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| (Image from Cleveland Clinic) |
On an ECG, there are five waves. They use the letters P, Q, R, S and T. Waves Q through T show the heart signaling in the heart's lower chambers. The time between the start of the Q wave and the end of the T wave is called the QT interval. This is how long it takes for the heart to squeeze and refill with blood before it beats again. If the interval takes longer than usual to happen, it's called a prolonged QT interval.
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| (GE image) |
Just as there are many ways to correct the QT for heart rate, there have been numerous attempts to establish the upper limit of "normal" for a corrected QT interval.Speaking of prolonging, this story has gone on long enough. Just as we were ready to concede defeat, I thought of my hearing aids, which were too small for the technician to notice and which, in any case, were not on her checklist of forbidden ECG items.
Women have a slightly longer QT interval than men. This figure shows the 99% upper limit of normal of the QTc for men (470 msec) and women (480 msec).
In this world as his death was coming, Jesus reacted with serenity, truth, courage, and compassion. We are taught a great many things when we are growing up, but many of us are not taught how to respond to pain and suffering, the deaths of our loved ones and how to approach our own deaths.Circumstances allow many of us to come to the realization that our death is imminent and that there's nothing we can do about it. It's a seeming paradox: everything is out of our control when are most helpless, yet we can still be in control. Jesus is the Son of God and part of the Holy Trinity, but in the end he was also a great Teacher
I see many people in the hospital on their deathbeds. Some are tormented and cannot be comforted unless someone is with them at all times, and even then sometimes that’s not enough. Sometimes nothing helps.
And then there are those who know how to self-soothe and are mindful and are serene in accepting while in great pain and tragic, traumatic circumstances and even if isolated and forgotten by loved ones.
Jesus knew pain, but he also knew how to care for his soul while he was in the middle of it. He practiced self-soothing in a deep spiritual embodied way. He cared for his own heart so that he could continue to give of himself. He did this in many ways. Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed. When the pressure grew too much, when the crowds kept coming to see him, when he was low in spirits, Jesus stepped away. He didn’t numb or distract himself. He got quiet and still. Jesus didn’t escape to avoid the world. He withdrew to be refilled with the presence of God.
He was honest when he prayed… In the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus doesn’t fake it. He lets them fear the weight of his circumstances. He cries, he sweats blood. When he prays, he speaks truth to the father. He opens his heart completely…
Jesus trusted the bigger picture. He was able to accept and surrender, not using avoidance or distraction. In Isaiah’s vision of the Messiah the servant is not frantic. He is not reactive. He is silent and aware and surrendered, not from fear but from focused concentration. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth. Like a lamb that went to the slaughter he had inner clarity in the middle of chaos. “Into your hands I commit my spirit.”
Jesus is in control.
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| Antonio Gramsci |
Gramsci died in 1937, but he can be seen as the godfather of today’s culture wars. A dedicated opponent of Italy’s fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, he spent most of his last decade in prison, where he developed a highly influential new way of thinking about politics that put culture, rather than economics, at the center of the class struggle...Conservatives couldn't make much headway in steering the national discussion until the rise of alternate media (podcasts, blogs, social media). Once they gained a foothold, conservatives could wage counterattacks more successfully by focusing on the Gramscian cultural priority and using leftist tactics, e.g., Saul Alinsky's Rule 5 "Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon".
In particular, Gramsci stressed the importance of universities in shaping culture. That makes him a model for American conservatives in their “fight against critical race theory, against trans ideology, against captured higher education institutions, against DEI,” [conservative Christopher] Rufo believes...
Javier Milei, the right-wing, libertarian president of Argentina, told Tucker Carlson in a 2023 interview that he had to “wage a culture war every single day” because his left-wing opponents “have no problem with getting inside the state and employing Gramsci’s techniques: seducing the artists, seducing the culture, seducing the media or meddling in educational content.”
In the U.S., the Italian thinker’s influence grew more slowly. Gramsci’s name appears in the writing of paleoconservative thinkers Paul Gottfried, Thomas Fleming and Sam Francis, who influenced Pat Buchanan’s Republican presidential bids in the 1990s. One of Gramsci’s biggest proponents in the pre-Trump era was Andrew Breitbart, the founder of Breitbart News, who quoted his axiom that “politics is downstream of culture.”
More recently, far-right writers like Curtis Yarvin, who’s influenced Vice President JD Vance, have talked about how to capture power through a culture war. “This war is not fought with bombs and bullets, or even laws and judges,” Yarvin wrote in 2022. “This war is fought with books and films and plays and poems. It is still a savage war!
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| (Meyer/Bay Area News Group) |
When a turbo roundabout rolled into the southernmost corner of the Bay Area early last year, it became the first-in-the-state adoption of a successful Dutch traffic innovation — a multi-lane roundabout shaped like a cartoon hurricane.When we wrote about the roundabout last year, we hoped that South Bay drivers would climb the learning curve quickly. Alas, their proximity to Silicon Valley appears not to have rubbed off.
And while the roundabout in San Benito County, far south of San Jose, was meant to improve safety, it brought with it a wave of confusion and a spike in accidents that saw drivers colliding at rates many times higher than before it was installed...
A Mercury News analysis of crash data shows that crashes skyrocketed at the intersection in the year after the turbo roundabout was completed. But even as accidents have soared, serious injuries and deaths have disappeared, leaving many to assert that the roundabout is safer...
While a Mercury News analysis showed a spike of crashes around the roundabout when it was first completed, experts promised that crash rates would decrease over time.
So far, though, that hasn’t been the case.
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| (Image from Forbes) |
New data compiled by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows that large swaths of both California and Nevada are facing down a summer of extreme drought, particularly in the southeast corners of those states. And the summer heatwaves haven’t even hit yet...The silver lining is that the reservoirs are full:
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has already designated much of Southern California and southern Nevada (and all of Arizona) as being in a drought so severe that growers and farmers are now eligible for emergency financial relief. Counties such as Kern, Los Angeles, Riverside and San Bernardino are considered primary natural disaster areas, meaning they’ve been in a severe drought (or worse) for at least eight consecutive weeks. By June, the National Interagency Fire Center said that “above normal [significant fire] potential” is forecast for “portions of central and Southern California.” By July, that potential “will expand into more of California and much of the Northwest.”
Thankfully, it’s not all doom and gloom. Farther north, California’s water levels are robust, thanks in part to a healthy Sierra Nevada snowpack. The state’s major reservoirs are “well-above average” right now, and there’s even optimism up in far Northern California after researchers in the region stumbled upon a giant, 21-trillion-gallon aquifer just over the border in Oregon. Still, just months after a cascade of devastating wildfires ravaged Los Angeles, there’s already a sense from some prognosticators that this summer could be hot, dry and dangerous.California is fortunate that it has had three wet winters in a row. It won't have to pay the price this year for its inexcusable delay--to 2032--in bringing the Sites Reservoir on stream. Let's hope our luck lasts for seven more years.
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| A train between Polikatoikies in Athens |
Antiparochi emerged in Athens from the wreckage of two world wars, after successive invasions by fascist Italy and Nazi Germany left Greece devastated. The idea involved homeowners in postwar Athens trading their land with apartment builders in exchange for a few condos in a new building, in lieu of cash. These buildings, typically four-story to six-story structures called polykatoikÃa, came to symbolize middle-class Athens.Most new city housing in modern-day America involves the developer buying high priced land from a homeowner, who pays large capital-gain taxes and typically moves away. The developer earns a profit by building two or more houses, condominiums, or even an apartment building; none of these structures is low-cost because of the high-priced land.
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| Happy trader, at least for 1 day (McDermid/Reuters/CNBC) |
The stock market mounted one of its biggest rallies in history after President Donald Trump announced a pause in some of his “reciprocal” tariffs on the globe, causing a market that has been under extreme pressure for the past week to explode higher.The precipitous fall in the stock market since last Wednesday made it ripe for a bounce back upon any piece of good news. In this case the news was very hopeful--President Trump's 90-day pause in tariffs excluding China--and was a sign that tariffs were more a bargaining chip than a permanent fixture. However, the economic landscape before last Wednesday was not especially rosy, so the odds are against the one-day relief rally to continue much longer.
The S&P 500 skyrocketed 9.52% to settle at 5,456.90 for its biggest one-day gain since 2008. For the broad market index, it was the third-biggest gain in post-WWII history. The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 2,962.86 points, or 7.87%, to close at 40,608.45 for its biggest percentage advance since March 2020. The Nasdaq Composite jumped 12.16% to end at 17,124.97, notching its largest one-day jump since January 2001 and second-best day ever.
About 30 billion shares traded hands, making it the heaviest volume day on Wall Street in history, according to records that go back 18 years.
“I have authorized a 90 day PAUSE, and a substantially lowered Reciprocal Tariff during this period, of 10%, also effective immediately,” Trump posted on his Truth Social. Trump, in the same post, said he was raising the tariff on China higher again to 125%.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent later clarified that all countries except China would return to the 10% baseline tariff rate, down from the higher rates that previously shocked the markets, as negotiations take place. The pause would not apply to sector tariffs, Bessent said.
Stocks that were heavily pressured by the trade war tensions led the comeback Wednesday afternoon. Apple and Nvidia soared more than 15% and nearly 19%, respectively. Walmart shares rallied 9.6%. Tesla shares climbed more than 22% on the back of the pause announcement.
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| (Photo: NASA/Zuma Press/WSJ) |
In half a lifetime, Jonny Kim has achieved the American dream three times over. He was a Navy SEAL. Then he graduated from Harvard Medical School. And on Tuesday, he blasted off as part of his latest act: astronaut.His childhood was marked by tragedy:
When novelist Wesley Chu first learned about Kim, a 41-year-old father of three who is also a Navy pilot, his first reaction was awe.
His second: “Thank God my mom is not friends with his mom.”
After word of his feats spread, Kim became a global source of inspiration. And yet, to many of the same people who glance at his résumé and can’t help but compare it to theirs, he has also conjured up a bit of another feeling.
Dismay.
This has been especially true in the Asian-American community, where Kim, the son of South Korean immigrants, has been simultaneously lauded as a hero—and feared, only half-jokingly, as “every Asian kid’s worst nightmare.”
The worry: No matter what they achieve, their high-demanding immigrant parents will say Jonny Kim already did that—only better. “We accomplished all this stuff, but really, it’s what he did that matters,” Chu said.
Kim became an internet meme among Asian Americans, who frequently take to social media to express gratitude that he’s not a relative. NASA’s social-media posts about Kim are flooded with comments expressing similar sentiments. “As a fellow Asian, I hope my parents do not get to read this. But, safe journey my man,” one wrote.
It all started with trauma during his childhood in Los Angeles. Kim said he witnessed his father, who he described as alcoholic and abusive, pull a gun on their family. Police shot his father dead in their attic.No matter how successful, we eventually meet someone who is better than we are in our field of endeavor. (My revelation occurred in college.) Jonny Kim has yet to meet that person.
His desire to physically protect his mother and brother led him to become a Navy SEAL. But an Ultimate Frisbee ankle injury delayed his plan to join the Navy as an operations specialist. When he recovered, a recruiter steered him toward becoming a medic.
In 2005, Kim joined SEAL Team Three, serving as a medic and sniper, among other roles. He earned a Silver Star and a Bronze Star for treating wounded comrades during two tours in Iraq, an experience that motivated him to attend medical school.
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| Hot Dog on a Stick is no longer at Hillsdale (Flickr) |
When a bamboo basket of brightly colored soup dumplings arrives at my table inside Palette Tea Garden restaurant, I can’t help but marvel at the transformation of Hillsdale Shopping Center.Hillsdale's restaurants and food court are now a destination rather than an afterthought. Over the past year I've gone to the mall to dine more often than to shop.
The large Cantonese restaurant, which opened this second Bay Area outpost, its first outside of San Francisco, in 2020, is among a wave of new eateries that have planted roots at the bustling Peninsula mall in recent years. The 71-year-old San Mateo mall has been on a steady remodeling kick since at least 2016, when it tore out its dated food court. In 2018, it unveiled an elegant dining terrace that featured new restaurants like Blue Whale Poke Bar & Grill, Kuro-Obi ramen bar and thve Bay Area’s first Uncle Tetsu Japanese Cheesecake.
Palette's dumplings (SFGate)
Just outside the dining terrace, Hillsdale gained a Shake Shack and the Refuge, which has been featured on Guy Fieri’s “Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives.” With new additions like Michelin-recognized Flores and the all-you-can-eat restaurant Mikiya Wagyu Shabu House, which opened earlier this year, it’s no longer the mall of my childhood.
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| Passing the peace |
