Blog Content
I have a feeling I already know the answer to this question, but here goes. In WordPress, you can see when people have referenced your articles in their blogs. Recently, I’ve been getting lots and lots of references. The websites that are quoting me are not bloggers like the Kuwait Blogs aggregated by Safat, but are blogs selling – in particular – Paxil, which I don’t even know what it is, but also some gambling sites, sites my content really has nothing to do with. Sites I am not sure I even want to be associated with.
Some actually give me credit, as Intlxpatr or Here, There and Everywhere, but some – even while they give a trackback to my blog – say something like MillionDollarWinner today posted on Christmas in Seattle . . . and there is one of MY blog entries.
So my question – is there anything I can do to stop this? (I think the answer is probably “no”) I have left comments on a couple saying they shouldn’t be stealing my content, but then nothing changes, and they have a valid blog address for me . . . What is my best course of action/inaction?
Do any of you have this same problem, people stealing your content?
Jail Problems in Seattle
When I was blogging about the upsurge of antibiotic resistant infections springing up in more hospitals, our son sent an article about problems in the Pensacola Jails. Arriving in Seattle, the Seattle Times published a report of jail violations in this area, including rising rates of MRSA related infections.
The U.S. Department of Justice has issued a sweeping condemnation of the operation of the downtown King County Jail, saying inmates’ civil rights are being routinely violated through physical and sexual abuse by staff and inadequate medical care.
King County officials released a 27-page letter from the Department of Justice’s Civil rights Division which says that the department has notified county officials of “life-threatening deficiencies in medical care” for some inmates at the jail and alleges that inmates were routinely pepper-sprayed by staff and subjected to “degrading” physical abuse, including hair pulling to force inmates to comply with guards’ orders.
The DOJ says the county has failed to adequately train its staff and has inadequate policies and procedures in place to protect inmates.
The Department of Adult and Juvenile Corrections’ internal investigations unit is also inadequate and routinely fails to follow up on reports of inmates complaints, the DOJ alleges.
Jail Director Reed Holtgeerts said the jail is addressing many of the issues but that the county disagrees that inmates rights are being violated.
“We strive at all times to provide safe, secure and humane conditions for the over 50,000 inmates for whom we are responsible each year,” according to a written statement released today by the county. “We disagree that the constitutional rights are being violated, but we are in complete agreement with DOJ that there is room for improvement in the areas they evaluated.”
Holtgeerts said the county has and will cooperate completely with the DOJ.
The DOJ says a lawsuit could be filed if the county fails to address the issues.
The DOJ’s Office of Civil Rights opened an investigation into the King County Jail in November. Much of the investigation focused on jail health issues, including the spread of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, a highly contagious bacteria that can lead to severe infections and even death. At least one jail inmate has died from a MRSA infection and hundreds of others are diagnosed every year.
Other issues the DOJ said it would look at included jail suicides and sexual abuse of inmates.
You can read the entire article HERE
Mom’s Fruit Cake Updated
The basics are below, and the basics make the fruit cake. This year, once again, I am alcohol-less in Kuwait, as alcohol is illegal here, but during Ramadan I stocked up on some other local specialities – the glaceed cherries in red and green, the golden currants from Iran, the tiny red berries from Iran, delicious dried peaches, chunks of dried papaya, dried apricots, and the juiciest prunes I have ever tasted. Thanks to a care package, I will also be using fresh, delicious Texas pecans! Wooo Hooooo!
Every year is different, depending on where I am!
Here is the original blog entry, which to date has been one of the all-time statistical wonders. Thanks, Mom!
Wooo Hooooooo! The fruitcakes are in the oven, and already the house smells wonderful. I’ve been making these cakes since I got married. I don’t think I have missed a year, but I may have. I grew up smelling these delicious cakes every winter. I don’t think my Mom makes them every year any more. I wish I were close enough to pop one into her refrigerator for their holidays.
Mom’s Fruit Cake
Even people who think they HATE fruit cake like this fruit cake. It has a secret ingredient – chocolate!
This is the original recipe. I remember cutting the dates and prunes with scissors when I was little; now you can buy dates and prunes without pits and chop them in the food processor – a piece of cake!
1 cup boiling water
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup lard or butter
1 T. cinnamon
1 t. cloves
3 Tablespoons chocolate powder
1/4 cup jelly
1 cup seeded raisins
1 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup candied citron
1/2 cup cut prunes
1/2 cup cut dates
Put all in a pan on stove and bring to a boil. Boil for three minutes. Let cool. Add:
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
Flavor with lemon
Bake at 350° in loaf pans for one hour. Makes 2 normal bread loaf sized cakes.
My variations: I put in about three times the fruit, the difference primarily in the candied citron – I prefer using whole candied cherries, because they are so pretty when the loafs are cut. This recipe doubles, or quadruples with no problems.
Pans: Mom used to line all the pans with brown paper and grease the paper. That’s a lot of trouble.
I grease the pans, then dust with more of the chocolate powder. Use a good quality chocolate, not cocoa.
When the cakes come out of the oven, let them cool for ten minutes, loosen them with a knife, then they will shake out easily. Let continue to cool until they are totally cool, then wrap in plastic wrap, with several layers, then foil, then seal in a sealable plastic bag. Let them age a couple months in a corner of your refrigerator.
I never make these the same any two years in a row. This is the first year, ever, that I won’t be using any brandy – alcohol in Kuwait being against the law. Yeh, I have some friends who laugh and say “you can get it anywhere!” but we made a decision to obey the law. Only rarely do I regret it . . . sigh . . .fruitcakes really need brandy.
Update: If you are in a country where brandy is available, and if you want to use brandy, here is how to use it in this recipe. You know how raisins get all dried out and taste yucky in fruitcakes? The night before you intend to make the fruitcakes, take all the raisins you intend to use (depending on how many fruitcakes you intend to make) and put them in a glass container. Pour brandy over them, to cover. Microwave just to the boiling point. Let stand in the microwave overnight.
The next day, you can drain that brandy and use it in a stew or something, and in the meanwhile, you now have plump, juicy raisins to use in your fruitcake, and just a hint of brandy flavor. Yummmm!
Big Statistics Change
Two months ago, one of my regular readers Elementary Teacher who has a fascinating blog about teaching elementary school in a Middle Eastern country, wrote to me and told me that when I set up my blog page, I forgot to add back in the widget for Meta, which contained the RSS feed.
The truth is, I still don’t know entirely what that means, but I did as she suggested, and added the Meta back in.
And watched as my visitors nearly doubled overnight.
Who knew?
There is so much I am still learning, and I thank all of you who write to be, back channels, and give me hints. Thank you, especially, Elementary Teacher for your kindness in sharing such good information. I really enjoy reading your blog!
Hokey Pokey Cat
My latest giggle from I Can Has Cheezburger? I know it looks like the Qatari Cat, but it is not.
moarfunny pictures
Time for a new Mac
Last night, as I checked this blog, all of a sudden everything froze. Now and then that might happen. I turned it off, and rebooted. Nothing.
You know that feeling of sheer panic when you think you might be cut off?
I let it rest – sometimes when you walk away, it fixes itself. And sure enough it came back on, and I could log on and even picked up some e-mail. Maybe four minutes in, it froze again.
I bought this Mac in April of 2004 – I know, because I was back in the US for Sporty Diamond’s wedding, and I uploaded my first photos into iPhoto. I was IN LOVE. iPhoto lets me manage all my photos so easily, lets me organize, helps me in so many ways.
I have never had a moment’s problem with this computer. I’ve upgraded the operating system a couple times, tweaked things here and there, and never had a problem.
When the new Macs came out recently with the new operating system, I was feeling envious, but honestly, my current Mac is running so well . . .
Now, however, Adventure Man says “hey, this sounds like a great time for a new computer!”
He he he he he – I think so, too!
I hate to leave my current Mac behind – he has worked so hard, we’ve been partners, we’ve had so much fun together! Seems like he’s had enough, though, and it’s time to move on.
Rape in Dubai
I saw this in ChillNight’s blog yesterday with a link to the Herald Trib, which wouldn’t work for me. Today, my niece,Little Diamond, sent me the same article with a link to the New York Times which did work. This is the third most e-mailed article this week; it is attracting a lot of attention world wide. About time.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, Oct. 31 — Alexandre Robert, a French 15-year-old, was having a fine summer in this tourist paradise on the Persian Gulf. It was Bastille Day and he and a classmate had escaped the July heat at the beach for an air-conditioned arcade.
Just after sunset, Alex says he was rushing to meet his father for dinner when he bumped into an acquaintance, a 17-year-old native-born student at the American school, who said he and his cousin could drop Alex off at home.
There were, in fact, three Emirati men in the car, including a pair of former convicts ages 35 and 18, according to Alex. He says they drove him past his house and into a dark patch of desert, between a row of new villas and a power plant, took away his cellphone, threatened him with a knife and a club, and told him they would kill his family if he ever reported them.
Then they stripped off his pants and one by one sodomized him in the back seat of the car. They dumped Alex across from one of Dubai’s luxury hotel towers.
Alex and his family were about to learn that despite Dubai’s status as the Arab world’s paragon of modernity and wealth, and its well-earned reputation for protecting foreign investors, its criminal legal system remains a perilous gantlet when it comes to homosexuality and protection of foreigners.
You can read the rest of the article at The New York Times.
Of course, I am sick for the victim, sick for his parents, and sick for a nation that can’t and won’t prosecute the rapists, even with evidence, and warns the victim to leave the country because he is about to be accused of the crime of homosexuality.
Rape is an invisible crime. You can’t look at someone and see they have been raped. Many, many rape victims never report the crime. This 15 year old kid has the courage to go public with probably one of the most humiliating crimes that can happen to a person and HE is threatened with prison?
(Gasp!) I Lied!
I didn’t mean to lie, and I sincerely apologize.When I printed Gas Tank Mystery Solved I believed what I was saying was true. It would be cool if it were true – but it’s not.
I didn’t even bother checking. It made such good sense, you know?
So when I hit the gas station yesterday, just for grins, I took a look at the little gas tank symbol, which looks EXACTLY like the one in the gas tank article. That would indicate my gas tank is on the right.
It is NOT on the right. It is on the left.
I was so embarrassed. I lied to you! I am so sorry! What it shows on your gas guage may NOT be where your tank is.
There is only one good thing. Kinan shared a tip from his Dad – pop your gas tank using the inside lever, and use your side view mirrors to see which side opens. Pretty easy, huh? and you still don’t have to get out of the car.
Where is Magical Droplets?
I had a blogging buddy, Magical Droplets, who seems to have dropped off the blogosphere. About a month ago, I checked her blog and it seemed to have gone wierd, it had some of her old content, but all these ads for things that weren’t anything like MD used to write. I checked again recently, and it has just gotten worse.
If any of you know this blogger, will you give her my regards and tell her I miss her?
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Comment on Obesity Post
I normally won’t post a comment as a new post unless it meets two criteria – the author has a blog that is legitimate and the post is so well written that I don’t want it buried in the comments. This response to the Obesity Fuels Cancer in Women Post only meets the well written rule, but the reference blog was non-existent. Too bad – the comment is so full of good information that this commenter should be writing her own blog, and I hope she is.
Guess the link between obesity and breast cancer is significantly higher in comparison to other cancers because fat has an oestrogenic effect, which stimulates the lining epithelium of the mammary glands. The more stimulated the gland the greater are the chances of spontaneous mutations happening which could result in cancer.
By that metric, women with rather large breasts could also be at risk. Suddenly, breast augmentation doesn’t sound like a brilliant idea anymore.
My prof. would insist you could cut your breast cancer risk in half simply by taking a brisk walk daily for 45 mins and cutting back on red meat, smoking, alcohol and spicy food.
This after undergoing molecular testing for BRCA1/BRCA2 mutation analysis if a first degree relative suffers early onset breast or ovarian cancer ( before age 45) so that you can begin annual screening by mammography alternating with an ultra-sound, a full 10 years ahead of the rest of the population starting at 30.
What’s useful to know is that you should not change your radiologist or the mammography machine as there can be wide variation in result interpretation with different machines and/or operators.
A final word of caution – ladies, don’t let’s apply deodorants under our armpits. Studies claim a higher incidence of cancers in the left upper quadrant of the breast due to such an application in mostly, right handed women. It is a truism – every little helps; baby steps can go a long way.
Monthly self-examination of both the breasts with flat of the palm; taking care to avoid the time of monthly periods can enable the detection of small pea sized cancerous lumps.
It is a step in the right direction that Q8 is slowly but surely awakening to the need of mass public education on breast cancer through TV and print ads, as well as through sharing space with commercial ads in cinemas and the distribution of flyers and brochures with the testing of perfumes and cosmetics in malls and shopping arcades across Kuwait.
It is unfortunate that similar campaigns are not being directed at men for lung and prostate cancer as well as to raise the awareness of the rare breast cancer happening in men with a far worse prognosis.
November 10, 2007 Posted by intlxpatr | Blogging, ExPat Life, Health Issues, Living Conditions, Women's Issues | blog comments, cancer, Obesity | 11 Comments