Small Bite Can Cause Big Problems
July 18, 2007 – 6:39 am
I try to spend as much time as possible hiking and backpacking during the nice weather, although going out during the winter months has some definite advantages. One of those advantages is absence of insects – particularly mosquitoes. In addition to just generally being a pain, mosquitoes are carriers of several diseases including the West Nile virus. The West Nile virus is a flavirvirus that mainly infects birds, but has also infected people, horses, bats, dogs, cats, squirrels, chipmunks, skunks, and domestic rabbits. I was surprised to find out that the American Crow and Robin are two of the most common carriers.
Basically, mosquitoes pass along the virus by biting an infected bird and then biting a human. The highest risk of contracting the virus is highest in late August through early September because mosquitoes carry the highest amounts of the virus during this period. Virginia is one of 23 states where the West Nile virus has been reported in birds and animals although we have not had any reported human infections.
The West Nile virus has not caused serious problems for most of people who have been infected. Only bout 20% of the victims will experience symptoms, and they are mild. The symptoms of West Nile fever, which usually last for three to six days, include headache, fever, muscle aches, back pain, nausea and vomiting, rash, sore throat, lack of appetite, diarrhea, and abdominal pain. There are some rare incidents that include some more serious symptoms that may last several week and cause permanent neurological conditions.
West Nile virus can only be diagnosed using a CBC, lumbar puncture and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) testing, head CT scan, and head MRI scan. Since it is a virus and there is no vaccine, the treatment is much the same as for the flu – treating the symptoms.
The best advice for dealing with West Nile is to lessen the chances of contracting it. Try to avoid mosquitoes by staying indoors around between dawn and dusk, if possible. If you have to be outside, wear light-colored clothing that covers as much of your skin as possible. Remember to use insect repellent, containing contain DEET, picaridin, or oil of lemon eucalyptus, on both your skin and your clothing.
For additional information on the West Nile virus, visit the Centers for Disease Control website at http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/westnile/.
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You have done the hard work. You cared for the victims, secured the crime scene, gathered the evidence and arrested the bad guy – your job is done, right? Wrong! If you were playing chess, your opponent would be in “check.” Of course, anyone that plays chess knows that the match is far from over at this point. The match doesn’t end until you maneuver your opponent into “checkmate.” In our chess analogy, “checkmate” doesn’t occur until you obtain a conviction in a court of law. To “checkmate” the bad guy, you must be an artist – you must paint a verbal picture so that the judge or jury can see, smell and touch what you experienced during your investigation. In addition, the judge or jury must see your version of the events as more believable than the version that will be presented by the defense. In other words, you must be more credible than the defense attorney. Just like when you meet a new person or attend a job interview, the “first impression” that you present has an impact on how people perceive you.
If you tend to repeatedly use use the same phrases of text or graphics, you have probably used figured out that the AutoText feature in Word can be a real time saver. Word 2007 takes the same concept a step further with a graphical gallery that is a lot more user friendly, called Quick Parts. One of the benefits of Quick Parts is you don’t have to remember what you named the replacement text since your creations are presented visually.
When it comes to disaster readiness, can you ever be too prepared? According the Association of Small Business Development Centers, the effects of a disaster can be quite profound: More than one in four businesses will experience a significant crisis in a given year, and of those businesses that experience a disaster and have no emergency plan, 43 percent never reopen. The same may be true for any organization – including training academies and criminal justice agencies.
A committee is defined as a type of small deliberative assembly that is usually subordinate to another, larger deliberative assembly. Committees can serve a variety of functions including the governance of large organizations where it is impractical for all the members to participate in decisions affecting the organization. Oftentimes, a committee (such as a Board of Directors) is given the power to make decisions as is the case with the regional regional criminal justice academies in Virginia.
What’s in your wallet? Which credit card are you using? Why did you select that particular card from among the daily flood of offers that you receive in the mail? How do you use your card? Some people use credit cards strictly for big-ticket items, while others may use them for all their everyday purchases; some may carry a balance while others pay it off every month. Even though people use credit in different ways, one fact remains the same: good credit card management is important to everyone. If you make a mistake that puts a black mark on your credit history, it can cost you dearly in higher borrowing rates or even impact your ability to borrow at all.
There are certain milestones in one’s life that I believe everyone looks forward to and remembers. Most men remember when they bought their first car and they can still describe it in vivid detail. Other momentous occasions include graduating from high school and/or college, meeting your spouse for the first time and buying your first house, just to name a few. Of course all of these pale in comparison to the your wedding day and the birth of your children when it comes to remaining crystal clear in your memory for years after they occur. However, I am in the process of experiencing another – helping my son leave the nest.
Obesity is one of the most pressing social issues in our country. I have frequently written about health and fitness issues in the past so my readers probably already know my opinion on weight control. I don’t believe in fad diets and quick weight loss fixes. I think the solution to good health is simply eating a sensible diet and exercising regularly. Of course, nutritional knowledge is key to planning your sensible diet and this where NitritionData.com can be a great help.
So you think you know your way around the web? Do you spend most of your spare time surfing the deepest corners of the web? Well then you should be able to answer the following question without much effort.
When I teach new instructor candidates, I always include statistics about how different teaching strategies can impact learning. To be honest, I never knew the source of the information I was using until a couple of days ago. My son was doing research on effective teaching methods for block systems and one of his resources was a book entitled, “Teaching Foreign Languages in the Block” by Deborah Blaz. She attributed the following information to William Glasser, an educational authority:
Job stress can be defined as the harmful physical and emotional responses that occur when the requirements of the job do not match the capabilities, resources, or needs of the worker. Increasingly, experts are drawing a direct correlation between job stress and poor health or even injury.
I inadvertently discovered a small automobile detailing trick yesterday that I thought I would pass along. My son was doing an extensive detailing job on his new car (my old car) and he was having trouble getting the inside of the windshield clean. You may have noticed that this time of year a film tends to accumulates on the inside glass of a car as a result of driving with the windows up all the time. We tried using Windex and paper towels but the windows just weren’t coming completely clean.
Since I wrote my series of articles about my walk on the Appalachian Trail last week, I have received several emails from people who would like to “just do it” themselves. Anytime that you start a new hobby there is a learning curve so you have to do your homework and talk to people who are knowledgeable about the activity. In the case of backpacking, make sure you talk to people who hike on the types of terrain and for the distances that you plan to hike. If you are buying equipment for a weekend trip, you may not want to buy the state-of-the-art light weight equipment that a thru hiker would carry.
ESPN E-ticket wanted to know how tough it actually is to make the U.S. Olympic team. In their quest for an answer, they convinced Kathryn Bertine, a former ice skater, professional triathlete and accomplished author, to see whether she could get to Beijing in 2008. After some fits and starts, she settled on road cycling as the sport with her best chance to make the team. Over the next two years, you can follow her exploits as she struggles for the opportunity to compete against the best female cyclists in the world and reach her olympic goal.
