VPI Hambone Awards: Vote Now

No matter how hale and hardy your pet may be, never underestimate his ability to get himself into a predicament requiring medical care.

Meet the nominees for this year's VPI Hambone Award, twelve healthy pets who played, ate, exercised or explored their way into big trouble. Read their tales then vote for your favorite.

The winner receives a bronze trophy in the shape of a ham bone and a guest appearance on the Rachel Ray show. The Hambone Award is named in honor of a VPI-insured dog who got stuck inside a refrigerator and devoured an entire Thanksgiving ham before being discovered. The dog suffered a mild case of hypothermia - which, no doubt, he probably considered a minor price to pay for the feast.

Death by Numbers

As a 44 year old white woman living in Massachusetts, I have a 1,600 out of a million chance of dying within the next year. Were I to die during that time, it would most likely be from some form of cancer.

I am about a third less likely to die during the next year as is an African-American woman of the same age and living in the same state. But both of us have better chances of surviving the next twelve months than our counterparts in Kentucky or Mississippi.

All of this grim information comes compliments of the Death Risk Calculator developed at Carnegie Mellon University. This easy-to-use tool allows you to calculate your risk for up to 66 causes of death, from skin cancer to homicide to accidental poisoning.

Sure, it's fun but what's the point? Site developer and professor, Paul Fischbeck hopes it will bring focus and factual information to our nation's ongoing debate over healthcare policy.

"It's much easier to make a persuasive argument when you have the facts to back it up, and this site provides all sides with the facts," said Fischbeck. "We believe that this tool, which allows anyone to assess their own risk of dying and to compare their risks with counterparts in the United States and Europe, could help inform the public and constructively engage them in the debate."

Image courtesy of Stock.xchng

The Trouble with Multi=Tasking

What a relief it was to read about this Stanford University study which found that heavy duty multi-taskers are not, in fact, super-human concentrators with the ability to polish off multiple projects simultaneously and flawlessly. Instead, researchers found that those who regularly juggle several sources of media at once were less successful at assigned tasks than people who usually do one thing at a time.

As someone who has trouble reading a book and listening to music at the same time - unless the music is instrumental only and coincides historically and mood-wise with what I'm reading, I have always been suspicious of multi-taskers. Are their powers of mental focus so superior to mine? How do they keep it up? Something's got to give. It turns out that the "something" is the ability to ignore irrelevant information.

"They're suckers for irrelevancy," said Stanford professor Clifford Nass, one of the lead researchers for the study. That inability to filter out what is immaterial to a task naturally decreases accuracy and delays the completion of that task.

Of course, this is not a big surprise to anyone who has ever been behind a multi-tasker in a check-out line. Trying to swipe a debit card, punch in a PIN and carry on a cell phone conversation at the same time inevitably leads to delays, not only for the multi-tasker but for everyone else in the line as well.

Other skills found lacking in multi-taskers were the ability to organize memory and the ability to switch from one task to another.

"They couldn't help thinking about the task they weren't doing," said Eyal Ophir, lead author of the study. "They can't keep things separate in their minds."

So I feel somewhat vindicated in my affinity for uni-tasking. I won't be pressured into a feeling of inadequacy when I'm happily engrossed in a single activity. I don't need to see how many balls I can keep in the air. I'm happy juggling one at a time.

Stanford University News Article

Teachers, Win Free School Supplies!

Why does your class deserve to win a gift certificate for $2,500 worth of school supplies and how would you put those school supplies to good use? If you are a public school teacher and can answer this question convincingly in 400 words or fewer, you are ready to enter the 2009 Tools for Teaching Contest sponsored byCatalogs.com, and Nasco,

"As a mother of three, I understand the financial hardships many schools are facing this fall and I'm glad we can provide much-needed relief for purchasing school supplies," said Catalogs.com co-founder Leslie Linevsky. "We also hope this contest inspires other small and mid-sized businesses to do what they can to support public education."

Entries may be submitted on the Catalogs.com website starting on Tuesday, September 1 and ending on Wednesday, September 30.

Essays will be judged on persuasiveness, creativity, clarity and demonstration of need.

The top five essayists will receive eNasco gift certificates to be redeemed for school supplies. The grand prize winner will be able to spend $2,500; a second-place prize of $1,500 will be awarded and three runners-up will each receive $500 gift certificates.

Winners will be notified by October 30.

To enter the "Tools for Teaching" contest or for more information, visit

www.catalogs.com/teachers.