, while I love emergencies, I was not interested in absolutely mutilating my self-confidence in my ability to learn this semester by choosing a topic that was going to require so much work to justify why it even fits as a part of public health, much less completing the assignment tasks.
I had no idea how ridiculously interesting sudden cardiac arrest and the role of AEDs would be. I mean, the role of an AED in a cardiac incident is pretty straightforward-- it saves lives. But some of the statistics I have come across are astonishing and certainly point to the need for more people to be trained in AED use. For example, while sudden cardiac arrest typically only strikes 450,000 people in the US each year (this is really not high compared to people diagnosed with other diseases such as cancers or STDs), 95 percent of people who suffer a sudden cardiac arrest will die within 4-6 minutes of the occurrence of irregular heartbeat. Sudden cardiac arrest is not a heart attack, although many people who have a heart attack later go into cardiac arrest. A victim of sudden cardiac arrest has no warning signs or symptoms of heart trouble until they simply faint with no heartbeat. Most people who suffer from a sudden cardiac incident are young adults in their mid-thirties to mid-forties and are in all visible ways healthy.
Like I said earlier, a victim of sudden cardiac arrest has approximately 4-6 minutes before permanent death sets in. Serious health complications can certainly begin to set in earlier than the 4-minute mark. Each minute that passes from onset of irregular heartbeat reduces the victim's chance of survival by 7-10 percent. However, the average response time of emergency medical responders is 11 minutes in the best conditions. So, add some urban traffic, road construction, or a rural location and that response clock begins to tick away potential heartbeats.
My project is designing a program that ensures that all employees at selected high-incidence locations (health clubs and golf courses to start in the pilot program) are trained to use an AED. The program also begins a coalition to build support for legislation that requires AEDs in high-incidence locations in the state of Minnesota. The state currently only has two laws related to AEDs on the books. The first includes AED use in the Good Samaritan Law and the second is a funding earmark to make it easier for AEDs to be present in squad cars of local and county law enforcement. Great laws, or at least a good start. But it really isn't enough. And in fact, AED placement isn't enough. We do see AEDs in a lot of public locations. After starting this project, I am hypersensitive to them and every time I notice one in a public place I usually say something about it. However, an American Heart Association survey showed just how ineffective simply increasing access to AEDs has been in increasing their use. 89 percent of the respondents said they would be willing to provide help if they were on the scene of a medical emergency, but only 15 percent felt confident to use an AED. Unfortunately, bystanders used an AED as a lifesaving technique only 2 percent of the time in all public sudden cardiac arrest incidents.
AED training programs allow people to get familiar with the technology and practice using it outside of the hysterics of an actual emergency. The training is really not at all about giving people the skills to use an AED because spoken and illustrative instructions in several languages make the device terribly easy to use. Instead, the training is focused on giving people the confidence to use the device and understand that they cannot actually do harm to a sudden cardiac arrest victim by using an AED. While no medical device is flawless, advanced technology in the AED is designed to distinguish ventricular fibrillation (the irregular heartbeat characteristic of sudden cardiac arrest) and will not deliver an electrical shock unless that rhythm is detected and the device can determine that the pads are correctly placed on the individual. In fact, instead of lawsuits claiming that AEDs are dangerous or have done harm, there is a recent trend in lawsuits filed because a business or event venue did not have an AED on site.
My most recent assignment for this class regarding AED use was to submit a draft of my program implementation plan, a budget, and a budget justification. I have never done these things before, so I am sure they are really rough and I accidentally overlooked a lot of things, but I certainly feel I am learning a lot. In some ways, by using a real topic of interest, it feels a bit like trial by fire, but I will be happy to have these skills in the "real world."
I am using the same topic in my Skills for Policy Development class, where I am learning to create different documents and use different communication outlets to support two Minnesota statutes that would "encourage" AED training in high schools are part of the regular health education curriculum. I think the passage of these bills into law is kind of a long-shot, although it doesn't require any additional state funding. I just don't think it is on the minds of legislators this session.
I am taking a host of other classes, one which has a semester long project as well. It is not exciting and certainly NOT worth spending my free time writing about. My feelings about that class: Worst three hours of my week. Ever.
Speaking of all these classes, I guess it is time to go back to my eventful Saturday night of peer reviewing and editorial revisions. Ahhh, livin' the dream, livin' the dream.
Semester Two: The Sleeping Giant of Semester Projects
For the duration of the semester, many of my classes focus on a semester project, where each assignment is one more step towards a completed product to turn in at the end. Community Health Theory and Practice II, my major's core course, has plunged me feet-first into the world of sudden cardiac arrest and automated-external defibrillators (AEDs). This topic of my choice is not really related to emergency preparedness, I know. Here's why: when one is first learning the public health model and the theories we use to justify behavior change and message creation, it is advantageous to use a topic that closely fits the public health model and that fit is supported by empirical research. This is not the case for emergency preparedness. So, while I love emergencies, I was not interested in absolutely mutilating my self-confidence in my ability to learn this semester by choosing a topic that was going to require so much work to justify why it even fits as a part of public health, much less completing the assignment tasks.
I had no idea how ridiculously interesting sudden cardiac arrest and the role of AEDs would be. I mean, the role of an AED in a cardiac incident is pretty straightforward-- it saves lives. But some of the statistics I have come across are astonishing and certainly point to the need for more people to be trained in AED use. For example, while sudden cardiac arrest typically only strikes 450,000 people in the US each year (this is really not high compared to people diagnosed with other diseases such as cancers or STDs), 95 percent of people who suffer a sudden cardiac arrest will die within 4-6 minutes of the occurrence of irregular heartbeat. Sudden cardiac arrest is not a heart attack, although many people who have a heart attack later go into cardiac arrest. A victim of sudden cardiac arrest has no warning signs or symptoms of heart trouble until they simply faint with no heartbeat. Most people who suffer from a sudden cardiac incident are young adults in their mid-thirties to mid-forties and are in all visible ways healthy.
Like I said earlier, a victim of sudden cardiac arrest has approximately 4-6 minutes before permanent death sets in. Serious health complications can certainly begin to set in earlier than the 4-minute mark. Each minute that passes from onset of irregular heartbeat reduces the victim's chance of survival by 7-10 percent. However, the average response time of emergency medical responders is 11 minutes in the best conditions. So, add some urban traffic, road construction, or a rural location and that response clock begins to tick away potential heartbeats.
My project is designing a program that ensures that all employees at selected high-incidence locations (health clubs and golf courses to start in the pilot program) are trained to use an AED. The program also begins a coalition to build support for legislation that requires AEDs in high-incidence locations in the state of Minnesota. The state currently only has two laws related to AEDs on the books. The first includes AED use in the Good Samaritan Law and the second is a funding earmark to make it easier for AEDs to be present in squad cars of local and county law enforcement. Great laws, or at least a good start. But it really isn't enough. And in fact, AED placement isn't enough. We do see AEDs in a lot of public locations. After starting this project, I am hypersensitive to them and every time I notice one in a public place I usually say something about it. However, an American Heart Association survey showed just how ineffective simply increasing access to AEDs has been in increasing their use. 89 percent of the respondents said they would be willing to provide help if they were on the scene of a medical emergency, but only 15 percent felt confident to use an AED. Unfortunately, bystanders used an AED as a lifesaving technique only 2 percent of the time in all public sudden cardiac arrest incidents.
AED training programs allow people to get familiar with the technology and practice using it outside of the hysterics of an actual emergency. The training is really not at all about giving people the skills to use an AED because spoken and illustrative instructions in several languages make the device terribly easy to use. Instead, the training is focused on giving people the confidence to use the device and understand that they cannot actually do harm to a sudden cardiac arrest victim by using an AED. While no medical device is flawless, advanced technology in the AED is designed to distinguish ventricular fibrillation (the irregular heartbeat characteristic of sudden cardiac arrest) and will not deliver an electrical shock unless that rhythm is detected and the device can determine that the pads are correctly placed on the individual. In fact, instead of lawsuits claiming that AEDs are dangerous or have done harm, there is a recent trend in lawsuits filed because a business or event venue did not have an AED on site.
My most recent assignment for this class regarding AED use was to submit a draft of my program implementation plan, a budget, and a budget justification. I have never done these things before, so I am sure they are really rough and I accidentally overlooked a lot of things, but I certainly feel I am learning a lot. In some ways, by using a real topic of interest, it feels a bit like trial by fire, but I will be happy to have these skills in the "real world."
I am using the same topic in my Skills for Policy Development class, where I am learning to create different documents and use different communication outlets to support two Minnesota statutes that would "encourage" AED training in high schools are part of the regular health education curriculum. I think the passage of these bills into law is kind of a long-shot, although it doesn't require any additional state funding. I just don't think it is on the minds of legislators this session.
I am taking a host of other classes, one which has a semester long project as well. It is not exciting and certainly NOT worth spending my free time writing about. My feelings about that class: Worst three hours of my week. Ever.
Speaking of all these classes, I guess it is time to go back to my eventful Saturday night of peer reviewing and editorial revisions. Ahhh, livin' the dream, livin' the dream.
Monday, April 6, 2009
Updating is So Hard to Do
I hope you haven't been checking back on the blog daily waiting for an update, and if you have I apologize 25 times-- once for each day that you were so harshly robbed of the insights from my corner of the world.
Wow, that sounds a little ego-centric, huh? To think that the happiness of your day would revolve around me sharing my slightly sub-significant musings about homework and soy lattes. . . let's check my big fat head at the door and start this over:
Hi! I've missed you, my faithful readers, even though I can't really tell if you are reading or not. I still missed you and the idea that you are enjoying these words while you have some coffee/tea/orange juice in the morning.
Okay, I promised after that one marathon post I would never do that again. So I won't update you on EVERYTHING that has happened in the last almost-month. Quickly, we'll do some highlights. Hopefully it will satiate you Katie craving.
Highlights:
1. Vacation to Half Moon Bay, Calif. was Aaaaaaah-mazing. Amazing. "Yay yay wonderful" is about the extent to which I can articulate how fantastic it really was. I was definitely ready to give up my "real life" and become and organic farmer/artist and grow pumpkins, artichokes and olallieberries. Trust me, you want to click that link to Wikipedia and check out the wicked pedigree chart of the olallieberry.
2. School is crazy ( I think I say this every time). 14 credits is about 5 too many for a grad school semester, but I would never admit that (and you didn't read it here). The CHE Ladies (my school group of friends) decided the other day that we only get 1 meltdown per semester and since I so foolishly wasted that in February, I have had no choice but to just bite the bullet and push through all of the work. In a more ethical school issue, I have a class that continues to reward me for bad behavior. I haven't been working hard in the class at all, but I keep getting some ridiculously good grades. I know I shouldn't complain, but I feel kind of guilty. However, I have gotten through this far without too much work and now that other things are picking up so dramatically I am not sure I can really dedicate any more time to the class anyway. But she literally gave me an A+ (which made me feel very much like I was in fourth grade, actually) for an assignment that I hardly remember writing.
3. Signed a lease on a new apartment in the Uptown area. This can be a quick update because the best thing about this is a handful of things: cute place, neat area, fun roommates, reasonably priced. All good.
4. This weekend I discovered the fine (and so delicious) line between a live fish and a dead raw fish. Live fish give me the absolute spine-tingling heebie-jeebies, but I tried sushi for the first time this weekend and I loved it. Now, I will admit that I was in excellent company and maybe that influenced my taste buds towards a preference for sushi, but raw fish is still raw fish. I am not sure that even being a little smitten for someone can overcome that if I really didn't like it.
5. And, finally, two things in life are certain: death and taxes. Brought the taxes home and had an excellent, and very well-priced, tax-preparer file my taxes for me this year (thanks, Dad) and was pleasantly surprised at my return. It pays to be poor. . . once a year. Especially since the tax-preparer's other employee makes a delicious chili (thanks, Mom).
Okay lovelies, Happy Monday and hopefully I will be back sooner rather than later. As long as something interesting happens to me.
Wow, that sounds a little ego-centric, huh? To think that the happiness of your day would revolve around me sharing my slightly sub-significant musings about homework and soy lattes. . . let's check my big fat head at the door and start this over:
Hi! I've missed you, my faithful readers, even though I can't really tell if you are reading or not. I still missed you and the idea that you are enjoying these words while you have some coffee/tea/orange juice in the morning.
Okay, I promised after that one marathon post I would never do that again. So I won't update you on EVERYTHING that has happened in the last almost-month. Quickly, we'll do some highlights. Hopefully it will satiate you Katie craving.
Highlights:
1. Vacation to Half Moon Bay, Calif. was Aaaaaaah-mazing. Amazing. "Yay yay wonderful" is about the extent to which I can articulate how fantastic it really was. I was definitely ready to give up my "real life" and become and organic farmer/artist and grow pumpkins, artichokes and olallieberries. Trust me, you want to click that link to Wikipedia and check out the wicked pedigree chart of the olallieberry.
2. School is crazy ( I think I say this every time). 14 credits is about 5 too many for a grad school semester, but I would never admit that (and you didn't read it here). The CHE Ladies (my school group of friends) decided the other day that we only get 1 meltdown per semester and since I so foolishly wasted that in February, I have had no choice but to just bite the bullet and push through all of the work. In a more ethical school issue, I have a class that continues to reward me for bad behavior. I haven't been working hard in the class at all, but I keep getting some ridiculously good grades. I know I shouldn't complain, but I feel kind of guilty. However, I have gotten through this far without too much work and now that other things are picking up so dramatically I am not sure I can really dedicate any more time to the class anyway. But she literally gave me an A+ (which made me feel very much like I was in fourth grade, actually) for an assignment that I hardly remember writing.
3. Signed a lease on a new apartment in the Uptown area. This can be a quick update because the best thing about this is a handful of things: cute place, neat area, fun roommates, reasonably priced. All good.
4. This weekend I discovered the fine (and so delicious) line between a live fish and a dead raw fish. Live fish give me the absolute spine-tingling heebie-jeebies, but I tried sushi for the first time this weekend and I loved it. Now, I will admit that I was in excellent company and maybe that influenced my taste buds towards a preference for sushi, but raw fish is still raw fish. I am not sure that even being a little smitten for someone can overcome that if I really didn't like it.
5. And, finally, two things in life are certain: death and taxes. Brought the taxes home and had an excellent, and very well-priced, tax-preparer file my taxes for me this year (thanks, Dad) and was pleasantly surprised at my return. It pays to be poor. . . once a year. Especially since the tax-preparer's other employee makes a delicious chili (thanks, Mom).
Okay lovelies, Happy Monday and hopefully I will be back sooner rather than later. As long as something interesting happens to me.
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