j7uy5
Posts by this author
January 7, 2007
Perhaps it is a mere coincidence, but I could not help but notice
this. As soon as Democrats take control of the House and Senate, we
see these headlines:
Return
trip for electric vehicles: automakers unveil plans for electric
cars; no need to put pressure on the auto industry!
Medicare
Drug…
January 6, 2007
(This is a public health announcement for women and men.)
News agencies are, appropriately, reporting on the finding that the
average levels of folate in American women are falling. (e.g.
href="http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2007-01-04-folates_x.htm?csp=34">Folate
levels in young…
January 6, 2007
The big Pharma news of the day is that Pzifer is marketing
(Slentrol®),
a drug to help obese dogs lose weight.
href="http://www.pfizerah.com/slentrol/sl_pi.pdf">
Dirlotapide, also known as N-{(1S)-2-[benzyl(methyl)amino]-
2-oxo-1-phenylethyl}-1-methyl-5-[4'-(trifluoromethyl)biphenyl-
2-…
January 6, 2007
The Richat Structure is not a structure in the usual sense.
It is a natural feature located in the Sahara Desert of
Mauritania. It is unusual because it is nearly circular.
It was
href="http://www.eorc.nasda.go.jp/en/imgdata/topics/2003/tp031015.html">first
observed from space, in 1965, by…
January 5, 2007
(I know Shelly has
href="http://scienceblogs.com/retrospectacle/2007/01/post.php">already
posted about this on Retrospectacle.
Hopefully, you'll see there is a different slant to this.)
Significant controversy arose over the idea of using pharmaceutical and
surgical methods to permanently…
January 4, 2007
...from a psychological standpoint, that is. This is the
topic of an article in the current edition of
style="font-style: italic;">Foreign Policy.
In it, the authors examine the effect of common systematic
cognitive errors, or biases, on the process of evaluating the prospects
for war. They…
January 3, 2007
From National Geographic "Top Ten Photos of 2006"
style="font-weight: bold;">Photo in the News: Cat Chases
Bear Up Tree
style="border: 0px solid ; width: 461px; height: 615px;"
src="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/06/images/060613-cat-bear_big.jpg"
alt="Cat chases bear up a…
January 3, 2007
According to the CDC, there is a risk of pet hamsters harboring some
darn serious pathogens.
class="inset"
style="border: 0px solid ; width: 460px; height: 345px;"
alt="CC license: share alike, attribution"
title="by Yukari*, some rights reserved."
src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/47/…
January 2, 2007
There have been stories and novels about the end of privacy.
1984, by George Orwell, comes to mind. I also
remember reading a science fiction short story once, about how
technology had made privacy so difficult to maintain, and so accepted
by society, that it was considered rude to want privacy…
December 29, 2006
This is my sister's bulldog, doing what it loves the most.
You've got to be careful when doing this, though.
It took a while to get this shot, to get one that was not blurry.
The dog kept jerking his head back and forth.
December 28, 2006
CNN has a
href="http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/americas/12/27/brazil.anorexia.ap/index.html">report
about a cluster of deaths from Anorexia, in Brazil.
The subject has become a morbid fascination for
Brazilians, and is even the theme of a popular TV soap opera. It has
also touched off a…
December 28, 2006
This
adds to my respect for Gerald Ford.
Ford: Bush made 'big mistake' on Iraq
justifications
11:07 p.m. EST, December 27, 2006
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- In an interview never before published, former
President Gerald Ford said President Bush and his chief advisers "made
a big mistake" with their…
December 27, 2006
I have a confession to make. I once voted for a Republican
Presidential candidate. That candidate was Gerald Ford.
Why? Several reasons. For one, it was my
first time voting, so I was not very good at it yet. Two,
even though I was upset about the pardon of Nixon, and unimpressed by
his…
December 27, 2006
NEJM has a very interesting article about the use of PET
scans to differentiate between persons with normal cognitive function,
those with mild cognitive dysfunction, and those with Alzheimer
Disease (AD). Unfortunately, you need a subscription to view
the
full article, but you can read the…
December 26, 2006
It's kind of technical, but interesting if you care about the inner
workings of the machine you are using to read this post.
Microsoft Vista has built in an elaborate system to prevent
copying of protected digital content. In so doing, Microsoft
has imposted stringent requirements on hardware…
December 26, 2006
Several bloggers have already commented on Johnson &
Johnson's new schizophrenia drug,
rel="tag">Invega®. The official
FDA announcement is
href="http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/NEWS/2006/NEW01534.html">here.
The first blog post I saw was at
href="http://garrettsparks.blogspot.com/…
December 25, 2006
And what could be better than this?
href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6189793.stm">End
of the neo-con dream
By Paul Reynolds
World Affairs correspondent
The neo-conservative dream faded in 2006.
The ambitions proclaimed when the neo-cons' mission statement "The
Project…
December 23, 2006
You'd think we'd be done with this. Actually, maybe we are,
because now the controversy has moved to the UK:
href="http://politics.guardian.co.uk/publicservices/story/0,,1978595,00.html">Row
over cancer jab plan for all schoolgirls
Mass vaccination 'will save lives'
Parents fear rise in…
December 23, 2006
I've been following the fish oil story for a while, ever since a
href="http://archpsyc.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/56/5/407">small
study in 1999 showed potential benefit in patients with
bipolar disorder. The theoretical basis for the study was
that omega-3 fatty acids alter…
December 22, 2006
The reason it is interesting, is that it is unexpected, to me
at least. I'm always curious when it turns out that something
known to affect one bodily system turns out to have an effect somewhere
else.
Enalapril
is a drug used to treat high blood pressure. It works by
slowing the action of an…
December 21, 2006
This was one of those snap quizzes, where you read an article, answer a
couple questions, and get 0.25 CME credits. It had to do with
biomarkers for cardiac risk. After plowing through a ton of
obscure information about CRP, urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio, and
things like that, I get to the…
December 21, 2006
So, here I go into Border's last night. Spend $95. Everyone is happy.
Then this morning, I get up and they've sent me an email, with a coupon: $20 off a $100 purchase, before 12/24. It came in at 1:27 AM, about six hours too late.
December 20, 2006
PZ's post on Crichton reminded me to point this out. For
those of you who don't know, Michael Crichton got kind of nasty, paying
back a critic by making up a character in a book. The made-up
character had just enough similarity to let us know who he was getting
back at. Details are
href="http…
December 19, 2006
A hospital in the UK has reported an outbreak of nasty MRSA infections.
This time, the organisms are the PVL-producing MRSA.
MRSA stands for Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.
PVL stands for Panton-Valentine leukocidin. PVL is
a toxin produced by the bacteria. As the name suggests,…
December 18, 2006
Psychiatrists sometimes try to get people to take omega-3 fatty acids,
in order to reduce symptoms of mood disorders. Although the
evidence is not rock-solid, it is fairly good. There is no
evidence that it can hurt, and some evidence that it can help with
cardiovascular health. I've mentioned…
December 18, 2006
Ever hear the phrase, "well, it's not brain surgery!" It
seems to imply that brain surgery is a tricky business, requiring a
high level of knowledge and skill. Perhaps it does.
If you have ever been curious about exactly what brain
surgery entails, now you can find out. What's more, you can…
December 17, 2006
Our system, who art on raised tile,
Hallowed be thy OS.
Thy portage come, thy emerge be done,
On servers, as it is on workstations.
Give us this day, our daily sync,
And forgive us our broken ebuilds,
As we forgive those who break ebuilds against us.
Lead us not into dependency frustration,
But…
December 17, 2006
We were asked to describe the most notable instance of harsh criticism
experienced in our professional careers, and to say whether it was
helpful or harmful.
Naturally, most of us are our own harshest critics, so my harshest
criticism came from myself.
What is odd, is the way this came about and…