A case in which shame works

Ok, I’ll admit it: I HATE to donate blood. Reason: it affects my endurance; I am usually screwed up for 2-3 weeks after a regular blood donation and for 5-6 weeks after a double red blood cell donation.

Ok, more specifically, doing long running or walking workouts at 5K to half marathon intensity is difficult, though curiously my swimming and lifting is usually not that affected.

But, I have O+ blood (my red blood cells match well with O+, A+, B+ and AB+) and there is a need.

And there is this:

And he says the differences in giving goes beyond money, pointing out that conservatives are 18 percent more likely to donate blood.

Note: I am skeptical of the “giving to charity” statistics (which claim that conservatives give more of their income to charity) given that rural areas are more conservative and urban areas are more liberal and the latter have a higher cost of living (by far!). So to be convinced, I’d have to see the statistics adjusted for cost of living.

But never mind that; the blood donation statistic wouldn’t be as affected by such factors.
And: I don’t like being outdone by conservatives!

Ok, ok, the “blood giving” statistic might be misleading as well; the Red Cross reports that only 38 percent of people are even eligible to give blood. Males who have had gay sex are excluded, as are people who have had certain diseases, lived in Europe for a certain period of time, etc. So for this statistic to be valid as a measure of charity, it would have to be corrected for eligibility.

But hey, it got me there anyway!

So I try to donate twice a year; June (after FANS and Steamboat) and in November/December (after my fall ultra and after my flu vaccination exclusion has had time to lapse; this is 8 weeks).

On the upside: last winter, I couldn’t give double red cells (13.1 hemoglobin) but his time was no problem (14.9); and I AM feeling much better now than I was then.

Note: I still think that the plasma that they put back into you looks like urine.

Note: the results of some studies are here and a bunch of people chime in here.

20 June 2011 (noon)

Workout note
Stretching, PT, leg weights (glute push-back machine, hip adduction, hip abduction: 2 sets of 10)

Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a photo of some spandex clad woman using this.

Then I swam 2000 yards; the longs swim I’ve had in about a year. It wasn’t that intense:
5 x (25 3g, 25 swim), 5 x (25 fist, 25 free)
5 x (25 front, 25 free (fins)), 5 x (25 free, 25 back)
Then 10 x 100 (alternate 100 free, 100 pull) total 19:10

I felt a few tingles.
But on the whole, the butt/piriformis/whatever is feeling better; this rest plus therapy should do it some good.

Posts
Economy: Paul Krugman sees a “lost decade” of growth.

Remember that President Obama didn’t take office until 2009 and his stimulus bill wasn’t passed until midway. Yes, this is ugly. But this drives home a point: we are NOT climbing out of the recession (in terms of employment; the net job gains barely make up for those entering in the workforce). But the Republicans are offering us the same remedies that put us into that gray area to being with.

Krugman has some things to say about Medicare. Sure, costs have gone up, but they have gone up by less than private insurance (what the Ryan plan wants to put us in). Of course, the Republicans claim that we can really control costs by not insuring anyone at all...

Here is the real Republican Medicare plan:

Ok, ok, this is an exaggeration. Basically the Ryan plans would set up a health insurance exchange and allow old people to buy policies; it will provide subsides to some poor seniors. Problem: private health insurance costs are rising faster than Medicare costs and this plan only adjusts for inflation, not actual policy costs.

Oh yes, the “magic free market”: problem is that it might not make good business sense to sell policies to a group of people which has a large subset which is all but guaranteed to get sick. The profit motive just doesn’t work in every case.

Science
Evolution
Why hasn’t evolution given us a way to never get sick? Here is Jerry Coyne’s summary of a talk that explains why. Roughly speaking, evolution cares about reproductive fitness so there is no reason to evolve protection against diseases that mostly kill later in life. One has to consider that some bad things give us momentary protection from worse things (evolution is fine with something that will prevent you dying now but will kill you later, after you’ve had kids) and remember that the organisms that give us the disease are also evolving.

Of course we might wonder why our favorite deity won’t work magic on our behalf; we can see how well this deity did when implored by Gov. Rick Perry (Texas) to stop the Texas drought:

Before the prayers:

Steamboat 15K, non-walking photos

I’ll post walking photos as they become available. As far as the solo photo: this shows how badly my upper body has deteriorated; this is a direct result from months of not being able to lift or swim due to a rotator cuff injury. I have resumed both activities and am improving, albeit slowly.

The runner is Theresa (who is also in my yoga class); the non-runner is Barbara (my spousal unit)