Caterwauling

The windows were open last night, and sometime during the dark hours, a cat began fiercely wailing.

Nerd that I am, I lay awake a few minutes thinking about the term caterwauling, and wondering its derivation.

Well, wonder no more. Here it is: Middle English *caterwawlen : *cater, tomcat; akin to Low German kater + wawlen, wrawlen, to yowl (ultimately of imitative origin).

Of imitative origin. I like that.

And in case you haven't had the pleasure of hearing this cacophony recently, here's a short example:

The Real Reason Why Breast Cancer is Plummeting

"A decrease in deaths from breast cancer accounted for 37 percent of the reduction in the death rate among women during the 15-year period. This is largely due to a decreased use of hormone replacement therapy (HRT), which has been shown to increase a woman's risk of developing breast cancer."

This Potent Spice Taken as Little as Once a Week Can Fight Dementia

"New research shows that eating curry once or twice a week could help prevent the onset of Alzheimer's disease and dementia. The key reason is curcumin, a component of the spice turmeric."

Who Knew Preventing Kidney Stones was This Easy?

"The number one risk factor for kidney stones is not drinking enough water. If you aren’t drinking enough, your urine will simply have higher concentrations of substances that can form stones."

After everyone else is asleep

"I do not have superior intelligence or faultless looks. I do not captivate a room or run a mile under six minutes. I only succeeded because I was still working after everyone else went to sleep."

Greg Evans
Novelist

Holding someone down

"As long as you keep a person down, some part of you has to be down there to hold him down, so it means you cannot soar as you otherwise might."

Marian Anderson
1902-1993, Concert and Opera Singer

Are Clouds Destroying Your Health?

"As you’re likely aware, I live and work in the Seattle area, which gets famously little direct sun. July and August are really our only truly “sunny” months of the year.[1] Sea-Tac airport actually has a “sun gauge” (most airports have rain gauges only), and it records an average 227 days of total cloud cover per year. So since the sun’s not going to do the job for me, I’ve been taking my vitamin D since “waking up” to natural medicine in 1972. Over the years, I’ve increased the amount steadily towards 5,000 IU daily as more and more favorable vitamin D research appeared, especially since vitamin D has been shown to significantly reduce risk of prostate, breast, and colon cancer, and two of these have occurred in my family."

12 Compelling Reasons to Ditch Stress from Your Life

This Hormone Makes Counting Calories Irrelevant

"It is amazing how the little twists and turns of researchers can have such a profound impact on what we generally come to realize as “scientific truth.” Let me share a recent fascinating example of how this impacted one of the most powerful hormones in your body."

How to save on almost everything you buy online

Here's how you save 30% on every web domain you buy.

Search Google for "domains" and "discounts." At the
top of the page, you will see an ad for GoDaddy. It sells
domain registration for $6.99.

On its site, this costs $9.99.

Likewise, when you're buying anything online, so a search first: Google whatever item or service plus "discount."

Iranian Elections - The 'Stolen Elections' Hoax

The poodle media have been thumping the tub recently about the supposedly fraudulent elections in Iran for days now. The reality is that the war-mongering Obama administration simply doesn't care for the elected president of Iran. That's their business. It's not US business to seek to overthrow a democratically elected Ahmadinejad administration.

"There is hardly any election, in which the White House has a significant stake, where the electoral defeat of the pro-US candidate is not denounced as illegitimate by the entire political and mass media elite. In the most recent period, the White House and its camp followers cried foul following the free (and monitored) elections in Venezuela and Gaza, while joyously fabricating an 'electoral success' in Lebanon despite the fact that the Hezbollah-led coalition received over 53% of the vote."

Can Selenium Cause Diabetes?

"Americans with diabetes have been found to have high levels of selenium in their bodies, leading some experts to believe that it could contribute to development of the disease. A research team has now recommended that U.S. residents stop taking supplements that contain selenium."

Media Blasts Oprah for Supporting Alternative Medicine

"Now, Oprah has been targeted by big industries before, such as when she dared talk about Mad Cow disease on her show – a topic that brought her a lawsuit by the meat industry.

But Oprah is not the only one in the crosshairs of what can only be described as an organized smear campaign against alternative medicine.

There’s a disturbing trend taking shape, with a recent onslaught of media articles seeking to put a bad spin on various complementary, alternative medicine and natural medicine options. The misinformation campaign is shifting into higher gear. Is it a very deliberate and concerted media strategy?"

Having -- and sharing

"The miracle is this - the more we share, the more we have."

Leonard Nimoy
Actor

The Shepherd of our souls

"Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps:

Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth:

Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again;

when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously:

Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree,

that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.

For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls."

I Peter 2.21-25

Risks

"Progress always involves risks. You can't steal second base and keep your foot on first."

Frederick Wilcox
Writer

How I know summer's here

When I was a child, we had Vacation Bible School at church, almost as soon as school was out.

And because that was still in the time when most women didn't work outside the home, the VBS was during the day. It began at 9 in the morning, and lasted until noon.

We would line up in the mornings, on the side of the church and march into the building.

And where we lined up, there was a row of mimosa trees. And since it was early June (in the early 1960s, our schools still ended fairly early -- around the end of May), the trees would be in bloom.

When I see the gentle flowers of this tree, I know summer's here. Because this tree -- native to southern and eastern Asia -- grows widely in Piedmont North Carolina. And we are blessed these few short weeks to enjoy their beauty and their full fragrance. "Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these," our Savior tells us in Luke 12.27. And since Solomon probably never made it to Iran or Korea or China, he probably never saw a mimosa tree. We get the chance.

Low Vitamin D May Be Root Cause of Cancer

"Reporting online in the current Annals of Epidemiology, they point to a host of research that suggests cancer develops when cells lose the ability to stick together in a healthy, normal way -- and the key factor to this initial triggering of a malignancy could well be a lack of vitamin D."

Can Vitamin D Deficiency Cause Alzheimer's Disease?

"There are several risk factors for the development of Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia. An increasing number of studies link these risk factors with vitamin D deficiency. Dr. William B. Grant of the Sunlight, Nutrition, and Health Research Center (SUNARC) suggests that further investigation of possible direct or indirect linkages between vitamin D and these dementias are needed."

Our dignity

"One's dignity may be assaulted, vandalized and cruelly mocked, but it cannot be taken away unless it is surrendered."

Michael J. Fox
Actor