Rubsy before her hyperthyroidism struck

Rubsy had the classic symptoms: jittery and nervous, frequent vomiting, excessive thirst, and what got my attention was a sudden weight loss. Her normal weight is eight pounds. She was almost down to six pounds when I took her to the vet. She was very gaunt in the flanks and bony. That gauntness is muscle loss from her system consuming its own tissues for protein. Her coat was still shiny and thick; another symptom is dry coat and hair loss, and fortunately she had not gotten to that point.

There are several ways to treat hyperthyroidism in cats: daily medicine, surgery, or radiation treatments. Giving a cat a pill once or twice daily is about as fun as rhino wrestling, and the other options are expensive and traumatic for the kitty. Now there is a fourth option, and that is Hill’s Prescription y/d Diet. This is made especially for hyperthyroid cats, and is supposedly the result of ten years of über-scientific study. It also claims to support kidney and urinary tract health with reduced phosphorus and sodium.

When I read this report I couldn’t figure out why it took ten years, since each trial was a few weeks in duration on a small number of cats.

I’ve never been a fan of Hill’s pet foods; I think they’re overpriced, not very good, and they’re far more successful at wooing veterinarians than making high-quality pet chow. So I should have been a little more careful before taking an 8.5 pound sack home; I didn’t read the label and they didn’t have a price on it because it was a new product. But take it home I did, and started Rubs on it. She liked it all right and chowed down. So did the other two cats.

Feeding one cat in a multi-cat home a special food is nearly impossible, so of course Hill’s advice is to feed all the cats Hill’s y/d, and to give the other kitties some normal cat food so they get iodine. What makes Hill’s y/d so special? One word: iodine. Or rather, the lack of it. According to their ten year über-scientific study, hyperthyroid cats can be treated by removing nearly all the iodine from their food. It has long been known that many cats are sensitive to the iodine levels in their diets, but nobody has ever tried to figure out what an appropriate level is, so the various pet food makers fling in random quantities. It’s difficult to control iodine levels precisely because iodine is present everywhere: in meats, fruits and vegetables, and the levels vary according to how the foods were raised. It’s safe to assume that virtually all cats that eat commercial pet foods are overdosed with iodine.

When I got the bill for the Hill’s I about fainted because it was $44 for that little bitty 8.5-sack that Hill’s so happily recommends I feed to all of my cats. And then I finally wised up and read the label, and this is what it contains:

Corn Gluten Meal, Animal Fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols and citric acid), Whole Grain Corn, Soybean Mill Run, Dried Egg Product…

And a long list of supplements. The outstanding feature is the lack of high-quality animal protein, just “dried egg product”. Corn gluten meal and soybean mill run are the cheapest, crappiest, lowest-food value fillers you can find. I’m going to write a separate article on cat nutrition, but here is the executive summary: cats are obligate carnivores. They need meat. They cannot live on cereal, and certainly not on junk like corn gluten meal and soybean mill run. Corn and soy are cheapass to start with– corn gluten meal and soybean mill run are by-products. Excessive carbohydrates cause health problems in kitties, such as obesity and diabetes.

If you want to improve your cat’s diet without making your own cat food, feed them canned foods that list real meats as the main ingredients. Dry foods have too much cereal, and cats need to get water from their food. They have weak thirst reflexes, so kitties on dry foods usually don’t get enough water.

The canned y/d food is very different:

Water, Liver, Meat by-products, Chicken, Whole Grain Corn, Rice Flour…

At least it has actual meat, but liver as the main meat is not good– too much liver is not good for cats. If this y/d food is so scientifically balanced and special, why the canned food so different from the dry food?

So, to heck with Hill’s. I’ve been feeding Rubs homemade food using Dr. Lisa Pearson’s recipe (see References.) She’s been on her new diet for about a month and so far is doing well. She has put on a little weight, no longer vomits, doesn’t drink water all the time, and has calmed down. The recipe calls for Morton’s Lite iodized salt, which I omitted because I believed Hill’s claims about iodine. However, with further study I realized that too little iodine is also damaging. I’m not very impressed with Hill’s at this point, so I’m adding a small amount to her food and keeping a close eye on her.

Vets take blood samples and measure T4 levels. I’m not convinced this is good enough, because thyroid function is absolutely fundamental to health, and there are complex interactions such as protein and carbohydrate balance, and high-quality bio-available nutrients. Which are lacking in most commercial pet foods, which are full of cheap grain or potato fillers.

Below are some references for anyone who wants to study this more deeply. I’ve been researching this for weeks, and I’m satisfied that I’m on the right track for feeding my cats. It’s too soon to say if the homemade food will take care of little Rubsy’s hyperthyroid– time will tell, but so far I am encouraged.

References

A Home-Cooked Low Iodine Diet For Your Hyperthyroid Cat has excellent information on hyperthyroidism in cats and on Hill’s y/d.

Making Cat Food, Lisa A. Pierson, DVM

Is Hill’s y/d a Nutritious Diet for Hyperthyroid Cats?

Why y/d? takes a non-positive look at Hill’s y/d, and Hill’s claim that iodine deficiency is a safe, effective hyperthyroid treatment.

Hyperthyroidism in Cats discusses possible environmental causes such as flame-retardant chemicals in furniture and fabrics, the liners in cat food cans, and soy in cat food.

The Dell Summit in Copenhagen in April 2012 was such a big deal Michael Dell himself gave the keynote. It was such a big deal they hired a well-known professional asshat, Mads Christensen, to “warm up the crowd.” He came onstage immediately following Michael Dell, and did he ever wow them with choice advice like

“The IT business is one of the last frontiers that manages to keep women out. The quota of women to men in your business is sound and healthy” he says. “What are you actually doing here?” he adds to the few women who are actually present in the room.

He closes with a bang:

…finishes of by asking all (men) in the room to promise him that they will go home and say, “shut up bitch!”

It took awhile for this Dell awesomeness to be noticed because the only reporter who published anything about it was Christiane Vejlø of Elektronista. When her article was translated into English more people started to notice, and over the weekend it became a Twitter storm. One of the first US publications to comment was C|Net News, in Molly Woods’ column. Ms. Wood got a classic non-apology from Dell:

We can tell you that the moderator’s attempted humor does not reflect Dell’s values, or its strong record on and commitment to diversity and equal opportunity.

You hired Mr. Christensen, Dell, so you own everything he said. A longer non-apology was published on Google+ on Monday 14:

During a Dell-hosted customer and partner summit in Copenhagen in April, well-known public speaker and moderator, Mads Christensen, made a number of inappropriate and insensitive remarks about women. Dell sincerely apologizes for these comments. As members of our Dell Women’s Entrepreneur Network (DWEN) know, Dell is an enthusiastic and committed advocate of women in business and IT. These comments do not reflect Dell’s company values and undermine much of the work we’ve done in support of women in the workplace overall.

You blew it, Dell, and you’re still blowing it. Where in the name of any deity you like did you get the idea that woman-hating is good business? Only if you believe that women are not people, and only men are your potential customers and partners, and only men who are OK with publicly bashing women.

This is what a real apology would look like: Michael Dell making a video apologizing without reservation, distributing it far and wide including mainstream news sites, and not saying one single wormy word about all the cool things Dell does for women, like in their two non-apologies, because it’s horseshit. Apologize and explain why, since he was right there at the summit, he did not personally interrupt Mr. Christensen and kick him offstage, and then discipline the idiots who hired Christensen. Or why any of the Dell staffers present just stood by and let this hateclown spew his unfunny bile. Then he should give a substantial sum of money to some girls in tech programs.

References:

DRESSCODE- BLUE TIE AND MALE

Why we need to keep talking about women in tech

Dell response regarding insensitive comments from Mads Christensen

People. Get a grip. Listen to yourselves. It sounds like despite your nice liberal-leaning tendencies you’re still uncomfortable with teh gays. We must shush, know our places, and don’t make waves. Thanks for your concern, but those tactics don’t work. Please save your horror for the things that the anti-gay forces of darkness do.

The marriage equality issue is huge, because a giant trainload of legal rights come with marriage, such as inheritance, parental rights, Social Security benefits, pension benefits, different tax rates, health care benefits, and literally hundreds more. It’s a straightforward Constitutional issue of equal protection under the law. We’re not a theocracy- yet- and it’s not a black-and-white religious issue either. Especially for people who don’t practice hate-the-gays religions.

Now we have a President who dares to speak openly on the issue, and who has already pushed meaningful changes. Simply speaking up in support of marriage equality is a very great big deal. And instead of being happy about this, because this is a huge and giant and radical thing for an American President to do, you’re all whiny about this magazine cover, on behalf of mysterious “other people” who will take it the wrong way and do Bad Things because of it. I’m sorry it makes you squirm, and I’m sorry that you think gay people should be quiet and stay in the back of the bus because we might do something embarrassing. Because that’s what discomfort with this magazine cover means, and I don’t see any way to spin it differently. Objecting to it on the basis of how “other people” might react is a waste of time and a bad tactic. Never ever apologize for taking a stand for what is right. The opposition will always try to twist it into something dirty and nasty– the only way to counter this is to stand more firmly for what you believe in and not let them back you down.

It’s an obvious riff on calling Pres. Clinton “the first black President.” It’s not derogatory and it’s not counter-productive. It’s cool, it’s attention-getting, and at my ripe old age I’m tickled pink to have a President who actually supports an issue that is deeply personal to me, and to millions of citizens. Maybe in my lifetime I’ll get my full legal rights under the Constitution. I’m not holding my breath, but it could happen and that is very exciting.

Rather, the people who are worth hiring are already too busy, while the available people mostly aren’t worth the hassle. Here’s the deal: when I’m looking to hire help, it’s either because it’s something I can do but would rather hire out, or I don’t know how to do it. Either way I want someone who is skilled and dependable, and doesn’t need me to babysit them.

But what about willing beginners who “just want a chance”? I’m open to this– and they still have to show me something. You need to have more on the ball than just showing up and expecting a paycheck. I want to see some self-starting, some initiative. Let’s say I need some fencing done. This isn’t a social occasion; I don’t care about your personal life or funny jokes or endless cute doggy stories. I want to see that you are focused on the work. If you’re not experienced with fencing then you need to have some experience with tools and manual work. Then you need to show improvement as you go. It is a continual surprise to me how many people can’t do anything: can’t cook, clean, mow a lawn, paint a room, weed a garden, do basic bookkeeping, feed and care for animals, type, put a coherent sentence together…what on earth have they been doing with their lives?

In good times or bad there is always work to be done somewhere. If not paying work then volunteer. The public library and Internet are cram-full of howtos on anything and everything, and YouTube and Vimeo are gold mines of instructional videos. The public library and Internet are full of howtos on presenting yourself attractively to a potential employer. It doesn’t matter what kind of work you’re thinking of; show me you have a work ethic, some professionalism, that you’re dependable and keep your word, that you care about doing good work and then we can talk.

When I hire someone it’s to make my life easier. If you’re worth hiring you’re worth paying a good wage; I don’t believe in slave wages. But if you’re a pain in the rear I don’t want you, and I totally don’t care how badly you need the paycheck. That’s not my problem– my problem is are you worth hiring at all?

Scientific Linux, the Great Distro With the Wrong Name

Bodhi Linux, the Beautiful Configurable Lightweight Linux

A Simple Image Gallery Plugin for Drupal 7

“I was asleep when he died.”

I’ve been a Patti Smith fan since way way back. I’m over 50 so I’m measuring my memories in decades. (Bite it, whippersnappers, the world was not born with you.) She is a writer, poet, musician, visual artist, and at long last she has written a book, “Just Kids”, about her early life and the beginnings of her career with Robert Mapplethorpe back in the 1960s- early 1970s.

The first chapter is an overview of her childhood, a misfit in our misnamed land of the free, which is really a stifling, rigid conformity that punishes individuality– “I was a dreamy somnambulent child. I vexed my teachers with my precocious reading ability paired with an inability to apply it to anything they deemed practical….I drew, I danced, I wrote poems…”

Smith grew up in New Jersey in a struggling working-class family. You can see these roots in some of her songs such as Free Money, Kimberly, and Piss Factory. Patti’s parents struggled financially, but they supported her intellectual and artistic hunger with books, music, and encouragements. A visit to the Museum of Art in Philadelphia when Patti was 12 changed her life: “I knew I had been transformed, moved by the revelation that human beings create art, that to be an artist was to see what others could not.” It even led to an argument with her father; imagine having a father to argue art with: “My father admired the draftsmanship and symbolism in the works of Salvador Dali, yet found no merit in Picasso, which led to our first serious disagreement.”

After various misadventures– getting pregnant, dropping out of teacher’s college, giving her baby up for adoption, quitting a dismal factory job, Patti moved to New York with no money, no job, no home and no friends. There she improbably met Robert Mapplethorpe (both of them were looking for a place to sleep), and together they became, literally, starving artists. This is the story of Smith and Mapplethorpe before they became famous and successful. She was his first photography model. The unforgettable cover of Horses, Smith’s first record album, was shot by Mapplethorpe, and “Just Kids” includes several photographs from those early days.

We know that Mapplethorpe died too young from AIDS, at age 42. He was born into a devout Catholic family and was expected to go into the priesthood, or military, or both. For much of his life he struggled with the conflict between his drive to be an artist, to be his own man, and to live up to his family’s expectations. But he had an unwavering belief in his talent and what he wanted to do with his life, “to live for art alone.”

Those early years were rough; always hungry, sometimes homeless, always struggling to meet their basic needs while finding time and money to develop and produce their art. In these Gordon Gecko times such a lifestyle seems unimaginable. But the times and the location were right– a ferment of music and art and literature, a time when someone like Patti Smith, starting raw with no experience or any idea of what she could do, could find support and inspiration, and stay true to her dreams of being an artist, to live for art alone.

Smith and Mapplethorpe complemented each other. He was supremely ambitious and confident of his talent and ability. She was unsure of her own abilities and direction, but was more grounded in the practical realities.

Don’t expect an orderly, thorough, scholarly biography. It moves at a contemplative pace and is as much an emotional journey as a historical one, a sweet and inspirational remembrance.

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To the outside world Vivian Maier was just a nanny and housekeeper working in Chicago. But she also had a hidden talent that has not been recognised until after her death in 2009. Maier spent her life wandering the streets of Chicago with a Rolleflex camera strapped to her neck taking remarkable black and white pictures of a different side of the city, and a different side of life in America.

Read the rest of this story at the Daily Mail.

Toni Childs’ “Keep the Faith” delivers wisdom, passion, and rockin’ energy

I first discovered Toni Childs when she released “Union” way back in 1993, all full of wonderful African beats and harmonies and great songs, and of course– That Voice.

Like a lot of fussy old coots I dismiss a lot of popular music as manufactured product with interchangeable generic performers. Not so with Toni Childs. She is the real deal; there is no mistaking her voice for anyone else’s. It is a splendid expressive instrument full of emotion and power. She is a talented songwriter who addresses difficult, dark subjects, and who also expresses joy and hope. Anyone can do despair, but joy and hope are very hard to do well, and Ms. Childs is the best.

Every song on “Keep the Faith” is a keeper. “I Saw God In The Supermarket” expresses the concept that God is within everyone with an uptempo foot-tapping beat and wonderful lines like

I saw God on television
He had a ring in his nose
Wearing Nike tennis shoes
Wow that boy could sing the blues

“Dream That We Dream Of” is my favorite on a disc full of favorites:

It’s the dream that we dream of in everything we do
It’s the hope that we hope for, and God I hope it’s true

“You’re Beautiful” is an awesome anthem with a great story behind it, which you can read on Ms. Child’s Web site. This story answers why she stopped performing for so many years, and why she returned.

Now I can see you
Holding out your hand
Hoping that someone will finally understand
That you’re beautiful
Yes you’re beautiful

This album is full of compassion, artistry, wisdom, emotion and wonderful words and music. Like all of her albums this is a first-class production with excellent instrumentation that rewards repeated listening.

Driving With Dead People: A Memoir by Monica Holloway is hysterically funny, tragic, and triumphant; a crisp, captivating account of a young girl growing up with two of the worst parents ever. Dad is abusive and has a hobby of filming car wrecks and grisly accidents, Mom is off in her own selfish world, and the kids must raise themselves.

Monica’s best friend gets her a job at her parent’s mortuary, literally driving dead people. When Monica goes off to college her sister emotionally crashes and burns, and Monica has to choose whether to face family secrets, or continue to hide from them. I think the title refers to more than just her adventures at the mortuary; it’s also about some of the living characters. Like her soul-dead parents, or her own struggles with suicidal impulses.

Yes, we’ve heard this story before, but Ms. Holloway is a fine writer, balancing humor and horrific events skillfully, and never slipping into the maudlin or self-pity. She is a fighter, and bravely faces her demons head-on, and one of the funniest writers I have ever read. A courageous work, well done and highly recommended.