News of the Weird

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about a favorite topic for amusement among general surgeons, rectal foreign bodies, particularly the strange things people like to stick up their bottoms for whatever reason. I pointed out at the time that sometimes the excuses such patients make when seeking medical attention are a bit--shall we say?--hard to believe. It figures that a mere three weeks later someone would send me an example of something different, a hospital administrator not accepting what seems like an absolutely honest explanation for how a foreign object got up there: Doctors in central…
Although his taste in music is questionable at best, Snowball the Cockatoo definitely knows how to get down and get funky. I can't say I've ever seen anything like this before. Now maybe if we introduced Snowball to some old Parliament-Funkadelic. Tear the roof off the sucker, Snowball, and give up the funk!
I know I've said before that I don't really "get" the whole cephalopod thing that P. Z. has, but I wonder if he's heard of this little thing: Monday, October 8 is Unofficial International Cephalopod Awareness Day. Certainly, I hadn't.
I really would have liked to have sampled this Thai restaurant's nam prik pao. Maybe next time.
Science and medicine are beautiful things. The range of knowledge and research that can be encompassed under their rubric is truly astounding. Indeed, some scientists have all the luck. Some scientists seem to have all the luck. Some scientists seem able to latch onto the best projects: London, England (CNS) - There is one scientist who is using his knowledge of anatomy to help Hollywood look even more perfect. Patrick Mallucci has thoroughly researched pictures of celebrity women to compile images of the best looking breasts. His work is supposed to help plastic surgeons create the perfect…
Before moving on to discussions of alternative medicine (don't worry, there'll be one in the morning), I couldn't resist one last dig regarding Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's claim in his appearance at Columbia University on Monday that there are no gays in Iran... Sorry Mahmoud, but there was an Iranian contestant in the International Mr. Gay Competition. Adding insult to injury, Mr. Gay Iran didn't win the International Mr. Gay Competition. Nathan Shaked from Israel did. (Via Andrew Sullivan.)
While wandering through the medical center last week, I came across a rather unusual vending machine, one quite unlike any that I had ever seen before. It definitely hadn't been there the week before, but there it was now, around the corner from the hospital cafeteria: Perfect if you're on call and feel the need for a potato knish at 3 AM. I am, however, amused by the "24/6" label on the machine. Doesn't it work on the Sabbath?
There's a long and strange history of truly bizarre experiments done in the name of science. Alex Boese has gathered twenty of the strangest examples here. There are the usual suspects, such as the Stanford prison experiment and the Milgram obedience experiment, but there were others that I hadn't heard of. To me, the award for the most bizarre has to be a tie between the vomit drinking doctor and this one: Ever since the carnage of the French Revolution, when the guillotine sent thousands of severed heads tumbling into baskets, scientists had wondered whether it would be possible to keep a…
Continuing the wind-down from vacation... (Don't worry; the Orac-ian magnum opus-style posts will return whenever I manage to work my way back up to them again. Besides, it's a holiday; do you really want to read one of my rants today?) One of the cool things about wandering around London was hearing and seeing the differences in language use between Britain and the U.S., differences which led to the famous saying about America and Britain being two nations divided by a common language, a quote that has been attributed at various times to Oscar Wilde, George Bernard Shaw, or even Winston…
Vacation time! While Orac is gone recharging his circuits and contemplating the linguistic tricks of limericks and jokes or the glory of black holes, he's rerunning some old stuff from his original Blogspot blog. This particular post first appeared on October 14, 2005. Enjoy! Very early on in this blog, I wrote a post that would forever alter its history, entitled Weird stuff doctors get from pharmaceutical representatives. Why did this post alter the history of this (then) young blog forever? Why, it unwittingly introduced the character that unexpectedly went on to play a large role in the…
This has nothing to do with science, but this has to be the best headline ever: British dwarf's penis gets stuck to hoover Original story here. Even better, the dwarf in question goes by the stage name Captain Dan the Demon Dwarf. I don't think there's anything to add here.
Yikes! In my grant writing frenzy the last few days, this could easily have been me: Jasmine Willis, 17, developed a fever and began hyperventilating after drinking seven double espressos while working at her family's sandwich shop. The student, of Stanley, County Durham, was taken to the University Hospital of North Durham, where doctors confirmed she had overdosed on caffeine. She has since made a full recovery and is now warning others about the dangers of excessive coffee drinking. Ms Willis, who had thought the coffees were single measures, said the effects were so severe that she began…
I was going to write about a recent study that purports to claim that smoking pot causes schizophrenia that's been making the rounds lately. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you see it), this week's host of the Skeptics' Circle, Mark Hoofnagle, beat me to it. Can you say, "Correlation does not necessarily equal causation"? The reporters who hyped the study and the investigators who enabled them should repeat this 100 times. Maybe it'll sink in.
(LOL Oscar from Lauren.) While I expressed skepticism the other day regarding the media reports that a cat named Oscar could predict which patients at the nursing home in which he resides were within hours of death, some of you believed it, some even going so far as to speculate that not only could Oscar detect impending death but that he hangs out by the dying because he wants a snack. But none have gone so far as Mighty Ponygirl in speculating about Oscar's true motivation. Personally, I like my explanation that it's just confirmation bias better. It's less--shall we say?--disturbing. I…
Continuing this weekend's silliness, I found a contender for Gene Simmons' throne, at least as far as the tongue action goes: I don't know why I find this video disturbing, but I do. Don't worry. I promise to post something substantive tomorrow.
Here's something that's not a good idea: Boston, MA (AHN) - The Board of Registration in Medicine, which is the governing authority issuing licenses to Massachusetts doctors, has reportedly suspended a Boston anesthesiologist from the practice of medicine for dozing off during an operation. However, the headline is misleading. It turns out that this doctor has a bit more of a problem than just dozing off during an operation: In December 2005, Thomas Ho admitted inhaling anesthetic gas while on lunch break on another occasion. The Board also added that following month Ho had taken a…
This sort of thing makes one wonder if the personification of Death should in fact be a cat, although, oddly enough, not a black cat: Oscar the rescue cat is not simply a welcome feline companion at the Steere nursing home in Providence, Rhode Island. According to a new report in a medical journal he has a remarkable, though morbid talent - predicting when patients will die. When the two-year-old grey and white cat curls up next to an elderly resident, staff now realise, this means they are likely to die in the next few hours. Such is Oscar's apparent accuracy - 25 consecutive cases so far…
Can anyone explain how something like this might have happened? Maybe I lack imagination, but I'm having trouble figuring out a plausible explanation.
What do you get when you mix a bunch of octogenarians and nonagenarians with The Who? You get this: It's a band called The Zimmers. Members range in age from 69 to 99. I particularly like the mass instrument smashing at the end of the video. I have to admit, however, to the near irresistable urge to respond to the lyric "Hope I die before I get old" with "Too late!" Even so, I hope I can still rock if I make it to my 80s or 90s.
I'm disappointed to find out that Chewbacca is a bad, bad Wookiee: (CBS) HOLLYWOOD, Calif. A Chewbacca impersonator is accused of sexually assaulting a Marilyn Monroe impersonator in front of the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood in June. The wookie then reportedly evaded arrest, police said. According to an officer with the LAPD, Chewbacca allegedly took the platinum-coiffed actress's hand and placed it on his private parts as the characters performed for tips from tourists. Chewie, how could you?