I see a lot of people who need a ROOMBA.

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Thank dog for frozen food. yummy leftovers.

Jesse, that is BANANAS!

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Nutty, how has Familiar Fatal Insomnia not made it onto the medical shows? Seems like perfect medical drama fodder.

Because I'm not kidding when I say it's incredibly rare. I think there have been a grand total of 30 cases diagnosed, and every single person was a cousin/sibling/parent/child in the same family (dating back to the late 1800s). It's this bizarre disease cluster in this one family in Italy, and because the disease (or its absence) doesn't show up till you're in your 40s, every generation has had kids before finding out whether they're passing it on or not.

(It's also a really fascinating example of what we don't know about prion diseases: although the famous prions -- mad cow disease -- are spread by eating infected mean, we're also slowly learning that prions can become genetic risk-factors. Creutzfeld-Jakob is another prion disease with genetic risk-factors.)

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Even more annoying is that they say "reasonable efforts will be made to ensure that the bag is returned to you within 24 hours," which it probably will be, so I can't really bitch. I mean, of course I CAN bitch, but it probably won't do me any good.

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I see a lot of people who need a ROOMBA.

The breast cancer helping one even went on my Christmas list. However I also linked to the Tomato Nation story so they might have thought I was kidding. Which, hey, NOT kidding. I meant to show it was a multi-tasker: freak out the cats (with less chance of me bleeding) and clean my floors.

Because I'm not kidding when I say it's incredibly rare. I think there have been a grand total of 30 cases diagnosed, and every single person was a cousin/sibling/parent/child in the same family (dating back to the late 1800s). It's this bizarre disease cluster in this one family in Italy, and because the disease (or its absence) doesn't show up till you're in your 40s, every generation has had kids before finding out whether they're passing it on or not.

Damn. Having kids is a massive leap of faith in those families. I need to go Google for more information. Thanks, Nutty.

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(I was wondering where the familial bit came in)

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I finally got all my Christmas tree taken down and all my decorations put into four Rubbermaid containers and stacked up in the closet. Yay!

Now to do all the dishes that have been stacking up so I can cook some dinner tonight.

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This is the article I've read, which summarizes findings in the one Italian family. I gather that it's occurred in a couple other families, too, where it tended to be misdiagnosed as Cretuzfeld-Jakob "with thalamic involvement." [link]

Did you know the thalamus had much to say about your circadian rhythm? I didn't.

Cool brain tutorial: [link]

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Oh! Shelley Winters died. [link]

That was a nice biography of her (and even had a photo from her in The Poseidon Adventure! ). She was a woman and a half in all directions.

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rain. bah.

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