bookofjoe

What are they?

Answer here this time tomorrow.

Hose Lock — 'Instant security for your water'

I must confess I'd never even considered the subject of "water security" until I happened on this item.

Who knew?

From the website:

••••••••••••••••••••

Hose Bibb Lock With Padlock — Instant Security For Your Water

The Hose Bibb Lock is designed to prevent water waste, theft and misuse.

It also protects your outdoor faucet against vandalism.

Available with or without a padlock, it employs a padlock eye that screws onto your 3/4"-diameter faucet.

A cover which spins freely fits over the eye, so it cannot be unscrewed, and a padlock can be used to lock everything onto the faucet.

Included rubber gasket prevents leaks.

Also can be used with indoor faucets, such as the ones for your washing machine and the one on your water heater.

••••••••••••••••••••

One less thing to worry about.

Though I wasn't worried before the subject came up.

Hmmmm....

$26.95.

BehindTheMedspeak: Toothpick Acupuncture

Long story short: It works as well as the real thing .

Why pay more?

Here's an article from the May 12, 2009 Guardian to get you started.

•••••••••••••••••••••

Acupuncture needles can improve back pain — and so can toothpicks

Acupuncture can lead to lasting improvements for people with long-term low back pain, according to a new study - but so can simulated acupuncture using toothpicks pressed against skin. These findings suggest that penetrating the skin with needles may not be necessary for the treatment to work.

What do we know already?

Low back pain is extremely common. Up to 85 percent of people in the UK have back pain at some point in their lives, and about 5 million people see their GP for back pain each year. Most people's back pain improves in less than two weeks, but some have pain for three months or more. Long-term back pain is harder to treat, leading many people to seek out alternative therapies, such as acupuncture.

Acupuncture uses very fine needles placed into specific points around the body (called acupuncture points). Some doctors think acupuncture helps the body to release natural chemicals that block the feeling of pain. Some studies have found that acupuncture can ease the symptoms of low back pain, and help people move more freely.

But most studies have been fairly short, so it's unclear how long the benefits of acupuncture last. Also, some research has found that shallowly inserting needles into non-acupuncture points can also improve low back pain, raising questions about how acupuncture actually works. To explore these issues further, researchers have now looked at how real acupuncture compares with simulated acupuncture that doesn't pierce the skin, in both the short and long term.

What does the new study say?

The study included 638 adults with long-term low back pain who were randomly assigned to receive one of the following four treatments over seven weeks:

• 10 acupuncture sessions that were tailored to them individually
• 10 acupuncture sessions that weren't tailored, but instead followed a standard approach for low back pain
• 10 sessions of simulated acupuncture, which involved applying a toothpick inside a needle-guide tube to acupuncture points, to mimic insertion, stimulation and removal of needles
• Usual care provided by a GP, with no real or simulated acupuncture added.

People who had real or simulated acupuncture wore eye masks to conceal which treatment they were receiving.

After eight, 26 and 52 weeks, the participants were interviewed about their symptoms and how much the pain was hampering their usual activities (their level of dysfunction). They were also asked to rate how troublesome their pain was on a scale of zero (not troublesome at all) to 10 (extremely troublesome).

Overall, people who had either real or simulated acupuncture had less pain and were less hampered in their activities than those who had only usual care. Acupuncture that was tailored to the individual didn't seem to help any more than standard or simulated acupuncture.

After eight weeks:

• 60 percent of people who had real or simulated acupuncture had improvements in how much activity they could do, compared with only 39 percent of those receiving usual care
• Pain scores improved by 1.6 to 1.9 points in people who had real or simulated acupuncture, compared with 0.7 points for those receiving usual care.

After one year:

• 59 percent to 65 percent of people who'd received real or simulated acupuncture had improvements in how much they could do, compared with 50 percent in the usual care group. There was no significant difference between the groups in pain scores.

Tell me more about the study's findings

The study also looked at how much pain medicine people used, and whether they'd cut down on activities because of their back pain.

• When interviewed after eight weeks, 59 percent of people in the usual-care group reported using pain medicine in the previous week, compared with 47 percent of those who'd had real or simulated acupuncture. This difference between groups continued after 26 and 52 weeks.
• When interviewed at 52 weeks, 18 percent of people in the usual-care group reported cutting down on activities for more than a week in the previous month, compared with 5 percent to 7 percent in the real and simulated acupuncture groups.

How reliable are the findings?

The study was large and carefully done, so its findings should be fairly reliable. But it leaves several questions unanswered. For example, if simulated acupuncture works as well as acupuncture with needles, it is possible that both groups felt better because they believed the treatment would help them (the placebo effect). Or there may be something else about both treatments which helped. It also raises the question of how acupuncture might work, if needle insertion is not necessary.

Also, the research doesn't tell us how acupuncture compares with other treatments for long-term back pain, such as physiotherapy and exercise.

Where does the study come from?

The study was done by researches in California and Washington State, and was funded by the US National Institutes of Health and the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. It was published in a medical journal called the Archives of Internal Medicine, which is owned by the American Medical Association.

What does this mean for me?

If you've had low back pain for more than three months, you may wish to try acupuncture. This study shows that it may provide pain relief and help you get on with your usual activities. Some of these improvements may be long lasting. You may also find you're less reliant on painkillers.

But bear in mind that this could be a placebo effect, and a modified treatment that doesn't pierce the skin may work equally well.

Also, there is good evidence that a variety of other treatments work well for long-term back pain. These include non-drug treatments such as exercise, multidisciplinary programmes and behaviour therapy.

What should I do now?

If you'd like to try acupuncture, be sure to find a qualified practitioner. Acupuncture is usually a safe treatment, but it is possible to get an infection if the needles haven't been properly sterilised.

•••••••••••••••••••••

Here's the abstract of the paper published in the May 11, 2009 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.

•••••••••••••••••••••

A Randomized Trial Comparing Acupuncture, Simulated Acupuncture, and Usual Care for Chronic Low Back Pain

Background: Acupuncture is a popular complementary and alternative treatment for chronic back pain. Recent European trials suggest similar short-term benefits from real and sham acupuncture needling. This trial addresses the importance of needle placement and skin penetration in eliciting acupuncture effects for patients with chronic low back pain.

Methods:  A total of 638 adults with chronic mechanical low back pain were randomized to individualized acupuncture, standardized acupuncture, simulated acupuncture, or usual care. Ten treatments were provided over 7 weeks by experienced acupuncturists. The primary outcomes were back-related dysfunction (Roland-Morris Disability Questionnaire score; range, 0-23) and symptom bothersomeness (0-10 scale). Outcomes were assessed at baseline and after 8, 26, and 52 weeks.

Results:  At 8 weeks, mean dysfunction scores for the individualized, standardized, and simulated acupuncture groups improved by 4.4, 4.5, and 4.4 points, respectively, compared with 2.1 points for those receiving usual care (P  < .001). Participants receiving real or simulated acupuncture were more likely than those receiving usual care to experience clinically meaningful improvements on the dysfunction scale (60% vs 39%; P < .001). Symptoms improved by 1.6 to 1.9 points in the treatment groups compared with 0.7 points in the usual care group (P < .001). After 1 year, participants in the treatment groups were more likely than those receiving usual care to experience clinically meaningful improvements in dysfunction (59% to 65% vs 50%, respectively; P = .02) but not in symptoms (P > .05).

Conclusions:  Although acupuncture was found effective for chronic low back pain, tailoring needling sites to each patient and penetration of the skin appear to be unimportant in eliciting therapeutic benefits. These findings raise questions about acupuncture's purported mechanisms of action. It remains unclear whether acupuncture or our simulated method of acupuncture provide physiologically important stimulation or represent placebo or nonspecific effects.

••••••••••••••••••

This site features a video interview with Daniel Cherkin, Ph.D, who led the study.

Personal Mister

Not that kind.*

From the website:

••••••••••••••••••••••

MistyMate Personal Mister

Don't let the heat get you down.

Cool the air around you as much as 30°.

Now you can stay cool and refreshed on the hottest day, whether playing sports or lounging by the pool.

No batteries, no motorized parts — just a few quick pumps, and this 16-ounce bottle is ready to deliver a continuous stream of ultra-fine mist.

You can take this personal mister everywhere — durable polycarbonate bottle is shatter-resistant.

A built-in pressure gauge makes it easy to see when to pump to "recharge."

••••••••••••••••••••••

LeeLee Sobieski, call your office.

$34.95.

*Very bizarre but nonetheless entertaining film.

'Everything that Twitter offers I need less of' — kanYe West

TWITTER ACCOUNTS) I DON'T HAVE A F***ING TWITTER... WHY PEOPLE AT TWITTER KNOW I DON'T HAVE A F***ING TWITTER F***ING FARCE AND IT MAKES ME QUESTION WHAT OTHER SO

This post's headline is the best quote of the month.

In a blog post (above) yesterday the outspoken rapper railed against the microblogging site for allowing a user to set up a fake account using his name.

Twitter suspended the impersonator — named KanyeWest — yesterday.

Nevertheless West doesn't plan to join, saying he's "too busy actually being creative most of the time."

Touché.

***FOR MY YOUNGER READERS (RECENT STUDIES HAVE SHOWN THAT THE MEDIAN AGE OF A BOOKOFJOE READER IS 10).

Crab Chair

Limited edition of five.

"Miniature wooden chair covered in soft toys."

45 x 38 x 53 cm.

$900.

[via Milena]

Is this the work of the 12 or 13 year old Michelangelo?

Long story short: More and more experts are coming onboard to affirm that the "The Torment of St. Anthony" (above and below) is the earliest existing painting by Michelangelo.

Here's Carol Vogel's front page story from yesterday's New York Times Arts section with the details.

•••••••••••••••••••

By the Hand of a Very Young Master?

The Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth has acquired what some scholars now say is the first known painting made by Michelangelo. And if he created it, he did so when he was only 12 or 13.

This latest research holds that Michelangelo painted “The Torment of St. Anthony” between 1487 and 1488. That would make it one of only four known easel paintings by Michelangelo — another is in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence and two unfinished ones are in the National Gallery of Art in London — and the first to enter an American museum.

The painting’s attribution has been the subject of ferocious debate among scholars for four and a half centuries. While experts, citing historical records, agreed that Michelangelo had made a painting of the saint, the question was, Is it this work?

But “The Torment of St. Anthony” — an oil and tempera on a wood panel, depicting the saint poised in midair and beaten by demons — has recently undergone conservation and technical research at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Keith Christiansen, a curator of European painting there, said he firmly believed that it was by the hand of the master.

But he acknowledges that others will disagree. “A lot of people still won’t accept it as Michelangelo,” Mr. Christiansen said.

Eric McCauley Lee, director of the Kimbell, said in a telephone interview: “It sounded ridiculous at first. But when I went to the Met and saw the painting, I was struck by its power as a work of art. It had been obscured by dirt and overpainting. And when you hear Keith Christiansen’s argument, you realize it’s enormously important.”

But as recently as July, some scholars had doubts. When it was offered at a Sotheby’s auction in London, it was cataloged only as “Workshop of Domenico Ghirlandaio,” where the young Michelangelo had been a pupil.

“It’s quite a famous picture, and we knew Michelangelo had painted this composition, but we just didn’t have enough evidence at the time,” said Alexander Bell, head of Sotheby’s old master paintings department in London.

Michael Hirst, a leading Michelangelo scholar in London, said last year that he did not believe the work was by the artist. (Mr. Hirst was traveling and could not be reached for comment on Tuesday.) And when it was included in an exhibition of the young Michelangelo in Florence in 1999, it was also attributed to Ghirlandaio’s workshop.

Adam Williams, a New York dealer, saw the painting and said he was convinced it was a Michelangelo. So convinced that he bought it at the Sotheby’s auction for about $2 million. The painting did not get an export license until September, and when it arrived in New York, Mr. Williams took it straight to the Metropolitan to be examined.

“I had never seen it before,” Mr. Christiansen said. “I looked at it and said this is self-evidently Michelangelo. There’s a section of the rocks with cross-hatching. Nobody else did this kind of emphatic cross-hatching.”

Michael Gallagher, conservator of paintings at the Metropolitan, cleaned and studied the painting.

“It was incredibly dirty,” he said. “But once the centuries of varnish were removed, its true quality was evident.”

Claire M. Barry, the Kimbell’s chief curator, heard about the work and came to the Met to see it. She then contacted Mr. Lee, who also inspected it and persuaded his board to buy it. Although no one will disclose the price, experts in the field say they believe the figure was more than $6 million.

For centuries, art historians have known that Michelangelo copied an engraving of St. Anthony [below]

by the 15th-century German master Martin Schongauer for a painting. Michelangelo’s biographer and former student, Ascanio Condivi, said the young Michelangelo told him that while he was working on the painting, he had visited a local market to learn how to depict fish scales, a feature not found in the engraving.

A painting of St. Anthony is also mentioned in Giorgio Vasari’s chronicle of Michelangelo’s life, although Vasari at first ascribed the original engraving to Dürer. But after Michelangelo complained, Vasari changed his account, naming Schongauer.

Measuring 18 ½ inches by 13 1/4 inches, “The Torment of St. Anthony” is at least one-third larger than the engraving. It is also not an exact copy; Michelangelo took liberties. In addition to adding the fish scales [below],

he depicted St. Anthony holding his head more erect and with an expression more detached than sad.

He also added a landscape to the bottom of the composition, and created monsters [below]

 

that are

more dramatic

than those in the engraving.

Mr. Christiansen said studying “The Torment of St. Anthony” with infrared reflectography had exposed layers of pentimenti, or under drawing, revealing what he called the master’s hand at work.

And once the centuries of varnish were removed, the colors suddenly came alive. There is eggplant, lavender, apple green and even a brilliant salmon, which was used to depict the scales of the spiny demons. The palette, Mr. Christiansen said, is a prelude to the colors chosen for the Sistine Chapel’s vault.

Asked why the Metropolitan didn’t try to buy the painting, Mr. Christiansen replied: “The timing wasn’t right. We had other acquisitions on the dock.”

The work will be on view at the Met from June through August. It will then go to the Kimbell, where it will be displayed along with the Schongauer print.

“It is now one of our greatest treasures,” Mr. Lee said. “And will receive pride of place in our collection.”

••••••••••••••••••••••

Below,

an x-ray of the work.

Note to Martin Prince: Welcome to my crack research team

About an hour after yesterday's opening post featuring a call for assistance, he emailed me with the source of the item in question (above and below).

Well done.

Now get back to work.