Diabetes, Stars, Media. Who Do We Trust?

I’ve been watching and tweeting about current events recently that I have a close tie to, or an opinion that I felt needed to be expressed. In the last day we’ve had “The Huffington Post” and CBS Sports report the death of Joe Paterno before the family made an announcement that he had passed away. In the past week we’ve had a Food Network Star, Paula Deen, announce that she had had Type 2 diabetes for 3 years and did not tell anyone while continuing to do her cooking shows promoting unhealthy foods. As a disclaimer I also follow the Food Network Chopped Judges, and Anthony Bourdain on Twitter because I like to see what they have to say and if they have any helpful hints.

Joe Paterno Passes Away

While on Google+ Saturday night I saw a post in my stream from the Huffington Post that said that Joe Paterno had passed away. They were also saying that CBS Sports was reporting the passing also so I immediately did a Google search with no success on his passing. I also opened a few tabs and went to all the major web sites for news and sports. All of those sites were still reporting that Paterno was in serious condition, but still alive. This made me think that this was a false report from media journalist again trying to get the jump on a news story. The Huffington Post report this news right around 9pm and retracted at 9:17pm.

Jay Paterno tweeted at 9:21pm “I appreciate the support & prayers. Joe is continuing to fight.”

At 10:13pm he then tweeted “Drove by students at the Joe statue. Just told my Dad about all the love & support–inspiring him.”

I feel that it is poor journalism to report on something just for the sake of getting a headline. There are a lot of journalist that I converse with and have a lot of respect for, but it is the blood sucking major media moguls that want the money and the scoop that give the rest of the media a bad name. The same thing is going to happen as we get into the election season with the different Networks giving their political slant on what they want you to believe.

Paula Deen Diabetic and Unaware

If you follow me on Twitter, you know that I am diabetic and have had a hard time controlling the disease until just recently when I actually put my mind to it and started eating right and exercising. I know from experience that you can control your diabetes, but you cannot eat the food that Paula Deen cooks on her Food Network shows or puts in her cookbooks.

Paula Deen announced on the Today Show this past week that she has had diabetes for 3 years, but hid that fact from the world. All that time she has still been cooking the high sugar, high carbs, high fat foods on her shows as before she was diagnosed. To me that is morally wrong and deceiving to people that watch her. She even had the nerve to say that it’s okay to eat a piece of that cake that has so much sugar and butter in it that you would raise your blood sugar to coma levels, just don’t eat the cake. I am here to tell you that it is NOT okay to eat just a piece of that cake. As a diabetic you need to control intake of sugar, carbs and fat very carefully and that 1 slice, guessing here but probably close, has 400-500 calories and 40-60 grams of sugar/carbs in it. That is multiple days worth of sugar for a diabetic. The calories in that one piece of cake can be split into much healthier foods over the course of a day that are just as tasty.

At the same time Ms. Deen has been hiding her diabetes and cooking unhealthy food, she has become a spokesperson for a diabetes drug manufacturer. Doesn’t that smack of being hypocritical? It’s not the drugs that keep your numbers in line while eating all that unhealthy food. It’s eating right, exercising and getting the proper rest that brings your diabetes under control. The medication is there as a support to what your body can’t do when you do the right things with it.

Paula Deen, you owe an apology to your fans, and all diabetics worldwide.

Final Thoughts and Kudos

I mentioned above that I follow the Food Network Judges from Chopped. I enjoy see what they have to say, the tips and recipes that they share. But, it is again the thing of sometimes sharing the decadence of a scone that is 500 calories, but never sharing a fresh healthy choice that makes me wonder if people actually understand that diabetes is one of the leading killers in the world.

I do want to give kudos to the newest Iron Chef Geoffrey Zakarian for his honest, helpful, tweets. He also gives all perspectives, including his asking his followers for suggestions for a kid friendly dish that he developed just recently. If you want to follow someone that is a chef and is willing to give you great information you should be following Chef Zakarian:

Chef Zakarian on twitter

Chef Zakarian on Facebook

Ease of Use Technology

I’ve been setting up and testing multiple browsers, virtual machines and doing some heavy duty virus clean up recently. As a geek and tech support I don’t mind going through steps to get to a solution or finish a setup. But, I don’t like unnecessarily complicated steps.

An example is Firefox Sync. You have to jump through hoops to get it to work. Once you set up the username and password you setup a pass key too. Okay, that’s not bad and good security, but wait until you want to set up Sync with a new install of Firefox on a different computer at a different location. You are in for a headache when Firefox asks for 3, three digit codes that you to enter on the original machine. If it is not around you need all your info or are asked to reset the pass key. Too much work to just sync my data.

The easy way? Migrate to Google Chrome. Yes Google has THE easiest sync setup, just sync with your Google account. It takes all of 2 minutes after entering your credentials. While there are folks that don’t like the big bad Google, the ease of integration is a major advantage.

One Firefox extension I would like to give ease of use kudos to is Xmarks. I have had an account with them for a while and it has made transferring Firefox to another computer quite easy. It is an extension that you do have to install after finishing the Firefox setup, which adds steps and complexity. That problem is Mozilla’s fault not Xmarks.

If you aren’t writing you apps or making your site easy to use, you are losing business and will eventually be left in the dust by an upstart like Google or Facebook. Remember they were not the leaders in their fields right away. They got there by ease of use for the average user.

To sum it up with an age old saying: KISS.

2012 The Mayans and Other Thoughts

Happy New Year to all. I have not written here in over a month because I have been working two jobs full time. That, plus the holiday season has led to very little free time. This morning while sitting with my soon to be 3 year old son I thought I would type out some quick thoughts for the new year.

First off, I have been reading a lot about the Mayans and some prediction that the world ends this year. If they had that great of an ability to predict the future, why could they not stop their disappearance as a civilization? Now, I don’t think they vanished completely, but there isn’t even a population or mention of them after their supposed vanishing.

Second, the US political year is heating up for our Presidential election this November. But it is a totally muddled field for a decision. Four years ago the Democrats swept into power because the Republicans would not compromise.

Then, not yielding to history new Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi goes on a power trip and doesn’t compromise. That leads to the loss by the Democrats in the midterm elections to the GOP and their ultra conservative Tea Party wing.

Now, you would think that this would teach the GOP leadership that working together was the best solution to keep your advantage and increase your chances in the 2012 elections. But it seems that shortsighted leadership by new Speaker John Bonner and the new Tea Party congressional members has led to the same inability to work together until backed into a corner.

The recent payroll tax fight is the best example in the recent month that has hurt the GOP. Of course add to that fact that none of the GOP Presidential candidates has shown that they can lead with all the great fumbling and bumbling of different candidates each week. There is a new leader and new scandal each week to make the GOP look inept and at the same time increase the probability that President Obama will be elected to a 2nd term in November, while the Democrats will gain seats back in Congress. They may even win back the House of Representatives.

Lastly, I have been watching the Florida Governor Rick Scott flip himself on funding for education. He is trying to save himself in his bid for reelection in two years, but unfortunately for him he also thought that compromise was not necessary and he has damaged his reputation with the people of Florida to the point of no return.

He has alienated his own party in the legislature and that is not good for him or his future in politics. Thankfully his moves have shown the people that voted him into office what a mistake they made and he will be gone in the midterm elections.

Well, I wish everyone a happy new year. If you want to see my thoughts on other predictions for the new year, stop by Beyond the Rhetoric for Michael’s 2012 predictions and my comments.