Osteoporosis is a very serious condition where bones become so weak and brittle they can easily break. Even a sneeze can cause a rib bone to fracture. The most common break however is a hip fracture. This is very serious, often requiring surgery. It can lead to loss of mobility, becoming institutionalised or even death.
Presently 1 in 3 women can expect an osteopathic fracture sometime in their life and 1 in 5 men. It has become an epidemic. Also by 2050 it is expected that osteoporosis will increase 2 to 3 times the present rates. Presently in the US annual treatments cost $18 billion and drugs for the disease cost $9 billion.
Then we have the enormous business of selling supplements, supposedly to prevent the condition. Normally these are calcium and vitamin D supplements or a combination of both. I don't know how much those businesses bring in but they certainly have enough for some seriously expensive TV advertising.
Osteoporosis is a disease of the elderly. Is it just a consequence of ageing? Is it due to lack of calcium in our diets, or lack of sunshine (vitamin D)? In some countries osteoporosis is almost unknown. Here an epidemic, there unknown; what's going on?
We must be doing something wrong. While there's such a lot of money involved in the drug, supplement, diagnosis and treatments industries, there's not a lot of incentive to do anything about it. But there's so much we can do about it.
Bone is an amazing structure. As an engineer I have to admire what nature is capable of in bone structure. It's the ideal structural sandwich of tough outer (cortical) bone and an inner spongy (trabecular) bone that can rebuild and remodel itself in response to damage or to varying stresses. By the age of 50 the average person will have rebuilt their bones about 5 times over. Osteoclasts are cells we have that breakdown and remove old damaged bone. Osteoblasts build new bone to replace that damaged bone and to remodel bone in response to stress variation.
As we age our bones become lighter. This is particularly so in postmenopausal women. Once they pass child bearing age they no longer require that reserve of calcium carried by their bones. This is a normal condition but today that condition is diagnosed by a bone density analysis as Osteoporosis. It's a diagnosis of a disease that often doesn't exist. Bone density is not the same as bone strength. What we should be looking for is bone strength. So the diagnosis is flawed and the treatment is flawed.
The greatest threat to our bones is protein, more so animal protein. All proteins are made up of amino acids. Animal protein have more sulphur containing amino acids. When these are broken down sulphuric acid is a by-product. This acid load is neutralised by taking calcium out of our bones and muscles causing them to break down.
Calcium supplements and dairy weaken bones. Vitamin D supplements can weaken bone and cause other problems. Drugs for osteoporosis improve bone density but reduce bone strength. Many women are being incorrectly diagnosed with osteoporosis and then given drugs and supplements that will actually cause the disease. Falls are more likely as you age. If you are not being treated for osteoporosis you are more likely to bounce than crack.
There is one way to guarantee us strong bones as we age and that's a whole food plant diet with plenty of sunshine and sufficient exercise Our bones strengthen in response to the loads we place on them. Exercise will mean greater strength, less likelihood of a fall and stronger bones if we do fall.


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text:
O sábado, por fundamentação bíblica e etimológica, é considerado o sétimo dia da semana, seguindo a sexta-feira e precedendo o domingo, é um dia de oração e de descanso para judeus e cristãos sabatistas.

Por ordenação de trabalho e lazer e pela normalização ISO, o sábado é considerado o sexto dia, sem que isso faça dele o sexto dia real, permanecendo o sábado o sétimo dia da semana, mesmo com o sábado e o domingo como fim de semana, sendo assim na maioria dos calendários em todo o mundo. Na língua portuguesa o domingo é o primeiro dia da semana e o sábado o último.

A palavra sábado deriva do latim sabbatum, que por sua vez deriva do Shabat hebraico (שבת, transliterado como shabāt), que designa o dia de descanso entre os judeus e alguns grupos de cristãos, principalmente os adventistas.

Povos pagãos antigos reverenciavam seus deuses, dedicando o dia de Sábado ao deus Saturno, o que originou em inglês a denominação Saturn's day, posteriormente abreviada para Saturday, e no holandês Zaterdag, com o significado de "Dia de Saturno".

Entre os romanos, por exemplo, este dia era dedicado a Saturno, deus da agricultura, e representava um dia de descanso na semana pela boa colheita.

Etimologia
Os nomes dos dias da semana em português têm a sua origem na liturgia católica. Na maior parte das outras línguas românicas, a sua origem são nomes de deuses pagãos romanos aos quais os dias eram dedicados, neste caso o sábado era dedicado a divindade romana Saturno (este por sua vez equivalente ao deus grego Cronos).

Os povos germânicos adaptaram o sistema introduzido pelos romanos, mas substituíram os deuses romanos por seus deuses em um processo conhecido como interpretatio germanica. No caso do sábado, no entanto, o nome romano foi emprestado diretamente pelos povos germânicos ocidentais (como pode ser visto na palavra inglesa Saturday e na palavra holandesa Zaterdag), aparentemente porque nenhum dos deuses germânicos eram considerados contrapartes do deus romano Saturno. Por outro lado, o nórdico antigo e o alto-alemão não tomavam emprestado o nome do deus romano (como pode ser visto na palavra islandesa laugardagur e na palavra alemã Samstag).

Nos países escandinavos, o sábado é chamado lördag, lørdag ou laurdag, sendo o nome derivado da antiga palavra laugr/laug (daí o nome islandês Laugardagur), que significa banho, assim Lördag equivale a "dia do banho". Isto é devido à prática Viking de tomar banho aos sábados. Os nomes finlandês e estoniano para o dia, lauantai e laupäev, respectivamente, também são derivados deste termo.

Em japonês, a palavra para sábado é 土曜日 (doyōbi), que significa 'dia do solo' e está associada a (dosei): Saturno (o planeta), que significa literalmente "estrela do solo". O elemento Terra foi associado ao planeta Saturno na astrologia e filosofia chinesas também.

Nas línguas românicas houve a adoção de nomes derivados de Sabattum. A palavra latina Sabbatum era originado diretamente do hebreu Shabbat, de conotação religiosa, pois veio de uma época em que os hebreus formavam um só povo e uma só cultura.

O dia Shabbat era o dia de descanso dos israelitas que por essa razão afluíam com mais frequência à sinagoga, o sábado é o último dia de seu calendário semanal, sendo este o dia de descanso para os judeus.

Durante a Reforma do Calendário Romano sob Constantino I - substituiu-se o nome de Dies Saturni que significa "Dia de Saturno" - forma como os pagãos romanos se referiam ao sábado - para Sabatum, influenciado séculos mais tarde o nome que este dia receberia em diferentes línguas românicas e na língua alemã (esta última sendo uma língua germânica).

Questões religiosas

Paganismo

O Império Romano considerava o sábado um dia de descanso consagrado a Saturno, ao qual atribuem a origem de Roma, construindo-lhe um templo e um altar à entrada Fórum, no Capitólio. Atribui-se ainda a Saturno a criação de divindades como Juno, Hércules e de heróis como Rómulo. Homenageava-se Saturno com a Festa das Saturnálias, onde todos descansavam dos seus trabalhos.

Judaísmo
No judaísmo o sábado (שַׁבָּת, pronunciado "Shabat") significa "descanso," "cessação,"repouso" ou "interrupção"  é o sétimo dia da semana dedicado à oração e ao descanso, pois segundo a tradição hebraica Deus descansou no sétimo dia após completar a criação do universo (Gênesis 2:1-3). Os judeus consideram proibidas certas atividades neste dia.

Cristianismo
Diversos grupos de cristãos observaram o sétimo dia da semana, o sábado. Embora ainda não se saiba a data precisa do período de transição gradual da guarda do sábado para o domingo pela maioria dos cristãos, os motivos apontados por alguns autores para tal transição foram o desejo da época de dissociação com os judeus, interferência política pelo Império Romano na questão do dia de descanso e um determinado nível de influência cultural pagã, principalmente em cristãos recém convertidos. Mesmo com tal transição, alguns grupos cristãos permaneceram com a guarda do sábado ao longo da idade média em determinadas regiões do mundo.

No início do século 17, após a reforma protestante, alguns batistas da Inglaterra passaram a guardar o sábado aos moldes de Jesus, em um esforço para retornarem às práticas e doutrinas dos cristãos primitivos e alinhar-se com as prescrições bíblicas exposta no quarto mandamento, organizaram uma denominação e são esses conhecidos como batistas do sétimo dia. Com isso, o assunto despertou novamente debates entre protestantes naquela época, foi transportado até as colônias americanas onde a guarda do sábado mais se abrangeu entre os protestantes.

Na segunda metade do século XIX, influenciados pelos batistas do sétimo dia, grupos restauracionistas sabatistas (Milleritas e Adventistas) surgidos nos Estados Unidos passaram também a guardar o dia de sábado. Os cristãos consideram o sábado, o dia de descanso semanal, descrita no quarto mandamento como lei eterna de Deus, assim como os demais mandamentos.

A análise literal do relato de Gênesis 1-11 sobre a Criação do mundo diz que a descrição de tarde e manhã na criação de cada dia, a enumeração dos dias da semana e o estudo da palavra dia no seu original hebraico (YOM) significa que os dias de Gênesis possuem 24 horas de duração. Todos os povos tinham suas historias sobre a criação do mundo, e com os hebreus não era diferente, muitos povos daquela região, naquele tempo, possuíam uma historia de criação extremamente semelhantes uns aos outros, e até mesmo povos distantes tinham historias semelhantes (como no continente americano), o que pode significar uma historia sobre a criação do mundo original que fosse comum a todos eles, transmitida oralmente, isso explicaria o fato de muitos povos manterem uma guarda ao sétimo dia da semana, mesmo que de modo diferente e propósitos distintos.

O sétimo dia é o único que não é qualificado com a expressão "tarde e manhã", mas na expressão "sétimo dia" relatada no texto () é a mesma usada como referência ao dia Sábado (descanso) aludindo ao dia de descanso semanal.

Em Êxodo 20:8-11 e Deuteronômio 5:13-15, a lei de Deus diz claramente que o "sétimo dia é o sábado do SENHOR teu Deus, nele não farás nenhuma obra (...)".

Segundo o relato bíblico, o sábado tem sua origem na criação do mundo, quando Deus descansou, abençoou e santificou esse dia (). O sábado foi relembrado no quarto mandamento a partir da instituição do decálogo no Monte Sinai. Portanto, foi dado no Éden quando não existia nações, sendo o único mandamento entre os dez que aponta para Deus como o autor da criação que foi separado, abençoado e santificado por Ele. As três ações de Deus com o Sábado:

 Descansou — Deus descansou de suas obras no sétimo dia, proveu um exemplo para suas criaturas, sobre o que elas deveriam fazer também.
 Abençoou  — Deus abençoou o dia de sábado.
 Santificou — Deus separou um dia para uso sagrado.

O objetivo do sábado no Cristianismo

"Se desviares o pé de profanar o sábado e de cuidar dos teus próprios interesses no meu santo dia; se chamares ao sábado deleitoso e santo dia do SENHOR, digno de honra e o honrares não seguindo os teus caminhos, não pretendendo fazer a tua própria vontade, nem falando palavras vãs, então te deleitarás no SENHOR (...)" Isaías 58:13-14.

"Seis dias trabalharás e farás toda a tua obra. Mas o sétimo dia é o sábado do SENHOR teu Deus; não farás nenhum trabalho, nem tu, nem o teu filho, nem a tua filha, nem o teu servo, nem a tua serva, nem o teu boi, nem o teu jumento, nem animal algum teu, nem o estrangeiro das tuas portas para dentro, para que o teu servo e a tua serva descansem como tu' Deuteronômio 5:14.

"Não penseis que vim revogar a Lei ou os Profetas, não vim para revogar, vim para cumprir" Mateus 5:17.

"(...) Qual dentre vós será o homem que, tendo uma ovelha, e num sábado esta cair numa cova, não fará todo o esforço tirando-a dali? Ora, quanto mais vale um homem que uma ovelha? Logo, é lícito, nos sábados, fazer o bem" Mateus 12:12.

Em Marcos 1:30 mostra que Jesus curou a sogra de Pedro num sábado. Em vista do exposto acima temos a considerar que:

O dia de sábado foi dado por Deus como um dia santificado para rememorar-se a criação e dar glorias ao Criador. É um dia de comunhão entre a criatura e o Criador. O dia de sábado é destinado à recuperação física de homens e animais. Ele deverá ser usado também para benefício de terceiros em situação de emergência. Nele não deverá ser feito ou tratado nada que diga respeito às nossas vaidades, futilidades, pretensões e conversas vãs. É o dia perfeito para a reunião da família e contemplação da natureza.

Sábado em outros idiomas

Ver também

 Semana
 Dias da semana
 Domingo
 Shabat
 Doutrina católica sobre os Dez Mandamentos

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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Rubio's College Reform: Any Other Republicans Care to Engage the Issue?
Hillary has a bad plan for rising tuition costs. The GOP needs an answer.
One of the many issues on voters' minds, particularly young voters, during the 2016 election will be the rising costs of college education. While a federal government even remotely bound by the Constitution would not be involved in education at all — instead leaving such matters to the states per the Tenth Amendment — the reality is that it is involved. Naturally, the result is that we have witnessed bad policy from the feds, though it doesn't have to be that way. Like it or not, conservative candidates need to engage in the higher education debate — they need to the counter the Big Government, top-down approach with a better alternative. And that alternative needs to first and foremost focus on Liberty.
Last week, we noted that Hillary Clinton had unveiled her plan for reducing the cost of college. In short, her plan is to confiscate $350 billion from taxpayers for redistribution to students, along with attempting to entice states to lower tuition rates.
Yet for millennial voters specifically, the message they are hearing from Clinton and other Democrats is, "We care. We care about young voters. We want to make your lives better by making college more affordable." End of pandering and deceitful sound bite.
The rhetoric worked with ObamaCare, so why not try to win young voters with similar rhetoric on the issue of college costs? Republicans can't repeat the mistake of showing up to the game late. But so far there haven't been many alternatives to challenge Clinton's higher education reform proposal. The Republican candidates need to become engaged on this issue, but even more so they need to be able to articulate how their plan is better than any Big Government scheme.
So far at least one candidate has done so, and that is Marco Rubio. Unlike Clinton, who wants to spend more taxpayer money to supposedly fix the high costs of education, Rubio outlined a plan for modernizing higher education. Perhaps the best part of his plan is that it doesn't raise taxes.
First, he wants to fix accreditation, which would allow more institutions to become certified to provide degrees. To do this, he wants to "establish a new independent accrediting entity designed to welcome affordable and innovative education providers." Under this part of his reform, higher education would be exposed to the market forces of choice and competition — in other words, free-market principles — which would lower education costs and provide new avenues for individuals to earn their degree or certification.
Second, Rubio calls for changing the way graduates repay their student loans. He wants to make payments "automatically proportional to a graduate's earnings, thus reducing the financial risks of pursuing a degree." He also proposes to allow students to partner with investors who will pay students tuition in return for a small percentage of their salary for a certain number of years following graduation.
Third, he wants to provide college applicants detailed information about how much they can earn with a degree from a certain school. This would give potential students the ability to understand whether or not a degree from a particular university — or more so a particular field of study will be worth the financial burdens or risks associated with it.
Rubio wants to make it possible for as many people in the U.S. to achieve the American Dream, rather than simply having that dream handed to them. For him, it's about Liberty. Under his proposal there is more freedom of choice, more financial freedom and greater competition leading to higher quality. And there is no increase in spending on behalf of the federal government. Rubio's plan empowers the individual, whereas Clinton's plan enslaves the nation with more debt and rising costs.
To date, Rubio is the only Republican candidate to put forth a solid alternative to Clinton's proposal. Where are the rest of the candidates on higher education reform? Certainly, there are many other pressing issues such as terrorism, immigration, abortion that the candidates want to and of course need to focus on. But the issue of the increasing costs of college must be highlighted as well, because it is directly tied to the economy. Jobs, economic growth and wages are on just about every American's mind today, and much of that is tied to being able to afford college.
Liberals have historically done a good job selling the lie to the American people that spending more money will "fix" the problems with higher education — or whatever the problem might be. On the flip side, conservatives have insufficiently articulated better alternatives.
If conservatives want to have any chance of winning the "youth vote," then they must be engaged in this debate. They can't assume Hillary's plan is so evidently terrible that voters will see through it. To do so is political insanity, and would be an outright refusal to recognize the danger of bad policies imposed on the nation. We have already been through the gambit of bad policies under the Obama administration, and we can't afford another four years of this madness.


text:
A FATHER'S TERROR
By Sarit Newman | February 8 2021 | 0 Comments.
Jake* was only a small child when his father terrorized the home. Today, the 13-year-old still recalls the shelter for battered women where he and his mother took refuge. Worse, he remembers in chilling detail every blow from his father's hands.
"The anxiety remains, despite the years that have passed since his parents divorced and the progress that Jake and his mother have made," explains Boys Town Jerusalem social worker Hadas Knopf.
"Abuse is a form of terror, and Jake is a victim. Fortunately these emotions are no longer pent-up, and we can begin to talk about his fears in the open."
Beyond the emotional damage, Jake suffers from serious learning disabilities. Thanks to support from donors worldwide, the school is now able to provide the youngster with critical assistance. To address his needs for remedial help in nearly every subject, Jake has been assigned a specialist in reading and writing skills, as well as tutors to work with him in other areas of study.
When the pandemic first closed the schools, Jake was given a BTJ computer to enable him to join his class via remote learning. Yet, like so many others, Jake desperately lacked the personal connection to his teacher and class. The repeated lockdowns only worsened Jake's academic and emotional state, to the point where a new solution was introduced: Jake was assigned to join the Special Education classes, the sole group of students which the government allows to continue studying in class on campus.
"Almost immediately, Jake began showing progress and delight," Hadas adds. "Jake's healing and his stability are in our hands during these very challenging times. He and I meet regularly and often for therapy. We're trying our best to give this youngster the support and the love to give him strength for life."
Your contributions give Jake and other boys like him the support they need during this difficult time. To continue helping Jake, click here.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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text:
package com.gemstone.gemfire.internal.logging;

import java.util.logging.Level;

import com.gemstone.gemfire.i18n.LogWriterI18n;
import com.gemstone.gemfire.internal.i18n.LocalizedStrings;

/**
 * Extension that adds ERROR to the standard JDK logging level class.
 */
public class GemFireLevel extends Level {
  private static final long serialVersionUID = -8123818329485173242L;
  /**
   * ERROR is a message level indicating a problem.
   * Unlike WARNING its not a potential problem.
   * Unlike SEVERE its not terminal.
   *
   * In general ERROR messages should describe events that are of
   * considerable importance but will not prevent program
   * execution. They should be reasonably intelligible to end users
   * and to system administrators. This level is initialized to 950.
   */
  public static final Level ERROR = new GemFireLevel("error", InternalLogWriter.ERROR_LEVEL);

  public static Level create(int code) {
    switch (code) {
    case InternalLogWriter.ALL_LEVEL: return ALL;
    case InternalLogWriter.FINEST_LEVEL: return FINEST;
    case InternalLogWriter.FINER_LEVEL: return FINER;
    case InternalLogWriter.FINE_LEVEL: return FINE;
    case InternalLogWriter.CONFIG_LEVEL: return CONFIG;
    case InternalLogWriter.INFO_LEVEL: return INFO;
    case InternalLogWriter.WARNING_LEVEL: return WARNING;
    case InternalLogWriter.ERROR_LEVEL: return ERROR;
    case InternalLogWriter.SEVERE_LEVEL: return SEVERE;
    case InternalLogWriter.NONE_LEVEL: return OFF;
    default:
      throw new IllegalArgumentException(LocalizedStrings.GemFireLevel_UNEXPECTED_LEVEL_CODE_0.toLocalizedString(Integer.valueOf(code)));
    }
  }

  public static Level create(LogWriterI18n log) {
    if (log.finestEnabled()) return FINEST;
    if (log.finerEnabled()) return FINER;
    if (log.fineEnabled()) return FINE;
    if (log.configEnabled()) return CONFIG;
    if (log.infoEnabled()) return INFO;
    if (log.warningEnabled()) return WARNING;
    if (log.errorEnabled()) return ERROR;
    if (log.severeEnabled()) return SEVERE;

    return OFF;
  }

  private GemFireLevel(String name, int code) {
    super(name, code);
  }

  protected Object readResolve() {
    return create(this.intValue());
  }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


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text:
For a rural family, COVID-19 felt like a distant threat. Until it devastated them
Maria Marin, 58, helps her husband David, 56, with his oxygen tank at their home in Corning, Calif. Nine people in their family contracted COVID-19 in 2020. David was hospitalized in an induced coma for 24 days.
(Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)
By Hailey Branson-PottsStaff Writer
Feb. 7, 2021 6:40 AM PT
CORNING, Calif. —
Sonia Bravo lives with her family off a gravel road near the Sacramento River, on a tranquil two acres where they can hear roosters crowing and gaze at snow-capped Mt. Shasta in the distance.
As urban areas locked down last spring and people got sick and died from the coronavirus, they felt far removed.
"We had a mindset like, 'We're not going to get it. That's just in the cities,'" said Bravo, 34.
How she wishes that had been true.
Last summer, everyone in the house Bravo shares with eight family members got COVID-19: Bravo, her husband, her 7-year-old twin boys. Her mom and dad. Her two sisters. Her brother.
One sister, 18-year-old Ashley Marin, is believed to be the youngest Tehama County resident hospitalized with the virus, according to the county's public health department. And her father, David Marin, was hospitalized for 73 days, withering from a sturdy 200 pounds to a skeletal 89 pounds.
Now, the family hopes their story can be a cautionary tale for rural California, where skepticism of the virus's severity and of the vaccine's effectiveness runs deep.
"I want to tell people this virus does exist," David, 56, said from his front porch, his soft voice accompanied by puffs from a portable oxygen tank. "It is true. It is true. You can catch it anywhere."
The family's house is just outside Corning, an agricultural town of 7,600 residents about 30 miles northwest of Chico that is called the Olive Capital of the World. In California's conservative northern counties, public health officials say they have struggled to convince residents that the virus poses a real threat.
Here, schools are open for in-person learning. People still eat inside restaurants, even though that is banned by the state. In public, many do not wear masks. Some in this region, which heavily supported President Trump, thought the virus was a hoax and would go away after the election, health officials say.
"People around here are tough. They don't want to test or admit they could have it," said Dr. Richard Wickenheiser, the Tehama County health officer. "They're concerned about their jobs and their ability to go to work if they get tested. ... They're used to doing things alone. They say they've been through worse."
The pandemic skepticism in vast, sparsely populated Northern California is emblematic of the mood in small towns across the country, where illness or physical trauma can sometimes mean an hours-long drive to the nearest medical facility.
Rural residents are less concerned that they will get sick with COVID-19 than their urban and suburban counterparts, and they are more vaccine-hesitant, according to a national poll conducted in December by the Kaiser Family Foundation. Half of the rural residents polled said the seriousness of the coronavirus is exaggerated in the news, compared with 37% of suburban and 27% of urban residents.
While distance and low density — natural social distancing, some call it — did cause the virus to spread slower in Northern California than in more densely populated areas farther south, the region has not been immune from a statewide spike in coronavirus cases this winter.
Solano Street in downtown Corning, Calif., on Friday, Jan. 8, 2021.
When all nine members of Bravo's household tested positive in mid-July, Tehama County had reported 121 positive cases and one death, according to The Times coronavirus tracker.
As of Friday, the county of about 65,000 residents had confirmed 4,831 cases and 47 deaths.
Bravo and her family do not know how the coronavirus entered their home.
But the virus' burden has been disproportionately shouldered by people much like them: essential workers who cannot work from home; people living in multi-generational households; and Latinos, who make up 39% of California's population and 55% of its COVID cases.
Bravo, an ophthalmology technician, and her husband and sons recently moved into her parents' three-bedroom mobile home while they build a new house nearby. When she talks about what has been the worst year of her life, Bravo has a hard time holding back tears.
Ashley was the first to feel sick. The high school senior, a former cheerleader, started getting headaches and body aches around July 8, a Wednesday. By Monday, she was gasping for air.
Her parents drove 25 miles, across the Butte County line, to Enloe Medical Center in Chico, where she was admitted directly to the intensive care unit because her oxygen levels had fallen dangerously low.
On Tuesday, the teenager was put on a ventilator. That same day, her father started coughing so hard he could not catch his breath. He too was whisked into the ICU at Enloe — right about the same time county health officials were coming to the family's home to test them all for the coronavirus.
Sonia Bravo, 34, holds a flower given to her by her son Joseph Bravo, 7. Sonia asked God to give her a sign that her sister Ashley, who was sick with COVID-19, would be OK. At that moment a flower fell to her feet.
That Friday, Bravo answered one of many distressing phone calls she would take over the coming weeks: Ashley was not improving, a doctor said.
They needed to make a decision, immediately, about whether to give her a plasma treatment. Bravo and her mom said to do it.
A woman of deep Catholic faith, Bravo got mad at God. Why us? she asked.
But then, she apologized. She begged for a sign that her sister would survive.
At that moment, a flower — a bright pink vinca planted by her mother, Maria Marin — fell at her feet. She took that as her sign.
That Sunday, Maria, 58, who worked as a sorter at an almond orchard, was sitting on the front porch, waiting "in a living hell" for news about Ashley and David, when she started gasping.
Bravo rushed her to Enloe. She was admitted for observation.
"Please," Bravo pleaded with her mother. "Come back."
At home, her other sister, Vanessa Marin, 26, was so weak she could barely walk.
Bravo's young sons showed no symptoms, but Bravo had a cough. Her head pounded.
"I think I just didn't pay attention to COVID," she said. "I was so worried about what was going on with my parents and sister and everybody here. I was so scared because my kids came back positive."
As the family's ordeal intensified, some people said they must be exaggerating, Bravo said. Others said they too had gotten COVID-19 and that it wasn't really that bad. The comments stung.
Bravo sees people walking around in public, unmasked. She sees pictures on social media of friends hosting parties.
"I'm just like — God bless them," she said. "I hope they don't get sick. Other people get sick and say it's just like the flu. It didn't happen like that for us. ... I thought we were never going to get it, but it scarred me and it scarred everybody in my family."
Ashley Marin, 18, and and sister Sonia Bravo, 34, both contracted COVID-19 in July 2020.
The family's frontyard became like the hospital waiting room they weren't allowed to visit. There, Bravo took all the calls from doctors and nurses. Vanessa watched her older sister pacing back and forth from a front window, interpreting the facial expressions and hand motions: good news or bad.
A few days after Ashley's plasma treatment came good news: her condition had improved. She was released after 18 days in the hospital — eight of them on a ventilator.
Maria was released after eight days of observation.
But David, who was on a ventilator, only declined. At one point, he was scheduled to have his intubation tube removed, but his fever spiked. Blood started coming from his nose, then his mouth. It was from his lungs.
David had always been such a healthy man, Bravo said. A farmworker in the almond orchards who was born in Mexico, he almost never took a day off. He was stoic, someone who would take a Tylenol for just about everything and didn't go to the doctor often. That he, of all people, would get so ill — it was a shock.
Early the morning of Aug. 6, a nurse called Bravo and said David's doctors had gone into a meeting and were going to call soon. Gather the family, the nurse said.
That afternoon, as they sat on the front lawn, a doctor who had come from New York told them she had seen numerous cases like David's. None lived.
"As a medical doctor, I can say there is no hope for your dad," Bravo recalled her saying. "He will not survive. As a person, I can tell you only a miracle will save your dad."
A few hours later, they did a Zoom call with David, who was barely conscious. They said goodbye.
"The next day, when we woke up, the house was so quiet," Bravo said. "I have kids. I expected them to be playing around. No. It was empty without my dad. My sister started crying. I started crying. I said, 'My dad is going to make it.'"
They went to church and prayed. They were standing outside when the doctor called, shocked: David had stopped bleeding overnight. His fever was gone. He was breathing more on his own.
After 48 days in the ICU — half of them on a ventilator — David was taken to a long-term acute care hospital in Sonoma County, where he spent about a month gaining his strength. His family couldn't visit his room but would drive more than three hours to spend a few minutes outside his window, waving.
When she first saw him, Bravo did not recognize her father. He had lost half his body weight.
"He is a miracle," said Alisa Nelson, a registered nurse at the Sonoma County hospital. He was one of her first COVID patients. "To see him progress from coming in on a vent, to literally walking out of the hospital — we don't see that."
David said that when he woke up from his coma, he did not know if his youngest daughter had survived. When the nurses told him it was September, he was stunned.
"I've been asleep this whole time?" he asked.
At one point, Vanessa made a desperate promise to God: If her father came home, she would shave her long, thick brown hair, which her father adored.
David came home Sept. 25. On Vanessa's birthday, Sept. 30, David shaved her head. He wept.
More than four months later, David still uses a portable oxygen tank. After weeks on a ventilator, his voice is now a higher pitch, and his laugh is different.
The family has placed chairs all over their property. To rebuild the muscle that withered away, David walks, then rests. Walks, then rests.
Sonia Bravo, 34, with her twin sons Edward, left, and Joseph, 7, on the property where she plans to build a new house with her husband next to her parents' home in Corning, Calif.
Bravo wants to start a foundation, something to get warm food to other local families stricken with COVID. When they were sick, people left meals at the end of their driveway — a perk of living in a small town where word gets around fast.
On her iPhone, she keeps a list of more than four dozen nurses and secretaries who took care of her family. Every day, she prays for each of them by name.
Remembering the vinca that fell at her feet, she says for them the prayer of St. Therese of Lisieux, who died at age 24 from tuberculosis and is called the Little Flower.
O Little Therese of the Child Jesus, please pick for me a rose from the heavenly gardens and send it ... as a message of love.
Ashley is finishing her senior year virtually, even though her school has resumed in-person classes.
She doesn't leave home much because she doesn't want to get sick again. She has withdrawn from social media to focus on herself.
She is haunted by the memory of waking up to find her hands restrained so she wouldn't pull the tube out of her throat. She can still hear the heart monitor beside her bed, its beeps speeding up as she started to panic.
"There are times where I have flashbacks where I'm still in the hospital," she said. "Sometimes, I'm just staring. Spacing out. I see it. I'm there. Back in the bed again."
Times staff writer Sean Greene contributed to this report.
Hailey Branson-Potts
Hailey Branson-Potts is a Metro reporter for the Los Angeles Times who joined the newspaper in 2011. She grew up in the small town of Perry, Okla., and graduated from the University of Oklahoma.


text:
The Longsheng Rice Terraces ("Dragon's Victory") (), also called the Longji Rice Terraces  ("Dragon's Backbone") (), are located in the town of Longji in Longsheng Various Nationalities Autonomous County, about  from Guilin, China.

The terraced fields are built along the slope winding from the riverside up to the mountain top, between  above sea level.  A coiling terrace line that starts from the mountain foot up to the mountain top divides the mountain into layers of water in spring, layers of green rice shoots in summer, layers of rice in fall, and layers of frost in winter. The terraced fields were mostly built about 650 years ago.

Longji (Dragon's Backbone) Terraced Rice Fields received their name because the rice terraces resemble a dragon's scales, while the summit of the mountain range looks like the backbone of the dragon.

In early June, water is pumped over the rice paddies, and young plants are transferred to the main terraces.

Gallery

References

External links

Geography of Guilin
Tourist attractions in Guilin
Agricultural terraces
Longsheng Various Nationalities Autonomous County


text:
Temporal trends in new diagnoses of
Temporal trends in new diagnoses of colorectal cancer with obstruction, perforation, or emergency admission in Ontario: 1993-2001
Rabeneck L, Paszat LF, Rothwell DM, He J. Am J Gastroenterol. 2005; 100(3):672-6.
Objectives — Previous studies have shown that patients newly diagnosed with colorectal cancer requiring emergency admission to hospital or presenting with obstruction or perforation (defined here as OPE) have advanced disease. None of these studies, however, has evaluated temporal trends in these adverse outcomes, which may reflect screening failures. We evaluated temporal trends in the proportion of Ontario patients with a new diagnosis of colorectal cancer and OPE.
Methods — Data were obtained from four sources: the Ontario Cancer Registry (OCR); the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) database, which contains diagnostic information on all patients discharged from hospitals; the Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP) database, which records all physician claims in Ontario; and the Registered Persons Database, which contains demographic information on all Ontario residents covered under OHIP. We calculated the proportion of patients (>/=20 yr) with a new diagnosis of colorectal cancer recorded in CIHI who presented with OPE between 1993 and 2001. These patients were assigned to one of three cohort years: 1993-1995, 1996-1998, or 1999-2001. Those who received chemotherapy, radiotherapy, or palliative care before their first admission to hospital were excluded. We repeated the analysis using the number of OPE patients identified from CIHI in the numerator, and the number of patients (>/=20 yr) with a new diagnosis of colorectal cancer recorded in the OCR in the denominator. Adjusted risk of OPE was calculated using a logistic regression model.
Results — Between 1993 and 2001, 59,670 patients with a new diagnosis of colorectal cancer were recorded in the CIHI database and 54,103 in the OCR. The proportion of these patients with OPE recorded in the CIHI decreased significantly over time: 23.8% (95% CI = 23.2-24.4%) during 1993-1995, 19.4% (95% CI = 18.8-20.0%) during 1996-1998, and 18.1% (95% CI 17.6-18.6%) during 1999-2001 (a 24% relative decrease over time). The relative decrease calculated from OCR data was similar. The adjusted relative decrease in the proportion of patients with OPE during 1993-2001 was 31%.
Conclusions — Much greater emphasis on screening is needed since approximately 20% of patients with a new diagnosis of colorectal cancer in 1999-2001 presented with OPE.
Keywords: Colorectal cancer Screening and prevention
Nearly 20% of new colorectal cancer diagnoses made during hospital admissions


JMC Recruitment signs long term deal with competence management software provider.
As part of our on-going commitment to providing the aviation industry with competent, highly-skilled permanent and contract candidates, JMC has subscribed to ELMS, the Electronic Logbook Management System.
JMC Recruitment are among a handful of leading aviation business who have adopted the system with a view to improving competence and consistency throughout the industry.
ELMS is a cloud based application that has been designed to allow engineering and non-engineering personnel within the industry to build a complete profile of their training, qualifications and experience records. This data can then be shared with recruitment agencies or potential employers for evaluation.
Once placed with an organisation a successful ELMS account holding candidate will contribute to an organisation's cumulative competence profile, providing core data for an extensive analytics system.
As of the start of 2016, JMC Recruitment consultants will start using ELMS to evaluate the competence and compliance of all of their candidates before recommending them to clients.