Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/130886
2B Daily News – Friday, May 17, 2013 FEATURES School principal has tattoos ECG is gold standard for evaluating chest pain Dear Annie: The principal of the school where I teach has some big tattoos on her neck. She says they are Chinese symbols for ''good fortune.'' I think they look Annie's trashy. I don't mind tattoos, but I don't think large by Kathy Mitchell markings on and Marcy Sugar one's hands and neck are appropriate for school. They don't convey authority, and I have a hard time taking orders from her. The last time she entered my classroom, she pointed to a poster listing class rules and said she didn't like that it had torn edges. I gently said, ''I'm sorry, but I've been preoccupied with my students' reading skills, math and grammar, so the torn edges will have to wait a bit.'' She left the classroom looking uncomfortable. The school security guards also have tattoos and not simply the names of their girlfriends or boyfriends. They picture playing cards, dice and other motifs that I consider more appropriate for a biker bar. During the last parentteacher conference, one parent exclaimed, ''Did you recruit the security guards from the county jail?'' Why is it acceptable for teachers, court officers and other professionals to tattoo their hands and necks when it makes them look like street thugs? How do Mailbox they expect kids to listen to them when they look like that? I warn my older pupils that visible tattoos may bar them from certain jobs. Most of them take my advice. The ones who don't are harder to place for summer internships. — N.Y. Dear N.Y.: The proliferation of tattoos on the faces, hands and necks of professional sports players and TV reality stars makes this type of artwork seem more mainstream and acceptable. But just as there are dress codes for businesses, there are also dress codes for schools. If the students are not permitted to show such visible tattoos, neither should the administration and security personnel, who presumably set the example. If you believe this undermines the principal's authority, you can register a complaint with the school board. Dear Annie: I am 12 years old and carpool to a gymnastics class with ''Alice,'' who is two years older. For a long time, we were decent friends and had good times. But last year, Alice got a phone and stopped talking to me. She is always texting. I have tried so hard to get Alice to talk to me. I have brought games and joke books, but, Annie, it's been going on for so long, I'm not sure I want to be friends anymore. The main problem is, when we arrive at gymnastics, none of the other girls talk to me, only Alice. So now I don't have anyone. I don't know why Alice treats me this way. Is she angry or jeal- ous? Should I give her a second chance? Our moms our friends, and we'll probably be carpooling for a long time. — Hurt and Wondering Dear Hurt: We don't think Alice is angry, jealous or anything else. We think she is 14 years old and has a new phone. Like many kids, she wants to text more than she wants to talk. Also, now that she is a teenager, she may be less inclined to be so tight with a 12-year-old, even if she likes you. You can try to engage her by asking her to show you the features on her phone, but really, your best bet is to work on forming friendships with the other girls in gymnastics. Please try. Dear Annie: The letter from ''Tired of 'Go See a Counselor''' displayed ignorance. You give excellent advice. ''Go See'' must not understand that some problems are too complicated to explain in a couple of paragraphs. A counselor may spend several sessions with someone to determine the best advice. It's like a family doctor who advises a patient with chest pains to see a cardiologist. — Denham Springs, La. Annie's Mailbox is written by Kathy Mitchell and Marcy Sugar, longtime editors of the Ann Landers column. Please email your questions to anniesmailboxcomcast.net, or write to: Annie's Mailbox, c/o Creators Syndicate, 737 3rd Street, Hermosa Beach, CA 90254. McCain urges Senate panel to support a-la-carte cable WA S H I N G T O N (MCT) — Americans are at a "tipping point" as it regards their monthly pay-TV bill and they should be given the option of purchasing channels individually instead of as a big bundle with hundreds of channels, Arizona Sen. John McCain told a Senate panel Tuesday. "I truly believe that a lot of Americans are fed up with their cable TV bills," said McCain, speaking to a Senate commerce subcommittee exploring the status of the TV and video industries in the United States. McCain was speaking to rally political support for the Television Consumer Freedom Act of 2013, which he proposed last week. It would give pay-TV providers incentive to sell channels individually, or a la carte, instead of as bundles of hundreds of channels. McCain, who has publicly supported an ala-carte model for years, cited the soaring cost of sports programming and cable-bill inflation since "I truly believe that a lot of Americans are fed up with their cable TV bills." — Sen. John McCain the mid-1990s for the legislation. Michael K. Powell, the former chairman of the Federal Communications Commission and now president of the cable industry's trade association, said the cable industry had "profound doubts" that a la carte selection would lead to lower cable bills. Programmers would have to boost the price of individual channels if they had to sell them separately, Powell said. Powell said that cable companies had invested heavily in their networks and that the current bundling of channels allows a diversity of programming that might not be supported if channels were sold individually. The rising cost of cable TV was one of several video-related topics at the Senate hearing. Others were whether the 1992 Cable Act needs to be overhauled because of the Internet and other new technology, and the future of broadcast TV. The broadcast-TV industry fears that the government could take its wireless spectrum for broadband and has been promoting the importance of local TV stations for news. "Broadcast television is as relevant today as ever before," said Gordon Smith, the president of the National Association of Broadcasters. Responding later to a question, he said, "Our spectrum comes with public-service obligations that others don't provide." The hearing was attended by about 50 TV officials and lobbyists. It was one of several being held on industry topics by Sen. Mark Pryor, DArk., the new chairman of the Subcommittee on Communications, Tech- nology and Internet. Others speaking at the hearing were John Bergmayer, staff attorney with the nonprofit Public Knowledge, and R. Stanton Dodge, general counsel with Dish Network, the nation's third-largest pay-TV provider. McCain, a Republican and former chairman of the Senate Commerce committee, was not officially scheduled to present at the hearing but was allowed to make his presentation before the scheduled speakers. He did not take questions. In his remarks, McCain said that cableTV bills had risen about 6 percent annually since the mid-1990s. Citing Nielsen research from 1995, cable companies sold subscribers a bundle of 41 channels and they watched 11 of them, McCain said. In 2008, the last year figures were available, cable companies sold subscribers 130 channels and consumer tuned into 18. given off by DEAR DOCTOR K: your heart. I recently had an electroThere are multicardiogram and my docple leads in diftor gave me a copy of ferent positions, the tracing. Can you tell reading the sigme what I'm looking at? nals from difDEAR READER: ferent parts of When the 20th century your heart. This began, more than 100 years ago, doctors had Dr. K enables doctors to find the locano way of looking inside by Anthony L. the body of a living per- Komaroff, M.D. tion of possible heart damage. son. Yet we knew from autopsies of people who had The ECG produces a readdied that all of the normally ing, or tracing, of the electriinvisible internal organs cal activity that occurs with could become diseased. So each heartbeat. That tracing the search was on for ways is a series of wavy black to "see" inside the body. The lines. The four chambers of the idea was simple: If you could spot a problem with an heart need to beat in a coorinternal organ, you might be dinated fashion. They do so able to treat it and prevent as the result of electrical signals caused and transmitted future suffering. The discovery of X-rays by special heart cells. If your began what has become a heart is beating normally, the dramatic improvement in whole cycle takes about one our ability to make internal second. (I've put an illustraorgans visible. X-rays could tion on my website, see how large the heart was. AskDoctorK.com, showing They also allowed doctors to how an ECG tracing corredraw some conclusions sponds with the phases of a about how well the heart was heartbeat.) By evaluating the ECG working. For example, Xrays could see if blood was tracing, doctors can spot an building up in the lungs irregular heartbeat (an (which happens in heart fail- arrhythmia), find out whether your heart is ure). At about the same time as enlarged, identify a part of the discovery of X-rays, doc- your heart that is not getting tors invented another way of enough blood, and even "seeing" the heart: the elec- detect the signs of damage trocardiogram (ECG or from an old heart attack. The ECG is crucial for EKG). The heart works by producing, and responding evaluating chest pain. ECG to, electrical signals. The abnormalities are often ECG measures those sig- enough to diagnose a heart nals. It has become the most attack that's in progress, widely used test for detect- allowing doctors to begin ing heart problems, as it's treatment. Thank goodness easy to perform, noninvasive for the Dutch physician, and produces results right Willem Einthoven, who away. If you seek medical developed the ECG; he richattention because of chest ly deserved the Nobel Prize pain, shortness of breath or that he received in 1924. other symptoms that suggest Dr. Komaroff is a a possible heart attack, you'll almost certainly get an ECG. physician and professor at When you undergo an Harvard Medical School. To ECG, you lie down as a tech- send questions, go to nician applies electrodes, or AskDoctorK.com, or write: leads, to your chest, arms Ask Doctor K, 10 Shattuck and legs. These leads pick up St., Second Floor, Boston, the electrical signals being MA 02115. Google's music plan part of fresh wave of upgrades SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Google Inc. unveiled a streaming music service called All Access that blends songs users have already uploaded to their online libraries with millions of other tracks for a $10 monthly fee. The service puts the Internet goliath in competition with popular paid subscription plans like Spotify and Rhapsody and free music services like Pandora. The announcement Wednesday at Google's annual developers conference in San Francisco kicks off a wave of developments in the digital music space that are expected to entice consumers with ways to listen to music on a range of devices. Rival Apple Inc. is FRESH FROM THE GARDEN GROW YOU OWN VEGGIES, HERBS, BERRIES & FRUIT Anderson - Cottonwood Garden Club's Annual Flower Show "American Band Stand" Saturday, May 25th Contact Carolyn at 547-5118 For more information Your partner for successful gardening....... WYNTOUR GARDENS 365-2256 8026 Airport Road, Redding I-5 North, Exit #673, Rt on Knighton, Rt on Airport Located 1 mile south of the Airport (Next to Kents Mkt) Open Mon-Sat 8-5 & Sunday's 10-4 wyntourgardens.com Facebook inform@wyntourgardens.com expected to debut a digital radio service later this year; Google-owned YouTube is also working on a paid subscription music plan; and Sweden's Spotify is exploring a way to make a version of its paid streaming plan free with ads on mobile devices, according to a person in the music industry familiar with the matter. The person was not authorized to speak publicly about the developments because the deals and features on the services have not been finalized. Google is playing catchup in the digital music space after launching its music store in November 2011. Apple's iTunes Store, which launched in 2003, is the leader in song downloads and Spotify claims about 6 million paying subscribers worldwide. But Google's massive reach on mobile devices that use its Android operating system means it could narrow the gap quickly. Some 44 percent of active smartphones in the U.S. are powered by the Android software, according to research firm eMarketer. Google said about 900 million Android devices have been activated worldwide. All Access will be available in the U.S. on Wednesday and comes with a 30day free trial. It is expected to roll out soon in 12 other countries where Google currently sells music, including 10 European countries such as the U.K., France and Germany, as well as Australia and New Zealand. If you start the trial by June 30, the monthly fee drops to $8 for the foreseeable future. Google's All Access allows users to search for songs, albums or artists directly, or peruse 22 different genres.