Another year I’ve been ex utero

Happy birthday to me 😃 🎂 I turned fifty-three this week. Who would have thought I’d live this long? Hmmm…that sounded a little dark, didn’t it?

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Most days, I don’t feel like I’m this old when I wake up each morning and go about my day, I don’t feel any older than what I did when I was thirty. Sure, I’m in constant discomfort because of a chronic health problem and my shoulders seem to have frozen up a little with the cooler Autumn weather, but in my head, nothing has changed.

What did I get up to on my birthday?

It was a work day so I got up and ate breakfast and went to work. It was a day of meetings and other gatherings. I also had my influenza immunisation on my birthday 💉

I ate lunch and I was then treated to an afternoon tea for my birthday. I do love my workmates. They are a terrific bunch of people and never fail to make me feel happier and brighter in spirit.

In the evening, I was taken out to dinner and enjoyed a chicken schnitzel and chips plus a vanilla slice. What more could I want in terms of food on my birthday?

Is it worth celebrating birthdays?

I did ponder on the day a post written by my friend Mabel Kwong who recently wrote about this very topic.

In my mind, birthdays are merely an excuse for a little indulgence. When human life expectancy wasn’t that great, reaching another circuit around the sun probably meant a lot in terms of societal stature. These days as we see aged care facilities brimming with residents, many of whom are not that sure they wish to see another birthday, my mind goes to the quality of human life.

I’ve been speaking a lot with my parents lately. Their health and ongoing well being are the subjects of much of our telephone calls. We seem to take for granted that as we get older, there will be support structures in place for us to enjoy our senior years. I hope that is the case.

While I would like to live forever, I don’t want to suffer ill health forever. I don’t want to experience pain forever. An extended life should be a life worth living and not a life of pain and discomfort.

I have been pondering mortality more often. Especially as I lay awake in bed when I’ve woken after some odd dream or nightmare. I don’t want to be a burden to society. I don’t want to burden my children. If I get a diagnosis of a slow terminal disease, I want a quick release.

Twitter password problem

If you’re on Twitter you’ve probably heard that there was a glitch with passwords. Twitter has been sending e-mails to all account holders in “an abundance of caution” and recommending account holders change passwords.

I now find that term, “an abundance of caution”, to be really wanky. I hear and see it too often. I accept there can be degrees of caution, the reality is, Twitter has issued a cautionary notice and advises users to change passwords.

It makes sense to change passwords regularly. The trusted insider is a constant threat. Knowing that some individuals in an organisation can access the user names and passwords users use means there is always a risk. It makes sense to regularly change passwords.

Given the role our main e-mail address plays in the access to so many apps and programs and accounts, it’s critical that your e-mail password is unique and changed regularly. I know it feels like a pain in the neck when you change things, but it’s worth it.

Where’s the ‘like’ button?

When I started blogging back in 2010, it was on a WordPress.com site. I really liked a lot of the functions and options for interaction on that site. So when I moved to a self-hosted WordPress.org site I installed the Jetpack plugin to keep some of that functionality. In particular, I liked the ‘like’ button. The ‘like’ button allows users with a WordPress.com account including those who use the WordPress reader app to acknowledge a post by clicking the ‘like’ button. This is similar to liking a Facebook status update or ‘hearting’ a Tweet. It’s a little interaction that brings a little joy.

I think most bloggers would prefer a comment for interaction, but I’ll take my ‘likes’ wherever I can get them 😂

So, you may notice the lack of a ‘like’ button at the moment on My Thoughts and Stuff as well as Yummy Lummy. The Jetpack plugin recently experienced a problem and some users started seeing a popup dialogue box when scrolling down and when the page got close to the end where the ‘like’ button is. This popup dialogue box referred to a 404 error, which for bloggers is never a good number.

I reached out to the forums and to the Jetpack support people. The Jetpack mechanics are aware of the problem and at one stage thought it had been repaired but it appears not everyone’s problem can be resolved. I was told to disable the ‘like’ button and wait a few weeks until the next update of the Jetpack plugin. So for now, I will be likeless I suppose ☹️

In other news, I’ve reached 1000 followers on Yummy Lummy.

What I ate this week

It was an indulgent week. Regular readers know that I’m trying to lose weight. A birthday week though is not a good time to expect weight loss. There was cake, there was dessert, there were lots of chips and then I had a little blow out on Friday night with a piece of battered fish, a battered sav, some potato scallops and coleslaw!

This is a gallery of photographs. Click on one and then scroll through the rest.

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Photographs I’ve enjoyed editing this week

Trigger warning

Some of the text may distress people who are opposed to animal experimentation.

There were no cows this week! There is a circus set up near the paddocks where the Lake Ginninderra cows are normally grazing and resting.

I’m in two minds about circuses. When I was a kid, I loved the opportunity to attend a circus, to be entertained by clowns and to see the trapeze artists, and most of all to see the various animals. I’m no longer a great supporter of keeping animals in captivity for the entertainment of sapiens, this is especially true of large cats and elephants. As much as I loved seeing non-human primates in circuses and zoölogical gardens, I’m no longer a supporter of monkeys and apes in captivity.

That said, I am an advocate for the use of animals in biomedical research, including non-human primates. I still believe there is a place for using animals for diagnostic purposes too. For example, some intoxications are readily confirmed by injecting the patient’s specimen into the peritoneum of a test guinea pig as well as a control guinea pig. In the test guinea pig, the antitoxin is also injected so if the control guinea pig becomes ill or dies and the test guinea pig survives, it’s a positive result. Some people argue that genetic tests have replaced in vivo tests, but at the moment, some of the genetic tests can only determine if the toxin gene is present and not if the toxin it is responsible for elaborating is actually present.

Having worked with mice in 1982 for a sixth form (grade 12) high school biology project, when I compared three in vitro diagnostic devices for the detection of antibodies to rubella virus, I handled mice carefully, especially the bleeding process. I looked after the mice, providing food and water and keeping their cages clean. At the end of the project, I killed them quickly with an anaesthetic overdose. My greatest disappointment is even though I was able to present the work at the annual scientific meeting of the Australian Society for Microbiology as a first-year medical student in 1983, I was disqualified from the national high school science competition because I experimented on live animals. While that was back in 1982 and I still wonder how my project may have faired in that competition if I wasn’t disqualified. Another school mate was disqualified because he used solid rocket propellant in his project. I think he’s an engineer now.

My guess is that as proteomics and genomics improve, the need for animals in diagnostic testing will vanish. In addition, these days, in silico modelling has become a valuable tool which can minimise the need for in vitro and in vivo work. It’s an exciting time with only better times ahead. I can’t help think though, that for research that requires whole organism multi-system analysis, animals will still need to feature especially when working with emerging communicable disease threats and their counter-measures.

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Google forms

You’ll see a new feature at the end of this post and also on new posts on Yummy Lummy.

I’ve figured out how to configure Google Forms for feedback. I don’t expect every reader will complete a form, but I hope some people will. Especially, if readers want to see some changes in the way I post or what I post.

Please note, that when completing the form I will also receive your e-mail address which I will keep private. I may though add your e-mail address to a newsletter group.

Final thoughts

I hope the week ahead is a good one for you, especially if you celebrate a birthday.

How do you feel about animals in circuses?

How do you feel about animals in biomedical research and diagnostics?

Do you like the ‘like’ button?

Let me know, in the comments section below.

 

The WordPress white screen of death

Focussing on food blogging and enjoying a Bânh mì

Google feedback form