Corpus Callosum is written by a psychiatrist at a small community hospital somewhere in midwestern USA. Email to cc.scienceblogger at gmail dot com.
April 30, 2007
Category: Medicine
Just in case you are a physician looking for a reason to avoid drug reps, you should read this article on PLOS Medicine. It is an enlightening, if sickening, inside view of pharmaceutical sales practices. Following the Script: How Drug...
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 5:16 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Energy
IEEE Spectrum (free registration required) has a nice little article about devices that generate heat and electricity for the home. This is a good idea, except for two problems: one, it is more efficient, and two, it is more reliable...
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 10:11 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
April 29, 2007
Category: Psychiatry
It is not often that retired NFL players get published in medical journals, but apparently it does happen. Eric Hipple, formerly a quarterback for the Detroit Lions, has an article in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise. Granted,...
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 8:46 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
April 28, 2007
Category: Politics
April 26, 2007 Dr. Joseph ***** **** * ******* St Ann Arbor, Michigan 48103 Dear Dr. *****: Thank you for contacting me regarding the impeachment of Vice President Cheney. I appreciate hearing from you. As you know, impeachment is a...
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 8:00 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
April 26, 2007
Category: Politics
OK, I turned on the TV, in all its 12-inch glory, and watched the show. It is as good as any articles of impeachment will ever be. Money quotes, from the transcript: BILL MOYERS: It didn't make sense to...
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 12:40 AM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
April 25, 2007
Category: Photos of Interest
From LA Times: The San Diego Zoo's male giant panda, Gao Gao, nips at female panda Bai Yun's back. The two adult giant pandas at the San Diego Zoo mated Tuesday, zoo officials announced, raising hopes of an offspring this...
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 11:50 PM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Politics
George McGovern takes Cheney to task for, among other things, misunderstanding political history. Los Angeles Times: VICE PRESIDENT Dick Cheney recently attacked my 1972 presidential platform and contended that today's Democratic Party has reverted to the views I advocated...
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 8:34 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
April 24, 2007
Category: Politics
Regarding efforts to reform the practices of student loan vendors, in light of the recent scandal: The state-by-state regulatory action, so far limited largely to efforts by Democrats, comes at a time of little progress in the development of...
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 11:00 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Social Commentary
This video is worth seeing.
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 7:56 PM • 9 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
April 23, 2007
Category: Medicine
From BBC: Fat-fighting baby milk criticised Plans to add a hormone which suppresses hunger to baby formula food is unlikely to work say experts. University of Buckingham researchers are looking at adding leptin to formula milk to curb future over-eating....
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 10:41 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Humor
I don't know & you don't either.
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 7:50 PM • 9 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
April 21, 2007
Category: Social Commentary
'Devastating' Moyers Probe of Press and Iraq Coming...What I am hoping is that every journalist in the USA watches it.
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 9:03 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
April 20, 2007
Category: Medicine
A pharmaceutical company, Amgen, just saw the price of its stock shares jump by 3.9%. The reason: they released a study that shows that their drug, Aranesp, is no more dangerous than placebo! Hurray! Our drug does not kill patients!
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 9:10 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Medicine
Yes, you read that correctly. There
was overt, criminal fraud involved. The FDA knew the data
were suspect, and they went ahead and approved Ketek
anyway. So if you were wondering if there really is a need
for reform, this post will answer that.
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 8:23 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
April 19, 2007
Category: Humor
"My job is a job to make decisions. I'm a decision -- if the job description were, what do you do -- it's decision-maker. And I make a lot of big ones, and I make a lot of little ones."...
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 10:36 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Personal
This is my second music-related post in one week. Salon has an article with podcast, with Patti Smith. The occasion is the forthcoming release of her new album, Twelve. The interview is not so much about the album; it's...
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 12:02 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
April 18, 2007
Category: Environment
Add this to the list of environmental worries: The generation of electricity is a highly water-intensive process. It takes three times as much water to produce the electricity needed for a home, than the water used in that home....
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 12:07 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Medicine
The first two posts in this series are here and here. The final editorial in the NEJM's three-part series on FDA reform takes it's title from a line in the Institute of Medicine report: The Future of Drug Safety:...
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 8:36 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
April 17, 2007
Category: Science News
Dust Dampens Hurricane Formation I'm hardly an expert, but it appears that there is some evidence that the amount of dust in the air over the Atlantic is a factor in determining the severity of the hurricane season. More...
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 11:48 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Psychiatry
Nightmares are a terrible problem for many persons with posttraumatic stress disorder. Not only that, but they can be difficult to treat. Lately, the LA Times has taken to emailing me a summary of some of their Science &...
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 9:05 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
April 16, 2007
Category: Chatter
It is not often that I write about music. In fact, it is not often that I even think about music. But this little item caught my eye, if not my ear, if only because it is perplexing to try...
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 7:41 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
April 15, 2007
Category: Medicine
This is a continuation of the first post, Things That Affect YOU: PDUFA and AERS. PDUFA is the Prescription Drug User Fee Act. AERS is the Adverse Event Reporting System. The PDUFA is up for review soon, as it expires in...
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 4:03 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
April 14, 2007
Category: Medicine
As I've mentioned before, when NEJM publishes things in the early-release/open-access format, it means that the editors believe the issues are pertinent to a high-priority public debate. In this case, it is because the PDUFA (Prescription Drug User Fee Act) is up for reauthorization. Some medical policy folks are concerned that changes are needed, but do not appear to be forthcoming. This issue has made it into the mainstream news media, but the number of articles is small. This is a disappointing response by the media, to an issue of critical importance.
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 4:35 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Armchair Musings
For some, cognitive dissonance is a way of life....
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 12:42 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
April 13, 2007
Category: Medicine
This is from Medpage Today, which often carries the same things as Medscape, but does not require registration (hint, hint). They report on the finding of a genetic variant that increases the risk of obesity. the more copies of the...
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 9:22 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Social Commentary
From Reuters Health Information, via Medscape (free registration rquired): Jeb Bush Joins Board of Tenet Healthcare CHICAGO (Reuters) Apr 12 - Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, brother of U.S. President George W. Bush, will join the board of Tenet Healthcare...
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 7:41 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
April 12, 2007
Category: Social Commentary
From CNN, et alia: White House: 'We screwed up' on deleted e-mails POSTED: 4:35 p.m. EDT, April 12, 2007 WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The White House "screwed up" by not requiring e-mails from Republican Party and campaign accounts to be saved...
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 10:59 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
April 11, 2007
Category: Medicine
[Update: Retired Doc's Thoughts has a more complete review of the varied potential benefits from statins.] This morning, Effect Measure posted about a retrospective study that indicates that there may be a protective effect if statins are taken by...
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 11:20 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Humor
I thought this was kind of clever. Not sure why the Project for the Old American Century put it up -- it is not their usual fare -- but they deserve credit for being creative....
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 6:52 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
April 10, 2007
Category: Photos of Interest
From National Geographic: April 9, 2007—Geologist Juan Manuel García-Ruiz calls it "the Sistine Chapel of crystals," but Superman could call it home. A sort of south-of-the-border Fortress of Solitude, Mexico's Cueva de los Cristales (Cave of Crystals) contains some of...
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 10:15 AM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Medicine
Here at ScienceBlogs, and medical blogs in general, are generally somewhat dismissive of complimentary and alternative medicine. Every once in a while, though, something comes up that is positive. This is from American Family Physician, and is openly available....
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 9:05 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
April 9, 2007
Category: Medicine
Ordinarily, I dislike fisking as a literary style, but it does have its place. This is one of them. As noted in the two previous posts, (Part One, Part Two) some authors from the Cato Institute managed to get an...
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 9:12 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Personal
HT: Logtar Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™...
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 7:47 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
April 8, 2007
Category: Medicine
In order to make sense of this post, you probably need to read Part One first. This is about an opinion piece that was published in the LA Times, written by some advocates from the Cato Institute: Universal healthcare's dirty...
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 8:06 AM • 9 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Computing
This was at Barnes and Noble, in Linux User & Developer. I learned that Peugot (the second-largest auto maker in Europe) plans to install Linux for their 2,500 servers. That is not particularly surprising. What is more, they plan to...
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 7:20 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
April 7, 2007
Category: Medicine
It is charitable to call it a "debate" about health care. It is really a flame war with a veneer of civility. It started with an opinion piece published in what is ordinarily a respectable publication: the Los Angles Times...
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 9:58 PM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Computing
Obviously a follow-up to my last post, Why Blog? Like the Why Blog? post, this is partly a repetition of something I posted before, at least once. But some of these points bear repeating, if only to remind myself....
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 1:58 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
April 6, 2007
Category: Chatter
This is the meme of the moment here, as started by Blog Around the Clock; Deep Sea News, Aardvarchaeology, and Signout have joined in. Of course the prototypical therapist response would be "why do you blog?" or "what makes you...
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 12:57 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
April 4, 2007
Category: Humor
glumbert.com - The Apple iRack A rather amusing video, sums things up nicely. ...
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 10:56 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Computing
I was just reading about Firefox 3.0, which is supposed to have features that would simplify building and using web-based applications. I'll be curious to see how this plays out. Will it make things leaner and more efficient, or...
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 8:39 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
April 3, 2007
Category: Photos of Interest
Wikipedia's Image of the Day is a photograph of eye surgery. It is pretty cool, but only if you like that kind of thing. I won't impose it on those who might not want to see it....
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 10:01 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Science in the Media
This is one of the first publications that I subscribed to, after Popular Electronics, and maybe Mad Magazine. I must confess that I have not renewed the subscription, but from time to time I check their website. There is...
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 8:49 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
April 2, 2007
Category: Science in the Media
A few days ago, a couple of ScienceBloggers, (Tim Lambert and I) wrote about the startling revelation the the British government's science advisors informed Tony Blair that what he was about to do was going to be a mistake....
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 10:09 PM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
