Friday, January 29, 2010

What Science Says About The Sins of the Father


There are certain verses in the Bible that state that the choices of the parents will be inherited by their children. Not only the "sins" (Exodus 34:7) but also the "blessings" (Psalm 112:2). It states it can go to the children and the children's children up to the fourth generation.

When I read through these verses, I have always thought that this was solely restricted to the spiritual and psychological realm. I was a bit curious why the Bible was so specific though down to the fourth generation. Perhaps at some point, people realize stupid choices create stupid consequences.

For instance, an angry father would sometimes impart a tempermental attitude to his children. A loving family environment might create happy children. You know the stereotypes.

Yet what I read the other day and what you will find out today might shock you. The principle of "sins of our father" is not only restricted in the spiritual or psychological realm.

Lifestyle choices affect your children and future generations at a genetic level


Science has revealed recently that the lifestyle choices that we make in our lives today not only has a psychological or spiritual impact to our children but also a physical, genetic impact. When you smoke cigarettes or eat with no fruits or vegetables in your diet, you are not only affecting yourself physically and hurting your body's ability to fight off heart disease or cancer, you are also doing that to your future descendants.

Over the past 20 years, scientists have been studying something called the "epigenome" and it has given birth to a new science called epigenetics. Sitting right above your DNA are epigenetic markers that tell your genes to switch on or off. It is a biological response to the environment that you are in and it is transmitted in your egg and sperm. To all of you computer geeks, the best explanation is as follows. Your DNA is the hardware, but your epigenome is the software. Don't misunderstand me. You don't evolve. Your DNA or your children's DNA doesn't change by your choices, but it does affect the epigenome markers.

Mistreating your body now through mutation-friendly environments such as cigarette smoke can have long lasting effects not only on your body but through your children and their children. Their genetic markers will be more susceptible to cancer.

Eating unhealthy foods, especially those individuals inclined to eat red meats and no vegetables or fruits in their diets, will pass negative epigenetic responses where your children and their descendants will have more suceptibility to heart disease.

Consider one experiment highlighted in TIME Magazine's January 18, 2010 article, "Why Your DNA Isn't Your Destiny". One generation of fruit flies were exposed to a chemical called geldnamaycin. It has created eye growths yet their DNA remained the same. That same trait were seen in 13 future generations -- yet the drug was only applied to 1 generation.

Now these are fruit flies. How about environmental effects and the choices that humans make on their body (ie: smoking)? A study published in 2006 in the European Journal of Human Genetics noted a peculiar incident with 14,024 fathers. About 166 fathers smoked in their youth. By the time they grew up and had children, it turned out that their boys had a higher body mass index than other boys by age 9. What does that mean? The fathers' sins were pronounced 'epigenetically', affecting their children and giving them more susceptibility to obesity, heart disease, and other problems.

Friends, these discoveries are shocking. It isn't about "your life" anymore that you are affecting, but you are affecting generations upon generations based on your life choices. Thankfully, the evidence that we do have is that epigenetic markers are temporary, things can still change for the better. Eat right, stop smoking, get good rest, and exercise. Easier said than done, but as we have learned, the stakes are now slightly higher.  Lastly, if you ever want to learn about new health topics, access Medical Health Discoveries.

-Don

Monday, January 18, 2010

NBI arrested wounded Jason Ivler after gun fight



Last month I commented about Jason Ivler, who was being sought out by the police and the NBI (Philippines version of the FBI). Thankfully he was caught today so he can finally face his accusers in court. Allegedly, Jason has gunned down one person two months ago and killed another individual through his reckless driving a couple years back. NBI agents tried to arrest him at the Blue Ridge A Subdivision in Quezon City but instead of cooperating, the press reports state he shot at them. He was hit with bullets when the agents returned fire. He is now in the hospital after intensive surgery.

Anyone who uses a gun to victimize instead of protecting others need to answer for it in court. If he is found guilty, he will have a fun time in Philippines prison where he can no longer hide behind his guns or his step father's diplomatic immunity.

Canon 7D movie thumbnails using Windows Explorer - QuickTime .MOV files

How To Get QuickTime .MOV thumbnails in Windows Explorer


I'm using Windows XP SP3 and Windows 7 on my PCs and I'm having issues viewing any thumbnails for QuickTime in Windows Explorer. I don't like to use QuickTime player and view each file one by one or use ZoomBrowser to simply organize my movies.

Thankfully someone already made a solution.

1. Download QuickThumb.dll from http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~mbarrien/projects/.

2. Save it to your C:\Windows\System32 folder.

3. Click Start -> Run then enter "regsvr32 QuickThumb.dll". Once it successfully registers, you can see thumbnails in your folder. Just refresh.

Hope that helps!

Friday, January 15, 2010

Haiti needs our prayers and our help!



We are only beginning to sift through what's happened in Haiti and whether our loved ones were among those that were hurt. The 7 plus magnitude earthquake was apparently a shallow one, which caused great devastation in a country that already was having problems with this economy. If it was a deeper earthquake, it would have caused less damage.

To my closest friends, the Pierres, Comperes, and Josephs and the rest of the Haitian community in Lehigh Acres and Fort Myers, our thoughts and prayers are with you. Please know that this pain, you do not bear alone, my family and the world cries out with you.

A call for help
Anyone who has the means to donate funds, please send it to your trusted charity. I personally use ADRA, a top ranked international disaster relief organization. The Haitian emergency fund site is available here: http://www.adra.org/site/Donation2?df_id=2328&2328.donation=form1

They have already crossed over to Haiti, you can find their latest news here:
http://www.adra.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=10733&security=1&news_iv_ctrl=1141

Saturday, January 09, 2010

Solved: Windows Media Player error downloading codec error




Some context...

On my hand built Intel Core2 Duo E7200 @ 2.53GHz system, I'm still running Win XP SP2 with Windows Media Player version 9. Haven't upgraded to Windows Media Player 11 yet mainly because I haven't really used this computer for anything. I built it earlier this year thinking I will probably need the processor power at some point. Now that I'm doing Canon 7D movies, I need to actually start downloading some codecs so I can play videos on WMP.

My problem...

When I opened up Pinnacle created MPG files for my Canon 7D in Windows Media Player 9, it was saying that it couldn't find the codec. To be more specific, the error code stated "error downloading codec". I haven't tried, but I probably can't play DVDs on my DVD drive either. The solution though is easy and I'm posting the solution here to help folks Googling about...

The solution

I have been downloading off CNET's Download site for over a decade because they offer virus free software packages. Here's a codec that fixed my video problems and it also install DVD/VCD codecs.

http://download.cnet.com/Media-Player-Codec-Pack/3000-13632_4-10749065.html

Hope this helps someone out.