Student SPHere 2008-09

Its sure been an interesting week with the economy. I have been following the economy pretty closely, as I am sure many of you have. I have a few reason for following it so closely. One of the main reason I am following it closely, is that I want to better understand why predicted crises are not adverted more often. We have had a lot of warning signs and direct warnings about the current financial crisis. I am not an economist, nor am I an expert in anything financial, so I sought out some experts to explain things to me. I typically turn to the CRS (Congressional Research Service) to understand the big picture behind things. I had no idea this existed before researching stuff for work and school project, when I thankfully stumbled across OPEN CRS. CRS report, while written by staff at the Library of Congress are for Congress, thus not released to the public unless someone in Congress makes them public. OPEN CRS is the best place to find reports that have been made public. As one might imagine they have been churning out report on financial issues, relatively frequently lately. I found this explanation of the crisis and these three profiles (Chile, Sweden, Japan) of recent national financial crises helpful. If you want to dig a little deeper I would recommend these reports: sub-prime mortgages interventions, on the liquidity crisis of 2007, FAQ of the Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae crisis, the history of governmental financial interventions and an overview of the Community Reinvestment Act. One thing that became very clear to me is that financial crisis happen, markets recovery and in a few years this will just be a memory. That does not mean its not going to be painful these next few years as our economy crawls back to speed.

I am disappointed that we are having this crisis, which lead me to think about Governmentium. Its a new element recently discovered: Govermentium (Gv) has one neutron, 25 assistant neutrons, 88 deputy neutrons, and 198 assistant deputy neutrons, giving it an atomic mass of 312. These 312 particles are held together by forces called morons, which are surrounded by vast quantities of lepton-like particles called peons. Since Governmentium has no electrons, it is inert; however, it can be detected, because it impedes every reaction with which it comes into contact. A minute amount of Governmentium can cause a reaction that would normally take less than a second to take from four days to four years to complete. Governmentium has a normal half-life of 2-6 years; It does not decay, but instead undergoes a reorganization in which a portion of the assistant neutrons and deputy neutrons exchange places. In fact, Governmentium's mass will actually increase over time, since each reorganization will cause more morons to become neutrons, forming isodopes. This characteristic of moron promotion leads some scientists to believe that Governmentium is formed whenever morons reach a critical concentration. This hypothetical quantity is referred to as critical morass. When catalyzed with money, Governmentium becomes Administratium, an element that radiates just as much energy as Governmentium since it has half as many peons but twice as many morons.

One thing I think many folks in public health share is a vision for the future. I think we tend to think a little more forward than most as we try to do our best to ensure the health of the public is protected. I love doing this, as it requires a multidisciplinary approach. What value is there in developing a preparedness plan for a environmental exposure, if the plan does not take into the realities of the politics, economics, social, biological, engineering, etc aspects of the exposure. This is typically refereed to as risk management. As our world continues to become more interconnected via global trade and travel the threat of emerging infectious diseases increases. Since emerging infectious disease are a huge interest for me, I try to keep a grasp on what is going on in the world. Given that the US dominates a lot of the world issues, I thought you all might enjoy learning a little more about the global issue the next president is going to have to deal with.

We just finished the CVD (Cardiovascular Disease) unit in my pathophysiology of human disease class. It was very interesting to learn more about the mechanism behind the disease and the epidemiology. We are going to be seeing more and more CVD, as the baby boomer's age and the obesity epidemic grows. This likely means that many of us will or have already encountered CVD in our personal lives. Do you know how to respond if someone is having a heart attack or just collapses? I just completed a BLS (basic life support) as part of my training for the MRC (Medical Reserve Corp) and would encourage you all to do so. There is training right here on campus frequently. Something else to remember, is that AED (automated external defibrillator) that are around campus are there for a reason. Never be afraid to use one, you cant hurt a patient with it and it walk you through the steps on how to use it. I hope I never have to use the training I got yesterday but am glad I got it. I just hope if something happens to those I love, some near by is trained to respond.