Earlier this week I was having trouble with a 3 column design I was working on. I learned my html in the bad old days of Windows 95 and tables, so it’s only been the last couple of years I’ve been learning css. I still have trouble from time to time, as many of you may remember from my early attempts at this template. Til now, my main references have been HTML Dog and W3Schools as well as W3C.

Then from Digg (sorry, the article has aged off or I would link to it), I found a tutorial site that took me step by step through the process, including making the footer drop down correctly. FloatTutorial is a great site with everything you wanted to know about the float property but couldn’t quite put into practice. Liquid Three Column Layout helped me a lot. I started over from scratch with it instead of trying to fix my existing stylesheet–lo and behold, it worked.

I now have another tool in my arsenal.

I was doing some catch-up reading the other day, and leafed through the 13 March 2006 copy of Time Magazine. Just inside the front cover was a 2 page spread with this headline: “Depression isn’t the only symptom of bipolar disorder. It’s just the most obvious to you.”

It’s an ad for the isitreallydepression.com website. On the facing page are 3 questions listing the most common symptoms of mania:

1. Has there ever been a period of time when you were not your usual self and…
…you felt so good or so hyper that other people thought you were not your normal self or you were so hyper that you got in trouble? Yes No
…you were so irritable that you shouted at people or started fights or arguments? Yes No
…you felt much more self confident than usual? Yes No
…you got much less sleep than usual and found you didn’t really miss it? Yes No
…you were much more talkative or spoke much faster than usual? Yes No
…thoughts raced through your head or you couldn’t slow your mind down? Yes No
…you were so easily distracted by things around you that you had trouble concentrating or staying on track? Yes No
…you had much more energy than usual? Yes No
…you were much more active or did many more things than usual? Yes No
…you were much more social or outgoing than usual, for example, you telephoned friends in the middle of the night? Yes No
…you were much more interested in sex than usual? Yes No
…you did things that were unusual for you or that other people might have thought were excessive, foolish, or risky? Yes No
…spending money got you or your family into trouble? Yes No

2. If you checked YES to more than one of the previous questions, have several of these ever happened during the same period of time? Yes No
3. How much of a problem did any of these cause you — like being unable to work; having family, money or legal troubles; getting into arguments or fights? No Problem
Minor Problem
Moderate Problem
Serious Problem

Additional questions listed in the quiz on the website but not in the ad:

4. Have any of your blood relatives (i.e. children, siblings, parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles) had manic-depressive illness or bipolar disorder? Yes No
5. Has a health professional ever told you that you have manic-depressive illness or bipolar disorder? Yes No

I was mis-diagnosed with clinical depression and anxiety for close to 30 years until, throwing up her hands in frustration at trying to get my meds right, my GP referred me to a psychiatrist, who had me fill out a much more extensive version of this questionnaire. Only then did I get appropriate help. Treating only depression can be dangerous for bipolar. The most popular anti-depressants can trigger manic episodes and drop you into a downward spiral. For me, every time they increased my anti-depressant dose, my anxiety mania got worse, causing them to raise the dose once again. It’s a losing proposition.

Bear in mind that this quiz is not definitive; bipolar has many forms and unlike most illnesses, there is no simple blood test that will make a diagnosis. Family history is an important component; it was the piece that made my symptoms drop into place for my shrink. If I hadn’t told him everything, I’d probably still be on the wrong meds.

Until very recently, those of us with bipolar were invisible people, portrayed in fiction and the news as dangerous and forever unstable. Never did I see anything indicating that it was possible to live a sane, productive life with the help of medication. In a way it’s become my mission to get the truth out, that bipolar isn’t a life sentence of isolation. Mass media campaigns like this one are helping spread the word.

I only wish that some of the text had been targeted to those without the illness. People need to be educated on the facts and myths of the disorder. The stigma of bipolar still holds a lot of people back from seeking treatment.

My reservation about this is that the website is sponsored by the drug company that makes Seroquel, although I will give them credit for keeping the drug promo on a separate site and actively informing the reader that they’re leaving the main site.

I hope that if you recognize yourself in even one of these questions, you’ll talk to your doctor right away.

Gov. Phil Bredesen of Tennessee on Monday unveiled a plan he called Cover Tennessee, to provide affordable and portable health insurance to more than 600,000 uninsured people in the state.

From Chattanoogan.com:

Cover Tennessee, which is a voluntary program, has three main components:

CoverTN — This initiative, the heart of Cover Tennessee, is a partnership between the state and small businesses to help working Tennesseans buy affordable health insurance. The average cost for an individual is expected to be about $50 a month. The state and employer each will kick in about $50 a month as well, for a total monthly cost of $150. In cases where an employer doesn’t participate, the individual will have the option of paying the employer’s share.

He said unlike other health insurance plans, CoverTN will not require high deductibles on the front end. Instead, participants will have modest co-pays - about $25 for a doctor’s visit and $10 for a generic prescription - and can carry CoverTN with them regardless of where they work. Initially, the focus will be on workers earning $24,000 a year or less and small businesses such as restaurants, retail shops and landscaping firms. It could be expanded to allow broader participation.

· CoverKids - This initiative will provide health insurance to uninsured children in homes with incomes up to $50,000 a year for a family of four. Families with higher incomes will be allowed to buy into the plan. CoverKids will put Tennessee among the top 10 states in the nation in terms of the percentage of children covered by health insurance.

· AccessTN - This initiative will provide health insurance to adults who can afford to buy it but who may not be able to obtain it due to pre-existing medical conditions. The state provided a health insurance plan like this more than a decade ago, but discontinued it after launching TennCare.

If this were highly successful and five years from now and 150,000 people signed up, the cost to the state would be about 3% of what is spent on TennCare, the state medical fund.

We need more proposals like this; lack of insurance and medical care has reached crisis level in this country. Applause to Gov. Bredesen for being willing to put his money where a lot of people’s mouths are, and for offering practical solutions to a problem facing every state. I’ve got high hopes that the state legislature will go for it.

Via Medpundit.

It’s not what you know, or even who you know. It’s what you look like. That’s the perception of 11,130 members of Monster.com who responded to a poll on whether changing their appearance could improve their job prospects.

From HR.BLR.com:

Most Workers Say Plastic Surgery Would Help with Career

More than half of workers say having plastic surgery or cosmetic dental work would help them advance their career, according to a poll by Monster.com.

Fifty-three percent of respondents to the online poll said plastic surgery would help their career. Thirty-one percent of respondents disagreed, and 14 percent were unsure.

More than 21,000 people responded to Monster’s online poll about appearance, plastic surgery, and the workplace.

Since Monster is a job listing as well as a job seeking site, I’d be curious to know what percentage of these respondents were looking to hire people compared to the number looking for a job.

This is not a scientific poll, but rather self-selecting. The numbers may be skewed by the fact that those satisfied with their employment–or even employed at all–are less likely to visit the site, thus participate in the poll. Likewise, I’d be interested in a gender and age breakdown of the results, as well as a listing of what procedures they believe would give them an advantage. There’s a big difference between thinking that dental bleaching would be a benefit and believing that breast implants and face lifts would give a worker a leg up.

Any way you look at it, these numbers are discouraging. Given that the number of middle-aged and older workers looking for jobs is significantly higher than it was 10 years ago, thanks to downsizing and outsourcing, they’re probably looking for any way for a 50-year-old to level the playing field with 22-year-old new college graduates.

These are fuzzy numbers, true. But to me, this indicates a high level of suspicion that age and appearance discrimination exists in hiring today. What was once the realm of visual entertainment seems to have entered the mainstream mindset.

Are older workers at a true disadvantage? Would cosmetic procedures make them more attractive candidates? Beauty, or lack thereof, has been proven to be a source of discrimination.

According to Robert J. Stonebraker, Winthrop University:

Drawing on three surveys encompassing more than 7,000 respondents, economists Dan Hamermesh and Jeff Biddle tried to statistically isolate the impact of beauty on earnings.3 In addition to gathering data on employment and earnings, the interviewers rated the respondents’ physical attractiveness. Respondents were categorized as either strikingly beautiful or handsome, above average for age, average for age, below average for age, or homely. Overall, 34 percent of the respondents were rated as striking or above average while only eight percent as below average or homely.

Even after adjusting for such factors as education, experience, age, race, and occupation, the authors find that beauty has a significant impact on earnings. The impact is not as great as that of race or gender, but it is significant nonetheless. Respondents rated as striking or above average earned a wage premium of about five percent, while those rated as below average or homely suffered a wage penalty of about nine percent. The total earnings gap between the two groups was about 14 percent. Interestingly, the impact of physical appearance was somewhat greater for males than for females, though the difference was not statistically significant.

This says nasty things about our culture. Perception cannot change until practices do, and to be forced to consider cosmetic surgery to find a job or gain advancement is disgusting. The Monster poll exposes how wide spread this belief is. Now lets go after the cause.

(Cross-posted at Blog Sisters)

Other Voices is a cyber-anthology of English language poetry “that erases the boundaries of nations, ethnicities, religions, cultures, and age to bring you some of the world’s best poetry.”

I’m proud to say our own Sherry Chandler is a part of it.

Be sure to check out her poems, collected in a section of Volume 19 called October Grass. There are 6 pieces of beautiful work from my most admired poet. Relax and let the Kentucky wind ruffle your hair and soothe your senses while you soak in the images of a too often overlooked piece of the world.

While you’re there, browse the other poets featured. I would gladly have paid bookstore rates for this collection, and you can enjoy it free of charge. Only problem with an online version is that I can’t get Sherry to sign it.

Light blogging will continue for a while as I frantically work on a new project. But in the meantime, enjoy this webcam of an eagle in its nest, complete with sound. While I have mixed feelings about this intrusion into wildlife habitat, the beauty of the eagle is something to behold.

Argh - I’ve volunteered to host the 13th Carnival of Feminists, which will appear on April 19. Since I’m pretty low traffic here, I’m worried about getting enough submissions to fill the issue, so I’m giving you advance warning and asking for your help. If you’d be interested in writing something specifically for it, either to the theme or not, that would be great, and much appreciated. If you see a thought provoking post–someone else’s or one of your own–please let me know about it.

I’d also appreciate you all spreading the word on your own blogs beginning April 5. I need all the help I can get.

The theme of the issue will be “Feminism and Challenges - physical, mental, emotional and spiritual.” Possible topics including: self-determination in health and mental health care, disability issues, transgender issues, issues of aging, integration of religion and feminist beliefs, economic issues, etc. The issue will not be limited to the theme, though I hope to get a nice collection of posts fitting it.

Nominations may be sent to ISeeInvisiblePeople AT gmail.com or submitted through an online form April 5-April 17.

Thanks.

From Token Games comes a cute little interactive map game asking you to match the names to the 50 US states. The map is a little hinky shapewise, and the targets for the tiny east coast states are small and hard to hit, but still it’s a great way to waste a couple of minutes.

There are also versions for Canada, Africa, the Middle East, Australia, South America, Central America and Europe. It reminds me a little of the PBS kids’ game show “Where in the World Is Carmen San Diego.” (IMDB says the show is being remade by USA this year.)

Found via Digg.

When I’m racing or crashing or just plain having a bad day, I have a set of things that sooth me. Simple pleasures of the body are too often overlooked in favor of the intellectual or sexual. Indulging your senses is good for you; it doesn’t have to be reserved for special occasions.

My favorites:

• Oscar de la Renta bubble bath
• 600 thread count Egyptian cotton sheets
• clean underwear straight from the dryer
• champagne
• Jasmine Vanilla body lotion
• strawberry candles
• smoothly polished stones
• freshly bathed babies
• when a baby is unavailable, baby powder deodorant
• dill pickle chips
• wood smoke
• men’s cologne
• the feel and sound of rushing water
• 100% cotton socks
• “The Moldau” by Smetana
• sour gummy worms
• coffee brewing
• warm sand between my fingers
• stars on a clear night
• hummingbirds
• cherry blossoms

What do your senses crave?

Finally, a bill has been introduced to overturn the idiotic policy of denying funds to family planning services around the world. Read the full text of the resolution here.

H.R.4736
Title: To amend the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 to authorize assistance to provide contraceptives in developing countries in order to prevent unintended pregnancies, abortions, and the transmission of sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS.
Sponsor: Rep Simmons, Rob [CT-2] (introduced 2/8/2006)
Cosponsors: (16)
Rep Berman, Howard L. [CA-28]
Rep Biggert, Judy [IL-13]
Rep Davis, Danny K. [IL-7]
Rep Grijalva, Raul M. [AZ-7]
Rep Kirk, Mark Steven [IL-10]
Rep Lee, Barbara [CA-9]
Rep McCollum, Betty [MN-4]
Rep McGovern, James P. [MA-3]
Rep McNulty, Michael R. [NY-21]
Rep Michaud, Michael H. [ME-2] - 2/8/2006
Rep Moore, Dennis [KS-3]
Rep Oberstar, James L. [MN-8] - 2/8/2006
Rep Ryan, Tim [OH-17]
Rep Sanders, Bernard [VT]
Rep Shays, Christopher [CT-4]
Rep Snyder, Vic [AR-2] - 2/8/2006

Latest Major Action: 2/8/2006 Referred to House committee.
Status: Referred to the House Committee on International Relations.

Contact your representatives and express support for this measure.