 | Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder Paul Farmer was a young student entering medical school when he first visited Haiti in 1984. He was shocked by the malnutrition and lack of health care for the poor -- which was most of the country. His vision of free health care for all who need it began to form. Kidder traces the (then) 18 year journey that Farmer, Ophelia Dahl, and Jim Kim made through medical innovation in community healthcare. Their organization, Partners in Health, has been a major force in health care policy around the world and has grown from a clinic in a tiny Haitian town to clinics around Haiti, Peru, Russia, Africa, and the world. Farmer's story is very touching. |
 | Seduce Me at Sunrise by Lisa Kleypas This is the second book in the Hathaway series. Winnifred, sister to Amelia, Poppy, Beatrix, and Leo has an opportunity to travel to France to heal from a difficult bout with scarlet fever has left her weak. During her 2 year absence, Merripen, the gypsy the family has adopted as their own, works to rebuild the family estate which burned to the ground in the first novel. Winn and Merripen must face their fears and desires. This was most excellent. |
 | Hot Mahogany by Stuart Woods Stone Barrington is back and ready to charm every woman in sight. Oh, and to do some lawyering. This book features CIA director Lance Cabot's "lost" brother Barton and antiquities. It was a quick, easy read. |
 | Heat Lightning by John Sandford Virgil Flowers is back in John Sandford's latest installment. This time he is looking into the lemon murders -- murdered veterans whose killer puts a lemon in their mouth to prevent sound during torture. True to the character's past, Virgil gets in some "fun time" while he investigates. Lucas Davenport plays a very small role in this book. It took me a while to "get into it" but I liked it and it moved well the last 60%. |
 | Indian Pipes by Cynthia Riggs Victoria Trumbull is a busy octogenarian who lives on Martha's Vineyard. When she isn't solving island mysteries -- oh wait, she is always doing that! Victoria investigates her neighbor's mysterious murder and is faced with one strange thing after another. The Wampanoag Indians of Aquinnah play a prominent role in this story. I enjoyed it. |
 | Tribute by Nora Roberts Cilla McGowan was a child actress, whose mother and grandmother were also in the business. In her day, Cilla's grandmother was the talk of the town. When Cilla moves to Virginia to restore her grandmother's farm as a tribute, she finds more than she expected... I'm about 2/3 through this and itching to finish. I like it! |
Website maps surnames worldwide
There are more Beckhams in the United States than BritainA website which maps global surnames has been launched to help people find the origins of their name and how far it may have spread.The Public Profiler site plots eight million last names using data from electoral rolls and phone directories.
The site covers 300 million people in 26 countries, showing the origins of names and where families have moved to.
David Beckham, for example, has an English name, but there are more Beckhams in the US than Britain.
But the region of the world with the highest concentration of people called Beckham was even further from the footballer's east London origins - in the New Zealand province of Northland.
The site - www.publicprofiler.org/worldnames - also reveals which of the five million forenames are most closely associated with different surnames and lists the top regions and cities for each surname.
It was developed by a team of geographers from University College London.
A name is now not just a statement of who you are but where you are
Professor Paul Longley
Professor Paul Longley, one of the researchers, said: "The information is not just historical but geographical.
"We can link names to places - a name is now not just a statement of who you are but where you are."
Most surnames originated in specific places in the world and remain most frequent in those areas, but have often spread to other countries because of migration, the research showed.
Searches for Britain's three multi-gold medallists at the recent Olympics and the leaders of the three main political parties revealed some mixed results.
• Swimmer Rebecca Adlington's surname is most prevalent in New Zealand
• Cyclist Chris Hoy's surname is Irish but more common in Denmark
• Cyclist Bradley Wiggins's surname is most popular in the US
• Prime Minister Gordon Brown's surname tops the list in Australia
• Conservative leader David Cameron's surname is most prevalent in New Zealand
• Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg's surname is still most common in Britain
Prof Longley said that the site was currently struggling to cope with demand.
"We are being deluged with requests and we ask people to be patient. There is obviously a lot of interest in family names and family history globally," he said.
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MyNetDiary uses the official formulas for Estimated Energy Requirements provided by the Food and Nutrition Board of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies.
Adult man: EER = 662 - 9.53 x age (y) + PA x (15.91 x wt [kg] + 539.6 x ht [m])
Adult woman: EER = 354 - 6.91 x age (y) + PA x (9.36 x wt [kg] + 726 x ht [m])
PA indicates activity level, and is equal to 1.0 for sedentary, 1.12 for low active, 1.27 for active, and 1.45 for very active.
The Institute of Medicine provides detailed tables and formulas for nutrients and energy. You can see the formulas on page 5, as well as the table that lists Estimated Energy Requirements calculated using this formula for 30-year olds. For example, for a 30 year old male, 1.80m tall, "low active", with BMI 24.99 (178 lbs) it lists 2,884 calories, and for "active" - 3,200. We recommend selecting activity level in MyNetDiary as "low active" and accurately accounting for any extra energy-burning activities and exercises that are outside of typical "low active" lifestyle. This will be much more accurate than the generic "active" activity level, which is of course a very rough guess.
With the race for the White House heating up, a bit of levity is refreshing. And, that's exactly what the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) brings to the election with CATvsDOG.org, a fun, online campaign to raise awareness about animal welfare issues.
The goal of the nationwide online campaign is to incite one million Americans to sign a pledge to prevent cruelty and abuse by signing the pledge and casting their vote for Mittens-the-Cat or Rowdy-the-Dog.
The campaign highlights eight important animal welfare issues such as puppy mills, dangerous breed bans and pets and family violence as seen through the eyes of the candidates, Mittens and Rowdy. The candidates take humorous, opposing positions on each of the issues through debates that bring light to a very serious topic.
In addition to signing the pledge and casting your vote for Mittens or Rowdy, you can take the Presidential Pet Quiz, a fun trivia game about past Presidents and their pets.
The ASPCA's goal is to deliver one million signatures from the online campaign to the newly elected president shortly after the presidential election is concluded.
To watch the debate and cast your vote for Mittens or Rowdy, go to catvsdog.org. For more information about the ASPCA, visit aspca.org.
--Brandie Ahlgren, CityDog Magazine
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Brandie Ahlgren is the publisher of CityDog Magazine and a regular contributor to Wag Reflex. Subscribe to CityDog Magazine here.
National Geographic Channel will air a special later this month (England only) called "Extraordinary Animals In The Womb". The show will follow certain animals from conception to birth.
To get these amazing photos, researchers and CGI model-makers used "ground-breaking photographic techniques, plus state-of-the-art graphics, 4-D scanning techniques and the most sophisticated natural history models ever."
Here's the Chihuahua fetus a week before birth.
Read more about this amazing technique, the television special, and see more pre-natal images at Mail Online.
--Spanno
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