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December 16, 2006
Ambidextrous More Likely To Be Bisexual; Why Do We Care, Anyway?   A new study coming from the href="http://www.uoguelph.ca/" rel="tag">University of Guelph.   href="http://www.psychology.uoguelph.ca/d_faculty/peters.html">Dr. Michael Peters, a neuropsychologist, analyzed a survey of about…
December 15, 2006
From the href="http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/4401429.html">Houston Chronicle: State Rep. Edmund Kuempel has authored a bill that would allow legally blind people to go hunting.  They'd be allowed to use laser sights, which are prohibited for fully-sighted hunters.  They also…
December 15, 2006
Since it seems to be a big deal to the New York Times (two articles in two days), I thought I'd comment on this.  An FDA advisory panel recently voted to expand the warnings in the product labeling for antidepressants.   Just to put this in perspective, the FDA makes many such changes.  The most…
December 13, 2006
Pay-for-performance is one of the buzzwords in health care financing these days.  I haven't been following it much, but Dr. Gault has, over at target="_blank">retired doc's thoughts.  His latest:  title="Site: retired doc's thoughts" href="http://mdredux.blogspot.com/2006/12/ama-president-…
December 12, 2006
This picture just cracks me up.   href="http://scienceblogs.com/corpuscallosum/images/ypsipanty1206.php" onclick="window.open('http://scienceblogs.com/corpuscallosum/images/ypsipanty1206.php','popup','width=500,height=375,scrollbars=no,resizable=no,toolbar=no,directories=no,location=no,…
December 12, 2006
Spectrolab, Inc. has announced that they have developed a way to nearly double the efficiency of solar cells.  They've done it by creating semiconductor Dagwood sandwiches, with over 20 layers.  The basic idea is to have different layers that respond to different wavelengths of light.  This way, a…
December 11, 2006
According to a study published in the medical journal, Pediatrics, girls and young women who visit eating disorder oriented websites may be harmed by the activity.  The funny thing is, is does not matter if the sites encourage eating disorder behavior, or discourage it.  Persons who visit such…
December 9, 2006
So far, I have resisted commenting on the report of the Iraq Study Group.  But this is too good to pass up.  From href="http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2006/12/nothing_can_mat.html">DeLong, who got it from href="http://myalteregospeaks.blogspot.com/2006/12/s-r-t.html">Alter Ego, comes a…
December 9, 2006
In June, I put up a post noting that open-source browsers accounted for more than 50% of the hits at ScienceBlogs.  At that time, Firefox was 48.17%.  Since then, Microsoft released IE7, which includes a tabbed interface, and other enhancements that Firefox (and others, e.g. Opera and Safari) have…
December 9, 2006
Flying carp, also called Asian Silver Carp (among others), present a significant risk to homeland security.  The fish can grow to 50, even 100 pounds.  Propellers on boats prompt the fish to jump out of the water, sometimes into boats, sometimes striking boaters. A video of this is available at…
December 8, 2006
Just when you thought there could not possibly be any more to say about the subject, given the uncertainties inherent in the area, there is yet another study.  This one is from analysis of a large patient registry in Finland.  A total of 15,390 patients were included in the analysis, over a period…
December 7, 2006
This has been a topic at ScienceBlogs before.  Now, finally, the New England Journal of Medicine is catching up.  They have an editorial on the ethics of vaccination against Human Papilloma Virus.  It turns out that there are many facets to this issue.  The background is this: HPV is a major factor…
December 6, 2006
Usually, doctors post radiology quizzes with odd clinical findings, or sometimes odd things that people have swallowed, or gotten into their bodies through other means. But this particular image has nothing to do with medicine, or even traditional radiology.  Rather, it pertains to astronomy…
December 5, 2006
NEJM has a nice, short article on the management of menopausal symptoms.  Usually their clinical stuff is subscription-only, but this one is openly accessible.  I'm not going to comment on it, specifically, but mention it only because it might be something of general interest.   href="http://…
December 5, 2006
HT: href="http://66.232.26.48/ee/index.php?/fist/more/fri_rdm_10_all_there_is_edition/">Liberal Street Fighter.
December 4, 2006
I had to think about this for a bit before it made sense (free registration on Medscape required): href="http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/547792">Does Continuous Positive Airway Pressure Decrease Gastroesophageal Reflux in Patients With Obstructive Sleep Apnea? Twenty-four-hour…
December 4, 2006
This is kind of an old story, I know.  Still, every once in a while it is good to revisit these things.  When the topic first came up in 2004, it was the subject of much newspaper space and blog commentary.  But now, it has pretty much faded from the national consciousness.  Has anything more come…
December 2, 2006
I have to admit, I was started to see a Consumer Reports article on the "Best Buy" drugs for the treatment of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.  So now treating mental illness is like buying a toaster oven?  Seriously, at first it seemed kind of inappropriate.  After all you cannot assess…
November 29, 2006
I have not posted as much recently, compared to my usual.  That's because I've been messing with my computers, setting them up to use Sabayon instead of Suse.  Those of you who can about such things can guess why that is. One thing I've noticed.  If I don't post very much, not as many people visit…
November 29, 2006
I just love the title; it's from a href="http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/extract/333/7578/1129">recent editorial (link to abstract; subscription required for full access) in the British Medical Journal.  The author, Jonathan Waxman, argues that the medical profession should protect patients…
November 25, 2006
I was a bit perplexed by a recent study on a new treatment for alcohol withdrawal.  Ordinarily, I am in favor of new treatment options, based on the supposition that nothing works for everyone, and having more options is good.  This counterbalances, to some extent, the anti-pharma screed about "me-…
November 23, 2006
Happy Thanksgiving! About the image: it's big, I know, kind of slow for those with dial-up, and it's going to mess up the formatting of the page for those with lower-resolution monitors.  I did shrink it some, but shrinking degrades the quality quite a bit. The above image is from the…
November 23, 2006
The NEJM has another open-access article about drug safety.  As usual, when they publish something on an open-access basis, it is something of interest to the general public, pertaining to health care policy. This one describes specific instances of drug companies concealing information from the…
November 22, 2006
"There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties, each arranged under its leader, and concerting measures in opposition to each other. This, in my humble apprehension, it to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our Constitution." -John Adams…
November 21, 2006
The big news on the USA culture front: Rupert Murdoch has personally intervened, and href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/21/us/21simp.html?ex=1321765200&en=8a7b71ce038300ee&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss">canned the OJ Simpson deal.  He actually href="http://www.…
November 21, 2006
HT to Murph at Common Monkeyflower for reminding me about this.  Youtube has a video montage, set to the tune of "Let's Impeach The President" by href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Young">Neil Young. There's another video that just has a static picture, and the music, in case you…
November 19, 2006
I've been holding back on this one, but it is time to speak out.  On November 2, 2006, href="http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/articlenews.aspx?type=technologyNews&storyid=2006-11-02T230517Z_01_WEN9025_RTRIDST_0_TECH-MICROSOFT-NOVELL-BALLMER-DC.XML">Microsoft and Novell announced a deal.  …
November 19, 2006
Catching up on news from earlier in the week, I came across a couple of items.  One is a breathtaking development in Mexico, a country that is 88% Catholic; the other from South Africa: href="http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4324824.html">Mexican capital legalizes gay unions City…
November 18, 2006
The Game just started.  I am not going to live-blog it, in the traditional sense, but I am going to make a few comments.   The student newspaper at UM is the Michigan Daily.  Right now, their entire front page ( href="http://scienceblogs.com/corpuscallosum/images/Remembering_Bo.JPG">screen…
November 18, 2006
href="http://www.beliefnet.com/story/204/story_20419_1.html">Philanthropy Expert: Conservatives Are More Generous By Frank Brieaddy Religion News Service SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Syracuse University professor Arthur C. Brooks is about to become the darling of the religious right in America -- and…