Michael's New Nonsense Blog

Storing Cord Blood

2009-10-03T12:28:00.000-07:00

If you are about to have a child, there's something important you should think about: Storing your baby's cord blood.

There are cells in the cord blood that if given back to the child can save her from stroke, cerebral palsy, spinal injury, diabetes, muscular dystrophy, leukemia and a whole host of other diseases. If she needs it, a new heart valve can be constructed for her that will grow with her, and is a perfect genetic match for her (no organ rejection). Later in life, if she has a sports injury, new cartilage can be made for her. There are new uses being researched even as you read this. The odds she'll have some important use for those cells during her lifetime seem very high indeed, and for the major uses odds don't matter at all. If you're the one, then you would be willing to do almost anything to get this chance again.

The trouble is, you've got to do it at birth, before you know you need it.

For more information, ask me about it, or visit CBR Lab Tour. CBR is the leader in cord blood banking. They do it best, and with the highest safety standards and viability rates (99%). Callia and I banked Cheval's cord blood, and I am working with them now to try to get a clinical study started to see if the cord blood can cure his autism. The people at CBR are amazing. Really. Amazing.

Enroll online today at cordblood.com with the Gift Code MUSIC and save $250 off of the price of storage.
Enroll early and have your collection kit ready for the big day! You won't be charged until your baby's cord blood is stored.

Full disclosure: I make some money promoting the storage of cord blood and I want as many parents involved as possible because I am trying to make a clinical trial happen to help my boy with autism. All that said, we stored Cheval's cord blood before we had autism and before I was making any money, so if you know anyone who's planning a family, I urge you to pass the message along. Saving cord blood can make the most important wishes come true.

Did it Jump or Did it Fall?

2009-07-20T14:31:00.000-07:00

Soren,

What we see is shaped by what we think. Our minds fill in missing information all the time.

Today, I was working at my job for the water company, delivering a letter, when all of a sudden I saw a bug jump, in front of me, next to a wall.

Hop! Big as life.

So I went over to see what it was. You know how I like bugs! (Except for flies.) Much to my surprise, the acrobat was a pill bug, Armadillilium vulgare. Of course, there has never, in the history of the world, been a pill bug that jumped. It has fourteen legs, but each and every one of them is far too weak to push it off the ground. Even altogether they couldn't make a start at the weakest of hops. If a bunch of pill bugs got together in the hope of launching one among them, they could do no more than lift it off the ground, never propel it into the air. Pill bugs are as likely to fly (which is not likely at all.)

So I did what a reasonable person does when confronted with facts that prove he did not see what he thought he saw. I asked myself exactly what I saw that I had explained by the idea that something jumped. You may wonder.

I saw it fall.

It must have been climbing on the wall in front of me and lost its grip, whereupon it tumbled to the ground. I saw the tumbling and my mind sought to explain how something could have been in the air. One likely cause of bug in air is a hopping bug, and so my mind edited my experience. I saw something hop. Only after I knew it couldn't hop was I able to think of another possibility. I saw it fall off the wall.

But here is the real lesson. Perhaps it didn't fall from that wall. I'm convinced my new explanation is the right one, but maybe I'm wrong. What if it fell from the roof? What if a neighbor kid behind me threw it in my direction? What if it crawled onto a bird's feathers and fell after the bird took flight? What if I saw another bug hop, but when I went to the place I thought it landed, it was already gone, and I blamed the action on the pill bug? These are possibilities I didn't even think about, because I am sure it fell from the wall.

Just like I was sure it jumped.

Drag Me to Hell

2009-05-30T21:01:00.000-07:00

Most people I know do not love and honor scary horror flicks (and the funny ones too) the way I do, and so it may not have bothered you that the great director of Evil Dead 2 turned more recently to producing films like Spiderman 4 and bad tv. The horror Sam Raimi had still been doing was both more Hollywood and less convincing than it had been in the past... things like The Grudge, empty and pointless efforts. You may never have noticed this particular packaging-up of talent for easy consumption. If you had noticed, it may not have rated so much as a particle of dismay.

I loved Evil Dead 2, though. I can't blame Raimi for making popular films in successful genres, but I kept leaving wondering if he would ever give me a thrilling horror movie again. Well, he may never do it again, but oh my, Drag Me to Hell is something special. It benefits from all the technical skill Raimi has acquired in the last twenty years, but returns to the heart and soul of thrilling horror with a complete story, a universe with comprehensible rules and the possibility of salvation, however unlikely, and characters you despise intensely or love deeply. The acting is superb. From the leading lady, to her abusive boss, to the backstabbing office rival, the fortune tellers, her boyfriend, his parents, and the evil antagonist, this film is perfectly played. Alison Lohman plays Christine Brown, an ingenue in the big city, trying to leave the farm behind her who has a job as a loan officer in a bank, and a career path in front of her. She's in love with a young, gentle, doctor, from a good family with money. It's a frame story that resonates well in hard economic times, and when she turns an old woman down for a modification on her mortgage the trouble begins. Lohman is perfect for the role. Stunning in a summer dress, she is the personification of the good hearted, all American girl. She is the person parents hope their girls become. She's attractive and bright, willing to work hard, willing to improve herself, with a smile, and the curves, to bring traffic to a standstill. Clean, she's perfect.

Turns out she's perfect, too, covered in mud, muck, or blood. She fights! Oh my, she fights! This is not the girl who falls down and twists her ankle while the serial killer lumbers ponderously after her. This is a kick butt protagonist. No spoilers here, but if the girl wins, she's going to earn it.

On the NewNonsense scale of one to ten, this movie is an easy ten. I don't hand tens out easily, but I was expecting a six point five, and instead I got a perfect thrill.