it's the headline alone

that got to me. who needs to read the rest of the article?
(it's actually a GOOD story)
Nuns leave their brains to science

By Stephanie Reitz
WILTON, Conn.—When Sister Kathleen Treanor's soul ascends to heaven, her brain will go to a less ethereal realm: a medical lab in Kentucky. Two decades ago, Sister Treanor and 677 other members of the School Sisters of Notre Dame granted a young researcher's request to test them each year in order to track the progression of Alzheimer's disease and other age-related brain disorders.
more stories like this
The 61 surviving nuns recently completed their last round of intellectual and physical tests for the Nun Study, one of the world's most comprehensive neurological research projects.
One final sacrifice remains: When they die, their brains will be taken for further study, joining a collection of hundreds of other brains donated by the the nuns who died before them.
Sister Treanor, a 93-year-old former school principal who is one of the last of the volunteers at a Wilton convent, looks at her participation as service, not sacrifice...........

i had surgery a few years back

it was a five hour procedure (give or take) and it was on (well in) my neck. my surgeon said i would be in the hospital overnight. he wanted me there to monitor me. my insurer said NO, i wasn't to stay overnight. THEY reviewed my case and THEY decided i DID NOT have to stay overnight. so my surgeon said he wanted me there, THEY said no. my surgeon DID come up with a plan to keep me overnight (he'd just leave me in 'recovery' overnight) so all was well (my surgery was at 6 am and i ended up leaving the same night at about 7 pm. MY decision and i cleared it with my doc and he thought it was fine as long as someone was with me for that night and the next day). i cannot imagine needing a liver and being told NO. it's one thing to be booted out of the hospital for one night, another thing to be denied an ORGAN
Teen Dies; CIGNA Blamed
Refusal To Fund Transplant Debated
By MOLLY HENNESSY-FISKE Los Angeles Times
LOS ANGELES - — The case of a Los Angeles teenager taken off life support just as her insurance company reversed itself and agreed to pay for a liver transplant is highlighting tensions among physicians, patients and insurers over the definition of "experimental" procedures.Nataline Sarkisyan's family blames their insurance company, Bloomfield, Conn.-based CIGNA HealthCare, for the teenager's death Thursday. A leukemia patient, Nataline, 17, had been in intensive care at UCLA Medical Center about three weeks after complications set in following a successful bone marrow transplant Nov. 21, relatives said. She was covered under the policy of her mother, a real estate agent.Doctors treating Nataline told the family and CIGNA in a letter that patients in similar situations have a 65 percent chance of living six months if they receive a liver transplant.................

(i didn't name the insurer who denied me an overnight stay because i have forgotten who my carrier was that year. i'm just not sure, otherwise i WOULD have named them. i DO work in the insurance/financial industry but my company does NOT do medical)

what the hell is going on at ccsu?

first a 'satirical' piece on rape being fun (especially if you're ugly), then a 'cartoon' featuring a 14 year old grrrl LOCKED IN A CLOSET and urinated on (well they talked about urinating on her) and now this? is everyone going to say this is a harmless joke too, just like the other two 'jokes'?
Black Stick Figure Draws CCSU Campus Fury
While students at Central Connecticut State University headed home for winter break, campus police hoped they could catch a break and find the person or persons responsible for a hate crime.
It was in a bathroom at Barrows Hall where someone found a drawing clearly depicting a black stick figure being hanged. There is no tolerance at CCSU for such a blatant act of racism.
"I don't believe in it myself but we have 10,000 students here. There would have to be some of which are racist,"Rob Lamere, CCSU junior, said...........

now THIS is wicked cool

check out the video at the link. it makes sense, looks like it is much less of a burden than regular shoveling.

Snow removal is just wovel-ly

ROB VARNON rvarnon@ctpost.com

BRIDGEPORT — A crew of utility workers took a break from replacing a street light Friday to gawk as Greenwich resident Hank Pohl cleared some sidewalks of snow with his Wovel.
Pohl wasn't on some sort of court-ordered clean up. He's the vice president of marketing and one of the owners of New Canaan-based Structured Solutions II, the maker of the Wovel (wheeled shovel). The Wovel does warrant a double take. It looks like some sort of antique iron snow shovel attached to a wheel. Some have compared it to antique bicycles, but it also looks like the wheels on old sewing machines. Despite the look the Wovel is pretty light; the wheel is made of space-age plastic and rubber and the handle is steel. It weighs about 26 pounds. "Am I going ............

picture: Vice President of Structured Solutions II, and maker of the Wovel, "the snow shovel on a wheel," Hank Pohl, demonstrates how the invention works in Bridgeport on Friday as he puts on the wheel. (Whitney Kidder-Alvarez/Connecticut Post)

ravings of a semi-sane madwoman: we have two senators in connecticut

ravings of a semi-sane madwoman: we have two senators in connecticut

da liebs

lyin' weasel? well we'll just have to wait until later this morning

Lieberman's New Kiss of Death


Sun Dec 16, 7:05 PM ET
The Nation -- Senator Joe Lieberman will finally come clean on Monday, unleashing his inner-Republican to endorse the struggling campaign of Senator John McCain, according to several news reports. It is a bittersweet alliance for both men. Lieberman's move confirms his critics' longtime argument that he is a "Democrat in Name Only," while McCain looks desperate by leaning on backers beyond the G.O.P. base in the homestretch of a partisan primary. ..........

During his 2006 reelection campaign, Lieberman emphasized that he would support Democratic candidates in 2008. "I want Democrats to be back in the majority in Washington and elect a Democratic president in 2008," he said during a televised debate in July. Lieberman promptly backtracked after his reelection, announcing this January that he was "open" to supporting a Republican or Democrat for president, depending "on a whole range of issues." By not even waiting to see who the Democrats nominate, now Lieberman is revealing that the issues aren't important to him, either.

thank you for serving Sgt. Brian Johnston

and thank you

homes for our troops

Soldier gets a home for the holidays
by News Channel 8's Crystal Haynes
Coventry (WTNH) _ A Connecticut soldier got the keys to his dream house today and it's all due to the kindness of strangers and one non-profit group.
Last summer this construction project was barely house for wounded Marine Sgt. Brian Johnston.
Today, it's not only a house, built by hundreds of homes for our troops volunteers; it's a home just in time for the holidays.
"I knew it was going to be a surprise. I just didn't know what I was going to be surprised with," said veteran Sgt. Johnston.
To help him move in, his mother Vera Herron-Morrey flew in from Utah, a surprise courtesy of volunteers Sharon and Pete Robbins.
"I just cried. I don't get to see him very often and I'm just so proud of him," said Herron-Morrey..........