health

It was only a matter of time, I suppose.  And based on what those who were in close proximity to me have said, it seems like it’s the omicron (anagram for “moronic”) variant.  Which is the most wildly contagious as well as apparently being the least malign of the strains found so far.  Two friends and I were at a movie theater on Christmas Day, watching Spider-Man: No Way Home and one of them believes she picked it up during a trip to the restroom.  She tested positive two days later and our other friend got a positive result the next day.  My symptoms began a few hours later.  It hasn’t been as severe as theirs, but still… this has been a pretty cruddy way to end 2021 on.  Or a fitting one.  Or something.

It’s almost miraculous that it took this long to contract it, given my work as ...

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Two researchers have been using computer analysis on 52 of the most famous paintings of the Last Supper – the final meal that Jesus Christ had with His disciples on the night before His death on the cross – and discovered that the size of the portions of food depicted on the table have increased 69% over the past millennium. The biggest amount of super-sizing came after 1500, not long after Leonardo da Vinci did his famous rendition of the Last Supper…

From the article at USA Today…

The researchers used paintings of this event “because it is the most famous supper in history,” which artists have been painting for centuries, so the paintings provide information about plate and entree sizes over time, says Brian Wansink, director of the Cornell (University) Food and Brand Lab in Ithaca, N.Y. One possible reason for the increase: Food may have become

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The Class A West Michigan Whitecaps have added the following gastronomic monstrosity to their ballpark menu: the Fifth Third Burger.

A heart-stopping (perhaps literally) 4,889 calories of beef, lettuce, tomato, salsa, sour cream, chili and Fritos on an 8-inch sesame seed bun. Total weight: nearly 30 ounces.

The ballpark management suggests that one of these hamburgers can feed four people. But if one person manages to eat the whole thing, he/she will earn the right to wear this t-shirt:

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And no, there is not an extra “0” in that number.

The New York Post reports on the special diet that has Michael Phelps breaking swimming records like nobody’s business at the Olympics. The guy is on a staggering twelve thousand calories a day eating regimen. A typical person usually takes in around 6000 calories every day. Phelps has been nearing that amount with each meal! Mostly lots of carbohydrate-rich fare like pasta.

The boy better figure in some Wheaties too if he wants to have his picture on the front of their cereal box 😛...

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The New York Times has published an interesting piece about blog-related stress. The drive to constantly publish new material for lucrative gain has been enough to already cause serious medical problems and even death among some bloggers.

That just ain’t healthy, by any measure.

Many years ago (like when I was a teenager) I had a friend who told me something that’s become so prophetic, it’s absolutely frightening in its accuracy: the “information era”, he told me, would soon become something dominated more by information than by people. To the point that information would become like a god that people would be sacrificing every precious moment of their lives toward satiating. And I think I understood enough of what he was saying back then to be legitimately scared about it.

That’s why The Knight Shift isn’t my bread and butter, and I don’t particularly care for it to become ...

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All afternoon numerous reports have been forwarded to The Knight Shift about “confirmed” staph infections – and particularly MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) – running loose throughout the Rockingham County Schools system. This is of especially serious concern in light of numerous cases of MRSA that have been confirmed in Forsyth and Yadkin counties. And word is just coming down the wire that a student at George Washington High School in Danville has been diagnosed with MRSA. So what’s going down our way?

I called up the office of Rockingham County Schools Superintendent Dr. Rodney Shotwell earlier this afternoon, to see what he knows. I didn’t get to talk to Dr. Shotwell but a very short while later I got a call from Rockingham County Schools spokeswoman Jean Steverson. And this is what the good lady told me…

There are no confirmed MRSA cases in Rockingham County school ...

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