Thursday

This blog is under Hawaii Institute of Integrative Health dba Hawaii Health Foundation, 501(c)3 non-profit organization, funded by contributions from Dr. Terry Shintani and Dr.D, and donations from individual donors. Hawaii Health Foundation receives no other funding. If you enjoy or benefit from this blog, please consider making a tax-deductible donation (click Donate button - secure payment processed by PayPal)

      Thank you

CONTENTS: (BLUE indicates recently posted) 

1.   Higher Cancer Rates

2.   Bacteria on Cellphone Worse than Men's-Toilet Flush Handle

3.   CPR - what you need to know

4.    Tips to Stay Cool in the Heat

5.    Older Brain More Vulnerable to Fraud

6.   In Honor of our Veterans

7.    Don't be Just a Taker - Sea of Galilee & Dead Sea

8.    April Fool's Day Tsunami    

9.    Halloween Tsunami

10.   Brown Rice - what you didn't know

11.   Beriberi

12.   Preventing Shark Attacks

13.   Holidays Can be Dangerous for your Heart

14.   The Real James Bond, 007

15.   Cold & Flu Season - some things to know

16.   Heat

17.   Meth can cause Insanity - permanently

18.   Hangover Cure

19.   Amazing Deals - can't find prices like this anywhere else

20.   Happy Holidays gift cards give-away details


Higher Cancer Rates

I subscribe to MDedge which reported, data show people under 50 are experiencing higher rates of cancer than any generation before them. According to the American Cancer society, recent findings reveal incidence of at least 17 of 34 cancer types is rising among Generation X and Millennials. This article also appeared on Medscape.com

For some additional information, click the “Dangers” tab above, near the top of this blog and read, Higher Cancer Rates Than Any Previous Generation.




Bacteria on Cellphone Worse than Men's-Toilet Flush Handle

I subscribe to Scientific American. See this information in their publication. This is a colored scanning electron micrograph of bacteria cultured from a cell phone. Tests show the average cellphone handset carries 18 times more potentially harmful germs than on a flush handle in a men's public toilet.

Scientific American reported, With frequent use phones remain warm, creating the ideal breeding ground for bacteria. With touch-screen phones, the same part of the phone touched with fingertips is pressed up against the face and mouth, increasing chances of infection. In tests E. coli, Haemophilus influenzae and MRSA were amongst the infectious bacteria found on handsets.”


CPR – what you need to know

I subscribe to The NY Times. The following information is from Dr. Dhruv Khullar in the NY Times who wrote, At most hospitals, it's routine to ask patients about their resuscitation preferences when they're admitted, regardless of how healthy they are. This is more important than you may know. Dr. Khullar said, consistently, most of the patients I talk to don't understand what exactly CPR is, what it's for, and what its risks and benefits are.”

CPR can be a lifesaver, but it does have risks. This may be one reason American Medical Association recommends patients' preferences be documented in their medical records. CPR is one of the few treatments that patients must expressly opt out of instead of opting in to and as such carries a special burden of explanation. It has been found almost all people have unrealistic expectations of CPR. We need to have an understanding of CPR and you can get that from talking with your doctor. There is risk for complications like rib fractures, damaged airways, internal bleeding, and possible serious long-term consequences like brain damage from extended oxygen deprivation.

Dr. Khullar said the first time he saw a patient who had received CPR, it wasn't what he expected. He wrote, a frail woman in her mid-80s, barely conscious, vomiting, with broken ribs and a bruised lung. Her stomach was bloated and her chest was bleeding. She looked more like a survivor of CPR than of cardiac arrest . . . When she died a few days later, I couldn't help wondering if she really knew what she was getting herself into.It can be a lifesaver, but people need an accurate understanding of CPR. We should know what we're getting in to.

Tips to Stay Cool in the Heat

Washington Post reported, Fans don't cool the room temperature, so turn them off when you leave.A fan keeps you cool while you are using it, but if you leave it running when you are not there, the only thing you do is waste energy. Sweating cools you when moisture on your skin absorbs heat from your body for energy to evaporate. Fans make you feel cooler because they create a breeze, which moves moisture away from your skin more efficiently than still air, making you feel cooler.

Cotton is a natural fabric that's breathable and absorbs moisture, helping to keep sweat from building up on your skin. Cotton is commonly a GMO crop, sprayed with powerful herbicides while it's growing. Organic (no herbicides) cotton may be hypoallergenic. Linen tends to wrinkle but it's a natural plant fiber that may not feel as heavy as cotton, and also absorbs sweat.

Athletic clothes tend to be made with synthetic fabric because this kind of material tends to wick moisture from your body and dries quickly. Synthetic fabric sheds a lot of microplastic particles each time it's washed, polluting rivers, the environment, and ultimately the ocean. If you care about the environment, please consider wearing clothes made from natural fabrics like cotton or linen.


Older Brain More Vulnerable to Fraud

I subscribe to NY Times. Judith Graham reported, research published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences showed old people's vulnerability to fraud may be rooted in age-related neurological changes.Researchers at University of California, Los Angles found the brain's anterior insula was muted when old people looked at photos of suspicious-looking people. Graham said this part of the brain activates gut-level feelings that help people interpret reliability of other people and assess potential risks associated with social interactions. Old people don't respond as readily to visual cues that suggest someone might be untrustworthy, and their brains don't send out as many warning signals that ignite a danger ahead gut response.

Younger adults (ages 23 to 46) and older adults (ages 55 to 80) were asked to evaluate trustworthiness of people in photographs while undergoing brain scans. 

When the younger adults saw a person as
not trustworthy their anterior insula lighted up. This did not happen for the older adults. Dr. Shelley Taylor, professor of psychology at UCLA, the study's lead researcher, said, The warning signals that convey a sense of potential danger to younger adults just don't seem to be there for older adults.” [If you cannot see the caption below the 2 photos, this is what it says:  "Would you buy a used car from this man? Spotting an untrustworthy face, like that of the legendary fraudster Charles Ponzi (right), may depend on activation in the brain's anterior insula (left)."]


In Honor of our Veterans

For those of us who have not experienced war in the military or don't know someone who was in combat, what we know of war is what we see in movies, which is not real. Military journalist, Thomas J. Brennan, gives us a glimpse of what it's like to be in real battle in a real war, in The War Horse documentary, “Shadows of Fallujah, the bloodiest battle of the Iraq War. We Americans owe it to our military to watch this 26 minutes video to learn what happens to our young people we send to war.


Watch S
hadows of Fallujah.(26 minutes). Click this LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dd05RORpfA


Watch this Thomas J. Brennan interview (15 minutes) for a deeper understanding of the documentary. Click this LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJi-sQGZ_5E


Don't be Just a Taker - Sea of Galilee & Dead Sea


The Sea of Galilee is a fresh water lake fed by the Jordan River. It's the main water source for all of Israel. Joyce Meyer [Joyce Meyer Ministries] said an abundance of fish live in it, its banks are green and lined with beautiful trees, everything around it lives and thrives, and children love to play on its shores. The Dead Sea has no fish, nothing near it is green, no birds nest nearby, children seldom play on its shores, and the air above it hangs heavy.

The Sea of Galilee receives and gives water. Water flows in and flows out. Meyers said the Dead Sea hoards its water---it keeps every drop it receives.


Bob Dodson teaches Bible study at Christ's Church in Roswell, New Mexico. He explained, The Dead Sea is dead because it is so salty. . . . The water is clean and beautiful looking, yet it is bitter and nauseuous to the taste. The salts in the Dead Sea are worth billions of dollars.He said, The Dead Sea is so salty because it has no outlet. The reason the Sea of Galilee is so sweet, is that it has both an inflow and an outflow. It both receives and gives. The Dead Sea only receives and never gives. It is full of riches but there is no life in it.




Please Help
If you benefit from this blog, please consider making a donation.
Click DONATE button near top of this page.

Donations go to Hawaii Institute of Integrative Health
dba Hawaii Health Foundation
501(c)(3) nonprofit organization - tax deductible


April Fool's Day Tsunami

On April 1, 1946 Hilo was hit by the most devastating tsunami in Hawaii's modern history. Death toll was 158. The tsunami was triggered by a 7.4-magnitude earthquake off the coast of Alaska. Some experts now say it was closer to 8.5-magnitude. The tsunami reached Hawaii in less than five hours.

The massive tsunami arrived as high as a 3-story building. Maximum height recorded in Haena was 45 feet. James DS Barros, administrator of the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency said, Tsunamis can strike with very little warning and cause enormous destruction.He said, We observe Tsunami Awareness Month every year in Hawaii, starting on the anniversary of the deadly April Fools' Day Tsunami that caused so much sorrow and damage . . .


Hawaii Emergency Management Agency defines a tsunami as a series of ocean wave masses generated primarily by earthquakes or underwater volcanic eruptions and landslides. Tsunamis can strike any time of the year and any time, day or night. Dr. Laura Kong, director of the International Tsunami information center said, We don't know when and where the next big one will occur, so we need to be prepared.

For more information and 14+ photos from the tsunami aftermath, click this link: https://docdeetipsforyourhealth.blogspot.com/p/april-fools-day-tsunami.html


Halloween Tsunami

October 27, 2012, a few days before Halloween, Hawaii received a tsunami alert from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center after a strong magnitude 7.7 earthquake occurred somewhere off the west coast of Canada. People living in coastal areas were told to move to higher areas. In Waikiki, residents of high-rise buildings were told to go up to the third floor or higher. Tsunami warning sirens blared across Honolulu. There was a traffic jam on some roads as people evacuated to higher ground. Many cars lined up at service stations attempting to fill gas.

Waves that arrived were small, 6 inches in Waianae, 1.5 feet in Makapuu, 8 inches in Hilo. This is fortunate because Hawaii news media reported people were swimming at Waikiki beach despite the tsunami warning. On October 31 Star-Advertiser showed results from “The Big Q” (question) subscribers were asked: What was your main response to the tsunami warning Saturday night? 13% said, Evacuation.” 5% said, Went to get gas, supplies. 79% said, Didn't leave home.”  3% said, Headed to shore to see(not what you should do). 


Brown Rice - what you didn't know

The first vitamin was identified in 1912, but it was not chemically defined and isolated until 1926. In 1942, Robert R. Williams was granted one of the first patents for chemically or artificially synthesizing a vitamin. That was vitamin B1 or thiamine.

Thiamine (vitamin B1) is in brown rice. Today we can find brown rice all over Hawaii, in many homes and restaurants, but there was a time few people knew about it except hippies and health advocates. It wasn't until Dr. Terry Shintani began telling people in his seminars about health benefits of brown rice that people became interested in brown rice, wanted to eat it and began asking for it. People now take for granted that it's widely available in many places that sell food in Hawaii, but they don't know it's because of Dr. Shintani.

Long before there was white rice, brown rice was what people ate. In the 1800s the Germans perfected rice milling machines that stripped the bran and germ from brown rice to make white rice. One reason they did this was to extend the shelf-life of rice.

White rice was more expensive and advertising told people it was superior to brown rice. This was during European colonization of Asian countries and European colonists saw white rice as more desirable and of better quality compared to cheap brown rice eaten by the common local people.

White rice caused the disease beriberi. No one noticed the poor local people who ate brown rice were not getting beriberi. Some symptoms include fatigue, irritability, poor memory, sleep disturbances, anorexia, abdominal problems, and neurological problems like burning sensations in feet; calf muscle cramps; weakness. It can affect the heart and can lead to death if not treated. No one knew how to treat it.

This was when Dr. Louis Pasteur was famous so people were afraid beriberi was caused by germs and that it was contagious.


Beriberi

In the 1890s during a beriberi epidemic among Dutch colonists in Java, people with beriberi were quarantined at a hospital and research facility deep in the jungle to keep them from spreading beriberi germs. Dr. Christiaan Eijkman headed the facility. They had a flock of healthy chickens. When they ran out of the cheap brown rice used for chicken feed, they had to feed the chickens the good white rice. The chickens subsequently displayed the same kinds of symptoms as the beriberi patients. The facility staff were alarmed because they thought the disease was so contagious even the chickens were getting infected by the beriberi germs. They didn't want to waste white rice on sick chickens so they stopped feeding them white rice. By then new supplies reached the facility, including brown rice so the chickens were fed brown rice again and the chickens regained their health.

Based on this evidence, Dr. Eijkman proposed beriberi was really a nutritional deficiency and not caused by germs and that something in rice bran prevents beriberi. No one believed him and he was relieved of his duties and sent back home a failure. That was before he received the Nobel Prize.


Preventing Shark Attack

Rick Sobey reported for Boston Herald that researchers in Australia found LED lights on surfboards could be the key to preventing great white shark bites. They published results from a 6-year shark study that could lead to a revolution in surfboard design. Dr. Nathan Hart, professor at Macquarie University said, What we've been trying to do is understand how sharks see their prey. And with an understanding of that, see if we can create some shark deterrents, which protect people and also sharks.They went to shark-infested waters to test how lights affect great white sharks.

The researchers used seal-shaped decoys and saw how the sharks responded to the decoy. Seals are one of the primary food sources of great white sharks. Dr. Hart said, What we found out is if you put lights on the bottom of the decoys, the sharks leave them alone.



Holidays Can be Dangerous for Your Heart

A study in the Journal of the American Heart Association found the holidays can be a dangerous time for your heart. Heart-related deaths rise during the holiday season in the U.S. One reason may be rich holiday food. Holiday parties are more than about food. It’s about enjoying warmth and comfort of family & friends; but many people over eat. Big meals can raise risk for heart attack, blood clots, and gallbladder problems, especially for older folks, for whom risk is higher. Enjoy yourself, but it's safer to not overeat. A study presented at an American Heart Association scientific meeting, found heart attack risk can be four times higher in the 2 hours after a large meal. Eating a heavy meal may act as a trigger for heart attack essentially the same way as extreme physical exertion and outbursts of anger in someone with heart disease.

The study’s lead author, Dr. Francisco Lopez-Jimenez, cardiologist at Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston, said this could be explained in several ways. Fatty meals could impair function of the inner lining of arteries by a direct effect of fatty acids and other fats in the blood. Rise in insulin after a large meal may also affect the inner lining of blood vessels that lead to the heart. Increase in insulin in blood can also decrease normal relaxation of coronary arteries. Eating and digesting food releases hormones that increase heart rate and blood pressure and may increase substances that help form clots. Temporary rise in blood pressure increases oxygen requirement and creates extra burden on the heart. High blood pressure may also rupture cholesterol plaques in an arterial wall, triggering formation of a clot that can block a blood vessel, triggering heart attack or stroke.


Enjoy yourself, but it's safer to not over eat. Don't stuff yourself.





The Real James Bond, 007

Women want to be with him, men want to be him. Maria Cheng reported for Associated Press, He may have a license to kill, but is he sober enough to shoot straight? Real-life British doctors studied author Ian Fleming's James Bond novels and published their research in a lighthearted Christmas edition of BMJ (British Medical Journal). They analyzed 14 James Bond books, documenting every drink Bond drank. They found he drank about 92 units of alcohol a week. One unit is about 8 grams of pure alcohol. (A large glass of wine has 3 units of alcohol.)

The doctors said Bond's drinking put him at high risk for numerous alcohol-related diseases and an early alcohol-related death. They concluded, The level of functioning as displayed in the books is inconsistent with the physical, mental and indeed sexual functioning expected from someone drinking this much alcohol.

James Gallagher, for BBC News, in the article titled, James Bond is an 'impotent drunk'” wrote, Her Majesty's top secret agent's love of the bottle would leave him impotent . . .He reported, Doctors analysing the Ian Fleming novels show James Bond polishes off the equivalent of one and a half bottles of wine every day.One of the researchers, Dr. Patrick Davies, a consultant in pediatric intensive care at Nottingham University Hospitals in the UK told the BBC, You wouldn't want this person defusing a nuclear bomb.Dr. Davies said, Bond is a very glamorous person, he gets all the girls and that's totally incompatible with the lifestyle of an alcoholic, which he is.Bond would be at high risk for liver damage, early death, and impotence.

Steve Mirsky reported for Scientific American, Bond imbibed so much alcohol that he would be at high risk for malignancies (cancers), depression, hypertension, and cirrhosis, according to the report in BMJ.

The other researchers were emergency physician, Dr. Graham Johnson and hepatologist Dr. Indra Neil Guha, both in the UK. They referred to another paper, Sexual Dysfunction in Male Alcohol Addicts: Prevalence and Treatmentas additional evidence Bond should be experiencing erectile dysfunction. With his history of sexual activity, he also had many opportunities for sexually transmitted diseases.  


Cold & Flu Season – some things to know

It's that time of year when colds and flu are spreading. You may not know some common things harbor a lot of germs. Here are some things you can do to protect yourself.  
Soap dispensers
in public restrooms can be germ-infested because people touch them to get soap after they use the toilet, before they wash their hands. One study found 25% of restroom soap dispensers had fecal bacteria on them. That's fecal as in feces, from wiping after using the toilet. After you use the dispenser to put soap on your hands, do not touch the dispenser again after you wash your hands. 
Restroom door handles are dirty. Some people do not wash their hands after using the toilet. Then they grab the door handle to leave the restroom, leaving a dirty handle for others to grab. On your way out, use a paper towel to grab the door handle. If there is no paper towel, use clean toilet paper.

Restaurant Menus are essentially never cleaned. Cold and flu viruses can survive up to 18 hours on a hard surface. Bring wet wipes to wipe the menu before using it or to clean your hands after you are done looking at the menu. When you are taken to your table, if there are plates or silverware already set on the table, do not let restaurant staff put the menu on your plate or silverware.

Condiment dispensers may not be regularly washed, if at all. They are often merely refilled. How many people do you know wash their hands before eating in a restaurant?  Many people use condiments, including salt, pepper, mustard, shoyu (soy sauce) chili sauce, ketchup. Use wet wipe to clean your hands after using the condiment dispenser, before you touch your food.

Some studies found grocery-store carts can contain more germs than some public restroom door handles. Fecal bacteria were cultured from the baby seat on some carts. That could be from baby diapers or from dogs people allow to ride in the cart. Bring disinfectant wipes to wipe the cart handle before you use the cart. Wipe the baby seat before you put your groceries in it. If you use a store-provided basket, wipe the basket handle.


HEAT!

People expect Hawaii to be hot because it's in the tropics, but the ocean and the trade winds help moderate the temperatures, more so than many places on the continental U.S., even at higher latitudes. Years ago I was talking to a guy from Florida and I said I heard Florida is humid like Hawaii. He said, Hawaii is not humid.  He meant, compared to Florida, Hawaii is not humid.

I subscribe to The Atlantic. In the July/August 2024 issue, America – A Dispatch from the Near Future, George Packer writes a Pulitzer Prize worthy article, The Valley (pages 52 to 93). This is how he described Phoenix, Arizona. Last summer---when the temperature reached at least 110 degrees on 55 days . . . heat officially helped kill 644 people in Maricopa County. They were the elderly, the sick, the mentally ill, the isolated, the homeless, the addicted . . . and those too poor to own or fix or pay for air-conditioning, without which a dwelling can become unlivable within an hour. Even touching the pavement is dangerous . . . A woman . . . [showed] me a large patch of pink skin on her calf---the scar of a second-degree burn from a fall she'd taken during a heart attack in high heat . . .

Dr. Aneesh Narang at the emergency department of Banner-University Medical Center . . . had already lost four or five patients to heatstroke over the summer . . . 'Patients coming in at 108, 109 degrees--- they've been in the heat for hours, they're pretty much dead. We try to cool them down as fast as we can.' The method is to strip off their clothes and immerse them in ice and tap water inside a disposable cadaver bag to get their temperature down to 100 degrees within 15 to 20 minutes. But even those who survive heatstroke risk organ failure and years of neurological problems. . . . A scientific study published in May 2023 projected that a blackout [no air conditioning] during a 5-day heat wave would kill nearly 1% of Phoenix's population---about 13,000 people---and send 800,000 to emergency rooms.

Meth can cause Insanity - permanently

Hawaii Health Foundation subscribes to the Star-Advertiser. Leila Fujimori reported that Desmond Kekahuna is accused of intentionally driving his car into a random stranger, a 37-year-old woman who was pushing her baby in a stroller in the Mililani Walmart parking lot, dragging her 15 feet, breaking her legs and beating her with a tire iron. When a 40-year-old man intervened, Kekahuna struck him with the tire iron about 20 times in the head, arms, and body, leaving the good Samaritan with scalp and face lacerations and a bone fracture. Kekahuna confessed he committed all the acts for which he is charged.Defense expert witness on forensic psychiatry, Dr. Martin Blinder interviewed Kekahuna three times. He said he found Kekahuna has post-methamphetamine encephalopathy. Dr. Blinder said once these individuals develop methamphetamine changes in their brain, even though they stop using, they have for the rest of their lives a syndrome virtually indistinguishable from schizophrenia.

Dr. Blinder said at the time of the incident, there was no evidence Kekahuna was under the use of illicit substances. Even though he's clean and sober for the rest of his life, we can't give him new brain cells.He has jumped off a bridge onto H-1 freeway traffic, jumped from the second floor at the Oahu Community Correctional Center, and attempted suicide at least four times. He talked about paranoia and auditory and visual hallucinations. He thought the woman he ran over was going to hurt him.  

Hangover Cure

The number one Google search on New Year's Day tends to be Hangover Cure.” If you find yourself suffering from a hangover here are some helpful tips from Rachel Feltman, Washington Post.

Alcohol irritates the stomach lining. This can cause people to vomit and can lead to nausea and GI upset. Enzymes in your liver break down alcohol to acetaldehyde which is broken down to acetate. Acetaldehyde is toxic, potentially carcinogenic, and causes symptoms associated with a hangover. If you drink too much too quickly, your liver will have to make more enzymes, while acetaldehyde stays in your body, doing it's damage.

Studies suggest dark liquors are more likely to cause hangovers than light or clear ones because dark liquors have more cogeners, chemical byproducts of fermentation. Drinks with lower alcohol content give your liver more time to make the enzymes to metabolize acetaldehyde. Eating a meal before drinking alcohol will slow your body's absorption of alcohol. That gives your liver more time to make more of the enzymes. Food may help protect your stomach from getting irritated. Drink a glass of water for every alcoholic beverage you drink. This helps to keep you from getting dehydrated. Dehydration contributes to a hangover. Alcohol keeps your body from producing the hormone vasopressin which regulates the amount of water your kidneys can hold. When you are drunk you urinate more than when sober, another cause of dehydration.

When you have a hangover, you can take pain-relievers for the headache, but do not take Tylenol which can be harmful to your liver. Drink water for the dehydration. Eat some eggs because they contain l-cysteine, which helps break down acetaldehyde. Eat bananas to help replace potassium lost from urinating.

Amazing Deals you can't find prices like this anywhere else 

Photos of sale items are best seen on computer, not on phone.
Click on photo to enlarge.

EES BioScalar medallions – regular price $100 each

Sale

Rose Quartz – (not used) $30 - sold (thank you to L.P.)

Lapis - (gently used & used only a very short time) $20 - sold (thank you to S.T.)

Rose Quartz necklace – 32 inches length $25 similar to EES BioScalar bracelets ($62), including rose quartz bracelets. Compared to the bracelets, beads on this necklace are much larger and there are many more beads.


The rose quartz medallion & the necklace are more pink than seen in the photo. They look pink like the rose quartz heart at bottom right of this photo. (These hearts not sold here.)




If you are interested in or have questions about any item on sale, call 808-628-8784 and leave name and phone number. The person who answers at this number knows nothing about these offers and will not be able to answer your questions. If you leave your phone number I will call you to answer your questions.

Teddy Bears NOT used; sealed in original plastic wrapping




LARGE Teddy bears

12 inches in height  
LARGE boy bear & large girl bear  - 1 large Teddy bear left
bear arms are moveable
$5 each bear  



SMALL Teddy bears 

9 inches (height)

boy bear & girl bear

bear arms are moveable

only 1 small Teddy bear left

$4 each bear




Happy Holidays - Win a gift card
    from me personally (NOT provided by the stores)
           $25 gift card for Down to Earth
        $25 gift card for Longs/CVS
        $10 gift card for Safeway
        $10 gift card for Foodland


To enter the drawings for a gift card send:
name, phone number, and number on view counter (see below)

Send to:  Dr D, Hawaii Health Foundation
                50 So. Beretania Street  C-119 B
                Honolulu, HI 96813

DEADLINE:  entry must be received by Friday, December 27, 2024
    (winners will be notified after January 1, 2025)
Your entry must include the number on the view counter (see below)


Information in this blog is not intended for diagnosis or treatment of any health condition. It does not take the place of medical advice from your physician or healthcare provider. Obtain advice from your own healthcare provider before making changes in your decisions or actions pertaining to your health.

Alert to FOLLOWERS: Thanks for clicking the FOLLOW button on this blog. FOLLOWERS are NOT notified when this blog is updated or when new posts are posted. The system that operates the entire platform does not do that.