8 Ways to Sunday

Just got this via e-mail:

“Pokemon is a main switch in the molecular network that leads toward cancer,” said senior author Dr. Pier Paolo Pandolfi of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center…

— NCI Bulletin, National Cancer Institute

You know, I’ve suspected as much all along.

(Props: Ravensky.org)

In a weird continuation of an already weird trend I covered last March, another woman has become a surrogate mother to her own grandchildren.

Tina Cade, 55, of Richmond, VA gave birth to triplets on December 28th. She carried the children for her oldest daughter, Camille Hammond. Hammond has endometriosis, a condition that makes pregnancy difficult. She and her husband had tried to get pregnant for four years without success.

The previous case I’ve read of involved a 52-year-old Texas woman who gave birth to twins for her daughter.

I know it’s sweet and all, but doesn’t carrying triplets get kind of dangerous for both the babies and the mother/surrogate/whatever when you get into your fifties? And why does all this weird shit seem to go down in the South, anyway? Isn’t that where the people who say we should stop using science and medicine to interfere with God’s plans come from?

(Props: phillyBurbs.com Blogs via Photomatt)

As the immediate death toll from the December 26th earthquake and tsunami in Asia creeps closer to 150,000 and the region continues to be pelted with heavy rains, the millions of survivors are still faced with the dangers of disease, starvation, and death from exposure.

Andy Budd recently launched BlogAid in an effort to gather donations from the blogosphere that will go to help the disaster’s victims. The site’s honor-system pledge is simple:

I agree to pledge the earnings from advertising, affiliate programs or site sponsorship made from my site during January to my countries local Earthquake and Tsunami appeal.

I don’t have ads on this blog, but for those who do this is an excellent way to extend a helping hand to some people who are very much in need. At this writing seventy six bloggers have pledged to BlogAid, but much more will be needed to amass a significant contribution. If you have advertisements on your weblog, please consider participating.

(Props: Zeldman’s Daily Report, for bringing this effort to my attention)

I “quit” smoking a few months ago, but today I bummed a cigarette off a woman down the hall. Recent car-related stress has me craving nicotine again, I’m afraid.

The borrowed death-stick was a Marlboro Light 100 — one of those all-white cigarettes that I hate. I lit it up when I got home for lunch, and my concentration on keeping it out of the high winds long enough to get it burning kept me from realizing that I was actually setting fire to the filter tip instead of the tobacco. I inhaled a good-sized lung-full of filter smoke, coughed furiously, and cursed at myself for being a moron.

So, have I heightened my already-increased risk of cancer?

As a side note, I think being a smoker is like being an alcoholic. You may quit, but you’re still a smoker; that craving will always exist. Addiction is addiction, I suppose, whatever name you give it.