How US Zip Codes Predict Health Outcomes

Research highlights how location impacts one’s potential for health and well-being

Health disparities – or how those in different groups experience different health outcomes depending on their race/ethnicity or other factors – are not a new concept. However, recent research has shifted to highlight how location, and specifically zip codes, influence an individual’s overall health and wellness.

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AI in Healthcare: Is It “Better” Than Doctors?

The clinical use of GPT-4 yields decidedly mixed results
A cute robot looks at the camera with blurry people in background

Credit: Possessed Photography via Unsplash

As AI makes its way into more and more facets of daily life — not least among these, healthcare — recent studies reveal the upside and downside of the rapidly expanding tech. Each of the studies examines the use of GPT-4, the latest system from software company Epic, which is also behind the ChatGPT chatbot, arguably the public’s first usable introduction to generative AI.

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“Father Death Blues” by Allen Ginsberg

The Beat poet explores life, mortality & sexuality after his father's death

Far view of an airplane in a clouded yet bright sky

Hey Father Death, I’m flying home
Hey poor man, you’re all alone
Hey old daddy, I know where I’m going […]

Guru Death your words are true
Teacher Death I do thank you
For inspiring me to sing this Blues […]

Suffering is what was born
Ignorance made me forlorn
Tearful truths I cannot scorn

Father Breath once more farewell
Birth you gave was no thing ill
My heart is still, as time will tell.

Definitive and controversial Beat poet Allen Ginsberg wrote “Father Death Blues” on the plane en route to his father’s funeral. The funeral prompts Ginsberg — as funerals, especially those in one’s immediate family, often do — to examine his own mortality. He does this by personifying important figures in his world and how their “deaths” — along with their eternal influence — intermingle with his life.

He opens by speaking to the personified version of his father’s death (noted by its proper-noun capital lettering) casually letting it know he’s traveling home. Speaking to his actual father (noted with lower-case letters), Ginsberg implies that by making the final transition to death, his dad is now “all alone” — or, at least beyond the reach of human folk. Continuing, with a touch of sass, Ginsberg shares with “old daddy” that “I know where I’m going.” This reads as Ginsberg acknowledging the potential of being hellbound due to his subversion of the status quo (he is best known for the quintessential Beat poem “Howl,” which explored his homosexuality at a time when same-sex relationships were illegal).

Black and white photo of Allen Ginsberg on a stool

Moving to stanzas where he explores deaths of important figures in his life — Guru, Teacher — his words illustrate how, even beyond the bodily passing of these mentors, there is an enduring element in lessons learned (“words”) from the Guru, as well as the permanence of this poem itself, inspired by Teacher Death and still extant even after death.

In the next stanza shared, he explores his experience as a gay man in an unwelcoming time. Born as he was with this sexuality, he was indeed born into suffering. Ignorance of society at that time made him “forlorn,” yet despite the pain and tears of his truth he is unable to “scorn” them, or live any way other than just as he is.

To close, he bids one last farewell to his personified Father’s Breath, essentially thanking his dad for his life — despite the tumult, it’s been a good one worth living, evinced by the fact his heart “is still” or unperturbed and at peace, “as time will tell.”

This is a conclusion any of us would be fortunate to reach.

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Posted in The Next Chapter | Leave a comment

Funeral Home Owner Chris Johnson Spending Halloween in Jail

More than a dozen bodies found decomposing at his Georgia funeral home

Funeral home owner Chris Johnson.
Credit: Coffee County Sheriff’s Office

Halloween is the time for scary tales about the supernatural and the macabre, but this season brings a true chilling story of grizzly neglect by funeral home owner Chris Johnson that has left families of the departed in a state of shock and anger.

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Posted in Something Special | 1 Comment

Happiest Halloween!

May your Halloween be filled with fun and laughter

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Posted in Inside SevenPonds | Leave a comment

Our Monthly Tip: Toast a Loved One with a Personalized Glass

Etching the glassware adds a touch of class to any memorial gathering keepsake
A blonde woman smiles as she holds up a stemless wine glass with the name Adele etched into it

Toast a loved one at a celebration of life with a personalized glass.
Credit: glassengraving.com

Our Tip of the Month

Offer guests a personalized etched glass with the name of the loved one you’re honoring at a memorial service or celebration of life. When throwing any kind of celebration, it has become de rigueur for the host to offer some kind of keepsake for guests to take home, and this is a beautiful way to adhere to that tradition. You can choose the glassware to reflect the person’s favorite drink, or opt for the appropriate vessel based on what you’re serving. Most participants will probably want to drink out of the glassware while they’re there, but it would be a good idea to provide gift bags and tissue paper so they have something in which to safely bring it home as a keepsake. 

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